The Straw That Broke the Reploid's Back

Several months had passed since Roll's addition to the team. The Mavericks continued their usual activities, interrupted by Zero and the others on the occasions when Dr. Light had picked out a viable target for them.

Crystal watched the monitor at her station, her keyboard now slightly higher than it used to be to allow her room for her now large stomach. As she watched another explosion on the screen, the result of yet another of Zero, X, and Roll's raids, she felt a small jarring from within.

"I swear, this kid's trying to beat me up from the inside out. I keep wondering how many bruises I've got on the inside of my womb." she stated as she brought a hand to the swollen area of her midsection.

"Well, my dear, I'd say that I understand, but I don't see any way for me to do so. Though the situation is at times quite humorous to listen to you." Dr. Light replied from the main monitor. "Odd, it appears that those three have once again managed to increase their system capabilities."

"What's so odd about that? They're constantly training." Alia asked from her own station.

"What's odd about it dearie is that I didn't design them with this type of capability. I designed their systems to be capable of withstanding more abuse than other Reploids, but other than that, I never included any sort of system for this type of enhancement." Dr. Light sounded more than a little confused.

"Well," Signas stated from his own station on the other side of the room from the girls. "If I had to take a guess at it, I would say that the self healing capability that you gave them is partially to blame for it. Much as some humans do weight training that is just beyond what they're capable of, and when their muscles heal, they are stronger. I suppose it could be possible that because of the self healing ability, those three are capable of doing the same type of thing."

"I hope you're right, Signas, after all, what good am I if I can't figure out why something in a Reploid is acting wrong?" Dr. Light now sounded worried instead.

"How is it that there are still parts of Reploids that even you don't understand, Doc?" Crystal asked as the screen in front of her finally cleared again, allowing her to see that all three of the raiders were still uninjured. "So far, all three still seem to be uninjured."

"That's a question that is best answered by another I think. How is it that despite the fact that you're human, you can't figure out why all humans don't act the same?"

"Well, I'd have to say that's because not all humans are raised the same. We all grow up with different experiences and these are what help shape our lives."

"It is much the same with Reploids I'm afraid. Due to the different experiences that each of them goes through, they all end up different. X and Zero I can understand having some anomalies in their systems, due to their above average amount of time spent active. It's Roll that has me confused the most. She's only been active for less than half a year, and yet her systems display the same anomalies as those of Zero and X."

"Well, X and Roll are the only two designed solely by yourself, Dr. Light." Signas responded from his side. "As to Zero, you did rebuild him this time around as well, so perhaps there's a certain way you're going about making Reploids that causes this sort of variation in their systems."

"Perhaps that is the case." Light said.

Zero ran back to the appointed area for meeting up with the other two. X quickly ran up from another direction, Roll from another. The area around them exploded moments later. As they waited for the flames to die back down a bit they had a moment to rest.

"Well," Zero started, "It seems like they weren't expecting an attack against this installation either."

"I know what you mean," X replied.

"It's almost as if they're not even trying to keep us from performing these strikes." Roll commented.

"There's gotta be something else going on that we're not catching." X stated, his eyes shifting to watch the flames around them. "This is one of their main power centers. If they're not even watching that, then I'm not sure what they're thinking of. It's possible I suppose that the Mavericks just aren't suited for trying to hold onto their advantage, but I think that they're planning something."

"I'm with you on this one, X." Zero said, his face betraying his worry. "We're the three best that we've got. I think Toronto and Zenton have both hit their limit, Signas and Alia hit theirs as well I think. We keep getting better, and this is all becoming easy now, but you're right, there has to be something up. We've yet to see any more of the upgraded Mavericks that we dealt with a while back. That alone has me worried. I'm sure any of the three of us could handle them easily now, but we've yet to see even one more. Hell, I can't even recall seeing any of the Mavericks from the past here lately. That alone says that they're up to something. Usually Sigma just rebuilds them and sends them after us again. What's stopping him from doing it again?"

"I'm not sure either, but what makes you two so certain about all of this?" Roll asked.

"Easy," X replied. "We've been fighting Sigma for entirely too long for our own good. We've become used to just about every trick he ever uses. If he shifts from those patterns, we might actually be in for some trouble. And here lately, the pattern hasn't been repeating."

"Well, all the times before, he was attacking and trying to conquer all of humanity and take over, wasn't he? I'd say that being in charge has gotten to him, and perhaps he's not readjusted to it yet. After all, he's had control for what did you say? Something like close to a hundred years or more? And this is the first time he's had anything close to organized resistance. More than likely he's not sure how to defend himself against us." Roll tried to reason out the uncertainty of the other two.

"That's not all that has us worried, Roll. They know where the base is. We haven't moved since we began all these raids. If they were capable of detecting Dr. Light's probes, then I'm sure they're just as capable of detecting where the base is. And yet we've not had to defend it once. That worries us more than anything else. While it's possible that Dr. Light has managed to shield the base from scanning systems, it would still be entirely too easy to discover where it was just from our teleport beams and the main epicenter of our attacks."

"So basically you two are waiting to see when we get attacked?" Roll asked, her own gaze now shifting to the lessening blazes.

"Yeah, that about sums it up." Zero repied. "Alright, I think we can be fairly sure of this installation. Let's get out of here."

Three teleport beams, one red, one blue, and one pink, all shot up out of the former power complex.

As the three materialized both Alia and Crystal ran to their respective boyfriends. Alia merely stopped and waited for the three of them to detransform until she hugged X but Crystal had no such reservations. Unfortunately, her current condition prevented her from using her usual glomping method of welcoming Zero back, but it didn't stop her from at least trying to knock him off balance. Her impatience rewarded her with a very sturdy reploid embrace that didn't budge.

"You know, if you're actually trying to knock me over, you'd definitely have better luck if you'd wait until I was out of my armor, after all, my feet are kinda huge like this. They make real good supports." Zero told her in an amused tone.

"Oh shut up, you're spoiling my fun." Crystal told him.

"Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you sometime if you bang your forehead off my chest plate." Zero replied as he stepped back from her to allow himself room to transform out of his armor. After he shifted back out he embraced her once more.

The table had already been readjusted once again to accomodate the increased number of chairs that was required now. Zero looked around and noticed a couple of empty seats.

"Where's Zen and Tor at?" He asked.

"I've got them out doing recon at a few nearby human settlements. I figure if we can get them to blend in with the populace then it will increase our chances of successfully ousting the Mavericks in their ruling over the humans." Dr. Light responded.

"That is a good possibility. Plus, the more humans know that we're on their side, the more they'll trust us when we finally manage to break them loose from the Mavericks grips." Roll put in.

"They might be more grateful Roll, but I doubt if they'll trust us any more than they already would. You have to remember that these people have had Mavericks either trying to take over or being in charge for their entire lives. There aren't very many left I'm guessing who have any memory of when the Hunters were around." X replied.

"X has a point there," Crystal spoke up. " Even my parents couldn't remember when the word Reploid was actually considered a good thing. It's just been too long. Getting them to trust us may take quite a bit of work. The fact that you can all change out of your armor will probably help though."

"Then I'd say that's what we need to be doing the most of. If we can convince the local villages to hold meetings like the village that Tor was in, we can show the village who we are, and what we're doing. Hopefully by doing that we can get their cooperation." Zero responded, getting up from his seat and moving over to Alia's communications station.

"Well now, Tor, what are we supposed to do now? We've found out that this place is locked down a lot tighter than it used to be, that's for sure. We've managed to dodge all of the patrols only to end up back at where we beamed in. We're not making much headway." Zenton was obviously just a bit stressed out all of a sudden.

"One possibility is that we could just beam back out you know." Tor rumbled back, his own agitation beginning to surface.

"That would make this entire mission pointless though. I'd hate to go back to Dr. Light and tell him we couldn't do what we were supposed to just because there were a few more patrols than we thought. Zero and X could do this in their sleep."

"Zero and X are also far above the normal limitations of Reploids."

"Alright, that's true, but still, we're not that far behind them, so this should be simple."

"I'm beginning to think that perhaps Zero was right in his original idea."

"That being?"

"Just take out the patrols in the first place. Give them the chance to surrender, and if they don't take it, take them out."

"I think your patience is just finally beginning to wear thin."

This is Zero. Come in Tor and Zen. The sudden comm chatter broke the brothers out of their conversation.

This is Zenton, go ahead.

How's things going so far? Zero asked, his voice slightly covered in static after the loss of part of Light's probes.

We're gonna have to pull out. There are entirely too many patrols here. They've at least double, possibly even tripled the number of Reploids guarding this settlement since last time we checked in on it.

Alright, prepare to be beamed out.

Zero turned to watch as the brothers rematerialized in the center of the room.

"We're gonna have to rethink our strategy." Zenton said almost before he had finished beaming in. "The number of reploids at that one town is insane. While I don't doubt if we can take them all out, I'm beginning to wonder what Sigma's really trying to protect. It can't be just the humans. He'd probably prefer to kill them all off as opposed to keeping them around."

"I wouldn't be so sure of that, Zenton. Sigma's always just tried to put Reploids in charge. I just don't think he particularly cared how many humans died in the process of him taking over. Other than that, I'd say he's trying to make sure that we can't start using humans to fight back against him. He may be afraid of what could happen if we could free too many of the humans near us. Afraid that the majority might start to fight back. Your average Reploid isn't really all that much stronger than a human being, unless they were designed specifically to be. You have to remember that we're all exceptions to the rule, not the norm." Zero's voice carried a small amount of worry in it, nearly unnoticed by the others. Only Crystal and X could catch the uncurrent of what he said.

"There used to be a whole lot more humans didn't there, Z?" X asked quietly.

"Yeah, there were X. What's happened to all of them? I don't remember seeing any huge massacre sites, so I don't think Sigma's killed all of them. But if he didn't kill all of them, then what has he done with them?" Zero replied, one hand under his chin as he stopped to think. "That's it, I'm finding out one way or another. X, Roll, let's go pay that village a visit. I'm talking to some humans, and I don't care how many patrols are in my way."

The three of them teleported out nearly as quickly as Zero was finished speaking.

Zero touched down first, his saber already in his hand and ignited as the first patrol came out to attack. X and Roll could only watch as Zero tore through the patrol with a ferocity that they'd only seen matched when the Crimson Reploid was in a rage. As the reserves began to filter in, the others snapped out of their daze to join the battle.

X waded in and pulled his own saber out of thin air, switching over to his Blade Armor to put it to better use, since Roll could easily cover them with her own buster fire. Roll took up her position on top of a nearby building, firing at what seemed to be random targets within the mob. As the first patrol was thinned out, the next one arrived, only to be turned on by Zero. He stopped and stared at the first line.

"You have two options. Either you get out of this town, and stay out, or I tear your patrol apart too." He pointed at the nearest Reploid with the saber for emphasis. "Which one is it going to be?"

The guard began to shake as the rest of the patrol backed off from behind him.

"We'll get out of your way." He finally managed to stammer.

"Good. Beam out of here. Now." Zero's tone left no time for argument, causing the entire patrol to beam out at once. X and the others finished disabling the first patrol just in time to see Zero walk into the town.

"Something seem a little off about Zero to anyone else?" Roll asked as she dropped to the ground next to X.

"Something? Yes. What? I don't have a damned clue." X replied, somewhat shaken at his friend's sudden change. "It's like he's just barely staying out of a berserker rage."

"Where are they?" Zero muttered to himself as he blazed a trail through to the middle of the town. People jumped off to the sides as he passed. "They have to be here somewhere, so where are they?" One person finally didn't manage to jump far enough out of Zero's path to avoid being noticed.

"Where are the rest of the people?" Zero turned and glared at the man, not even bothering to move far enough to grab the frightened civilian.

"I've no clue what you're asking about. Besides, you Reploids took them, you should know better than we would."

"In case you missed the details, pal, me and my friends just took out one of the Reploid patrols. That would suggest just possibly that I'm not on their side, wouldn't it? Now, once again, where were they taken?"

"We don't have a damned clue, alright! The only thing we know is that occasionally they come through and weed out the population about once every three years or so. Between that and Sigma's 'migrations' we almost never get to keep track of everyone." The man seemed more indignant now than frightened.

"Thank you. That's just the type of information I was looking for." Zero said as he turned around to walk back through the path he'd cleared on his way in. The people now stayed near the edge of that path, somehow sensing that the the angel of death had moved on for this day.

As X and the others neared him, Zero stopped moving. He waited until they were closer to him before he spoke.

"The humans here don't know where Sigma's taken the others. Apparently the Reploids come through every three years or so in these larger towns and 'weed out' the population, or at least that's what I was told. I'm guessing they take them somewhere else for some twisted reason of Sigma's. Hell only knows what he'd do to humans, we know he doesn't care for them."

"Wait a minute, he just goes through the population at random?" Roll queried.

"Seems that way. The guy didn't say anything about them taking the strongest or anything, so I would guess they just take them at random." Zero replied.

"You don't think he's somehow using the humans to generate power at a hidden electric station or something do you?" X jumped in. "I mean, there was nothing really protecting that last power station we took out. It's like he has no reason to bother guarding them. If he's somehow using the humans to power something then it would explain his lack of protection at the normal power stations. Which would mean-"

"Which would mean the only people we're doing any harm to by taking out those power stations is the humans. Damnit to hell!" Zero suddenly slammed his fist into a nearby building, leaving a dent several inches in the concrete and metal structure. "Alright, fine, let's get out of here. We're gonna have to have Dr. Light do some scans to find possible power plant structures and I think it's about time we finally got a lock on Sigma's base. I'm tired of all of this."

The other two nodded just before they all teleported back out.