There are rumors that if you walk past a certain hallway on the fourth level of the dorms, you can hear the screeching of metal and the cries of dead reploids who used to bunk there.
It's a ridiculous rumor, especially considering it's only started up within the past couple of weeks – surely something with a longer history would seem more legit. Maybe even something started soon after a war. Not years after it.
Nonetheless, Axl takes it as a personal mission to scout out the source of these stories. Maybe it'd be a hunter with too much time on their hands. Maybe there's a loose panel the infamous twin duo haven't gotten around to streamlining yet. (The two do all of their tasks with such mechanical precision it's uncanny. Even in a reploid.) Maybe there really are ghosts –
Axl freezes at the buzzing sound of an electrical zap. It was only for a moment, but he's certain he's heard it. His memory banks don't lie.
There's something here.
Nervous now, Axl clutches his powered down pistol (set at "stun" instead of "blow a hole through") and crouches. How exactly does one fight a ghost? Maybe they're weak against talismans? Axl doesn't have any on him. Light? No, that was some other supernatural creature. Silver? No –
A loud groan echoes across the hall, and Axl hops into the air, hovering mechanisms firing on auto. Okay, that he definitely did not mishear. The rumors are true. There are ghosts –
"Axl?"
Later, Axl will deny screaming and double jumping his way to headbutt the ceiling. But he does. "R-R-Rock!" Axl cries, recognizing the reploid. He drops to the ground and leans down to clutch at the smaller reploid's shoulders. "You scared me! Jeez, I thought you were a – " Axl stops, realizing the danger to his reputation. "I mean, I was scouting the area for rumors of a ghost, so I thought you were the perpetrator acting as one." Yeah.
Rock blinks, the backlighting to his eyes glowing eerily in the low light of after hours Irregular Hunter HQ. "A ghost? Why? Were the dorms built over a cemetery – mmph."
"Aw, don't say that!" Axl shushes the reploid, a hand pressing against the other's mouth as a physical deterrent. "There's nothing like that. It's just people have been hearing strange noises come from down here, you know?" He sighs. "And I think I heard something just now too. Did you hear anything, Rock?"
The smaller reploid goes very still under Axl's hands.
Axl grimaces. Oh no. That's basically a red flag for this kind of thing. "So you have, huh?" Straightening up, Axl sets his weapons to a more deadly setting. "Don't worry. I'll bust these ghosts outta here." He declares, absolutely no plan in mind. He should have watched more ghost movies.
"Uhm, Axl, what kind of noises?" Rock asks.
Axl frowns. "Well, kind of like electrical zapping? And moaning. Rumor has it that they're the spirits of dead Hunters gone Irregular." He shudders. What, did these ghosts think he, X, Zero, and the other Hunters weren't doing a good enough job? He'd get their revenge tenfold even without the haunting, thank you very much!
"I don't think those are ghosts, Axl." Rock says, tone firm.
Axl pauses. "R-right! 'Cause ghosts don't exist." He agrees, feeling silly. Ah geez, how is it that someone who looks younger than him can sound so much older? "So it might be – "
"Well, I wouldn't say ghosts don't exist." Rock adds. "But these sounds are definitely not from a ghost."
The way the child unit said that. It sounded like experience. Axl shudders. "H-how can you tell?" He asks, grimacing at his stutter. He's gonna look so uncool in front of Rock like this.
Rock looks at Axl blankly. "I just know." There is no other explanation forthcoming.
"Uh, right." So no ghosts, right? Axl sighs and puts his pistols away. "So I'm guessing there's nothing to do about this? I wonder if it's a loose panel somewhere." Though he doubts it. There's no way to mistake that groan for something else.
"I'll fix it." Rock volunteers. "Don't worry about it, Axl."
Maybe he'd come back to reexamine the area after Rock fixed things up then. It'd definitely rule some stuff out. "Alright. Thanks." Axl frowns. "Actually, what are you doing here at this time of the night? You should go recharge if you wanna work tomorrow. Er. Today."
Rock smiles. "And I can say the same to you, Axl." The child points to a door behind him. "And this is our room. You were making a lot of noise out here."
Oh. Axl flushes. "Ah, sorry about that. I'll leave you to it then. See you in the morning, Rock."
"Goodnight, Axl." Rock waves back, and disappears behind the door.
Axl pauses on his way back to his own room. Considering the trajectory of the sound, weren't the strange noises coming from Rock and Roll's room…? …Nah. Like those two would ever leave anything unrepaired in their own living space.
Maybe they're housing the rumored ghost. It would explain Rock's familiari – no. Stop. He'd never get to recharge, keyed up like this. Axl puts the thought at the back of his mind.
Slight reference to Gigamix there aha - not that Rock would have seen a ghost directly, but uh. He's heard things.