"And further more, we'd like to install these cannons…"
The rest of the human's statement went right over X's head as his eyes slowly tilted to the side, as did his head, staring at nothing in particular. This 'meeting' had gone on for what felt like hours, and the old Reploid was growing impatient, and tired. Of course, he always seemed to be tired. Harpuia and Leviathan stood at his sides, glowering at any human who dared to get snippy at their Master. Usually X would have scolded or chided them against such behavior, but he just didn't seem to have it in him.
"Am I interrupting your thoughts, Master X?"
The human voice was annoyed, and X slowly looked back at the plump man who had spoken. Just as sluggishly, X dropped his hand from his chin. "No. I was simply ignoring you."
A sputter escaped this, and several other council members, but X was undaunted, a sardonic smile on his face. He'd let their outrage play itself out as they stood and spoke at once, sighing to himself. When their heated words began to escalate enough to give him a headache, X slammed his small hand on the ancient wood of the desk, one word making every man and woman in the room jump.
"ENOUGH." X's eyes were dangerously animated now, and he retracted his hand slowly. "Enough… I am ignoring you for your own sake. I have said time and time again; there will be NO super weaponry manufactured or placed onto Neo Arcadia."
"With all due respect," Another councilor spoke. "How are we to protect our home?"
X icicle gaze found, and seemed to spear him to his seat. "Do you not trust my judgment? You know very well I am capable of protecting the City without dangerous weaponry! If those cannons are ever used against us or incorrectly… we'd be destroyed."
"That's not necessarily true-"
"It is if I say it is." X barked, making even Harpuia wince- especially since when X's anger flared, the lights seemed to spark and dim. Very seldom did the Master of Neo Arcadia loose his temper, but these men and women had hit several personal spots X refused to consider.
The ban on large weaponry was absolute. X would not allow such a thing to be constructed under his dome, for fear of it being used for incorrect purposes, as he had stated. Harpuia's thoughts fell silent as he continued.
"You know my views on this. No many how many times you badger and bring this issue forward, I will not have my City jeopardized. I want peace, not War Making, and I'll not hear again of this foolishness!"
A woman dared to speak up, her eyes narrowed but her voice betraying her fright with a tone best described as shaky. "Your city, is also our city. We don't want Mavericks coming in to-"
"Enough." said X again, but he had sank into his chair. "I said that's enough. I'll hear no more of this today. Leave us."
Again, sounds of protests were made, but even they too quieted their mutterings as they glanced the Reploid's way. X had closed his eyes and sank back into the chair, a look they knew that meant X was deep in thought, and as unmovable as stone. They would get no more out of him today, and within a few minutes, the only ones standing in the chamber were Harpuia and the old Reploid.
X opened his eyes, that same, blank expression reflected in pale green irises. "I'm getting a little too old for this."
"You're not a human, Master." Harpuia's dry remark forced a chuckle from X, who covered his chin with his fist.
"No, I suppose not, but how long as it been now, Harpuia? How much more of their weapons will they bring before me and request permission to build them?" He got no answer, as he expected, and with a wince, dragged his thin frame to its feet- or at least he got there halfway. Harpuia noticed the pause, and stepped forward to assist him. "Master? Are you all right?"
"Y-yes… just- no never mind. Don't worry about it." He shooed away the fussing General. "I think I will retire soon today."
"Master, its barely noon-"
"I trust you can take care of things." X said dismissively, moving towards the door without listening for a reply. Once he was out of the room, his carefully blank mask shifted to a deep frown. These meetings were slowly wearing him down, and it would never end. The humans wanted a weapon they controlled. Something they could use against whoever threatened the City. Yes, in retrospect this was a logical idea… but he couldn't risk it.
X had moved down several hallways and now stood before a locked doorway, his fingers sliding over a keypad. Once he had entered the specific number code, the doors hissed open, and he moved inside, locking the entrance behind him. The inside was dark, which was remedied by a way of X's hands, activating a light that bathed the room in a pale glow.
Not just an empty chamber, the small space was occupied by computers, lab tables, charts and darkened screens. Tools and bits of scrap metal and other bits and pieces of something anyone could guess. X had had this room set aside for his many tests and little dabbling tendencies in the mechanical workings any scientist was prone to, and he found himself here quite often.
Hands brushing along tabletops as he walked, X stepped around to a seat nearest a desk full of computer screens and the device itself, coated in a thin layer of dust. The reploid hadn't touched this terminal in a long while…and for good reason. "A century…" He murmured, running his hand onto the keypad of the 'laptop'. The personal computers hadn't been seen for a long while, or at least not an outdated model such as this. When he flicked a power button at the top of laptop's keyboard, watching as it clicked, and then flickered to life. Once a 'homescreen' was bypassed, strings of code and countless data fragments that most people would call meaningless drivel and bits of numbers and letters.
Not to X.
He could read these codes better than he could read written words, and he smiled despite himself. "You always did have funny little quirks…" He sighed, sitting up straight once more and staring off at a screen above his head. With a tap of his finger to a second 'laptop' beside the older device, and the screen blipped with an image.
A blueprint to be exact.
X had been working on this particular project for more than sixty years, sighing as he moved his hand, actually taking the image from the screen to float in air, transparent before his fingers. "When will be the right time…?" X mused his thoughts aloud, vanishing the hologram and storing it into his memory banks.
Gamma.
X had been reminded a lot of his past as of late. No matter where he looked, something triggered old memories… but was he ready to bring forth his fifth guardian? Would she want to see this broken world in all its chaotic problems? She would be ready, she was always adapting.
But more importantly, was he ready for that?
X's gaze inched to the laptop, and traveled inward to those lines and diagrams to make the all important vessel.
"What should I do…?"