Chapter 8

In which one Hunter plays Polo and the other does not.

A chapter eight! I never thought this story could get to chapter eight! But it did! So, I don't want to spoil anything, except…this is where the stuff starts to happen. We are raising up to our climax, folks!

Of course, the title does say something about what one of the Hunters is going to do, but it's not a spoiler, so I did not do it this time! Enjoy the story!

Disclaimer: I've been playing Pokemon too much. No room for MegaMan…unless I get some Star Force games for my birthday, but I doubt it. I do not own Megman X and the rest of the reploids. I own Stardust as a character, but as she is a reploid, I cannot totally claim her concept. Use her if you wish, as long as I get credit for original creation. And as always for those who believe or not, the belief in spiritual entities can be or is true.

fA dead end. That was what faced them. After X spent over an hour carefully picking apart the top of the hill, after Zero climbed up it a third time (he tried a second time to climb up and help X work once he go over his wounds, both physical and mental, but fell back down another time after slipping on something wet and greases that could have been his own blood), after carefully squeezing through the hole they made, after skidding down from the top of the mound until they decided to screw all and jump off, after running away from the huge avalanche they cause in their wake, and after following the child another hour around what felt like going in a trapezoid, all they had to show for it was a lot of scratches and looks of despair.

Zero glared down at the specter being and frowned. "You said you knew where we were going." He was not quite bitter as he thought he should felt, but it was awesome getting one up on the child

"I did!" She cried. "This is the only other way. I swear!"

"Likely story."

"I'm not kidding."

"You know, she might not be wrong," X remarked, hoping to get the two to stop fighting, "This wall isn't like the surrounding walls. This was added only recently."

Zero tapped on the wall. "Well, that's a nice observation X, but unless there is a trick to it, we are just stuck looking at it."

The ghost poked her head threw walls. She then shouted something. "What?" X shouted back.

Another screech came, this time louder. "Kid we can't understand you! Um…come back?" Zero was at a lost on what the hell to call a ghost back from one side of a wall to another.

But indeed, she did pull back and announced, "There is totally another room on the other side…but I don't know how to get to it. Um…I mean, I can't think of another way around. Maybe if we go back and sort of come from the other way or…oh dear." She stopped when X started to pout. She looked over and saw the blond-haired robot pulled off his helmet to scratch his head while deep in though. Or…picking at his scab, but clearly he was deep in thought! So the girl followed suit.

Finally…she got and idea! The ghost picked up her little journal and wrote something down.

The next moment X sighed and leaned against the wall…

…and then the wall opened.

Zero and X already dove back around the corner, weapons drawn. Forever with caution and still thinking, Zero got a good idea, "Hey, girl, go check if someone is coming to kill us." It was not as if she could die or anything.

The little lady rolled her eyes, but looked down the way. "No one." She replied with annoyance.

The two came from their battle positions and peered down the direction. "This is a trap." X stated as a fact.

"No, you guys just needed some help." The little putts said.

"Help?" Zero looked down at the ghost.

"Yep…" She skimmed through her little journal. "There was a little panel hidden and Mr. X accidentally tapped it."

"And…how do you know this?" Zero asked while sliding his helmet back on, not wondering how she knew, but wondering why she would not have mentioned it in the first place instead of being annoying by sticking her head in random places.

"'Cause it say's in my book." She held up the book as if that alone was proof.

"What book?" Zero asked again, looking at the little pink book with fluff on it and wondering if he was seeing all the colors in the world right.

"This book." She waved it again.

"…That's the book you write in." X replied

"And?"

A pause while the two hunters looked between themselves. X waved his hands, "Woooo, wait a minute, are you telling me that…it says…everything."

"Weeeell…" She scratched her head. "Kinda, I guess."

"So wait," X thought for a moment on his next sentence, then asked, "Are you sort of like, god?"

"No…if I had been god, would I have been alive, now a ghost?" She asked bluntly.

"So…you're more like Jesus or something?" Zero asked. X gave him an eyebrow raise. Zero shrugged, "What? It's a valid question."

"No, I'm just very aware of my reality and the things around them." She commented bluntly.

X could have pointed out that is almost a God-like quality, but a better sentence popped in his head. "As oppose to Zero, whose reality is rather without understanding of the things around him." X commented lightly.

Zero turned and sneered, "Oh, think you're so witty, don'tcha?"

"I get a good one in every now and then." X beamed with pride.

"It doesn't make me feel good that I'm traveling with two people who act less mature then me." The ghostie mumbled lower then the two said people could hear.

X looked at the girl with curiosity, "So, what is in it?"

"In what?" The girl asked.

"Your book."

"Like I said. Stuff."

"Can I read it?" X asked.

"Sure." She gave it to X to read. X smiled and flipped to the current page and began to skim the words…

…pages felt crisp, though not necessarily new. They lacked the smell of new paper and discolored. Yet the ink appearing on the paper shined against the light with a shoe-polish effect. It seemed so archaic to the current world, but almost…homely to touch something so basic. The dull light was enough to keep the words. The penmanship was not professional, but cheerful, with curves and circles being wide and hollow; an almost indication of a female and/or a child writer. However, it was not the writer reading these words this moment, but a different one. Blue-gloved hands held the pages, with equally blue eyes skimming the lines. And these were the lines he read:

The pages felt crisp, though not necessarily new. They lacked the smell of new paper and discolored. Yet the ink appearing on the paper shined against the light with a shoe-

Zero suddenly grabbed the book and shouted loud. "We are NOT going to get on a time warp or anything! Let's go."

Near the center of the maze…

"Alright, Dynamo needs to get his fixed." The mercenary said, looking for something or another to get his fix. He had them hidden around in odd places.

"Dynamo, report." The reploid in question heard his name called through his systems.

He frowned, flinched, and made a little mocking-voice of Sigma to himself before turning on his com-link. "Yes, oh high one?" Tone dripping with sarcasm.

"Don't be an ass."

Dynamo made a face, but it was not as if Sigma could see it, so he asked, "No, thanks, great Lord and Master. Never. What do you need?"

"We are starting the final phase of the operation."

Dynamo understood the words Sigma said, but he had no clue what Sigma wanted him to do. So he made sure to get his confusion out in the open. "…What?"

"Operate the machine." The voice commanded to him.

Dynamo looked around, waiting to hear a big explosion of some sort to give him a hint. Since no sound besides Sigma's heavy breath entered into his processing, he again made sure to as a simple questions so that his continuing confusion really made it across the link, "Now?"

"YES NOW! WHY WOULD I TELL YOU TO OPERATE SOMETHING IF I DIDN'T WANT IT OPERATED!"

"Okay. You're mad. I understand, "Dynamo had been jeering him on purposes, but he wanted to see how far he could get. It was stupid, but Dynamo loved playing with death, "But from my point of view-"

"DO IT!"

Even though it was over the com-link, he could hear the yelling from all the way from where the boss-man was. Dynamo could feel the vibrations through the floor, not to mention inside his head. He had to rub the size of his head. "Got it, boy-yo." He cut the come link before his equivalent of eardrums burnt out. Now, to start this baby going…

...rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrR

Slowly and surely, X and Zero made their way through this new area, looking at every corner with suspicious. "This is a trap, I just know this is." X mumbled.

"Possibly, or we could have the surprise on them." Zero offered. "Maybe they don't know we are back here yet."

"Now you're just being hopefully."

"Maybe, but I just have a feeling."

"Huh."

Their companion, whom followed behind them quietly, suddenly wobbled in her stride. No, her step was fine; she actually wobbled. She frowned and looked around with surprise and fear. "Um…guys?" The little ghostie called, looking down at her see-through body.

"Hmmm?" X asked as both the bots turned around.

She gazed down at her body, waiting a moment before looking back up and shrugged, "Er…never mind."

All three started to walk again. "It's weird they don't have any little mechanoids around." Zero stated.

"You're complaining?" X asked with a little disbelief, considering the point he made on the lax security.

"Not really," Zero crossed his arms behind his head, "Just, there is always a patterns. We go to each of the out-post, fighting our way through hundreds of those things, then fight a Maverick General and then some. This is…this is different. It's almost as if they were trying to…throw us off?"

"You know what? Maybe they are." X replied, rethinking this whole set up. After about a half-dozen defeats, maybe the Mavericks were learning their lesson.

The ghost got a funny feeling again and stumbled yet again. She stood up, shock and fear coursing through her. It did it again! "Hey fellas?" She called out again.

"Yah?" Zero asked this time and they turned around again.

She paused again for ten seconds, waiting for something to happen. When the strange feeling did not hit, she simply scratched her head and sighed, "Oh, Never mind again."

Both reploids looked at each other, then looked at her for about another ten seconds with blank faces. Eventually, X shrugged while Zero sighed and the group continued on their merry way.

"The one thing I can't get is why they didn't just destroy us when they knocked us out. I mean, it's as if they are playing mind games with us. Why did they put us in here?" Zero asked, finally sounding peeved. "Sigma must have seen this in a movie."

"So, now you are complaining that we aren't dead?" X asked, a little surprised by the annoyance in his partner's voice.

"Okay, I didn't mean it like that. You know what I mean, right?"

The ghost girl started to walk in place, looking down at her feet, ignoring the conversation going on in front of her. She was waiting for it to happen. When the feeling hit, she automatically stood still and grinned at herself for her control and not needing to call the two warriors for help. She held her little head up high and began to follow them. Or tried to, at least. Once the child pulled her head out from the sky, she noticed how far ahead they were. She compensated by walking just a little faster, but she paused for a moment to scratch her head. This was when she noticed she was actually moving backwards while standing still! She looked at her feet and saw the floor slide under her shoes. It was not until she was jerk to the side that it seemed like a good time to shout, "Heeeeeeelp!"

Zero rolled his eyes, "Okay, kid, that is it. Three times is enough!" He turned around and opening his mouth ready to scream, but kept it slack after seeing just half her body peaking through a wall horizontally. He stopped in his ranted while his processors contemplated on how silly it looked.

X soon turned around due to the silence of Zero. However, he saw the scene. "Oh no!" X gasped out. He quickly sprinted after the ghost. He reached her and tried to pull her back, but his hands sliced through her as if he was grabbing fog. "This really sucks!" X exclaimed. Soon the only thing visible was her little hands wrapped around the doll as the wall stopped it. But then even her little hands vanished, making the doll dropped to the ground.

Zero soon made it over to the wall and picked it up the little doll, hanging it limply from his hands. Him and X exchanged a look, then heard an awful wailing reverberated from all around them.

Zero glanced over the doll again, "Well, I mean, she's dead already, so she can't…die." Zero said surprisingly hopeful.

"Yes, because something that dragged her away isn't dangerous!" X called. He then looked at Zero's hand before quickly snatching the doll from his grip. "Okay, you got her book and I got her doll. I think we can find her with these things." X sprinted down the hall, only stopping to glance at which direction he waned to take since both directions were not directions were the little ghost vanished behind.

Zero stared at the retreating form of his best friend, still confused over what just happened, "Do you even know what you just said? You want us to split up and use a diary and a toy to find a dead person?" Zero shouted, waving around said book for emphasize

X abruptly turned around and blinked. "I wasn't thinking about splitting up, but good idea!" X finally decided to go down the straight path. "I'll call you if I find her!"

Zero paused, just staring at the little thing in front of him. He was about to complain on how X had been annoyed earlier when they split up and how badly that was going to turn out, but another wail in the air. Zero had to sighed before he started to jog down another path, half wondering how terrible it would be if he burned some of the pages.

Back to the center…

Dynamo watched the machine whirl. It was somewhat pretty and made Dynamo wish he had something to experiment with that did not come from a can or a bottle or a cup…unless he put the tablet or sheet in said can, bottle, or cup.

Then it flickered.

Dynamo blinked, wondering if he just saw what he thought he saw.

It flickered again.

Dynamo knew this was not going to end on a good feeling. Nope, no good feeling

Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...

The emergency lights came on. Dynamo looked at the dead machine. He could hear the com-link beeping. Nothing good would come out of him speaking into the com-link. Nevertheless, he did turn on the link, partially because he knew if he talked now Sigma would be less likely to come and tear him a new one. And partially for the laughs. "Yah now?" He asked every so innocently.

"…What happened." Sigma at least started out calm. That was probably worst then the bald reploid cursing him out.

The Mercenary opened his mouth big and wide, but decided to be honest. "…As soon as I know, I'll tell you…" He already prepared himself for the yelling. Always with the yelling when it came to Sigma.

"DYNAMO!" He swore he could hear the screeching from where he was, the actual screeching from Sigma's area of the place. He could not hear the actual rant coming up; Sigma did not scream it loud enough.

Dynamo cut the light quickly. Instead he focused back on the machine. "I'm not a damn mechanic. Though…." And he thought about the quick fixes he used on the devices he always used, "I'll unplug it, plug it back in, and see what happens. Yah that'll do."

Down one area…

When the power went out, X already activated his night vision. He was built for this sort of stuff, after all. Still, he moved carefully. He was afraid to call out, in case he alerted a Maverick. He heard a little whimper of something that sounded much too young for any of the Mavericks he had encountered. "Hello?" He heard nothing, but another wail went off. "Kid?" No sound. X licked his lips. He then heard a low word that sounded like 'marrow.' "Huh?"

"Marco." Someone whispered quietly again.

X must have heard that wrong. Because it sounded like-

"Marco."

X bit his lip, wondering if he should play the game. "P-polo."

"Marco."

"Polo."

"Marco."

"Polo."

"Marco."

"Polo." And it went back and forth, back and forth for a good ten minutes since it was hard to navigate with all of the corner: No way to go in a straight line. At least the person who kept calling out also moved around.

"Marco."

X turned as saw…something. In the night vision, she showed up to be almost a black blur. It was…a bit creepy. "Polo?"

"I don't feel good." She replied with a sway in her body movements. It was weird to observe; as if she was smoke or something and puffed out in odd angles.

X decided not to bring that up and instead focused on her comment. "Well, that what would happen to a…person…when they are…" X stopped and rubbed the side of his head. "What did just happen?"

"I don't know…but I didn't like it." She pouted and suddenly sat down. "I wanna go home."

X, forever the good person, knelt down next to her and did his best to brush against her shoulder. He knew there was no way he could actually hold her and comfort her, but he could mimic the motions. He felt the coldness, even through his gloves, and wondered briefly if she could feel his finger float above or just touch her…form. "Don't worry. I'll figure out a way to send you back to…where ever it was you came from." X was not sure where cute, little, juvenile ghost girls live but by golly, he would figure out something. The said ghost lost a lot of stressfulness in her shoulders, but she still pouted and looked on the verge of tear. And randomly made a little wail that went straight to X's heart. "Okay, um…how can I make you feel better?"

"Can you turn the lights back on?"

X blinked, "Well, I would love to, but I don't know where the power comes from." X tilted his head, "Are you scared of the dark?"

"No…" She twisted her hands on the ground, "I'm afraid of being lonely."

X smiled. It was cute and an honest statement. "Well…I have ranidaphobia." He was willing to share.

"What's that?" The girl's gazed started to turn away from despair into something of curiosity.

"The fear of frogs."

The little girl stopped looking sad, though it traded with a frown. But it was a lot better then the depressing little dead-girl. "But…they're, like…frogs." She waved her hands, as if she had a frog in each palm.

"They also are rather slimly and their eye-balls roll behind their heads and they can lick said eyeballs." X pointed out. "Some of them even spit blood."

The girl thought about this, stood up, crossed her little arms over her chest, and glanced down at the robot-man. "Are you joking or are you serious?"

"Maybe…does it matter?" He asked slightly.

She shook her head, "No."

"Good." He clapped his hands, and then stood up with a little stretch. "Alright, this belongs to you, little lady." He held out the doll.

It was hard to see, but she smiled brightly and spun the little dolly around. "Oh Jack! You make me fell better!" She then glanced around, "Hey, where's my book?"

"Zero had it. We went looking for you. I'll contact him and hopefully I can get him near us. Freaky maze place." X touched the sided of his helmet. "Hey Z, I found our little lady. I'm not sure where I am, but I'm going to be clever and mark where I've been, over." He waited for a response. "Zero, did you read that, over?" Still no response. "Zero?" X tapped his helmet lightly. He received nothing. Not even a static signal. This does not bode well.

"Um…maybe he fell asleep?" She supplied hopefully.

"I wonder…" X imagined what could have happened.

Obviously somewhere else…

Zero's night vision went on the instant the power shut off. Not that he was that worried; he had several times practiced fighting with a blindfold over his eyes and been rather successful. However, he liked seeing, so he was not about to try it again. Beside, he was trying to look for a ghost. He needed all the help he could get.

Zero thought he heard something. He paused and looked around. There was nothing. He continued, but much more careful in his steps. He heard more scruffily, causing him to pause again. Now he was moving at a snail's pace as he checked each corner for anything suspicious. Then he found it and grinned.

There was old bucket head, guarding a corner. The bot turned to look down the hall Zero should be coming from, but seemed to be playing with a large piece of metal in his head. Zero already ducked back, still a grin on his face. Now, this could take some pratice, but if he played his cards right…

But first, he would need a distraction. What could Zero use as a distraction? He had little with him, save his armor, his sword, a book, a pen-oh wait. Zero looked at the little journal in his possession. Well, it looked sturdy and if a few pages popped out, well, he would not tell the little ghostie. Or, if she found out, he could lie and say Vile did it. It would not be totally lying, either. Yes, he could use it now and then later say it was all the Maverick's fault. Thinking himself clever, he dared to gaze around the corner at his target. Zero moved stealthy and quietly, but his smiled almost lighted the hallway. There were about two hallways he could duck behind, if Vile turned back around. He did once already. But he kept getting closer and closer and closer and then he tossed the book away from himself.

And the monkey took the banana. Vile turned around, to look at the fallen object. Zero sprung.

Unfortunately, Zero did not look down the second corridor closeted to Vile. He would have spotted the lone female Maverick coming that way. Stardust upon popping out from the corridor, and saw the book fly by and land a distant away down the other path. In a blind panic, she suddenly screamed, "AAAH, EYE-BALLS!" She meant to say was, "Ah, it is throwing stuff to poke out and eat my eyeballs," but the panic set in and in a blind run ran away from the book like an insane banshee, shocker out to protect herself from things that might climb out of the darkness.

Zero was air-born and only saw the pretty light before he flopped to the ground like a fish.

Stardust, for a moment, thought she did hit the ghost. But upon seeing it was Zero, her eyes popped out before…she grinned. "Yeeesss!" She hissed out, cheering for another job well done. Using her non-weaponed hand to buff her chest plate, the female bot called back to Vile. "Bravo in playing decoy."

"Playing whatnot?" Vile asked, picking up the journal. "Hey, how did this fly by?" He turned around and looked at the fallen Hunter. "Wait, now when the hell did that happened?"

"I swear if I was human, I would be having a head-ache." The female Maverick mumbled. Like she would admit it was all an accident! Stardust instead choose to gaze at her awesome weapon

So did Vile. "How does that work, anyways?" He asked

"What, this thing?" She pointed at her knuckle. "Think of it as a stun gun. It shoots out various shocks of electricity at various voltages." She pointed at a strip near the top after forming a fist in her hands, slightly pumping her fingers. The contact part sparked alive. "For more of a broad damage, I can use it like a knuckle. Ah, but here's the good part." She opened her palm for a moment, slid her thumb in, then closed the fist again. It charged again, but this time a small spike popped out of it. "This gives a more direct current and can puncture things. The back of the neck is a perfect point and it's not always covered." She cackled.

"It only stuns," Vile asked, clearly not impressed with the weapon (even though his facial expression were hard to read). After all, it was tiny and not a huge cannon that could blow up everything in its path nor was it a giant mech. that could stomp on anything in its path.

The girl rolled her eyes. "I mentioned that I can set it to different dosage of energy." She fiddled with something on the top of her hand. "This ones barely tick." Turned it again. "This one is similar to the voltage used in electro-shock therapy." Turn it again. "This is the stunned setting." Turned it one more time. "This is…painful."

"Am I to assume that you've master your weapon to a point to customize each power to a specific person and a specific level of affect?"

"Oh hell no. I just learn to guess on most of these. Most of the time, I just hit a random power and see what happens. Trial and error." She then grins like a crazy. "It's fun to be surprised." She turned it again, "Hey, let us see what…this does!" Stardust slammed the brace right into Vile's neck.

It caused the season veteran to twitch in his place. As soon as she pulls the weapon away from him, he shivers a little. Then he turned to her stiffly, "Don't…Ever…Do…That…Again…" He knees went knobby.

She looked at the weapon, face forming in a mocking frown, "What? I'm testing."

"Now, as a valued test subject, did you feel any pain?" Stardust asked with something that sounded nothing like an emotionless scientist but more like an emotion-filled Sadist.

"No." He stated simple.

"So…what did you feel?" This time she spoke to Vile as if he was a child.

He coughed a little. "After we drag him back, I need to clean my armor."

"What do you mean?" She asked, totally confused.

Vile quickly changed the subject, "Out of curiosity, why were you given the name 'Stardust?'"

"What do you mean?" Stardust asked again in an annoyed tone this time and stopped observing Vile's body language, as most people had to observe in order to know what the masked bot was trying to express, to tie up Zero, as they did before.

"What I mean is…why not something more…electrical." Vile supplied. The female bot paused in her cuffing to listen. "Or something more related to hand-to-hand. Or at least to your…thing. Why…Stardust for a name?"

She finished putting the bindings on, stood up tall and stalked over to glare up at Vile. While Vile was not a partially tall Maverick to begin with, Stardust was also a tiny bot and had to tilt her head to look at the openings in Vile's helmet. Though Vile was not fooled by her size; he saw the supposed tiny thing twist opponents in knots and bows just for the hell of it. And she had a look that made him feel like a tiny thing, even if her nose scrunched up in an otherwise cute manor.

"It is a motif! UNDERSTAND? Motif! My armor is based from the color of stars," She slammed her gloved palms to the most yellow-orange coloring on her armor, except for crystals coloring in red and her under-armor being a blue-white color, "And my helmet is the shape of a star," She indicated to the yellow five-point star framing her face. "It is based of the Star- part and the reason I have the -Dust part is because I have freckles!" She brushed her fingers over one side of her cheeks, across the bridge of her nose, to the other side of her face, "Get it? Staaaaaar…Duuuust." She crossed her arms over her chest, "Master Sigma is named because of a dead language alphabet as well as a few other meanings that I cannot think off. You're Vile because you happen to be Vile. THE NAMES HAVE MEANINGS!"

Vile did not reply quickly, but he replied slightly, "And Dynamo is named after the generator?"

"Dynamo is an idiot, so I don't care." She replied flatly.

"You still love me." The Mercenary in question replied over the com link.

"GET OFF MY LINE, BASTARD!" Stardust screamed

Vile already threw Zero over his shoulder, the one not with his lovely shoulder-cannon. "Alright, I may not see why we can't kill him now, but let's go tie him up…and let the child scare him with her teen death angst writing."

Stardust cut her yelling at Dynamo and glared at the other Maverick, "You want me to hurt you, don't you?"

"No. Quite the opposite, actually" He almost appeared to brushed his armor, and then looked at the girl with embarrassment, "How many of those do you got?"

"Of what?" She asked suspiciously.

"Your…shockers."

"A few…" Stardust grew more suspicious, "Why?"

"…Can I have one of those for later, ah, personal use?"

Back to our two other heroes…

X thought about it, and came to this conclusion:

"Oh, Zero is screwed."

"You know, you don't really have much faith in your buddy."

"That's because you don't know him like I do." Oh, all the stick situations filtered through X's mind.

"Well, if he got 'napped, they probably took him to," She waved her hands and doll around, trying to think of the proper meaning of the noun she wished to use, "Wherever bad guys take their prisoner…place."

X frowned at her, "Aren't you suppose to be a writer?"

Oh did she ever glare at him, "You know what? I could just go wandering around some more and NOT show you where the bad guys are. Out of my comfort zone here, Mr. X. I've several times been ready to curl up in the corner, but I don't. My little dead heart happily gives you help." She crossed her arms over her chest and turned away.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Just…worried they put him in an uncomfortably situation that at a later time, he will blame me about." X sighed. It always seemed to happen

But the ghost girl smiled and saw the real reason for the complaint behind the one X stated, "You guys are sort of like family, huh?"

X finally let a smile appear on his face, "He is my best friend and in some ways my mentor."

"He doesn't seem like an old fart, though."

"Actually, I'm older then him."

"Really?"

"Yah." He wonder briefly if he should mention why he was older then Zero, but decided that he did not need some funny looks from her.

"I once knew this guy. He was kind of a mentor, but he smelled funny."

Besides, the girl had the mentality of a pre-pubescent girl with bouts of ADHD. And he did not needed to get into his life stories with a child. "Nice to hear…but, do you know exactly were they would hold him?" X hoped they could get back on track.

"Um…well, if this had several floors or enclosed rooms, I'd say it would be in one of those places…but this place is all the same level and not too many locked places, except leading over in this area, which means no other floors. I did spot a few little closest, but they were still being used as closets…"

X nodded, thinking. What did Zero have that could be tracked to him? As X was a clever boy, it did not take him long to think of a possibility, "Hey, could you find your book?"

"What do you mean?" What she wanted to say is, 'I have a book?'

"Zero has your little journal. Can you, like, find it?" As a clever boy X was, he did not have the right vocabulary to explain what to call a child ghost being psychically linked to the book that was any worst then saying a child ghost was psychically linked to a book.

"Um…" She thought for a moment, "Well, I never actually go out of my way to get it, but I usually stumbled upon it. It won't do either of us any good if I get pulled away again, though."

"True enough," X now thought about that little problem, "You think I might happen again?"

"I don't know…it could," She pouted sadly; "It scares me."

X smiled, "Hey, not a worry, for I'll find you again. How about that?" It was in his nature to make people feel better.

She smiled brightly up at him, her fears put to an ease. "Well, we better find Mr. Zero, right?"

"Yep. And finally a way we can get out." X was getting a little sick of it all. This was an obscure place, even for Mavericks.

"Yah!" The little child cheers, and both start on their merry way. But after only a few steps, the girl turns to look up at Megaman X, "You know, you don't seem too worried they could be talking him apart piece by piece just to hear him beg like a baby."

It would seem logical that these thoughts would crop up in the thought circuits of the worry-wart that happened to be X. But the comment did not faze him. He already shrugged and began explaining the nature of things, "Eh…Mavericks are more 'Hit it until it stays dead with a bat' instead of performing brain surgery, except for the occasional doctor in the group who goes insane. And they rather keep their experiments alive, and I doubt any of them would suffer here. They always tend to be rather grouchy. Besides…Zero, no matter the loss, no matter the situation, he always seems to find a way back from the dead." He stated that statement rather cheerfully for a guy talking about his best coming back from the dead.

The girl paused in her step. She thought the statement was rather off-kilter, too, "Ah…" X continued to walked ahead of her while she frowned, "Hey, what did you mean by the dead thing? Mr. X?" She chased after the other.

To the Head Quarters we go…

"Miss Alia?" A spotter-in-training asked.

"Yeeeees?" The blond reploid asked.

"Remember how you said if something interesting happened at one of the areas we suspected of Maverick Activity being located in we should report it to you right away?"

"Yeeeees?"

"It, um…happened."

Alia was about to take another spoonful of ice-cream in her mouth, but froze in mid-bite, mouth open and spoon only inches away from the gullet. "Come again?"

"Yah…there was a big spike in power…then it vanished, so we began checking and what we though were just storage readers were…not." The poor, noncreative robot began.

"And…what were they?" Alia asked calmly, her spoon now set back into the ice-cream as she reached for another delectable, delicious, and delightful bite.

"Well…six signals…and two of them were Commander X and Zero." A silence as the spoon hovered again. Into the awaiting mouth, "Ma'am?"

Alia sighed and set her spoon down. "Call an emergency meeting in the wings and get the gear ready." Seeing the subordinate still just standing, she slammed her fist (it still grasped the spoon) down on the table, "On the Double!"

"Yes Ma'am!" The reploid cheer, looking ready to charge. He jumped out of the room in under a second.

Alia braced herself to stand up, but looked down at her treat. She glanced out the door and so no one. "…Ice-cream first," The spotter replied with a shrug before taking a bite. "Mmmmm, bubble-gum flavor."

God, I should have had this done sooner. If you could not tell, not much wit to the title. Because the rest of the titles have been winners, after all. Stupid FF shorted my rrr's, too. Oh well. The climax is just around the corner, kiddies! I'd give more comment, but I wanna get this up! More annoying notes next chapter, then!