Chapter 10

The Home-run Stretch.

This is the last real chapter! There will be an epilogue, but it's only a small little thing and hopefully will get out faster then prior chapters. Nothing else to say, except I am really going to be sad when I don't have to work on this story any more…

Disclaimer: I do own anything MegaMan X related. Stardust is mine, but she's a reploid, and anyone can take her just as long as they give credit and maybe drop me a pm. Ghost Girl, maybe not so much. And while the paranormal should be open for study, I have gone insane with it. Forgive me, believers!

Everyone heard a high-pitch screeched, which slowly lowered to a dull roar. Everyone around the room looked around.

"The hell is that noise?" Vile asked, apparently to Stardust.

However, the female bot suddenly dove at Vile and started whimpering, hiding against him. It would not be such a problem, but Vile was uncomfortable comforting the usually blood thirsty girl. She might get mad if he touched the wrong part of the armor.

Dynamo looked around, not quite scared, but still spooked.

Sigma looked pretty happy with himself.

Zero looked bored, but it could easily been him being slightly in a half-state of pain. His body, after all, was working to repair itself. Or he had the robot equivalent of a stroke. All valid suggestions.

But the wailing stopped…right on top of the machine. Everyone turned to look up (Except for Zero. At the way his body was tied, he could not look up, especially with his helmet). Nothing was there…except a mist. Which was odd, because the machine was not on fire this time.

But then the mist got more condensed and more condensed and it started to take shape. It soon looked like a person with limbs, a torso, and a head. Then it looked like an adult, of average height. Then it looked like a man, with the short bit of hair, thick legs, and nothing curvy in the chest area. Then it soon filled out to a ghostly person, with a face and a glare.

The ghost on top stared down at everyone. Everyone staring up at the ghost (Again, baring Zero because he was tied down and could not tilt his head back and into the machine to look above. Also, Stardust, who at one look of the man, buried back into Vile with a childish whine and started to actually act like the woman she simply looked like). It was a rather surreal moment.

It became more surreal with the ghost opened his mouth, "What the $% is going on?"

"Oh I like this guy already." Dynamo mumbled, already pulling a beverage from out of no where.

Nobody else really had a response to say, except for Zero, who voiced out, "What was that? Is that a person! Up there? Hello?" He slammed his head back, smarting himself on the metal contraptions. He let out his own string of curse words.

"I ask again," The guy above said, "What the $% is going on?"

Vile looked around, and then looked at the woman against him. "Can…can I just put her somewhere?" He glared down at his chest, "This is rather unprofessional, Stardust."

"Yes yes yes, you two aren't going to be needed for the moment." Sigma waved, glancing up at the top of the structure.

Vile bowed the best he could and half-dragged the woman out of the room. Sigma assessed the situation for a moment, opened his mouth…

And was interrupted from the screaming outside room:

"YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND THE FEARS I HAVE!" That was clearly the female's voice.

And a muffled, male voice came back, "Hey, all I'm saying is you knew about this project and you said you did not have any problems about this."

"IT'S DIFFERENT WHEN YOU COFRONT IT!"

"IT'S. A. GHOST! I mean, yes, the Master believes he can use it to cause damage to Zero, but…it is already dead…"

"THAT'S THE PROBLEM! It is dead and I can't kill it! It is…terrifying."

"Alright, I am going to leave you out here and you deal with it all. Okay?" There was nothing else said as Vile came back into the room. Everyone stared at him, even the ghost. It confused him, "What?"

"Sooo…nobody is gonna tell me what the $% is going on?" The ghost floating above asked.

"Spirit, shall I ask for your name?" Sigma stated more then asked.

"Um…" The ghost paused, "Brooks." Another pause. "Why?"

"So I have a name to go by." Sigma replied still quite civilly.

"I mean why, as in, why am I here. This doesn't look like a $%^&y old rotten house. This looks like a…" A gaze around the room. "Well, I don't know what you would call it, but it ain't a rotten house, now is it?"

"Wow, his observation skills are awesome. You know how to pick them, Sigma." Dynamo whispered loudly. A hand cannon and a shoulder cannon were soon pointed at his directions while two Mavericks glared at him. Dynamo shrugged and replied innocently, "Hey, it was funny. You guys just can't appreciate my humor."

The ghost growled, "Why am I here, on this giant toilet look…blue thing?"

Sigma kept grinning, "I shall explain it all. Come down come down here and I will explain everything."

"I would," The ghost stressed, "But I'm stuck up here!"

"Oh yes…" Sigma waved to his hired help, "Dynamo, shut it off."

Vile had to speak up, "You know, sire, I could handle it. I do construct things as part my occupation as well as my full-time hobby." He then send (an assumed) dirty look to Dynamo, "And I make sure nothing I watch breaks."

Dynamo, though he did not care much if his own building skills were not up to part with Vile's, just had to make a comment, "First off, I hope you're mechanical skills are much better then your consoling skills because you are unable to deal with the fair gender." And just because he could, he made a second comment, "But I really doubt that they are any better then your consoling skills because second off, you were the one who had brought a broken mech. unit to a battle at the beginning of this whole thing." Seeing Vile shake in his spot just made it all the more wonderful with Dynamo shut it all off.

…RRRRRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

"There you go." Dynamo stated, brushing his hands off and sending a particularly happy grin to Vile.

The ghost, noticing the device he sat on was finally off, floated down from his forced perched and landed on the floor without a sound.

Zero then shouted, "Ooooh, that's what you saw!" Zero must be forgiven; he had some damage to his processes.

Sigma waved a hand to the ghost, pulling the conversation back to him, "So here is the end of your doom that I hoped would haunt you for your time since here, but we had to force it along a bit."

Now Zero was puzzled, "Wait, so it wasn't that little-"

Back to X…

"Zero, shut up!" X mumbled quietly.

Back to everyone else…

Lucky for X, the ghost must have been reading his mind, because though his head kept staring at the Mavericks, A part behind his back poked Zero right in the center of his chest. Zero felt a familiar chill and practically screeched out, "Daaaahhhh!"

"Let the grow-ups talk for a second!" Said the rough voice of Brooks, yet something odd happened from Zero's point of view. A little bubbled formed against his back, taking the shape of a familiar specter's head. That quickly sobered Zero out of the cold stupor he felt. But his mouth remained opened. He may have made another squeal, but the little ghostie's face scolded at him and whispered harshly, "Just play along, okay? I know what I am doing." The front part kept a blank look at the three reploids in the room. The three reploids in the room looked blank back, not sure what they should be doing or if they should be doing something to him.

Zero may or may not have believed her in any other situations, but his stare focused solely on the head shrinking back into the body. The head winked at him before it shrunk back into the body, and that was it for Zero. "Oh damn, X warned me it would happen, but I didn't believe him. But yep, my brain has finally gone to the crapper." He was not even silent about the comment. Then the head popped out of the back one more time to face-palm itself and touched Zero yet again. "Daaaahhhh!"

Sigma was very pleased with these strange sounds and words Zero spoke while the ghost apparently did nothing. So state the Commander of a murdering bunch of robots should: "Ooooh, do more of that!"

"Do what?" The ghost asked. "I mind my own damn business, and suddenly I find myself jacked here. What gives?"

"Glad you asked." Sigma stated with crossed arms and a slick smile. "What I want you to do is do your business on this," he pointed at the restrained Zero, still in confinement and in chills, "Sap."

"What business?"

"Of destruction!" Sigma shouted to the air, screaming, and then laughing.

A dramatic pause.

"…Whhhhy?" The ghost asked obnoxiously.

"Because you destroy things, especially…" Sigma paused to ponder, a hand on his chin. "What was the word that Stardust used?"

"People who tend to try to look like super-model dolls." Vile stated somehow without breaking into a little fit of giggles.

Dynamo, on the other hand, could not stop the sounds escaping his teeth, "He kills Barbie?" For once, Dynamo's smile was lost as his processes tried to comprehend what was just suggestion.

Zero was not amused, "Oh, good job, throw in a joke about my looks, too. EVEN with the BRUISES, I'M STILL the BEST LOOKING one in this room." All Zero had left were his words and his anger. And he might be having some trouble with his words, if the shouting was not on purposes.

Of course, Dynamo did have a wit to match Zero. Soon, his grin returned back and he said on the fly, "I know, Zero. You are such a pretty thing and all the girls wish they could be you and all the boys wish they could be with you."

"COME HERE SO I CAN KNOCK YOU TEETH OUT!" Zero threatened. He struggled, rag-doll legs flaring slightly at his waist's jerky movements.

Dynamo ignored Zero's ranting for the moment because a thought crept into his mind. . He suddenly commented lightly, "Ah, I get it now."

"Get what?" Vile asked, quite amused with the way Zero's feet swung about.

"Sigma really has gone off the deep end." As if it was a super epiphany he finally figured it out, "I mean, I knew this was as crazy like a cracker-jack box, but seeing it now, in focus, playing out in front of me, this is a terrible idea." He even made a mouth of 'wow.'

Sigma may have had a retort or commanded him with some form of death, but he just smiled viciously at Dynamo, "It is working right now, isn't it?"

And just when Sigma said that, "HOLD on one second, $ers!" This came from the ghost.

"Then again, you might be wrong, Sigma." Dynamo stated bluntly, having a feeling this was gonna be as bad as it was funny.

"First off, I do not kill anyone." The ghost even stressed the one, by holding a finger up, "Tragic accidents happen around me to people I just meet and I despise. But I do not actually take a weapon or my own body to really kill someone," The ghost started to glide around the room, circling around the room, and every person in the room, making everyone understood his rant and raving. He got to the middle of the room and held up two fingers. "Second off, I do not primarily target unnaturally alter women. I may dislike them, and think it's a nice blow off to environment, but I don't hate." He finally paused his steps and looked straight at the crew. "Leading that off to third off, I am not going to kill this…guy. Being. Thing. Whatever. Because, I only dislike those with clearly fake, blonde hair extensions, eyes that are too bright, and try to be too tall."

There was a pause in the room. The reploids (baring Zero) looked over Zero with a careful eye.

Then the ghost looked at Zero over with a careful day.

Zero looked at everyone with cautious eyes. "What?"

The pause continued in the room before the ghost visible let out a breath of air with a little shrugged before his next string of comments, "Okay, so he looks fake. But…he kinda looks likes crap at the moment instead of the type that thinks the world should be handed to him on a silver platter because his chest is round and he doesn't have…anything between…" The ghost words slowly drew up. He looked at the green gems on his armor and the white armor around his hips.

Zero understood it this time, and was he ever bitter about it, "Oh, just take another crack at me. I'm use to it by now. Just know that I've killed each and every one of you at one point in you're life." He then glared at the ghost, "And you are already dead."

The ghost blinked, and then sent a personal frown to the bound bot. The ghost tilted his head and hovered in front of Zero, as if debating to do something to Zero. Zero made sure to do a wink. The ghost blinked, but abrupt faced.

Since the apparent tirade was done, Dynamo irate yet again, "So…seeing as Zero is tied up…you could do it right now. Seriously. Why the…" Dynamo waved his hands around, "The…dramatics."

Sigma opened his mouth and started to say, "I think I already explained it being about it never-"

"Yes, I realize Karma isn't you're friend, but you could hire-"

Sigma made sure to interrupt the mercenary to take control of the conversation, "And how many times have you succeeded, Dynamo?"

"Oh just point out my faults, but you still paid me to come-'

"Hey jerks!" The ghost called out over the baddies, "You know, I haven't agreed t'anything. Just so you know."

Sigma did not seem the least bit worried. "Oh, I figured this might happen. So, here is my demand, specter. You take care of Zero, the chained man, and you shall be returned to your haunt."

"Even if I could attack something and even if it could kill them that route, why would I do it, especially for you? I bet I could figure out my way back home." The ghost said in annoyance.

"Not if you are trapped." Sigma replied smoothly. "Vile, will you do the honors?"

"Of course, Master." Vile bowed and went to a familiar level and pulled it.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrRRRRRRRRR…

And there it went on again. In a matter of moments, he disappeared in a mist and then re-formed at the top. He glared down at the group. From the side, a little lump formed out of the side. Of course, the Mavericks could not tell what the shape was.

But…

From a different point of observation…

X, from his little closet, could see what formed from the side of the ghost. It was a…head. A little girl's…head. The familiar face of the familiar ghost girl started to mouth words. It took a few moments for X to read her lips, "Go. Right. Now." She either said that or, "Show. Rita. Meow." The last one seemed highly illogically, so he assumed that the first three words he thought up were the ones he needed to follow. He did have to get over the thought about seeing a head just grow out of a dead person's body, but he took it better then Zero.

He needed to figure out a way on how to get the jump on the Mavericks. He gazed around and saw how the lights flickered while the machine operated. That's when X got an idea and he went to the back of the closet.

After a few minutes, the machine turned off.

…RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRrrrrrrr

Sigma looked at the ghost with a sneer, "Now see, I could be mean and leave you up there if you don't do what I want you to do. But if you do what I want you to do, then I will let you down."

Dynamo turned to Vile and whispered, "Can he really leave that thing running forever?"

"Well, it matters." Vile replied, equally as quiet, "How good of a repair job did you do?"

"I remember using duck-tape and a penny." He counted on his fingers up to three, "And some paperclips." Dynamo held his palms out about fourth a meter, "Big ones."

"So, clearly, the Master has to bluff." Vile replied, their hushed conversation stopped when Sigma began speaking again.

"So, what is your answer now?" Sigma asked.

Before anyone could say anything, Stardust appeared at the doorway.

A few minutes earlier…

Stardust had been carefully monitoring the systems that ran everything, including for the device that could keep the ghost at bay. It was the perfect job for her; she could stay far away from the ghost and she could do something to keep it the hell away from her. However, she was carefully monitoring her breathing at the same time.

Still distracted by her "issues," the usually careful girl did not pay attention to her flank and then…

Everything went black.

Present…

Indeed, Stardust stood in the doorway. Her eyes also looked blankly ahead.

"What is the issue now?" Sigma asked. A familiar headache started to pulse under his chrome-dome.

The bot simply stood her ground, as if making a point. The she flew!

It was not strange thought, considering a large chuck of units created with and/or eventually received some sort of equipment that allows them to fly. The problem with that situation was Stardust did not have any wings on her body or her armor or any hidden equipment to make her levitate by any means.

So seeing her fly straight at Vile paused all the men in the room for a moment to processes. Add another pause to observe the lack of graceful flying. Most definitely not a unit built with wings. Her limbs went flying around like a rag doll, yet the odd blank look held on her face.

Vile's reaction was to catch her. So he held out his arms, but she was going fast enough to not only counter-act Vile's friction, but Vile's gravity as well. And they both went straight at Sigma. Now, his friction was enough to keep him still…and his gravity pulled him straight on his butt

Dynamo only had one comment, "Damn X, you have one hellva arm. I figured you would be like a girl in that department."

X chose not to comment on the department comment. He simply charged in the room and ran straight to Zero. He only had a small window of time to get his partner untied.

"Hey X, how are you?" Zero said with a cocky grin and his eyes still slightly focused.

X glanced at him suspiciously. "Z, did they drug you."

"Pfff, no. I wish." Then one of Zero's eyes focused slowly towards a dent in the wall while his other eye stayed on X.

"Okay…" He went to his bindings, "I'm just going to untie you, and hope getting fluid to your arms will help you, okay?

"Sounds like a Plan!" Zero said, trying to salute. Of course, it was hard to do with tied hands. He then looked over at the mess that was the Mavericks. "Why did you throw her? You could have used her as a shield or a bargaining chip."

"Not my style." X mumbled, carrying prying off the metal in case they were booby-trapped.

With a raised eyebrow, Zero asked, "And throwing petite women is?"

"Mavericks will not think twice about shooting through their own team mates. I say I actually let her live for another day." X answered back with a bit of a bite.

"Well aren't you just the gentleman?"

From the pile of Mavericks, Sigma uttered one thing, "I knew I forgot something." Then he struggled to get up from the limbs of his subordinates.

"Hey X?"

"Yes Zero?"

"We have a problem." Zero stated, watching as his bonds started to unlock.

"Oh really, what?" X mumbled in a rush, not really wanting to hear about a problem.

With the binds released, Zero stayed up for a total of four seconds before he collapsed on himself and fell to the ground.

X stared and replied with confusion and disappointment, "Yes, that would be a problem."

Sigma, in all his glorious bulkiness, glared at the one remained man standing that was not X, "Dynamo!"

Dynamo had been watching the Hunter's antics, so he mumbled, "I'll turn on the machine in a second. Yah yah."

"Stop them!" The Maverick Hunter commanded.

"Huh?" Dynamo blinked, and then grinned, "Oh, yah." Dynamo did let out a sighed, but raised his buster and sent a warning shot at X. Of course, he made sure that the warn shot missed X and went straight at the half-incapacitated Zero.

"Zero! Are you okay?" X asked.

"Yah, I'm fine. He just shot my legs." Zero stated rather calmly.

"…And that is good?"

"Well, can't feel them anymore."

"What?" X would have asked more questions, but then Dynamo started taking shots at X.

"Alright, I'll be nice and I won't get the gimp, but as for me and you, X, we are gonna do a little bit of a dance." Dynamo informed and jumped straight at the Blue Bomber.

"Oh no." X barely replied for that before he had to jump away and start tangling with Dynamo. Zero simply had to watch.

Though, he gave his support: "Kick him in the ass; get up on him; watch out for the laser, watch out for the LASER!"

Meanwhile, the trio of Mavericks were starting to compose themselves, including Stardust slowing turning back online. After getting into Dynamo's guard when the blue-haired man tried to send several blasted to him, X held his hands down and saw the Mavericks stirring. "Zero! You are gonna get company."

"And what am I suppose to do about it!" Zero shouted, trying to roll his body to glare at the threat.

"I don't know! You can still use your cannon, right?" Then X pushed away from Dynamo and he could not keep an eye on any more enemies.

Zero was only slightly worried now. Maybe it was the blows to the head, but he was not quite worried about dying. After all, he died, twice, and he did not think today he would be dying again. But what could he do? And then he came to him. Or more appropriately, it floated down in front of him. It also asked him, "Are you alright?"

"Does it look like I'm alright?" He asked with a bitter tone.

She did not replay quickly. It took her a second to make this remark: "If I say yes, you aren't going to like me, are you?"

Zero had no idea if she was being sarcastic or not. Actually, he did not care. "Alright shortie, I'm in a bad situation." He replied, much calmer then before, "Can you, like, do something?"

"What do you mean?" She asked.

Zero now actually looking at her. She no longer looked like the grow man she was emulating and was materializing into the little girl he first met. That rather comforted Zero. The freaking' head trick was awful. "You know how you did that freezing trick with me?"

"Yeees?" She has with somehow a mixture of humor and suspicion

"Go be useful and do it to the pile of Mavericks until I can figure out a way to fight without the use of my lower limbs." He commanded.

A strange look crossed over the child's face. When she raised a finger and opened her mouth, Zero predicted he would not like the answer she gave. "Do I really have to touch them?"

"What!" Nope, did not like that.

"I mean, that bald one looks pretty creepy to me, and someone named Vile would mean there might be something rather…disgusting with him. And whatever makes that woman mean…well, I don't want to catch it." She listed off, giving the Mavericks a distrustful once-over.

Zero listened and paid attention to her response, weight his options and her opinions, and replied with a scream, "GO DO IT NOW!"

The ghost grumbled, but she stalked over to the group. She glanced between the three. She could not decide which one should be distracted. When this sort of situation came up, there was only one thing to do: "Eanie-Meanie-Minie-Moe," The Little Ghostie began to sing.

At this time, Stardust had started to regain consciousness. It was rather hard to stay comatose with two Mavericks around her, ones that could eat her, was rolling under her. She blinked and started at the confusion, "Whah?"

The ghost girl said, "Eanie-Meanie-Minie-Moe." A small finger pointed at Stardust.

The Maverick girl heard the end of the song and gazed at where the sound came from. And there it was. That ghost. Stardust started screaming and tried to dive inside the pile of Maverick men.

"Stardust, stop this instant!" Sigma commanded

"Ahhhhh! She's gonna take my inners out through my eye-sockets!" Stardust, on the other hand, ignored orders and started clawing.

"What the hell is kicking me!" Poor Vile in this strange sandwich exclaimed. And not the good kind of people sandwich.

The ghost tilted her head and stared, "Okay…" She expected this task would be much…harder.

X and Dynamo were still going at it. The mercenary pulled out his weapon, juggled it, and already went at X. X ducked from a swing from the left, a swing from the right, and a back-bend, using one hand on the floor to keep himself balanced.

Zero, was…well, Zero was flopping around like a fish, trying to get over to the pile of Mavericks. Zero never realized before how hard it was to move around without legs, but he was trying. He tried in various ways, from dragging his body with one pull of the hand at a time, claw at the ground to bring him closer, to flopping around like a fish, to try standing on his hands. He was going to go over to that pile of Mavericks and he did not care if he had to bite their heads off; he would do something.

X took a moment to glance over at his buddy. "Zero, what the hell are you doing?" He ducked down as a blast whizzed by his head.

"I'm gonna kick their ass." He announced, voice slightly muffled because he was using his teeth to give himself more momentum.

"With WHAT?"

"I still have arms." Zero raised his cannon to the pile of Mavericks, "I still got my," He started to charge his weapon, "plasma and I'm going to smoke their-" He let go of the charge. Of course, his weapon was not working and it only fizzled at the end. "Oh, of course!" Zero cried. He grumbled, but continued on his snail pace.

"Zero, just…hold still. I'll handle it!" X commented, slightly falling back after a shot taken by Dynamo, who was already charging straight at the blue bomber. "Just…one second."

"You think I can't defend myself?" Zero yelled back.

"Zero, you have only one and a half of a function limb set, neither of which help you stand up!" X screamed out, "You are not in a position to do anything but get hurt more!"

"Shut up, you nag!" Zero growled out, "I can still use my head, in mental and physical sense. I still got my armor. I'm still a great fighter and I can take on three Mavericks, even look this!"

"Oh my god…Zero, this is the worst time to test your man hood!"

"As much as I am amused by seeing the Gimp trying to do things," Dynamo interrupted, "We have a fight, X. I hate being bugged with my fighting. It's when I do things best." Dynamo remarked, "And Zero shall be the next target. Gotta keep my AKPH up!" He said cheerfully.

"…What does that even mean?"

Dynamo sneered, "Ass-kicking per hour, baby!" He charged back in.

The summary of what was happening so far: X and Dynamo were in a neck-to-neck battle with one another; Zero was crawling to the pack of Mavericks, ready and determining to fish-slap them to death; Sigma tried to wiggle out of the two metal bodies above him, Vile was trying to follow Sigma's order and restraining the third Maverick, Stardust, who was still freaking about the ghost who simply stood there. But Vile was getting the girl under control and the lead Maverick did notice the blonde hunter was approaching.

With this summary completed in her head, the ghost child decided she had to do something! And something more productive then simply existing. She got an idea, smiled, and looked around. "It was with him…so…maybe it's around here…" She looked around the machine, and then her grin brightened. "Found it!" The girl picked up the discarded journal and flipped through it. She pulled out the pen from the bound, and tapped it against her chin.

In the background, an exposed happened, sending a chuck of something right past through her, with X screaming, "That was almost my head, you blue cretin."

"Aww, I missed." Dynamo chided.

The ghost girl ignored the object and smiled, when she got an idea. This is what she started to write;

~During the climatic battle, it was all interrupted by a large…~

She thought of a good word to use, and shrugged and did a comic bubble with this inside it:

~BOOOOOOOOOOM!~

And so it came to be.

A few minutes early…

The large museum was quite a distance from the main city. There was a road that led to it, but the area around it was a wild field of grass, with the group of insects, mice, and occasional little bots mixed in with the occasional debrief scorching the land, from accidence that happened on the ground or from the air. The ground was surprisingly calm…but then…a small rumbled started to shift everything. The animals started to look around, wondering what created the rumble.

In the horizon, a dirt cloud formed. Soon little darts started to shape. They grew and grew and grew and turned into big tanks.

When the power dropped earlier, all shield shut down, meaning everyone. At the time of the outage, Stardust and Vile went to hunt for the Maverick Hunters, Dynamo was working on machines that he knew nothing on, and Sigma had constantly decided which tie went with the shine of his head.

When the power was restored, Dynamo had at first fixed the machine, the swiped the switch box back on, but blatantly ignored anything else. And while it was Vile and Stardust duty to check the minor, they were more excited they caught Zero (with Stardust bragging on how she caught the famous read demon, twice in the same day, while Vile was contemplated on the pleasurable stun setting Stardust could do) that they forgot to check the shields after the power came back on. But so did Sigma, so lackeys are only as good as their Master. Now, Stardust would have fixed the problem, but at the time she leaned over to the consul to notice the big, red warning letters of there are no shields, she was first distracted by her irrationally fear, then X knocked her out.

That gave the Maverick Hunters plenty of time to check for the signals of their missing Hunters.

They were ready for blood. Or…whatever flows through reploids. They would try to spill plenty of it, at least.

Present, with the Calvary showing up…

It was actually a series of booms. The people in the room might not have heard the first couple, but everyone could feel the rumble in the floor. Then the crashes happened…one after another, like dominos, except the dominos were the size of a wall. Because they were walls. It stopped everyone in the room and seven sets of eye stared at the walls to the left.

Then the wall to their room came down, showing an advance arsenal of weapons.

"I knew I forgot something else, too." Sigma stated, staring down at the side of a cannon. As if instinct, Vile, Sigma, and Stardust rolled off of each other in a matter of seconds, stood up, ignored everything around them, and pointed their respective weapons at the many units barging in. They were ready.

Dynamo, on the other hand, was not quite as brave (read: stupid). "Well, folks, I enjoyed this little tea party, but I say that this event is getting a little too crowed. And I certainly don't want to take up anyone's space. Ta-at!" And before X could catch up to him, he vanished in a beam.

X gazed at the big guns, then at the crippled Zero. "Okay, well, this will be new one. We get rescued."

The shooting and the cussing already started. Vile had called a mech. to him and took charge, the machine actually working this time. Stardust handling the ground troops with easy, performing almost impossible acts of acrobatics and no sign of stopping. Sigma growled and was working his way through a tank. Literally working his way through a tank. And the tank was loosening like a sub sandwich on game day.

But there were a lot of tanks and people.

While this went on during the background, X walked calmly over to his fallen friend. Even with laser-beams and debris spilling all around, X ignored all distractions. He knelt down in front of his once (and in some regards, still) mentor. "Zero?"

In a dazed, the blond-bot rolled his eyes over to his best friend, "Hey X."

"Yah?"

"The good news is…my legs aren't numb anymore."

"That's…good to hear." X carefully said, not quite sure if this was a good situation.

"Want to know how I know?" Zero asked with a blank expression on his face.

"How?"

"I can feel them…and every part where they have been injured." He took a shuddered breath, "Ouch."

"Zero…are you crying?"

"No!" The bot growled out. But he did turn over from X for a moment. A bomb rolled close to the duo and went off. Unlike most people who would cover their head when such an item went off, Zero automatically reached for his long hair and pulled it safely to him, fearing something would get caught (it must be noted that even though it was a little frizzled, his hair was still as full and as luscious as ever), "What the hell was that?" Zero screeched out.

X rubbed his ear pieces and instead stated, "Yah, I think I'll let you sit over to the side." X lifted up Zero, adjusting them so one of Zero's arms was thrown over his shoulder and X gripped him around the waist. Again, he calmly walked across the room, ignoring the small projectiles, ignoring the flashes appearing every now and then, and just moving his head slight to avoid the piece of someone's arm flinging by his head. That looked like Vile's own. How interesting.

X walked around the corner and set Zero down against the wall. "There you go. You just have a break. I'll help with this situation."

Then, it appeared, that all the broken part's in Zero's head snapped together, "Is there another fight going on?" He looked around the corner, "Awesome! I want to join it!" Perhaps not all of the parts were back together. But to be fair, most of those parts probably had not been fixed since Zero became a Maverick Hunter.

"Zero…can you actually walk now?" X asked, giving him a look.

"My hands work JUST FINE, thank you very much!" He smacked a hand upside his helmet, "And so does my head!"

"Zero?"

"I didn't become an S ranking Hunter for nothing. And I've survived death two times. I feel invincible!"

"Zero?"

"I could take down a whole battalion with just my pink. MY PINK, X!"

"Zero?"

"Yes!"

"You've been charging your hand cannon for the last fifteen minutes." X calmly stated.

"…It's still charging?" Zero gazed turned to disbelief, and then he turned that gaze to his arm, seeing it still flashing. "I thought I let it go when the wall got busted down." He used his other hand to tap at it.

"Maybe you should let it go now." X declared with concern. He had no idea on how much damage this could cause. For all he knew, this could give Zero some sort of reploid Parkinson's.

"…I don't think I can stop it." Zero started to tap it harder. Even shook his hand, just to see if that would jar it going.

X let out a sigh. "I shall be the one to say this; sit back, relax, and enjoy the shoe, er, show." He smiled, stood up, and spotted the ghost. He was surprised nobody noticed her. But then he saw a lazy beam cut through her mid-section, so anyone fighting may very well mistake her for a hologram. "Hey," The little ghost blinked at him at his voice calling, "Come over here!" The girl skipped her way next to X, then the blue Maverick Hunter pointed to Zero, "Keep him company, will you?"

"Alright!" The little one sat down next to Zero. X stood back up, stretched, and clicked his arm into his cannon.

"You are going to be rated for this, X." Zero mumbled.

X grinned at him. "Let me try for an above average then." And then he threw himself into the skirmish.

Zero pouted like the child he was on the inside. The little buddy got out her journal and started writing in it, 'hmming' along with the wreckage and rubble falling around. Zero was half-tempted to crawl out there like he did when it was just him and X, just to be the spiteful little child he was, but…there was a difference between being an embarrassment in front of X and an embarrassment in front of all the Maverick Hunter. X could keep his mouth shut, unlike a certain pink spotter or a certain green mechanic. Oh, and let's not forget the damn medic. He suddenly pictured Livesavor shouting, "Burn the Witch!" Then, he, Zero, was in a white dress, hanging off of a pier.

And that was when Zero realized that maybe he was having some mental problems. He clung to his head, but got another random thought. Though this one was actually kind of awesome.

"Hey, ghost, get me over there." Zero commanded.

"How?" The adolescent did not look up from her writing, just frowned and continued to do word doodles in her journal like a teenager ignoring her brother saying something obnoxious.

"Posse my body or something." Zero grumbled.

As if she had this conversation before, she let out a deep breath and rolled her eyes at him, giving him a particular look. She put down her journal and made a fist, leaving her pointer-finger up, "First off, I am not going to go into the clichéness of that statement and how inaccurate that statement is, not to mention how unethical that." Her middle finger shot up, "Second, even if I admitted if I could do that, I don't think it works on robotic brains." Then her ring finger stood next to the other two. "Third, even if I could somehow do it, me inside you does not magically make all those parts start working."

"Then you are pretty damn useless to me, huh?" Zero scolded at her.

She frowned, dropped her ring and index finger, showed him the remaining one standing, then went back to her journal. "…Why does your arm look like a strobe light?"

"Just watch the damn fight, kid."

See what I did with my little ghost at the end? She was naughty. I am getting up a lot of stories now! It's nice, you know? I feel much better getting at least three chapters within a month of one another