NOTE TO ANY FANS ACTUALLY STILL WAITING FOR AN UPDATE:

So after a year of no updates without a word, I feel I owe you all an explanation as to why all of my fics will be updated from this point forward, on a infrequent basis.

You see as of late, I have actually taken a fancy to creating my own world through the world of fiction in an attempt to actually publish my own work that is completely 100% my own, and nothing fanfiction related. I have managed to finish a 567 page manuscript for the first book in my fantasy universe and am now seeking a publisher, as well as a manga artist to provide in book illustration panels in order to fit the theme of the book, which is a hybrid fusion of medieval European styled fantasy, with Japanese pop culture and influence along with it (Characters look like they are from anime, and have anime like tendencies, but all speak as they were from a medieval era; which includes the usage of old words that no one uses...seriously...bryban...whomever thought that was a great way to shorten the phrase "Beer money" (or is it bread...I forget...there's another word that sounds similar that means the opposite) needs to die). Because my primary focus has now switched to that, I will be no longer updating chapters with the same pace I had when I first started; and a good chance alot of fanfics that had planned sequels may not come to fruition.

I am sorry if anyone whom may still be having my on their watch list is disappointed with this declaration, but unfortunately, I need to start focusing on a career so that me and my girlfriend can move out of our respective parents homes and focus on getting engaged and married (both of us have agreed that we are in love, but we have no plans for any engagements until after we both have insurance, and respective jobs that can support an apartment or roof). I will try to place any spare time I can into fanfiction to keep the select few fans I have appeased and satisfied, but do understand that I devote time to alot of things, and as of right now, I have a long list of priorities to manage. If I am unable to update any more fanfiction, there's probably a reason why.

In any case, I did manage to spare some time and produced an update to this chapter. My hope is to at least finish Code Rockman...as this was my start on this website.

The Chinese federation. The place rivaled the glories of Britannia that Gate had studied when he had downtime to read files and articles. Being his processor was far above most of the Britannian computing capabilities, he was able to read enough on the place in mere minutes to know how to pass off as someone from there.

The place was even more glorious than he had read about it when his plane landed in town.

He had received some things prior to when he departed Britannia for his mission here in China. The first thing was a copy of the "Simulation program" that an Earl by the name of Lloyd had on his person. This Lloyd also seemed to be the one keeping tabs on Mega man X, as well as essentially the one whose team was doing 24/7 research on Reploids. Gate was immediately fascinated by the amount of knowledge this "Doctor Ciel" had when it came to robotics and bio metal, as the simulation program transmuted the bio metal all Reploids were made from into an organic fiber that resembled flesh; and back. Gate was even more intrigued by learning of the number of things humans got to experience, such as the joys of eating (admittedly, he was not fond of the spicy food when he got to try it on the plane). Sooner or later though, his thoughts returned to the mission at hand.

Find where this Doctor Weil's base was, and dismantle it by any means necessary; as well as acquiring data on where in space the construction of ragnarok was being worked on.

"So…how much do we know of this Doctor Weil?" Gate asked V.V. as he had the transmission open.

"Not much." He responded. "Based on the information that we acquired from the king, I would speculate that he must be from your world."

"My world?" Gate asked.

"You don't think you came from this world do you?" V.V. asked grinning.

Gate looked out the window and thought about it. While this world bore similarities to that of his Earth, this Earth was not his. The history was different, the nations were different, events in history didn't even exist in this world.

"No; I'd think not." Gate said.

"The question is how much do you know about this Weil?" V.V. asked.

"None; I can assure you that." Gate responded. "I don't know who this Weil is…but he certainly seems well beyond my time."

"Beyond your time?" V.V. asked.

"I was damaged beyond repair I believe." Gate said. "I don't know who managed to fix me so I don't know the period of time that passed. I can speculate based on how advanced the remaining chips and the metal used by the salvage we acquired from the attack that this Doctor Weil has more knowledge of Reploids beyond that of my own."

"So even you're ignorant to the situation?" V.V. asked. "That's too bad."

"Any other information I should know?" Gate asked.

"The King's sources tracked wireless radio waves somewhere near the city of Hong Kong; far under the earth." V.V. continued. "These waves have unusually high oscillations than the other wireless signals around the city. Chinese Federation and Britannia nowadays employ wireless signals and carriers on either a 2.4 GHz wave or a 5 GHz. This particular one however is over 8 GHz…and it may even be higher. We weren't able to decrypt the security so we lost the transmission fast; but we were able to isolate where it would most likely be."

An image appeared on Gate's visor, which showed what looked like a large portion of the city.

"This is all you could narrow it down to?" Gate asked.

"I'm afraid so." V.V. "But that's what we have you for. You don't need rest….you don't need to eat. And you're a machine at that; a tool. Finding out where their located at, and destroying them is your problem right now. We're just here to watch you succeed."

"And that's why he's here, correct?" Gate asked, peering his eyes to the right.

Gate's attention was turned to a small child…the same one who he had aided in the battle against Weil's forces. Rolo only turned back to him to stare back.

"Correct." V.V. said.

"I see." Gate said. "I must admit, I would think sending a human to watch over a Reploid that requires none of the needs his fleshy body requires was not the wisest of choices, but I'll follow the orders either way."

"Hmmm…" V.V. mumbled. "Surprising….based on my knowledge of pop culture movies, I half expected you to become resistant, or think yourself superior."

"Please…that phase in my life is over and gone." Gate said.

"…what?" V.V. asked.

"Sorry…I seemed to have divulged too much of my personal life with that sentience." Gate said. "Goodbye."

Gate then killed the transmission on V.V. before he could say something else. From there, Gate relaxed, watching the flight continue on.

"He's not going to like that disrespect you showed him just now." Rolo said.

"But he will like me pursuing this 'Weil' until the day my circuits break." Gate said. "He'll get what he wants…and I'll get what I want."

"And what is it that you want?" Rolo asked.

"Redemption." Gate said. "At least…that's what I'm hoping lies at the end of this search."

The plane landed in Hong Kong, and within minutes after Rolo and Gate was cleared, and secured the hotel which would act as their base of operations, Gate began his search.

Gate's search of the area was mostly utilizing wireless spectrum analysis devices to locate any unusual wireless frequencies that were in the area that clearly stood out from the others. Gate remembered everything he could when it came to matters like that, but with all the different wireless waves in the area of this city, it would still be very hard.

"There are over ten thousand wireless devices in the area alone." He said as he walked by. "Even for a machine like me, checking all of them will take time."

"Is there any way you can make this go faster?" Rolo asked.

"The easiest to narrow down which frequency is which is to simply look at the number of oscillations a wave takes…which in simple terms means how many times a wave bounces from one device to another. Most things here will be utilizing a 5 GHz frequency, or a 2.4 frequency. V.V. said that the frequency was over these standards, so it would stick out like a sore thumb." Gate continued.

"But if you're telling me this…that would imply that…" Rolo began.

"That I already tried it…yes I'm afraid that's true." Gate said. "Clearly this Weil already suspects that Britannia is making a move against him. I've already scanned all the waves in the vicinity, which means he is using his wireless frequency at around the same frequencies as everyone else here…which pretty much prevents the easy method of discovering him. The only I can do this right now is simply to either find the base underground, find the correct Wi-Fi waves that this supposed base is emitting and track it there, or intercept packets of data by a stroke of luck that just so happened to be transmissions from him. All three options will take considerable time."

"Well get on it then." Rolo said. "You have a job to do."

"No help from you?" Gate asked.

"I am only here to oversee that the job you do is done correctly." Rolo said. "I don't entirely care how you do it…as long as it's done. You're the tool…I'm the overseer."

"Understand." Gate said. "I'll do what I can from over here."

A shadow peered over Gate, far above him. Gate quickly turned to investigate, but saw nothing. Reviewing the footage in his head of what transpired out of the corner of his eye revealed a shadow passing by him, appearing to disappear over by the top of another building. Gate stood there for a few moments, before regaining his composure.

It's seems that our mission is already heavily compromised.

A Reploid which had hidden from Gate's view stood far in the darkness of a building, watching him, analyzing him. Gate did not know where this Reploid was, as he was busy trying to figure out where the shadow had flown off to.

"So this is the dog that the oaf of a king sent after me?" Weil said at a computer somewhere far underground.

"His data is very similar to that of Zero; but it's not him." A voice on the computer said. "Rather…it's easier to say that his data suggests he was infected by Zero."

"Infected?" Weil asked.

"We all knew that Zero was carrying the maverick virus." The computer's voice responded. "This one is similar to Zero, as he seems to be a former infectee. However, it seems the virus has pacified him now almost as much as it did Zero. In addition, his body, while still baring differences from whatever shape it was previously…also seems to be different."

"The human form?" He asked.

"It seems to be a program created by Doctor Ceil that uses the Fusion generator and matter manipulator that Reploids are made with to alter the metal armor of a Reploid into an organic compound similar to flesh; and that can be changed back." It said. "Quite astounding actually."

"So…" Weil sneered. "We have a shoddy clone of Zero after me eh? Hehehe…good. This will be a perfect warmup before I go and deal with the real thing."

"We are detecting several abnormalities within his metallic structure." The voice said back. "Extreme caution is advised for now."

"Monitor him carefully and siphon out as much data as you can." Weil said, moving his mouth to a microphone. It was obvious he was addressing his troops rather than the voice. "Keep communication at a minimum and transmit as much data as you can. We need to know our enemies strength before we can start making moves against him."

"The Reploid when he came to the Federation had a human companion." The voice said. "Don't tell me you want him dead?"

"Of course I do!" Weil said. "Anything to impede this investigation of his!"

Gate had no luck finding any information on Weil's base. So far, he managed to trace down ten of the ten thousand plus frequencies that he managed to locate, and traced them back to where the routers were stored. Unfortunately, all of them seemed to be localized free Wi-Fi, or were simply inside of normal businesses. Nothing he could go off of.

He wasn't tired or anything…just increasingly annoyed.

There has to be a better way to trace the network to the source. All the signals look the same…and my spectrum analyzer has picked up no unusual signals as I have been walking around this isolated area. Even if the signal is being absorbed to a large enough degree to send out transmissions, I should pick up something.

And then he thought about the shadow he saw.

And then there was that. I'm no fool…I can't write that off and not think about it. Something was clearly there. The question is what…and where did it come from?

He then pulled himself up to his feet and continued his investigation.

Searching the area proved nothing, and Gate was only able to trace down eight percent of all the wireless signals that were in the area. Even worse, Gate added new signals that he found after refreshing his Wi-Fi listings many times.

In addition, more shadows popped up at times, and more frequently than he would want.

"So…I take it you haven't been able to find him yet?" Rolo asked.

"Not yet." Gate said. "Unfortunately, I have to do this the slow and steady way…which means it is unlikely I'll have the results that you and Charles are going to want for some time now."

"That's unfortunate." Rolo said. "It would be a real shame if you were to fail. To think of what the King would do to you…"

"I'm aware of the consequences." Gate said. "I plan to keep working at this until the day my batteries run out." He then stayed silent for a few minutes. "Also…the mission has been compromised."

"Compromised?" Rolo asked.

"I've been followed for quite some time now." Gate said. "There is about one or two men…no…Reploids I believe following me."

"They know!?" Rolo asked. "But…but how?"

"I don't know." Gate said. "Possible interceptions of our communications with V.V, hacked Britannia's own terminal to know what had transpired, so many possible theories, but none that I know."

Sounds of static came through on Gate's microphone…something that normally never should happen. There was no technology in the Chinese Federation capable of disabling his communication systems.

It didn't take Gate long to deduce what the enemy may have been planning.

"They're going after Rolo." Gate muttered to himself.

Quickly, doing what he could to make himself not appear suspicious, Gate ran as fast as he could back to the hotel where the two had made their base.

"Gate!" Rolo shouted. "Come in Gate. Gate…do you read?"

No matter how much he attempted to communicate to Gate, there were no transmissions that were being sent out, and everything Rolo sent was being blocked.

"The transmission is being blocked." Rolo said, looking at his communicator.

"That's weird." A voice said from outside. "My cell phone stopped working."

"Mine too." Another man said. "And I have no Wi-Fi signal here."

"Think we should like…go to the front desk or something?" The woman's voice said.

"Yeah; I want to know why my conference call is gone!" Another man barked.

Rolo didn't hear any more of them a few seconds later, other than the sounds of their feet walking away from the area nearby his room. Despite that, Rolo's worries and fears only intensified.

A communication blackout in this area? If they disabled my phone's signals, that would mean that they must have shut down a nearby phone tower, and are probably causing fluctuations in power to keep the wireless signals from working.

BAM! Several gunshots were heard on the outside of his room within mere moments afterwards. Gunshots even were heard on the outside of the inn, and Rolo looked out to see several humanoid shaped people gun down what looked like people of the same height falling over in heaps. Afterwards, the creatures descended quickly into the inn, while others remained outside, shooting anyone on the street with blasters in sight.

Oh god…Gate wasn't kidding when he said the mission was compromised. But how!? We didn't even use a registered vessel, and Gate looks like anyone else in the crowds. How could Doctor Weil learn of V.V's moves against him well before we even executed it?

Whatever the case was, Rolo knew the location was no longer safe. He packed up any essentials he could, and fled his inn room.

This isn't good. If those things are Reploids, then it won't take them long to reach this area. My only hope is for them to not know what floor I'm on, and what room, and hope I can evade them while they slaughter everyone else.

He moved through to the stairwell and fled as quickly as he could down the stairs. As unfortunate as he luck turned out to be, the Reploids were moving up the stairs.

Oh no! That's them!

The Reploids saw Rolo and looked at him. Their large red eyes locked their gaze with Rolo, and blinked several times.

"Target confirmed as Rolo of the Geass Order." It said. "Commencing termination."

They know who I am!? That's impossible! Without the records of the Geass Order, there's no way they would know about any of the active Geass users. Unless…unless…they must have intercepted our wireless frequencies and hacked into our networks. But how can that be!? How could our network staff miss an unidentified transmission outside of our network!? How could they fail to notice that we were broken into!?

The machines pointed their arms at Rolo, and begin to fire a fury of blasters at him. Rolo ducked to evade the shots, but even then, some of the shots singed his arms and shoulders. He grit his teeth in pain, but managed to focus enough strength to push himself towards the upstairs of the inn.

That being said, the Reploids were much faster than he ever hoped to run. It's not like Rolo was bad at running or physical activity, he was very good when it came down to it. The problem was that the Reploids were machines, and did not suffer from fatigue or exhaustion. Before Rolo returned to the floor he was previously at, the Reploids were already beginning to catch up to him, some of them wall jumping on the stairwell in order to reach the door.

As Rolo fled down the hallways to evade the machines, many people who saw the Reploids began to flee in terror along with him. The Reploids on the hallway began to unleash a series of powerful plasma shots into the crowd, many of the shots ripping and searing the flesh out of people long before they could get out of range. Rolo watched as he moved in the crowds as many people seemed to have large glowing shots emerge out of their flesh and fall over as a burning husk seconds later.

This won't work. At the rate this is going, I'll be short for sure long before I manage to escape…wait…Reploids from what we know are supposed to mimic humans almost exactly. Even some scientists speculate that their hard drive and CPU is almost exactly like a human brain. So…if that's the case…

As Rolo turned another corner, another series of Reploids burst through the door and glared in his direction.

"Target confirmed as Rolo of the Geass Order." It said. "Commencing termination."

No!...Well…it's now or never…

As the Reploids pointed their weapons at him, Rolo activated the power of his Geass. His eye changed to that of the Geass symbol and activated, creating an energy wave all around the area, destroying everyone's sense of time. And much to Rolo's surprise, the Reploids did not move. Not one of them moved within the moment Rolo's Geass activated.

It worked! I can't believe it! Now I have to flee before my heart gives out!

Rolo fled the area fast, but even he couldn't move fast enough to evade them before his heart needed to pump blood again, so he fled into a nearby closet before it gave out. The suspension on the Reploid's minds soon broke, and the Reploids fired on each other. One accidently destroyed his compatriot before he realized that something had happened, and soon the rest spread out to try and locate where Rolo had fled to. Rolo stayed in the closet and held his breath, doing what it took to avoid moving an inch. Soon the Reploids passed by his closet and moved onward.

They're gone…but this presents a problem. Even if I leave the inn, there's still a few of those things on the outside of the inn, and they've blocked all communication, ingoing and outgoing. Even if I wanted to contact Gate, I doubt I would be able to send a transmission. Pieces of junk. I can't believe Charles and V.V. are even interested in these things…all they managed to do so far is cause more damage since we obtained them.

He waited what seemed like hours, rolling himself up into a corner as he heard the gunshots and screams all around him. Despite that he cared nothing for the people dying around him, the bloodcurdling shouts of terror that constantly was heard in his ears began to unnerve him. It became especially unnerving when he heard shots once again on his floor, and people keeling over almost directly outside of his room, and then for the floor to suddenly return quiet. What really unnerved him more was the fact that none of the Reploids either acknowledged the closet existed, or skipped it over entirely. In both cases, he was fearful that he would be caught at one point or another.

Then…silence. Silence persisted for more than several minutes. Not even footsteps could be heard. What should normally have alleviated Rolo's fears and tensions actually seemed to heighten them, as he wasn't sure whether he should remain in the closet, or leave and try to make his way out. Despite his training, he was still rather young; and nothing he trained for accommodated for any situation like this.

Eventually, Rolo decided that he had to make a break for it. He opened up the closet to examine the situation. A putrid smell of burnt flesh came to his nostrils as he saw bodies scattered across the entire hallway. He barely acknowledged any of the bodies there, and fled the scene as quickly as he could.

…only to see a Reploid in front of him when he turned a corner.

No!

"Target confirmed as Rolo of the Geass Order." It said. "Commencing termination."

Rolo activated his Geass. The Reploid itself stopped moving, allowing Rolo to a chance to flee. However, as he fled, his foot accidently caught on the body of a young woman and fell over. Unable to get to his feet with his heart stopped, Rolo was forced to end the effect. He turned to see the Reploid turning to where he was and pointing his arm cannon.

The Reploid convulsed as an energy spike passed through it's body from the top and bottom. Rolo saw what looked like a glowing spike directly behind the Reploid. The machine stood still for a few moments, before falling apart in half.

Behind its remains was Gate.

"Gate!" He shouted.

"Sorry I'm late." He said. "Unfortunately I was on the other side of town when I received word of the attack."

"But how?" Rolo asked. "Our communication was disrupted."

"Very true." He continued. "I also know no technology in this day and age can pierce through a Reploid's radio wave sensor…which meant that the group we are investigating had to have caught onto us, and decided to make a move. Sense you were with me, and none of their scouts made any attacks on me, I figured they were targeting you."

"I see." Rolo said. "I guess we were wrong to underestimate this Doctor Weil."

"Quite so." Gate said. "That or he fears us more than he wants to let on."

The sounds of footsteps were heard all around them, and Gate turned to see several other Reploids move into the hallway. Each one of them pointed their arm cannons at them and fired. Gate summoned a green sphere in front of him, and had that take the damage.

"Rolo, run!" He shouted. "I'll take these ones!"

The sphere exploded after a few more shots, and Rolo did not waste any time as soon as he watched it vanish. Gate sprinted forward and swung his saber, striking down the first few machines in the front of him. Three others attempted to stab Gate with their electrified hands, but Gate maneuvered around them and made a single slash at them. Those Reploids fell to pieces, their remains convulsing with electricity.

More Reploids poured out behind him. He turned to these ones and unleashed several glowing spheres all around him. These spheres began to block the shots the Reploids fired at Gate, while shooting back at their attackers. Of course the shots were much slower so many of them were able to evade them, but others fell from the shots.

During the barrage, Gate launched a different colored energy sphere into the air. These sphere began glow and distorted time in the area, slowing down the Reploids. No longer having to shield himself from a barrage of shots, Gate moved in and cut down the Reploids in a matter of seconds.

"Well…"Gate said as he looked at the destroyed Reploids on the ground. "I think I'm getting rather used to this fighting thing."

"Gate look out!" Rolo shouted.

Gate turned to see another Reploid appear from the corner, and let out a series of three energy shots at him. Gate at this time did not use the debris of Zero that he had to increase his power, and because he was a 21XX reploid, the shots from the 22XX reploid pierced him easily. Gate's beam saber flew from his hands and landed farther away from him.

"Gargh…" Gate groaned. "The laser shot was far above the strength of any attack back in my time."

Gate remained on the ground, and pointed his hand to charge a sphere attack.

But before he did, he watched as the Reploid fell in half on the ground. He saw nothing…nothing that would indicate an attack, and yet the Reploid fell in two.

He looked to see Rolo behind him.

"Are you alright?" He asked.

"Fine…" Gate said, rewinding the last ten seconds in his head in his HUD to see what transpired. Something had happened which allowed Rolo to move from where he was all the way to where Gate was and strike the Reploid before either one of them noticed. The Reploid's motion sensor and Gate's should have detected Rolo moving towards them long before he arrived, and yet he seemed to disappear and appear right where Gate needed him. He couldn't figure out why.

"Let's get out of here." Rolo said.

Gate nodded, grabbing two of the bodies of the Reploids with him. Before any more of Weil's units could arrive, Gate and Rolo disappeared from the inn using Gate's teleport system.

"Sir." A Reploid unit stated. "The location of the spies from Britannia are no longer registered at the inn."

"They must have teleported out of it." Weil sneered. "No matter…this merely elongates the hunt…something I find a bit more interesting. Kill the remaining chinks in the inn, then flee the area before any police units arrive on scene. Make sure you remove all destroyed units and delete all records in the inn and surrounding areas of our attacks; including the destruction of any surveillance systems and any more locals who might be in the area. Return to base via teleport when the job is complete."

Gate and Rolo had teleported to a an alleyway a mile away from the inn. Not too far for comfort, but Gate was confident that the enemy would more than likely still take time to find them, especially since there being no direct location of where they went to. As Gate used tools to repair the damage to his body, Rolo swung the beam saber around, hitting nearby garbage cans and scrapping walls, testing it out.

"This is a particularly powerful weapon." Rolo muttered. "It practically cuts through anything." Rolo deactivated the saber and watched the beam recede into it. "And it's so easy to conceal."

"Beam sabers were originally developed by a scientist by the name of Doctor Light." Gate said. "It was based on a weapon that one of his previous robots he build utilized, though production of the beam saber wasn't started by him; but by Doctor Cain one hundred years later. First wielder of the Beam saber was a Reploid by the name of Sigma."

"Never heard of them." Rolo said.

"If what V.V. says is true, then I doubt anyone has." Gate says. "But that's the names of the individuals who made it based in my memory systems."

"It's quite useful." Rolo said, returning the saber to Gate. "Do most Reploids where you came from use it?"

"Surprisingly no." Gate said. "Beam sabers are powerful, but they require you getting close. To a human, yes we can maneuver around bullets if were designed correctly quite easily. But against another Reploid that has the same reaction time and reflexes that has a blaster or buster cannon, it becomes not as useful. Only the most skilled and powerful ones utilized such weapons."

"Were you a Reploid who could use it?" Rolo asked.

"Yes…and no." Gate muttered. "I didn't start off as a combat model…I sort of modified myself to make myself a bit more adapt at combat. Truth be told, I was more of a scientist than fighter where I came from."

"I see." Rolo said.

Gate pulled himself to his feet, doing all he could for time being.

"We must go." He said. "It won't take Weil long to know were gone."

"We can't keep running and hiding like this for long." Rolo said. "Sooner or later, we need to face this killer."

"Don't worry." Gate said, holding a piece of the insides of the mavericks. "With this data, we won't be on the defensive for much longer."