The Great Maelstrom

[Cyclone EXE]

... Meh. I don't much like the doubles...don't think I like them one bit.
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[Aria]

The room was dim and quiet. The only sound was the quiet beeping of a nearby monitor… and the soft rustle of a person sitting down in a chair.

Zero slowly picked up Iris’ hand, watching her sadly. In the interests of keeping her clean and comfortable, a brave soul had stripped off her armor and dressed her in a green hospital gown. The same person had bathed her, unbraided her hair and washed it, then braided it back up when it was dry. Even if the risk was minimal, that was a lot of exposure to the Maverick virus for whoever had tended to her, and Zero felt pathetically grateful for that small consideration. Someone, at least, had not given up hope.

He was trying not to give up hope either, but it was hard. He closed his eyes in pain as he remembered what the alternate X had told them…

“It’s my fault. It’s all my fault… I’m so sorry.” He whispered to the still form on the bed. “If it weren’t for me, this wouldn’t have happened to you…”

”Oh, stop being an ass,” a familiar voice spoke tartly at the door, and Zero’s head whipped around to glare at the offending interloper. Dynamo strode in to stand across from him, returning the glare. “Sigma’s the only one to blame here, not YOU. So stop being an idiot about it.”

“What do you want?” Zero said roughly. He couldn’t stand having his pain dismissed so cavalierly, even if Dynamo was right. Dynamo smirked at him, collapsing into a chair on Iris other side.

“Why do you think? Would I let you be the first thing Iris sees when she wakes up?” He said, somewhere between hostile and amused. Zero gritted his teeth, holding in his anger.

“You are a total prick,” Zero snarled. He wasn’t going to attack Dynamo in Iris room, but at this moment he really loathed the bounty hunter. Dynamo just waved the accusation away.

“There is one other reason I came here… to get you off your self-blaming funk. There’s something much better for you to do.” Dynamo grinned ferally. “My first teacher always said, “don’t get sad, get angry.” Think about it.” Zero blinked, startled, and did think about it. As he did, a cold smile crossed his face. He could imagine so many wonderful, entertaining things he would do to Sigma if he got the chance…

“You’re still a prick,” Zero said conversationally. “But you do have the best ideas.” Revenge was suddenly very, very appealing.

Suddenly, Zero felt a gentle squeeze on his hand. Startled, he looked down at Iris. Humans had a reflexive hand squeeze gesture… a human could be brain dead, and still do it… but Reploids didn’t. Iris was looking up at him, her eyes half open. “Iris!”

Dynamo stiffened in alarm as Zero hugged Iris tightly, looking up at the indicators on the monitor. If they were red, then…

They were green. Dynamo heaved a sigh of relief, then felt like smacking himself. The computers were programmed to keep Iris under if she stayed infected. He grinned, and joined Zero in hugging the life out of her.

“Zero… Dynamo…?” Iris sat up, then reached up to pull the cord connecting her to the computers out of the dataport in the back of her neck. “Ow… what happened?”

“Sigma tried to give you the Maverick Virus… so you would attack me…” Zero stroked back her hair, the guilt hitting him again. “I’m so sorry.” Iris blinked, then shook her head… and suddenly stiffened in alarm.

“Colonel! Is he…?” Dynamo patted her back as Zero looked blank, then winced. Zero hadn’t thought to check, but Dynamo had kept an eye on Colonel’s condition.

“He’ll be fine.” Dynamo said soothingly. “We got him back in time, and they’re still putting him back together, but he’s definitely going to make it.” Iris looked relieved, giving Dynamo a thankful smile.

“Here, help me out of bed?” Iris used both their help to get unsteadily to her feet. She stepped forward, then looked back at the two men with a smile… and stopped as she realized they were both beaming at her rather stupidly. She looked over her own shoulder, realizing that her hospital gown was definitely not covering any part of her backside. “Ahhh… get out of here! Both of you! Now!” They both hot footed it outside, exchanging an agonized glance as soon as they were out of earshot. Then they burst out laughing.

Maybe it was relief, or just the silliness of the moment. But for some reason, that hospital gown was the funniest thing in the world.

~~~

Elsewhere, the alternate X was arriving back at the HQ.

Dynamo had been correct about how this world’s Hunters would react to the Maverick that had taken Wraith’s place. The tension in the HQ was thick enough to cut with a knife, and both groups were very, very separate. Even the domestic staff wasn’t mixing, although maybe that wasn’t surprising, since Maria and her mother-in-law were continuing an ancient cold war. The fact that they came from separate worlds didn’t seem to make a lick of difference in their hatred.

So when X walked in, holding a tattered, broken body, rumors immediately started to circulate. The body was too badly mutilated for anyone to tell who it had been, which only added fuel to the flames. Everyone had already heard about X’s torture of the Maverick Wraith.

But that reputation had certain advantages. No one was willing to stand in his way… except his double, who stopped him before he could reach the lab that had been set aside for his unit.

“What happened?” X looked at the body, slightly shocked. “Who… was that?” The alternate X glanced down at the corpse, expression blank.

”Wraith.” He looked up, fixing X with an empty gaze that somehow conveyed sadness more clearly than weeping could have. “I got the area they killed him from his double. So now, I’ve retrieved him for proper disposal.” X flinched, but nodded.

Human burial was into the ground, because they decomposed. With Reploids, things were a bit more complicated. Burying them in the ground wasn’t acceptable, since the parts were very valuable and many of them didn’t corrode much. And letting them corrode into uselessness would have only poisoned the ground. Many scavengers always searched through old battlefields, looking for parts from both Hunters and Mavericks that could be sold to salvage companies. But that was undignified, so when they could, the Hunters gathered up the dead bodies and took them back to HQ. Then they were disassembled with respect, while the survivors held memorials in their honor.

The real X looked over Wraith’s body, then shook his head. It had at least been quick. It looked like he had died when his fusion reactor exploded, shredding most of his body in the process.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” X said formally, standing aside. His double nodded, entering the lab and ignoring the new looks he was attracting.

There would be a new set of rumors running around Maverick Hunter HQ now, but he couldn’t bring himself to care.

~~~

“Revenge I am told is a dish eaten cold… but for me, I prefer my food warm. So the first thing I’ll do, when I’m coming for you, is to rip off and chew on your arm!” Dynamo grinned wickedly, keeping pace with Zero easily. “From your head to your feet, I’ll devour the meat, and the bones I will just throw. Maybe then, you and your friend will find someone else to betray!”

“Where did you get that? I like it.” Zero said absently as he nailed several unwary Mavericks.

“The Rhapsody Trilogy. Great books!” Dynamo dodged a blast, returning fire. “Nyah, missed me! OW!” He swore as a blast clipped him, and Zero laughed.

They were making use of the information X had extracted from Wraith. This place was a hidden production centre for Maverick Reploids. It mostly produced metools and very basic Reploids, but it was capable of creating a trickle of higher level Reploids as well, many of whom became Sigma’s deadliest fighters. Destroying it would be a blow to the Mavericks… and because it was so deeply hidden, it had never been attacked before. The protections on it were good, but had never been put to the test before.

As it turned out, they weren’t good enough to withstand a lightning assault by the Hunters greatest talent… times two. A large number of the alternates were along, and Colonel and Iris were spearheading the attack, just as intent as Zero on extracting some revenge.

“Yah!” Dynamo grinned as he destroyed a final enemy… then blinked. “What the hell?” A bunch of extremely confused looking Reploids were all running towards them. He’d have been tempted to fire… every last one was wearing the Maverick symbol… if Iris hadn’t been leading them. She spotted them, and gestured to them frantically.

“Iris, what’s going on?” Zero called to her as he dashed over. She came to a stop, and spoke breathlessly.

“X and Zero found them in the production facilities.” Zero assumed she meant the doubles, not his X… he was working on clearing out some stubborn pockets along the East side of the facility. “They asked me and Colonel to get them out while they rigged the explosives. They’re brand new, uninfected.”

”Let’s talk while we move,” Zero decided, and started dashing back the way they came. Standing around was a spectacularly bad idea. Iris kept pace with him, and Dynamo waited for the rest of the group to pass in an untidy gaggle before taking his place at the rear. “How do you know they’re uninfected?” The scanning technology was bulky, and Iris certainly didn’t have it on her. The alt doubles didn’t, either. But she had a good answer.

“We took over several places like this after Sigma left, in our world. They always do it the same way, different stages of development very compartmentalized. If they weren’t in the finishing room, they weren’t infected. We left the ones in the finishing room and anything under a D-class.”

”Hm.” Zero wasn’t quite sure he bought that… it was possible Iris was mistaken… but they would be able to check it out back at HQ.

Although the some of the ‘newborn’ Reploids seemed to be on the verge of spasming.

”What’s going ON?” A humanoid female in white and silver armor almost wailed. She had giant wings that threatened to hit several of her fellow youngsters. “Who are you? What are you doing with us?” Dynamo snickered as Iris tried to calm her down. This was a traumatic ‘birth’ for them, but it was still better than getting blown up before they were even activated. “I’m not going any farther until you tell me what’s going on!”

Now THAT was a problem, especially since several of the others looked about ready to join the mini-mutiny. Dynamo did a quick count. There were eleven of them, and at least three were serious combat models, including the high strung female. One was a humanoid rat Reploid, who was watching, his whiskers twitching nervously. The third was a huge, blocky male, easily a foot taller than Zero and armed with rocket launchers set in his shoulders. His armor was stylized and highly individual, dark green and grey with gold piping and red stones. Dynamo was unhappily sure that he had been intended to become another Maverick General. But on the plus side, he didn’t seem at all upset about the situation, and was listening to Iris with every sign of attentiveness as she tried to explain.

Suddenly, the large Maverick decided he’d heard enough. He stepped up behind the female and hit her smartly right where her helmet touched her neck. She went down like a sack of grain, and he heaved her up, slinging her over one shoulder.

“Explain the rest outside.” His gesture sent the others scrambling as Zero and Iris started off again. Dynamo grinned as he activated his internal communicator.

Heh, looks like he was meant to be a leader, too! It was possible to program Reploid personalities. Of course, the Reploid in question would still make decisions and evolve with time. But the basic personality was chosen by the manufacturer, and Sigma had obviously intended this one for great things in the Mavericks.

Now, though, he would have other choices to make. If Iris was right about the lack of infection, anyway.

If they ARE uninfected, Sigma is going to be SO pissed when he hears about this. Zero sounded smug, and Iris’ laugh was sweet and joyful.

The thought of Sigma in a rage was quite pleasing.
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That which does not kill me... shall be the basis for my revenge.

[Cyclone EXE]

Excellent work as always. I look forward to reading more...
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[Aria]

“So, what’s the word on those Maverick made Reploids we recovered?” This world’s X asked Lifesaver. Lifesaver glanced down at a clipboard.

“None of them are infected. Three class C Akisha models, four class B Samuel’s, and the last four are unique. Three of them are combat models, and the last appears to be an experimental prototype.”

“Really?” X glanced into lab, where all the Reploids were still staying. The Samuel style Reploids had been built for heavy labor, but more intelligence than the average. They would probably have been used as foremen. The Akisha models weren’t actually Akishas, but they were clearly built on the same lines… two attractive girls, and one attractive guy, most likely meant to blend in with the civilian population and spread the virus. But…

“Which one is the prototype?” X finally asked, after staring not at three, but four Akishas. All were extremely pretty, but Lifesaver had said three, so one of them was not as she/he appeared. Lifesaver pointed towards a female with butter-blond hair in two pigtails. She was tall and willowy, with eyes that were anime-huge for her face. X stared at her, and she turned her head to stare back. Her eye color was strange, but beautiful… a burnt umber that darkened to black at the center, and faded to gold on the edges. Then she suddenly smiled, and gave X a saucy wink. X blushed, and looked down.

“It looks like someone was trying out several experiments with her, and perhaps trying to create the ‘ideal woman’.” Lifesaver’s tone showed what he thought of that. “There’s no other reason I can see to build all these features into such a small package. Her frame, for example, is made out of an unusual but not unknown alloy. She’s extremely light, yet extremely durable. Her muscles are wired in an unusual fashion, and her CPU is running extremely fast. She also has extra processors. I’ve tested her in several areas, and she’s extremely intelligent, her reflexes are extremely quick, and she is very strong for her size. None of these innovations, by themselves, are surprising. But all of them in one Reploid is. Particularly one not otherwise designed for combat.” X nodded thoughtfully. The girl had no built in weaponry, although she did have very strong armor.

That armor was actually quite strange looking, and X couldn’t help but stare at it. Instead of the usual sections in different colors, all her armor was the same base color… the burnt umber of her eyes. But the base color shaded constantly, darkening to brown and lightening to gold, creating a mottled effect. The only exception to that was a starburst of gold on the center of her chest, surrounding the Maverick symbol. That symbol was removed, now, and had been replaced with a red jewel. The girl wore no helmet, but someone had pierced her ears and set them with dangling, gold and diamond earrings. The diamonds were large, and glittered like tiny stars.

“Does she have a name?” X asked, curious. Most of the others didn’t. Only the big green one and the rat like ones had been programmed with their names… Duschane and Lagaroo. The others were nameless. But Lifesaver nodded.

“She says her name is Sigarni.” That made X’s eyes go wide as an idea occurred to him.

“She couldn’t be Sigma’s ideal woman, could she?” The names were similar. Lifesaver looked startled, then thoughtful.

“If so, he has good taste,” Lifesaver said. That startled X even more than the thought of Sigma being lonely enough to make his own ideal sex partner. He had suspected for some time that Lifesaver was secretly gay. “But she seems rather… small for that.” X blanched as he considered that. Sigma was HUGE…

“Um, nevermind,” X muttered, shaking his head to get rid of evil pictures. “Does she want to join the Hunters? The alternates need people badly.” Although he was curiously reluctant to let Sigarni go somewhere else. Lifesaver frowned.

“I think it would be premature to consider that. They need to learn more about the world and their places in it before they make that decision. I would suggest giving them a month, and putting them through vocational testing.” That would help determine what their skills and aptitudes were. They had no idea what the Mavericks had been intending them for, except for the obvious ones like Duschane. And even he might choose to lead a peaceful life. X nodded thoughtfully, glancing one last time at Sigarni.

She met his eyes, and X felt an almost electrical shiver run down his spine. Then she smiled mysteriously, and turned away. X hesitated, then finally left… he had duties to attend to.

But for the rest of the day, he thought about huge umber eyes…

~~~

“Well, this is a whole load of suck.” X said, tapping the ashes off his cigarette. Zero sighed softly, and shrugged.

“Not everything can be exciting,” he said philosophically. X blinked, then tilted his head to look at the red Hunter.

“Have we switched bodies, or something? That’s usually my line.” Zero grinned, and shrugged, spreading his hands.

They had both been set to defending one of the jewel chip factories. Sigma had finally found about the chips, and had reacted fairly predictably. X grimaced as he thought about that. A chunk of the 13’th and some of the heavy weapons division had been overcome, and the facility gutted. Fortunately, Sigma had tried to attack too many points at once, and the weakened attacks on the other factories had failed. Some damage had been done, but jewel chips were still going out in a steady stream. So X and Zero from the alternate universe had been set to guarding one of the factories and were getting heartily bored with the process.

“What do you think of what your double said?” Zero decided to change the subject. “You know, about Sigma trying to figure out a way to defeat the jewel chips?”

”I wish he hadn’t mentioned it,” X said with a grimace, blowing a smoke ring. Zero gave him a questioning look. “I don’t like the thought of someone messing with those things. You know what I think about it.”

”You and Gate, but we’ve been using them for ages. Why are you both so pessimistic?” Zero found himself playing devil’s advocate. He did have a good idea of what X’s objections were, but he wanted to hear them.

“Because it’s a damned virus, that’s why, and it’s as virulent as the Maverick Virus.” X said flatly. “It’s just harnessed. And Demodyne would never tell anyone who wrote it, or why, and there was no freaking record. They just appeared out of thin air, and that makes my skin crawl.”

“Mmm… You think it could be another Maverick virus?” Zero’s tone was neutral. “You know, it could have just been written by a genius with a yen for privacy.” X was silent for a moment, then nodded with a sigh.

“To be honest, that’s the most likely explanation. And we all know it wasn’t Sigma’s work… I just wish I knew for sure, you know? We have this thing inside us and no one understands it. If the alternative weren’t worse…” X shook his head, taking a drag from his cigarette again.

“Well, there’s no point in worrying about-“ Zero stopped, his sharp eyes catching a hint of movement. “I think I saw something over there.”

”Did you?” X murmured softly with a poisonous smile. “Maybe Sigma’s sending saboteurs. Let’s go see.” He was looking forward to some action.

~~~

Both Alia’s, Layer and Palette were in the Navigation control room, chatting and giving the alternate Alia pointers. She had been acting as a Navigator in her own world, sort of, but not on a full, professional level. With the Mavericks gone, her skills had often been rather useless. She couldn’t hunt down criminals and terrorists in populated areas. So now, she was taking her double’s shift and relearning her position, under their supervision.

Although Layer and Palette were there for the girl talk, not to look over her work.

“So how was your date last night?” Layer gently teased Palette, who blushed, hiding it by taking a deep drink from her coffee mug.

“It, um, was nice.”

”Only nice?” Alternate Alia said with a grin, checking out some signals. “Zero must be losing his touch. Usually, it’s ‘oh god, it was so great!’ That’s what I said, anyway.” Her double had been taking a drink of her own cup of coffee, and choked as she heard that, just barely managing not to spray it everywhere.

“Really?” Layer glanced at her Alia, then turned an innocent look onto the other one. “Our Alia is dating X… you’re not?”

“His breath is too bad,” Alia said absently, making everyone giggle. X’s smoking was a standing joke by now. “Seriously, he’s not really my type. He used to be so much sweeter, but all the chaos really soured him.” Suddenly, a face poked into the room, then a second, identical face right under it. All four navigators laughed… the two Axl’s were incredibly cute together.

“Hello, ladies! Do you want some doughnuts?” The Axl from their world, with the blue ribbons, said cheerfully as he held up a large box.

“Or tidbits?” The second Axl, the one with green ribbons, held up a second box with a grin. All the girls laughed again.

“You guys have the sweet tooth from Hell,” Alia said with a grin, selecting a crueler. “But thank you.” Palette took a chocolate dip, Layer an old fashioned glazed, and the other Alia took a handful of tidbits instead.

“You’re welcome,” Green ribbon Axl said with a smile, and they both ducked out.

“Those kids are just so sweet… eh?” Alia blinked at the monitor, hand stopping before a tidbit could reach her mouth. “What’s this?”

”Hm?” All the Navigators became interested… and worried. Alia immediately paged X.

“X? There’s something funny going on in Sector Tango…”

~~~

“You wanted to see me, great one?” Dynamo said lightly, hands on his hips, as he stood before Sigma. Sigma favored him with a look, but let the disrespect pass. He’d given up on making Dynamo regard him with the proper respect a long time ago.

From anyone else, Sigma wouldn’t have tolerated it, but Dynamo was too valuable to have slowly taken apart. For now. That could eventually change, and Sigma rather looked forward to it. Dynamo was betting he could keep getting away with it, and so far it was working.

“Indeed. There is something I want you to go investigate.” Dynamo managed to look intelligent and interested, tilting his head to one side. “We’ve lost contact with a research facility. I want you to investigate and find out why.”

“Probably the Hunters. How deep a reconnaissance do you want?” They calmly discussed the details of the mission. Sigma resisted a bit, but finally allowed that Dynamo could make it a light recon mission… in, evaluate the situation, then out. Nothing that would be particularly risky. “So what exactly was this place researching?”

”The jewel chips.” Sigma’s voice dropped to a growl, and Dynamo was careful not to let a flicker pass over his face. By now, he knew all about the chips. It wasn’t the first time someone had taken to selling something that was supposed to protect against the Maverick Virus. But all of those had been the modern version of snake oil, useless garbage. The difference between that and the jewel chips was that the chips really worked. They were no miracle cure, but they were better than everything else on the market… and Dynamo had quietly had one installed. He wasn’t going to mention it to Sigma… there was every chance he would fly into a rage and execute Dynamo, useful or not… but Dynamo had decided he would rather be dead than a Maverick puppet, if things ever went wrong. Hence the chip.

“I see… even more likely it was the Hunters, then. I’ll get right on it.” Dynamo turned away. For all his intelligence and undoubted cleverness, his ego was vast. If he had looked back, he might have been unnerved by the thin, cold smile on Sigma’s face.

But Dynamo didn’t look back. He never did.
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That which does not kill me... shall be the basis for my revenge.

[Kitty-Chan]

This is quite good; I've enjoyed quite a few of your works as of late.
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Need more Zero/X, Netto/Rock, Rock/Netto, Forte/Netto, & Blues/Netto. PLEASE!
Ano sa...could someone please make me a Zero/X, Blues/Netto, or Forte/Netto avatar/banner? I would greatly appreciate it...
Thanks for the avatar, Mandi!
People! We need more Blues/Netto & Forte/Netto on the net. Come on; help me out here! *gives everyone her Super-Adorable Irrisistable Sad Kitty Eyes(TM)*