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The Dream Machine Chapter 6: Immunity “Amp, Glyde, Fade, you three lead your sub units in the blocks spanning from A1 to G10, My subunit, we’ll be taking the remaining blocks. Zero, you’ll be joining my subunit.” The 17th Unit’s members dispatched from the Cove-02 Hunter’s substation as X finished giving orders for the day. It was Zero’s first day back as a Maverick Hunter, and the first opportunity Zero had to speak with X. Since he returned to Hunter’s HQ, Zero has been busy downloading data relevant to the current case, getting a check up from Dr. Cain, and talking with members of his 0 Unit about his whereabouts. He was a bit surprised X did stop by to talk to him, but supposed that X was busy with his own work. After X gave his subunit his orders, he signaled for Zero to follow him. It seemed that X also wanted to take this opportunity to talk. Zero pushed off the wall he was leaning on, and caught up with X, who smiled at Zero. “Everyone talked about you a lot after the Eurasia incident.” X started. “I think I have a day by day record of your career from their accounts.” Unsure of where X was leading the conversation, Zero said nothing. “We were friends, right?” “Yeah, we were friends.” Zero nodded. “Saved each other’s rear ends a couple of times, too.” Both of them laughed. “I don’t know why I forgot about you.” X leveled his gaze ahead. “I’m sorry if this is hard for you, me treating you like a complete stranger.” Zero thought he should say something here, but X continued. “Let’s do this correctly.” X stepped in front of Zero and turned to look at the crimson Reploid. “I’m X.” He extended his right hand. “It’s nice to meet you.” X looked very sincere, so Zero took the handshake. “Nice to meet you, X, I’m Zero.” Disappointment is not a strong enough word for what Zero felt as he took the handshake. Zero successfully hid that from X, since the blue Reploid gave him his signature boyish grin. I’ll just have to get used to this. Zero told himself as he answered X’s questions about himself. It’s not so bad; X seemed like his normal, effusive self. But Amp was right, something was different about X. Hanging out with X was different this time. Before Zero had more time to spend on the thought, Alia’s emergency call rang through his intercom. “All Maverick Hunters in the Cove-02 area respond immediately to the living quarters in sector D5! Reports are coming in of Reploids attacking there. Do not enter the living quarters. Your orders are to help evacuate the humans and Reploids who have already made it out of the living quarters.” Zero and X immediately began dashing towards sector D5’s living quarters. X tried to get Alia on the radio to explain the orders not to enter, and succeeded as they reached one of the entrances to the sub-terrain living quarters. “Alia, why can’t we enter the living quarters?” X demanded. He looked around. Several of the Hunters were leading the families towards a trauma center set up at the end of the street. “It doesn’t look like the full occupancy has escaped. We’ve got to take a team down there to help.” “The witnesses are saying the central computer in the housing facility is on fire and disabling the Reploids who get near any of the communication panels hooked up to it.” Alia responded urgently. “You can’t go inside! The communication panels are located in every room down there. Until we figure out what it’s doing to the Reploids, we cannot risk sending a team inside.” X gritted his teeth, and moved in to help more people who made it of the living quarters to a set up trauma center. Zero did the same. Burn marks and smoke soot covered the people now making their way out of the housing facility. X noted there were no Reploids coming out. “They’ve all gone Maverick!” One man screamed as he crawled towards the trauma station. X rushed to the man’s side and helped him up. “All of them!” “The Reploids?” X asked the man, who had trails of blood running down his face from a cut on his forehead. “Who’s attacking the living quarters?” “One minute they were fine, then the electricity shorted out and all of the Reploids went down.” The man gulped a breath of air. “Then they all attacked!” “X,” Alia called from the radio. “We’ve found a large amount of the Zero Virus in the central computer! We think it’s infecting the other Reploids already present. Tell your team to stay away from there! We’re contacting the police and letting them take care of this. There’s nothing we can do.” “Zero Virus?” Zero overheard the radio transmission. “Can’t hurt me.” Without another word, Zero drew his sword and rushed into the living quarters. “Zero!” X yelled. The man whom X was helping suddenly grabbed both of X’s shoulders, his eyes wide with terror. “The kids! The daycare! My god…” His voice trailed off and he collapsed to the ground. X looked longingly at the entrance of the living quarters. “Fade!” X called to one of the nearby Hunters. “Help this man to the trauma center.” X passed the man into Fade’s arms, and rushed after Zero. “X, wait!” Fade reached out her free arm to try to stop X, but he was already down the entrance steps. **************** “X, what in the heck are you doing?!” Alia yelled through the radio. “I understand why Zero is running off into the living quarters since he is immune to the virus, but _you_ certainly aren’t! Get back upstairs before you get hurt!” “I just need you to tell me where the daycare is, and warn me if I’m about to get near a communication panel that’s been corrupted.” X said calmly. “X!” It was Signas on the radio now. “Get out of there!” “I have to go inside. Put Alia back on so she can spot for me.” X’s decision was already made, so Alia came back on the radio and began giving X direction. “Turn left here,” Alia instructed as X dashed ran down the smoky corridor. “Watch out for you right hand side. There is a communications panel 10 meters ahead, on the right wall.” As he ran, X reached for the Z-saber strapped to his back and drew it. The saber responded immediately, coming to life in a flash of green light. X swung it as he approached the communications panel, sliced the interface in half, and continued running at full speed as the broken pieces of the comm. panel fell to the ground. “The daycare is 15 meters ahead. The door is on your left.” Alia typed in something on her keyboard. “The doors are locked! You’ll have to break them open.” X reached the doors and used the Z-Saber again to slice an opening. When the doors fell away, he saw a group of frightened human children huddling behind a large table, and a Reploid slowly approaching the group. Some of the children saw X standing at the doorway and started to scream loudly, probably thinking he was also going to attack. “X, in front of you is the Reploid who works at this daycare. The comm. panel at the front of the room must have infected her.” “Looks that way, Alia.” X pushed away the remaining parts of the door and moved inside the classroom. He scanned the group of children and found the oldest one. “You,” X pointed to the girl who looked about ten years old. “Lead the rest of the children out of here now. I’ve cleared the way to the exit for you. Go, now!” The children quickly got up and started to run for the door. The Maverick Reploid made a move towards the escaping children, but X blocked her path. “Stop! Snap out of it!” “I’m having the time of my life!” The Reploid told X in a grainy voice. The Maverick was not wearing any heavy battle armor, had no weapons, but the look in her eyes made her very menacing. They were glowing blood red with such intensity, that they seemed to leave a trail of red light as she moved. “You’ve been infected by the Zero Virus, we can take you back to the lab to get you fixed.” X tiled his head a little to see the last of the children scrambling out the doorway. “You’re not yourself.” The Maverick launched herself at X, who was surprised by her speed. X rolled out of the way in time, but dropped the Z-saber during the process. The beam of green light shut off and the handle rolled to the other side of the room. X did not want to resort to his X-buster, as he would surely kill the unarmored Reploid with any kind of a blast; he would have to try to disable her with hand to hand combat. X pushed himself off the ground and readied for another advance by the Maverick. Taking her cue, she raised her right fist and dashed towards X, who readied to block the punch and subdue the Maverick. In the split second before her fist reached X’s arm, she swung her left arm in a round house punch. X saw the blur from the corner of his eye and ducked the punch, but the moment he looked up, he saw the Maverick’s face moving at high speeds towards his own. The Maverick smashed her head against X’s helmet, which sent him stumbling backwards onto the teacher’s desk. “X!” X heard Alia’s voice among the ringing in his head. “There’s a comm. panel on the-” An electric pulse rumbled violently through X’s body. X gritted his teeth and, with great effort, turned to see that purple threads of electricity were escaping from the panel’s keypad. “The Zero Vi…” Alia’s voice was cutting off on the radio, which was overheating from the electricity. His visual display was suffering as well, as his vision started to blink on and off. Then the visuals stopped working completely. “X! X!” He heard Alia scream before his radio also shut off. ***************************** Zero finished slicing of the Mavericks when he received Alia’s call. “Zero, go to the daycare section now! X is in there, and I just lost contact with him.” “X is down here?!” Zero started to run for the daycare. “What’s happening there right now?” “One of the teacher Reploids was infected with the Zero Virus.” Alia explained. “X was fighting her.” “Arugh.” Zero growled. “Knowing X he was probably trying to talk some sense into woman instead.” Zero arrived at the daycare in time to see the female Maverick standing over X’s body on the desk. Without another word, Zero and the Maverick simultaneously charged towards each other. Zero drew out his sword, raised it high in the air, and swung his warm to slice the Maverick into two. With surprising strength, the Maverick held up Zero’s arm. The two were locked in a struggle until Zero pushed the entire weight of his body against the Maverick, knocking her down to the ground. Zero quickly brought his sword down, and, this time, succeeded in cutting the Maverick into two. Zero turned his attention to X, who was on top of the table with his blank eyes staring at the ceiling. Zero was frozen where he stood. “Zero!” Alia’s voice snapped. “Go wake X up. He’s alive!” Zero did as Alia told. “X.” Zero said hesitantly. “X.” He said a little louder this time. Zero put his hand on X’s shoulder to shake him, but the color flushed back into X’s green eyes as soon as Zero touched his shoulder. X’s eyes rolled towards Zero in a lazy manner. “Zero.” X said slowly, taking a deep breath before his next words. “The teacher… is she…?” “She’s dead.” Zero replied. X gave Zero a pained expression. X never approved of killing a Reploid if it could be helped. In this case, X thought he could have done something. “Zero, you…” X looked like he was about to cry, but suddenly his he looked confused. X’s eyes wandered away from Zero. The expression on his face changed once more. “Let’s go.” Now Zero could see fully what Amp meant when he mentioned X’s eyes going colder. X no longer felt sad about the Maverick teacher. X sat up on the desk and hopped to his feet. He looked down at the body of the Maverick teacher for a second, and then walked over the remains towards the door. Zero had never seen X act this disconnected before. “Is X alright?” Alia demanded of Zero. “From my readings, he’s been infected with the Zero virus. His radio doesn’t seem to be working. I can’t contact him.” “X.” X stopped and turned to Zero’s call. “Are you feeling alright?” “I’m fine Zero.” Just as suddenly as the stranger had appeared, the normal X was speaking to him again. “Why do you ask?” “Alia said you’ve been infected with the Zero Virus.” “What?” X’s eyes grew wide. “But I feel fine.” “Zero,” Alia said over the radio. “Aside from the presence of the Zero Virus in his systems, X’s readings are normal… and, the amount of the Zero Virus is exponentially decreasing as we speak.” An uncomfortable silence hung in the room as Zero waited for Alia’s report to continue. “It’s gone. All traces of the Zero Virus in X’s systems have been wiped out.” Zero and X shared shocked expressions. They imagine Alia must look about the same. “X is immune to the Zero Virus…” Zero uttered the words, but they did not sound any more realistic than before. Fan Fiction - Top |
