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The Dream Machine Chapter 12: Familiar Faces Emma strolled down the halls of Maverick Hunter HQ, drawing surprised looks, coos, and a couple of pets from the Hunters. After a couple of minutes of wandering around, looking for Zero, she decided to consult the map by the main elevators. Unfortunately for the little bot, she walked right in the path of Commander Doyle of the 13th unit as he was exiting the elevator. As Emma was is only two and a half feet tall, Doyle did not notice the assistant bot at all. “What the?” Doyle looked down when he felt something hit his shin and bounce off. “Oh!” The hunter rushed to Emma and helped her get back to her feet. “Are you alright?” Emma beeped. “I apologize. I should have noticed.” Doyle bent down and studied the bot. “Have we met? You seem familiar.” Emma tilted her head, trying to recognize Doyle herself, but finally shook her head. “Ah, well, maybe I’m just getting old. Well, are you here to visit someone?” Emma nodded, and showed Doyle a letter addressed to Zero. “Commander Zero. Ahh. Delivering a love letter, perhaps? Zero is a sly one with the ladies. Are you one of his admirers?” Emma blushed slightly and shook her head again, beeping a reply. “Dr. Sky?” Doyle furrowed his brow in thought. “Well, shall I lead you to Zero?” He stood back up and lead Emma back to the elevator. On the second floor training room, they found Zero. Emma promptly handed the letter to Zero, along with several data chips. Zero took a minute to read the letter.
Dear Zero,
Hi hi! It’s me, Dr. Sky. I’m asking Emma to deliver this
letter along with a copy of the data I salvaged from the
session X had on the machine. You should be as confused
as I am when you finish watching. Now I’m not sure what
roles Dr. Light and Dr. Wily play in X’s sudden change.
Watch the video and tell me what you think.
I did manage to confirm that Dr. Wily was using signals
from your sessions to boost the energy of the Zero Virus.
This would explain how the Zero virus suddenly got more
violent around the time we started your sessions. We
know at least that much is Wily’s fault. : p Remind me
to delete him with satisfaction should I ever find his
program again.
To find out what in the world is going on with X, I’m
leaving on a trip to find one of Dr. Light’s pods. If
what Alia tells me about Light’s upgrade pods are true,
then I should be able to activate one and ask him a couple
of questions. Alia kindly furnished me with a copy of
locations for the discovered pods, which should help me
greatly in my search for the new ones. (Urgh, from what
she also told me, activated pods cannot be activated again,
so I have to go find a fresh one ^_^)
Don’t worry about my condition, because I’m as good as new!
I couldn’t get Aya to leave until I showed her I was
completely healed. Thanks for sending her over, though,
she’s an absolute sweetie. We have a lot in common, and
she was very helpful around the lab. Remind me to go
thank her again next time I stop by the base.
Okay, I have to go. I should be back at the lab in a couple
of days. I’ll drop by the HQ and we can compare notes then,
okay? Try not to confront X until I get back, okay? Remember
the old adage: “Fools rush in.” If indeed X made this decision
on his own… then you will need to approach the battle in a whole
new way, if you know what I mean. I hope I find something
useful…I don’t want to see X… well, this is going on long
enough.
Take Care,
Sky“Made some new friends while you’ve been away, Zero?” Doyle smiled. “Who’s Dr. Sky?” Zero looked like he was about to ask something when Doyle cut him off. “The little one told me who wrote the letter.” “She’s helping with the Virus investigation.” Zero replied, slightly defensively. “Oh?” Doyle said in an inquisitive voice. “How come no one told me?” “It’s not official.” Zero started to put away some equipment. “I should still have been informed of any developments, with or without the official stamp.” Doyle crossed his arms, looking slightly more serious than before. “Try to inform our unit next time. We are also part of the investigation.” Doyle turned and strolled out the door. Emma and Zero started after him, and then turned to look at each other. “That guy has an attitude problem.” Zero said flatly. “Bleep.” ------------------------- “Urrgh.” Dr. Sky grunted as she pulled herself over another ledge. After clawing her way up to safety, she sat down to rest. Small sounds could be heard over the ledge. “Okay, okay, I’m on it.” Sky started to retract a rope hooked to her waist, and soon, Evariste, one of the assistant bots, also climbed over the edge, bringing with him the other end of the rope. The two had been tethered together for safety. “You okay?” Sky dusted off the small assistant bot, who coughed at the disturbance of dust. “Hopefully we’re almost there, because it’s been two days already and we haven’t found a thing!” Evariste started to jump excitedly up and down, pointing to something behind his creator. Sky turned around and saw a medium sized opening, just large enough for her to fit through. Silently she thanked herself for not indulging on that cheese cake before the trip as she slipped inside the cave. A beam of light traveled through the dark cave as she turned on her flashlight. Other than the soft footsteps of Evariste and herself, nothing could be heard. She moved the beam of light around the walls, seeing nothing special. After several turns and about a mile in the caves, Sky decided to turn around and go back. “Mark our route off in the map, okay?” Sky said to Evariste, who gave an affirmative beep. “Why don’t we rest a little while we’re here? The air quality reading is good; I can take my helmet off. Let’s have lunch.” She hit a switch on the side of her helmet, took it off, and shook her hair out. With that done, she looked around for a relatively flat area in the ground and sat down. From inside her backpack, she took out an energy cell and motioned for Evariste to walk over. After plugging in the new energy cell, she took out her own lunch bag from her pack. “Mmmm… more rations.” She laughed as she took out a small bar of rations, no larger than the size of her index finer and took a bite. “Looks like I’m just eating cardboard, doesn’t it?” She asked Evariste, who slowly nodded. “It’s actually not that bad. Somehow they fit 1/3 of the daily requirement of liquid and solids in this little bar. Oh come on, you can’t be getting sick of it faster than I am. I’m the one digesting it. Why are you getting so upset?” Evariste was jumping up and down again, but this time, his expression was different. She suddenly realized Evariste wasn’t upset at the ration bar, but probably upset at something big, ugly, and most likely Maverick behind her. The Maverick came into view as she turned around. He didn’t seem very well armed, but did have a plasma gun strapped to the side of his waist. Sky toyed with the idea that she could outdraw the Maverick, but considering she was in an awkward sitting position, that wasn’t likely to happen. “Who are you?” The Maverick demanded in a rough voice. He obviously didn’t think she was worthy enough of a threat, because he made no move for his weapon. “Me?” Sky popped the rest of the ration bar into her mouth. “I’m the new hire.” She casually finished chewing and got up. She dusted her pants off, stalling for time when gauging the Maverick’s reaction. “New… hire?” From the tone of his voice, the Maverick didn’t seem to buy what she said yet. “The Commander didn’t say anything about a new hire.” Yes, Dr. Sky thought to herself, we have ourselves an idiot. “Are you sure? The Commander asked me to come as soon as I can. Didn’t anyone tell you why?” The Maverick shook his head. “Well I’m afraid I probably shouldn’t tell you either. Why don’t you let me gather my things and I’ll follow you to the base?” She started packing her pack back together, acting as casual as possible. “Uh… do you know what division you’re supposed to report to?” The Maverick asked. “I know I’m supposed to see the commander first.” Sky said confidently. “The Commander is in right? I was told I would meet the Commander first thing upon arrival.” “Uh… okay.” The Maverick turned around and started to lead the way. It was now or never. Sky reached for the plasma gun behind her, quickly made sure it was set on the lowest setting, apologized to anyone who said shooting someone in the back was wrong, and stunned the maverick. “Arugh!!” The Maverick screamed before falling to the floor. Sky stood for a couple moments with her gun trained on the Maverick to make sure he wasn’t about to bounce up and attack. She knelt over the body and checked the Maverick was still operational. He’s still alive. She sighed. “What was that?” She heard someone yell from further down the tunnel. She swore under her breath and quickly got out a small explosive from her bag. She brought it along to go through any walls that might block a crucial path, but now she needed it to block her enemy’s route. “Hurry, run!” She ushered Evariste towards in the opposite direction, while she headed further into the tunnel—being careful to set the explosive so that the unconscious maverick would not get caught in the blast—to plant the explosive. After the timer was set, she ran past the unconscious maverick—apologizing again as she passed—and after Evariste. Not ten seconds later, a blast of wind and debris hit the two from behind, dropping them to the ground. Sky kept her eyes closed until the dust settled. When the dust settled, though, an unwelcome sound of a plasma gun charging up behind her could be heard. “Get up.” Sky recognized the voice of the Maverick she just talked to as she slowly pushed herself off the ground. She quickly glanced around as she stood up, looking for signs of Evariste. Her hopes rose a bit as she saw Evariste positioned right out of view from the Maverick, behind a large, conveniently placed rock. “Get out of here!” Sky mouthed urgently to Evariste with her back still turned to the Maverick. “Get Zero.” She continued. “Where’s your small friend?” The Maverick asked. Sky could see the small assistant bot go stiff with fear. “I don’t know.” Sky said. “He’s kind of small… and that was a big blast… he could be anywhere.” She tried her best to keep calm, but even with her back turned, she knew the plasma gun was still fully charged and pointed right at her. “No matter.” The Maverick’s voice got closer. “Let me thank you for what you did earlier.” He whispered into her ear, sending a chill down her spine. Instinctively, she bent her knees, whipped around, and sent an elbow right into the Maverick’s unarmored stomach. The gong like sound her elbow made with the Maverick’s stomach was a painful reminder that some Reploids have titanium lined skin. She gripped her elbow, in too much pain to scream. Stealing a glance back to the rock, she saw that her distraction gave Evariste a chance to escape. “Damn it!” The Maverick raised his plasma gun and viciously swung it down towards her head. Her arms flew up to block the blow, but the Maverick was much stronger, so her arms didn’t slow him down at all. “Ahhh!” Her scream echoed as she was sent flying down the tunnel. She winced as she landed on her side, sending a sharp pain up her right arm. She didn’t have time to react before the Maverick was in her face again. He easily picked her up by the cuff of her suit and breathed angrily inches from her face. “You STUPID woman.” He growled, and his eyes narrowed to slits. Sky urgently tried to push him away, but only succeeded in straining her arm even more. The Maverick laughed at her futile attempt, and then pulled her even closer. “Having fun wasting your time?” She stopped after several more pushes, having worn herself out. Instead, she glared angrily at the Maverick while trying to catch her breath. “Done? Well then it’s time to die.” She closed her eyes and silently said goodbye to no one in particular. The Maverick suddenly looked undecided, and studied her face again. “Hey… it’s you!” Sky opened her eyes again and looked at the Maverick, who now had a sinister smile on his face. “I’ll get a promotion for sure!” He balled up his other fist and hit her in the stomach. Her mouth opened, but no sounds escaped from her throat. Her body grew limp and she fell against the Maverick. She heard the Maverick laugh again, and then she heard nothing at all. Fan Fiction - Top |
