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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 21, 2009 23:55:39 GMT -5
And another strange thing to occur as well. What have I written in here ...
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Eleven: Competition
That night, just like Lumine promised, Sue certainly had some time of her life. After Sue had left the shiny metal bouquet at her table and had finished dealing with the attention attracted by it, she and Lumine danced the waltz, along with other participants. Most were amazed that the Reploid could dance and they became the center of attention.
They certainly did waltz neatly according to the music’s flow. The flow of movements was well coordinated and the steps were brilliant. At one point, the music suddenly changed to that of tango. Lumine had tried not to overdo it by merely presenting the rose flower to Sue and whisked her along.
Minutes later, they were done and gave their bows to the audience. The humans could not but clap and also cheer. So far, no one had ever seen a Reploid dance like that of human elegance.
Hours later into the night, when most corporate were wiped out from the signing of deals and slow dancing, they had either retreated back to their hotel rooms or had rode off to the airport station for departure. Prez and Lumine retreated back to the tower mansion instead and the Reploid planed to stay overnight with their ‘father’.
“Well, supper sure was delicious. Have you enjoyed yourself? That dance of yours was brilliant, especially now it’s been years since you last learnt classes!”
“I guess so, father. Especially with dear boy’s girlfriend.”
Lumine’s right hand was moved rapidly to switch on the speakers. “Hey! She’s not my girlfriend! We only met several times and you know it!”
“It was wonderful, father! I must admit though, meeting with the humans has made us very nauseous. The dance and supper took away all the fatigue!”
Prez sighed. “Good for you all then. Tomorrow, we need to go somewhere meaningful for not only me, but all the three of you too. Be sure to take a rest.”
That night, upon fast work ordered by Prez, the servants had made sure that a note had been left to the Maverick Hunters that Axl couldn’t reach his pod in time and that the trio were shown to what was supposed to be Lumine’s room.
The white Reploid, who had already turned back to Reploid form, rubbed his head for a while and sighed. “It’s been years now…”
The room was located at the 54th floor and occupied an entire wide storey. It had not been occupied for around 2 to 3 years but the cleaning done had made it look marvelous. Chemistry apparatus lay neatly at one corner of the room with various paperwork and there were Lumine’s own devices for experimenting. He had his own television and giant compute screen close to his own resting pod.
An object of particular interest aside the advanced gadgets and layout of the place was that he found a small jar of jelly fluid with a paper rose in it. He asked Lumine what the jar was for but he replied that Prez placed it there himself and did not elaborate the reasons behind it.
As the white Reploid walked back on to his resting pod, he sighed even more.
“This is my room, back then when I wasn’t corrupted by the Maverick and human trash. This was originally meant for you, dear boy and girl, but if you weren’t kidnapped back then, I wouldn’t be here to show you.”
“HEY!!” Both Axl and Iris retorted back.
The resting pod had a huge curve-in hole that serves to fit Lumine’s long stretched-out hair. He was instantly bombarded with teases for his hair for the first time. He was easily irked by that but hushed them after a while.
“Very funny, guys. If you don’t mind, I’ll make us sleep now.”
The next morning, the two Commanders, the earliest of all to wake up, had already received he note and of the news Lumine was so hesitant to tell them. They met in X’s office to discuss that.
“I just received this note. Seems mister rich told us that Axl will be joining him to go somewhere important. Who knows what that means?”
“So Lumine’s the appointed heir of mister Prez’s corporation. And also all assets belonging to him. I don’t think that’s a real good reason for an heir to walk around in the public. Mavericks will be attracted to what he’s got.”
“Just relax, X.” Zero flipped the absence note on the desk. “We’re taking of a powerful Reploid here. Just using that aura thing of his, he will melt any Maverick to liquids. Besides, he has to let the public know he’s still pretty much alive and he can be trusted. Well, any accidents and we’ll be answering to him soon.”
Meanwhile, miles and miles away, Prez had just only got off his limousine while Iris in human form was carrying a large bouquet of flowers with her. They were already at the most northern part of the Big City where there’s such a thing as many small towns and thick forests.
They were on a plain hillside full of stone slabs placed vertically. Close to one of the large cemented areas designated for offering sacrifices, a familiar black suit of a man was kneeling down in front of two stone slabs while Iris held on to the flowers.
They were in front of the graves of Prez’s parents. Iris laid the flowers in front of each grave. She looked down on her ‘father’ but she couldn’t see his face; all she saw was the dripping of tears on the cement ground. She turned and walked back to be behind Prez.
“Mum, dad, it’s been nearly 67 years already since you left. This unfilial and only son has already made it through so much trouble. I know it has always been your wish to see me off well. Well, I am now; it’s a pity you all are not here.”
His body shivered and trembled out of sadness. More tears dropped on. The trio themselves were moved too, but Iris was touched the most; she also shared losses.
“I’m a person better off now. I hope you will be proud. Today, I’m bringing along three of my children to see this gravesite. I never had a family of my own. But now, I hope that you’ll be satisfied with the ones I have now…”
He kneeled deeper and his head touched the ground several times. Iris in turn bowed down deep and slow as a sign of respect. Lumine and Axl took turns with the body and offered their condolences. Axl bowed down the lowest and slowest.
After burning off tonnes of paper items which customs believe they will be sent to their loved ones in the netherworld, Prez and Iris bowed down again three more times before leaving. The old man wiped his tears away with a handkerchief and resumed his normal looks.
“Death can even break the heart of the strongest of man. Well, it’s time to go back to the corporate world. I understand Axl has to go back to his job at the store. You all can go back now if you wish to. I’ll just stay on here for a while…”
“No, father, we wish to stay with you. All three of us.”
Before stepping back in the limousine, they gazed their eyes upon the view of the mountains of forests and the flight of the eagles. They sat side by side looking on the blue skies and the flowers of red just ahead. Iris leaned her head on her ‘father’s’ shoulder with her eyes closed. All these took 2 hours away from Axl’s schedule.
Pretty soon, Axl was back to working in the store, after apologizing to the old sir for being late and explained the grave incident. Prez resumed back his position as a giant monopolist and businessman, facing critics and the directors. X and gang were back on their work patrolling the giant island capital of the Federation and all the other stuff.
The following was day 93. Axl and Iris had memorized the dates so today is the date where Lumine first intruded Axl three months ago. The two offered their congratulations to the white Reploid.
“Thank you all. I will devote myself further to make us safer.”
He was referring to the new threat still inside them. “You are still my host and my friend. Like I said, I don’t tolerate any further attempts to destroy us all from some Maverick remnant!”
The three in turn became silent to each other. Axl was now wearing his commoner’s human form and walking down the streets with a cup of drink in his hand. It was nearly the end of his lunch break so he was hurrying back to the old sir’s store to work. Then, he decided to ask some stalled questions to Lumine.
“Lumine, if you and all new generation Reploids were corrupted by Sigma’s personality to go Maverick at will, then why did you say that just because of the addition of Sigma’s looks will make you immune to the Virus?”
“That’s quite a good question, dear boy. Inside the data of Sigma’s looks was already embedded tiny packets of data that relate to his personality. Even a tiny bit similarity will cause the body to repel the entry of the Virus, just like a magnet. The same poles repel each other. Father already foresaw the possibility of Maverick-at-will phenomena so he ordered rigid controls over it during programming.”
“However, Sigma’s corruption of us increased the percentage of Maverick personality and became uncontrollable. In a way, I should be thankful for human trash to rigidly control that percentage. Or else I would have joined that idiot Sigma and had already destroyed you all much earlier. If I were to be fully Maverick, my powers, written in my data by father, would have been exploited a hundred percent.”
“What? Then the battles in the past…?”
“Very observant, dear boy. Those battles were only making use, oh say, 20 percent of my actual energy. I could have done much more damage but the fact that I am living inside you puts a limit on me. If I had my body back, I would have caused much more.”
“How’s that possible? You share my energy supply.”
“Once again, it’s the Chameleon Chip. It responds only to the dominant personality to use up a lot of energy. This caused me to use less energy in battles, so even though this prototype body possesses inexhaustible energy supply, it is still worthless to me.”
“So, how come I’m immune all the time without any Maverick data in me?”
“The Chameleon Chip again, dear boy. Your body is far more unique than any of us Reploids thought. Prototypes are usually the most simplest and vulnerable forms of objects. The Chip uses the energy to destroy any rogue personality that intrudes you. However, this energy isn’t used so the energy becomes stagnant, stressing the Chip and the Chip became more stressed when the human forms and eating function was added to you, thus leading to the events last month where your emotions went out of control.”
Axl remembered the incidents very vividly and shivered at the thought. Iris came in the conversation. She appeared slightly worried and scared.
“So why was my data not included among the hundreds of old Reploids used to make the new generation Reploid copy chip then? What is my purpose now? And doesn’t it seem from this explanation of yours that Axl is far more advanced than yours?”
Lumine smiled at Iris. “Dear girl, you were especially reserved for dear Axl. More like a sister in human relations.” Axl and Iris blushed at the thought. “Father already saw your data as of no use in immunizing new Reploids. I guess your purpose now ought to be just who you are.”
“No, the new generation Reploids are still more advanced than dear boy but in some points close to equal. Axl can use the energy to combat the Virus but he will need to constantly depend on foreign data to live and use the energy all the time but the Virus will not penetrate him. The rest don’t need foreign data from outside sources as they are already incorporated in the chip. However, the inexhaustible energy supply isn’t present and we are thus easily subjected to foreign corruption.”
“In other words, there are equal similarities between dear boy and the new Reploids, but I would prefer to live inside dear boy.” They laughed a little.
Axl asked the last question. “So what about the newer Reploids?”
“Just like you, I don’t know. The newer Reploids were created after we were all together. Maybe they are a new batch immune to the Virus with better features. I only know they don’t have the copy chips in them.”
Axl had already reached the old sir’s store. He saw a poster pasted on the walls outside about an eating competition not far away from the store. The deadline of registration entry was today itself at 3.00 pm. It was to be held in one of the shopping malls nearby. Axl thought of an idea.
“Hey, that’s two hours away! Maybe I’ll go enter the contest and win it just for celebrating Lumine’s three month anniversary!”
Lumine was quite surprised. “Uh… that won’t be necessary, dear boy. I am comfortable with you guys, that’s all. You don’t have to do this for me, dear boy.”
“No, I think I own you for a nice uninterrupted celebration, given the Carnival accident two months ago. Besides, I’m the host here so I ought to do something for you. All I just have to do is eat a lot… of hot-baked pies… the fastest…”
“I don’t think I can do it. That sounds like a rough competition. I won’t like the taste of pies in my mouth. Maybe we’ll do something else.”
“No, you don’t!” Lumine and Axl turned around to see Iris. “Let me do this! I want some excitement around here! I’ll do this for Lumine!”
Lumine saw this going nowhere and tried to pass it on himself. “But both of you don’t have official documentations! I’ll do it; at least it’s safer for all of you!”
Iris grumbled like a kid. “Aw come on! It’s a competition that starts immediately! It’s not like they’ll ask for our home address or the sort! It’s an instant winner declaration and prize giveaway! The poster says so! Besides, I fancy food more than you two!”
The two exchanged faces. “Are you sure, Iris?”
“Positive! Now let’s go, Axl-!”
“Young man, what are you doing outside here on the wall instead of helping me tend to the customers and their goods?” The old man shocked the three of them; even Axl jumped in the air slightly. Axl tried to find an answer.
“Young man, you may be mister Prez’s Reploid son along with that heir Lumine but you have responsibilities to do! Just like your brother Lumine! He’s just reformed and he has a giant corporation to take care of already! Come on in!”
“Lumine? My brother? … Hm, that’s quite a good point…” – the white Reploid was surprised and speechless to comment – “Look, I know I’ve been absent and late before but I know my job! Besides I’m going to watch my… sister in that eating competition!”
The old man looked at the poster and back at Axl. “Well, these days, you’ve got a lot of family business to attend to… Alright, go and see her. Just come back after that competition is over.” Axl jumped with joy.
“Alright, thanks!” He clasped on his shoulders quickly and ran of. But Axl walked back and said: “Er… about me being a Reploid and Prez’s son, it’s still a secret, right?”
“We had an agreement. Of course it’s a yes, sonny.”
“Thanks, old sir! You’ve the best!” Axl quickly ran off leaving the old man far behind. He dashed through the streets so fast and shocked many other pedestrians. Minutes later, he had arrived at the designated shopping mall and rushed in.
Axl rushed on to the third floor of the shopping mall and true enough, there was a small counter somewhere at the side of a hall for registration.
Thanks to the white Reploid’s speed, Axl had stealthily given the body controls to Iris while dashing behind a pillar. A happy Iris was thus in sight and she hopped over to the human at the counter to register.
“Good day, miss. Are you interested in signing up for this contest?”
“Yes, please. What do I need to do?”
“Just fill up your name here, that’s all. The competition is less than two hours away so please come back here by then.” The other two sighed relief because Iris needn’t give away any further details to the humans.
Later it was close to the appointed time of the competition. Iris skipped away from the shopping mall’s entrance and headed for the third floor hall. Behind her back, Axl and Lumine were talking again about the data soul issues.
“So if the inexhaustible energy is used to evaporate rouge personalities such as yourself, why weren’t you destroyed by it?” Lumine smirked a little.
“Because it turns out I am not rogue at all. The Maverick data somehow separated from me upon immediate entry and mingled to become White Axl. All that’s left was me and the corruption of human trash. Dear girl got rid of the corruption already.”
“How’s that possible?!” “Just like you, dear boy, I do not know.”
Iris was now amidst of many other humans; fat and tall and the other like. Iris was a little afraid of them but the other two had encouraged her to be braver and ignore them. Then an announcer guy came to them.
“Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Follow me to the stage.”
They were aligned according to their given numbers from left to right. Iris was the 6th of 8 contestants. Almost instantly, they were handed out pans of pies and a crowd emerged around the stage. The announcer guy greeted them all.
“Everyone! The contest will start almost immediately! This is exciting! Who will win this 4th annual competition and win the blue ribbon and 500 cash?!”
Iris gulped. Several men were licking their tongues away and were prepared to eat the tasty brown pies. She also held out her hands, reaching for the plate.
“The contestant with the most plates and last one standing wins! GO!!”
The crowd cheered on wildly and greedy men hogged down on their plates. Iris was not so far behind as she hogged down on her plate too. She munched down her pies and at the same time, recalled the flavours.
“Hm. Nice. Blueberry is good, though there should be more flavour. Oh, goodie, peach and orange! Hey, raisin’s crunchy too!”
“Iris! Will you just concentrate on the eating?!”
“Hey, spare me some time, will you? It isn’t easy chewing on all these food!”
While Axl was pestering the girl to eat faster and not bother the tastes, Lumine was watching it all with no comment. He had his usual look of expressionless-ness and his current feelings and thoughts were difficult to guess.
Several tens of minutes later, 3 contestants had retreated from the race as they couldn’t take anymore for their stomachs and just collapsed on the table or floor. The plates all fell on the stage and the crowd groaned out of sadness.
“Oh gosh! 5 more contestants left! Who will prevail?”
Another female human nudged at Iris, trying to stop her from going on. Of course, her efforts were futile because Iris could fill in as much food as she liked, and it will go on and on. Iris felt insulted and gave her her own type of roughing.
That female contestant was filled with rage and was so mad she just stormed away from the stage. The crowd as well as Axl was shocked to see her rude attitude. According to rules, there will only be four more contestants left.
“C’mon, Iris! You can do it! There’s your seventh plate!”
However, she felt lightly tired and chewed on that seventh plate slowly. The silent Reploid stood back up and asked: “Dear girl, are you okay? Maybe you should stop.”
“No way, Lumine! I’m gonna win this thing for you! Stand aside!”
He was of course taken back by the rough comment. Nevertheless, he stood aside and watched as Iris gobbled down the fruitcake pie. Then another fellow contestant simply collapsed onto the ground and his mouth spilled out the chewed contents. The crowd groaned in disgust. A minute later, another contestant ran away, fulfilling the urgent need to visit the bathroom.
It was now between Iris and a big fat man next to her. Iris couldn’t stand the sight of a giant with many stomach packs and a face of a pig gobbling down 2 pies in one shot so she turned away from him. However, just the slightest thought of it made her sick and she couldn’t eat anymore.
“Iris!” Axl ran forward to attend to her in the computer brain. She looked as though she was going to pass out. Passed out, she did. The giant man smiled and roared out loud his victory. The announce guy received him.
“The winner of 500 cash and a blue ribbon!”
Iris looked up on the giant one more time and dropped her head on the table.
Later than evening, Axl was back in his cubicle. He had already returned back to the old sir and did his proper jobs at the store. Back here, he had cellotaped Iris’ blue ribbon on the wall with her name written on it and played with the bearing ball of steel.
It turned out that Iris won second place for eating 8 plates of pie and won 200 cash. She decided to give it to Axl and had since rested in his head. Lumine passed on his congratulations to her and let her sleep under his purple aura shield for security purposes.
Just then, X came to visit Axl for a while.
“So, Axl it’s abut the inheritance, isn’t it? Lumine’s appearance and all?”
“Yeah.” Axl lifted his legs on the table. “Dad had already designated him a long time ago. He feels Lumine’s worth being trusted enough. I don’t know what the public thinks of, but I feel there’s at least some opposition to this.”
“Right you are, Axl.” X made a little gesture. “Certain groups mainly in Big City itself have voiced concerns over his appointment. They still feel the appointment is too fast and demand evidence he’s repented. The government still hasn’t said anything yet; they only approve of it.”
Axl shrugged. “We can’t help it, can we?”
X turned his eyes to the blue ribbon. “Second place? Competition? Yours?”
“No, it’s Iris’. Today’s the day Lumine’s with me for three months. I wanted to do something to celebrate but Iris suddenly took up the offer. Ate 8 pies just for that before she passed out after seeing an ugly human.”
“I see… Zero will want to hear this.” X was about to walk off when he stopped.
“Oh… Axl…” He just stopped there because he hesitated. “Oh never mind. We’ll talk about it later. When that plan is approved.”
“Huh?” Axl got back on his feet. “What plan, X?”
“Oh, it’s nothing. I’ll call you when it’s done.”
X merely walked off back to his office. X scratched his head of confusion and wondered what that was all about. “Maybe it’s not that urgent yet.”
Axl decided to go back to his resting pod and hit the sack. Just before he did so, he leaned back against a glass wall and closed his eyes to check on his friends.
Lumine was supporting a sleeping Iris under his purple aura. Axl approached him.
“Isn’t that aura going to melt or destroy any personality here?”
“No, it won’t dear boy, because it’s my aura.” He smiled at Axl. “I can control the aura to whatever reason I want. I want it to melt objects. I want it to destroy any codes. It’s up to me. Right now, I’m concerned for providing heat for dear girl.”
“C’mon, she only ate some plates and she’s exhausted already?”
“Dear boy, she has been dormant for half a century. You can’t expect someone to just suddenly move while recovering from long rest. I would suggest you come under this aura too if you were going to sleep. It’ll provide heat and protection from the cold and that Maverick piece.”
The aura dissolved and Axl entered it. Then, the aura covered them all and shone fierce crimson on the outside layer, meant to halt anything else from entering. Axl set the dial on his pod and slept in it, waiting for tomorrow to come.
Continued in Chapter 12.
Notes: I think I’m getting sidetracked a little on this chapter. Feels as though half on the chapter is only used for the title’s name. Next time, the following chapters will be better just like Chapter 8 and 10. By the way, I hoped I had solved most mysteries and details about the new generation Reploids of X8 and the Big City ‘island capital’ would be referring to Japan’s Honshu Island, the entire place. Place’s anonymity is kept in text story.
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 22, 2009 20:29:07 GMT -5
And I give you now, something not so boring, but you can relate to Axl himself. If you don't like school that is ... well, keep those opinions to yourself.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twelve: Classroom
Two days later, Axl was found rushing down to the old sir’s store. He had been absent from work yesterday due to an accident he had caused while taking a look at the rocket propulsion system in the east wing early morning. Despite the advice of Iris and Lumine, Axl twitched with a prototype rocket that exploded.
Security saw the whole thing and had informed X immediately. X was furious over how Axl had slipped into the east wing labs in the morning. As a result, Axl was punished to clean up the entire laboratory single-handed and X made it clear his two inhabitants were not to help him.
For the first few hours, Axl was slacking on the job, especially the way he collected debris and dust in the lab. Of course, orders were meant to be broken for Lumine, so he had helped Axl to quickly clean the place, despite Iris’ objection.
If it weren’t for Lumine’s help and even without the breaks, Axl would have taken at most 30 hours to clean the entire place. Thanks to the white Reploid, Axl cleaned up everywhere in the evening. Axl apologized to the two and had to buy Lumine an ice-cream sundae later in the night as requested.
It was early morning of day 95. The old sir was now sweeping the floors outside his store. Axl approached him, panting a little heavy. The old man placed a grim look upon Axl and, even though the inhabitants weren’t guilty, they shivered.
“Alright, young man, what’s your reason this time for being late?”
“Yesterday, I accidentally caused a chemical explosion in my dad’s laboratories. I had to clean up everywhere single-handedly, although I had help from… brother… Lumine.” Axl had hesitated to say the last two words because Lumine isn’t exactly a brother to him, though he had no comment on that so far.
“Well, alright. Just this once you’re excused for exploding a lab in mister Prez’s place! Seriously, you Reploids should be more responsible! I don’t see why the man isn’t taking any action on you yet though.”
They were alone on the streets so it wasn’t a problem to talk about Axl’s being a Reploid and his relation to Prez and Lumine. Axl sighed.
“Alright, old sir. Just relax in your counter and let me do the duties today, okay?”
“First thing you have to do is sweep the street clean. Then take out the trash and wipe all windows. Get started. I wonder who the other Reploid child Prez said is…”
Iris became slightly alarmed that the old sir had figured out that the other child of Prez is a Reploid too and was indirectly referred to her. Not wishing to brew another topic, she hushed Axl to do his proper jobs.
That same evening, Axl came back very tired from all his jobs at the store. He had a brief talk with the old sir, who had said that Axl was free to go anytime and since he was a rich Reploid, the old sir thought it wasn’t necessary for Axl to work here.
Axl had rebuked him by saying that he wasn’t interested in what the old sir paid him and all he needed what just something to do and people to help around. All the time, if possible. The old sir smiled and walked away. Sue had heard only the last part of the talk and went to praise Axl. She was planning to tell Axl about her night of dance with Lumine but somehow forgot to do so, thus relieving Axl’s ears.
“Aw man, I’m bushed. I should get some rest though. It’s amazing that Sue still hasn’t found out my name yet…” Axl pressed numbers on the dial.
“It’s good, dear boy. She’d freak out if she ever found out.”
Just when Axl was about to touch the pod’s glass, a familiar red hand reached the glass faster. It was the hand of Zero. Axl was surprised.
“Oh hey Zero. What’s the matter? If it’s about Iris, that’ll have to wait. I have to get some rest now. It’s an exhausting day for me.”
“It’s something more important than that. We need to talk in my office now.”
Axl was then in Zero’s office, leaning on the guest’s chair. Zero was shuffling some papers and files and sat at his desk before he got to the point.
“The Federation government just approved a brand new plan for the Hunters. It involves a switch-round timetable of patrolling and getting education. Every Hunter must be involved but you are a special case.”
Zero put his hand behind him. “Mister Prez has requested that the two of you be given the liberty to decide if you want to join this. However, you have to be included in this, Lumine.” Zero then pressed Axl’s speakers on.
“What? I must be included?”
“According to Prez, it seems that you are supposed to undergo huge education regarding the human world. Economics, management, science, all that stuff. However, it seems he delayed it. Now is the time to get started.”
“Father. Hm. Well then, I suppose I have no choice.”
“Iris, what about you?” There was a delayed response.
“… I’m not interested. I hope you understand, Zero.”
Zero paused for a while. “I do, Iris. Axl, what about you? I understand that you have a job working for that old human 5 districts away. We can manage some appoint-”
“I’ll join. I’ll have to talk to the old guy, I suppose. So, how will this whole thing be managed? It’s pretty messy with a lot of Hunters here.”
“We start tomorrow with the first batch in classes. The second half batch will go on patrol duty. The first three subjects will be taught to the first batch tomorrow and the second batch the day after. The same goes for the other three more subjects. As X had drafted out other captains to oversee the patrol, he and I will be part of the teaching staff. Palette voluntarily joined. I’ll be teaching Living Skills, the subject on the second three. That will be all the economics and stuff.”
“Aren’t you usually bored with that field?”
“Better than nothing in my office. X will be teaching History and Computer Science and Pallette’s doing Math. You’ll have History, Math and Geography tomorrow. The other subject is Core Sciences. Geography and Core Sciences are taught by Alia and Layer respectively. I just got word other navigators are taking their jobs over for that period. X and I may be pretty busy from now on, but let’s see that happen.”
“So, tomorrow’s the Math…, History… and Geography and the next time the remaining three? I’ll try my best. Are you done yet? I have to rest and talk with the old guy at the store.” Axl got rebuked from Iris.
The following day was day 96. The first half batch of Hunters, including Axl, got their timetables. All were different because teaching around 250 Hunters in one shot for a single subject was tough business. According to Axl’s timetable, his, and Lumine’s, first subject was History, taught in the east wing along with 80 other Hunters.
The classroom was really big and was twice the size of an ordinary lecture hall. The desks had computers fixed to them so that assignments and tests were easily handed out. The reference list showed most books and resources could be found in the library so it was most likely Axl will have to withstand the pain of even sitting in there; Axl hated the library and he had to enter there once to look for his past.
“Good morning, class. From now on, I’ll be your lecturer for the subjects of History and Computer Science. I know that you all may have some advanced knowledge on these fields, but there’s more to education than just reading.”
“The entire system of education is about passing on knowledge of applications in life. Soon, every Hunter will be subjected to not only patrols but also on community services and open access to all your intellects. So, it’s best we get started now. Today the first thing we will learn is about the history of the Big City.”
Lumine had been taught the same things before nine years ago by Prez; he knew all this naturally but decided to just listen along. Iris also participated in listening. The only thing obstructing them was Axl; he was constantly gesturing.
“Dear boy, please stop! I’m trying to pay attention.”
“This is boring. I always hated history and the library. They all mean nothing to me. I don’t know why I joined this time. Probably because of you.”
“At least keep your head still for both of us!!” It was Iris.
Axl did heed Iris’ pleas, though not entirely. He still managed a yawn or two; it was incredible as Reploids don’t have the lungs to do so, and he constantly played with his fingers. X saw that but had went on teaching as usual.
The inhabitants found it less irritating now that Axl kept on playing with his fingers, Axl was actually paying attention to all the boring lectures; his ears were alert but most of it slipped away in his mind. He also didn’t understand the crisis of the Space Colony and the giant destructions, even worse he didn’t care much after all.
Eventually an hour passed and it was another 90 minutes to go. Lumine and Iris were by now quite irritated with their host for the various sort of things he did behind his computer. They had managed to get a glimpse of everything but not in detail for their own knowledge, thanks to Axl’s fidgeting.
The final straw on their patience was that when Axl landed his head on the table.
“Dear boy, this is my first outside lesson and I’m not letting you ruin it!”
Acting simultaneously, Iris and Lumine grasped rapid control over Axl’s body. They managed to wrench Axl’s head back up and he felt it as though his head was tied tight to a fixed position on a steel bar. In the end, he ‘surrendered’.
“Ugh… alright! Fine! I give in! I’ll just pay attention to X, okay?!”
“That’s more like it, Axl! The old sir was right! You ought to be more responsible in the future! You’re still like a little kid for the past ten years!”
“Oh dear boy, what’s that on your right?” Axl looked to his right and saw only a fellow Hunter. He somehow then slipped on his chair and fell on the floor.
The eyes of many turned from the board of projected images to the place where Axl fell, including X. X already knew that Axl wouldn’t trip himself and only Lumine would do such a thing. He didn’t say a thing but the hall was whispering away.
“I hope you’re satisfied with your attention, Axl. Thanks to him, maybe now you’ll focus on the subject for good. Class, there’ll be a test at the end of the lesson so I can grade you accordingly. Those who fail will have to stay behind for a while.”
No one dared to mess with the Supreme Commander so they quickly silenced down and got back to listening to X teaching, now on the subject of Big City declared as a whole island and Prez’s contributions.
True to his word, at the lesson’s end, the computers all flashed a test for all the Hunters. Axl got two, the other for Lumine. Axl already got an indirect warning for not asking Lumine’s help from X. This once, Lumine decided to keep to that order by forcing Axl to finish and hand in his test first before he did his.
The class was graded only after the last Hunter passed in his test and rather fast too. Most hunters got an ‘A’ for their test. Some got a ‘B’. Axl got a failing grade ‘F’ for getting many questions wrong. It came to no surprise that Lumine got an ‘AAA’ grade since his test was entirely correct but only X and the trio knew.
Axl had another round of lecture from X after the class was dismissed.
“Axl, this report goes directly to Prez upon his request! You shouldn’t have failed! Think of how he’d feel if he saw you fail!”
“Next time, I’ll try my best, okay? I won’t fail again.”
Lumine made his appearance after that sentence, knowing that this room didn’t have any cameras. “Don’t worry for him, X. He’ll catch up. How long will this go on?”
“The syllabus? Around five years or so for these two batches. It’s projected that all Hunters will by then gain mastery over every field and be subjected open access to the public.”
“Very well. See you later, then.” Axl’s form resurfaced and he walked off to his beak period, resting before Math and sad knowing it went into his permanent record. Iris couldn’t help but feel a little sympathy to him. Lumine was total opposite.
“Serves you right, dear Axl. This time, you ought to think more before doing something. Of course, I’m here if you need any assistance at all, regardless of rules.”
“Just shaddup, Lumine. I’m fine.” That comment stunned the white Reploid further. Axl crouched down more on the pitch-black floor of the subconscious.
They were already in Axl’s cubicle. No one said anything yet after Axl told the white Reploid to shut up. Deep inside the two inhabitants, despite their insults and deeds, they felt sorry for Axl and wanted to help him. Only thing was that Axl was too moody to be approached. Some time later, Iris made some steps forward.
“C’mon Axl, it’s just a test. I know you can do much better. All these years, you have been putting your heart into the things you did and you turned out one of the best Hunters there is. The same thing also goes for this education. Just stay focused, okay?”
“Thanks, Iris. You’re great help.” He smiled back at her. Axl then rushed over to the white Reploid who’s standing at one corner, staring in deep black space.
“Er… Lumine. About just now… I’m sorry.” “It’s okay, dear boy.”
Their relations improved instantly after the white Reploid’s words. Iris was relieved another one of those fights was over and wandered around the computer brain. Behind her back, the two were having a little talk together.
“Well, dear boy, the next lesson’s Mathematics. It’s highly vital, or else the world wouldn’t exist. Think you can cope up to the advanced methods?”
“Maybe, I dunno. These things aren’t really my thing. All I’m interested in is just plain Maverick hunting and keeping my rank. I’ll try.”
At noon, the class began this time in another lecture hall slightly smaller than the previous one. For reasons Axl wasn’t going to say, he chose to sit at the front most row. The lesson earned Pallette most Hunters’ attention because although they were good in battles, they only had the basics of Math programmed in their memory.
It was very, very obvious that the white Reploid was different, being granted a mind of a genius by an old man ten years ago. This resulted in the two inhabitants giving Axl fewer warnings and themselves not so angry when Axl still managed to fool around, along with Iris’ lack of interest.
Axl even managed to smuggle in the hall a small chocolate bar and ate it in the broad daylights of the hall. Pallette was the type that emphasized discipline so when she was teaching differentiation and integration of equations and saw Axl eating, she drew the class’ attention to him by her calls.
“Axl! How can you eat that human source of energy in my session? Take that thing away! I’m amazed they weren’t stopping you!” ‘They’ refer to Axl’s two inhabitants.
Axl merely swallowed the entire bar in one gulp. Hunters were surprised that the Reploid’s systems weren’t malfunctioning from the eating of the chocolate, eventually causing another round of whispers and hushes.
“The bar’s gone. I’m still paying attention, you know. Please continue.”
Pallette knew better than to broaden the topic about Axl having a mechanical nuclear chamber in his body to everyone and just turned away to the board and taught more. Some whispers were still heard in the air about Axl not malfunctioning.
At the end of the lesson, another test had been given out and required Hunters to write down heir every working of the problems. Axl on his part tried his best to remember his math and scribbled a lot of workings on the touch screen computer. The grades came in after the last Hunter handed her test.
“Another ‘F’?! Well, at least it’s a better ‘F’ than the previous one.”
Axl was required to stay back and be lectured another round. Pallette had advised him the same thing about failing grades and Prez’s feelings, only this time with more force compared to X. Axl once again assured that the same thing wouldn’t repeat again and Lumine came out again.
“Why didn’t you and Iris stop Axl from eating that thing? This may reveal the fact that this… this… prototype body had a Reploid version of human stomach!”
“Is there really a threat in that? I don’t think so.”
“No threat? This will cause a wild stir of how a fellow Reploid isn’t breaking down when he’s supposed to! You don’t want all that attention, do you?”
“Well, I guess not. Dear boy won’t do that again in the future.”
“Nice grade, Lumine. You’re the only one who scored a triple A.”
Ignoring the fact Pallette changed the subject, he went on. “Thank you. I guess those old memories are still active. You’ll see all that in the near future. Farewell.”
Axl’s form resurfaced. The blue-red Reploid then made his way out of the lecture hall and retreated back to his cubicle for another 1 hour break. He was quite sad that he got another ‘F’ despite his earlier calm looks and hid his head under his arms on the table.
The last 2½-hour subject of the afternoon was Geography. Alia was in charge of informing the class of 80 hunters about the various geographical features of the world. She told the class first that knowing the rough terrains of the world was important for their duty because many Hunters were lost over the years for failing to survive nature’s way of destruction. Definitely not Axl.
The only thing the blue-red Reploid thought about geography was the rough mountains, thick jungles, volcanoes, snowy lands and extreme heights.
Alia was just briefing through the various landscapes of the world when Axl hid his face behind the computer and tried to doze off. This time, his inhabitants went ahead to stop Axl from slacking off.
“Axl! What are you doing? Get up this instant!”
“I’m just tired, Iris. Leave me alone. I need some rest. This education is tiring.”
“Dear boy, then we’ll just have to make you sit up straight.” The two were about to release their aura and grasp Axl’s body when a loud noise suddenly boomed at them.
“AXL! WAKE UP NOW!!” Apparently, Alia is also the type that doesn’t tolerate nonsense so she had fixed her com’s camera to Axl’s own and used a microphone to boom her voice at Axl’s computer speakers. A nanosecond later, Axl was shocked up awake whereas the two inhabitants were dazed from the loudness of the voice.
The entire class fixed their attention towards Axl and laughed at him. Axl became even more tired than he was and looked a little worse. His computer screen showed Alia’s angry face for a while and then blinked back to its proper screen.
“Axl! If you don’t pay further attention to this class, I’m afraid I’ll have to give you detention and make you write lines on the board!” Axl was shocked.
“Detention? Lines? Aw, c’mon!”
“No excuse, Axl! Just open up those eyes for another two more hours and a test! X said you already failed two previous tests! Let’s not make that happen here!”
Axl never felt more tired and frustrated as far as he remembered.
That evening, Axl failed another test due to his lack of energy and terrible answers regarding geographical features and their locations. For the third time, Lumine scored a triple A for his test. Axl endured another lecture from Alia, saying that Prez won’t be happy if he saw the results. Lumine came out again; this time, he made use of old metal chairs at one of the hall’s corners only to be melted and super-cooled to form eraser-like alphabets on Alia’s desk.
“‘Axl’s tired. Let him fail all he wants.’? Lumine! You’re defending him?!”
He levitated in the air and gazed down on the blonde. “Dear boy’s suddenly very exhausted. Next time, don’t boom your voice at us. Remember, there’s three of us in this body. If you’ll excuse us, I have to take care of dear boy.”
Lumine didn’t release control but only made Axl’s physical looks appear. He landed back on the floor and walked away out of the hall.
On the way, he ignored other Hunter’s insults but the one that sparked his anger was from a Hunter that called him ‘eternal failure’. Lumine-controlled Axl took a swipe at him and made him fall on the ground. ‘Axl’ went ahead and lifted a foot on his head.
“I suppose you’re satisfied with all your talk. You don’t want me to finish you off now, do you? A simple shot at your head and you’re good as trash.” He lowered down Axl’s gun close to the Hunter’s head and then, shoved it away.
“You aren’t so good yourself, you know that? Someone else got a triple A for all the three tests, you know. That guy’s dealing with anyone who insults me.” He was referring to himself. ‘Axl’ simply walked away aid the crowd. In no time, he reached the resting pod, set the dial and prepared to set ‘Axl’ off to sleep.
“Thanks, Lumine… but you went too far this time…”
“No, it was proper. I know you won’t be a failure, dear boy. I just know. One day, you will score high. I just know it. Come on, you need rest. You had a hard time fitting in this education system, didn’t you? That’s why you’re so tired, right? Believe me, dear boy, dear girl and I had worse times than yours.” After that, the trio were put to sleep.
A few hours later, X got wind of everything from the two navigators. Filled with both fuss and pity, he sighed to himself.
“Axl has never enjoyed learning and he’s doing this for Lumine. I dunno about you guys but I’m opting for Axl to be free and Lumine be given private tutors. Sure, Axl’s a spoilt brat sometimes but he knows his limits. I’ll talk to them first thing in the morning.”
The two navigators said nothing as X continued on his lesson plans, regular typing and his duty as Maverick Hunter Supreme Commander.
Continued in Chapter 13.
Notes: Phew, that’s over and satisfied. Yes, school is very important and yes, machines will jam if mixed with other stuff, even for Reploids. I would figure that’s how it’ll be if Axl’s who he is and being put under stress in a classroom. Isn’t it odd that a robot can’t memorize anything?
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 24, 2009 11:15:32 GMT -5
Well, I'm one day late, but to make it up to you guys, I'm posting Chapter 13 now and then Chapter 14 later in the day. Thanks all.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Thirteen: Sharks
The following day was the day the second batch remain in the Hunter HQ and undergo the same education of the previous day (History, Math and Geography) while the first batch went out on patrol duty. Axl wasn’t part of it so he went to store to work for the old sir, just like he promised.
That morning, X asked Axl if he wanted to go on, even though it was just his first day. Axl replied that he was already fine, and confirmed by his inhabitants, and he was willing to continue on the new education system. X also asked Lumine to not further threaten other Hunters, but all he got for a reply was a “Maybe”.
News had already got out far on Axl’s brand new aggressiveness to both batches, although the first batch felt more threatened. Some had tried accessing the Maverick Hunters online databases but ever since X got to know of Axl’s hacking in the same system around 2½ months ago to find out his past, it has been constantly updated and off limits to anyone but himself, so no one knew anything about Axl or his secret protector.
The day after all that, Axl was back to his original schedule and without private tutors. Some Hunters had already avoided him though some still preferred to sit with him. Undoubtedly, despite his best attempts to pass, he got failing grades for all tests of Living Skills, Computer Science and Core Sciences.
On the brighter note, Axl got to meet Layer after Core Sciences class and he was glad that he had a piece of good news for the day or accurately, evening.
“Alright Axl, Lumine, Iris. The program’s ready. I’ve already modified all data gathered from the unknown file detector of the advanced scanning machine into a Reploid-friendly form. It works perfectly into the prototype body. Any further modifications are also accepted. It’s all in here.”
Layer held out a compact disc from her lesson plans. Axl was pleased of the new development and so were the two inhabitants. “Thanks, Layer. When can we install this program into my system?”
“Now would be perfect timing. We must head to the mechanics room first.”
Axl couldn’t remember how many times he was strapped on tightly to the chair and had his head gem exposed to the connecting wires but he wasn’t bothered. All that mattered now was that the program be copied and sent directly into Axl’s head so that Lumine could receive it and start modifications.
Layer downloaded all contents from the compact disc with the computer. With a few more typing of code sequences, she sent in all data into Axl’s head.
Inside the computer brain, the trio were already expected something to happen. Indeed something did happen. Among the pitch-black surroundings and the flow of inactive data, a blue vertical whirl-like warp appeared and lots of the rectangles and squares started flowing out of it. Axl and Iris were pleased.
Lumine had emitted his purple aura from his hand to start accumulating all the data. All rectangles and squares regrouped to form a cube-like object. What stunned the other two was that Lumine held it and inserted the whole cube into himself via a cut.
“It’s all done. I’ve kept the program’s data as well as that of my own program inside my own data soul for safety. After that, I’ll create a unified program which will trace for all signatures based on White Axl’s data. Dear boy, tell her it’s all done.”
Layer had already proceeded to unbuckle the straps and free Axl. Axl then retreated on another chair and turned around to see Layer concerned for him.
“Lumine said thank you for the program. Modifications will be later, he says, and he’ll jumpstart a brand new scanning program inside me few days from now. We should be getting out the threat in no time at all. What’s with the look?”
“I’m just concerned for your welfare, that’s all. I hope the incident of the past doesn’t repeat again. The one where Lumine went… you know, ravaging at the Orbital Elevator. Given your body and this threat, there’s a high possibility.”
The white Reploid asked him to hush the topic away and proceed on with studying at the library. As much as he hated the library, he had no choice but to go on improving. Axl got up from his seat and was about to exit the door.
“Please don’t fail another test again, Axl.” That was Layer’s last sentence.
Two days later, it was day 100. Axl couldn’t believe how far he has already made it with Lumine by his side. Iris on other hand just sighed. For her, she had been alive, as in with a body, for nearly 14 years equivalent to around 5114 days. If she had her own story, today would have been day 5200 or something like that.
Axl got up from his resting pod. By right, he was supposed to attend another round of History, Math and Geography. But for some reason he had a quirky feeling something wrong was going to happen. Instead of heading to the cubicle for studying, he jumped off the window and assumed human form, surprising his inhabitants.
“Dear boy, what are you doing? We are supposed to be going for lectures!”
“Axl, why are you doing this? You’ll get into trouble!”
“Sorry, guys, but I just had this bad feeling something bad’s going to happen. Something about one of those we know will be in trouble. Real bad and serious. That one needs our help.”
“The only one who’s heading for trouble is you, Axl! Turn back!”
“Leave him, dear girl.” The girl turned around with a shocked look at Lumine.
“Lumine, are you nuts? Why is it that you’re always defending Axl for the wrong reasons? You’ve been attached to him too much already!!”
“It’s true I am attached to dear boy, but I have my limits, dear girl. Leave dear boy alone. If something bad is going to happen to anyone we know today, that’ll justify his actions. If not, you can just accuse him.”
In the end, Axl went to work in the old man’s store. The old sir was surprised that Axl had made it to the store as he had clearly remembered Axl’s schedule as he had to go to ‘school’ today. He assumed Axl was playing truant and he was going to get in trouble. In a way, the old man was right but Axl seemed to have no choice.
It was close to 8.30 in the morning and by now, X would have already noticed that Axl had skipped the lecture. Axl didn’t care about that or now; he was only worried for the old man for a now-secret reason. He kept on cleaning the windows.
Unknown to him, in the computer brain, his thoughts were being read by Lumine. Axl didn’t feel anything warm in his head, thanks to Lumine’s crafty skill. Eventually, the two inhabitants had their own chat.
“Seems that dear boy is worried for the old human. He noticed something odd going on and he was going to find out, no matter the cost.”
“What’s going on around here actually?”
“Based on dear boy’s thoughts, he became suspicious after the old human told him that he was free to leave the place and dear boy’s status of a rich Reploid was brought up for some reason. Why would he suddenly talk about dear boy’s cash, he thought. Dear boy decided to monitor him; and it has to be today.”
“How’s that possible? The odds of finding what’s wrong are very low, even for today! He’ll have to come back the after day if he’s-!” Lumine placed his finger on her lip.
“I know what you’re going to say, dear girl. You think dear boy will fail to find out what’s wrong. You see, this world is full of mystery. Large probabilities prevail all the time but at rare occasions, the smaller odds win the day.”
“In other words, I have a feeling dear boy will learn what he wants today.”
Iris sighed one more time and merely sat down on the pitch-black floor. She then hid her face under her arms which were holding her knees. The white Reploid turned his head away from her and looked on at what Axl is doing.
Several hours had passed and it was well into noon. Back at the HQ, X had Layer trace Axl’s location in the command room. X was furious that Axl had ditched classes, just as he predicted.
“Axl’s at the human outlet? He was just there yesterday! Try the infrared and heat scanners to see what’s going on!” Layer pressed on more keyboard buttons.
A clearer but relatively blur image was formed on the giant screen. It displayed Axl’s own heat waves along with two other types of heat waves from him as well, meaning his inhabitants. Outlines of furniture lay in place here and there. A few other heat wave displays were present; the old man and some customers.
“Try turning on his communicator. If it’s offline, hack into it!” Layer was well aware that X was getting more and more restless, so she hurried down on her work. Seconds later, the hacking was successful and anyone’s voice could be heard from a speaker.
“Alright, take your break now. Be back in one hour.”
“Okay, old sir! But I can always rush back, can’t I?”
In the store, Axl was about to walk out the store when the door banged roughly on the wall. Four burly men entered the store, all of them looking ugly and fat with black clothing. The first man pushed Axl aside roughly.
“Move aside, fry!” “Hey!” was Axl’s retort.
The old man immediately became afraid. He slowly moved his feet behind to try to reach the back door. He shivered more and more. He then tried to run away but he was too slow and the first man held on him tight.
The third and fourth men blocked the counter from being seen by anyone else. Axl then struggled to see what was going on. He knew he had the answer he wanted. The second guy snarled at the old man.
“Alright, old guy! Our boss wants the cash back real fast! Or else we’ll have to wreck this place up for good!” The old sir was very frightened.
“Please… I beg you… Give me some more time… I’ll pay up all the cash… Just don’t wreck me and my store! More time… is all I’m asking!”
“Our boss is very tired of waiting for you for the last 7 months! Either you settle it now or the store is settled for good!” “HEY!!”
The four guys turned around to their backs. They found themselves facing the ‘fry’ that the first guy swapped aside earlier. Axl was looking at them straight in the eye.
“So this is what it’s all about, old sir? They’re squeezing money out of you?”
“Stay out of this, you fry! Or else you’ll deal with us!” The other three guys let go of the old man and cracked their hands, preparing to put on a fight. Other 2 customers were scared and retreated to a corner. Axl was getting more cooked up.
“I say, deal with this!” Axl held out his right hand and his usual plasma bullet gun appeared on it. He shot tens of bullets at them but they all ended up cracking through the wall behind them. The four guys got scared.
“This guy’s got a gun, boss! He’s got a gun!”
“Weapons are illegal everywhere! How did you get one? They’re illegal!”
Axl smiled evilly at them. “Consider it a present from my dad! Now run along and leave the old sir! I don’t know what’s going on here but you’re squeezing nothing out of this old guy for cash! Tell your boss to wait one month or else!” Axl’s hand started to release the trigger. The four guys became more afraid.
“Alright! Alright! One month! Old man, you’re getting one more month to settle all the debts! Let’s get out of here!” They all ran by another round to the main entrance. Seeing they were all gone, Axl made his gun literally vanish and turned to the old man.
“You owe them cash? How’s that possible?”
The old man was too frightened to say anything. Someone then tapped on Axl’s shoulder and he was taken back when he saw Sue behind him.
“Maybe I can explain. I’m scared, Brownscar! You were facing death!”
Axl turned around and saw 2 other scared customers. He took a look at all their items, ignoring the frightened look on their faces and asked Lumine to count all items. The total turned out to be around two hundred fifty cash. Axl reached for his wallet and placed three hundred on the counter, turning to the 2 humans.
“All’s paid for. Now, just leave the store.” The 2 humans hurried away with the baskets, forgetting to return them back. Axl quickly shut the door and locked it tight. Sue was wondering what Axl was going to do.
“Someone please tell me, what’s going on around here?”
“Let’s go for a walk, Brownscar. I’ll tell everything.”
“No, here’s fine. Three of us, alone. I’m not walking down some lanes to know all this.” He removed his apron and placed it aside. “Let’s talk at the counter.”
The old man had retreated to his home above the store. Axl was sitting on the counter while Sue explained the situation over the munching of cake.
“The old sir’s been having some financial gap for the past eight months. Originally this store was supposed to be set up years ago to relieve his boredom when his children left to the far west Federation to work.”
“However, the work on renovation had dragged on as the children sent back cash only enough to support himself and not the store. The construction company demanded full payment from him. Then, this horrible guy showed up and offered him cash.”
“Who was that?” Axl asked her.
“I don’t know. He didn’t get the name of the man, only his looks. He got some several hundred thousand worth of cash from this horrible guy and the construction of the store was complete. The sales weren’t enough to settle the debts from this horrible guy and what’s worse, the interest gets higher.”
“In other words, this horrible guy is a loan shark.”
“Loan sharks? That system of borrowing is long forbidden in the Federation! How come old sir didn’t report to the police? They should know!”
Sue brushed her blonde hair a little. “He never wanted to tell anyone else besides me about this. He had made a deal with them and they only thing they did was halting the interest. In the end, he owes them close to a million cash.”
The trio were shocked. “WHAT? This shark can’t really expect much from an old guy and he knows it! He’s just a big bully!”
“I tried to help but he rejected my offer. He said he wanted to solve all this by himself, but it’s plain impossible. Even if you tried to help, he would have rejected it. It was nice of you to reject your pay. It’s easing his burden.”
“Man, I feel sorry for the old guy.” Silence prevailed for the time being.
Sue started speaking again. “I was very brave of you to brush off those men. They really mean business when beating up other people. I’m amazed of you, Brownscar. First the teleporting device, the expensive diner and now you own a gun? There’s hardly anyone around here like you. You’re such a dear.”
“Er… thanks I guess. I was just doing what I felt what right at the time.”
Sue then just remembered something important. “Say, do you know who I met while I was with my dad at some hotel at the far south west Big City? Lumine!”
Axl was shaking slightly but that went unnoticed. “I knew it! You do know the Reploid! The flowers were nice although it’s entirely metal. Thanks! Oh you won’t believe the time I had with him! Ballroom dancing and talking! It was great!”
Lumine had already vanished to somewhere else when Axl blinked to see his inhabitants and he only spotted a giggling Iris. “He’s got no comment, Axl.”
“So, Sue, are you still suspicious of him as a Maverick?”
“Oh no! He changed my entire perception of him just during that night itself. He’s a gentleman, only a Reploid child of mister Prez, the heir of the largest market supplier in the world. Hey, that’s it! Maybe if you ask him for his help to solve this problem for once and for all, that would be great!”
“What?!” Axl was very taken back by the suggestion. He tried to find his way out of this complication. “I dunno. I hardly meet him and even if we did, er… we only had talks for minutes or so. He’s an exclusive friend!”
“Yeah, but besides mister Prez, you’re the only one around here who is able to get up close to him! C’mon, for the old sir!” Axl couldn’t avoid the puppy eyes.
“Oh, alright. I’ll try my best but I don’t know if he will reply.”
On the other side, Layer and X heard everything. Fortunately the volume was low or else, it could have attracted a lot more attention than they wanted. They exchanged looks.
That evening, Axl returned back to the HQ, dragged down after spending the rest of the day with the old man and doing his regular chores. He was hoping to get some well-deserved rest and explain the entire day to X the following day.
However, Zero had dragged Axl along to X’s office where the Supreme Commander, Alia and Pallette were already well-informed of the situation in the afternoon.
“Axl, that was brave of you. Thank goodness no one knew you were a Hunter. So, the old man you are working for is under pressure to pay a loan shark? That’s bad.”
“Axl, X has pardoned your truancy and decided to grant you a short class in replacement for today’s lesson! It’d just be a short while, don’t worry!”
The Reploid had no choice but to comply with Pallette.
It was just like X had promised: the three lecturers took around 30 minutes each to present their lessons of the day. Another set of tests were also presented as usual and Axl took them first. It turned out that Axl’s work was starting to pay off: he got a ‘D’ for History but still had ‘F’ for the other two subjects.
Lumine once again got his triple A grade which X said had never been achieved by other Hunters so far. Iris just congratulated Axl for his improvement whereas Lumine got none; and he was fine with that.
Axl felt his tire gone and decided to take a little walk around the HQ. It turns out that the south wing facilities was nearing completion and the aid of 6000 new Maverick Hunters would be coming soon. Axl then retreated to the 54th floor rooftop.
“Hey, it had already stopped snowing! It’s spring!” True to Iris’ claims, the rooftop floor was filled with shallow puddles of water. “It’s three seasons we’ve been through together! Autumn, winter and now spring!”
“Hm.” Axl leaned on the fence railing of the rooftop. “Lumine, I think we should help the old sir. The shark problem is really taking him out. We can’t just stand here doing nothing. We should go for help!”
“I agree, dear boy.” He resorted to some thinking. “Maybe we should ask father for his help. Speaking of which, we’ve never heard of him since he socialite affair. The reports of your… education should have reached him by now. I don’t know why he’s not replying suddenly.”
Iris jumped forward to meet them, of course in the computer brain could she only do that while Axl’s in control. “I say we visit father now. It’s only 8.30 at night. We might catch him.”
“Alright, then. Let’s go.” Axl assumed human form and teleported away.
Continued in Chapter 14.
Notes: Well, that’s more development in this chapter. More coming up in the next chapters.
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 25, 2009 4:41:51 GMT -5
And thus, I am back with today's true update. Enjoy.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Fourteen: Assignments
The trio-in-one Reploid made it in an instant to mister Prez’s giant industrial grounds. Axl led them outside the giant south wing entrance gates, donning his usual human form. He was about to just ring the security doorbell when the good-old usual security guard went out to greet him.
“Mister Axler, mister Prez is not in the grounds at the moment. More accurately, he hasn’t been in the grounds for the past one whole week ever since he went north.”
The three were puzzled. “What happened to him?”
“He left this message for you. I’m sure it explains it all. Have a nice day.” The guard handed Axl a thin envelope and retreated behind the giant iron gates. Eager to satisfy the curiosity, Axl ripped the envelope and uncovered a letter.
‘To the three of you, I’ve been gone on a ten-day trip around the Federation. Just after the funeral, I’ve received invitations from the corporation branches to inspect some brand new sites. I must go and settle things as fast as possible so I can have more time back here.’
“Aw, great. What will we do then?”
“Axl, keep on reading!” Iris pressured him to further read the letter.
‘However, if you feel like it, I’ve prepared some coordinates for you so you could teleport here. At the same time, you are also welcome to make the full use of any facilities here, be it for leisure or your education. Love from, Dad.’
‘P.S. I have yet to read the reports about your trial grades. Don’t disappoint me.’
Lumine smiled. “Dear boy, you’re in for a lot of trouble. I hope you don’t disappoint him too badly with all the red letters of ‘F’ you had.”
“Grr.. enough, Lumine! Let’s not talk about that part again!”
Iris halted anymore possibility of further argument by changing the topic. “So, Axl, want to give the coordinates a try? I bet you missed father badly.”
“Not that badly. No, I’m not giving it a try.”
“Dear boy, why not? You can always visit father anytime though.”
“He’s pretty busy now and he’s an old man too. I can’t just disturb him like that while he’s on an official business. I might screw something up. Hey, I better get back to the HQ now. I have to get us some rest.”
His inhabitants felt quite sad but they couldn’t force Axl so much against his will. The next thing they knew, the sleeping programs had overwhelmed them and they descended into comfort from the sleep.
2 days later, Axl was back again in being part of the first batch of Hunters going for lecture classes the whole day. This time, the wild whispers of him had long deceased and the day’s lessons were Living Skills, Computer Science and Core Sciences.
The white Reploid appeared to be quite tired because he had spent the whole day and night yesterday drafting up a brand new scanning program for the body. The bright note was that he had finished drafting parts and was ready to create the final product and that this session of classes was to be the last of trial tests.
Axl paid attention and tried to memorize everything Zero said during Living Skills lecture while the white Reploid was catching some shut-eye. Iris had tended to him during the 2 hour sleep. Amazingly, Lumine still managed the triple A grade.
The next lesson was Computer Science. Axl had expected another dreaded test to fail again but this time, X had changed his mind. He was going to start a new test system early in spite of the next session’s schedule: assignments and personal grading.
“Class, listen up. There’ll be no such thing as the trial tests anymore. However, I’ll start to give out assignments not so frequently to all of you so I can really know how far your practical knowledge goes. Here are your assignments.”
Axl received an icon which looked like a test pad on the computer screen. He clicked it open and received two assignments: one for him and the other for Lumine. Lumine didn’t see that as he was in deep sleep. Iris tried to wake him up gently.
‘For Axl: your assignment is to create a simple calculation program which can do basic calculations. Only the following software program is permitted. (Name of software) It is due in 4 days time. P.S. No help from Lumine at all.’
‘For Lumine: your assignment is to create and design a simple holographic device which can relay greeting messages. Also due in 4 days.’
Axl frowned and moaned slightly over the assignments. At the same time, Iris had managed to get Lumine to wake and he saw the assignment notice too. Upon finished reading Axl’s note, he gave out a small laugh.
“Pity for you, dear boy. It seems I can’t help you at all again. As much as I hate to admit it, X’s right. We’ll see how far your knowledge is applied.”
After the lecture, Axl had stayed behind to personally protest to X for the assignment.
“X, can’t I have another assignment? This one you gave is tough!”
“Axl, it’s the easiest one. I’ve deliberately set this one apart from the others for you. Creating a simple calculator with a computer software is no problem. That’s why Hunters are required to use all resources from the library or any other facilities, if possible. The assignments are designed to test your knowledge application and are also tools of improvement. Go on, I know you have Core Sciences next.”
Axl retreated back to his cubicle and placed his head on the table. He was going through a brainstorm of thinking ideas of how to make it through this assignment. In his point-of-view, it was very difficult to accomplish.
Iris only watched on as Axl took out paper and pencils and began sketching designs. He knew the program to do the assignment and since it involved partly layout design, he tried to at least get rid of that ‘burden’.
“Lumine, aren’t you going to help Axl? Like you always do?”
“I’m sorry, dear girl. Commander X forbade me to do so. If I helped, dear boy would get an ‘A’ but X will still be suspicious. You know about that rule, something about honesty and all those sets, it’s best to practice them.”
“Lumine, c’mon! You know how far Axl’s going in this education! He’ll barely make it! Father’s going to be disappointed when he’s found out!”
They looked back at Axl wincing at himself. “Aw man! At least that layout design’s done! Now, what do I have to do to translate all that methods into instructions? I know what program to use but the only thing is I don’t know how to type them out!”
“I have to do this myself for some reason! It’s as though X doesn’t trust me! What is it that’s so bad with me that I must do this assignment alone?”
The inhabitants were stumped by that comment. It was because of Lumine’s presence in Axl that caused X to put such restrictions on Axl, since Lumine’s the smart one. X wouldn’t want the white Reploid’s smarts to be so easily ‘accessible’ by Axl.
Axl resumed to his grumbling. “Even if I use the computer labs at the east wing, I wouldn’t get any seat at all. Other Hunters would have already taken all of them! I need somewhere quiet and personal, all to myself…”
His body suddenly jerked to stand up from his chair so violently.
“Hey! Lumine, did you do that? That’s rude of you!!”
“Of course it’s me, dear boy. It’s just a rough reminder that it’s five minutes to our next class, Core Sciences, and it takes you ten minutes to get there from this seat.”
“Oh no! I’m late!” Axl rushed off to the east wing lecture halls.
Apparently, X was the only one to start giving out assignments ahead of the proper schedule because Layer still gave out the trial tests, and this was her last. Axl had no idea how to comprehend the laws of physics so he got the usual red ‘F’ mark.
Layer had another private talk with Axl; in the eyes of other Hunters that was going to be the norm because Axl always fails. But, her talks weren’t the usual scolds and emphasis on studies any ordinary lecturer would give; Layer would always ask Axl about his body conditions and Lumine.
“Oh right. Lumine says he’s got the basic draft for the whole set and he’ll start creating it later. Right now, we both have to concentrate on assignments.”
“Oh…” Layer said nothing at first. “X already started out his assignment-giving. I see… You do realize I’ll be giving yours the next lesson, with a deadline of four days?”
“I guess so. Anyway, I’ll try to score higher in the future. See ya.”
Axl joined the sea of Hunters walking forth here and there. He folded his arms and did some deep thinking while walking. He was desperate in need for a facility he could use but only that it all belonged to his sole use.
“Other places… Of course! Dad’s grounds! It’s perfect!”
“That took dear boy long enough to figure it out.” “I heard that, Lumine!”
Despite the fact it was late evening, the grounds were still functioning. The machines were still working and humans and Reploids still present. The directors were still meeting over a talk concerning Prez. It then all came to an end suddenly.
“Humans, you are all dismissed. Go back home.”
“Oh, sir! We were just talking about the corporation’s new budget! We can’t be dismissed now! It’s an important decision to make!”
“Do I have to repeat myself?” The directors were compelled with no choice but to halt their conference and retreat back to their homes. The heir apparent sighed to himself as every part of the grounds halt their activity and the places darkened and the doors were locked tight.
“Really, dear boy. If you wanted privacy that’s fine, but you didn’t have to clear the entire grounds of father! Besides, everyone only gets out by 7 in the evening.”
“Well, at least I get to mess around here! Now hurry and do your assignment, Lumine! I didn’t give you full control of the body to slack off my time!”
Thanks to Axl’s ridiculous prank, the trio had the entire grounds to themselves, except for the presence of security guards. What made the prank even more ridiculous was that they only needed to use the electronic facility in Prez’s tower mansion and Axl made Lumine clear the entire grounds for nothing.
A frustrated Lumine merely entered the elevator of the tower mansion and proceeded to the 35th floor. There lay every single component the white Reploid needed to finish his assignment; he wanted to finish it quick so he could use further time to develop the scanning program for the prototype body.
He went on to sketch his own design of schematics and how the holographic device would look like. He was doing all his best to rush on his assignment for dear boy’s sake, but his patience was also being tested at the same time.
“Lumine, what’s that shiny light bulb component? Is it a chip?”
“No dear boy, it’s an enhanced LED transmitter. It’s going to project the hologram.”
“What about the bulky device at that corner? And those bolts?”
“Dear boy, that is a stack of engineered chips which I will mould to the circuit board and those ‘bolts’ are enhanced capacitors. Please, dear Axl, I’ll be most grateful if you’ll just stay shut for the meantime. I’m doing this for you.”
“The device is for me? That’s not my assignment.”
“Uh! I’m rushing here for you, dear boy. Please don’t ask any more questions!”
After 2½ hours of non-stop engineering and Iris pinning down Axl for him, Lumine had completed his assignment: a simple holographic device that relays greeting messages. No one except him knew what the syntax language he had written out meant so he had figured his presentation was a good surprise for everyone on the day it was to be handed up for grading.
“Alright, dear boy. You can start on yours now.” Lumine rapidly gave the body back to Axl and the blue-red Reploid was very stressed out.
“Oh great! What do I do? I know there’s a set of books around here on this!”
“Axl! What about the books on that shelf over there? Maybe that can be of help to you!” Axl wordlessly dashed over to the shelves and grabbed every single book possible and quickly ran through them. He also decided to make a run through the syntax program’s small guide of typing codes.
As for the books, the more he ran through them, the more irrelevant they became. The first few books talked about programs and as he went on, they talked from devices to technical management. Axl got more frustrated. Iris had to butt in.
“Axl, can you just delay the assignment for a day or two? It won’t… hurt?”
“Iris, you don’t understand. Every alternate day, I’ll have to either concentrate on studying and other things or go to the old sir’s shop the whole day. I want to work harder to at least settle the debts for him, and now I have assignments. I’ll miss the bedtime limit and X will kill me if I stay up in the library. I don’t have time! I’ll have to do this now!”
Iris decided not to interfere with Axl anymore. Lumine, working on the scanning program for the body, stopped to watch Axl talk for a while. He also paused to do some thinking, hanging his head down. He then resumed his work.
Hours later passed by. It was already close to 11 o’clock. By now, some in the security room would’ve noticed that Axl’s pod was blinking empty and X would have been notified. Axl didn’t care. He finally found what he wanted and tried to make the most sense out of it. Iris watched on helplessly.
The examples were so hard for Axl to understand. His face bore a squirmish look as he got more frustrated. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.
“AAAHH! That’s it! I give up! I can’t understand a single thing at all!”
His two inhabitants were shocked by the sudden rupture of fury. Inside the computer brain, Lumine suddenly halted his work and Iris fell backwards as Axl seemed to emit huge amounts of his dark blue aura. They looked on at him.
“Four days for this stupid assignment and I barely had time! What’s the use anyway? I might as well flunk all the assignments just because I’m so stupid!!”
Iris wanted to rebuke him but Lumine halted her with his wall of dark purple aura. He shook his head slightly to say it wasn’t wise to interrupt Axl now.
“So I’m officially the dumbest Reploid around here! So far, in my mind all this while, only fighting Mavericks had ever mattered to me! I didn’t care about anything else! No matter how much I’ve tried, I just can’t improve! I’m so useless! I’m going to disappoint dad for sure!!” He clutched his right fists tightly and looked down on the floor. For the third time, tears rolled down his from eyes.
Unexpectedly, a very warm feeling inside him covered him. The tears had stopped rolling and his fists were open wide. His left hand moved by its own and patted his right shoulder calmly. After the patting stopped, he shut his eyes gently.
Lumine had emitted the aura and was now levitating right behind Axl and he was at a height in such a way his hands nicely fitted on Axl’s shoulders. Iris wasn’t so far away from them and she watched the whole thing. Lumine flew in front of Axl, hands still held gently on the shoulders.
“Dear boy, if this really caused you so much trouble,” he gave a gentle smile at Axl “I’ll be willing to help you complete this assignment.”
“But Lumine, what about the order refraining you from helping me at all? You’ve got to finish the scanning program before something terrible happens!”
“All’s well, dear boy. Of course I’ll help you, but not in such a way that it seems I did all your work. Did you really think I’ll obey orders from others so easily? Besides, rules are meant to be broken. I must ask you a favour though.”
“Promise me that you’ll try your best to learn and score high, if possible, like me. I guess I have to coach you myself, then. I don’t care what the cost, if I rest less or I lose some time. It’s all for you, dear boy. We don’t want father to be disappointed, do we?”
“…Thanks, Lumine. I owe you a lot.”
“I know you can do this, dear boy. I just know you can score higher. Besides, you’re my host. I can’t bear to watch you being harmed in any way at all. I’ll just save my progress on the program for now and I’ll teach you.”
Iris just smiled with some pride at watching them. The white Reploid has really become more and more attached and concerned for their welfare, especially Axl.
“Let’s see where you went wrong in the beginning, dear boy. Firstly, you ought to pay more attention to X when he was going through the basics of code typing. Secondly, the book you wanted” – Axl somehow reached out to one of them – “was this one. You missed the part about guidelines to code typing. You had wasted hours on other stuff.”
Axl hung his head down in front of Lumine. Iris only giggled softly.
“What are you waiting for, dear boy? Let’s get started.”
The white Reploid thus embarked on a ‘mission’ to educate Axl. Slowly, bit by bit, he showed Axl the various errors and proper procedures to write down things the correct way. Axl was able to get the hang of it some time later. Soon, he had managed to produce his own kind of work and the result was satisfactory. The whole night was indeed not wasted.
“Congratulations, Axl! You did it! Your own work!” Axl smiled to himself as he removed the storage device from the computer and held it in his hands.
“Nice one, dear boy. Soon, I will help you get back together all the rest of the lectures. It will take time but I know you can do it. If you don’t mind, you’d better bring us back to your place before X launches another search party for you.”
At the HQ, several guards had already been designated to search the whole place. Navigators began their search around the Big City for Axl. They had detected Axl at Prez’s place for just a second before the scanners showed him back at the HQ.
Lumine had mischievously taken control from Axl and his full from was displayed. When security Reploid reached the rooftop along with X, they were shocked to see the white Reploid there. They armed their guns at him but Lumine held out his left hand with an evil smile, holding a sphere of purple aura.
“I don’t suppose you want me to make molten scrap out of you, do you?”
The guards hesitantly lowered their weapons while X glared on at the white Reploid. Lumine merely walked forward and down the stairs to the 54th floor. He was quick enough to pass on a message to X before they reached the corridors and the guards entered back.
“I need you to allow dear boy to rest in your office. It’s rather an emergency at the moment so I can’t explain as of yet.” Just before releasing grasp of the controls, X gave him a small nod. When the guards returned, they were confused that Lumine was gone.
Axl later had access to the Supreme Commander’s office. While he laid himself down on the sofa without any intention to ask the white Reploid’s motives, Iris came in.
“What’s your plan this time?”
“I would prefer not to rest, dear girl. The program’s halfway on completion. Now, just go rest like dear boy while I’m alone working on the program.”
Continued in Chapter 15.
Notes: That wraps it up! Technology is truly amazing. Imagine a smart Reploid getting brainless. By the way, we humans do have the code typing software as one of the Microsoft Office programs. Anonymity is maintained. If referred to Axl Story Continuation chapter 9, Axl cried for his first time.
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 26, 2009 1:12:11 GMT -5
Something exciting and maybe traumatic for now!
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Fifteen: Resistance
Several hours later, it was close to 5 in the morning. Axl was sleeping just nicely on the sofa. Inside him, he was unaware of his inhabitants being awake. It seems that Iris had refused to sleep because she wanted to watch Lumine do configuration to the program. The white Reploid had no choice but to oblige.
Lumine certainly had been working hard on the program and was determined to make the best out of every resource he had. It wasn’t easy, even for him, to draft out a prototype program out of nothing inside the body. Layer’s assistance was merely an upgrade. He had to make sure he had traced every single Maverick remnant of him and they be dealt with full, merciless force.
For reasons unknown, Axl just woke up from the sofa and stood back up. His inhabitants were surprised and instantly urged him to sleep some more. Axl rebuked back at them.
“I would feel it better to sleep in my resting pod. It’s not comfortable here.”
“That’s why I asked you to sleep here, dear boy. Forgive me, dear boy, but the pod ejects that sleeping program into us; it’s so powerful that I can’t even stop its effects. Even if I could, most of my energy will be drained. Right now itself, I am already very tired. I can’t afford to lose time now that the program’s almost complete.”
“Hah! You should have said that hours ago. Alright, but at least I’ll be sleeping at my cubicle. That will do, won’t it?” After he got a silent nod, he dashed out of X’s office.
He had already ensured the office door was locked so there should be no problems now that he could secure another few hours sleep. Leaning heavily on his chair with his legs both on the desk, he shut his eyes to sleep.
“Gosh, I’m still so tired. I have got to stop sleeping late and get enough rest. Hey, where’s everyone?” He looked around and saw no one around in the pitch-black darkness of the space. Then, a small glow of light appeared at a faraway spot.
He rushed there and from a distance, he spotted Iris, sitting on the floor, watching a levitating Lumine stretching his hands outward. His hands were supporting a giant sphere of purple aura and inside were circulating million bits of rectangle and square-shaped data packets. His eyes were shut.
“Hm. One more step and all is complete. Oh? Dear boy?”
Iris turned around and saw Axl staring at the giant purple sphere. Lumine’s eyes were still shut as he was concentrating on his final adjustments to the code encrypting and data packets.
“Axl? We told you to sleep-!” She was almost immediately stopped by Lumine.
“It’s okay. He came just on time. The program’s done. HAH!”
The shout made them fall back a little. Lumine held on his right hand further and the dark purple aura glowed brighter. The squares and rectangles rapidly circulated and regrouped to form a giant sphere, covered with many squares and lines. A bit data was separated and formed a small box with a round button.
The aura was then reabsorbed back into Lumine’s palm. The white Reploid landed back on the pitch-black floor with open eyes and a smile. “The merging of two programs is done. This new advanced one will detect other personalities besides us and instantly trap them. The good news is that it’s wired in every joint and circuit in the body. A hundred percent. Their destruction commence upon my immediate order.”
“Dear boy, would you like to do the honours? It hasn’t been activated yet. Anyone who touches it will activate the entire structure but I rather not do it. It’s ready for you anytime.” Axl was stunned.
“Er… sure. I’ll do it.” Axl walked out forward and slowly reached out for the button-like projection. The instant he touched it, it glowed and was ‘pulled’ back into the giant data sphere. Iris and Axl watched with awe while Lumine folded his arms.
The globe of data glowed out a bright white colour and began to disintegrate. Seconds later, all of its parts have dispersed in the pitch-black airs. The entire inside of Axl’s computer brain glowed out the outlines of circuit components with flashy colours. Then, the groups of disintegrated data sped far away in all directions. The sound of codes running was all they heard after that.
Iris turned to the white Reploid. “What’s happening now?”
He smiled back. “The moment dear boy activates the program, it has been installed in this body. It is now connected to every single component of the physical structures and every other space imaginable. The program is now searching for our criminal. There’s no escape.”
At the spot where the three of them were standing, a red alarm went off. Axl and Iris turned around and saw the surroundings all blinking red. The white Reploid was pleased with himself, for all his work was paid off.
“The criminal has been found. Follow me.”
Axl didn’t know how to ‘tour’ around his own body since he was the controlling personality; so when Lumine was about to vanish, he quickly grabbed hold of Iris’ hand and he was taken away with her to the destination.
Just seconds later, Lumine halted his steps. He turned around to see Iris landing on the pitch-black floor; her hand holding on to Axl’s and gently let it go.
“We have the criminal. He’s just there.” Axl and Iris stared in awe forward of them. The same silver-like data, just as Lumine had described to them, was trapped in a giant cube-like prison which looked to be made of metal pieces welded together here and there. All of its walls are invisible but displayed sparks here and there.
Axl walked to Lumine. “He? Looks like more of an object. Where are we?”
“He, dear boy, he. It’s a personality, mixed with both our elements and features but not so fully developed. That’s why we call it ‘he’. We are at the chest, close to the nuclear chamber and your other gem.”
Iris firstly walked forward towards the prison-like projection. Axl also did the same. They looked on the 3-foot-odd strand of silver data, wriggling on the floor bit by bit. No contact was achieved and it was impossible to tell if it had intelligence.
Axl shrugged his shoulders. “Well, what do we do now?”
The white Reploid made a mean glare at Axl. “What else do we do? Destroy it, of course. It attempted to merge us twice and cause harm, except for dear girl. There was no doubt about the injuries and pain you suffered from them.”
“I will need your permission to destroy it, dear boy. Now’s the time.”
Suddenly, the silver data trapped in the prison shone so brightly of silver light, or more accurately aura. The aura thus solidified a little and began to expand in a shape of a globe. When it came in touch with the prison, sparks fiercely flew here and there, trying to contain the force and the prisoner.
“Everyone, get down!” Axl called on his inhabitants to shield themselves. The three of them got on the floor to protect themselves. The prison structure was giving it all its best to contain White Axl.
Somehow the prison structure itself was overwhelmed by White Axl’s force. The structure thus disintegrated to its data fragments due to the resulting explosion. The silver data was levitating in the air with its glowing silver aura. The three were shocked to see that. The aura then was dissolved into the looks of White Axl.
“He has our powers, dear boy. Be careful, you two.”
“Yeah, we know-! Lumine, watch out!” Iris screamed out. The silver data spread itself to look huge and wide and it charged towards Lumine. His eyes grew wide but thanks to quick action, he protected himself with his purple aura.
The two of them clashed together. Axl and Iris pulled themselves back, far from the clash. Lumine appeared to be not struggling against the White Axl data so heavily. He saw no difficulty in protecting himself; rather it was White Axl who had to struggle to absorb Lumine. He began to encapsulate Lumine’s aura.
“Lumine!” Iris called out his name. The other two felt helpless as they did not know what to do. The white Reploid gave no reply.
It seemed as though Lumine was winning the battle. However, Lumine saw one particular ability that White Axl had which White Axl used to overpower him so suddenly. He let out a loud yell over wide eyes.
White light shone ever so brightly. Iris couldn’t take the sight and she wanted to fall down but Axl had already reached out to her and held on her firmly. Iris shielded herself under Axl’s cover and her hands firmly gripped Axl’s shoulders.
A minute later, the battle was over. A form emerged from the vanishing light. It was White Axl, having a structure which looked like a Reploid body. He had Lumine’s mean yellow eyes but that was all of his new form that was distinct.
“What?! Lumine!!” Axl cried out while staring at the enemy.
Darting an evil eye at Axl, White Axl charged most rapidly at him and gathered energy at his fist and gave him a blow in the stomach area. Axl was merely stunned for a while and he replied back by also giving White Axl a blow on the face.
Axl got back to his feet while White Axl was thrown to the floor. Iris saw some hope that Axl may perhaps silence the copy of him and save Lumine. She retreated to a corner and cheered for Axl.
“Axl! C’mon, you can do it! I believe in you!”
“Thanks, Iris. C’MON, YOU MAVERICK!!”
White Axl dashed forward with a speed similar to Lumine’s. Being careful all he could, he jumped to various places of the pitch-black area to avoid White Axl. He was doing fairly good in dodging White Axl’s rapid punches and kicks. He even managed to roll under White Axl and deliver a blow.
White Axl was definitely not going to give up. He needed to contain Axl inside of him desperately for some reason, and he continued on.
This time, White Axl used more strength, dashing at Axl so quick he grabbed hold of Axl’s head and delivered a stronger blow of a punch at Axl’s stomach area.
“GWAAAAHH!”
Axl never felt more painful before. He was left stunned in the midair while White Axl still dived his fist deep on Axl.
It was pain he never felt. The pain was far worse than that of Lumine forcibly entering him, or when he was electrocuted most heavily, or when Iris sacrificed herself to save X and Zero. Having no resistance any longer, he passed out on the spot.
“AXL!!” Iris cried harder and harder. She had never seen more sickening events before. The tears rolled more on her cheeks. She cried as she saw White Axl open a deep cut on his form and forced Axl into it. White Axl glowed more just when the cut was sealed up. Iris had no one to support her from the blinding flashes.
Outside in the physical world, Axl lay on his chair motionless. His eyes were frozen wide open and his cornea glowed black, not green. At 5.20 a.m., no one noticed this body lay motionless as they were still sleeping in their respective pods.
Iris stood at her corner trembling at the sight of a more distinct form of White Axl. His form bore a slight distinct look of Axl’s body outlines, from the helmet to his boots. He bore Lumine’s mean yellow eyes and a nice nose but he had no two lips and that of Axl’s scar. Turning around behind, he looked at Iris.
She trembled with little fear in her heart, wondering what the Maverick copy of Axl would do to her. She still remained where she was as White Axl walked slowly to her.
To Iris’ surprise, the Maverick copy merely stopped not so far away from her and knelt down at her. He even lowered his head so down till the floor. Fulfilling her curiosity, she walked forward till his head.
“What do you want from me? Aren’t you going to merge me as well?!”
White Axl only shook his head left and right. He picked up her hand and lowered his head gently on it. “It must be a sign of respect. But why…?” Iris thought to herself. For a few seconds, nothing happened. Then, White Axl only put her hand back and stood in front of Iris.
Iris still didn’t know what to do. She wanted to forcefully separate her friends from the Maverick and also wanted to know what’s going on. Her state of confusion prevented her from doing anything. White Axl moved a few paces back and emitted his own aura, silver in colour. Iris was shocked.
“He’s trying to take over Axl’s body! Not good! What do I do? Oh…”
She refreshed back the two previous incidents where Axl and Lumine were going to be merged. As a guest of the body, she had always been dependent and fine with Axl’s actions. The two of them had given instructions for her what to do to set them separate. This time, they were gone. What would she do?
“Be strong…” That was what mister Prez had always said to them.
“Believe in yourself!” “I know you can do it!” Those were Axl’s and Lumine’s sentences, respectively. Finally she couldn’t tolerate White Axl any more.
“WAAHH!!” She screamed out all her might, shocking White Axl suddenly, and she charged forward to him. The tears dropped in slow motion on the pitch-black floor and her right hand was stretched out with her pink aura globe on it.
Since White Axl was too surprised to act anything fast, Iris had pierced a deep cut into his chest so she could gain access to the various threads and data inside the personality. Electric jolts came out of the cut but all ran into another direction, thus avoiding the poor girl. With tears, she dived deeper.
“Guys, I know you are all here! Say anything! Do anything!!”
Iris accidentally messed with the nervous data thus stunning White Axl. He could have stopped her from going on but he mysteriously didn’t. As Iris went on deeper, she found he knots that bonded the other two so tightly to White Axl.
“GAAAH!!” With a final push of stronger energies, her aura ripped apart every single thread and knot inside White Axl, thus causing a massive explosion in the computer brain. Iris was thrown back far away and she saw two familiar shadows headed her way.
“Aaaahh! Uhh!!” Lumine was the first to crash-land on the floor and was followed by Axl. “Waaah! Urghh!” The blue-red Reploid apparently crash-landed on the white Reploid’s back.
“Guys! You’re all okay! What were you doing back there?!”
“Dear boy, get off me this instant! Dear girl? You saved us again! That Maverick tried to downgrade us to mere conscious and opposing thoughts! In other words, we were supposed to be his mind and intelligence!”
“Yeah, he tried to take over our entire map of nerves and bring the body to his subjugation! It’s so eerie, you know! Made to be his mind and thoughts! Where is he anyway?”
Not far away, a battered form of White Axl emerged from the floor. He has slightly-disconnected data fragments all around him and his eye expression was full of evil.
“Iris, I’ve got an idea! Come with me! Lumine, start configuring a prison which doesn’t break no matter how much strength he uses!” Axl said.
“Of course, dear boy.” Lumine levitated and started his work. Iris only nodded to Axl and dashed along with Axl towards White Axl. With lightning speed, Axl delivered a strong blow of a punch directly on White Axl’s face.
Obviously, White Axl got angrier and charged up his own energy and began to chase Axl. He managed to catch up Axl and was about to deliver a punch on Axl’s head gem when Axl yelled out:
“Iris, stand in front of him and stun him! Now!”
Iris instantly surfaced in front of White Axl and the Maverick copy halted him steps. He appeared to be shaking in fear with his eyes wide open. His fist full of strength was also shaking as it dared not give the punch to Iris. Iris merely held out her hand and emitted her aura, stunning White Axl.
Axl smirked at his copy and clamped his fists together. “This one’s for the first punch earlier!” He dashed on top of his copy and smashed them directly on his head the moment Iris absorbed back her aura.
Without wasting a second, Axl gave him another smash of a fist. “This one’s for the second punch!” This time, he got his copy a strong kick. “This one’s for Lumine!” Another kick on the back. “This one’s for Iris!” Finally, Axl presented his last blow. “This one’s from the three of us!’
The last blow smashed Axl’s copy onto the pitch-black floor real hard. White Axl soon grew tired from all the hits and he thus fell on the ground. He had not much strength left to fight back. Then, the alarm rang again.
From nowhere, component data emerged and grouped together to form a relatively large and sturdy cube with five glass surfaces and one hole at the bottom. The metal-like prison-like projection dropped down thus trapping White Axl.
White Axl picked up enough strength to charge at one of the translucent glass surface but he was repelled back by a much-stronger electric jolt. He emitted some silver flames but bounced back and injured him instead.
Lumine smiled evilly at him. “Controlling data is just so much fun. I should have found a subject such as you to test out all my experiments a long time ago.”
“Lumine! … It’s good to have you back. And you too, Axl.”
“Thank you, dear girl. Now, where were we before I was interrupted? Yes, we were just about to delete you to millions of pieces, White Axl. Don’t worry, this won’t hurt a bit.” He held up his hand and powered up his flaming aura of purple.
“NO! Stop!!” Iris firmly held back Lumine’s right hand. Lumine stared back with a weird face. “Unbelievable. This copy of dear boy aims to destroy us all and you wish to spare him? What’s your rationale behind this?”
“It’s not wise to delete him now! We still don’t know why he only attacked you both and not me! Besides, how could a dormant data suddenly turn into a Maverick personality? Isn’t that right, Axl?” Axl tried to find an answer.
“Yeah… I guess you’re right. If we want to know all the answers, we need to ask him. I think… he lacks communication capabilities for now. We don’t have a choice. Lumine, stop your act now.” The white Reploid lowered his hand and stared down on the floor, doing some deep thinking.
He turned back up. “Very well, dear boy. I trust you do know what you are doing. It’s settled then. White Axl is to remain intact in this prison for now. When I feel like it, I’ll program some speech capabilities for him. Right now, I’m only concerned about getting some rest. It’s been nearly 24 hours dear girl and I have been awake. I suggest we return to dear boy’s head and reactivate the body before we get some rest.”
They vanished off, leaving White Axl encased inside a prison somewhere inside the body. Axl had managed to regain control of his body back before he really dozed off to sleep. “It’s not much, but at least we’ll sleep for a few hours before Axl heads to work.”
Iris was about to sleep when she looked at the other two. Lumine was already on an invisible hammock and Axl was lying straight on the floor. She smiled to herself, knowing they’ve solved a big problem and they could rest with ease.
Continued in Chapter 16.
Notes: Hurray! White Axl is caught! About what Prez, Lumine and Axl said, there’re the exact words. Can be referred to Chapter 4. Let’s see how they catch their sleep. Just how did White Axl crack through Lumine’s shield?
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 27, 2009 1:57:42 GMT -5
Today's update. Enjoy your reading!
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Sixteen: Sleepless
When the battle with White Axl had been won, it was already 5.39 a.m. of day 103, the same day. The trio were exhausted from all the fights they’ve put up just to silence the Maverick copy of Axl. They thought they were going to earn a nice rest for coming hours. They were wrong.
They had slept for only 2 or so hours, since Axl had to assume his human form, rush down 5 districts away and perform his job at the old man’s store. Although his inhabitants had the sleep, they still felt as tired as before. It was based on this fact that Lumine said that he hadn’t rested continuously for 25 hours since yesterday.
Axl had woke up on his chair in his cubicle. He sat down properly and rested his head on his arms on the desk. Sighing to himself, he met his inhabitants again.
“You guys are real stressed. I think I’ll be fine today. I can more than handle a few extra chores today without your help. Go ahead and rest.”
“No, dear boy. It’s my responsibility to watch out for you by your side. I’m still staying up.” The white Reploid chuckled a little. “Who knows what trouble you’ll face.”
“Axl, I’m not resting either. As far as I can remember, around the ten year period previously, you’ve slept very late often. I had to stay up to watch you. By the time you wake up the next day, I’m all refreshed.”
Axl sighed harder. “Those times? I slept way past midnight because there were so many Mavericks Bob caused! I still felt slightly tired the next day. You’re not me, Iris. During lectures, I felt tired but you weren’t. We are two different Reploids. Now, just go to sleep, okay you guys? I’m fine, I promise.”
Axl checked the Internet for anything he had missed lately. So far, there were news about Reploid accidents and Hunters tending to those injured and some comments from the government regarding Prez’s monopoly status. Some corporate critics called the huge corporation to release full control of companies Prez had roped in 2 decades ago. So far, Prez only said he will never throw away his sweat and blood.
Critics and analysts were also skeptical about Lumine’s appointment as heir apparent but Prez brushed aside comments and said he knew what he was doing. He also expressed hope that his cash will not be misused later in the future or else risk increasing his monopoly, which will bring about more criticism.
Axl didn’t care much for the business part; he only cared for his ‘dad’. Seeing that everything was okay, he left his desk and headed for the store. Along the corridors he was halted by Zero with a soft shoulder pat.
“Hey, Axl. Just to let you know. We’ve been observing you for more than three weeks now and we’re rather satisfied with your performance. X was pleased you didn’t rage suddenly. How are things at your end?”
“Oh, that. We’re fine, I guess. We already caught the source of our trouble. It’s another personality, it turns out. We had a fight this morning with it but Iris saved us all. It’s under control.” Zero became interested in what Axl said.
“The new threat? Caught? Identified the source already?”
“Yeah, it’s the codes for my white armour. He’s a dormant personality all this while from the beginning when Lumine came. Turns out Lumine’s codes and mine merged to form this new being. We haven’t decided what to do with it yet.”
“This I must tell X. Catch you later.”
Axl was now walking on the streets of the Big City. It was the usual busy sight of humans and Reploids, the advanced transport systems, the heights of every building and clear skies of spring. Unknown to Axl, he had already arrived at the store.
“Oh gosh. Today will be most tiring. There’s plenty of customers.”
The old man was already doing his best to tend to the needs of his customers and his wallet. Humans were rushing for the best bargains, with all he arguing and stuff. Axl sighed even more.
“Oh great. I don’t have much energy with me still. I’ll barely have time to rest now.”
“That’s why you’ll need our help, Axl. Don’t be so stubborn.” Axl was surprised to hear Iris’ voice. Deciding it was best not to pick up a fight with his inhabitants while working, he rushed on inside the store and started his work.
For the next five hours, it was all nothing but pure customer service. Axl kept on bagging all of the customers’ goods into old-fashioned plastic bags. Trying to even earn a minute to rest, Lumine often grasped Axl’s arms and did the bagging instead. Here, no one cared about the issue of asking control politely.
Axl also had to rush to the old sir’s aid when dealing with an old register to count the prices. Iris, being a neat mathematician and peace promoter herself 50 years ago didn’t seize Axl’s arms. She instead did the calculations mentally so the register only served as the cash holder.
It was close to noon. The customers have all gone back. Axl was back to doing his regular chores of cleaning the place. He reached for the mop but his hands froze upon holding the object. Axl became frustrated and shut his eyes.
“IRIS! Can’t you just go and rest? I’m fine here!”
“I’m sorry Axl. I just can’t. I’m sort of fully dedicated to this interesting work of brushing dirt off the floor and shelves. I simply must do the work.”
“Iris, and you too Lumine. It’s great of you to help me, but… seems you are doing my chores instead. You’ve been restless, or accurately sleepless, for nearly 30 hours now! Please, just go and sleep!”
“Sorry, dear boy, but we can’t just leave you alone all by yourself now. We can’t afford to rest while you are working. We only rest when YOU rest. You’ll need us.”
“Really? What about the time you slept during lecture class?”
“Dear boy, that’s different! No matter how much I rest during those, I’ll still manage a triple A grade. I’m just perfect in this sense. You can’t because you keep failing.”
“Grrr… alright! I’ll do something else then, so that you won’t have to come out and you can just rest in here. Hm. I have to refill that shelf with the canned goods. The crate’s up there. How could anything go wrong?”
Axl reached for the ladder and climbed up to reach for the crate. Lumine would have tried to wrestle some joints to help Axl support the really-heavy crate but Axl snapped him away by holding on his arms firmly.
“Seriously, Lumine. I’m fine. It’s just a crate of goods- Waahh!”
Axl somehow slipped on his feet due to lack of concentration while he was talking to the white Reploid in his mind. He accidentally kicked forward the ladder and the crate fell down behind of him. He lost grip of the shelf above and was going to get hurt.
Just then, his right hand reached out for the shelf above and held on it tight. He watched as the ladder crashed and the crate cracked open and the canned goods spill out on the floor. Axl became more frustrated.
“Lumine! Because of you, I was distracted and nearly lost balance!”
“True, but now I’m paying back the debt. Now we’re equal then.”
“Hey, what’s this?! Young man, clean up this mess now! Thank goodness it’s canned goods or else it’s extra work! Let go or else you’ll break the shelf!”
“Yes, sir.” Axl landed on the floor and picked the dusty broomstick.
Another period of five hours repeated till near evening. Time seemed to have flown fast, as Axl could only remember that he was sorting out other crates of goods in the backyard of the store and that he managed to clean the store’s glasses without any help form his two inhabitants.
In fact, Axl spent extra effort to prevent Iris or Lumine from seizing control. He was determined to make sure he did all the work whereas they rested. However, they were just stubborn and persisted on watching Axl for any trouble.
Close to 5.30 p.m., Axl was called by the old and to help him settle some records. Axl had to maintain a firm grip on his joints while his inhabitants made several futile attempts to do the counting instead of him. In the end, they gave in and Axl did the math.
“Hm… yes, good… em… aha! That’s done.” The old man put down an old pencil that he nibbled on with his dry lips. “This is good! We’ve collected sales worth thousands so far. Supply equals demand. The earnings fast, maybe I can settle my debts faster.”
“Really? How much already, old sir?”
“Somewhere around two hundred thousand worth of cash. I had to gather all me old savings and extra money I hid somewhere. Debts must be settled.”
“You dragged in all your other cash?! How will you survive then?! I’m afraid you won’t even last long! The cash even your children send back won’t last! This has gone too far, old sir! You ought to launch a police report!”
“AXL!!” Both his inhabitants rebuked him back for the rude criticism.
The old man sighed. “Perhaps you’re right, I guess. But still, this is my life. I want to live it this way and that’s how I’ll live it through. I’m fine on my own.” He retreated on the chair behind the counter. Axl regretted shouting at him.
“Go on. You’re free to go now.” Axl was astounded but he had better heed the old man’s words in fear of stirring up more trouble. The old man sighed more.
Axl the human form walked on down the busy streets ad watched the giant public transports speed here and there. He soon faced the scolds of Iris and Lumine, but still the angriest was obviously Iris.
“Axl, I can’t believe your attitude back there! You know well not to do that! I’ve never seen a ruder Reploid than you! I can’t believe I’m here to see all that! Shame on you! If father was here, you would have been given a smack!”
“Dear boy, I know you care for the old human but that wasn’t the proper way to help him! The least you could do was lower your tone on the human!”
“ALRIGHT!! I’m sorry, okay?! I just got all worked up! I don’t know what got over me! Must be the lack of rest. Speaking of which, I’m going back to HQ now. I’ll just inject us more sleeping programs then we can halt the 36 endless hours of torture.”
Axl’s tone has lowered after he apologized to them. The catalyst for the argument’s end was the part about getting a nice sleep. His two inhabitants decided to softly urge him to hurry and get to sleep.
Just then, Axl felt a tap on his shoulder. He was quite tired himself so the tap felt like a heavy sack of sand that pounded on him, so he nearly collapsed to the ground. The one who did the tap rushed in front of him.
“Brownscar! Are you okay?”
“Huh? It’s you, Sue. I’m okay, I guess, I’m quite tired, that’s all.”
“Oh, I see…” Axl got back to his feet and stared down on Sue. The human girl smiled back. “Anyway, I was hoping to invite you to a movie I managed to get tickets to. I’ve only got two and I don’t have other friends who are free, so…”
Axl groaned inwardly. He faced a dilemma of getting rest and disappoint Sue or watch the movie and tire the body’s occupants. He didn’t want to disappoint Sue and also didn’t want to make his friends suffer more. He struggled harder to think.
His inhabitants became unusually silent on that issue thus giving him more pressure to decide by himself. “…Alright, I’ll come with you.”
“But Brownscar, you need to rest!”
“How much did those tickets cost you? I bet you had to wait long lines and other troublesome humans, I mean people, just to get tickets like that, didn’t you?”
“Er… yeah. How did you know?”
“Just a hunch. C’mon let’s go. We can’t let the tickets go to waste now, can’t we? Is the theatres far away from here or something?”
“I’m sorry, but you’ll have to run. The movie’s about to start and we’ll be eating popcorn and candy for dinner! Hurry up!” Sue abruptly pulled Axl with her as they ran to the theatres about 18 streets away.
Along the way, Axl said to himself: “Who needs dinner? I just want us to get a nice rest on the cushions, that’s all!”
“Whatever you decision, dear boy, we’re fine with it. If you watch this movie, we’re watching it too. Everyone must get the same treatment around here.”
Axl winced at Lumine. “It doesn’t have to be this way, guys. I’ll just watch the movie by myself and you guys can rest! At least me rather than two of you getting all tired. You all deserve the rest more than this host.”
“Axl!” It was Iris. “That’s totally unfair! It doesn’t feel right, you know! We are resting whereas you are supporting us and beating yourself to dead tired! It’s just… not fair! I can’t properly describe it here! As long as you are up, we are up!”
“Dear girl’s right. It’s just unjustifiable for you alone to just stay up.”
Axl sighed more. “Come on! Just go to sleep already, will you?”
“NO, dear boy! We are staying up and that’s final! For your sake!”
Axl and Sue made it to the theatres in time. There was a large crowd already trying to rush in their respective theatres. Axl and Sue tried to squeeze in a line to buy the popcorn and drinks. Just then, at the corner of Axl’s eye, Lumine spotted a crooked hand reach out close to Sue’s pockets, ready to pickpocket.
“HAH!” Lumine rapidly grasped control of Axl’s body and charged at the stunned crook. ‘Axl’s’ moves stirred large attention from everyone else, besides Sue. ‘Axl’ held the crook upwards in the air and ripped apart his entire jacket. Knifes and guns fell down on the carpet floor and most people were shocked.
Being the strong Reploid he is, Lumine crushed the guns with Axl’s bare hand and even twisted all three knifes together to form a knot. He did all this while still holding the crook up mid-air. Seconds later, Lumine roughly flung the crook on the floor.
“I’m surprised the security here is lax. I’ll get father to fix the whole mess. As for you, perhaps you would like a bullet stuffed down your weak throat?”
Lumine stretched out Axl’s right hand and his plasma gun just appeared on it. The crook was already scared of Axl so he could only rush back out of the exit. The crowd also became scared of Axl, seeing he has a gun with him. ‘Axl’ smiled.
“Don’t worry, humans. I don’t even want to waste any bullets on you. Sue, come on. The movie and popcorn’s waiting.” ‘Axl’ made his gun vanish and moved Sue to reach for the line and theater just before the security arrived.
The trio met in the computer brain. “Well, dear boy, wouldn’t Sue here be robbed earlier if I wasn’t awake? You will somehow need us, you know.”
“Alright, I get your point. Let’s just watch the movie already.”
In the end, the four of them watched the movie of three hours long. It was during the scenes of boredom that Axl managed to get some shut-eye. However, certain fright scenes would pop up suddenly thus causing Sue to squeeze Axl’s arm and he felt sudden shocks while munching on the popcorn.
“Gah! Hey! Sue will you cut that out?”
“I’m sorry, Brownscar! The scene was just so frightening! That punk just crept out of the swamp with all the muscles and missiles! I won’t do that again, I promise!”
Sometimes, Sue would pop her head on Axl’s shoulder and hold his hand.
“Brownscar… do you think… we’ll be more than just friends?”
“I’m not sure, Sue. I’m just glad at where we are now, that’s all.” Although Axl was slightly sleepy and unconscious, he answered just the right thing. Sue was close to touch on a sensitive topic where it could reveal Axl’s being a Reploid.
For that, Lumine felt relieved. “After all this is over, I’ll get us back refreshed and fully conscious before another topic like that is brought up.”
At the movie’s end, Axl walked Sue out of the theaters and halted at the side of the street. Sue gazed on Axl, who was already rubbing his eyes. Sue felt pity for him.
“I’m sorry, Brownscar, for bringing you into this movie. You were so tired and you had to join me in there… Do you mind if I walk you back to your place? Hey, speaking of which, I’ve never seen your home before. Shall we go now?”
“Nah, I’m fine. I’m a little dizzy though, but what the heck. I can still walk back myself. Thanks for your offer anyway. Do I need to walk you home?”
“Oh no, I’m fine too. I’ll just grab a public transport back. Oh here it comes.” A giant very-scientific-looking bus had just stopped so suddenly in front of them and dropped off many humans and Reploids. Sue was quite hesitant to leave him.
“I guess I‘ll see you around sometime. Bye.” Axl didn’t reply back. Sue only boarded the giant bus and watched on Axl as the doors swung shut tight and sped off almost immediately. Axl on his part was getting giddier and giddier.
Axl began his walk back to the HQ, about 5 districts away. He was a fast walker and knew the proper roads so it will only take him around 2 hours back. He also had to hurry; it was 9 p.m. and the bedtime limit was an hour away.
“Dear boy, just teleport back, will you?”
“Not now, Lumine. I’m getting really tired by the minute. Urgh… losing energy… concentration gone… must walk…” Axl was starting to look as though he was limping. His inhabitants resorted to rescue action.
“Dear boy’s going to pass out! Dear girl, get him!” Iris dashed forward and held on Axl in the computer brain. Lumine emitted his aura at Axl to provide him with some extra strength and warmth. Iris held him as tight as possible.
“Axl, hold on! We’ll get you back to the HQ!”
Axl didn’t seem to hear all that. His sight was very blur and he took it to be hallucinations. If he wasn’t mistaken, he saw a long black object slowly stopping at the side of the street he was walking on and two big humans exited from it.
They grabbed Axl by his arms rather firmly and carried the Reploid into the black object. His inhabitants couldn’t fight back the two blur shadows as their visions too were affected. Eventually, Axl hit little realization upon landing on a comfortable object.
The black object was a limousine, the two blur shadows were security guards of the limo’s owner and the owner was Prez. The man of seventy-five had returned from his ten-day tour of the Federation.
“Dad? Is that you?” Before he got a reply, he totally passed out. Prez was about to stand up from his seat when Lumine’s human form appeared. The white Reploid panted quite heavily before giving his creator a meek smile.
“Dear boy’s had a rough day, and so did we.” He reached out to Prez and embraced him for a while. The limo was moving just nicely along the flow of traffic. Slowly, Lumine let go of his creator and reclined on his seat.
“It’s great to have you back, father.” “Same to you too.”
“Forgive me father, but we must rest immediately. A new threat has emerged among us and it nearly took our lifes. We never slept much because of it but it’s under control now. We must rest…” Having said that, he fell unconscious himself.
Prez could only hold on to the white Reploid’s hand.
The following morning, the white Reploid woke up the first, being in control. He opened his eyes wide and sought to know where he was now. It seems he had resumed back his original Reploid form and he is now in the resting pod in his room on the tower mansion’s 54th floor. Lumine turned around to look for a clock. It was only 6.30 in the morning.
He sighed as Prez just appeared at the elevator.
“Come on now. Let’s go have something to eat together.”
Lumine had been carried and laid to rest by the two security guards in his room the earlier night. The trio had enjoyed a nice sleep of nearly ten hours and are fully refreshed to the core. It turned out Axl suddenly experienced giddiness due to long untreated health decline after the attack of his Maverick copy, but Lumine didn’t say anything yet.
At the dining floor, the white Reploid took his liberty around the mansion to toy with his laser aura. He had commanded his own aura energies to open drawers, bring out utensils, carry pots of food and set them up on the table. He even made the lasers prepare a seat for Prez and brought forth a glass of wine.
“Hey, you’re showing off, aren’t you? You’re the only one here who could do that.”
“All’s well, dear boy. You’re in fine hands.” Lumine levitated himself down on his chair and began to commencing the consumption of human energy source. Prez ate some nice turkey meat and spaghetti as breakfast.
“Well, you three looked very tired. What’s been happening while I was gone? What’s this new threat that almost took away your lifes and you got it under control? I have also yet to receive your reports.”
Lumine closed his eyes for a moment to think. Axl and Iris wondered if he was going to tell everything to Prez, since he had been keeping them secret.
“I will tell everything, father, only after we have completed breakfast and spare some time for light talk sessions.” They proceeded with the human activity of consumption of deliciously-mixed delicacies without any communication.
Continued in Chapter 17.
Notes: Lumine will tell everything about the past three incidents! Included a brief date event here. Hm. If you had laser-commanding powers for real, won’t you want to show them off to all your friends?
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 28, 2009 0:16:34 GMT -5
The update is today. Here. Now. Awesome.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Seventeen: Liberated
Axl got up from his resting pod just as usual. It is now 3 days since the morning when the three of them ate breakfast with Prez before leaving for the normal first batch of Hunters to attend History, Math and Geography lectures and receive assignments.
He retreated to his cubicle and went online on his computer to read the daily Internet news and played with the metal bearing ball Lumine made for him, while his inhabitants watched on. Axl decided to refresh back the past events.
After the breakfast with Prez, the white Reploid told him everything about the new threat. From the start where it was created due to forced entry to the decision to make it inactive, from the first attack to Iris’ courage, he said it all. Along with that, he also gave solid examples based on the data soul and corruption theory.
However, Lumine wasn’t able to provide a clear answer why the Maverick data of Sigma had been transferred to White Axl or how it could be dormant and active and why it chose not to harm Iris. The only thing he was sure that White Axl is now a data soul, a new personality, not Reploid’s DNA.
“What? You do realize that you must take care of this clone as soon as possible, don’t you? Do whatever ways you feel is necessary then.”
“I’m aware of that, father. I will take care of this Maverick when I feel like it. After all, he is under control as of now.” Axl and Iris turned back and saw the Axl form of the copy still inside the prison-like projection.
There was no mention of any destruction tactics so it would be difficult to tell what the three would do to White Axl, especially since Lumine and Iris were both dependent upon Axl’s decision and the blue-red Reploid was hesitant to decide.
That was all Axl preferred to recall about their meeting with Prez back then. Axl was now typing out some important documents he would soon use for the assignments X, Alia and Pallette gave. While he was at it, he bounced the metal bearing ball on the floor repeatedly, creating a small crater on the carpet floor.
“Dear boy, soon you’ll be smashing holes on the ground. I’m starting to regret giving you this object made from remolding the knives.”
“Hey, don’t be like that! I’m enjoying this little ‘object’ actually!”
“That’s not funny, Axl. If X or Zero finds out about this, you’ll get yourself into trouble. That’s called damage of Hunters’ property.”
“I’m not being funny either, Iris! But what was quite funny for me was our presentation of the computer projects yesterday!”
Just yesterday, it was back to the first batch class of Living Skills, Core Sciences and Computer Science. At the end of X’s Computer Science class, Axl was made to stay back while other Hunters were gone going to start on another new assignment.
The white Reploid was to present his assignment secretly to X and be graded on the spot. He took out his holograph device and displayed it on X’s desk. “Activate program.”
A ray of light was emitted from a glass-like gem. A holographic version of Lumine in Reploid form appeared just above the gem and gave X a slight bow. His hologram smiled back at the Supreme Commander and began to speak.
“Well, good day, X. How may I be of assistance today?”
The white Reploid’s assignment was to create a device that relays greeting messages so X gave it a test. “I would like to tell Axl to hand in his assignment later today and remind him not to fail his next test.”
“Very well. Have a pleasant day.” The hologram disappeared back into the gem and a small light blinked red. He quickly gave the body back to Axl after turning on the speakers. Axl struggled to maintain his balance after the control transition.
“Dear boy, now X’s message is saved in the device. The device is made to recognize some of our voice pattern so all you have to say is ‘Bring messages’. Go on.”
“Bring messages.” The hologram appeared again and it gave a slight bow at Axl.
“Axl, you have a message from X. He asks you to hand in your assignment later and try not to fail the next test. Surely you can do it, dear boy. I know you can.”
The hologram disappeared into the device’s gem and the light that blinked red earlier shone black. X looked rather satisfied and marked something down on his computer. After a while, he looked at Axl.
“That’s a good job, Lumine. I like the creativity and the comments. I guess it’s artificial intelligence. Well done, you earned a double A grade. I’m not giving you a triple A because it isn’t a paper test, you know.”
Axl in turn presented his calculator-like program in a memory device. X briefly ran through the codes and tested out the calculation program himself. After a while, the Supreme Commander turned up to Axl.
“Impressive, Axl. It’s all well done. Did you manage to get around the assignment properly? I hope your friend didn’t help you to do this.”
“No, actually it was very difficult for me. I did my own search but it was useless. Lumine only taught me how to do this piece good, but he didn’t do my work for me at all. Is that wrong?” X gave him a small smile.
“No, not really. That’s the way to learn, Axl. For this I’ll just give you a B. If you keep up the good work, sooner or later, I’m sure mister Prez won’t be disappointed.”
Ever since that incident, the white Reploid has been consistently teaching Axl the subjects without any interruption, largely due to White Axl’s imprisonment. It was important to note that Axl’s aiming the gun at the human crook never surfaced in the media, Prez was satisfied with Axl’s growth of reports and it was learnt that White Axl was able to ‘tear’ a hole through Lumine’s aura the other time, thus the following merger. Lumine had taken care of this problem by reinforcing the prison’s strength to get rid of such a threat.
Back at the cubicle; Axl was close to finishing his draft of documents and still managed to play with the bearing ball. It certainly created a slight dent on the carpet floor. This and the fact of Axl’s lack of appropriate humour left his inhabitants dumbfounded.
“Dear boy, that wasn’t even close to being funny at all. Is there something wrong with you today? Perhaps you’ll need a system run-up.” The white Reploid instantly vanished elsewhere and Axl felt lots of twitches here and there.
“Ow, hey stop it! I’m fine, I assure you! Oh, I’m done with my work and the other stuff. I’ll be going to the old man’s place now!” Axl teleported away to a location previously registered not far away from the store.
The old man was already sorting out all his objects and stuff on the shelves. When he spotted Axl of a human form, he smiled so widely and rushed up to the Reploid.
“You did it! I owe it all to you! Thank you thank you thank you!!” The old man shook Axl’s hand too much and too fast. Axl struggled to maintain himself from vibrating and getting a headache.
“Er… sure. I did what I could. Em… it wasn’t easy to convince him though to come here. He was… busy that time. Anyway, how did it turn out?” Axl brushed aside his messy hair and revealed more of his X-scar.
“They were all arrested! I’m now free and liberated, thanks to you and him! Happy days are here!!” The old man quickly resorted to tap-dancing on the spot while a bewildered Axl merely looked on.
“Er, listen. I know you are cheerful and all that, but could you tone down the volume a little? There’s some humans outside and it looks like they are going to just jump in and hear you screaming and dancing about… brother… Lumine.” Axl had always hesitated to use the term ‘brother’ to Lumine.
“I know, but I’m just so happy! Thanks to him, now I’m a free old citizen! By the way, haven’t you ever thought that his purple hair and looks fit his voice? He sounds like a 13-year-old sarcastic teen of a brother, but I’m not complaining.”
Lumine was stunned so much by that comment. Axl made slight sad giggles. The old man knew that they were related very closely but Axl had not expected such a comparison. They had no comment over the old man’s statement.
“Er…okay… Let’s have enough of that, okay old sir? Let’s just keep it a secret and resume back our daily lifes.” For that, Axl earned big pats on his back.
“No problem! Just remember to pass on my regards to him!” The most cheerful old man skipped away while Axl sighed lightly and he began to work out his chores. While cleaning a shelf, the white Reploid finally said something.
“A sarcastic human? 13 years of age? Is that true? Dear boy? Dear girl?”
“Er…” Iris was trying to find words to describe her expression. “You do seem to fit in nicely to those characters. I’m fine with it, Lumine. Don’t take it so seriously. I don’t know what you think but I’ve a feeling father had deliberately made you like this, not by a random decision by a master computer. He must have thought it was great.”
“I see…” He became speechless and hung his head down. “Very well, I have to be me after all. This is who I am and it will be this way forever. Tell me if there’s anything nice happening out there, dear girl. I need some private time.”
While Axl was now spray-cleaning the windows, he decided to recall back the incidents about what the old sir was actually talking about.
It was back to three days ago; day 104. Early in that morning after eating breakfast with Prez and having the little chat session, Lumine finally decided to brief the tycoon on the conditions of old sir Axl was working for.
“The old human is fine. His children have been sending back cash just like usual, but we are concerned that he wouldn’t last long. He’s had the problem of loan sharks chasing a million or so out of nothing. We’ve decided to help him.”
Prez rose up from his seat immediately. “What? Loan sharks?! That type of business is illegal! I’ll have the authorities alerted in no time! Where’s he staying?”
Axl suddenly took control of the prototype body and released all the information regarding the old sir. Prez had promised swift action to get rid of loan sharks trying to ruin other people’s lifes. That was when Axl just headed back to the HQ and resumed his lecture classes.
Unknown to the three of them, during their classes, Prez had the authorities rush to the store and questioned the old man. He was very reluctant to cooperate with the police but it was after some reasonable persuasion that he eventually gave in and told them details about the loan shark’s office address, which was quite convenient.
Somewhere in the late afternoon, the police had rounded up the offices of the loan shark somewhere in a tall structure outside of the Big City core outskirts. Of course, the ruffians weren’t going to give in so easily and a tough battle was engaged.
The ruffians put up a brave fight thus injuring some officers but when the swat team arrived in with their nifty weapons and guns, everyone surrendered. The site had been rounded up and confiscated into the hands of the police.
Paper evidence were obtained and studied thoroughly; it seems the old sir wasn’t the only victim. There were tens of other cases of loan sharks around the area outside the Big City core but no one had dared to report for fear of death threats. However, police were unable to determine the mastermind behind the shark activities.
As far as the old sir was concerned, the police had him take up oaths and participate in other investigatory procedures. He also testified documents and identified for the police the ruffians who frequently threatened him. He had been offered monetary assistance by Prez himself but he rejected the aid out of discipline. He was never taken to the police offices so he had no idea what happened later in the day.
When Axl had retired back to the tower mansion as a suitable spot for his inhabitant to properly teach him the day’s lessons in detail, especially Math, he was approached by Prez. “The loan sharks have been arrested.”
Axl and friends were overjoyed to hear this. “Really?”
“Yes, but the police said they failed to arrest the boss. But I have an idea who it will be. Heh heh heh. Anyway, the old man at the store has had his debts cancelled and he will even be assisted with some more aid. You can tell him that.”
“Why not you, dad? He’ll be delighted to talk to you.”
“I’m busy. You know me, a tycoon.” He stretched out his hands far to them. “Anyway, there’s a business exhibition not far from now and I’m preparing the booth. We will also have a camping trip next week in the far north reserves. Time for some quality time together. I trust you will inform your boss.”
Prez walked away to his elevator and to the south grounds, preparing to greet a fellow old friend during a dinner. Axl and inhabitants were left alone on the 35th floor of the tower mansion, where the white Reploid embarked on a tuition period, teaching Axl in detail of the day’s lectures.
The following day, which was also the day before Axl and Lumine presented their Computer Science assignment to X for personal grading, Axl had prepared up a surprise for the old man at the store’s back alley.
“A surprise for me? What have you got, you Reploid?”
“Oh, it will be good, I assure you.” Axl quickly dashed past the back door. The old man slowly walked to the back alley and who should he find but the white Reploid, donning the black suit and leaning against the wall.
“You! The heir apparent! What are you doing here?”
Lumine was actually forced by Axl to just briefly appear and tell the old man the news about the loan shark ruffians’ arrest. Lumine didn’t want to do it but Axl wanted it so that the old man could be able to see Lumine for himself.
“Yes, it’s me. By now you would have known that Axler had requested me to come here despite my wishes. Anyway, father wanted me to tell you that the loan shark’s office has been raided and your so-called debt has been cancelled. You will be supplied with further aid, whether you like it or not. It’s father’s wishes that you be well-off.”
“I see. Alright, thanks for coming just to inform me that. I will keep this memory a secret to myself. Now, where’s that Axler? Has he been loitering around?”
“He went off to make a phone call. Rest assured… my brother… will return to his place and resume his duties as store assistant.” Having said that, he teleported away. It seems that Lumine himself was reluctant to address Axl as a brother too.
A few minutes later, Axl returned in his human form and resumed his work.
Back to day 107; Axl was now registering some cash from a customer and giving him his balance. It was already early afternoon of the day, so he would probably get to meet Sue when she buys some goods for college. He was right.
Sue, donning her green jacket and red-pinkish clothes, entered the store and quickly grabbed some papers and a can of soda. Her cheery face slightly brightened up Axl.
“Hey, Brownscar! Recovered from your fatigue the other day?”
“Yeah, I’m perfectly fine now. Thanks for asking.” He pressed some buttons on the register machine to take out some coins and handed them to her a balance.
Out of the corner of his left eye, he spotted the old sir gesturing to call Sue toward him. Sue apologized a little before going to the old sir. Axl figured the old sir was going to tell her about the loan shark case.
Some time later, Axl saw a mildly-shocked Sue staring at him in the face.
“You did it, Brownscar! You helped old sir solve his problems! Congratulations! I was surprised you actually managed to persuade Lumine to appear and inform him the great news! Like you said, you rarely met him.”
Sue still had no idea of Axl’s relation to Lumine as a ‘brother’ and for that, he was relieved. Axl blushed slightly for being praised by her and this time, the white Reploid wasn’t there to tease him. According to Iris, he was sleeping.
“Er, it’s no problem. I had to do the right thing.” Sue only smiled back at him and bid him a small wave of goodbye before leaving the store. Iris giggled at the sight.
“Hey, what’s so funny? Something wrong I did?”
“Not really, Axl. This is quite a cute situation. I think she likes you a lot. That’s so sweet.” Axl stared back at Iris with a slightly open jaw. “Isn’t that obvious? I just hope she doesn’t stick onto me for good. She’s worthwhile being a friend but it wouldn’t last.”
Iris’ cheery face vanished upon the comment and her face turned red. “Axl, that’s so mean of you!” After that, she vanished away. Axl only sighed to himself.
“Girls… I’ll never understand them.”
The rest of the day, at least until the evening, was spent as usual in the old sir’s store. Axl had been the customers’ only attendant and he had done everything by himself, since his inhabitants had gone somewhere else in the body. After the old sir resurfaced from his home upstairs, Axl managed to leave on time.
After a tiring journey of running from the 54th floor rooftop and down many stairs and corridors, Axl arrived back at his cubicle. Panting to relieve his joints of stress, he dropped himself on his chair and halted his movements before going on the computer.
Axl had repeatedly checked for the last few days to make sure that his assignments were constantly updated and in accordance with time flow. Just when he was about to click on an icon detailing his assignment for History, he saw a note slipped under one of his paperwork. It was from Alia.
‘Axl, we would just like to inform you that mister Prez had ringed us earlier today. He wishes to remind you that your camping trip will be held three days from now. For that reason, X had granted you a leave.’
‘You must be fully aware that you will once again assume full responsibilities for all your work. We wish you the best in all and have a great time at your trip. Alia.’
‘P.S. We also hope that you would solve the problem concerning White Axl as fast as possible to avoid any dangerous occurrences in the future. Mister Prez also said something about recycling the DNA and data soul.’
Axl merely threw the paper note away in the waste basket behind him. Another interruption came in before he could even start his work: Lumine stepped in and began to taunt him, and so did Iris.
“Dear boy, why are you laxing around? Don’t you have work to do?” Iris also asked the same question but in a more gentle and polite manner. Axl just ignored them and resumed his document typing. A sudden thought in his mind made him forget about that.
“Hey, Lumine.” The white Reploid turned at his direction. “What is the difference between Reploid DNA, data souls and the inactive data in my head? I know you’ve explained them before but could you make it easier to understand?”
Lumine smiled. “I’m glad you’re interested, dear boy. Well, a Reploid DNA will only contain the codes that detail another Reploid’s looks, abilities and metal densities. Inactive data code for all operations of a certain Reploid’s internal mechanisms and hold the records of its designs. The data soul is a mixture of DNA and inactive data; however it is the data soul engine and the encoded personality that makes it stand out.”
“The data soul contains the same data of that of the DNA but the DNA doesn’t have a personality of its own. That’s why new generation Reploids earlier can copy Sigma bodies to prevent injury. Inactive data is the result of complex coordination of Reploid mechanisms; only most Reploids don’t see them because they are the only occupant of a Reploid body, such as X.”
“The inactive data codes, in our case, only the common mechanisms we had previously in just single bodies. However, we have a strand of inactive data that will react based on the percentage of a controlling personality. For example, if I were to be equally dominant to you, your hands will contain special components from my codes that will emit out the thick lasers. That’s why dear girl and I can fight along your side.”
“When another personality is in total control, the entire body will adopt to the entire codes of that personality. For example, dear girl takes over you. Her form is exhibited and her mechanisms are fully in place. Once again, the percentage of dominance or co-dominance depends on our will and the Chameleon Chip.”
“Do you understand everything I’ve said so far?”
“Yeah, I guess so.” Axl managed on typing while digesting the facts.
Iris stepped up to ask her own questions. “Why is it that when White Axl tried to merge the both of you under his control, Axl’s body was petrified? Wasn’t he already the dominant personality?”
The white Reploid hesitated to reply. “I’m not sure myself, dear girl. He could have forced us in such rapid speed to submit to him easily, since he has the feature for my speed. The most sensible answer would be that he wanted to assure slow but absolute control. We’ll find out soon enough.”
All three of them stared back at White Axl, now imprisoned in a cube-like projection with no walls; only tonnes of electric shocks were projected as the walls. White Axl had a slight distinct form but still had no mouth or oratory skills.
Some time later, by the hours, Axl had finished the typing he had earlier started out and saved the progress. Relaxed, he reclined on his chair further backwards.
“Well, I’m done. I only have another two more assignments to complete. Man, the history of the Federation is tough! I’m glad I had Lumine here.”
“Hm! Well, I’m not for so much public use or for you to cheat and deceive, thank you very much! I know you wouldn’t do that at all!”
Axl was silent for a while. “Man, the old sir was right. You do sound like a sarcastic 13-year-old human teen. No offense, but I think he’s right. Anyway, I’m going to rest at the central chamber first before going to sleep.”
Lumine was practically taken back by Axl’s words and couldn’t decide how to react. As Axl walked and landed himself on the cushions, Iris gave a loud yet soft giggle.
Continued in Chapter 18.
Notes: I hope that solves the difference between the terms of Reploid DNA, data soul and inactive data I’ve used all this while. If you’ve played X8, I suppose this was to be the most logical explanation. Seriously, I do think Lumine as a sarcastic 13-year-old teen, thanks to his voice.
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Post by Professor Fann on Sept 29, 2009 22:12:05 GMT -5
Yesterday, I wasn't feeling too well. So, I'm not making up for yesterday's lack of update. And thus, here you go for today.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Eighteen: Painful
That same night, Axl was enjoying himself on the cushions of the central chamber. He watched several groups of Hunters holding books and other instruments, walking here and there. Though it lasted minutes, he decided he had enough rest and got up to walk around the HQ.
“Well, dear boy, had enough relaxation? I don’t suppose you want your tutoring now, do you?” The white Reploid stepped out of silence by approaching Axl.
“No way! It’s close to midnight already! My brain’s not equipped for that! I just thought I’ll walk around as usual, since I’m so bored.”
On another side of the computer brain, Iris was pleased that no arguments were created and the old man’s comment was already forgotten. Or so she thought.
“So, Lumine, how does it feel like? To be called sarcastic and human?”
He had a mixed expression and for odd reasons, he felt angrier and less patient than usual. His fists were clenching and he felt his pouncing on Axl. However, Lumine controlled his anger and put up a meek smile instead.
“If you must know… I find that comment rather… accurate.” His fists unclenched and he walked forward towards Axl in the computer brain. “Interestingly, the old human is right. I am rather sarcastic. I look as who am I now. That made me wonder…”
Axl said nothing. He kept on walking around, without any particular sense of direction. Unknown to him, he was walking along the northwestern wing corridors of the 12th floor. There were barely any Reploids there to see him walking shut-eyed.
“Personalities… feelings… thoughts… abilities… why have we Reploids been granted such things? Why am I who I am now? I’m sure there’s another factor why I am me and me having such destructive powers from father. A master computer couldn’t possibly have done this all…” He said no more.
Iris stepped in, feeling sorry for him. “Yes, you’re right. A master computer didn’t design me to be who I am back then. It’s the human touch. Scientists made me to be a peacekeeper but I guess some one configured dormant powers in me.”
“Maybe it’s the same with the newer Reploids! They’re immune to all viruses and they don’t have a copy chip! They love peace now and they can’t go Maverick! You’re right, Iris! A master computer could never do that!” Axl came in.
“So who could have-! Father! It has to be him! The only human who controls the output of Reploids! It’s too obvious! How could I have forgotten?” Lumine’s sudden outburst made the others step backwards a little.
“No more delaying! One day, while you’re free, dear boy, make us go to father’s! I’m starting to get tired of putting this question aside! Promise me, dear boy!”
Axl was never before stared at so close on the face. He made a human-like gulp of a breath before answering. “Er… yeah, sure. But there are classes tomorrow. I guess that will have to wait- where are we exactly?”
Axl and inhabitants came face to face with a corridor end. The door facing him was grey with many button-like designs glowing red but it wasn’t locked. Axl entered the door and he and friends were surprised to see where they were.
They came out of a corner of the west wing, not far away from the place where Bob was previously imprisoned. The renovations were still going on, making way for bigger labs and even nurseries. Since it was close to midnight, no work is being done and Axl stood on his spot in the dark.
Immediately, Axl turned around and shut the door tight with a loud bang. He panted slightly and decided that it was time for him to get some proper rest before the new day starts. He made a run for the central wing back to the resting chamber.
“Darn, that memory’s still fresh! I still remember that ugly face of a human! Him and all that hanging in that prison! It’s just so irritating! You know what I mean, guys? Where could he be anyway?” Axl talked while running forward.
Every time Axl or anyone else thinks about that issue, the trio would end up all sad-looking. Most of the time Axl would be causing the sadness around here. Naturally, Lumine and Iris felt a little pity and tried to calm the blue-red Reploid down.
“Em, Axl, are you okay? Please don’t think about all that will you?”
“Dear girl’s right.” The meek smile is displayed again. “Please don’t think about all those sort of things again. Just don’t. You make yourself sad and sick and we will get sad and sick too. Now, be a good Axl and go get a nice sleep, will you?”
“I know. One more thing, Lumine, you’re starting to sound like a guardian or something for me. Tone down the care for a while. Just be sarcastic.”
Lumine laughed. “That’s a good one, dear boy. Sorry, but no.”
Iris briefly glared at Lumine folding his arms and turned to Axl. “Anyway, Axl just relax. He wouldn’t be showing up for some time now as he’s a wanted criminal and he can’t escape from anything forever. That issue’s solved for now. The only thing we need to worry now is how to deal with White Axl and solve other questions regarding our existence, besides your regular duties.”
The topic was then spoken of no more, at least for the night.
Axl was close to arriving back at his resting pod. He passed by various corridors of the central resting chamber. No other Reploid was awake; all had gone back to their pods and had been injected with sleeping programs. Dim lights shone on the walkway.
Then suddenly, something wasn’t right at all. He started to feel as though he was being poked all over his body. It felt like jabs of needles and then, it got stronger and more painful. He eventually came to a halt and his knees fell on the floor.
“Ow! What is this pain?!” Some sparks came flying out of his body and he felt more and more painful. His hands reached for his head, trying to ‘press’ his head to get rid of the pain. It was no use and the sparks flew out more.
“Aaaaaaaahhhh! Who’s doing this?! Lumine, you better have a good reason for doing this! It’s not funny!! Graaahhh!!” He then laid himself on the floor, trying to resist the pain and hands still on his head; the sparks flying out more.
He shut his eyes to see the conditions in his brain. He was being jolted by a huge projection of electric shock all over himself from an unknown source. Just about immediately, the other two arrived and were shocked to see Axl.
“AXL! We’re coming!” Iris ran forward to help Axl. She stretched out her hand and emitted her dark pink aura. Out from the globe of aura, a thick ray of aura was released. It collided with the electric shocks and a great clash ensued. Iris’ aura tried to grasp Axl and brush aside the jolts and the jolts tried to fry Axl.
Iris was clearly struggling. Bit by bit however, she was close to victory. “I think I’ve got it! Axl, you’ll be-” Another ray of electric jolt sped out of nowhere and cut Iris’ ray of aura into half, causing her to stop. “- fine?”
“I’ve got this, dear girl.” Lumine released his dark purple aura of a force shield and emitted thick purple flames, trying to wrestle Axl away from the electric jolts. However, a larger jolt of electricity fired out of nowhere and stunned the white Reploid so much that his aura dissolved in an instant. The criminal was obvious.
“White Axl! But how did he break through the prison?!”
“The prison wasn’t strong enough… Gwaaaaahhhh!!” Lumine yelled out.
Iris dashed quickly to the source not so far away: the prison-like projection that Lumine had so painstakingly configured after many days to imprison White Axl. At the first invisible wall of electric jolts she saw, it seems that White Axl was able to pierce through a tiny wound and had released tones of electric shocks out at his prey.
Iris stared at him with full shock. His form, though mostly the same since the last time, was slightly more descriptive and he had eyes more evil than usual. The yellow eyes glowed more, thus scaring Iris a little.
On the other side, Axl and Lumine were shocked so much, they were close to passing out; even for the powerful white Reploid. In the physical world, Axl had yelled so much it got the attention of some other Hunters who were sleeping.
“Huh? What the? Axl’s in trouble again!!” Several Hunters forcibly opened their pods and jumped out to immediately help the screaming Reploid. Some were taken aback by the expanding electric sparks from his body. Nonetheless, they reached out to him and also resisted the sparks, despite Axl’s continuous rolling about.
Seconds later, Axl’s body just sort of deactivated by itself. The screams stopped suddenly, his body turned limp and eyes wide open, the cornea black. The other Hunters were shocked and tried to set Axl right.
Axl’s body had become limp because the dominant personality had retreated from controlling it, as he was preoccupied with a threat inside of him. Both and the white Reploid were severely drained of health due to minutes’ long of jolts. Even if they flared out their auras to rebel, they would be hurt by the more-powerful White Axl.
Iris started to cry, but she held back tears and made herself brave by approaching the silver personality closer. She didn’t want the further injustice of the other two only suffering and she being well-off. She succeeded in gaining his attention. She knelt down to White Axl, surprising him thus reducing the jolts a little.
“Please! Please stop attacking my friends! I’ll do anything for you! Please don’t hurt them! Please stop!!” Iris couldn’t control her tears anymore and they dropped on the pitch-black floor. White Axl responded nothing even when she looked up to him.
White Axl shook his head left and right. He still had no speech capabilities, because he was somehow not equipped with it although he merged the other two under him before. White Axl turned back and jolted Axl and Lumine even more.
Axl was severely damaged by the continued attacks. He had no means to rebel and so did Lumine. Both were already on the verge of becoming inactivated as their data soul engines started to malfunction. If Iris doesn’t do something quick, the trio will be in grave danger.
Unknown to any of them, X and Zero had been rudely informed of Axl’s current condition. The three navigators were still awake during the whole scene and they too rushed to the limp body. Minutes later, Axl was safely connected to the advanced machine in the mechanics room.
“Alright, everyone! Back to your pods now! Everything will be fine!” Despite the orders of Commander Zero, the crowd refused to disperse. Alia and Pallette also did no good. It was only after X threatened to increase everyone’s workload that the Hunters voluntarily retreated back to sleep.
“Layer, how are you doing back there? Still can’t get the connection?”
“I’m trying as hard as I can, but there seems to be multiple readings of mass energy interference in Axl’s head. I’ll see what I can do.” Layer furiously pressed on many buttons, typing various codes and opening many programs.
The mass energy interference reading was in fact White Axl’s electric-like jolts. It was so strong that it blocked anything else from trying to access the computer brain. Axl for the first time felt like surrendering.
“He’s too powerful… goodbye… guys…” He collapsed on the pitch-black floor and lay motionless; the electric jolts still enveloping him. This sparked fiercer opposition from Lumine, the one who cared most for him.
“AXL!! DON’T GO! GWAAAHHH!!” Lumine was jolted even more by White Axl. Iris was greatly shocked and tears flowed more from her eyes. After several tens of seconds, Lumine just collapsed on the floor.
Iris couldn’t tolerate it anymore. She was close to losing her friends for the second time and was determined not to let that repeat. Turning to White Axl, her face expression revealed intense anger and she flared her dark pink aura. White Axl noticed.
She emitted a thick flame of a laser from her body and enveloped the main ‘stem’ of the electric jolts. Slowly, it seemed that the electric jolts were being pulled closer to Iris. White Axl appeared stunned and tried to pull back the jolts.
Ironically, due to certain circumstances, he lost control of the jolts and Iris succeeded in pulling them to herself. She had decided to absorb all attacks so that Axl and Lumine could be spared. It also reduced the energy interference so Layer was able to fully connect the advanced machine to Axl’s brain.
“Connection established. The signals are coming – what is this?!”
The screens of the advanced machine revealed the situations inside Axl’s head. Iris was absorbing a lot of electric shocks coming out from a tiny wound from White Axl. The silver personality was shocked and looked like he tried to reduce the output of energy but was useless. Lumine had instantly got up and dashed to Axl’s aid.
“Axl! This will take a while…” His hand emitted the dark purple aura and he stretched it out to cover the whole of Axl. Sure enough, Axl was fully healed and he was as active as ever. He quickly got up to his feet.
“Thanks, Lumine. IRIS!!” The duo stared on at the poor girl. She kept on absorbing the electric attacks with a broken heart. White Axl had no control over his energy output. Zero glared on with rising anger and sadness, but he couldn’t do anything.
“Stop… him… now!” That was all she could murmur. The duo didn’t need telling twice. Lumine immediately rounded up the instruction program and deactivated the prison. Axl had clenched his fist and gathered some energy to deliver a huge punch.
“TAKE THIS!!” He dashed forward at full speed to the silver personality and rapidly punched White Axl, being flung up in the air a little. The punch had distracted him until he somehow stopped emitting the electric jolts. Iris collapsed on the floor immediately and unconscious.
Axl hadn’t stopped his attacks. He was bent on getting revenge on his copy for several attempts of forceful subjugation and also ‘murder’. The more he punched and kicked, the angrier he got and more satisfied.
“So you like to hurt others, don’t you? Take your own medicine! You’re such a sick Maverick!!” He occasionally landed some fists into the Maverick’s stomach area deep and smashed his head left and right. Axl also clamped both fists together and smashed them on the Maverick’s head.
One final kick in the chin flung the Maverick high up and crash-landed on the pitch-black floor. White Axl has also been severely damaged, of which Axl considered to be equal footing. Both were already extremely tired.
“Out of the way, dear boy!” Axl heard Lumine’s call and rolled himself over to the left. A large ray of purple laser bulls-eyed the Maverick on his chest. It stunned him of any movement and even lifted him in the air. Lumine charged forward at full speed, much faster than Axl but a little slower than the Maverick.
Lumine met the silver Maverick face-to-face. “You’ve made me angry.” After that, he plunged his right hand via a huge wound on the Maverick’s face deep inside the data soul. Tonnes of electric sparks came flying out of the wound. While analyzing the data, the white Reploid raised an eyebrow.
“Interesting…” Slowly, through a lot of emitting sparks and rays, he removed what seemed to be giant chunks of squares and rectangles from White Axl, in other words, data. He threw all of them on the pitch-black floor and stared back.
“You are such a sick Maverick. HAH!!” He swiped White Axl hard with his left hand downwards on the floor. The maverick was more injured than ever and before he could do anything to fight back, a prison cube landed on the spot, encasing him. This time, the sides of the cubes were mere metallic green and the walls of the cube were totally transparent.
White Axl dashed, trying to break out but was jolted backwards by much-stronger repulsions. He also tried to ‘create a wound’ just as before but was also repelled heavily by the force encoded inside the cell. Lumine smiled evilly.
“Magnetism-based force field repulsions. A better idea than using electric shocks.” He noticed a screen not far away and saw X and Zero looking on. “If this was the physical world, the things here would be easily explained.”
On the other side, Axl had tended to Iris. She was totally unconscious and had suffered severe damage in health, just like her counterparts. Axl could do little and only held onto her tight. Shortly thereafter, the white Reploid approached them.
Lumine emitted his aura to envelope the whole of Iris. His findings reveal that she was quite stable, just like Axl a while ago, but her data soul engine had not been affected. Giving her ample energy, she finally woke up.
“Huh? Oh, guys… I’m sorry for acting so slow. All this while…” Axl held onto her even tighter. “Don’t worry, Iris. Everything’s okay now. We’re all fine. You were great.” Iris had quite enjoyed Axl’s concern and in return, hugged him.
Several meters away from Axl and Iris lay the huge chunk of data on the floor. The white Reploid walked slowly towards it and when he halted his pace, he briefly looked up at White Axl. His face was expressionless but deep down inside him, he was full of hate, anger and revengeful.
He violently smashed the data chunks to smithereens; the dust-like data bits further disintegrating in the air. Axl, Iris and unknowingly the others, stared at him.
“The copied fighting abilities and mechanisms, everyone. The coded ability to dash very fast, stun us all, everything. From the laser beams to auras. All deleted. The Maverick won’t pose any threat now. The prison has been reinforced and he’s silenced for good. Dear boy, kindly wake up your body.”
With that, Lumine vanished. Axl was going to rebuke him for being kind the sarcastic Reploid but Iris gently asks him to forget it. “Axl, you know well how he hates Mavericks now, especially after Bob. Just give him some time.”
Axl thus struggled to activate his body again. It was amazing to note that none of them, except Lumine, noticed the other five watching them all the while.
Axl managed to wake up back in the physical world. He didn’t move at all because his body had been tied up to the chair of the advanced machine; he only blinked his eyes in response to his friends who blew relieve due to the fact he was okay. The screens recorded him as having full normal health.
“That was terrible. What happened to you?” Layer asked Axl.
“White Axl rampaging again. He tried to deactivate us, just as the last time we fought Bob and the traitor Abe. He managed to break out from the prison and hurt us, if you know what I mean. Lumine just heavily improved it so evil me will definitely not be able to hurt us again. Thanks to Iris, we were spared.”
“So what are you going to do with him?” Zero stood up.
“…Can we not talk about that right now? Lumine prefers so, and so do I. It’s important for me to get some rest now. I still have to attend classes, don’t I? History, Math again. I need more brains and power for them.”
Iris had no comment over the situation. Alia and Pallette offered to walk Axl back to his pod while Layer merely walked off to do some extra records. X and Zero went on to shut off the mechanics room before returning to their own pods.
“X, must you report this one to Prez? He’ll be fine without knowing.”
“Must you care for Iris so much? Of course I must tell him. Besides, I’ve never told him anything about Axl’s previous attacks and it’s his heir we’re having here with Axl. He deserves the right to know.”
The silence was proportionate to the night’s darkness.
Continued in Chapter 19.
Notes: Another scene of battle in Axl’s mind. This time, White Axl is for good sealed up in his prison. Based on info, Lumine’s the only one having access to him. You’ll see what he’ll do to the evil copy.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 1, 2009 7:53:28 GMT -5
I bring a late update. Enjoy and sorry.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Nineteen: Driving
Less than two days later (day 109), Axl was seen groaning to himself on the HQ’s highest rooftop. Today was supposed to be the day he continues to work for the old sir, but it seems he had decided to close the store for ‘a time off’. Strangely, Axl sported his human form this time.
The previous days, Axl received back the assignments he painstakingly made. It turned out he had achieved C grades for Math and Geography but he flunked History because he, according to X, went out of topic. Nonetheless, he received no new assignments and it was back to self-study. Axl will be passing up assignments of other subjects tomorrow.
“Grr. Isn’t there anything to do around here? The store is closed and I’m not interested to study now. What do I do?” Axl could have let anyone out to control but usually his inhabitants preferred to remain as inhabitants all the time.
“Gee, I don’t know. It’s up to you, Axl. I don’t have anything to suggest to you.”
Lumine remained silent as usual, although he had calmed down considerably from White Axl’s attacks. “Anything’s fine, dear boy. Just don’t land us all in trouble. We don’t want to spoil the trip up north, do we?” The trio will spend the whole day tomorrow with Prez on a camping trip.
“Heck, it’s only for a day! Why can’t we have it as two days? It’s more worth it then!” Axl repeatedly stomped the ground with his right leg. Though excited about the trip, he had to wake up early in the day to enjoy the sunrise.
No comment could be reached. Axl then just sparkled up with an idea in his mind. “I’m going to dad’s, if you don’t mind.” That was a relatively dumb statement and as usual, the inhabitants didn’t mind Axl’s behaviour at all.
Axl immediately teleported to the inside south wing grounds of the gigantic Prez corporation. No one was in sight and Axl was pretty much alone, if his friends weren’t counted. This was odd because it was still in the morning and there ought to be workers and managers walking around.
“Where’s everyone? Best I go and check out at dad’s office.” Axl teleported again. He arrived at Prez’s office in no time at all. However, the old human wasn’t there to greet him. The office was merely illuminated with bright white lights.
Axl quickly looked on the screen that dominated the office. It seems that Prez was having a slight tour of his own grounds and he was driving a vehicle around on the airborne infrastructure. Axl and Iris were surprised.
“Airborne roads? Here? I didn’t know all these – Lumine, tell me! You used to be here for a long time! What is this structure?” He only smiled.
“Oh that. You’ll find out. You will perhaps enjoy this, or not so the majority sees it. Ha ha ha. Take us there now, dear boy. You’ll like it.” Without expressing suspicion, Axl memorized the routes to the roads and sped off.
Not more than 35 minutes, Axl arrived at a small station at the side of the main road. Just beside the station was a mini balcony and when Axl reached there to see where he was, he was utterly stunned that they were 45 storeys high up. Below them were several factory branches and dots, which were humans and Reploids.
Lumine gave his evil laugh. “Surprised? This infrastructure has been built 5 years before your creation, dear boy. Father found it troublesome to walk around his giant kingdom, so this place was the result of his creativity. He has been driving human vehicles ever since to tour the place. The first thing he taught me years ago was this because it requires skill. It isn’t the same as airjet bike you Reploids use so it is weird for you. I’ve not driven here for years.”
“When was the last time you drove?” Lumine glared at the other two in Axl’s mind. “The night before I got corrupted three years ago.” Axl and Iris didn’t know what to say. Nevertheless, Axl turned to his right and just saw an arriving Prez with some workers.
“Well, what do we have here? Axl, aren’t you at work?” Axl shrugged. “The store is closed. Nice vehicle, dad. Can I try it?” Prez shook his head. “Only Lumine can.” The workers suddenly shivered of fear and disappeared via the station entrance.
Axl was then rudely interrupted by the white Reploid’s taking control of him. “Thank you, father. Buckle yourself up. I don’t want anyone hurt. I believe you’re going to the nuclear fuel chamber, just as always?” Prez nodded silently.
Prez buckled himself real tight to the front passenger’s seat on the left while the Reploid prepared to drive. He revved the engine so much that the engine was buzzing so loud. His right leg repeatedly pounded on the accelerator. A second later, Lumine released the brakes and the parking mode.
“HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!” His wild, insane laugh dominated the vehicle as it sped off at 120 mph in 3 seconds. Prez was holding on tight to his seat and tried to resist the wind that rushed in as the window was open. Meanwhile, Axl and Iris were screaming out their might at the insane speed they are going. They also started to feel sick of all the rapid turns and swirls.
“Gaaaahhh! Lumine! Stop driving so fast!! Gulp, I’m getting a headache…” Iris’ face turned a little green, having to watch the white Reploid drive. Axl was also going to get sick from the blurry images of the surroundings. The white Reploid however didn’t feel anything at all but Prez did get a little blurry.
Lumine had made various dangerous curves and spins. The humans and Reploids who have worked in the grounds for many years recognized that insane driving style and simply jumped back. Some even dramatically made a giant leap to the roadsides.
“Look out!” “The heir’s driving again!” “Help!” Those were the main words workers would scream before attempting to take cover. The white Reploid smiled as he enjoyed listening to all the screams. One dangerous curve nearly crashed into a nearby lamp post.
“Hang on, father. The fuel processing chamber is close.” He went on driving dangerously for the next few seconds, showing no tendency of slowing down. At a very bendy curve, he made the vehicle jerk and turn so hard the vehicle seemed to fly.
They were close to the parking lots. Many workers knew better than cross the road so they stayed at the roadside, clinging on to many giant pipes and railings. Lumine pressed hard on the brakes and lowered from fifth gear to the third gear. The vehicle was slowing down but at an incredibly slow rate. Having no fear whatsoever, he changed from third gear to second gear after 18 seconds.
The vehicle seemed like it was going to crash onto the walls ahead. Several hundred meters left till the ‘crash’. Lumine pressed harder on the brakes and lowered the engine to zero gear after another 24 seconds. Surprisingly, the vehicle managed to halt on time. By the time the terrible 2 minutes were over, the vehicle’s tyres were worn out and smoking.
Several workers approached the vehicle. The vehicle’s front was about a foot away from the wall. Lumine laughed slightly as he got out and accompanied Prez to the nearby station. He already had some workers working on exchanging the tyres and break systems.
“Lumine!! What was that all about? You nearly got us killed! Some fun!”
Prez, although he didn’t know of Axl’s complaints, decided to tell something to the other two. “Lumine’s driving is rather infamous in this large place. He has been driving wildly like this for 7 years already before that idiot Bob corrupted him. It cost me thousands a year just to change the tyres. Although people were grateful he suddenly didn’t drive madly for 2 years, they rather he did that than become a Maverick.”
“Father! Is that an insult? Because I’m feeling so!” The both of them laughed lightly. “Alright. I’ve got work to do. Thank goodness I’m used to all that insanity. I’ll see you all later.” He disappeared down the walkway. It was then that they remembered they forgot about asking questions concerning newer Reploids and themselves.
“Oh well. We’ll see later. Who wants the body now?” Iris took over rapidly.
“Lumine, I know you are crazy and all that, but you inspired me to learn this skill! I want to learn to drive too!” Lumine merely shook his head. “It doesn’t come easy, dear girl. I had to practice for hundreds of hours in order to drive at such speeds.”
Axl took his side. “Iris, you’ve never driven anything before. There’s no way I’m letting you drive. You might turn reckless. At least Lumine has some expertise in it.”
Iris’ face turned red. “That’s not fair! Can’t you at least give me a chance? I’ve been stagnant for 50 years or so! Just let me do what I want! Please…” Iris begged at Axl with the cute, sad sparkling eyes. Lumine looked at Axl, dependent on him too.
Axl made some second thoughts. “Hmm… Alright, you deserve a chance too, Iris. You’re right; it isn’t fair to stop you. But at east we’ll go with the easier transport mode for Maverick Hunters: the airjet bike. At least it doesn’t have the – what are they?”
“The gears, dear boy. Separate automatic gears. Dear boy’s right. You don’t have to repeatedly switch gears just to increase or decrease your speed. Well, let’s go now. I would suggest going back to the HQ to obtain one of those airjet bikes. Drive safely now. You don’t want to get injured before camping, do you?”
“Alright! Thanks, Axl!! Let’s go!!!” Iris teleported away instantly.
However, it wasn’t easy to obtain approval, contrary to what Iris had in mind. Via Axl, she found that she would need either Commander’s approval just to ride an airjet bike. It was even more difficult since there were no missions to hunt down Mavericks.
“Iris, Axl may say you can but I can’t! I can’t just simply allow you to drive here and there! There are a lot of procedures now! Please understand!” Zero was having a hard time trying to get Iris to throw away the idea. “Isn’t there any other substitutes?”
“As far as I know, Zero, there aren’t any. I don’t know about father’s grounds – oh, Lumine says there aren’t any. Please, Zero! I promise I won’t get into any mess at all while on an outing! Please!” Iris had previously ran into thugs while on an outing and Axl had to interfere and hurt the humans for her safety.
“Grrr…” Zero shuffled the papers on his desk and placed his hand on his head, making thoughts with full reluctance. “Alright, fine. You can use one of the airjet bikes. Just return to base by evening. Axl, I trust you to take care for her.”
Zero led the way to the hangars while a Reploid-form Iris followed behind. Several Hunters began to whisper about the ‘new’ Reploid. Iris didn’t care; she was just happy of going to drive around the Big City. Axl heard minute voices of other Hunters speaking about her quite negatively. He wanted to give them a beating for that but Lumine immediately asked him to cancel the idea.
The hangar was located at the 50th floor of the east wing; the highest for that wing alone. It stored up as many as 110 airjet bikes and had around 30 airships, though they were stored elsewhere due to lack of space. Iris squealed when Zero presented her a permission card so she was free to choose her own bike.
“Drive safely, okay? We can’t just simply ask the big human for aid.” Of course, he was referring to the trio’s ‘dad’. Iris skipped several steps and began to choose her own bike. She finally found one that’s a mixture of blue and red, just like Axl’s bike.
“Hey, wait a minute! That IS my bike! Iris!” The other two only laughed at the situation’s humour. “Aw, c’mon Axl. Don’t be so selfish. This body belongs to the three of us; you are active most of the time and we are not complaining.”
“Dear girl has a point… for once.” “HEY!!”
Slowly, Iris adjusted herself to the bike’s seat and started the engine. Stepping on the accelerator bit by bit and maneuvering the handles, she led the bike slowly out from its parking lot towards the hangar exit. She approached the maximum limit and stared downwards as many aircars and aerotrains moved here and there.
“Gulp… here goes nothing.” She pressed on the accelerator hard and she was suddenly jerked forward; floating in the air for a few seconds and then pulled by the gravity downwards. Lumine swore he heard Axl scream like a girl.
“Iris, you have to activate the anti-gravity field first! Press the green button by the handles! Quick before we’re smashed!” While experiencing free fall, Iris quickly pressed the button just as told by Axl. The field was activated just in time and they floated. The only problem now was that Iris had her foot hard on the accelerator and began flying like crazy.
“Gah! Iris, be careful! Watch out for the aerotrains!” The airjet bike wildly sped by an aerotrain, whose conductor horned out loud. Iris held on tight to the handles as she tried to control the bike. She also zigzagged past many other aircars and buildings.
“Axl, help! I can’t do this!” Axl sighed as he rapidly got control of Iris’ body and sat on the seat properly. He also held on the handles tight and drove properly. When he looked up, they were approaching an incoming tower and fast.
Face full of determination, Axl pulled the handles backwards, thus dragging the airjet bike backwards so they were driving vertically upwards instead. Thinking that the three of them were already fine, Axl gave a sigh of relief.
“DEAR BOY, LOOK OUT!!” Axl turned up and saw that they were heading towards a helicopter. Axl quickly leaned forward and pushed down the handles forward, thus dragging the airjet bike away to another direction, meaning another round of evading structures and other vehicles.
“Oh great!!” ‘Iris’ thus avoided many structures by repeatedly curving to the right and left. He sought halt gradually so that they would be safe and Iris would be back to driving just like she wanted to. However, something else was going to happen.
Somewhere at the bottom grounds, a staged robbery has taken place. Mavericks had robbed a bank of hundreds of thousands of cash and there was chaos. Humans sought to run away from the scene as fast as possible. Other Reploids tried to shield the humans and even attempted to take down the Mavericks but were shot.
“Hang on, guys. We may have to land a crash.” Axl resumed full control over the body as his full features were displayed. He pounded on the accelerator harder and charged around 43 storeys downwards toward the Mavericks’ transports.
“Dear boy, what are you doing? Uh!” Inside the computer brain, Iris had held on tight to Lumine and he decided to hold on to the frightened girl to assure her they would be fine. Axl was charging faster and faster toward the heavily armoured truck.
No one quite noticed the cometing airjet bike until it was close enough.
“Alright! Let’s get outta here! Huh? WAAHH!!” Axl managed to leap in time and landed on the road softly before the airjet bike crashed into the armoured truck and resulted a huge explosion. Traffic came to a strong halt barely five minutes after the staged robbery had taken place.
Humans and Reploids avoided the troubled scene to the opposite of the road. Several armed Mavericks surfaced from the bank and faced the unarmed Axl.
“You interfered with us! We’ll dispose of you!!” They immediately fired their guns at Axl. Axl, being fast at all times, quickly jumped up into the air and held out his guns.
“You old Reploids never learn a thing, do you? No wonder mister Prez is so adamant to recycle all of you. Take this!” Axl fired simultaneous bullets at all the Mavericks. The multiple bullet attacks stunned them and they dropped their weapons.
Axl didn’t stop there. He fired the bullets continuously at each of the Mavericks. Eventually some were shot down or just had their limbs torn apart from their bodies. Most of them were just tired down, thanks to the lost of their limbs. Axl just put his guns away and looked at them and their weapons.
“Dear boy, please go gather their weapons.” Axl didn’t question Lumine’s emotionless request and just went to collect some ten to fifteen of machine guns. A crowd started to form around the scene. Axl collected all weapons and waited for his inhabitant’s next request.
Just suddenly, a big purple globe appeared from Axl’s palms and all weapons were melted to liquids. The liquids were eventually super cooled into a giant metal bearing ball, just like the one Lumine did previously; only this one was larger about three feet in diameter. It just dropped on the round, creating a crater.
“Those were stolen weapons, dear boy. I hope you do remember the time when I helped you to destroy a giant Maverick Mechaniloid at a dockyard of the City east coast. These Mavericks managed out some weapons the Federation was going to transfer to other nations. It’s very surprising to me, so I felt they’re best destroyed.”
“Sure, I understand Lumine.” Just then, several Hunters appeared by teleporting, including Zero. They were surprised to find all Mavericks busted so the only thing they could do was clean up the mess and redirect traffic. Zero approached Axl.
“Axl, you crashed your bike onto the truck! What exactly happened?”
“Er… it’s my fault. I… er… took over Iris while she was driving and by chance, I found these Mavericks. Good thing I crashed it, huh?” Zero was stunned.
“Axl, you cost yourself a bike! Now we have to order one and we’ll see how long that takes! Just return to base. You have an activity tomorrow, don’t you?” No one of Axl’s friends had forgotten that Axl was able to ditch classes legally.
“Take us back, Axl.” That was Iris’ request. Axl felt a sad aura inside him, presumably Iris’, that even took away his pleasure from ruining the Mavericks’ day. Without further questioning, he teleported away while the rest cleaned up the mess.
Several hours after the 30-minute incident concerning the airjet bike, no one felt like talking while Axl was halfway completing his Core Science assignments; except the white Reploid who was teaching him the concept of forces. Finally, Axl couldn’t stand it anymore and forcibly halted Lumine from teaching him.
“Lumine! Take me to Iris! I just can’t work properly here if I know something is wrong around here!” The white Reploid was quite taken back by Axl’s rudeness and wordlessly led the way to where Iris isolated herself.
Of course with shut eyes, Axl followed Lumine behind pass by many circulating inactive data. Along the way, he saw White Axl inside his prison doing nothing at all. Several seconds later, they approached Iris.
Iris was sitting on the pitch-black floor with her hands on her knees. She hid her face from the two Reploids and she was slightly shaking; she was crying. A small puddle of tears lay just at her left foot. Axl walked forward to console her.
“Iris, are you okay?” She was still crying to herself. “No, I’m not okay. I always goof up on something I do. I must always need protection for whatever I do. Look at me. I went on an outing previously and you have to save me from thugs. My driving skill is horrible and you bore Zero’s grunt. I’m such a helpless girl. Forgive me.”
Iris cried some more. Axl got down on one knee and placed his hand over her shoulder. “No, Iris, you’re not a helpless girl. It’s true you need my protection but it doesn’t mean you goofed all the time. Lumine was a Maverick until you cleansed him of Maverick data. That brought a great deal of change to us.”
“He’s right, dear girl.” Lumine stepped forward. “If it weren’t for you, we would have never gotten back to father and I would remain a Maverick. You also helped us in battles of the past. How can we forget your self-sacrifice and dear boy was relieved of so much stress, thanks to you? We could have been deactivated or merged by the Maverick there but you bore the damage and allowed us to move and stop him. For that we are very grateful for you.” Lumine pulled out a wide smile but still emotionless.
“It’s okay Iris, we are always here for you. We are stuck in this body, right? We must help you.” Iris immediately looked up, shocking Axl and Lumine. “You’re so mean!!” She got up to Axl, beating him on his chest repeatedly for a while and then, gave him a strong hug. She smiled widely and wiped away her tears.
Lumine broke the silence by saying: “Good, everything’s back to normal.” Axl and Iris broke the hug and turned to him. “I suppose you’re satisfied now. I suggest we forget this whole mess by going down to get some human delicacies.”
“Oh wow! That would be great!” Iris instantly became cheerful again.
“Wait, let me save my work and then we’ll go.” Axl saved all his progress and switched off his computer. He got out from his cubicle, making sure not to crash with the big metal ball he brought back. Suddenly, Lumine took over, presenting his human form.
“Well, let’s go.” No one else saw him as he teleported away.
Continued in Chapter 20.
Notes: Iris got attacked by thugs; refer to Axl Story Continuation chapter 11. Axl in the east dockyards; Axl Story chapter 6. I did my best writing a single chapter for driving. Seriously, if you are insanely-mad for driving, wouldn’t you drive dangerously with a little caution? Oh, turns out they forgot to ask Prez about their abilities and newer generation Reploids.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 1, 2009 21:54:02 GMT -5
Early, or not, update! Enjoy a good chapter!
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty: Camping
Lumine created a brief stir in a socialite’s restaurant just two districts away from the Maverick Hunter HQ, though this time not many people got excited. Many humans saw him going for a seat and ordering many plates of delicious delicacies.
There was nothing particularly interesting about that, except for the part where he again met the three humans who had smirked at him upon his arrest and clashed with him in a shopping mall. Lumine’s flame was slightly ignited.
“It’s you three humans again. What do you want? You are interrupting my dinner and that’s so irritating. Where are your manners?”
“We spotted you here! So how does it feel to be attacked by a robber? Bet you had to surrender your ill-obtained cash!” They attracted a lot of attention from the other humans. Iris and Axl were shocked but Lumine wasn’t.
“So you were the ones who hired that filth to entertain me? Let me show you how I entertained him!!” Lumine pointed out two fingers from his left hand and the three humans were covered by his purple aura. The crowd was slightly alarmed.
“Gah! It’s hot! Hot! Hot! HOT!! Let us go, you – you!!” Lumine reluctantly absorbed back his aura; the result was three slightly-smoked men with slightly-burnt clothes. He gave out his usual evil laugh.
“I told you; I only harm those who harm me. It’s only natural you get back a small taste of your medicine. Ha ha ha!” The three men decided to retreat away wordlessly and the situation subsided slowly. The white Reploid of human form continued eating.
“Lumine, you were too much.” “Yeah, that’s not nice of you. Who knows if the human authorities might come after you again?” Iris’ comment made him put down his fork and knife. He closed his eyes to meet his friends.
“Sorry, but I felt that it was proper. Please allow me to finish the delicacies first before we talk further.” After Lumine had finished eating and went ahead to pay the bill, he reportedly left behind a tip of tens and immediately disappeared elsewhere.
Axl and Iris have agreed that Lumine had been too mischevious for the evening. This was proven true when he really teleported not back to the HQ, but to Prez’s tower mansion where he decided to spend the night before leaving with Prez on the camping trip north due tomorrow. Axl knew X will be mad for this.
The following morning, the Lumine-led body got up at 2 in the morning, much to the disapproval of his friends. Seconds later, Prez, dressed up in an old-fashioned fishing suit complete with hooks and boots, banged into the room.
“Well, you all sure got up early today! C’mon get ready! It’s a three-hour drive to the reserve in the north! We don’t want to be late for the sunrise!” Prez’s sudden crazy behaviour made the three stunned at the spot. Nonetheless, Lumine just got into his casual human form again and entered the elevator.
They were once again at the south wing grounds. Prez had specially prepared a neat sports-like four wheel drive car so that the white Reploid could drive as fast as he wanted. Despite all that, he felt like driving slow and fast for the first time.
“That’s good for you!” “I won’t be so sure of that, dear girl.” As he started the car, he drove out just nicely to the main busy streets and mingled in with the traffic. After passing by countless streets and roads into the third district above that of the Big City core, he suddenly pounded on the seventh gear and accelerator so hard they were close to flying in the air. His friends were shocked but not Prez.
“Seriously, dear girl, do you really think I’ll drive so slowly? It’s a waste of time and I intend to get there as fast as possible. Not to mention the empty streets of these residential districts. Hahahahaha!” “LUMINE, YOU!!”
“Gahahahahaha!!” The car was driven faster but also safely. All along the journey, they were going at 130 mph and no human noticed. In just about 2 1/4 hours, they made it to the entrance of the reserves. Prez had pretty much got used to all that driving for years despite his age but Axl and Iris were a different story.
“Please, Lumine… don’t ever do that again. I’m surprised how dad has ever managed to get used to that kind of speed.” Lumine chuckled just as they got out of the car and started to carry some bags. “I understand, dear boy, but someday you’ll get used to it.” Lumine emitted his aura to carry all four bags in the air.
The game warden at the entrance recognized the duo. “Ah, yes, the two of you! I still remember! Your campsite’s this way, sirs!” The fat human led them to a camping site somewhere deep in the jungle. It was a barren field full with sand surrounded by trees and nearby was a big lake of crystal clear water.
After setting up camp, made easy thanks to Lumine’s power aura, they got on a boat and headed out on the lake. There they set their baits on their fishing gear and threw the bait far out. The sunrise came just as predicted and the white Reploid saw his creator inhale in the fresh air just behind him.
“Ah, the fresh wind of the meadow… You Reploids won’t understand this. This is something only a human can receive and enjoy. The breath of life.”
“There’s energy in the air. One that exists since the beginning of time that led to the creation of humans… the breath of life. Truly refreshing.”
“I see…” Then Lumine’s fishing rod seemed to have caught something. “Father, it seems I got something!” He got on his feet and began to pull the rod back hard. The other three were excited as they were about to catch a fish for early breakfast. Due to the hard rocking, Lumine suddenly fell down into the lake with a big splash.
“No!” Prez got to the boat’s oars and looked over to see if anything happened. Just then, a great gush came out and there was the white Reploid: covered by a blue aura, water droplets extracted from his sweater and a two-foot fish in his grip.
“I’m alright, father. Nothing to worry-” He was interrupted by a loud laugh not so far away. The levitating Reploid and Prez turned to see another boat with company: a nerdy-looking pre-adult and a fat man with brown shirt with four pockets on it. He had glasses and a thick moustache. Removing his glasses revealed his dark brown eyes.
“I hope yer not wet there, lad! Hahaha! Prez, fancy teaching yer son to catch a fesh, only he catches a fesh and himself! Gwahaha!” The fat man laughed while his goofy son followed. Lumine was puzzled and turned to Prez, still levitating about water.
“Father, do you know him?” Prez remained silent for a while. “That’s the one whom I referred as ‘a fat man of a bloke’. The snobbish one who frequently teases me.” The white Reploid’s eyes widened. “That man has been competing with me just about everything. He thinks he’s more superior.”
“Well, that’s not nice of him at all. C’mon, let’s go fix this fish up before you explode, father dear.” With his aura, he dragged the boat all the way to shore and Prez got off safely. The white Reploid proceeded to bring out forth all the necessary equipment to prepare a delicious breakfast.
“Alright, let me do it.” Prez was blocked by the white Reploid. “Father, it’s best I do this. You are an old man; you need to relax more. The younger generation shall take over.” His body was suddenly jerked wildly by Iris. His speaker was switched on.
“How could you talk so sarcastically to father?! You should be ashamed of yourself for that-!” Prez put a finger on his lip, asking them for silence. “Now, now, there’ll be no bickering. You three decide on your turns to control now. It’s not up to me. Alright Lumine, show me your best culinary skill.”
He quickly arranged the frying apparatuses to their proper positions and ignited the flames. He was just about to slice the fish when a loud shout briefly shocked the trio and their ‘dad’. It came again from ‘the fat man of a bloke’.
“Aii! Check this out! I’ve got meself a fish three feet long! What have you got?!”
While the father and son were laughing, the disgruntled Reploid secretly used his slicing lasers and cut to boat into two halves. “Wahhh!!” The duo fell into the lake and the Reploid was amused. Even his friends had a hearty laugh.
“How’d that happen? Grr! This competition ain’t over yet, Prez! Yer hear me?! It ain’t over? Son, start the cooking machine after yer swam back to shore!” Slightly amused at his trick, Lumine went on cooking, eventually presenting great steamed fish with delicious gravy and vegetables.
The duo sat down on two separate logs, surrounding a yet-to-be-lit fire. Prez seemed to be enjoying the food and for that, the white Reploid smiled to himself. Barely five minutes later, the fat bloke interrupted them again.
“Aii! Check out me meal! I bet it’s tastier than yours anytime! Gwahahaha!” The fat bloke and son were cheerily eating their own fish on the other corner of the lake. Lumine got slightly ticked off and made the unthinkable: he set their barbecue stove on total flames, resulting in their loss of several equipments.
Prez looked sternly at the Reploid, whose two right hand fingers had been stretched out a little to the fat bloke’s direction. “I’m sorry, father. I just couldn’t help it. What is with this human anyway? We’ve only been here for an hour and he taunts us crazy!”
“It’s just like I said: he’s a fat man of a bloke who earns much in fisheries thanks to me but he taunts me no matter what and he competes with me in everyway since around 9 months ago! He’s a constant pain in the neck. Nice job blowing up his stove.”
Axl came in and spoke. “Dad, just ignore him, will you? We are not going to let some dirtbag like him ruin our camping trip, okay?” Everyone heartily agreed with Axl. “Alright, let’s eat up and then go for some other activities.”
The white Reploid had decided to allow Axl out and gave him the whole day to do various human activities. After cleaning the site of any dirt, they proceeded to go cycling around the enclosed reserve. Cycling on the tracks and watching the tall coniferous trees ‘run’ behind him made Axl blow relief and somewhat relaxed.
“Wow, this is great! Maybe I should have done this years ago!” Axl began to pull some stunts of his own with the bicycle, like one-wheel balancing and making the bike jump in the air repeatedly. His inhabitants were impressed with his stability.
Another interruption happened. “Aii there! It’s just plann weird me stove burst suddenly, ain’t it? See here! Me and me son are way better cyclists than you both! Aii, what’s this? Where’s the heir? Scared and all for ye little biking?!”
The four of them were already cycling close together along a curvy track. It was Axl’s turn to get irritated by their company. He wanted to do something to them but he must put it in such a way that the bloke and his son would be avoided safely from them. Just suddenly, the bloke and son had their bikes punctured on the tyres.
Gradually, they were getting left behind. The bloke tried to cycle faster but his tyres lacked air so Prez and Axl were very much ahead of them. By accident, the duo behind fell down a steep hill after getting sidetracked from the main track.
“That was wonderful, Lumine. But the falling down the hill part was really not necessary.” The white Reploid confronted Axl. “It’s not my fault they sidetracked, dear boy. Accidents happen. Ha ha ha.” The duo went on cycling for another 20 minutes before getting some rest.
Some hours later, Prez and Axl went on a little hiking up a steep hill. This hill they went hiking was supposed to be the highest in the reserve, so by chance they would be able to get a circular view of the vast lands and maybe even spot Prez’s hometown opposite the other giant lake.
The rocks and boulders were steep and gnashing so they had to be careful not to hurt themselves over slippery surfaces. Griping some roots hard, Axl pushed himself up and held on to a big coniferous tree. Prez seems to be left behind and the young Reploid often slowed his pace to support the old man. Lumine wanted to melt some terrains so they could walk up easier but was strongly opposed by the other two.
“That’s taking the fun out of this hiking! Seriously, why do you always do such things?” The white Reploid was glared upon by the girl. “I was just trying to help, sorry. I’m worried father wouldn’t last on.” He got stronger opposition from the two and that served as a distraction until Axl lost grip of Prez briefly.
“Whoa!!” The old human was about to fall downwards but Axl came back to his senses and quickly grabbed his hand. Using extra strength, he pulled Prez upwards and assuring his safety, he blew relief. Once again, the laugh was heard from the fat bloke.
“Aii Prez hope ye okay there! Me and me son will beat yer to the top of dis hill foist! See ya!” Fat bloke and son hurriedly climbed up the hill while Axl and Prez watched on. Although Prez is a very patient man, his Reploid children are certainly not. They saw him as a constant source of irritation that would ruin their outing.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, the trio saw a rather-large tree branch being thrown towards the fat bloke. The branch hit his head hard enough to cause him to jerk a little to the front and back, but due to his weight he ended up falling down on his son and rolled to the bottommost stretch of road, screaming along the way.
Axl turned around below him and saw Prez dusting his hand, whistling away. “Dad? You did that? Wow! That was awesome! Now, I don’t have to do anything to get rid of him!” Iris and Lumine glared at him, only giving no comments.
“I guess he deserves some injuries. Nine months and he’s still a total jerk. Someday I will have my money back. You’ll see. Some way I will. C’mon, the peak’s not far away.” Axl’s hand reached out to the human and pulled him up as they continued some more.
Some 45 minutes later, after much of Axl’s whining, a couple of body jerks and consumption of water, they made it to the top of that particular hill. The peak wasn’t very curvy and steep thus giving them a nice place to relax and look beyond. It was at this time the white Reploid rapidly took the body and leaned himself on a tree and sat on the grass to see beyond the blue lake.
“Everyone’s satisfied now… what will we be doing afterwards? Any suggestions, dear boy, dear girl?” Both of them shook their heads. Just when he was about to retreat on the tree, the irritating duo appeared from nowhere and interrupted them.
“Aii! It’s just plann strange! I cam here for a nice vacation ann I bump into you two! You arr really making me angry! What do you want?!” Both Reploid and human walked out to confront the bloke and son who are complete with bandages.
“We irritate you humans? It’s you who are irritating us, humans! Sorry but you are the constant pain around here. Therefore I had no choice but to give you back your own taste of the insults. Just leave us alone and we will have peace around here.”
The fat bloke, being a power-hungry and snobbish man, flared up upon hearing that comment, which he took as an order due to his nature. “You ask me to go away? Why, yer are the worst robot I have ever met! Not to mention-!” He went on scolding. Lumine hid his face on his right palm and made some little left hand finger twitches.
The finger twitches were actually secret commandments of his aura to sneak up on the bloke’s feet and swipe him off the ground. Father tumbled on the son again and they rolled down the hill. Lumine looked at his creator with a face, amid the screams.
“Is it just me or will this human remain blinded to the fact I had continuously injured him? Is that wrong by the law, father?” Prez merely smiled. “Yes, I suppose he will continue to remain blinded to that fact and yes, that is very wrong of you to injure him; but you don’t find me complaining.” After minutes of rest, the Reploid took his creator back to campsite, thanks to levitation abilities.
Around two hours later, it was early evening in the huge reserve. Just as expected, the fishing tycoon bloke and his son were bandaged and were covered with lots of ointment. This time, Iris had taken control of the body and did her thing when it came to preparing dinner: cleaning the campsite again.
Instead of cooking fish, she cooked some hamburger patties wrapped up in salad, tomato, grilled cheese and thick juicy buns. Prez chose to have liver soup due to his old age and the fact he can’t consume too much fats. After her cooking was done, she put the hamburgers on a plate and sat next to her ‘dad’.
“Father, are you having a great time?” Prez continued drinking his soup. “Why, yes I am. Why do you ask?” Iris was silent for a while. “It’s just that… I feel this trip isn’t working out so well. You having to bear with that other human and Lumine keeps messing him up…” She got rebuked by the white Reploid. His words were clearly heard since the speakers were still switched on and they weren’t pleasant.
“Aw, that’s okay. In fact I quite enjoyed watching him getting hurt, not that I love evil or that sort of thing.” The two of them laughed a little over that part. Iris leaned a little on her ‘father’ and held him on the shoulder. The evening was relaxing as the bloke and son had retreated somewhere else and she felt comfortable alone with him.
Minutes later, she ate all hamburgers and her plate was empty. “I’ll go get more hamburgers!” She got up from her seat on a giant log and jumped towards the stove. A rather loud rumble was heard from somewhere around her.
“…Who goes there? Show yourself!” That rumble grew louder into a growl; a very vicious growl. Even Prez got up, shivering a little, and ran up to the frightened Iris. The wind blew foul suddenly, which shook the stove quite violently. The two of them were standing alone at the campsite, in front of the stove and face to face with a thick jungle.
A creature made its appearance, firstly by revealing its huge paw and eventually its whole body. It turned out to be a huge black bear, which Prez recognized it from the mainland Federation, which vicious gnawing teeth and a mean appearance. Drool dropped out of its mouth repeatedly and Iris could take no more.
“AAAAHHH!!” She screamed out all her might upon seeing the hideous bear. It only grew more violent and charged at the two citizens. In a split second, a familiar white Reploid rapidly took over the control and made efforts to save them.
“Really, dear girl, you have to learn to act fast.” She heard his light mumble but didn’t bother to rebuke back due to the fear still on her. Axl only dashed forward and consoled her in the computer brain. Lumine held on Prez firmly before levitating into the air. “Whoa! Gaaahh!” That was the old human’s expression of shock.
The vicious bear pounced into the air, trying to grab the duo but greatly missed them. It in turn looked into another direction and messed around the entire campsite, wrecking the logs, stove, personal items and even the tents were ripped apart. Its nose detected a fresh packet of patties and began to slice the plastic apart to eat the meat.
Meanwhile, up on a thick branch of a gigantic conifer, the human and the Reploid watched as the creature violently ate its meal and could not do anything. “Darn it. I suppose we could only remain up here for the night. It would be wrong to harm such a brainless creature.” Lumine sighed heavily.
Axl was on the verge of exploding with anxiety, anger and hatred. He rapidly took over the body, rudely shocking Lumine back to his usual status of body inhabitant. “I will not let another single thing ruin our day! That thing has to go!!” His surging aura in his head couldn’t be stopped and he leaped off the tree to attack the bear.
“Dear boy! What are you doing?!” Axl yelled out loud just before he landed on the bear and attempted to strangle it. The bear felt Axl just while eating the patties and its claws tried to reach up to the Reploid. It also repeatedly shook itself violently to get rid of the attacker. “Take this and that, you thing!”
Axl kept on hitting the bear on its head, causing some pain to the creature. Iris and Lumine tried to stop Axl but it was no use; his rage was far stronger than his sense of proper act. Eventually the bear got angrier and shook itself even harder. The stubborn Axl held on tight to the bear, causing it to run on a rampage to scratch him off.
“Axl!” Prez called out his name but then took out small binoculars to watch his trail. The bear was running wildly along the tracks from their campsite to the fat bloke’s site where he was treating his bandages. His nerdy son spotted the bear heading heir way and simply ran off into the jungle, screaming like a girl.
“Aiii son, where you going?! Huh?! Bear!!” The fat bloke got up with a fright and also ran straight into the woods. Fortunately, no one saw Axl on the bear. The animal crashed itself here and there, messing up the campsite trying to scratch Axl off.
“Dear boy, get off the creature now! You’ll get us killed!” “Axl, please! For our safety, please stop!” “No way! It’s bad enough that fat bloke constantly tries to ruin our day here! Now this creature come in and messes up more! I’m going to tire it no matter what!” The roughing continued until Axl loosened his grip somehow.
The bear shook itself one more time and it had successfully swung Axl off it. Axl was being thrown towards a thick conifer. “Gwaahh!” He bounced off the tree with the assistance of his legs and fell on the rough grass below him instead. Axl’s sweater and pants were roughed with some stains of dirt and mud. “Darn!”
The bear charged towards him, determined to wreck its attacker. Its sharp claws were revealed and it tried to slash Axl real bad. However, the Reploid’s quick movements and agility allowed him to evade the bear’s slashes, which tore a deep layer on the tree barks.
Axl kept on jumping here and there, evading the creature which is trying to mull him. He suddenly slipped on the grass, making him fall on the ground. Fortunately for him, the bear was using its head to ram into Axl so Axl was pounded on the stomach and was slammed against another tree, injuring him a lot.
“AXL!” Although they also felt the pain, Axl was injured the most and bore the most damage. It was amazing as animals possess many features which enhance their strength and power; Axl would have been dead now if he was a human.
“Gurgh… Dumb creature…” Axl tried to bring himself standing back up. This time the bear was charging at him again, prepared to give him a heavy slash. Axl just dropped back on the grass, unable to ensure his own safety.
“I’m sorry, guys… I shouldn’t have done that… I failed you all… We’ll die for sure… Iris, I can’t ensure your safety… I should have listened to you, Lumine…” The bear was getting closer and closer. The huge paw was lifted high in the air, preparing to give Axl a heavy attack. The claws descended quickly while Axl screamed out.
Just then, a miracle happened. Usually most people would put forth their hands to try blocking an incoming object while shutting their eyes and Axl did the same. Axl’s hands emitted a huge dark blue projection that enveloped him. The bear, which had came in contact with it, was instantly electrocuted for seconds.
It let out a huge growl before it fell to the ground motionless. Axl opened his eyes a little to check his conditions and was shocked to see himself enveloped by a dark blue globe: his own aura. The inhabitants too were surprised to see that, though Lumine wasn’t that surprised. The aura dissolved by itself soon after.
Inside the computer brain, Iris immediately rushed over to a tired Axl and hugged him so tight, Axl made a face. He returned a hug for a hug. Lumine only smiled at Axl and channeled out his aura to heal him and the body.
“What just happened? How could I have just done that?” The white Reploid laughed slightly. The other two instantly knew that he knew about this; who is the only brilliant mind around here anyway? “It has finally been unlocked. Sooner or later, we would expect more from you, dear boy.” He put his finger under his chin.
“Lumine! How long have you known this?” Iris demanded an immediate answer. It seems that the white Reploid has known a lot of things and that he kept it all to himself. “I’m talking about dear boy’s hidden abilities, dear girl. He accidentally unlocked one of them himself. Who knows when the others will be unlocked too?”
“Others? You mean, like yourself? I can levitate like you? The aura control? Data analysis? Is it true?” Lumine smiled again. “Sorry, but the part of levitation is strictly mine. You can unlock the others but you can never levitate. That you have to ask father.”
“Oh no! Dad! I’m coming!” Axl dashed past the creature’s body back to their own campsite to look for Prez. Prez saw it all by binoculars and he smiled with joy. The white Reploid had resurfaced and levitated to carry his creator off the tree.
“We have to alert the warden, father. Hold on tight.” Prez held onto Lumine tight as he flew away towards the reserve entrance. The old human never felt more relieved and rested his head on the Reploid’s shoulder and dozed off slightly.
Some two to three hours later, a rescue team arrived at the scene of destruction. It turns out the bear had been made unconscious by strong jolts of electricity and the authorities were baffled how that happened in an area void of much power. The fat bloke and son were traced a mile away from the scene and were treated for earlier injuries.
Of course, he had continued his teases of Prez merely climbing up a tree to save his skins. Secretly, Iris took surprising control and gave a light punch on his face in front of many officials, thus knocking him out. She earned Lumine’s praise for that. The bear had been taken back to its limits in the reserve.
Prez decided to leave the reserve and head back to the City core upon reasoning that the trip was ruined. The trio were disappointed as Axl began to pick up remnants of their scarred equipment. Lumine decided to take them on a slow drive back to the City core for real. Some time later, Axl was walking all the equipment remnants, walking back to the sports car parked in the reserve’s parking lots.
“He deserved that punch, Iris. We broke the law countless times because most situations required corrections, that’s all. Don’t worry!”
“Axl, brush that topic aside and let Lumine out.” As Axl slammed the stuff in the backseat, he approached his ‘dad’. At first he was silent but he finally said out his heart.
“Dad, I love you.” The human earned a surprise firm hug from the Maverick Hunter. The inhabitants felt that moment was quite touching and did not make any comments. After a while, Axl released his ‘dad’.
“Well, I love you three very much as my own children. Now, c’mon. Let’s go back to the City. This is a very tiring day for all of us. Let’s go back and have a nice supper at the tower mansion together before you go back for classes tomorrow. The night’s still young so we have plenty of time for a relaxing drive.”
Continued in Chapter 21.
Notes: Mad driving, quality time, fat-bloke-bashing, an attack from an Asiatic black bear (the nearest species to Japan I can think of) and some love; all in a single chapter. Yes the fat bloke speaks weird that way. Yes, Lumine has been hiding a lot of things from them all this while. Yes, you’ll find out more of Axl’s powers in the next chapter.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 3, 2009 1:34:31 GMT -5
On time update. Enjoy.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty-One: Persuasion
“Dear boy, you were given powers similar to ours too. It was only a matter of time before you had the sudden interest to master them. You do know very well you are a prototype model; that’s why you can’t obtain it so fast. Your arms have been equipped with the appropriate launchers; all that’s needed was a little spark.”
“Does it have anything to do with my Chameleon Chip?”
“…Dear boy, we’ve already talked about that. No, your copy chip is already stable. The only difference is that you don’t have to forcefully extract your energy. It was a matter of…discovery and continued practice. You will succeed, I know it.”
“So why we were all granted this powers? What was dad thinking?”
“That was the question we were supposed to ask him previously. No matter, one day when the time is right, we will know. As far as I know, your abilities are similar to that of dear girl’s. As for me, let’s just say mine is more diverse and destructive. Even for the parameters set by this body’s Chameleon Chip, my abilities are extremely destructive.”
It was the day after the trio had gone camping with Prez. They were back in the Maverick Hunter HQ, where Iris would watch the other two attending lectures or Axl would occasionally annoy Lumine. Axl and Lumine were bombarded with many new assignments, forcing them to speed up work.
This also made Axl have no choice but to put away his new desire for mastering hidden abilities Prez granted to him. Some time in the evening, the two Commanders would drop by to ask how he was, having heard the case of the rampaging bear.
The following day, they were back on normal first batch for the Hunter education program. Once again, it was back to History, Math and Geography and back to Axl nearly dozing off on the desk, earning him several jerks and stuns from Iris. Everything else in the HQ was normal, no development out of the ordinary.
It was in the late evening, just after Axl had attended all his lectures. He was already back in his cubicle after staying back in class (most Hunters assumed he flunked all tests and assignments, but that wasn’t true). He landed himself on his chair, slapping aside a thick pile of papers on his table. He sighed.
“Why the fuss, dear boy? It’s only five more assignments. Besides, I’m here as your other tutor. Hurry now; I also must do my assignments.”
“It’s not that, Lumine. I…I just don’t know what to do with the copy of me.” The trio turned towards the Maverick copy of Axl, still inside the prison. He has been of no trouble to anyone so far and Axl is still hesitating to take proper action on him. This has caused Lumine to further contain his grudge.
“Let’s just leave him, dear boy. The Maverick deserves this. We have work to do.” He was halted by Iris, whose hand held onto him firmly. “Are you sure? What if he manages to break out again? That time you will be dead for sure.”
He smiled back. “Don’t worry, dear girl. Everything is fine. The prison works based on repulsion by strong wave-like force. It’s 100 percent effective so there won’t be any trouble.” Iris let go of him and in turn approached Axl.
“Axl, what do you wish to do with him?” Axl was slightly taken back by that question and hesitated to answer. In everyone’s point-of-view, it was this hesitation that caused them much trouble all the while, if that period was appropriate.
“Er… it’s just like what I said. I want him out and over with but I also want to know why he did all that he has done to us. Only that, you can’t expect a Maverick to so willingly tell you everything, right? That’s why it just doesn’t feel right. He is still a mixed personality. That’s all, I think.”
Lumine interrupted him. “Really, it’s you who’s causing this, dear boy. If it weren’t for your hesitation and my reliance on you, I would have destroyed him a long time ago. We would have been spared much trouble since his first arrest.” He brilliantly didn’t include the part where White Axl was FIRST detected because no one knew he was a dormant and inactive personality that time.
“Hey, it’s not my fault. We feel the same, don’t we? Wanting to get rid of it but also curious about the data; all that stuff.” Axl abruptly stopped when he noticed Iris bearing a bad facial expression. Without saying anything, she merely walked away from them.
The two Reploids halted their talk for it could lead to a serious argument. Axl blew some grunt before returning back to his original tasks. Lumine remained where he was; half of him wanted to console Iris, the other half wanting to go apologize to Axl and assist him in assignments. He lifted his head towards Iris’ direction.
“Sorry, dear girl. If there’s anything you need, just call me.” He walked off away to Axl’s direction but decided not to apologize to the dear boy. Seeing that Axl and Lumine were gone, she blew a sigh of relief.
“Thank goodness I walked away. Axl was smart to have mistaken me as being upset or else they will really start arguing. Oh… what am I going to do? Axl doesn’t want to think about it and all Lumine cares about is destroying White Axl. How can I get things around here settled quickly?” She walked around and did lots of thinking.
She was close to the prison where White Axl was locked up. The silver personality was lying himself on the floor; his hands supporting his adjacent body. His face bore no particular expression since witnessing the whole incident. Suddenly Iris found herself being quite curious about the silver Maverick.
Pretty much of his form was appearing to be detailed just like Axl’s armour, except that it was silver and white. There were no purple strips on his design unlike that of previously experimented on Axl. His eyes shone dark yellow, freaking Iris a little which soon made him turn to the Reploid.
Iris sat on her knees on the pitch-black floor, staring at White Axl. The mouthless Maverick merely looked back at her without displaying any signs of curiosity or any other feeling. Making a gulp, Iris started to speak to him.
“You must be very lonely in there ever since we imprisoned you. Are you okay?”
At first, White Axl gave no reply but then nodded a little. Iris smiled because she had succeeded in making contact with the Maverick. She continued on talking. “Em, I don’t know if it’s okay with you, but can we just have a pleasant conversation?”
She smiled weakly along with dry laughter. White Axl didn’t express his decision at first but after a while, he nodded at her. Iris had expected a better way of expression his thoughts but so far, she thought that nodding and some body movements were the only ways for him to do so.
“Gee… it’s too bad. Please, we are quite tired of having to deal with you. We just want to solve this issue of you being here. There’s been splits over opinion and I think you must cooperate with us, whether you like it or not.”
White Axl’s eyes widened, showing his shock and then got back up on his feet. That was the most detailed reaction Iris got so far and to her; the pleasant conversation was producing quite some results. He shook his head repeatedly at her.
“Listen here, you! You have given us enough trouble in the past and we are really tired of that! Axl and Lumine might want to see you dead but I don’t!” White Axl paused his movements. “I’ve seen deaths time and time again and they all hurt me. I don’t want the same thing to repeat again. Please understand.”
Iris got up from her knees and walked about again. Her face showed some sadness in her heart. Her mind was filled with jumbled thoughts. She turned around and saw White Axl nodding quite quickly at her. She became puzzled and approached him.
“What are you nodding about? What is it?” The Maverick only nodded some more thus confusing her but she then saw the meaning of his repeated nods.
“You’re going to cooperate with us? Wonderful! Now, we would like to know your exact origins. Is that possible?” Nod. “You must promise never to hurt us all again. You hurt my friends and you hurt me as well. Got it?” Nod. “Good! Now, you do realize that we have to give you something in return for those, right?” Nod.
“So tell me, what do you want before you tell us your origins?” White Axl put his hand under his chin and rubbed it smoothly, signaling that he was thinking. A while later, he made his right finger point upwards, meaning he made his decision.
Turning to Iris, he used his finger to write out imaginary outlines of alphabets; a better way of communicating than merely nodding. Iris looked on and analyzed them.
“V…O…I…C…Voice! You want your own voice, don’t you?”
White Axl nodded once. His fingers wiggled slightly and made some more lettering.
“F…O…R…M. Form? You want your proper distinct form?” Nod. “But how’s does anything to do with us? Look at you; day by day, your form is getting more and more distinct. Can’t you do it yourself?” White Axl placed several left hand fingers on his chin and tapped them. He did some lettering with his fingers again.
“F…A…S…T…E…R. Faster? Maybe you’re right. How do I know if you’re not lying?” White Axl shook his head lightly, meaning that he wouldn’t lie to Iris. That reminded her of the times he didn’t want to hurt her by not punching and trying not to get her electrocuted, but she didn’t want to find out why as of now.
Iris gave herself a run from the prison; her being overjoyed to tell the good news to everyone. Things had never got better. Eventually she stumbled onto them but the white Reploid was giving some guidance to Axl on writing a report correctly.
“There! All done!” Axl slammed his back on the chair harder and shut his eyes. “Only four more assignments, I guess. I’ll try to work faster, Lumine. I know you are smart and all but you do deserve your own time, right?”
“That’s nice of you. Thank you, dear boy.” Axl put himself on the pitch-black floor and sighed. Both of them weren’t aware of Iris being close to them so they acted as if nothing was going on. Axl then asked some important questions.
“So Lumine, you being close with dad for 8 years or so, do you know anything else about this… hidden powers thing?” The white Reploid looked at him with a mean eye which shivered Axl. He quickly smiled back and replied.
“Of course, dear boy. The corporation holds a vast database for all models created so it was only natural that anyone having access to such info will want to read through them all. I’ve only read yours and dear girl’s. Father kept talking about you a lot.”
“Apparently, when scientists decided to make dear girl a mere peacekeeper, guess who deliberately inserted more abilities? He had an eye out for dear girl, knowing she would be something different. Naturally, since this prototype is made from the exact materials, father would want to also give you the same powers. It’s a status thing. Since your kidnapping, I was the replacement. More or less improved further.”
“Wow. His power-controlling thing is tough. I don’t know how I’d do it. What if I’m not successful and something goes out of hand?” Axl lifted his hands and stared at his palms. Lumine bent down on one knee and his hand held Axl’s shoulder.
“Relax, dear boy. I know you can do it. You always had that heart of great confidence in yourself. Why worry about giving up when you haven’t even started? You’ll learn it good someday.” The white Reploid got up. “Go do your work, dear boy. If there’s anything you need, call me. I’m just checking your systems.”
He vanished off somewhere else while Axl looked on. He too stood up and was about to resume active control over the body when Iris gently tapped his shoulder. Axl turned around and was forced to remain shut-eyed on his chair.
“Oh hi Iris. Look, I’m sorry if we were almost going to fight again. I promise it won’t happen again-” Iris gently placed a finger on Axl’s lips. “It’s okay, Axl. It’s nothing. Listen, I just had a talk with your copy and he agreed not to harm us anymore.”
Axl was taken back by the claim. “Are you serious?! After all that times he tried to destroy us and now a small talk made him quit? Iris, you’re magnificent!”
She blushed on the comment. “Gee... thank you. That’s the first time I’ve gotten a nice word from you. Anyway, if it’s fine with you, I’m just asking you to get over your hesitation and quickly have things done and over with. We can now know his exact thoughts and his origins. All he needs is a voice and a distinct form.”
“Doesn’t he activate it? He copied most of our programs and he can’t have a voice?”
“Oh, hush that now. An agreement is an agreement. We give him a voice and a form; he gives us his details and peace. It’s fair. We can’t have him barred in silence forever. Eventually something has to give.”
Axl frowned and tapped his fingers on opposite arms. Iris was anxious and waited for a positive reply. He blinked his eyes once and looked at Iris. “Alright, fine. Let’s go give that Maverick his voice. But first we need Lumine.”
The white Reploid was in another area of the computer brain; with folded arms, he stared on the slowly-circulating inactive data around him. The place was very big for the data flowed on at seemingly endless heights. He shut both his eyes and did some thinking, at least before he was interrupted.
“Lumine, we need to talk.” The white Reploid unfolded his arms and turned around to response to the dear boy and girl. “Yes, what is it?”
Axl made a small step forward and looked at him. “Em… Lumine. I don’t want White Axl to be destroyed for now. Please program him a clear voice code and give him the distinct looks.” Lumine raised an eyebrow.
“You’re compromising with him, dear boy? Are you sure? He tried to merge us and eliminate our data souls. Please be rational, dear boy. I don’t think he’ll ever want to be peaceful with us. That’s why I prefer him destroyed.”
Iris rudely jerked in. “So you’re saying that you wouldn’t want to know why he did this to you guys?! Is it really worth the hatred you’ve been storing inside you?”
He stared on the pitch-black floor for moments before his now-cold yellow eyes were directed at the other two. “Yes, I have my reasons. Like it or not, one day when my patience no longer stops me, the Maverick will be smashed.”
Iris was about to cry and Axl saw that. Lumine’s strong arrogance was really making its impact on everyone else. Axl walked up closer to the white Reploid who was staring meanly at them. “Lumine, look at yourself. You’re full of evil. That’s not the you I know. You were caring and nice to us. Why are you so mean? Why?”
Sudden hard realization hit the white Reploid hard. His mean looks suddenly softened up into a sad face. The angry eye became a sorrowful eye. He just dropped on his knees, staring into blank space. Iris wiped away all tears to watch him.
Lumine’s fists clenched and pounded hard on the pitch-black floor. “You’re right, dear boy. Something is wrong with me. I know I had my reasons but this hatred really caught up to me. Too much until I don’t even listen to you, my friends. I’m sorry, dear boy and dear girl. There’s too much hatred.”
“Lumine, you promised to create a program for his speech capabilities, didn’t you? Now’s the time for you to do that. Just get over the grudge and give White Axl what he wants, just this once.” Axl had already bent down on him and talked. Iris watched on and waited for the Reploid’s decision.
The white Reploid turned up to him; his extending hair moved as though it was roughly brushed aside. “I heard about your little compromise, dear girl. You didn’t really think I wasn’t watching you, do you? Even if he agreed to not hurt us, there are loopholes. He can’t hurt us physically but what if he hurts us verbally?”
He had a point. Iris had certainly never thought of that part yet. Axl halted the silence: “Well, we will just continue to lock him up but this time, the prison ought to be installed with audio censor codes. No one will hear him, even us.”
The white Reploid smiled widely. “That’s a brilliant idea, dear boy. You really have changed, from dear girl’s perspective of course. She’s convinced that you’ve grown your mentality from a human child to a human teen. Well done.”
“Hey…I’m offended!” They gave themselves a hearty laugh while Iris giggled. The white Reploid got up from his knees and stood facing the other two with some happiness expressed on his face. “Alright, I’ll do as you suggest, dear boy. It will take some time though. I need to extract out every word of human vocabulary I know and arrange configurations for White Axl.”
“How do you do that? The part of making his voice…?”
“Simple, like THIS.” Lumine rapidly plunged his hand into Axl’s head and emitted lots of aura which Axl felt like warmness over his entire body. This time, the warmness was around his neck, around the area for vocal cords. In no time at all, he pulled his hand slowly out of Axl with messy data chunks in his grasp.
Both palms closed on each other and the aura was emitted again. The data chunks were separated into multiple threads and rapidly moved here and there inside the aura to become a small cubic data chunk. “The details on your voice are all here, dear boy. Wavelength patterns, beam control, all those.”
“You’re going to mix my data with yours and give it to White Axl?!”
“Of course.” The white Reploid held it tighter. “He is after all, a mixture of our components. Things go that way, which I prefer. Besides… he is worthy of an experiment. I still have my reasons for not treating him, but this time, I wouldn’t go insanely mad. I promise you, dear boy.” Axl looked on.
“Alright, I’ll start working on it immediately. A few days of hard work ought to do it. You can still see me if there’s anything you need, just make it necessary. Don’t bother me if it’s something unimportant. At the mean time, study smart, dear boy.” The white Reploid vanished to another place where he could get privacy.
“Gee, now I have no one to help me with my assignments.” Seeing the conversation has ended, Axl opened his eyes and was back in control of the body. He was shocked to find that he had let 45 minutes walk past him so easily. Axl sat back up properly and began on his work again.
Several hours later, he had only completed two halves of two assignments. He had skipped to other work because he was bored with the first one. It was close to night time and another day was soon going to pass. Feeling all dried up, he grabbed a bottle of water from beneath his desk and drank it all.
“Axl! Be careful! Someone might see you and you’ll bring attention!”
“Er… sorry. I just felt like having something to drink, that’s all. Maybe it would be best if I go out and eat human stuff. It’s been a long while since I last did that.” Axl switched off the computer and proceeded to get up from his seat.
“So Iris, how’s Lumine doing?” Iris made a face. “He’s fine, I guess. But he keeps on urging me to leave him alone. He really wants some privacy to himself. I guess all those data encryption work is really tough. He was sort of playing with the codes back then; stirring it as though it is a chemical solution or something…”
“Well, that’s good enough.” Iris then firmly grabbed Axl before he started to move on. “Axl… thank you. Thank you for settling this issue of your copy fast. I just wish we would know what to do to him once we are done. Lumine’s bent on destroying him. Oh…what are we going to do?”
She quickly hugged Axl in the computer brain. Axl blushed slightly; he had always been hugged by her at all times he knew she would like troubled times and when a conflict had passed, but he never expected her to do that now since this issue of compromising with White Axl was not a conflict to him.
“Er… sure. Any time.” Iris let go of him slowly as she wiped away the tears on her cheeks. Axl raised an eyebrow and his fingers were smoothing on her cheeks.
“Aw man. Iris, you always cry. Are things really that sad around here? Well, let me cheer you up. How about a nice ice-cream sundae with fruits and the nice pistachio flavour you enjoy with the chocolate nuts on them?”
“Hey, you’re good! C’mon, let’s go eat some of that ice-cream!” Iris made many loud giggles only Axl could hear and he was happy for Iris being happy again. Axl gave it a run for the HQ’s highest rooftop and changed to his human form before teleporting away.
Continued in Chapter 22.
Notes: Iris plays smart! ...and she cries a lot. And at least something’s being done to deal with Maverick Axl. Programming programs in the head of a program; there are wonders the mere subconscious could do, even in technology. You could be wondering why White Axl needs a vocabulary system although he conveys messages well; let’s say it’s just for assurance.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 3, 2009 23:12:53 GMT -5
Today's story is of a rude entry, a shocking disovery and a terrible end.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty-Two: Showoff
An amazing five days later, it was day 117 and the day Axl got a day off from classes and managed to go to his favourite store. For five days straight, Axl and Iris had only gotten contact with Lumine for mere minutes everyday. The white Reploid didn’t want to be interrupted at all in his tedious work.
Along the way, Lumine would also rudely grasp control of the body mechanisms from Axl and use his features as a cover-up so he could gain access to the library and write many reports for X. Axl had to endure the irritating feel of being in the library but managed to watch at the knowledge Lumine wrote out.
They had come in no contact at all with mister Prez. He was reportedly on his final stages of preparation for a booth on an upcoming corporate exhibition and had many talks with the human authorities regarding a secret matter. No one knew what it was.
On an interesting note, yesterday Axl attracted a lot of attention during Geography lecture. While paying attention to Pallette teaching the rough characteristics of a mountain range, Axl suddenly lost control of his head and it knocked hard on the table.
“Hey what’s going on? Why can’t I… gulp… lift my head?” Axl tried his best but he just couldn’t. He and Iris were experiencing what experts call technical problems in the computer brain. Apparently it wasn’t any technical difficulties, it was Lumine.
The white Reploid appeared to be extremely tired for he was limping heavily out from one corner. In his right hand held a huge chunk of glowing squares and rectangles. He approached the other two and barely steps away, he just collapsed on the pitch-black floor; his eyes closing in slow motion.
“LUMINE!” They stepped forward and got hold of the Reploid on his body. The data chunk fell out from his hands as they struggled to put him lying properly on his back. Iris, however, was kind enough to tend to him first and let his head be placed gently on her lap, also avoiding the extending purple hair.
“Huh… it’s done… the vocabulary… the voice style… all finished…” He stopped saying anything while the other two looked on anxiously. “Never felt this tired before… I must have stressed myself… too much.” His right hand reached out to the data chunk he dropped and held it firmly on his chest and dozed off.
Iris smiled. “He deserves a rest. I’ll take it from here. Just reactivate the body again, Axl. We don’t want his control to interrupt you, do we?”
Axl just had full control over his body again when Pallette was glaring angrily at him. Several Hunters beside him also were putting on an expression of confusion. Axl smiled meekly, revealing his teeth at Pallette: “Er… sorry, he was so exhausted I couldn’t contain it. I won’t let that happen again.”
“Alright, just pay attention, Axl! You’re lucky Alia was called off by X or else, who knows what she would say about your terrible behaviour.”
After the lecture, Axl landed up with another assignment. Lumine also got his share though he wasn’t listening at all due to extreme tiredness. Instead of going back to his cubicle, he held on to his papers and books and went on for a small walk to the gathering grounds to watch the flowers. Sitting on a chair, he shut his eyes.
He was approached by Iris immediately. Without even asking for it, Iris quickly told Axl of Lumine’s conditions. “He worked so hard, designing the programs and catching up on education. He worked 17 hours a day just for both of them. Just now, like he said, the program for voice and vocabulary was finished.”
Having heard that, Axl retreated to his cubicle for some rest.
That was how Axl remembered the sequence of events just yesterday. He was arranging the cans of food on the shelves while thinking all that. Apparently, despite the 20-hour sleep, Lumine wasn’t really refreshed and remained where he was: sleeping on an imaginary hammock in the air of the computer brain.
Minutes passed by later. Axl had just started to sweep the cement floor for dirt and dust when a telephone call came in. The old sir was awakened from his sleep on the bench and got up to pick the receiver.
“Hello? Oh! Yes I see! Yes of course! Thanks for calling!” The old sir put down the phone and stared at Axl with a wide smile. “Well, sonny. That was your dad, mister Prez. He says it’s urgent for you to call the heir to a certain corporate exhibit.”
Axl was surprised. “A corporate function? That must be the exhibit booth thing dad mentioned! Well, I don’t know about… brother Lumine. I don’t think he could make it so I’m replacing him.” Lumine was still soundly asleep.
“Oh I see… very well then. You may go.” The old sir bent down to his drawer to pick up a pen and pencil for Axl. But when he turned back up, Axl was nowhere in sight. “Sonny, I didn’t tell you the place! Oh that Reploid child…”
Axl had changed to the corporate human form of his seconds earlier and teleported immediately to Prez’s office. Once again, the human wasn’t there and Axl got his hints from the office’s giant screen before Iris could even rebuke him.
“Hm… the Exhibit Plaza. That’s several districts away, near to the east coast of Big City! I better check the computer for the coordinates.” Prez had never switched off his personal computer before (he could afford the bills) and Axl easily searched through a special Internet program for its location.
“Aha! Here it is! I’ll just tap them into my teleporting device and we’re there.” Axl set the coordinates on his ‘watch’ and pressed the button that allowed him to teleport there instantly. A second later, he was in front of a large structure with many aerotrains running out of it and dashed in to find Prez.
After some 40 minutes rushing through the crowds here and there, he arrived at the 43rd floor of the building and entered a door. Inside was the giant hall that housed many booths about various businesses and opportunities. Humans were constantly moving here and there with booklets in their arms.
The bored Axl had no choice but to further his search for Prez and maintain his formal clothing. Meanwhile, the flushed Lumine began to wake up and all he saw was a blurred vision of many moving objects. The surrounding noise was getting louder.
“…and we are now live here at the Exhibit Plaza where we will soon observe a speech from the tycoon we refer to as mister Prez. Mister Prez, now affirmed as the Federation’s most important man and one of the world’s, will be…”
“Uh… dear boy? Dear girl? Where are we? Uh!” Lumine lost balance in Axl’s head and fell on the pitch-black floor. Iris heard the fall and rushed over to him. “Lumine! You’re awake! Axl’s in the Exhibit Plaza! Father just called him to call you out but you were so tired! So he replaced you.” Lumine raised an eyebrow.
At one end of the huge hall, thunderous claps were heard. A familiar figure stood up and walked towards the stand to speak. It was Axl’s ‘dad’ alright; he shuffled up some papers and was about to speak when he saw Axl running towards the stage.
Axl immediately leaped onto the stage, much to everyone’s surprise. Some security guards rushed over to brush the stranger away but instead found themselves shoo-ed.
“Where are your manners? This is my son! He’s the one I ruffled with his hair two months ago, like this!” Axl was tugged under Prez’s arms and got his hair roughed with. “Dad, stop it! You’re embarrassing me again!” Unknown to everyone, Axl told Prez that Lumine was too tired to come himself so Axl was the replacement.
“Ladies and gentlemen, my heir couldn’t make it today! So this is his stand-in!” From that sentence onwards, the reporters began to bombard poor Axl about various issues of Lumine. The session lasted around 40 minutes and Axl often struggled to find the right answers to their demands. What he didn’t know was that the white Reploid was enjoying the scenes of Axl stuttering here and there.
“That’s quite entertaining.” “Lumine, stop teasing Axl behind his back!” “At least it’s a better improvement. I used to stab him on the face a lot.” Iris didn’t know how to further rebuke the sinisterly-laughing Reploid.
Later on, the session ended and most people resumed back to booth-studying. The booth receiving the most attention was obviously Prez’s; he was a magnate and everyone wants a slice of his profits. Unfortunately that wasn’t going to be any profit to gain unless HE invested in their companies and doing that alone is tough.
Axl dropped himself on one of the chairs and sighed a great deal of relief. He had been made bored due to all the questions directed at him. Some questions were relevant to himself, which he avoided, and annoying ones, which he just hushed them away. One of the annoying questions was opinion of Lumine the ex-Maverick.
“Annoying, isn’t it, dear boy?” The sudden booming of voice in his head made him jerk forward on the chair. Placing his palm on his forehead, he shut his eyes.
“You’re awake?! How long was that?” The white Reploid gave a loud laugh. “I’ve been up for a while. That’s all. If you don’t mind, could you walk around with father? I would like to see the booth he painstakingly prepared.”
Axl immediately got up from his chair and walked off the stage towards Prez, who was greeting other middle-class members. Axl tapped on his shoulder gently.
“Em… dad, Lumine says he wants to see your booth. Could you show us around?” Prez beamed a smile at him. “Why of course! Alright people, I’ll catch you all later. My Reploid son wants me to show him around. Yes, goodbye. Have a nice day.”
Prez’s hand firmly held Axl to himself, causing Axl to make a face. Prez walked around with the crowd towards the booth he owned. There many impressive looking machines and prototypes, which irked Axl slightly, and the results of their functions were displayed.
“Alright, here we have the brand new wide screen plasma television. It’s 120 inches long, having superb graphics and also acts as a personal computer. It has a remote that integrates television controls and computer keyboards. You do anything with it; Internet, channel-surfing, video call. It does come with a heavy price of tens of thousands, but it’s the best companion for you. The HQ will be a spot for experimental usage.”
“Here we have on display is a newer Reploid dummy. You ought to know that it has a fixed thought of sole devotion for love and peace. Normally many other industries and sectors employ such Reploids but this one here’s for household use. Never Maverick, always loving, it shares happiness for all.”
“The newer Reploids! Dad, what are the schematics for this?” Axl had remembered he was supposed to ask him about why there weren’t any cases of Mavericks lately after Jakob. Lumine and Iris were grateful he asked the question but were disappointed that Prez declined to reveal it, fearing plagiarists would stole the formula in public.
“The formula’s rare. Only I have it. If I tell you now, some eaves-dropper would copy it and start his own cheaper brand! Oh great. Look who’s here.” The trio turned around and were shocked to see the two humans.
“YOU!! Sue?!” It was the fat man of a bloke, wearing his usual grey pocket-shirt and dark trouser. Just at his side, Sue was dressed up in a glamorous red dress. She too was shocked to find her ‘Brownscar’ with mister Prez.
“Hey what are you doing here?” Axl blushed and stammered. “Er… er… I had to replace Lumine. He…em… asked me. He was very tired. Is he your… dad?!”
“Aii! I remember jou! You’re the guy with the heir on the camping trip! I hopes yer alright! There was a bear rampaging at the woods and me and me son ran for our lifes!” Axl glared at Sue with a huge shock. Sue never told him she had a nerdy brother.
Sue’s dad still had some plasters on his skin, though not shown. There was a huge blue-black area on his cheek. Somehow he felt the pain and groaned. “Aii aii. Me cheek still hurts. A girl in he woods came outta nowhere and given me a slap! It still hurts! It feels as though her hands were made of steel…”
Iris made a gulp in the computer brain. She felt not-entirely guilty for slapping Sue’s dad the other day. “He was such a showoff. He said father was a coward and anger overcame me, I guess. I’m sorry, guys.”
Lumine walked up to her and pressed on her shoulders firmly. “Dear girl, you don’t find us complaining. He deserved it, despite the fact it’s against the law.” Meanwhile, Axl had diverted their attention to Prez.
“You invested in Sue’s dad’s company, increasing output of fisheries and you had to tolerate his insults? Of all people! You were tolerating for nine months already! How could you? Lumine was right!” Axl turned to Sue’s dad. “You’re such a jerk!”
Sue’s dad fumed up slightly. “Aii let’s get one thing straight here, no make it two! Firstly you are a jerk yourself for being rude to yer elders! Secondly, I earned my profit all by my own work! Prez’s cash were just payments for me equipment!!”
Sue stood up on her dad. “Dad, Prez made contracts with those machines you bought and you know it! There’s no way your company could afford such expensive and advanced machines! Mum was right! You changed to a jerk!”
The arguments started to create a stir on the spot near Prez’s booth. Many people were attracted to watch and gather around the squabbling trio. Prez just watched.
“Dear boy, please stop it. You’re contributing to the fuss around here. Just give this whole issue a rest.” “Axl, please! We’re here to accompany father, not to pick up a fight!” Axl ignored his inhabitants’ pleas and fought words with Sue’s dad.
Prez only put his hand covering his mouth. His eyes showed an expression which was difficult to decipher. “Hey, old man! Your so-called assets belong to Prez and you know it! Contracts are undeniably right. In fact, I don’t think you own anything at all!”
“Brownscar, dad! Just stop it, okay?!”
“This bloody man insulted me! I can’t hold back my pride! Sonny, listen here! Yes, I bought them equipments and machines with contracts! But I did earn my profit fair and square! Just ask Prez! Does he actually inform you how much he’s earning lately? Four months, lad and he spends a lot! Cleaning up damages here and there! Not me! Am stable!”
Axl looked at Prez. Prez didn’t answer a single thing at all. Axl preferred to ignore that, as he had long trusted what the old creator was doing. Meanwhile, a crowd had fully formed around the arguing trio. Some were afraid that the exhibition would be a mess, some watched.
“I’m earning better and better! I won’ take no sneers from a human loyal to the robot heir!-” “Dad, that’s enough! Let’s just go away to your booth!” “No, Sue I’m serious here! Look at the man! I have a happy family and a good home!”
“Watch your mouth, you human!!”
“And what are yer gonna do about it? Yer can’t manage even yourself now, can yer? My daughter is beautiful and you had a huge scar on your face! Really ugly looking-!”
“ENOOUUGH!!”
The loud shout stunned everyone else and all stopped watching, arguing and whispering. The trio of Axl turned to look at the source of the shout: the old man Prez himself. Though the shout was loud, that didn’t bother to tire him at all.
“I have had enough of your words of insults! You are the only one around here who doesn’t seem to know the limits of speech! It has been always unwise for you to criticize another people’s children, especially if that was my son of a Reploid!!”
Sue hit brash realization and shock. “Brownscar? Your son?”
“Yes of course, my dear girl! You’ve been talking to my son all this while! He often mentions about you; true, being beautiful and all. The only beauty I see here is your virtue, far better than that of your father!!”
Sue’s dad intended to rebuke back but the odds were against him.
“You, on the other hand, have no business criticizing people! You know, I’ve got a lot of complaints recently about you! You know what? Your best friends are actually talking behind your back due to your terrible manners and attitude!”
“Guess what? No one wants to do business with you at all! That goes the same to me! I’m pulling out all my investments from your little fishing station! That’s right; 3 billion cash worth of equipment, furniture, machines, everything!”
Many were shocked. This was now officially recorded as the second time in a decade that Prez had forcefully acquired another company worth much cash. The last one was that of several companies in far west Federation and Axl was familiar with that.
“I’ve got some comments from the Big City authorities. They did that because I was the only one who knew you. It seems that you will be arrested by the law for managing several illegal loan institutes; in other words, you’re a loan shark.”
Loan sharks were strictly prohibited in the whole of Federation and the crowd was shocked to find one living amongst them. Sue and Axl were also shocked; that fat bloke was the source of the old-sir-at-the-store’s displeasure.
“Hah, don’t forget that nearly every building in the Big City and the Federation itself bears my signature on their contracts. That includes this building too. As Chairman of the joint groups, you are hereby arrested by law for managing illegal loans. I shall see that my lawyer meets you tomorrow morning in your prison cell. Let this be a lesson to everyone; don’t forget your etiquettes.”
Human security guards marched forward and handcuffed the fat man. He was then dragged away wordlessly and with a face full of regret. The stares of people soon disappeared and activity was back to normal. Axl and Sue were alone together amid the crowd. Prez had gone away to his own booth relaxed.
“Er… Sue, I can explain why-!” Sue merely placed her finger on his lip. Axl became silent again, fearing for somewhat igniting Sue’s anger. However, she put up a meek but sad smile at him. “Just follow me, will you?”
Sue led him out of the hall to the marbled corridors and leaned on the glass walls where Axl could easily see the view below him. He was sure that Sue was quite angry at him as he kept a lot of things secret from her. His inhabitants had distanced themselves from him, believing they needed to be alone.
“So… let me get this straight. You are one of the three Reploid children of mister Prez and you never told me? How could you? We are friends, aren’t we?”
“I’m sorry, Sue. I can’t just so easily tell this to anyone. The attention is too much to bear. Heck, I don’t even want to be noticed too much. Me using the gun in the store is already bad enough. And yes, I’m related to Lumine. I do meet him often. I’m sorry for lying and keeping many things away from you.”
“How come no one ever tells me this? Why is everything around here so secret?!”
“Sue…I’m sorry. I had no choice. If you want other words of this, you can always ask the old sir at the store. He promised to keep this secret since day one; that’s why he occasionally skips joyfully. I just want a simple life, that’s all.”
Sue was speechless. For the next few minutes, neither said anything at all. Axl constantly walked step by step in front of Sue who was gazing down on the floor. Weaving her hair aside, she looked up on Axl.
“I’m sorry if my dad caused your dad to blow his top. I did ask my mum to stop him but she couldn’t do anything. She was one of those who talked with Prez on the phone. Huh…stupid father. He messes with your dad and now, my whole family must pay the price. Stupid showoff.” With that, she stormed away.
Axl was alone then in the corridor. Apparently his inhabitants decided he needed their company and they showed up to him in the computer brain. Everyone bore an expression of confusion and uncertainty.
“Sue’s right. That man is a total idiot. He’s such a showoff. I don’t think I’ll join dad so soon. If you don’t mind, I’ll just skip around the area for a while.”
“It’s okay, dear boy. Do whatever you please.”
Lumine’s cold yet soothing voice somewhat calmed him down a little. After straightening his tie and suit, Axl slowly walked out to the balconies ahead and landed himself on one of the available chairs, sighing and made deep thinking for the coming hours.
Continued in Chapter 23.
Notes: Poor Sue, caught up between her work and realities of her dad. Both of them were still oblivious of Axl’s identity until Prez got real mad. If you had noticed, Pallette doesn’t teach Geography; it’s Math. But anyway, I enjoyed it if she scolded Axl for a good reason anyway.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 5, 2009 0:20:06 GMT -5
And now, for the real plot development.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty-Three: Stream
‘It was a furore two days ago, here at the Exhibit Plaza in the Big City. Giant tycoon mister Prez lost his temper for a second time in a decade, a mere month or so after taking over several companies in far western Federation. This time, the company he claimed was that of a local City chain of fisheries, marking another field the Prez Corporation will soon dominate.’
‘It is now day two as the Federal Court hears the case of where the giant laid claims over billions worth of assets from a fat man under grounds of fund misuse. This ground was further proven true by recent discoveries that the fat man secretly operates loan shark activities and is subject to further investigation.’
‘Several business organizations and the Commerce Chamber have objected to this rapid takeover attempt and claimed that Prez gets things fast done his way so that he will enlarge his monopoly. However, the government and huge banking corporations oppose the stance, saying that Prez had never intended to increase his empire and on a side note, he was a liberal monopolist and the Federation prospered thanks to him.’
‘The outcome seems to favour mostly for mister Prez. If so, he would soon take over 3.6 billion worth of assets. He would also face extra criticism from many labour groups that strongly oppose any of his moves which favour him more. However, Prez strongly denies that he planned to rule over all fields of the economy.’
‘As of this year itself, mister Prez holds giant, or even complete, stakes of share and property in the industries of iron and steel, mining of virtually all minerals and oil and gas, research of science, virtually all kinds of consumer goods and manufacture of machines. The man seems to be highly reluctant to invest in automobiles, technological gadgets, computers and education, fearing a strong decrease of creativity.’
That was the short newspaper clip on the Internet Axl read that morning and another two more concerning himself, the heir and reaction from many peoples. If he knew better, Lumine would be disapproving of him reading such news. And right, he was.
“Really, dear boy, could you stop reading all those articles? I’m tired out having to read anything about me and the heirloom. Please, dear boy, I’ve asked you time and time again to stop. I don’t want to repeat myself.”
Lumine’s tone was filled with great sadness this time. Compared to previous times where he bluntly told Axl off, he sounded as though he was pleading to the Reploid to stop. Axl sighed heavily in plight of the white Reploid’s feelings.
“Geez, alright. I’ll stop reading the articles for now, if that makes you feel happy.” Axl closed the program and immediately turned to writing some brief notes about his assignments. In the computer brain, the white Reploid sighed at Axl with a smile and slowly walked away. Iris only watched the scene.
Axl understood how the white Reploid felt, for he experienced the same situations with him. Neither felt comfortable among the crowd of elites and under the spotlight of the media. Their creator’s recent claims over Sue’s dad’s company made the members of the press chase after Axl or Lumine like crazy, all hungry for either opinion on the matter.
The case was going to be settled fast in a few days or so, since this was the way things were done: fast but safe. Machinery and other assets will be transferred back to Prez’s hand if he wins the case. Many companies became more frightened of such a thing happening. Some opposed but the government supported the takeover.
But enough of the corporate issue. Back in the Maverick Hunter HQ, education was just as normal as nothing has been affected by the media’s buzzes. Even X and Zero preferred not to say anything because “it is out of our hands”. Axl had so far heard no word from Sue; though that was usual, this time it was different.
On the other hand, two Reploids found a familiar Lumine tempering with a small cube in the computer brain. It was the small chunk he made for White Axl’s voice.
“Hey, Lumine. You were done with that thing, weren’t you?” The spark shots of tiny flames stopped on the spot. The white Reploid held the cube in his hands and turned around to meet his fellow friends and fellow host.
“Sorry, but it seems I missed out some certain aspects here and there the other time I was too tired. But anyway, now that you’ve mentioned it, I’m sure that our Maverick will get his copy of voice and smarter vocabulary somewhere today.”
Iris was the first to react with joy. “Really? Oh wow! Well, what are you waiting for? Go work on it fast! We want to know everything from him, don’t we? Axl! Why are you still lingering around here?! You have another two more hours before you go to work for the old human at the store! Go do something useful!”
This was the first time in her life that Iris was directing orders to other people. The other two were surprised that Iris showed her leadership capabilities but they assumed that this would only be temporary.
“But of course, dear girl.” That was all Lumine said before he returned to his work. Axl merely opened his eyes again, assumed full control over the body and got off the chair to ‘do something useful’. Unknown to him, Iris was told that Lumine had deliberately made the sparks shot out of the cube for visual purposes.
Axl played video games in the VR room for the first time since many weeks previously. Of course Iris had preferred him to complete his assignments but he “couldn’t care less”. That caused her to jerk him a lot while playing and lose the game. Lumine found some pleasure at that while working.
Some time later, Axl had just received note from X concerning his metal bearing balls before going out. X was quite frustrated about the giant objects present.
“Axl, could you move those things away? What good has it ever done to you?”
They were at Axl’s cubicle, arguing. “What? Hey, I’m not throwing away those! Those are pure stainless steel and some other metals Lumine gave to me! I like it there. I know it will have some uses in the future!”
“Hah. If you don’t find a way to use it properly in a week’s time, I’m getting the Mechaniloids to remove it. Either you do it, or I’ll do it. Understand?” Axl just nodded silently before X walked off back to his own share of duties.
Axl didn’t close his eyes so he didn’t know that Lumine and Iris were staring at him. “Uses in the future? You don’t really think that will happen, do you dear boy? I am starting to regret even more for giving you the two bowling balls.”
“Aw, c’mon! It’s not so bad, is it? I’m not even making any more dents on the floor. Now, I’ll just teleport back to the outside world if you don’t mind. The old man needs me.” Axl roughly teleported away to a dark alley corner on the streets.
He rapidly assumed normal human form and rushed out into the streets. He ran faster and faster but he seemed to be far away from his destination; that was true because the old sir’s store was 5 districts away from the Hunter HQ.
Along the way, he endured much complaint from his inhabitants saying that he was wasting precious time. Iris even doubted Axl’s words that he wanted to arrive on time for work. Anyway, Axl had arrived just on time for his day’s work.
For the next few hours, the Reploid had focused much energy into keeping the store clean and nice. It was back to roughly scrubbing the windows for stubborn dirt and roughing the floor with the detergent-rinsed mop to days’ much of dust.
He was interrupted once during his routine of arranging goods on the shelves by the old sir. Apparently the old man was pondering over something and to sum up his soon-to-be big expression of words, he held up an article of a subject Lumine hated to read and talk about the most.
It was an article the day before about a stir during a corporate exhibit. The media had taken pictures of Axl arguing with Sue’s dad and security guards dragging the fat man away on Prez’s orders. Axl gulped slightly.
“It was Sue’s dad, wasn’t it young Reploid? He managed the loan shark activities which threatened to sabotage my store, isn’t it? And your secret about being Prez’s Reploid child further told to the whole of the nation…”
“Err… yes.” Axl hung his head downwards in slight shame. “I didn’t even know it was him who did all this to you. Maybe the reason why he acted so arrogant since nine months ago was he felt he had much money and he could terrorize you poor lot. Sue… I don’t know when I’ll see her again.”
“Quite right you are. I have not been seeing the young girl for some time now. Who knows where she ended up? Some customers were talking about it and even her friends dropped by. They said she was going to do something so drastic…”
“Something drastic?! What’s that?” The old man only shrugged and walked away.
Axl felt sad on the thought of something terrible was going to happen to Sue. His hand still held a dirty piece of rag and the other holding a small can of preserved fruit. Lumine was too busy to notice that but Iris certainly did. She expressed her aura onto Axl, making him feel warm all over before she talked.
“Axl, are you okay? Please don’t be sad. I know how you feel.”
“It’s nothing. I’ll just continue on with my chores…” His hands spiritlessly moved to clean the dirty spot where the clean of pineapple cube originally lay. Iris had a facial expression of both sadness and disappointment.
She slowly walked to Lumine on one corner of the computer brain, arranging tiny bits of data inside the red aura he emitted from his hands. Iris was briefly distracted by the colour of the aura before she got to her point.
“Red aura? You haven’t done that for a long time already, Lumine.”
“It’s my aura, dear girl. I can do whatever I please at. I usually prefer it dark purple for that’s who I am, but I decided this was a different situation. What’s wrong, dear girl? You’re sad just like dear boy.”
“You weren’t paying attention, were you Lumine? Axl’s sad because he feels he’d never see Sue again. I hope you understand how he feels, how I feel too. I know you read records of me when I was active fifty years ago. I lost my brother in the war, I fought Zero mindlessly…” She started to cry but Lumine’s finger had reached out to wipe the tears away.
“Yes, dear girl. I understand your feelings. You helped me awaken my senses before and I had a strong feeling of sadness; I yearned to see father again. We can only hope everything will turn fine; this matter is out of our hands.”
Lumine stopped speaking and returned to his work. Barely a minute alter where Iris stared into deep space, Lumine let out a great gasp and plummeted himself on the pitch-black floor, panting with a smile.
“It’s finally done. The configurations, details, everything… all finished. All strings of data, their proper order of compilation, all done. I can now truly rest.”
Iris became excited instantly. “Really? All done? What is it all about?”
“Details, dear girl? Of course. I have already arranged all data concerning speech and further complex vocabulary in order. The Maverick’s voice will be exactly was we ought to hear. As for his form, I only arranged exact details of his armour’s colour. There was something odd somewhere but I can fix that.”
“Armour colour? Odd somewhere? How’s that possible?”
“I have a theory but once I’ve made contact with him, then I’ll confirm it. As for the prison censorship, it’s all finished. No matter what he says, depending on parameters set, either only we hear him or we hear nothing at all. It’s easy and fast getting used to it.”
Lumine lied on the floor with a completely straight back; his extending hair seemed to penetrate the floor deeper thus making him relax better. His eyes darted to Iris. “Dear girl, please tell dear boy that everything is ready. I’m waiting for his response.”
Iris certainly burst with joy. Lumine allowed himself to sleep for the moment on the cold, pitch-black floor but he did not see Iris dash off to meet Axl. Axl was in control as usual so he wasn’t closing his eyes when he was carrying stuff. Iris saw him as just standing still in the computer brain.
“Em… Axl? The program’s done. Now, we need your confirmation.”
“Gee, you guys are depending a lot on me, aren’t you?” Axl placed the crate he was carrying on the cement floor and leaned against a wall thus closing his eyes again to meet his inhabitant. Iris looked rather cheery that time and he was surprised.
“We are going to learn everything about White Axl! Aren’t you a least bit excited? It was quite easy for me to persuade him to cooperate but still, it was better me than you guys. Show some enthusiasm!”
“Alright, Iris, I get the picture. Go tell Lumine to start installing the data of his in the Maverick. I’ll be joining shortly. I still don’t trust him…”
Iris ignored the last sentence Axl said before resuming his duties. She then skipped all the way to a resting white Reploid. Once again, Lumine opened his eyes so fast that Iris was literally shocked and fell on the pitch-black floor.
“Hey, don’t do that! You’ve been doing that a lot ever since you got into this body. Stop scaring me and Axl like that next time, okay?” Lumine gave a light laugh at her before standing back on his feet.
“So dear boy’s given consent? That’s good. I’ll start immediately. Like dear boy, I still don’t trust the Maverick so I will need your help, dear girl. When I unlock the prison for a moment to install the data, you have to make sure he remains stable as in not attacking anyone.” Iris glared at him while he brushed his chest.
“He said he wouldn’t be attacking any of us at all!”
“Well, I’m not taking any chances. Just do it, will you?” Iris fumed slightly as she walked with Lumine towards the prison cube. The repulsion forces were still operational and any attempt of the Maverick to escape only resulted in him being endlessly bounced around inside the cube. Naturally the silver copy was sitting still.
Out of nowhere, a purple orb appeared just at the white Reploid’s left side. Lumine raised his left hand, getting ready to punch in codes only he knows how to interpret. Glancing briefly and nodding at Iris, he then went on to tap various unseen buttons.
The prison started to separate into long piles of steel-like projections. The projections were vertical of height so from each end of the sides, projection by projection were dismantled and lifted into the air. White Axl only stood up on the same spot.
Before he could do even anything, Iris was already there to confront him. The Maverick widened his eyes with a little shock. Iris smiled at him and then proceeded to hold his right hand. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was shivering out of assumed ‘fear’.
“Please… just remain calm. You promised me that you’ll never hurt us at all. In return we are giving you what you need. Relax.” Indeed the Maverick calmed down slightly and Iris held his right hand firmly.
By now, Lumine was holding the data chunk he had painstakingly created. Despite his earlier outburst of remorse and regret, Lumine still bore the same grudge for the Maverick and had the evil look in his eyes, not his facial expression.
The two pairs of yellow eyes somewhat met. An evil glare was returned by another evil glare. No one said anything just about yet. The white Reploid blinked first. “You’re lucky someone made me wait or else you would have been destroyed a long time ago.”
White Axl wanted to do something but Iris held on his hand tighter, restraining him.
“Hm. Dear boy’s not quick done yet. Oh well… let’s start this.” Lumine pointed a finger at White Axl’s head, forming a deep circular hole on the forehead.
The data chunk disintegrated into millions of tiny bits of squares and rectangles, flying gently in the air. Using his purple aura, he directed a thin ray into the hole and diverted all data on the course. A tiny square came in contact with the hole, causing small sparks to fly. The more data went in, the more sparks flew out.
“Lumine? What are you doing?!” He had a stern look.
“I’m trying to incorporate the data into his system. The only time data can be integrated with these blockages are when the data themselves are written into the data soul during creation in father’s factories. This is the use of force at hand.”
White Axl was shaking violently as a result from the huge stuns he had to bear. In Lumine’s opinion, White Axl deserved it but he wasn’t going to be so dumb and to tell that directly on Iris’ face. Just when it looked like it was all over, Lumine rudely dived his hand deep into White Axl’s head.
“LUMINE!!” Iris was going to refute him but the situation was quite tense and this called nothing for debate. At the wound, several square fragments were spluttered out from the armour. The white Reploid made a frowning expression.
“Hm. Just as I thought. You are plain lazy, just like dear boy. Let me bring it out for you. HAH!!” Inside the data soul, amid the tones of flowing data, Lumine’s palm and fingers spread far out; emitting the dark purple aura in a sphere. The hand sort of grabbed some silicon-looking strings hard and pulled it out.
The result was sheer brightness. Light came out in blinding intensity. A wave of force somewhat was emitted from white Axl’s wound, causing them to be thrown backwards. Somehow, even the light was ‘seen’ by Axl himself in the form of blurry images of his surroundings.
The whole incident happened in the old sir’s store while Axl was carrying some other crates. His vision was temporarily brightened up a little due to the ‘explosion’ that happened in his head. He wanted to know what happened fast but at the same time, he must make sure the store wasn’t empty for anyone to rob.
Old sir definitely was awake and even reading the newspaper at the counter. There seems to be no customers at the moment so Axl was able to quietly slip to the back lane alley to have a private conversation with his friends.
Slamming the back door gently, he then grabbed himself a nearby wooden chair and sat on it. “What happened? Man, I should have stayed and watch the guys configure the Maverick instead!” He closed his eyes and got a clear picture of what happened inside his head.
The ‘smoke’ had gone from thicker to thinner. Iris was lying downwards on the pitch-black floor. Concerned, he dashed over to her.
“Iris! Iris, wake up! What happened?!” He placed her left hand on his shoulder and sought to life her in a standing way. Iris opened her eyes slowly. “Axl? Uh… it was so blinding… White Axl… White Axl! How is he?!”
“He’s fine, dear girl. Just back in his prison as usual.”
The smoke lessened until there was none left. The white Reploid appeared, walking out of the black background. He bore a wide but sinister smile with him. The green orb which accompanied him disintegrated into thin air.
“Well, well. What do you know? Apparently I was right. The little sneak had his full form in detail but it was somewhat embedded inside him, remaining inactive until I had to pull it out. That was a deliberate action, though. To tell the truth, I was rather surprised from the beginning that he had zero voice applications in him.”
“Deliberate action? Full form? No voice? What’s going on here actually?” Axl still held onto Iris who appeared to be exhausted. Iris only nodded in silence, signaling that she knew what Lumine was talking about.
“Who are you calling little sneak? You’re just smarter that’s all.”
The voice had boomed out of nowhere. The trio certainly weren’t speaking and that meant only one other possibility: White Axl had gained the capability to speak again.
The trio turned towards the direction of White Axl’s prison. The Maverick now possessed full form that of a mixture of Axl and Lumine. That white armour was clearly visible and every detail wasn’t missed out. Even his scar had vanished. This time he had a mouth to convey his messages.
“You! You did this to my friends?!” Axl yelled at the Maverick copy. The copy was busy examining himself, perhaps not even noticing Axl’s yells. He admired the detail of his own armour and responded back to Axl after a while.
“I’m sorry, but did you say something?” His voice sounded chilly to Axl even though it resembled a lot like his but had a definite pitch of sneer from Lumine’s. The sneer was so clear Axl wondered if he’ll ever sound like that.
Axl didn’t reply his copy’s question. The white copy smiled back and gave a surprising bow to the three of them. “Well, thank you very much for giving me a voice. Especially Iris. If it wasn’t her who persuaded you both, I wouldn’t get a chance to cooperate with you.”
Lumine looked at Axl. “Well, dear boy. If you have any questions, go ahead and ask. I have none at the moment.”
“Who are you actually? Why do you keep harming us previously?” Lumine felt awkward that Axl had asked that question since he had already answered that previously.
The copy smiled back. “I am a new personality as you may have known by now. I am quite special. I am a mixture of you and Lumine in many other aspects. Behaviour, combat styles, codes and protocols. That’s me. Unfortunately, that means my mission would occasionally be disturbed.”
“A mission? Okay, but before I enquire about that, why do you tend not to harm Iris at all? You harm me and Lumine the most! Even if a Maverick were to be a female, I would have trashed her out thoroughly!”
White Axl was speechless for seconds. “But Iris isn’t exactly a Maverick is she?” Iris was taken back a little by that comment. “That’s right. It’s all in your personality data. The both of you have been programmed, or taught in Lumine’s case, to respect girls. Simple as that. Naturally I inherited both such data. You two must have huge respect for the girl, don’t you? Besides, harming someone irrelevant to my mission would simply obstruct my mission further.”
Lumine said nothing but Axl certainly blushed a little. Iris only smiled with her happy eyes back at him. “Er…okay… Anyway, back to the topic. Tell us everything we want to know.”
“Are we in a lonely place?” “Yeah, at a back lane alley.” That was Axl.
“Are the censors to the outside world switched off, Lumine?” “Correct.”
“Are you excited about this, Iris?” Iris blushed slightly. “Yes…”
White Axl made do with the prison grounds he was imprisoned in and sat with folded legs on the floor. “Well then. Everyone, gather round. Please do sit. I don’t want you three to stand too long now. Listen carefully. I am about to reveal to you everything about me and the source of me.”
Continued in Chapter 24.
Notes: Iris takes action! Progress has been made! Like what White Axl said, he’ll tell everything to them. Expect the next chapter. Lumine answering the data soul’s origins and features, refer to chapter 10.
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 5, 2009 23:07:01 GMT -5
Today's update of a big revelation.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty-Four: Alterego
The three personalities sat on the floor, forming a small circle arc around on of the four transparent walls that hold the prison together. The white Maverick also was sitting down, getting ready to tell his story.
“First things first, I am originally created by Master Bob.” The last word hit the jackpot. The cause of all this was the human criminal Bob who had escaped from prison twice. “Bob only created me as an integral part of the Maverick Lumine. In easier terms, I am the Maverick data itself. I was programmed with the sole purpose of directing the force behind Master’s plan for new world domination, expressed in the form of Maverick Lumine.”
“So, Lumine acting Maverick was directed by you? How’s that possible?” “Calm down, Axl. I’ve just told you the beginning. Now that I’m in this condition, perhaps you’ll come to see me as your alter-ego.” That fumed Axl a lot. “My alter ego? Heck, I don’t even want to think about that! I do not have another side of my personality! It’s just one Axl around here and that’s me! No more, no less!”
Iris had stood up to pin Axl’s hand. She pulled it downwards roughly, signaling Axl to relax, sit down and listen to his copy’s point-of-view. Axl only sighed as he allowed himself to be dragged down to the floor.
“Perhaps you’re right. I cannot be you exactly but at least some of you. Anyway, now you know me: a piece of program data meant to carry on Master’s plan for world domination through the advocating of Reploid evolution. Here’s my history.”
“Master has long planned to rule the world and the easiest way was through the Prez Corporation. After some eight years of Prez’s care for you, Lumine, a new project was initiated. It’s what you all refer to as the Jakob Project. You would have known by now that the endless rebellions were initiated by Master Bob, triggering the Project.”
“The Tower was on the verge of completion and Prez needed someone to manage it on behalf of the corporation and the Federation. You were the perfect choice, Lumine, for you had nurtured much intelligence needed to run the Project. Prez entrusted you to Bob’s temporary supervision and approval; and it all started there.”
The white Reploid was only partially listening because he knew many things; he only wanted to know how White Axl became who he was in data soul sense.
“Master created a type of corruption program which allows its host to be safe and at the same time, integrate itself as a huge part of his conscious. That kind of conscious allowed Master to influence Lumine with ideas that the new world was inevitable, under his rule. That kind of conscious made him also act as though nothing happened while he pulled the strings all along. That conscious was me.”
“You held control over Lumine?!” “Not in that sense, Axl. I didn’t control his body movements and speech. It wasn’t even necessary. Let’s put it this way; I suggest the next step of actions to be taken and it appears as though Lumine is thinking about them, his own ideas. He willingly accepts it because I’m his conscious, the corrupted programming of the time.”
“My sole mission was simply to indirectly direct Lumine to complete the Jakob Project and in time, to purge the world and ensure Master become the ruler of the new world. Somewhat along the line, a huge Reploid showed up and he soon had eight new generation Reploids to do his own bidding. You know him; I also indirectly ordered Lumine to finish him off. Yes, that was Sigma.”
By now, the white Reploid had realized that for the past two years, his thoughts had been influenced by the gentle pestering of a Maverick program. He then looked up at White Axl and asked a question of his own.
“So, if you were influencing me to think all the nonsense about evolution and the new world, what about my other decisions, Maverick? Did you influence them too?”
White Axl smiled. “I’m sorry, but my mission was only to influence you on your actions concerning the Jakob Project. The other things, like your schedule, behaviour, trends of relaxation; those were not of my concern. You truly acted on your own.”
“That brings me to another important point you would all like to know. If I remember correctly, Lumine briefed you two” – he turned to Axl and Iris – “regarding all new generation Reploids being corrupted to do Sigma’s’ bidding, including himself. He also said that if he were truly Maverick, he would have caused more destruction, right?”
“Yeah…hey, how do you know that?” “I listen around, Iris. Anyway, Master had detected something flawed in all the new generation Reploids some days before the entire batch by the millions was to be released to the whole world. The Maverick personality in each new Reploid has been exponentially quantified.”
“Seeing Lumine too as part of it, Master quickly induced him to sleep and corrupted that Maverick personality. I was created then, to control that data so he would be loyal to Master and finish off Sigma. The huge energy supply in the body was also controlled to prevent massive destruction.”
Axl was starting to become confused so he quickly asked: “Wait, let me get this straight. A Maverick conscience suppressing Maverick data and controlling a Reploid? So, one data was to make a Reploid loyal to Sigma and the other loyal to Bob. The second one was you, right?”
White Axl made a creepy smile. “Exactly. I’m glad you understand Axl, or else I’ll have trouble explaining myself. Anyway, the kidnapping of Lumine, that was me. I influenced him to stage the act cleverly at the Point Galapagos rocket base in order to be led to another point of my mission: to finish off Sigma.”
“The other Maverick new generation Reploids took us to the Moon shortly after. They imprisoned us but did treat us nicely, in hopes of giving up the Tower for their use. I wasn’t going to allow that so I directed Lumine to bust out of the prison just when the Gateway satellite was exploding. Finally after some wasting of energy on feeble construction Reploids, I watched you Hunters fight Sigma.”
“Then I made Lumine act to go on the stage and reclaim the Moon for Master, destroying Sigma on the way. I also made him fight you three because that was Master’s orders. You know by now, Master has long despised you three because you always spoil his plans. Forget the baldhead Sigma. He’s an idiot.”
“Testing out the eight Mavericks’ abilities, which crystals were obtained from a laboratory in another section of the Moon’s settlements, was a bad idea so I persuaded our Lumine here to use the greatest attack mister Prez had given him: Paradise Lost. If Lumine hadn’t been so defenseless, we would have defeated you three already.”
The white Reploid was sitting calmly on the pitch-black floor with his arms on his knees. Axl and Iris could not tell the emotions he had now; given the fact a dark shadow covered his eye. His lips didn’t provide any clues either.
“I wasn’t going to let Master’s plan get ruined especially since preparations were on way to launch a massive rebellion to topple the world’s governments and declare himself leader. The best way was to pass us on to another body, possess it and continue the rebellion. Remember the tentacles, Axl?”
Axl shivered a lot. “Yeah… those were horrible…” “Master had found an abundance of electronic wires inside Lumine’s body at the time. He had already figured so many possibilities of events in the future so he had input in me a strategy to escape death and live on. Lucky for us, the nearest Reploid was you Axl. It was quite easy to crack open the armour, really.”
Lumine stood up suddenly. “Would it be possible if you stop using the term ‘us’, Maverick? I did not want to do all those actions of the past, you know. You were the mastermind so you did all those. It wasn’t me.”
“Very well; and you are right too. Your soul and body was merely a physical unit I could use and influence so as to complete Master’s work. I decided to tolerate your presence too since you were my host.”
“Grrr…” Lumine growled at the white copy of Axl before sitting back on the floor. Axl and Iris were worried that another rage was going to happen. Iris had rushed over to Lumine and tried to sooth him down. Axl only turned back to his copy.
“So if you passed yourself and Lumine into me, then how come you got separated and Lumine was Maverick for the first few days? That hurt me a lot, you know.”
White Axl smiled again. “I’m sorry for that, but you know what I’ve just said. I had to figure a way to continue on Master’s plan. The electronic wires passed on… a merged form of me and Lumine to your system. However, I had not anticipated the huge pressure from your copy chip. Master’s calculations were wrong.”
“Master thought that the energies controlled by your body’s copy chip was of no threat and that taking over you would be easy and he could reclaim a united data soul led by me for him to continue his work. However, he made two mistakes. The two mistakes had made such a huge impact on you and everything around us for the past four months or so. Such a pity really.”
Axl became interested in the issue. “What mistakes were those?” “One, Master underestimated the amount of energies inside you body and their functions. The repelling energy was so strong that I was separated from Lumine’s mind. It seems that I am a form consisting of majority Virus data and the body repelled it so ruthlessly I thought I was going to be destroyed. But I found a loophole.”
“The loophole was to merge myself with all your physical features and Lumine’s thus turning myself into inactive data which lives alongside others in this brain. At the same time, I wasn’t going to let Master’s plan get ruined so I ensured some Maverick data behind in Lumine’s mind and this just happened before the body knocked you out.”
“The recognition process was complete then. I was a registered inactive data, Lumine was a registered partial Maverick and you were you. You see, when the separation took place, all Maverick data were kept intact in Lumine and kept him going as though I was there. But there’s where the second mistake came in.”
Axl and the other two looked at him. “What was it?” “Master didn’t foresee Iris’ presence in this body. When Lumine was acting rougher the second time, Iris had to appear at take him out. Her aura was powerful enough to quell the ongoing fight. Lumine went to chase after her but she was already well-aware of the situation. Sigma’s data was never passed on to me. All she had to do was delete the Maverick data of mine and Sigma. My last hope of continuing Master’s plan was ruined.”
Iris stood forward to White Axl. “Yes, and things were getting better too. It was good we didn’t have to worry about your presence or else, we would have had a tougher time dealing with Lumine’s new image and the mess your Master created.”
“Dear girl…” Lumine spoke after moments of silence. He was touched that she was defending him. Axl got up too. “Yeah, I prefer this kind Lumine anytime than you!” Lumine’s eyes glittered. “Dear boy, you too…?”
White Axl made a face. “Yes, I suppose we all get happy reunions. So you all have solved various problems out there and I was trapped in here with failing hope of survival or development. I was cut off from the world for two months. I had no idea the Jakob Tower was dismantled and the corruption of new recruits for the plan.”
“Anyway, since I was partially a data soul and inactive data, I still had a data soul engine. My energy supply was running out. After a month of hiding, I was revealed. I had just dropped dead on the pitch-black floor. Then Lumine found me and analyzed me. I had no means of retaliating him. He knew my configurations here and there instantly.”
“Out of curiosity, I was tested on you, Axl, since my data consisted mostly of your physical appearances. For a brief moment I was activated and felt alive again. Not forgetting my mission, I took the opportunity to copy most of your data in your soul. I was nearly complete but I forgot to copy some voice data. I wasn’t activated again till nearly a month later.”
“Your power is very strong, Lumine, even within the confines of the copy chip. I was tied as inactive data so strongly I couldn’t break free. Even so, I was considered lucky to be able to copy your agility and speed codes, Axl. I knew I would be free somehow.”
“Once again, I was activated when you were fighting Bob for the second time. Lumine briefly tested me on Axl for a flying ability and those minutes were good enough for me to stealthily copy all details regarding the body mechanisms and features. I was deactivated again and the fight went on. Iris sacrificed herself thus knocking out everyone unconscious, not dead. I could have taken control if I wasn’t tied up again.”
“But just then a miracle happened. Axl’s so-called depression, despair and desperation had enabled the body to use up all excess energy to repair itself. All data souls were registered, including little conscious me. So, I was fully energized and yet still tied as an inactive data.”
“Grrr…” It was Axl’s turn to growl at his copy this time. The other two have sat down on the pitch-black floor, watching the moment. White Axl only laughed.
“As the days passed by, I was somehow growing stronger and more powerful. I owe it to your speed and agilities, Axl. I began to recognize the knots and threads that pinned me down. With speed, I was able to move a little, as an inactive data.”
“But the knots were still strong. The repulsion force that was pinning me down was way stronger. This resulted as what you only felt as the ‘pangs of pain’. Initially only you felt it Axl because it was quite weak. This one repeated on till the third one.”
“At the same time, I tried to tie up you and Lumine together as my revenge on both of you. I didn’t intend on Iris to experience the pain because she wasn’t part of my mission and like you, Axl, I respect girls. Unfortunately, I could only tie up several movement and speech knots in both of you and once again, I forgot to make copies of your voices.”
“But you failed didn’t you? Iris was there to help us.” “That’s correct, Axl. Iris was an obstacle for my mission to come true: to unify you two under me and search out for Master Bob. Nonetheless, I still couldn’t hurt her not only because she wasn’t my target, but I had immense respect for her.”
“Shortly thereafter, I had to hide myself. Do you know where I was hiding all along? I bet you didn’t for you only checked amongst and behind the inactive data. I was actually hiding INSIDE the inactive data. Funny though it seems but I had no choice.”
Axl got fumed slightly. “You didn’t mess my data, did you?” “No, I didn’t. You must be crazy to mess with the configurations of your own mechanisms. A massive disorder could happen just like the time your emotions were unstable and tied to the release of excess nuclear energy. We would have been wiped out and the Big City too.”
“I know all this. Master Bob programmed lots of knowledge into me as well, though I tend to read some of Lumine’s while I was his conscious and also keep track of certain events. I am a data soul now so I still can hear and see it all.”
Iris saw a potential rift-raft during the talk for Axl was getting angrier at the copy. She tugged his hand and pulled him down forcefully.
“Where was I? Ah yes, I remember. You know, the other 2 pangs after the third pain were just leftover static energy I left behind before I moved on to hide inside another inactive data. Lumine was the fastest to act so only he knew what the pangs of pain were actually. He cleansed it with his aura. Fascinating the things the mind can do, isn’t it Axl?” Neither spoke further then.
“There was the time when all three of you were sleeping. You had no idea how hard it was to resist the sleeping injection. I am a data soul so I also felt the pressure. I had to control myself from being overwhelmed. It took me hours to hold you two up while you were sleeping. I began to integrate myself into you two before the complete merge.”
“This was a perfect chance to copy more data. I had perfected the configuration of Axl’s own data threads and copied almost all of Lumine’s data. So sorry if that fact disturbed you, Lumine, but I had to do what I must do.”
“I used some of your stunning methods to pin you both down, Lumine. Your secret data was most certainly helpful for my use. Then Iris had to come in and bother me again. The wounds she made were terrible yet I can’t even stop her due to my respect for her. All my threads and knots I made so far were blown away to bits and you two were freed again. I reassembled myself from fragments to escape.”
Axl interrupted him. “But Lumine managed to scan you, didn’t he?”
“Yes, that was most frustrating. He soon found exact matches between me and the last time I was analyzed. That was when he began to hunt me down furiously but he certainly didn’t spot me inside the inactive data.” The white Reploid said nothing.
“I soon realized that I needed to plan my actions more carefully for there was the creation of a virus tracking program inside this body. It was a mistake for me to wonder around in my copied form while the scanning was in progress, I admit it. I was caught but thanks to Lumine’s combat codes, I was able to break free.”
“Yes, that time was most frustrating for me. I had to struggle with Lumine’s aura just to merge him, though I admit it was never easy to break a wound in it and absorb him. Having accomplished that, I copied every other data of his and went on a fight with you, Axl. I also further reinforced the copied data before expressing a form of what was supposed to be me now. But I was lazy and had more important things to do: take over the body and search for Master.”
“Iris’ interruption was also frustrating. I can’t believe you used her to distract me and you delivered so much pain to me. The reinforced prison was tough so I had to temporarily retreat myself. I figured out new ways to escape.”
Lumine looked at White Axl. “You used the same abilities to create a wound on that electrically-charged wall to shock us and destroy us, didn’t you?”
“That’s right. That time, I used the same stunning method, only it was further improved. It was designed to rip away many connections of data threads in all of you till the data soul engine becomes fried and stops operating. That was an easy way but seems that Iris decided to sacrifice herself to save the more powerful ones.”
“Well, if you respect Iris so much, then why didn’t you stop attacking?” “I wanted to, Axl, but my target was you and Lumine. I wouldn’t stop until your data soul engines were fried and disintegrated. Iris used her aura to attract the shock stuns to herself. Having you saved by Lumine, you guys then beat me up till my attacks were forcibly stopped.”
“Alas, all of the copied combat data were destroyed by Lumine and the prison was further reconfigured to use repulsion forces instead of electric charges. Pity that was the thing which could stop me. How do you stop yourself from continuously being bounced of by a magnet mechanism? If I were to attract myself to the magnet, I would be severely injured. Hence my presence here.”
“On a side note, all along this while, I had never really bothered to express my full form because I was too focused on my mission and ignored that. I also kept forgetting to make a copy of voices, largely due to Axl’s own personality: sometimes I am forgetful, sometimes I am not.”
“Thank goodness Iris came by and offered a compromise. Or else, I would never be complete of codes and you all won’t be able to know why this happens.”
The story was over. The trio thus stood back up while White Axl preferred to remain seated on the floor. The scar-less copy of Axl merely stared back at them.
“Well, I am done here.” The Maverick reclined on the floor. “I’m imprisoned, my combat codes have all been forcibly erased and it looks like there’ll be no way out for my mission. You’ve won for now. As I understand it, Lumine wishes me to be totally destroyed and you two are hesitating.”
Axl and Iris glared back at the white Reploid who bore an expression of hatred and destructiveness. Lumine merely shrugged his shoulders, still implying that although he wanted total deletion, the others were entitled to free speech.
“Do what you feel is right. I have no power over you now. I also wish to let you know that the past three months or so, those experiences with everything; human modes of consumption sources of energy and the human activities, the classrooms, insults on that human was most pleasant.”
Decided that he should not go further with his sweet words, Lumine pulled out the green orb out of thin air and began pressing invisible buttons. The prison cube let out a brief siren sound and then it was all silent.
“The audio censors are switched on. What he says won’t reach us and what we say won’t reach him. He will remain in that prison until we have decided of what to do with him. That decision rests on you, dear boy, if you don’t mind.”
Axl was mildly surprised. The white Reploid and Iris had been waiting for Axl’s decision for a long time now and although they wished the issue be dealt with hurriedly, their opinions were divided and depended on Axl.
“Wow…gee… we’ve just learnt about the giant tale of the past. If it’s okay with you guys, I’ll tell you what to do later. This time, I will make my decision clear.”
“But, of course dear boy.” Iris only nodded at Axl. “Dear boy, you’ve been in this dark alley corner for nearly 80 minutes. I suggest you get us back in the store. The old human would be angry at you for delaying his time.”
Indeed Axl got a brief scold from the old man and hurriedly resumed his work for the coming hours. When it was already evening, Axl greeted farewell to the old sir and teleported back to the Hunter HQ.
It was close to bedtime. During the intermediate period, Iris had taken control of the body and had a long chat session with Zero in his office for the first time in many days. Lumine had taken control of the body to complete his last-minute assignments real quick, using Axl’s features as a cover-up. Axl himself had not much time to complete his own assignments and stuff.
Axl made a loud yawn in the middle of the central resting chamber but his rudeness didn’t bother anyone or his inhabitants. Deciding it was time to sleep before facing another day of classes, he dragged his feet back to his resting pod.
After setting the alarm to seven in the morning so he could read some online comics he saw the other day, he lifted the glass hatch. He was about to put his right foot on the metal base when Lumine interrupted him.
“Dear boy… dear girl… thank you. Thank you for soothing my anger and defending me while that Maverick spoke so much ills of me. I can’t fully express my gratitude to you both. Thank you.”
“No problem at all. It’s what friends are for.”
“Yeah, what she said. Anyway, I’ll let you know my decision later. I’m quite tired and I’d rather not think of the topic. Goodnight you two. Wow, look at the lightning and rain. I hope we don’t have another blackout again…”
The trio laughed while Axl entered his pod, marked by fierce flashes of lightning and thunderous noise of both thunder and raindrops.
Continued in Chapter 25.
Notes: Ah yes. White Axl’s tale consumes nearly the entire chapter, just like previous ones. Hope you understand the tale and all, if you have to refer back to many chapters, unless you’ve got it all memorized. What will Axl do?
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Post by Professor Fann on Oct 6, 2009 20:57:17 GMT -5
And yet, today is another horrible day for Axl.
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All characters belong to Capcom, except for those you’ve never seen before and the story doesn’t intend to hurt anyone’s interests. -M’siaFanWriter
Chapter Twenty-Five: Breakup
Axl made past another day of boring History, Math and Geography, according to his own opinion. He also had to deal with Lumine’s mischief for the day. Each start of a lecture, the white Reploid rudely grasped his body joints and made Axl do weird athletic feats. ‘Axl’ even pounced on the desk with his feet.
There was nothing the two navigators and X could do except give warnings to ‘him’ for acting weird. Axl only shrugged and said Lumine didn’t really care at all. Either way, Axl paid the price because Lumine was thrown with extra assignments and he rudely used Axl’s features as a cover-up to finish them, thus wasting Axl’s time.
The following day, two days after White Axl detailed his tale to the trio, Axl found himself reading a familiar Internet article where his creator was featured in. What the article offered was quite disturbing, especially since it involves Sue.
‘The Federal Court has decided to award rights of (Sue’s dad’s name)’s ownership of billions worth of assets of a Big City fishery company back to mister Prez following claims by the tycoon that his investments were misused and denied of proper ownership. Mister Prez and government both are satisfied with the results.’
‘This was in the contrary with the labour groups whom are already divided in opinion. Some labour groups agree that justice had been served and that one can expect that the company will prosper back in Prez’s hands. Others mention that although justice was served, it was better if the company be sold to other people for fear of monopoly extension, which mister Prez is widely known for.’
‘An extreme labour group claimed that Prez was playing the law in his hands and ought to be charged instead. However, all other groups heavily reject this point. Analysts are worried if the situation would tend to become worse or calm down.’
‘(Sue’s dad’s name) on a separate case was found guilty for misusing Prez’s investments for conducting loan shark activities and belittling the City’s lower classes. The Federal Court had earlier ruled that (Sue’s dad’s name) be sentenced to ten years in prison and pay up compensation. However, as a surprising move, Prez decided to pay all damages in favour of another decision which will be named later today.’
‘Analysts weigh suspicion that Prez already holds a strong influence on the Court and appealed that Prez’s willingness and own ideas be overruled immediately. The Court will be weighing out both appeals. The Court will arrive at its decision later at 4.00 p.m. today on national radio.’
Axl stared at the computer screen. He re-read the article over and over again. Unknown to him, his two inhabitants were feeling a little dizzy from Axl’s continuing shaking of his head to read the article. Not tolerating the act more, Lumine applied some force on Axl’s head, making it come to a halt.
“Dear boy, stop it. You’re giving us a headache.”
“Er, sorry. I just can’t believe it. Dad won another case. Another of those groups are taken over. I can’t help but feel worried all inside…” Axl whammed himself back on his chair and stared at the computer screen.
“Worried, dear boy? What seems to be the problem? All should be fine.”
“I know, Lumine, but it’s that uneasy feeling. If I remember correctly, dad took a huge chain of companies for a similar reason and the owners were having no choice but to work for him. Those owners were the old sir’s children. He was very sad when that happened. I hope the same thing doesn’t happen to Sue too…”
The two of them became silent; Iris already was silent for she was watching the whole incident. An atmosphere of sadness filled the place. Axl landed himself roughly on the floor with a loud crash. The white Reploid rushed to him.
“Dear boy, don’t do that to yourself! You will get hurt, even in this computerized realm! Anyway, yes I am rather concerned for the human and her family. I hope father doesn’t do something bad. We can’t do anything, or at least that’s the case. We weren’t invited to the Court, so only he could do something really drastic…”
In the pitch-black surroundings, Lumine only sat next to him and sighed. “Well, isn’t it time for your work, dear boy? It is rather late. I hope you don’t make the old sir mad at you again. It’s rather disturbing.”
The white Reploid stood back up, walked away and vanished in thin air. Iris did nothing, choosing to watch Axl’s next move. True enough, Axl got back up on the chair and switched off his computer for the day. On the way out to the central resting chamber, he bumped into X.
“Hey, watch yourself Axl.” “Er, sorry, I’ll be more careful next time.” X raised an eyebrow. “You have another 5 days to get rid of those metal spheres you have. Watch it. I’m spotting some crack lines on the ceiling below.”
The new day was day 121. How many incidents have come to pass and more revealing, they were. At the same time, Axl faced more troubles than ever in a period of nearly four months. If he were to put it in a yearly ratio, the troubles he faced this four months since coming back from the Moon was only equivalent to that all combined in the past 5 years since the crushing of Red Alert.
Minutes later, Axl found himself back at the store, belonging to a member of the lower class which fared off nicely although the gap of classes was quite big. The old sir didn’t seem to mind that at all. In his opinion, he had contact with the best friends in the world and that was all it mattered.
Axl was back again to his routine of cleaning the dusty floors of the site. His next chores were to just take out the trash to the back alley and also clean that same lane with a broom. Axl repeatedly smashed the mop hard on the floor.
“Grr… stupid dirt. Why do they even exist? If there was no such thing as dirt, I would have an easier time working here.” Axl smashed the mop in the pail. The dirty water splashed high in the air, splat on the floor and dirtying Axl’s pants a little.
“Really, dear boy, please watch yourself. You don’t have extra forms like this. Remember that. Why are you so frustrated suddenly, dear boy? This is usually not like you at all.” Axl stopped to counter Lumine.
“How can you tell I’m frustrated? I’m not feeling that at all.”
“On the contrary. Your emotional data is showing rather extraordinary levels of wavelength rebounding patterns in your systems of thought. In other words, you’re quite stressed if anything was going to happen to Sue.”
“Axl… we care for you. Just don’t pressure yourself too much.”
“I know, Iris. I’m fine. Hey, the floor is clean now. Now it’s time for the back lane.”
Time flew by for several hours and more. Axl would quickly grab something to eat from the store’s shelves (of course by his expense) and rest along the countertop during his break. So far, no word was heard of White Axl and of Sue, whom had decided to stop by the store according to the old sir.
It was already 5.00 pm when Axl last remembered what he was doing. He seemed to have forgotten, or in his terms ‘slipped past my mind’ to avoid embarrassment, something important. It was the old sir who broke the news to him.
“So young Reploid, have you heard what was your father’s sad decision onto Sue’s family?” Axl came to a stun upon hearing that. “Oh no! The news! I forgot all about it! What was the verdict? Tell me something good!”
“Hm… I can’t say it but I can give you a hint. Sue just came by and passed on a note. Apparently it was for you. Seems she won’t be coming back for a long time, a really very long time.” Axl’s eyes widened with shock.
“What?! What’s that mean?!” The old sir made a face.
“You’ll find out soon. Here’s her note while you’re figuring that out.” Axl snatched the note from the old sir’s fragile hand. His inhabitants too were getting interested in the little piece of paper. Axl folded it out wide.
‘Brownscar, if that’s your real name, I don’t know if you heard the verdict on radio but I’m going to tell the result to you anyway. Meet me by Megalopolis Central Park tonight at around 7.30 pm. I would like to have a nice time with you for my last time, maybe. Just come as yourself, clothes and all. Love, Sue.’
Axl stared at the paper. He re-read it again, just like he did to that Internet article. His head moved fast from left to right, slowly going down and back up again. He heard a sigh from somewhere and felt his neck crack a little, becoming stiff and stuck.
“Do I have to repeat myself, dear boy? Stop moving your head so much! We are getting dizzy because of you! If father was to see this, he would also stop you.”
“Er, sorry I guess. So it’s the central park in Megalopolis at 7.30? I think I’ll make it in time. Correct if I’m wrong, but that district is supposed to be a powerhouse of several Big City districts, right? Won’t the humans get radiation or something?”
“Good question, dear boy. Yes, electrical waves do affect human health upon long-term exposure but there’s no need to worry. The district channels the power by underground, impermeable wires so Sue won’t get harmed.”
“Axl, if you’re going to meet Sue, it’s better you start now. I suggest getting changed into something else while you put these clothes to wash. We don’t want Sue to be upset over your dusty self, do we?”
For once, Axl took Iris’ suggestion seriously and asked the old sir for permission to leave early. Having done that, he teleported to the tower mansion of Prez’s grounds and raced up to the 54th floor where Lumine’s room was. He had long spotted a cabinet of nifty human clothes of which he wanted to try out.
Some time later, Axl was wearing neat dark blue baggy trousers of nice clad brown leather shoes. He wore a red shirt underneath a short buttoned brown jacket. His neck somewhat sported a nice red and yellow stripe scarf. His inhabitants were impressed with the style of clothing he had chosen just to meet Sue.
Iris greeted it with most pleasure. “Axl, you look great! Sue will be happy for you! Hee hee!” She giggled on lightly while Lumine smiled. “Nice one, dear boy. I suggest you get something to eat first before meeting the human.”
After putting his dirty clothes to the laundry and eaten some turkey sandwiches, Axl teleported to Megalopolis and searched for the central Park. The surroundings weren’t bad; it has enough trees, space and multiple benches to be called a park.
Axl chose to sit at a bench facing the large water fountain in the center of the park. The brightly-lit lamps shone a small potion of the park, which made it suitable for lovebirds. Axl wasn’t in that mood as he waited patiently for Sue to arrive.
“You’re early, Brownscar. Nice clothing.” Axl turned behind him.
“Sue! How’ve you been? I haven’t seen you much lately, although we do have not been seeing each other much lately; but anyway, we are supposed to go on this last-time meeting thing. What’s wrong?” Sue looked sad.
“You forgot to listen to the announced verdict, didn’t you?”
Sue merely sat down next to Axl, looking down on the tiled floor. Both of them initially said nothing as either would just shrug their shoulders or make some light noises. Inside Axl, his inhabitants were debating.
“Oh…I get the feeling something bad’s going to happen. Why would Sue leave Axl a note instead of just telling the message to him?”
“Common sense, dear girl. Her family was humiliated both at the exhibition and in the Court. Of course it is so important for her to not just walk up in the public and meet dear boy. Besides, she’s got enough trouble to deal on her own.”
Finally, Sue began speaking and the conversation that followed forced Axl to reveal many things and perhaps get to know Sue even more.
“It’s nice of you to wear your casual clothes. I don’t know about you but I hate formalities. I always have to wear those fancy prom-like dresses. Let’s get this over with and fast. Who are you actually? One thing’s for sure, you’re Axler but I know that’s not your real name. It says so here.”
Sue reached out into her purse and took out a piece of folded paper. She then unfolded it slowly and handed it over to the wondering Reploid. Axl was stunned even further when he read the title and so were his inhabitants.
‘TYCOON AND SON APPEAR AT SPEECH’. The paper had several sections of text and a lot of pictures of Axl and mister Prez. One picture showed him being muffled by the hair under Prez’s arm and another of him standing behind the human. Axl gulped upon frowning at the pictures.
“The article said that your alias is Axler so that must not be your real name. I’m very suspicious of you. Why did you hide so much? How did you come to know Lumine? Why did you have to keep so many things secret?”
“Sue…I have no choice. I have to keep all these issues secret.”
“You obviously don’t want the media to know that but at least tell me. I’m your friend; I told you my share of personal background and it’s time for you to tell me yours. I don’t care if you are a Reploid or not, just tell me. I am tired of wondering all about you for the past one month or so.”
“…Alright. I’ll tell you everything you need to know.” Axl handed the paper back to Sue which she took slowly. Iris and Lumine were relieved that Axl was only going to reveal what was necessary to her and save their faces.
“I never wanted to appear in the media and public. I just want a normal life. I’ve been hunting down many Mavericks in the past ten years and I have had a relatively peaceful life. That was until the end of the Jakob Project that my life got messier than ever.” Sue was surprised by the information.
“You’re more than just a Reploid child? Hunting Mavericks? Jakob Project?”
“Maybe it’ll make more sense if I show you this.” Axl stood up from his chair and walked in front of Sue. He pressed a button on his watch and his form changed rapidly to become his original Reploid form. The armour and all its details were shown to her. Sue was notably very shocked.
“My name is Axl. I am a new generation Reploid prototype, as the press and government said. I was originally created from high-quality scrap metal” – referring to Iris’ body remnants – “designed as a draft for Reploids due to be not Maverick. That was done by copying and using other Reploids’ so-called DNA.”
Sue’e eyes glittered. “I’ve read about that years ago! A syndicate claimed you and there were lots of fighting here and there! You were the prototype everyone talked about that time!”
Axl shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, I guess so. I was later accepted into the Maverick Hunters and began fighting along my friends X and Zero. I’m sure you know of them. Which human doesn’t? Not only was I a prototype, I was also designated to be with my dad. But I’ve been replaced by another Reploid.”
The white Reploid felt an awful feeling coming out of him as he heard Sue exclaim out his name. “Lumine? But how did he turn Maverick then, if he was supposed to be good? How did he come back?”
It was from this point on did Axl censored a lot of his speech.
“Em… the main Maverick and a human corrupted his thoughts. The Maverick was supposed to turn him into a puppet” – this irked Lumine a little – “but then Bob controlled him to his side. We did destroy Sigma on the Moon but we had to fight Maverick Lumine before returning.”
“So how did Lumine come back? The brief uprising at the Tower? The staged appearance at one Big City district? Bob’s attacks?”
“We thought we had defeated him but I… I noticed he was still alive. So I guess I kinda brought him back to Earth. Of course I had trouble controlling him but I did get help” – Iris smiled – “and he became stable then. I met dad for this first time in my life but shortly after due to misunderstandings, Lumine tried to revive the new world ideal. I had help stopping him and bringing him back to his senses.”
“He can’t be known so fast so he had to be kept secret. I do make lots of contact with him because we are kinda related. I’m sorry I lied to you previously. The staged appearance; he had my permission. We do enjoy fighting back on Bob’s attempts to take Big City. We nearly died but we are still here, right?”
“So in other words, you guys are like brothers…”
Axl preferred to remain silent on that comment. He switched back to human form mode and sat down again with Sue. Axl then asked her: “You have a brother, right?”
Sue was slightly surprised. “Yeah…sure. He’s older than me but he’s an idiot. He may be smart but his mentality is poor. He went on one camping trip with my dad. That was when my dad mysteriously got bruised up everywhere.”
Axl and his inhabitants gulped at the thought. Axl had permitted Lumine to cause injuries on Sue’s dad but Iris’ action was totally unexpected though welcomed. The clueless bloke still had no idea how he got injured. Axl decided it was best this matter be kept secret from anyone.
“Oh…me and my mum… we hate him. His behaviour and practices cost us much. Thanks to him, I won’t be seeing you anymore.”
Axl became worried. “What was the verdict then?”
Sue began to cry a little. “Mister Prez agreed to pay compensation to all loan victims of my dad, assumed control over the fishery company and pay the bail for his prison terms under one condition: he was to be banished from Big City.”
“WHAT?! And you were dragged along too?!”
“It was me and my mum’s decision. We were going to stay with him but this time, we were going to make sure that he stays out of any trouble while he’s working for someone else. We’re moving to the mainland Federation, Axl.”
“Aw man! How could dad do this? Maybe the critics were right! Dad holds too much power and influence everywhere to have things his way!”
“Axl! The Court said we were allowed to decide for ourselves if we wanted to follow my dad while he’s under Federation supervision. We had enough of further separation and want to avoid a divorce, so we agreed to watch on him.”
Both of them stood up from the park bench. Sue said nothing at first. Axl was sad that Sue had to leave the Big City. She however brightened up and smiled.
“Your dad will soon rule over the company like his own in another few days. We’ve only got several million of cash to start over again. This is sort of like a break-up. I’m sorry, Axl. I have to do what’s right for my family.”
Axl made an unusual request. “Do you want to go for a hotdog?”
“What?” His request spurred astonishment from her and his inhabitants. “Do you want a hotdog or not? This will be your last occasion with me, I suppose. Let’s make it as pleasant as possible.” Sue hurriedly agreed.
They held hands together and made it to a nearby hotdog shop. They bought some delicious, crispy hotdogs along with mustard sauce and tomato sauce and sat at the corner of the shop with a view of the quiet streets. It was already quite dark and the duo could see the Moon very clearly.
“Huh…it was a mistake to temper with the Moon’s surfaces…So Axl how did you obtain human clothing and the ability to eat? Doesn’t that hurt your mechanisms?”
Axl munched on a sausage. “Well, I requested it from dad. I also got my gun from him. The teleporting device was also pre-installed. How did you manage to come out here? Isn’t it dangerous?”
“No, not really. I sneaked out. My stupid dad was grounded by my mum. We are going to move in another few days and she thought it was best to control him before moving to mainland. We’ll be passing by the Eurasia ruins along the way. I’m quite excited to spot it on the airship. But still…”
Again the moment of silence prevailed. Axl munched on his hotdog slower, watching the girl gaze in the air. “Axl, how did you manage to crush the guns and twist the knives when we were watching the movie the other time? Everyone was so afraid of you. Did you really have to aim your gun at the criminal?”
Axl remembered the actions clearly. It was actually Lumine who did it but Axl was not going to reveal that he had Lumine and Iris in his head while they were watching the show. The white Reploid made a small snicker.
“Er… strength I guess. It was…kinda easy.” He heard Lumine laugh more in his head for he knew Axl could never do such a thing.
After some time, Axl and Sue walked along the quiet streets again. The lamp posts, advertisement posters and other sources of light illuminated the place. Axl was figuring a way of how to stall time so he could spend more time with Sue. One sentence she said however destroyed his further attempts.
“Oh no! I have to go, Axl! It’s quite late already!” Axl sulked.
“Grr! C’mon Axl. Think! There has to be some way where you’ll get to spend some more time with – I’ve got it!” Axl had conjured up a neat idea to stall her time. “Sue, do you want to just get some pictures?”
“Oh sure. They’re lovely.” “Well, c’mon! Hurry!” Axl grabbed her hand and dragged her to the nearest instant photo booth several streets away. Axl is a fast runner but Sue couldn’t catch up with him. Upon arriving, Sue panted a little.
They had taken their photos with the best gentle smiles they could make. Axl’s inhabitants felt awkward about those and had shielded their eyes from further bright flashes. Seconds later, the pair was done.
Axl paid for the photos and even felt weird upon looking at them. “Man, I have to start looking better!” He slipped his own photos into his side pocket. Sue had so far not said anything again; she felt very depressed to leave the Reploid.
“Em… Axl, I just want to let you know that I had among the best times so far with you. Even more enjoyable than the times with my human friends… I’m going to miss you.” A sad feeling blanketed the air. Axl lost his cheery mood from the photo session earlier and tried to smile back.
“I’m sure you’ll have a great time at the mainland. Gee, maybe we ought to like, keep in touch with each other.” Sue shook her head, making Axl more disappointed.
“Nah, it’s okay. Just thinking of you is enough. Maybe I’ll make new friends with Reploids like you and other humans… but no Reploid could ever match up to you…” Without saying further, she hugged Axl firmly.
Axl returned the hug with another hug. The couple remained outside the booth on the empty streets, still embracing and feeling each other’s warmth. Seconds later, they slowly released each other with great hesitation. Sue smiled back.
“I’ll always think about you, Axl. You’re a very special individual. Send my regards to Lumine and your other sibling, if the term fits. Lumine is such a great dancer. I have to go now. Goodbye!” Sue waved while walking off in a dark street; her figure only seen blurrily behind a wave of fog. Axl waved back till her shadow was gone.
It was just then that thunder suddenly roared. Axl stared up in the dark sky.
“It’s going to rain again. It hasn’t been raining for some time now…” He felt some raindrops on his hair and started to increase in rate. His head was bent down towards the cement street. The black dots on the street were increasing and started to form dark puddles.
“Axl, you have to get us out of here! You’ll get us all wet! Please!”
Axl didn’t hear Iris’ pleas. He noticed some raindrops entering his side pockets and zipped it up before the photos got wet. Plastic or paper, he didn’t care. He was never going to see Sue again.
“ARRRGGGHHH!! Why did you have to go?! Why must dad be so cruel?!” He began to cry but the tears were no match in amount for the countless drops of rain. He bent down on his knees and repeatedly hit the cement street, producing some slight cracks. The rain fell heavier and heavier. He was wet all over.
Though the crying was brief, he expressed so much sadness in one go. The crying didn’t stop although he felt the warm aura of Iris. Iris embraced Axl from behind him in his head but yielded no results. She perfectly understood what Axl felt.
The white Reploid decided to grasp control of the body so Axl looked as though he stood up, crying at the same time. “I’m sending us to father’s, dear boy.” Overwhelmed by sadness and grief, Axl didn’t reply so Lumine acted on his own.
Continued in Chapter 26.
Notes: Aw man we’ll never see Sue again… the rain and sadness are a couple in romantic scenes. Article title can be referred to Axl Story Continuation chapter 7. Based on the map in X5 and also that of Z4 game, Eurasia is located in north of the Korean peninsula. Let’s hope for the best of Axl and Sue.
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