"Ow, ow, ow, not so fast, my
head's dizzy."
"Sorry, sir, it's just kind of
important."
Zero let himself be led down the
darkened hall as Janus pulled him by the hand.
The red reploid rubbed his eyes sleepily. Janus had activated the emergency
disconnect on his diagnostic chamber to get him out. It took quite a toll on his sensors being
jacked out like that with no warning, like being shaken out of a
personality. "Wait," Zero
said, "So Duplex turned me into the general for what now?"
"He specifically mentioned your
user account access. I'll tell you,
sir. I've never heard anyone prattle and
practice on about your faults and flaws.
I may be a soldier, but I am no murderer. Yet, in his presence, it took all my
restraint to stop from thrashing him proper."
"Who is Duplex again?"
"Round, yellow-gold
reploid."
"Okay."
Janus stopped for a moment as he
approached another hallway and dropped Zero's hand, looking for signs of the
general. Zero took the opportunity to
try and wake himself up by shaking his head
violently. "I wish I drank
coffee," he muttered.
"Tell me, sir, is it true? Because if it is, the commander-in-chief will
surely seek to retire you. Probably on
the spot with about forty cannons. He is
the leader of military here after all.
The lawmakers will likely look upon his word as true rather than yours,
because he is human."
"Whatever. Let him do whatever he can. If he can prove I did any wrong I'm a
mettool. He doesn't know a bit from a
byte when it comes to technology. He
only understands the equipment that says 'point, shoot, repeat'."
Janus laughed lightly. "True, sir." Janus stopped at a junction of another
hallway. "Sir, look sharp, I think
they're coming this way. Maybe you
should hide?"
"Have I ever run away from a
fight before? I stood my ground then and
I'll stand my ground now."
"Wait, I think it might
be..."
Mega Man X and some other Maverick
Hunters following him marched up from the other end of the T-section
hallway. Zero's friend seemed to be
awake and alert.
"X? What are you doing here?" Zero asked.
"Cain sent for me, he wanted me
to get you up. Mavericks are probably on
the move again."
"Where do you think? The power plant?"
X nodded grimly. "We've sent out a few scouts. I don't know if they've come back yet or
not. In any case, we've been called
for. Good thing we don't need
sleep."
"Yeah, but being cold-started
out of the diagnostic chamber sure wrecks your startup."
"Cold-started? Say, what are you doing up anyway? I expected to find you in your chamber."
"There he is! Stop him!" the general, down the center
hallway, pointed to Zero. The gold sheen
of Duplex gleamed off the general's floodlight.
Six or seven uniformed troops stood behind him, plasma weapons still
holstered.
"The general seems to be in a
bad mood," Janus leaned in and whispered to X.
Brandle shouted, "Zero,
freeze! Arrest him. Use force if you have to."
Zero stepped back defensively into a
defiant fighting stance, not willing to be handled like a pieces of haywire
machinery. The other reploids with him
followed suit.
Janus looked to his golden friend
and pointed. "Duplex, you're
mine." He winked, letting him know
he was faking. If a fight broke out,
Janus and Duplex could stay out of the fracas.
"You'll live a lot
longer," Zero said. "If you
keep your guns holstered."
The general stepped forward and
slashed his hand in the air. "You
impudent robot. You damned thing. How dare you try to hack into the
system? You used that computer voodoo of
yours to try and gain superuser access.
Maybe you want to give the Mavericks all the secrets of our base,
huh? You've put the entire human nation
at risk. I'll make sure you're
decommissioned for this. Put him in
custody. If he resists, kill him."
"Hold up," Zero put his
hand up. "Superuser access? Don't you think if I'd wanted to bring down
the network, I'd have done it by now?
And done a lot better job of it?
And been gone by now? Let's think
about this with a cool head, general. If
this was the time for fighting, I'd know it."
"You can't arrest him," X
interjected. "Cain just sent me to
get Zero because of a possible Maverick attack."
"An attack, now?"
"Yes, now."
"Fine, then. We'll go bring this to Cain. He'll want to hear what I have to say
anyway. Bring him on. We'll go, all of us."