Mega Man X - The Returnees - Part 4

Zero and Axl didn't stood a chance against the combined powers of the ROSA squad. The battles lasted mere seconds. Thanks to Zeroi's and Axl's backups on the HQ servers, they would only lose a few hours of freshly made memories.

The six entered a big empty hall with a throne in it. Sigma's and Kat's signals came from here. Sigma sat on the throne and Kat stood at his side. With her arms placed behind her back. She looked very thoughtful and whore an eye patch over her left eye. Everyone knew that Sigma was responsible for this, without asking the question. „Impressive! You're all very strong! But even pure strength won't help you, when my plan succeeds!” „What plan?”, asked Moon Doe. „Actually, your prank was inspiring!” Everyone looked concerned. Did they had just gave him ideas? „I'll turn every human into a Maverick! And i'll start... with her!” He pointed is flat hand at Kat. X activated his arm cannon and aimed at Sigma. But the nurse laid her hand on his X-Buster and shook her head. „She is to close and i fear, she'll use that opportunity to get what she wants!” „Thank you for your concern! But i now see the design flaws in us humans! We need to evolve! We need to advance! I don't want to be a weak lump of flesh anymore! I don't want to be afraid or sad and i want to forget all that bad stuff, that happened in my life! Even if it means forgetting him! Evolution requires sacrifice!” She cried while she talked but didn't wiped her tears with her hands. She just let them flow.

„Kat! That's nuts!”, said Virion Squirrel and everyone looked at her. „What?! Can't a squirrel say nuts anymore, without anyone thinking it's a pun?” Moon Doe walked forward and talked while doing so. „Listen, child! You just lost a loved one! And that hurts!” „What do you know? You have no idea what true feelings are!”, Kat yelled at her, moved her arms to their sides and made two fists. The nurse now shouted at her. „You're traumatized! You need psychological help! Please! Don't take the first exit door someone is offering you! There are so many more possibilities out there! Please, Kat!” She made a praying gesture again. Sigma talked now. „Go into your room, until i call you!” „Yes, Master!” Kat walked towards the six and stopped in front of the nurse. Kat caressed the side of the nurse's helmet and smiled at her. „I appreciate your kindness and care for me! But i've chosen my path! Please, accept that!” She walked past them and left the throne room.

„She is finally out of the way!”, said Rose Otter. „Time to finish you! Once and for all!”, said X. „I'll go and see after Kat!”, said the nurse and went out of the throne room too. X charged his X-Buster and fired at Sigma but he teleported away and the shot just destroyed his throne. Sigma stood in front of X. He ignored the others and drew a large sword out of his back. „I'll destroy you, X!” „Try it, Sigma!”

Kat and the nurse walked into the direction of the medical station of the fortress. „He already knew about a program, that was deemed unethical by humans and was abandoned! It was called the Human Digitization Program to turn them into Reploids! HDP-T3-IR in short! It can digitize every humans memories, emotions and character traits and turn them into the correct kind of code and transfer them into a Reploid body!” The nurse was filled with horror. „I'll chose my new body design and after the process started, it can't be interrupted! That would be to dangerous! When everything worked out fine, i'll be born anew!” „Please, Kat! That's not the right way! You can't just run away from your painful memories or emotions! And you definitely can't throw away your humanity like this! This is wrong!” They arrived at the medical station and Kat entered. „Do you want to watch over me, while i upgrade myself?” „Do i have a choice? I don't want to harm you, but i also can't force my opinion upon you! Even if you're in a bad mental state! Please think this trough!” „I already have, nurse!” „I've a name!” They entered the station and the door closed behind them.

All five of them fought Sigma at the same time, but is portal ability made him hard to hit with their weapons. Moon Doe was rendered useless in that fight. She couldn't even get into reach. Rose Otter could get a short hit on him. But he was immune to the electricity from the whip. Only X, Virion Squirrel and Space Pen were able to hit him, if they tried really hurt but they only made scratches in his armor. „Can he stop moving around? How on earth, or moon in this case, should we destroy him, if he moves like that?” , asked Space Pen. „Not at all!”, replied Sigma and activated shoulder cannons, that were hidden inside his shoulders up until now. And then he fired plasma at the five. For a brief second he teleported behind Rose Otter, took er whip and could now teleport both of them. He teleported himself into one of the many craters but Rose Otter materialized inside the stone slope of the crater. Sigma tried the same with Moon Doe but she just rammed her fist towards his chin. He blocked quickly with his hands and ripped her arm of. Slapped her face with er own hand from er ripped of arm and threw him away. Moon Doe jumped backwards into Sigma's open arms. He hugged her and placed her face against his shoulder, before destroying it with his shoulder plasma cannons. Virion Squirrel let it rain nut grenades from her tail but Sigma teleported himself away every time, before they exploded. Space Pen didn't even tried to fight him anymore and thought about other ways, that could earn them a victory against him. Sigma used that calculation process and teleported his hand in her chest. After a strong pull he ripped half her innards out of her. She attacked him with her plasma claws, regardless of her destiny. But he just grabbed her arms and slammed them into her own head. He moved her arms wildly around and let go. Space Pen was gone. Even X had stopped fighting him like this and tried to think about a way to beat that teleporting maniac. Virion Squirrel used Sigmas fixation on Space Pen's lifeless body, to get him from a blind spot. She wagged her tail in his face and let her grenades out but Sigma just held a few hatches closed and the grenades that got stuck. They exploded in her tail and destroyed him. Sharp metal debris flew through the air and directly at Sigmas surprised face. He was too slow and got a few cuts in his face. But nothing fatal. Virion Squirrel was a creative crazy girl and just hugged his neck and gave him a deep kiss, while creating grenades in her cheeks and moving them with er tongue into sigmas mouth. He accepted the kind offer but teleported behind Virion Squirrel, grabbed the grenades in midair and shoveled them back into Virion Squirrels mouth. She couldn't stop the started timer of the grenades and her head exploded into thousands of pieces, leaving only X and Sigma behind.

Meanwhile, the nurse had overseen the forbidden and dangerous transformation process from human to Reploid. Kat had chosen a combination of different parts from past Mavericks. Magma Dragoon's head. Storm Eagle's wings. Magna Centipede's tail. Cyber Peacock's legs and feet. Slash Beast's arms and hands. Overdrive Ostrich's neck. Wheel Gator's shoulders and Flame Stag's torso. Her primary color was velvet red and sunrise orange her secondary color. The nurse waited for the new made Reploid to wake up. When she woke up, she immediately began to scream, jumped of the medical divan bed and banged her head against the wall. „Stop hurting yourself!” The nurse held her by her shoulders and pulled her towards her and hugged her. „I can't even imagine how you're feeling right now! Please stay calm! You must be in total shock!” „I... i made... a mistake!” „You just need to get accustomed to your new body, your feelings, your programming and everything! This will take a while! You're the first to do this!” „I feel, all is new, i can calculate 234847878 x 243748 in my head in seconds! And i can... i... so many possibilities i can think about multiple things at once... i... i'm... but... to much... need to differentiate... self... i don't want to... i... want to... self... destruct!” „Kat! No! Give yourself a few days before you decide, who do you want to be and what do you want to do from then on! I'm there for you! I can help you! Please! Don't give up! You're mere seconds old! Please!” Kat pushed the nurse out of the room and waved at her. „Please! Never change! Stay true to yourself! I couldn't! I... i don't want to life like this! It feels... not... good! I want to be with the man i loved for years! I need to go!” The door closed and the nurse heard an explosion a few seconds later. The whole ground shook and the door burst open by the shock wave. The nurse activated her external barrier before anything hit her and she moved out of the way as quick as she could. „She just self-destructed out of sheer panic, anxiety and despair! It must have been too much for her! All this new possibilities and supreme thinking! She couldn't bear it and saw only one way out! What a terrible fate! Human minds aren't meant for that type of conversion!” She heard a bark in the distance. She had forgotten the dog. How could she?

X and Sigma didn't knew anything about the new events, that had just unfolded a few hundred meters away from them. They fired at each other and dodged almost effortlessly. The battle went on for minutes and it would continue until one of them made a mistake, that the other could use to his advantage over the other. And then it happened. X slipped on Space Pens outer chest armor. Sigma punched him the face, since the engine had burned out. She just wasn't meant for that kind of usage. X feel on his but for a short moment but jumped up and that was Sigmas chance. He didn't said anything and just used his own saber to cut through X' waist. X feel onto the floor and shot back but Sigma slashed the shots into the distant wall. „I'll just blast you into pieces!” Sigma slashed the X-Buster in half. „And now, X?”, Sigma smirked at him, „Pathetic!” He just let X on the floor and walked out of his sight. „In one week, there will be no human left on earth!” Sigma laughed manically while exiting the room.

It took the nurse a few minutes to enter the throne room again. „X!” She ran to him and knelt at his side. „You'll just fix me again! And then we will destroy him!” The nurse looked around in horror. No one but X had survived the encounter. She looked at him with a sad look and shook her head. „I see! She must have gone mad over her enhanced mindset and body!” „She self-destructed herself!” „That was what the scientists and the psychologists predicted, when that topic came up in the society!” He pulled himself up with his hands. „Ah! The nurse has a new patient! How sweet! After this is all over, you can become my queen and rule the world at my side! How does that sound?” „Disgusting!”, replied the nurse and stood up. She opened one of the eight sides of her skirt and took a few small dark blue metal balls out of it and threw them against every camera in the room. Wherever Sigma was. He now couldn't see or hear them anymore. It was time to talk. She sat down and knew that he could always teleport near them. So it had to be a quick but emphatic talk.

„Did you know, that you're not Dr. Thomas Light's last creation?” „What?!” She pointed at herself. „I was! But i'm also his second!” „Eh! What?” „My serial number back then was DLN-002!” X checked his data bank and couldn't believe it at first. He thought that she made a joke. Women seemed to love jokes. „X! Dr. Light created me as a sister for you! But the girls here thought even further! Do you know what they did?” He didn't said a word. „They found my old body and took my entire memory block out of it and uploaded it into the advanced reploid software of the sister, he had created for you! I was the younger sister of your predecessor, our brother, Mega Man!”, she pointed at herself, „I'm the former household robot of Dr. Thomas Light and first female Robot Master that was ever created! I'm Roll Light and i'm your older sister!” She stood up again. „When i repaired you, i installed the F-Drive into your body! And when the girls constructed me, funny, they had the same idea as i would've had later on! You know, what i'm suggesting, right? You can't fight him in this state and i can't repair you, with him still being around in the fortress! But we can do one last thing!”, she reached out to him with her right hand, „Fuse with me! Don't worry, it's not permanent! But we're the only ones left! I provide the body and you provide your weaponry and other abilities but due to the programming of the F-Drive, i'll have to be the one in charge of our fused body! You'll be my subconscious and have no power over the movement of the body! Do you agree?” He thought about it for a second and nodded. He reached out with his left hand and they shook hands. „You don't have to search to deep! The program is right next to...” „Found it!” „You're really our younger brother! You have to consent to fuse with me, after you activated the F-Drive!” X found the executable file and executed her. Roll had already done this, when she had started her last explanation. „After i repaired you, i told you that i was a sister! Remember?” „You meant that literal! Not as a synonym for a nurse!” Roll smiled and lifted the upper half of her brother up. „Back then, i couldn't even lift Mega Man! And now look at me! I consent, to fuse with you!”X sighed one last time. „I consent to the fusion, Roll L!” Before she could answer to X naming her that, their F-Drives fused the siblings together.

After the fusion process was over, Roll was a bit taller. She gained the ability to charge her Roll-Busters and the durability and strength of her upper body was raised. She now wore two hair ribbons instead of one and her long hair had now two long, big, black strands. Her main color was now magenta and her sub color light green. The white color had turned into red. „Warning! All mavericks! Move away from the launch zone! Warning! All mavericks! Move away from the launch zone!” „He want's to leave us here!” She began to ran to the launch zone and found her dog on her way to Sigma. „Rush! Come on, old boy! Run to the launch zone and stop Sigma!” He barked, activated the thrusters in his paws and flew ahead. („Wait! They also reconstructed Rush? The old robot dog that was mentioned in the records about Dr. Light's past?”) Roll nodded their head. „X, i'll activate all four thrusters!” („Four? So two in every boot?”) „No! They are on the underside of my skirt plate frame!” She activated her thrusters and followed Rush. („Who builds thrusters into a skirt?”) „It was Space Raven's idea! After they found my blue prints, they changed them a bit here and there!”

Rush was the first to reach the launch zone and ran towards the spacecraft. Which was brought into position by a giant movable ramp in the floor. The ceiling had already been opened for a save flight path. Rush jumped on the uplifting ramp and from there onto the roof of the space shuttle. His new body had strong laser in his throat. He charged that laser in advance and used his teleportation device to teleport directly in front of Sigma and fired his laser as soon as he got teleported. The laser wasn't even fully materialized as he went trough Sigmas head. But that was Rush's plan. Sigma jumped from his chair and was lucky. As soon as Rush and his laser were fully materialized, Sigma's chest area was completely burned away, where the laser had materialized. Sigma would be dead if he hadn't jumped out of the pilot chair. „Stupid, dog! I'll crush you!” Sigma's hand Roll appeared in front of the cockpits window and smashed through. Rush didn't even jumped out of the way. He knew Roll would never hurt him. After she smashed through the glass, her fingers dug into the cockpit console, destroying a few buttons and switches, she used her new found grip to alter her position, turning her thrusters in front of Sigma to burn him at least a little bit. Sigma ignored the fire and heat from the thrusters and continued to move his hand in Rush's direction. But Roll let go of the console, deactivated her thrusters, jumped on her feet and grabbed his hand with her own, before he could reach Rush's skull. „You'll never touch, Rush! Only over my dead body!” Sigma just held her hand tighter and threw Roll against the entrance door of the cockpit. She could place her hand against the door, weakening the impact and before she could land on her feet, Sigma just drew his saber, jump towards Rush and slashed at his neck. But Rush lifted himself up, so that his only support were his hint legs and Sigmas slash missed it's mark. Rush jumped out of the space shuttle, so that Roll could focus solely on Sigma. Roll opened the cockpit door and ran deeper into the shuttle. Sigma took his time and followed her leisurely. He was so slow, that she could reach the next door, which took her out of the space shuttle and back onto the floor of the ramp. „Rush! Leave the room!”, yelled Roll and Rush did as he was told, „And lock the door behind you, please!” („You noticed that the ceiling is wide open, Roll?”) („Of course! I just want to know that Rush is in a save place, while we fight him! Is there anything i should know? Does he have some kind of habits in battle?”) Sigma cut a hole through the ships hull with his saber and jumped in front of Roll. „Once i immobilized you, you'll be my secretary! What's your name?” „Roll! Roll L!” „Dr. Light had a female Robot Master called Roll!” „That would be me!” „You should have stayed deactivated!” He grabbed another saber from his waist and activated him. Now he wielded one saber in each hand. Without further talk he rushed forward. Roll used the thrusters to get some distance between them, de-clip the two ribbons from her hair, took one in each hand as well and turned a rotary switch 180 degrees on both of them. The outer parts of the ribbon went in cross directions and a light green barrier activated between the lines of the new formed crosses. („You now you have Busters in both arms, right?”) („Would you please stop reminding of things that i'm totally aware of, X?”) Roll stopped thrusting backwards and brought herself back to the floor. Sigma reached her and slashed towards her head but the ribbon-shields were pretty durable. She could feel the impact of the hit in every piece of her body. He was strong. Fighting him directly in close combat was not a a good idea. Roll pushed her shields against the next slash from his sabers and activated her thrusters. Sigma tried to grab one of her legs. But he had to let one of the sabers go first and that gave Roll the time to get out of his reach, before eh could grab her. Roll landed on the edge of the opened ceiling and deactivated one the ribbons. She placed the ribbon back on her hair and transformed her right arm into a Roll-Buster. She fired at him from a save distance and charged a few shots in between her attacks. But the distance was to great. He easily dodged every single shot of her. „This isn't working! Rush!” Roll yelled that but there was no way for her words to reach anyone. There was no air outside of the fortress, that could've transported her words. Sigma ran towards the door and slammed her open. Roll jumped down and followed him. She had an idea.

Sigma ran to the right but Roll took the opposite direction and went back into Sigma's throne room. The destroyed bodies of all three squad members laid on the floor. But Virion Squirrel's head wasn't there anymore. It had exploded into tiny pieces. Space Pen's head was just a pile of sliced pieces and Moon Doe's head was missing big chunks of it. „She tried Space Pen's head but the data files were to heavily damaged. Moon Doe and Virion Squirrel didn't even had hard drives left to access. And finding Rose Otter was impossible without an emitted signal from her body. There was just one option left. „Rush!” The dog was near and cam as quick as he could and sat down right in front of her. Roll knelt down and caressed his head. „Good, boy!” She let go and pulled a connection cable out of her neck and plugged the open end into Rush's connection cable. „I always wanted to do this!” („Perv!”) She just rolled her eyes. Now she could access Rush's entire operating system, software's and codes. She copied a few chunks of her ai into a new created file and linked already existing files from Rush into that. Then she had to rewrite a few of Rush's old lines of code and voila. It was done. She disconnected the cables and retracted them into their necks. „Now! Say something!” „Thank you, Roll!” Roll smiled at Roll. „You've chosen wonderful first words!” She laid her hand back on his head. „I consent to fuse with you, Rush! What about you two boys?” („We're in this together! But isn't that a bit exaggerated?”) („Consent!”) („Alright! Alright! Gee, why couldn't he think about a brother for me instead of an older sister? I consent!”)

Sigma was waiting for Roll to arrive in the room he had chosen to stay in. He had everything laid out to finish the Light-siblings once and for all.

Now, after that triple-fusion, Roll had given any authority over the fused body to the AI-upgraded Rush. Because of that the body was altered more than before. Rush's complete exterior design had been placed over Roll's body and made her look like an anthropomorphic dog. The skirt had retracted into the body and was used to give this new body more mass in other parts of the body. Because of this, Rush was now as tall as Sigma and even more stronger than before. He wore two dog collars around his neck and was still trying to get used to his software upgrades, when he found out, that he had plasma fangs and claws. The laser cannon in his throat was now chargeable and the thrusters in his paws and legs were more powerful than before. „I'm hungry! Let's eat some maverick metal!” He activated his plasma weaponry and the thrusters. After a few seconds he got Sigma's life signs, while he flew to the corridors of the fortress. „Gotcha!” To concentrate solely on his task, he even muted X and Roll without asking or telling them.

When the fused Rush reached Sigma in a dark room, he activated his night sight vision, rushed forward and slashed towards Sigma's head. Signa drew his two sabers and tried to block the bits but had to back up. Rush was more brutal than Roll or X. „Light!” The lights went on and because of the activated night vision, Rush was blinded for a brief second, before he turned the mode of. But Sigma used that fraction of a second to slash at Rush's neck. But Rush had quickly jumped while he was blinded and kicked forward. He hit Sigma's head and altered the direction of the sabers so slightly, that he got the under side of his boots cut of. He landed back on his damaged feet and slashed at Sigma's hands, damaging them and destroying both saber grips at the same time. And then he just jumped towards Sigma's neck and tried to bite into that area but Sigma grabbed Rush's arms and threw him against a wall. Rush landed on all fours, stood up and ran towards him. Sigma fired his shoulder cannons but Rush removed one of his green collars, transformed it into a circle with a handle and could activate a circular barrier before the first plasma shot reached him. He jumped forwards and just went wild, with the barrier shield in his paws. He could even get his paw near Sigma's neck but only had a brief second, before Sigma ripped his left arm of. Rush jumped away from Sigma and after he deactivated the shield, Rush smiled, while he held the green collar in his paws. Sigma had weaken the damage by using his arms to shield his face and body from the collar-barrier. „You knew Roll had two ribbons, right? And that they can be activated wireless?” Sigma now focused and saw, that Rush' second collar was missing. He placed his hands at his neck and felt the other collar around his neck. „And did you knew, that you can create a barrier within the ring of the collar, if you just invert the sides of the accessory?” With these words, everything was over. „You'll, pay for this, you mutt!” Sigma tried to get the collar of while Rush had still spoken but Rush was faster and activated the barrier of the collar. Since he had inverted the collar, the barrier was created inwards and beheaded Sigma. The head fell on the floor and the body just stood there. Rush walked over to the body, placed his paw on the back of the torso and pushed. „I'll get my revenge! I'm the future king of earth! I...” Sigma's own body crushed his head under his immense weight and silence filled the fortress.

A week after the events, X, Roll and Rush sat, separated from each other and back to their own bodies, in the fortress of the ROSA squad and thought about on what to do with all that stuff, they had left behind here. Thanks to the HQ backups Zero and Axl had returned from their graves. X wanted to check out some of Virion's data on her computers. Axl got a closer look at all the stuff that Virion collected and Zero sat in Rose Vixen's garden at looked at her bed of roses. „I miss you!” Rush was at Roll's side in Doctor Lights old laboratory. It was now a museum. She stood in front of a husk recreation of her old self and read through data on a tablet. „What are you reading, L?” „The report of my ordered check-up from HQ! Looks like there were some data fragments in a hidden path on my hard drive, which they deleted! But other than that, i was fine and my programming got an approval and was allowed retroactive!” „But i wonder what's in my skirt pockets! I know what's inside of them but in some of these, the weight just doesn't align with the objects that should be inside!” Roll could open her skirt and detach it from the rest of her body. Revealing a normal locking leg and pelvis area underneath. She looked around herself. No one was here. It made her sad but she appreciated it right now, that she was alone. She placed her entire skirt on the ground and opened hatch by hatch. „Interesting!” She picked up eight different data sticks. „The color palettes match with those of the ROSA Reploids, who constructed me!” She had a wireless data stick reader in her forehead and leaned one of the sticks against it.

Zero, Axl and X decided, to activate the self-destruction sequence of the fortress. „Put the timer on an hour!” „All right!” Roll entered the control room of the fortress. „Hi, X! Hi, guys!” „Look who is here! The nurse sister!”, said Zero. „X! Don't blow this place up!” X turned around from the console and Roll, who had placed the sticks between her fingers and thumbs, lifted her hands in the air. „We can bring them back! All of them!”

It took HQ a whole two weeks to rebuild all eight Reploids of the squad.

The backups were from the time, in which they had reunited with Roll on the moon. A sneaky Virion Squirrel had silently made backups of all eight Reploids, before they entered the fortress again. Since she was the admin of them, she knew everyone's firewall and their personal passwords and could easily get access to all the data she needed for a proper backup.

Roll and X sat on a bench on a beach and watched a sunset in the area, that was formerly known as Majorca. „You know what i'm asking myself, X?” „Hmm?” „Why had no one noticed, that Sigma was building a fortress right on the moon's surface? The trips alone that he would've needed to get all the necessary materials up there, is so big, it's just impossible for this kind of operation to go totally unnoticed by anyone on earth! This is really bugging me!” „Big Sis, you're thinking about this to much! It's just another fortress of him!” „I don't know, X!” She leaned against his shoulder and looked up to the rising moon. „Thinking about the fortress just feels so odd and frightening!” „So, do you want to stay with me?” „Unnecessary question! Of course i want to!” „I meant as a Maverick-Hunter” „Hmm!” „There a different kind of jobs you could do! Hunting is just one part of it! You could also be an Operator or a Medic!” „I'll thinking about it! Give me some time!” „How much?” „A day or two!”

Later on, the eight of them applied to join the Maverick-Hunters and so did Roll. But Rush, unknowingly to all, downgraded himself to his programming before the events of the moon fortress had happened. He was now a dog without the advanced AI, that Roll had given him. But he had kept a backup of Roll's update in a hidden folder, before rolled everything back. Just in case the other Rush was needed again one day.

Roll and the others finished their entrance examination and three of them with a distinction. These Reploids were Roll, Diamond Pen and Rose Vixen. Now that everything had settled down, the eight new Maverick-Hunters repaired the fortress underwater and reconstructed him. To make him fit for the task and to turn him into a real home and proper Maverick-Hunter-Base.

Now Axl had made it pretty clear, that Samara Squirrel wasn't his cup of tea and so she dealt with him in a way, that would cause her the least amount of emotional trouble. She deleted her deeper feelings for Axl.

Everything was fine and things went back to normal. The prank they played on them inspired the Reploids to participate in other old human rituals and public holidays too. On one of those days, Rose Vixen and Zero walked to the streets near the Niagara Falls. They had sat down, ordered food in a restaurant and now looked at the Falls while Zero went down to one of his legs and opened a little, newly made, hatch. „Are you alright, Zero?” „Yes, sweetheart!” She looked at him but Zero waved with his other hand towards the Fall. „Enjoy the view!” „Okay!” She did that. Maybe he had a surprise for her. Today was one of those holidays again. It was called Valentine's day. „Rose! We had a rough start but you said to me, back before the prank succeeded, that your feelings for me were true and...”, she turned her head around and found him holding a little metal box in his hands. He opened the box and a gold saber grip laid in there. „Do you want to hunt with me, as my wife?” She was overwhelmed and had her constructed body the ability to cry, she would've done that now. She stood up, slammed the table against the glass barrier, ran towards him, he stood up to and both hugged. „Yes! Of course i want to be your wife!”

Today was a night like every other. All nine new Maverick-Hunters, including Zero, were inside the Fortress. X and Axl had left, to take a bit of free time. A time where they wanted to be left alone. At least for tonight. Titanium Doe and Roll had just finished decorating Roll's health station and talked about Rush's downgrade. „And you accept his discussion?” „Of course!” „Did you know, Roll, that we were just hundreds of feet away from the landing spot of the Apollo 11 Mission? Picture that!”, Doe moved her hands together and moved them away from each other, „Our foot- or hoofprints, right next to those of Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins!” Roll imagined that. What an emotional scene that would have made. „I mean! Their footprints, Roll, are still there! After all these years! Because there is no air or person on the moon's surface, who could have destroyed or blown them away!” „Wait! What did you just said?”, asked Roll and pointed at Titanium Doe. „I mean! Their footprints, Roll, are still there! After all these years! Because...” Roll finished the sentence with a perplexed tone in her voice, while pointing at Titanium Doe. An enigma just solved itself inside her head and opened up the doors to so many other mysteries. „There is no air on the moon's surface!” Roll slammed her hands on Doe's cheeks. „Titanium Doe, you're a genius!” „I'm?” Roll smiled at her. „Yes, you are! I need to go! Now!” She ran out of her room and snapped after Rush. „Come on, old boy! Stay at my side!” He barked, lifted himself from the floor and ran side by side with her to on of the new exit doors of the fortress.

Roll finally found X and Axl in a techno bar for Reploids, after she had searched for him for an hour. „Brother! You need to come with me!” „Big Sis, Axl convinced me to have a bit of fun tonight!” „The fun is over!”, she grabbed his arm and made him follow her, „We need to talk!” „Is it urgent? Can't it wait?” „No it can't!” Roll stopped, let him go and turned around to face him. „X! There is no air on the moon!” „Yes and water is wet!” „No, X! I want to think about that for more than a millisecond! Take the information in, like a human would take a deep breath of fresh air in his lungs!” She laid her finger on his chest plate and every time she said a word, she touched him. „There. Is. No. Air. On. The. Moon!” X just looked at her and than it made click. „I can see where you going with this but, i'm missing a little bit here!” „I'm giving you that bit! It's a question! How could he built that fortress, without leaving a single trace of the whole construction process behind him in the ground? While i stood on the ceiling of his fortress i could get a very good view of the area, that surrounded the fortress! X, the only traces i found, where the landing spots of the space shuttles that we all had used and our own footprints! There were no other footprints, traces of material that had laid in the ground, residues of the construction work or remaining landing spots of other shuttles! X! He never landed or could've constructed the fortress on the moon itself! So how on earth did he got himself and the fortress up to the moon? If not by traditional means? How, X? How?!” She pointed at the ceiling and waited for X to think further and further until it laid out in front of him like an open book. „I can't believe it! This whole time!” X looked at her in disbelief, turned is head around and yelled in Axl's direction. „Axl! We need to go!” Axl yelled back. „Seriously?” „Business time!” „Please, tell me you're joking, X!” „Move your lazy butt over her, Axl!”, he turned around and laid his hands on his sisters shoulders, „Let's finish this once and for all, Big Sis!”