Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Warmachine ❯ Chapter 6: An Unlikely Partnership ( Chapter 6 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Chapter 6: An Unlikely Partnership

“They want to take you from me… They want to shut us down.”
That same familiar voice kept echoing through the black void. Vile could hear it again, as he had been for the past couple of months. The same dream over and over again. He didn’t always find himself in the pod. At times he was outside, watching the scene from an angle above, watching this strange man speak to his lifeless creations. At other times it was simply darkness, only the voice resounding in his mind. This time it was blackness. Vile was incorporeal, he had no body, he could not see, only hear.
“They wanted you. They needed you. Warmachines. Humph! The fools!” The last word of each sentence lingered on abnormally long, the strange dream eerie and disturbing.
“But they won’t get us, oh no. They don’t know of your strength. They knew what one of you could do…” One of you… What did all that mean?

Vile’s question remained unanswered, like in all restless nights before. Slowly his systems began reactivating, Vile’s eyes opening to find himself staring up at the ceiling of the maintenance room. The overhead lights had been switched on, their light almost blinding the Reploid if he hadn’t adjusted his sensors. The next thing that registered with the slowly awakening and disoriented Reploid made him growl in anger. He was restrained, fastened to the steel table in the center of the room like some lab project. Immediately he began resisting the bonds that held his wrists and feet in place. It was of little use however, his limbs barely responded and even if they had they wouldn’t have been able to snap the thick metal strips that kept him trapped against the steel surface.

“Wow, wow, now! Calm down!” An annoyingly high-pitched voice shrieked as Vile began struggling.
“Calm down, you hunk of junk!!” The voice repeated and a knock over Vile’s head with some kind of tool made the renegade focus on the strange Reploid leaning over him. Professor Gaudile was standing on a pile of two boxes so he could properly reach the table surface. The Reploid was a strange sight, to say the least. He was a Reploid designed to look like a platypus and as if his creators hadn’t been cruel enough already they had colored him a bright red, white and yellow. His hand’s had only three digits each and his beady eyes were hidden behind strange goggles that were attached to his temples. Gaudile probably used them when he needed protection or improved sighting when doing whatever it is the odd Reploid did. Strapped around his waist were the steel strips that held his backpack securely in place on his back. Vile than noticed the four mechanical arms that were attached to the pack, each moving separate from the other and each equipped with a different tool the professor no doubt used in his work.
“Who are you? What are you doing to me?!” Vile asked, still disoriented and confused, but not quite as aggressive anymore.
The tiny Reploid’s hand moved to the goggles which he lifted up so his eyes were revealed.
“I’m Professor Gaudile, scientist extraordinaire.” He introduced, apparently rather proud of himself. Though the good professor saw this little project as a low-point in his career…
“And that is my assistant, and daughter you might even say, Cinnamon.” Gaudile added before motioning to the other side of the table. Vile’s gaze soon met the large, baby blue eyes of a young female Reploid. Had she been human she would’ve been no older than 14 at the most and her face was almost angelically sweet with her pale skin and very long, blonde hair. Her body was crafted to resemble a mechanical version of a nurse’s outfit and the hat she wore on her head had the typical +-symbol printed on it.
“Pleased to meet you.” She stated with a very high and almost intoxicatingly sweet voice. The innocent young girl bowed her head, her hands together and held against her pelvis as she did.
“As for what we’re doing to you, we’re patching you up.” Gaudile continued as he raised the tool he had hit Vile over the head with. The Ex-Hunter recognized it as one used to repair certain internal systems of a Reploid. Tilting his head to the side he noticed Nana stood in the door frame, unsettled by all the commotion.
“You could have warned me your old friend was a freaky midget with a nurse fetish…” Vile grumbled, his tone of voice implying a grin beneath the helmet. His remark was met with a variety of responses. Nana couldn’t help but laugh softly as Gaudile raised his voice in anger. The professor almost tumbled down from the boxes in his fit. Cinnamon didn’t seem to know what was going on as she merely let her eyes move from Vile, to Nana and then to Gaudile with her lips forming a questioning ‘o’.
“You’re lucky I was willing to do this! The state you were in I’m surprised you didn’t get your head blown off yet!” Gaudile shouted.
“Professor, please, you’ll rupture another exhaust pipe if you yell like that.” Cinnamon stated cutely. Gaudile took a deep breath and seemed to calm down.
“You’re right… Anyway, I’m almost done. You’ll be pleased with the results I think.” The professor stated as he continued his work on Vile’s chest, which Ex-Hunter now realized had been opened up.
“I fixed up your armor. It should be in tip-top shape now. Your shoulder cannon is working at full capacity again and so are your jet boots. The pod charged you up fully too so you’ll be up on your feet once I close you up again.” Gaudile explained as he closed up a small patch covering some circuitry in Vile’s chest before starting to seal the armored plating.
“What about my other weapons?” Vile inquired.
“I fixed up those that needed it, but of course you’ll still need to stock up on ammo… I’ve never seen so many guns on a Reploid before.” The platypus muttered, clearly feeling guilty over having fixed the Maverick.

Once he was finished he asked Cinnamon to release the bonds and Vile slowly sat up. His joints moved smoothly, no longer clogged by wear and tear and damage. His eyes moved over his body after shifting so he sat on the side of the table. His green and orange color scheme was no longer covered in scorch marks and dirt and his armor wasn’t dented all over anymore. Slowly the Renegade placed his booted legs on the steel floor and rose to his feet, pleased to find his balance had been restored perfectly as well. He felt light, energized, he felt good, he felt… Ready for action. It had been months since he last felt this way.
“You did a better job than you look capable of, doc.” Vile commented before raising one hand. Gaudile winced and reflexively lifted his arms to cover his face at what he interpreted as an aggressive motion. But he relaxed when the Ex-Hunter patted his shoulder twice, albeit rather roughly.
Nana smiled and nodded her head.
“Thank you again Professor.” She added, stepping aside as Vile walked out of the maintenance room, eager to stretch his legs.
“We’ll be taking our leave now.” Gaudile suggested as he packed up the tools he had brought with him. “Uhm, Nana. I really did repair every weapon that trigger-happy Maverick has. Which means he’s primed and armed. Please be careful.” The Professor stated, his eyes widening in surprise when the much taller Nana leaned down to hug the odd Reploid. Pecking his cheek once, she straightened her back again and smiled at the blushing scientist.
“Don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. You know I can take care of myself.”
“Alright. Say your goodbyes Cinnamon, we’re going home.” Gaudile shrieked as he began waggling over to the front door. The young nurse Reploid hugged her friend before turning to leave with her ‘father’.
“Goodbye Nana, I’ll miss you!” She added sweetly.

When the door closed, Nana realized she was alone again and sighed. But at least her research had yielded some results. The operator returned to the Main Room and sat down in her chair.
“So, have you found anything useful in those records while I was regenerating?” Vile immediately inquired as he approached the chair. He crossed his arms as he watched the view screen closely.
“As a matter of fact, I have. Most of the files were classified, but very few were important enough to protect thoroughly. It didn’t take me too long to decrypt all the files.” Nana spoke as she rotated her chair to face the terminal, her fingers gliding over the keyboard with uncanny speed.
“And?” Vile urged.
“I found the report you wanted, on the explosion in Central City. The clean-up crew present hadn’t bothered filing a report until several days later and only one of them took the trouble of doing so.” Nana explained.
“That’s odd… If I remember correctly it’s standard procedure all members of the crew file a report, no matter what the work they had been doing was. And this procedure is strictly enforced.” Vile replied, raising an eyebrow beneath his T-shaped visor.
“Exactly. But there’s no real way to check why only one of them did. The report itself didn’t say much. It spoke of a scientific experiment gone haywire. Apparently they were working on some kind of new micro-laser which would be used in the fabrication of highly miniaturized pieces of equipment. The laser was still a prototype and the clean-up crew found evidence of an overload in a power core. They were able to tie the core to the laser and filed it as an accidental overload. The entire block had been reduced to gravel and debris and not much else was found on the site so no further, extensive research into the incident was done.” Nana continued, the view screen began displaying the report, minimized to fit the side of the canvas. The other side of the screen displayed numerous footage of the site.
“Do you recognize it?” Nana asked as she let the photos scroll past slowly.
Vile felt a strange throbbing sensation in his head, but it was barely noticeable.
“Hmm. Yes. I remember some of the surrounding buildings in the background. And the clear sky it was that day.” The Renegade replied as he tried remembering more of the elusive dream. “Is there any mention of Hunters having been on-site at the time of the explosion? Or did they find their remains?” Vile questioned next.
Nana merely shook her head in reply. “Why are you interested in this place anyway?”
“Since I was heavily damaged on the Lunar Base a couple months back, I’ve been having these strange dreams. Most nights when I recharge, I get these odd visions about a scientist Reploid talking to deactivated Reploids in pods. He’s paranoid, delusional maybe as he seems to expect me to reply to his ramblings about danger and people coming to kill him and his ‘creations’.” Vile began explaining, turning around and pacing the room once.
“’Me’? What do you mean ‘me’? You’re in it?” Nana asked, turning to face the Ex-Hunter.
Vile nodded in reply. “Sometimes the dream is from the perspective of one of the Reploids in the pod. I just get this feeling that that’s me in there, decades ago.”
“What happened next?”
“The scientist retrieves an unstable device, a bomb maybe, from a terminal and when several Maverick Hunters storm in they take him down. But the bomb explodes, taking the entire building with it.” Vile finished, returning to the operator’s side.
“And you’re sure this isn’t just your mind playing tricks on you?”
“I never dreamed before, and definitely not like this. It feels like a memory, a long lost memory. The earliest memory I had before these dreams began creeping up was of me standing in line to enlist as a Hunter.” The Renegade narrowed his eyes behind his visor to read the first few lines of the report.
“What about you? What is this ‘dangerous’ task you set out to do?” Vile inquired, suddenly realizing that he had no idea what her goal in all of this was.

“You’ve heard of the incident here on Giga City half a year ago, right?” Nana started and upon receiving an affirmative nod from her unlikely companion she continued.
“The leader of our rebellion against Epsilon’s uprising, Chief R, was killed atop Central Tower after we thought the fight was finally over. Redips, a colonel with the Maverick Hunters and superior officer in charge of X’ operation here turned out to be a traitor. He had a copy chip, enabling him to transform, like Axl and Lumine can. He was out to get the Supra Force Metal that was found here, it had been his goal from the start. When Chief R signaled in his vessel for landing, Redips opened fire and murdered him…” Nana’s tone of voice saddened at the horrible memory.
“I recall all this. What does this have to do with Maverick Hunter records? His involvement was proven and obvious, wasn’t it?”
“Yes. But a few days ago I found evidence of an illegal, outgoing transmission of highly classified information on our weapons systems and other defense mechanisms to a vessel which could only have been Redips’. No one in the Rebellion at the time had the skills needed to perform this task and it’s only logical that Redips’ possible accomplice would also be a Hunter, in on the whole scheme.” Nana continued.
“Let me guess. When you presented this to Hunter HQ they immediately put a lid on it, not wanting it to get out and damage their all new and shiny reputation.” Vile grumbled slightly as he recalled the hypocrisy the higher-ups in the Maverick Hunter chain of command suffered from.
“Exactly. So I set out on my own and what few leads I found lead me to the archives. Where things went a little awry.” Nana took a deep breath before continuing. “I was at the archives to trace down the Hunter who might have done this. One of the last personnel rosters before Eurasia’s impact had been stored there and the transmission the perpetrator had sent contained a personal tag. To get to my point…” Nana pressed a few keys and brought up the roster she had stolen from the Archives. She scrolled down until she reached the tag she had been searching for. Once she’d tracked it down she opened the file and some basic information on a young Reploid appeared on the screen. The Reploid was a young, generic type with blue eyes, tanned skin and a dark green color scheme. His mugshot didn’t give the impression this Reploid was capable of anything illegal at all, let alone treason of the highest level.

“This is where it gets a little weird. There’s nothing strange about this Reploid, he isn’t even a fighter. He was part of a clean-up crew stationed in South City. But when I saw that tag again it felt like I’d seen it somewhere before. I compared it to the tag of the Reploid who wrote the report on the explosion. It’s the same Hunter.” Nana concluded as she highlighted both numerical sequences on both files.
“What does that mean? And wait… You said he was stationed in South City? What was he doing in Central than? And that also means he’s been in service for over 20 years?” Vile inquired, not knowing what to think of this.
“I don’t know, but I do know there’s only one way to find out. You’ll have to go see him. Though that’ll be a little difficult I think.” Nana stated.
“How so?”
“South City was completely destroyed by Eurasia’s impact. It’s just a ruinous ghost city in the middle of an ash wasteland now. I tracked down his residence so if you’re lucky there are some remains you can search through for more information.” Nana explained while she brought up some pictures and information on South City.
“So this ‘grunt’ worked as a clean-up Reploid for 20 years, appearing once in Central City, miraculously surviving the destruction of his city and managing to pop up again as Redips’ accomplice on Giga City?” Vile recapped, raising one eyebrow as he highly doubted that it was all a coincidence.
“It doesn’t make a bit of sense. Which is why either the report was faked, or the tag used to transmit the information on Giga City was. But whatever’s the case this Reploid is our only lead and if you want to find out anything, you’re going to have to pay South City a visit.” Nana replied, turning her chair around to look up at the Maverick. Vile pondered the suggestion briefly before nodding.

“Alright, I’ll need you to operate and transfer me.” He added before turning around.
“Never thought I’d see the day I’d be Vile’s operator…” Nana muttered, though in a way she was excited and at the same time nervous. She’d never been a battle operator before and she just hoped she could provide him with the intel he’d need.
“Never thought I’d see the day I’d ‘have’ an operator again.” The renegade shot back, looking at her over his shoulder before entering the Transfer Room and walking onto the platform. Nana sat down behind the terminal after having double-checked the safety of the coordinates. She punched in a few commands and soon Vile vanished from sight in a tracing line of dark green energy.
“This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder.” Nana muttered as she sighed deeply, running a hand through her hair and returning to the large terminal in the main room to guide her new-found partner.

~~*~*~~

“This place is a dump. Even if they put the pieces together they won’t find anythin’ here no more.” An extremely deep and rough voice could be heard from atop one of the crumbled skyscrapers of South City. The once tropical paradise city has been reduced to a bleak, brown, sandy wasteland. The impact of the colony had left nothing standing. The streets were filled with debris and the sand of the surrounding desert had covered most of the metropolis like a fine powder. The sight, coupled with the ever cloudy sky and pollution that changed the sun’s light into a dreary orange darkness completed the impression the city gave those who looked upon it. It was, as the giant Reploid so eloquently put, a dump.
“Spectrum wants to play it safe, Onslaught. This ‘Nana’ chick has the skills to follow what tiny breadcrumbs were left behind all the way to the archives. And she got away with a sizeable amount of information. I doubt she’ll be unable to find some peculiarities in there that’ll lead her, and ‘el walkin’ weapon’, to South Crummy City.” The other voice came from a much smaller Reploid, barely the height of the large one’s boot. The voice was high pitched but without the shrieking quality of Professor Gaudile’s. It resembled the voice of an annoying child, gleefully pestering and teasing his fellows. Both forms were draped in thick cloth cloaks to shield them from the sand-filled winds that continuously blew through the wasteland and the tiny Reploid had mounted the other’s shoulder idly.
“I guess the boss knows best, Frostbite. I just can’t believe he was caught off guard.” The Reploid named Onslaught replied.
“Neither can I, but it just goes to show even a master spy can be caught with his pants down once in a while. Now we better stay quiet and be on the look-out for any transfers, unless we want our pants around our ankles too.” The smaller Frostbite commented in reply to his colleague.
Onslaught nodded slightly and slowly began backing away, vanishing into the ruins to take up a vantage point in which they were hard to spot, but also in which they had a good view of the city.