Voltage cleared his throat angrily and jabbed his finger at the machine. "Well, pal, if that's not how you do it, then why the hell did your machine break down in the first place? You don't know what the hell you're doing and when I report this to Dr. Cain, you'll be jobless. How's THAT sound to you?" he asked him, his voice level, however strained.
The human jerked his head back and blinked. "Listen here, you stupid reploid, you aren't going to do jackshit, got it? If you tell Cain anything, I'll dismantle you, you hear me?" he threatened.
Voltage crossed his arms. "Is that so, pal? Well, we'll just see what you can do when I see your sorry butt out the door personally," he snarled and turned away from the human, growling angerily as he did so. Marching away, Voltage shook his head at the nerve of the man for thinking that he, being a reploid, was lesser than him. Humans were so stupidly blinded by the fact that they built reploids, that they couldn't see reploids were just as human as they were and had every right to be treated as such. However, the humans didn't see it like that and reploids, while friends to many humans and even on the level of being partners with some, to most they were just slaves. Even the first law of robotics, passed down by Dr. Light, was in effect for reploids. It was injustice and it ate away at Voltage.
The human behind him, however, was far from ending this conversation and grabbed Voltage's shoulder, twisting him around to face him. "Listen here, you little damn reploid, we're not finished yet, understood?" By now a large crowd of workers in the building had turned to watch the two fight, most siding with Voltage on this situation but watching to see how he would handle it himself.
Voltage calmly glanced down at the hand on his shoulder, reached up and gripped it in a tight, crushing grip, and yanked it off, pulling the hand down to the floor and the bigger man with it. The man's face turned to a white color from the pain, surprised that Voltage had done this. "I understand perfectly, pal. You wish to have some charges brought up on you now, is it? Disturbing the work area for others and disrupting business is against regulations, isn't it? I think we understand each other perfectly," Voltage told him, tightening the grasp on the word perfectly, causing the man to whimper slightly, "don't we, pal?"
The man nodded weakly and Voltage threw his hand away, turning around to leave again. "Damn frickin' reploid...I'll get you for this!!! I swear to God, I'll get you for this!!!" the man shouted after him, but Voltage refused to turn around and get into a conflict with him, turning the corner and heading for Cain's office. He didn't know why he didn't turn around. Either fear of hurting the man...or the fear of his actually liking to hurt the stupid human. And that made Voltage uneasy.
"So, what you're saying is, I should have stood there, took the insulting, been degraded by him, and took it all sweetly? Hell friggin' no, X. That's just plain stupid and asking for more trouble," Voltage countered.
X sighed and looked down at the floor. Yes, he agreed with Voltage that he couldn't stand there and take that, but in the long run, violence of that sort from a reploid was just too dangerous to take. Reploids had only been around for a short time and starting up violence could be a bad thing to do at this point and time. "Voltage, no, I don't think you should have taken it, but, you just can't go around starting up trouble and hurting people. Even humans get in trouble for hurting another person. Don't you understand?"
Voltage looked down at the ground too. "Yeah, I understand X..." X breathed in with relief at hearing that. "...I understand that you're just willing to let them shove you around and be walked all over. Well, Mr. First Damn Reploid Created, I'm not going to take that, understood? People may not bother you because you were the first reploid, but for us normal reploids, we gotta take a lot of shit. And I'm putting my foot down about all this!" X flinched at those words. He hadn't realized that other reploids considered him different from them...or perhaps it was just Voltage making it up to vent rage. But still, it bothered the azul reploid.
"So, Voltage, what do you plan on doing?" X asked quietly.
Voltage kicked a trashcan across the room. "I'm going to go tell Cain about this and then personally see that snide human out the door..." X reached out and touched his shoulder and turned him around.
"Promise me you won't hurt him for the hell of it?" X pleaded.
Voltage looked down. "Yeah, X, sure, I won't hurt him or anything. I'll be nice about it. For you..." he agreed meekly.
"Thanks, Voltage."
"No problem, X..." Voltage looked at him. "You understand how I feel though, right? It's just not fair...but I shouldn't take my frustrations out on him. I'll do things proper. Don't want to cause trouble..."
X grinned. "That's the spirit." Voltage nodded and went down the hallway toward Cain's office. X felt a little more at peace hearing Voltage's confession and he knew in his heart of hearts, Voltage wouldn't break his word to him. Voltage had finally come to an understanding that he would try to work out his problems with the humans the right way.
Turning back to the trashcan, X reached down and flipped it right side up and decided to head outside into the assembly lines and other production areas and see what he could learn for himself. Opening the door, X stepped out.
Turning back around, the man spotted another man leaning against the broken machine, which was up and running again. The new fellow looked down at the ground, smoking his cigar, then lifted his head. "You do know all your ranting and raving won't help you a bit in this situation."
The man crossed his arms and looked the other guy over. He was dressed in black and crimson and kept his head bowed slightly, his brown hair shining in the lights of the building. Finally, he looked up at him and studied him. "The name's Spade."
"And what do you want?" the man asked.
Spade pointed at his hand. "I see your hand is still shaking from what that reploid did to you."
The man glanced down at it distainfully. "Yeah, so?"
"To my knowledge, hurting another person is agains the law, unless you, of course, harmed that person first. And a reploid doing it, I hear, is even worse than if a human had done it," Spade told him, dropping his cigar on the ground and crushing it out. "If you have witnesses around here that could say that you had not, in fact, harmed the reploid, it would be in very serious trouble with the law, you know."
The man grinned. "Is 'zat so, Mr. Spade? And why would you be so 'helpful' as to start up my machine for me and to tell me this?"
Spade gave him a dead, unfriendly grin. "Just helping out my fellow man." With that, he turned and walked past the man, stopping for a moment to briefly glance around. "You basically have this reploid where you want him. Blackmail is always the thing to do when you're in that position, of course." With that, Spade walked out the entrance to Cain Labs.
The man crossed his arms and grinned wickedly. "Is 'zat so...?" he asked into the thin air.
"Ah, yes, Spade. I take it you did as I asked and stirred up a little trouble?" Cran asked him.
"Mission accomplished, General Cran," Spade told him, gazing back at the sky. "I used Cain's own Voltage as the setup, also. A twist of irony I thought you would appreciate."
Cran grinned. "Yes, yes, I appreciate that very much, Spade. Will you be sticking around the city for awhile longer?"
Spade looked down from the stormy clouds, taking the sign that was being given to him by them. "No, General, I think I'll be taking a few months...vacation. Besides, I'm a busy man, I have things to do. But I'll contact you when I return."
Cran nodded, as if he almost expected that answer. Spade knew Cran knew quite a bit on him. That he did his own thing, but just like Cran, wanted to wrestle a hold of power. He saw Cran as that way to get some power. Plus Spade agreed with a world wide organization that Cran wanted to begin, however, Spade planned on playing both sides of the game. Better not to leave Earth's current military, the Armed Forces, for the time being. Or better yet, the council's military unit. But once Cran's ideal became a reality, the Armed Forces would no doubt be led by Cran...of course, like all futures, that one was cloudy and somehow Spade for saw conflict between Cran's fraction of the Earth's military and the Armed Forces. How this happened, he did not know...perhaps Cran's organization would go independent, perhaps not. Only time could tell. And in the game of things, Spade was a better player than Cran. Smarter than Cran. Everything that Cran wished he could be. And Cran knew this, but still he used Spade where he could, even if it meant losing a little bit more power to him each time.
"Well, Spade, I'll see you then. I'll transfer some gil to your account as promised," Cran said and blinked out. Spade put up the communicator. Of course, Spade knew, maybe Cran wasn't as big as an idiot as he thought. Turning, he walked away from the building as the first drops of rain began to fall from the sky.
Clearing his throat, Voltage tried to get Cain's attention. Cain glanced at him and blinked for a moment. "Uh, Voltage...what can I do for you?" he asked, glancing back at the bald reploid he was working on. Voltage tried not to glance at it's face.
"I want to report something to you at the assembly lines," Voltage told and began to tell Cain what had happened, leaving out the hand part. Cain listened and nodded.
"Alright, Voltage, remove him from the premises for me. Thanks for the good work," Cain said and went back to working on the reploid. Turning around, Voltage walked out of the room and made his way through the halls back to the assembly lines area of the building and glanced around, noticing the man smugly standing beside his working machine. Blinking in shock, Voltage wondered how he managed to fix it the way he was going...
Working his way over there, Voltage crossed his arms. "Alright, pal, time to be leaving...you're fired." The man grinned, wiped his hands on a rag, and nodded at him.
"Lead the way, pal," the man said, being very friendly. Voltage blinked again and led the man outside into the room. The two glanced up together at the clouds for a moment before Voltage turned around to go back inside. The man reached out and stopped him. "Hey, hold on a second there, pal..." Voltage detected the word pal was a little more...sarcastic.
"...let me go." The man shook his head.
"No, you listen here, pal. You assaulted me in there and I have every right to take this matter before the council. Perhaps they'll even deactivate you..." the man said, grinning.
Voltage threw his hand off, pissing the man off further. "Listen here, jackass, I merely removed your stinkin' paws off of me. That's not assaulting. I'm afraid you'll just have to give up..." He turned around again and began to walk toward the building when the man grabbed him again. This time, Voltage flipped him over his shoulder and let him smash onto the ground with a thud. "I said, don't touch me."
The man coughed up some liquids and leaned up, shaking his wet hair from the rain. It was starting to get heavier now and blinding things, but a crowd of people near by did catch Voltage throwing the man, apparently for no reason. They swarmed over there and grabbed Voltage, holding him back from the man, thinking he was going to assault him some more.
Paniced, Voltage grabbed the nearest human and slung them onto the guy. The crowd, thinking he was going to attack him, grabbed a block laying on the ground and slugged Voltage in the head with it. Collapsing to the ground, Voltage shook his head, confused and panicked by the rain and he swung out, nailing a man in the head and sending him skidding across the ground. A woman, horrified, hit him with her purse.
Backing up, he stood up and strained to see his attackers in the rain. Were they part of this man's posse, trying to beat him into submission, he wondered to himself. Growling in rage that this human would sink so low, when the nearest shadow came his way, he threw out a punch and nailed them in the face, sending the person skidding back.
"Crazy reploid! He's gone insane!!! Stop him!!!" he heard a woman shout and realized that he was in serious trouble. Raising up his hands in self-defense, he began to back away.
"Hey, back off here people!!! You attacked me first!!! Get the hell away from me!" he warned, backing into a wall. By then Cain and X ran out into the rain and stopped the crowd from advancing.
Cain looked around in he rain, coughing. "What the hell is going on here?!" he shouted.
The woman with the purse pointed at Voltage. "This...reploid began to attack us for no reason!! He just went crazy, like a maverick type of state almost. Yeah, that's it, he went maverick."
Voltage blinked. "Hey, you people grabbed me!" he protested.
The man who had started the entire thing sat up from the ground where he had been thrown earlier. "Only trying to detain you from hurting me. You've gone insane!! Just like that woman said, you're like some sort of ... maverick!" Voltage jerked at the word...this new, dangerous word that had just been coined.
Another man spoke up, wiping his bloody face. "Dr. Cain, we demand you take this ... thing before the council and have it deactivated!!! I sent my wife to call in some law enforcements."
Cain shook his bald head, confused, and looked back at Voltage. "...why?" he asked. He then went back inside, to maintain order inside. X, head bowed, looked up finally and walked over to Voltage.
"Voltage...you promised me..." X began, his voice faltering.
Voltage frowned. He knew that X would take it personally against the humans if he was deactivated...and that would ruin his outlook of life. Sucking in the air, Voltage looked down. "I...lost my temper, X. Me. I guess I did do this...'Maverick' thing..." he lied. X shook in the rain at hearing this, Voltage noticed. "Hey, I'm sorry, older 'bro. Didn't mean to let ya down like this. Don't have any hard feelings...for me or them, eh?"
X nodded in the rain...stepped back, then stepped forward and hugged Voltage, surprising him. Then, he backed off and stood in the rain, waiting with Voltage for the law enforcement people to get there. Neither said anything, but in that moment, they shared a bond...a bond that tied their spirits together, finally. And their rivalry...put behind them.
On his desk, opened to the featured article, was the story over Voltage and the incident a few days ago...and the meeting with the council was today, going on at that very moment.
Stepping along the room, his eyes constantly closed, Cran lost himself in the music, his face revealing a smirk. Stepping along the desk, he began to hum to the music, losing himself in it...
The council members gathered before Voltage, X, and Dr. Cain, whom were all seated in front of them. The spokesperson of the group deadlocked his eyes onto Voltage.
"Oh, how does it feel, Dr. Cain? To see your first creation about to be declared a...maverick, as the HoloVid puts it...how does it FEEL inside, to know that in a few moments, you're reploid will be declared a hazard to society and then...destroyed?" Cran asked outloud.
Dr. Cain rubbed his brow, his eyes looking at the desk mournfully. It was evident on his face that pain was evident, betrayal, and confusion. The old man refused to meet eyes with his creation or the council members and just looked down.
Cran smiled widely, moving in tune to the classic music, his first step against the reploids taken. "How does it feel, X, to see your brethren, a reploid you helped create, about to die in a few moments? By humans? Will it send you to being a maverick too, X?"
X glanced at Voltage and gave an assuring smile. Voltage smiled back, nervous. X then turned back and watched the spokesperson adjust his glasses and open the paper which held the decision.
"How does it feel, Voltage, to know in a few moments...you're about to die an injust death by humans? Does it stir whatever soul you have into anger? Will you attack the council members to save your own life?" Cran asked, moving over to the window as the music continue to play.
Voltage kept a blank expression on his face, not moving. Refusing to acknowledge the situation. If he died, he died. That was that. At least he wouldn't be angered by stupid humans anymore. It would all be over.
"The time's ticking...running away from you. In mere moments, you're history..." Cran began.
"Voltage, you have been charged with assaulting several humans. According to the law of robotics, this is a severe breach of it. We have determined you have become a 'Maverick'. The term Maverick will be referred to reploids who seek harm, death, or foul play to humans. By the law, being a Maverick...you are to be terminated immediately," the spokesperson told them.
"...you'll be shut down, named the first Maverick in history, and be remembered, hated, and feared for the rest of your life. What does it mean to you...?" Cran continued.
Voltage closed his eyes and X's body went ridged, a silent cry escaping his lips. Dr. Cain merely heaved and sighed, burying his face into his hands as two men walked forward and took Voltage from his seat. X and Voltage's eyes met briefly, their friendship evident in each other's eyes, but before either could speak, Voltage was hauled to a capsule and placed inside.
"...does it mean anything to you? This day marks the beginning of chaos throughout the world toward reploids. It will spring up more and more Mavericks, angry at your death, which they will consider unjust, and more trouble will spring. And sooner or later a reploid will rise forth to take control of all the Mavericks and the world will be forced to destroy you all..." Cran went on.
Voltage stood in the capsule and closed his eyes, mouthing a silent sentence. No one knew if it was a curse, prayer, blessing, or just those 'famous last words'. No one cared, except for one reploid, who stood by helplessly, unable to stop the proceedings.
"...and from this moment on, everything's changed. Nothing will be the same for reploids. How does this weigh on you all - X, Dr. Cain, reploids in general - how does this weigh? But most importantly..." Cran kept saying.
The men turned on the capsule and a bright light went off as all of Voltage's vital circuits, memory, and systems were deleted and his body was nothing but an empty hull - lifeless for all time.
"...how does it feel to be bested by me?" Cran finished.
The men dragged the body away, preparing to destroy it completely so no one would ever try to rebuild him. X and Dr. Cain stood there, looked at each other briefly, and turned...leaving the scene behind them.
Cran crossed his arms and laughed. His laughter echoed throughout the room and eventually drowned out the music that was playing. And it continued...for a very long time.
The force of the explosion had blown the hidden cavern in two areas, seperating the two capsules from one another. One area was totally disconnected from the awakening process and laid, hidden, in the hidden area of the cavern.
The capsule that had managed to survive the explosion slowly flickered on and off as the damaged systems tried to establish a connection and bring it online. Finally, after a long process, the capsule's lights flickered on permanetly and a low whine emitted from the strain of running it.
Inside, a dark, purple figure laid resting. After the capsule's walls moved up inside the top area of the capsule and a low hiss of steam was ejected, the creature stirred inside. Two dark red eyes flickered opened inside the darkness of the capsule and moved forward. The reploid stepped into the light and gazed around, as if dazed.
Glancing to his right, he saw a tunnel that obviously led toward the exit. For some reason, unknown to him, his creator already programmed him and trialed ran him so he wouldn't have to go through the learning process like other reploids did. Already fully functional, he stumbled up the hidden tunnel that led to an area in the mountains, not too far away from Mega City.
He realized that it was raining, a storm sweeping the area. For some reason, it fed his dark mood, as his memories slowly began to boot up. He knew immediately he was created to create mass destruction and cause utter chaos. For a human. But for some reason, that did not suit the reploid. He refused to do anything for his long since dead creator.
The reploid gazed up at the dark storm clouds, letting the rain pelt against his purple helment, his two red eyes glowing. He knew little of his past, but he knew enough that his sole purpose was to kill...but as to what he choose to kill, the reploid had not yet decided.
The purple reploid began to make his way down the side of the mountain, touching the shoulder cannon affectionately. Perhaps, when he arrived at the city, he would get a chance to test it...but first, the cunning reploid planned on learning about his surroundings.
He had, after all, been out of touch for a long time, no doubt...
Stopping, he glanced up at the dark storm clouds that still poured over the city. "Why?! Why was I created?!" he shouted up into the heavens, ignoring the rain pelting his face as he did so. A few people stopped on the streets, glancing at him in concern, but quickly moved on.
X slumped against the side of a building and kept his face bowed. Voltage so far was the only reploid to go maverick. The council decided this must have been a rare case and reploid productions had continued. Reploids were everywhere now...running about, building, working beside humans. They were a common sight now...but it still didn't help X. Why Voltage?
Glancing up, he saw across the street there was a store with HoloVids playing the execution of Voltage, again. From here he couldn't hear what they were saying on the HoloVid, but he had heard and seen the program enough to know it by heart. Forming a fist, X pelted the wall he leaned against, but only succeeded in hurting his hand. They were making Voltage's death into a meaningless mockery.
Across the street, watching the HoloVids intensely, X saw a purple clad Boba Fett type reploid standing there. He had never seen him before, but somehow, there was something strange...and deadly, about this reploid. The other reploid turned his head, and although X couldn't see his face, he saw two dark red eyes glowing beneath the helmet. Their eyes locked briefly, the two staring at each other across the street, both not moving as they stared. Finally the other reploid turned his head away and made his way up the street.
X slumped against the building again, feeling weak from the encounter. It was almost like that reploid would be something important to X soon...almost like a...arch nemesis...
Shaking his head, X let out a nervous laugh and began to work his way up the slick sidewalks of the city again. How stupid...he had only seen that reploid briefly, today, for the first time...why think something like that...? Stupid...
Maverick. The word popped into his mind, remembering what the program had declared the reploid to be. "Yes...maverick...I like the sound of the name..." he murmured to himself, stopping and glancing up as the rain finally stopped.
Grinning behind his mask, the reploid stared up as the dark clouds began to break up. Yes, this was an omen to him...he finally saw his destiny. He would gather all reploids who were declared maverick...and slaughter the humans.
"...a third maverick incident happened...this time, it has the people in a panic..." Dr. Cain told him. X frowned. Since Voltage's death, another incident involving a reploid being declared maverick happened. The reploid had even managed to hurt a few humans before it had been stopped.
"...did a reploid manage to kill...a human?" X asked.
Dr. Cain shook his head. "It was stopped in time...but we received a message...it has the council in an uproar...to the point they think they might want to stop the production of reploids...here, look for yourself..." Cain muttered and turned on the HoloVid.
On the screen, the purple reploid X had seen that day flickered onto the screen. Behind the darkness of the mask, two red eyes glared angrily at them. "You humans unjustly killed many reploids...declaring them to be 'maverick'. Do not humans kill one another? If need be, wouldn't you have a reploid kill another, to save one's life? Where is the justice in not having a reploid kill a human? Where's the self-defense? How can the reploid save another if he will be considered 'maverick' when killing a human to save another or to preserve his own right to survive?"
X shifted uncomfortably while listening. Where did this reploid plan on going with all this? "So, I'm gathering all reploids who feel unjust or hatred toward the humans. Together, we form the Mavericks, and will gather our strength. And when we're ready, we'll strike down the humans who are against us...and I...Vile, will lead these Mavericks to victory." The HoloVid winked out.
"...this is bad..." X managed to say.
Cain nodded. "Yes...and tomorrow the council wants to have a meeting with me about this...but I doubt they'll stop production of the reploids. We've become too dependent on them...I think the council has another plan...and my newest reploid will probably be the driving force behind it..." Cain told him.
X blinked. "...huh?"
Cain shook his head. "You'll see...tomorrow..."
"We've been discussing the problem with great vigor. Some of us even think stopping production of reploids and robots is necessary to stop them from going Maverick, which no one seems to be able to figure out why they keep doing that..." the member continued.
Dr. Cain cleared this throat. "When I created the reploids, I gave them a free will. There's no clear reason for them to decide to kill us, but they seem to play out like humans do. Do not some humans decide to go out one day and start slaughtering others? It seems some reploids have decided to do the same thing. Stopping production of them would be senseless. Our economy all over the world has been drastically improving and much of the damage caused by the previous wars is beginning to be repaired...in just a two month period."
The member nodded. "Our thoughts exactly. We need the reploids. But this Vile is has declared war against humans. People are beginning to become afraid. Vile's group cannot be more than ten or so reploids at this point, but there's over a thousand potential reploids out there who might join him at any point. We're setting up a group of 'Hunters' to kill and stop any reploid before they go Maverick and harm someone. These Hunters will hunt down any reploid who is about to cause damage to the human population . . . and they will kill this Vile."
Cain nodded. "My thoughts exactly. I'm turning Cain Labs into the headquarters of the Hunters' operations. That way I can oversee the operations and help build new weapons for them to defeat this threat. Also, I can provide repair and maintance for them. I'll just need a constant funding from the council to keep the operation going."
The finace member of the council spoke up. "We'll supply a monthly amount of money to keep your Hunters up and running."
Dr. Cain nodded. "Good. I don't want to force anyone to join the Hunters, so I'll have it be a volunateer type situation. Reploids and humans alike can join it. I'm sure once we stop Vile no more reploids will be willing to go against humanity."
"Good, Dr. Cain. I'm glad we all see eye to eye here. Who will lead your team of Hunters?"
Cain waved his hands to the door and they opened up. A tall reploid stepped through. He kept his head bowed for a moment and then looked up to face the council. X stepped back in awe of this newest reploid. He was bald, stood much taller than most reploids X had seen, was fully battled armored, his skin was a dark tan colored, and his two white eyes glowed with no pupils. "His name is Sigma. He's my newest creation. His systems have been upgraded with my newest designs and they cannot allow him to go Maverick. He will lead the Hunters and destroy all reploids who go Maverick." Everyone in the room stared in awe at the reploid.
Sigma leered. "That is correct. Any reploid who goes against me...will die." X had a bad feeling about this new reploid and stepped back in voluntarily, almost as afraid of him as he had been of Vile. Maybe more so...and for an instant, he had a feeling his destiny was interlaced with Sigma's...but he just didn't know how. Yet.