Death Star glanced around in the rain and saw that he had lost sight of X1. Stopping, he grabbed his side in pain, and forced it out of his mind as he glanced around. He watched Cain leave. He half-wondered what he had said, since he had tuned it out.
As he was walking by, he bumped into a Reploid. "Hey!" the other cried out and turned to face Death Star, the two locking eyes on each other. Dominator studied Death Star.
"Excuse me," Death Star said huskily and shifted past Dominator and continued on toward the HQ. He stopped at the entrance and glanced around toward the people leaving. Even the newsreporters were packing up.
Stepping in, he headed into the roof, taking a brief moment to glance at a raven sitting in a tree. He didn't notice the beamsaber tied to the raven's leg by a yellow scarf.
As Death Star leaned back in his chair at his desk, he had a small feeling nuding the back of his head. Leaning forward, he hit the comm. button. "Hey, Jake, how many technicians do we have employed."
The young man hesitated, as if he thought Death Star was going nuts. "Hold on, sir," he finally said and Death Star could hear his computer running it up. "13 sir."
"Good. Run them to my datapad, would you. I want all the infomation on them," Death Star ordered. A few minutes later, the infomation downloaded into his computer and he began to flip through the technicians, slowly. When he went through them all, he set the pad down. There was no mistaking it, the technician he saw following X that day, and later talked to after Zero blew up the control room, wasn't in the HQ records.
Immediately rising from his desk, Death Star went to the spot where he had first seen the technician working. Entering the small room, he glanced around at the monitors. Right now there was no one watching it. The Hunter staff had been low the past few days.
Strolling over to the monitors, he carefully glanced around. Suddenly the Hunter stopped dead in his tracks as the obvious was revealed to him. 'Brilliant. Anyone who doesn't want to be seen would have deleted any trace of his being here. Hack into the cameras and destroy the evidence. No sense in seeing if he made a mistake, the chances are little to none that he did. No, I must go to the source. I must find him,' he thought.
Quickly entering his office, he began to scan the network for the face of the robot he saw. Unfortantly, that will take more time than he would have, probably.
The President sat looking at the television replaying Cain's speech that so many considered legendary. To him it was a tiny cry into the dark of what was about to come. People were mad. They were very mad. In Russia thousands of Reploids we're being put to death by the minute. And the UN wanted to meet on the matter.
A slight knock on his door made him turn his chair to face one of his agents. "Mr. Cran is here to see you, sir." The President nodded and a few minutes later a young man walked in, yet his eyes gleamed with joy at something that was about to be made known to the President.
"It's an honor, Mr. President," Cran said and sat down, his eyes keeping track of his every move, as a cat watches a mouse, caught.
"I'm sure the honor is all mine, Mister Cran. Now, if you could please tell me this important secerity risk you ran by me briefly last week...."
Cran nodded. "As you know, greater turmoil is being risen among the humans toward the Reploids. I believe it's on the best behalf of the United States to act on it now, before the people take matters into their own hands. You see, my plan is all to simple. I have gotten in touch with some of the UN members and they are all to eager to follow this plan."
The President noted Cran's abilities. This man was a dangerous one, but he decided to drop the meeting with the UN members, for now. "But this 'plan' hasn't been told to me, Cran. You are going to go tell other countries without telling me?"
Cran nodded thoughtfully. "Please forgive me, sir. My plan is to banish the Reploids to the Wastelands."
"The Wastelands?"
"Siberia, sir. That's the term people have no stuck onto the devistation. Many consider this a fitting fate for the Reploids. This little stunt cost well over 1,000 people their lives. And the Repliforce incident even greater. These are facts that the people will not over look, and we must not either."
"But not all Reploids are for mass destruction."
"So? This Maverick Virus could still be quite alive, even after Doppler's anti-virus, and they can turn Maverick. Did not Zero?"
The President was very thoughtful. "You have proven a very interesting case here, sir. But the Reploids should be given a chance to be defended. Not all the public my agree with this...."
"Too true, sir. But who in the world would even think about defending the Reploids?" snickered Cran. He stood up. "The UN members want me at the meeting coming up on the Reploids. May I have your permission?"
The President turned his chair away from Cran, his face tight with anger. "Yes..." Cran left without another word. Sighing, the President sunk into his chair. The world was certainly in for it soon.....
Doctor Cain stood at his window, the alert signals going off. He saw a group of humans gathering at the front of the building. "Oh.....shit..." he managed to say as he watched them start to throw bricks.
Grabbing a Microphone, he yelled out, "All human Hunters report and handle this mob, immediately!"
Young Jake Lambert turned to his partner, Rusty. "Damnit, we can't hold off this mob....they're out for blood...." he stammered as he ducked a rock. Grabbing his comm. he contacted Cain. "Things are starting to get bloody out here. We can not stop these people."
"Try to. I don't want to send any Reploid out there to stop them..."
A few minutes later, the HQ manages to close off their secerity gates and force the humans out. The mob spent the better part of an hour trying to anger the HQ and kick down the powerful gate, but soon gave up.
Robot Museum. Grinning, Death Star grabbed somethings and headed quietly out the back of the HQ to avoid the mob.
Death Star stepped into the building and glanced around at the old robots, stuffed, glancing at him with cold, hard eyes. He never tried to visit the place because it gave him the creeps. Infact, not many Reploids did visit here.
Glancing at one of the people working there, he quickly walked over there and tapped the man on the shoulder. The older man turned around to face him. "Have you seen this Reploid?" asked Death Star and pulled out a sheet on the reploid he had made.
"O, yep. That looks like ol' Doc."
"Doc?"
"That's what we call him."
"I'm guessing he was good at fixing things, then," Death Star said and turned, looking around the place. "So he worked here. For how many years?"
"Quite a few. He was working here when I first started the job. He's almost like one of the exibits himself."
"Was Doc trustworthy? Did he seem to have any ill-intentions to anyone?"
"Perfectly. He was great with the kids. They really likes his Robot Master impressions. He's probably the reason this place is still running after all these years. He even managed to hold off the mavericks the couple times they tried to see what technology of Wily's they could make off with."
"I see. Is Doc still here?" asked Death Star, not seeing the point in asking the man his personal feelings on "Doc". It seemed he thought highly of him.
"Nope, he left just recently. Right after the big situation with Repliforce ended. He hasn't been back since."
Death Star nodded. "Did he reveal anything of his past? His name? Any interest in Mega Man X or Zero?"
"His name, he always said to just call him Doc. He was interested in history in general. When he wasn't leading tours or maintaining the place, he was constantly searching the news and historical databases for information. Actually when he left, he gave us gigabytes of information on exactly what jobs he did around the place. We're having trouble just getting half of them done. It's amazing how much work he did."
The Hunter turned away, letting the infomation sink in that he had just learned. "Thank you for your time," he said causually and began to leave when he stopped and half cocked his head. "Don't suppose he gave you any news on his current location, did he?"
"Haven't heard from him since he left. I hope you have luck on your search... o, and if you find him, tell him he's missed at the museum."
Stepping outside the building, Death Star grabbed his comm. "Hello, Hard Drive, I want you to get some spare Hunters to watch this place. Watch for that Reploid's description I gave you.....No, I'm not insane for wasting man-power on looking for this. Call it a hunch, but if we can find him, we might know a little more about things than we could have thought," Deaht Star said and hung up, turning back to look at the museum once more. ".....Maybe he's not a Reploid after all. If that guy has been working there for a long time, my man can be a robot. And that means that I'm going to spend my time searching the past records on all robots created. Though files from that day and past are hard to come by, I'm sure I can find something...." he muttered to himself and left.
"A young man named Samson Cran is trying to get the United States to take a leading step in making the deciding fate of the Reploid. The United Nations seems to be willing to make the United States make the fate. There's been rumor of something else going on, that will be spawned by this.
"The United States right now is going to have a trail-type hearing on the fate of the Reploids. Doctor Cain has been searching for a Senator that would help take a stand in the matter. The Senate's trail for the robots will begin next week, if or if not Cain can find anyone to help him. I for one hope the Reploids get deactivated," the reporter said.
The screen turned to another man. "So, you're saying you wish that every Reploid in the world be destroyed due to a few minor outbreaks? Be real."
The first man raised his eyebrow. "Minor? The Reploids are too dangerous to have running around, no matter how helpful they are. Too many people are dying because of these things. Better to wipe the Earth with them..."
A woman who was joining in with the debate spoke up, "I agree. We did fine before we discovered the Reploids and we can do fine again. But destroying them would be too hard. Better just to lock them up and throw away the key..."
Doctor Cain stepped into the office of one of the Senator's. The Senator wasn't in yet, but one of her people had him sit in the chair in front of her desk to wait for her. He noticed a little blue bird sitting on a the edge of a perching set. It was old with age, yet it was monthly tuned up.\
There was footsteps from behind him and a woman slowly stolled in in and sat at the desk in front of him. She was 35, yet still looked very young and beautiful. She smiled warmly at him as she noticed him glancing at his bird. "That's Beat. He's been with me for many, many years." She sat down. "Hello Doctor Cain, my name is Kalinka Roberts."
"Thank you, ma'am. You wished to see me on the matter of the upcoming trail?" commented Cain as he shook her hand.
"Yes. I have a certain angle in all this. It's thanks to my dad..."
Doctor Cain frowned. "There's always a chance. How can you be so certain that the people of this Earth will so easily dismiss Reploids? We have become quite dependent on them."
Cran snickered. "Have been. We're taking measures to counter that. Doctor Light's legacy of Reploids is a bad one. The old man made a mistake even tampering with Reploids. Look where his dream of 'peace' has brought us. I can't believe you would continue to....defend these Reploids."
"I will never stop defending 'these' Reploids. They are just like us Cran, just like us. And your kind just can't stand that fact. Your kind thinks just because we built them they should obey us. They are humans in a metal body. And I will defend them until they get the freedom they should have had a long time ago."
"I....advise against this Cain....It could be dangerous to your...health," Cran said.
"Are you threatening me, sir?" Cain asked cooly.
"Perhaps you...." Cran began when suddenly something picked him up from behind, causing him to gruggle a surprise as he was dropped to the ground roughly. He turned to see a Reploids standing over him, frowning.
"Perhaps you should get your ass out of here before I forget diplomats..." Death Star snarled. Cran looked up in surprise and stood up, dusting himself off and glaring at him as he walked off. "Sorry it took me so long, Doc. I just wanted to catch him in the act."
Cain chuckled. "Oh, don't worry Captain. That look on his face was more than enough to make my day. Thank you for coming along as my bodyguard. Things are going to be getting alot worse before we reach the end of this," Cain muttered.
"Oh, do make me have a merry Christmas here...."
As it was flipping through the files, suddenly it stopped for the first time as a match. A robot called Doc made by Dr. Shiles. Frowning, he read through the file and quickly set it searching again as he rubbed his hand through his black hair, his helment sitting on the table next to him.
The matching continued until early in the morning when it stopped again. Third Robot Rebellion. Death Star's eyes widen a little and glanced at the screen. This was linked to Dr. Wily. Now he was getting somewhere. But it was a new day and he had to stop for now. Quietly hitting save, he stood up and put up his computer.
Grabbing his comm. he contacted HQ. With Death Star gone, they had put Dominator in charge of running the place in their absence. Cain couldn't put a human in charge due to the Reploid conflict. Though humans were already angry about Dominator being in command over them for the time being.
"Maverick Hunter HQ," Dominator's voice came over the comm.
"Yeah, Dominator. How are things down there?" Death Star asked as he leaned back in his chair.
"The normal. Malfuctioning machines. Arugments. Mobs trying to break in and kill us off. Death threats. And how are things going up there?" asked Dominator.
"I'll just say we might have a small glimmer of hope. And the threats come along with it. This Cran guy is dirty. I don't have the full time I should, even though I am, to look into. I don't suppose you can put someone on it for me, would you?" Death Star said as he stood up, glancing out the window at two black cars pulling up at the same time.
"Sure. Don't see why not. I need to go. We got another mob break in Sector 7," Dominator told him and cut the connection. Death Star set the comm. down and glanced at a set of eight men coming out of the cars, all dressed in black and wearing black sunglasses. "Oh give me a break..." muttered Death Star as he watched them heading this way.
Grabbing the comm. he contacted Cain. "Sir, we got eight MIB coming toward us. I'm going to head out and cut them off. You might want to keep an eye on them."
The Reploid nodded his head. "Very good. I want you to head to Washington to watch the trail. Also, keep an eye on that human, Cain. He could possibly stop this little....future....and we don't want that, do we...Hacker?" asked the Reploid.
"Of course not, sir. I'll get on it right away," Hacker said and stepped onto the aircraft and took off, leaving the one Reploid there. A sudden breeze started and he turned, catching the faint glimpse of a red robot off in the distance. 'Not him....anything but him,' thought the Reploid to himself and quickly stepped into the car he drove here and took off, leaving one of the few remaining traces of the past behind.
"One must wonder why we're even trying to bother protecting these damn Reploid Hunters in here....I say we just leave the damn place...." Rusty muttered as he fired a stun blast at the crowd coming toward them in waves.
"Don't you even start mentioning that!" yelled Jake as he knocked a rock being thrown at him. The two backed away. The rest of the human Hunters were probably having the same trouble.
Somewhere within the group a few Reploids dressed up to look like humans snickered as one planted a bomb on the side of the wall of the HQ as and slowly vanished into the mob, heading away. A few seconds later the explosion went off, throwing Jake and Rusty back into the wall and killing many of the humans.
Jake stood up and wiped the blood out of his eyes as he looked around in confusion, watching the mob scatter away in terror, though not all were going to be running away. "Damnit...what they hell were they thinking....?" he asked Rusty, turning to his partner and saw the man laying there, still. "Rusty, c'mon on man," Jake said and kneeled down, shaking his partner. The man's head fell to the side and blood trickled down the side of his face. He wasn't breathing. Jake stood up and tripped backwards in horror.
"No.....NO......NO!" he yelled in rage and stood up, firing stun blast at the scattering mob. He then slumped to the ground and stood there for a few minutes until he felt a hand on his shoulder. Turning, he saw the face of the CO, Dominator.
"What happened, son?" Dominator asked.
Jake shook the Reploid's hand off and stood to face him, being a few inches shorter than he was. "Damn you all....Damn you all," he cried out hoarsly and threw down his stun-gun and Hunter badge. Turning, he began to walk off when Dominator's voice cut through the air.
"And what will that prove?" Jake stopped, but didn't turn around. "Your partner dies defending something and you are willing to walk away?" That made him turn around and the two locked eyes.
"Listen here, sir," Jake hissed but stopped. He reached down and picked up the badge. "I personally believe that the Hunters are the only thing that will stop this world from destroying itself, that's why I'm sticking around," he said and reached down and grabbed Rusty, carrying the body away from Dominator and out the destroyed wall.
"Room service, sir. I forgot....my key. Could you let me in?" came a male voice finally. Cain stood there musing when he heard the glass doors shift and Death Star came through them. "They got guns, two of the back ones of them out. I took a chance and went to check their car also. I found your picture in there. These aren't FBI type people....They're from Cran, no doubt," he told him.
Cain nodded and grabbed his briefcase. "Well, how do you propose we get out of here?" Cain asked finally. Death Star smirked, grabbed the older man, and jumped out of the glassdoor and landed on the men's car and flipped to the ground. "I don't think we should use the rented car we got. C'mon, lets get a taxi and get out of here," Death Star said and the two began to walk to the road, rapidly, and hailed a taxi, driving off.
"Well, that means that they are on the run. Lets get to the car and follow them," the man said impatiencatly and he turned to Cran. "We'll get them in a matter of moments." He hung the comm. up before Cran could get any complaining off and turned to the other man, who was still standing there. "Well? I siad lets get to the car!" he snarled. The younger man studdered. "B-But sir! They landed on our car....it's been totalled!" the man squeaked.
Cain's voice came hurriedly over the comm. "I was almost attacked today. Whoever is leading this Anti-Reploid War here must be having doubts to be trying to take me out here. And that leads to my point: You may also be in danger, my dear."
Kalinka stopped. "Me? In danger?" She glanced around, but the street she happened to be on was quiet. "I doubt they would try to attack me. That would be bad for their case, though. But attacking you would also prove hazardess to their case...." she mused when she heard the sound of a car far off.
"Do pleae try to get somewhere safe. At my age, worrying is the last thing I need."
"I will, Mr. Cain. Talk to you later," Kalinka said and flipped the off switch on the comm. as a car pulled up onto the lane she was on. Turning around, she saw it's headlights where on. Suddenly it geared up and began to bear down on her. "Holy..." she muttered and turned around, taking off. The car sped up. 'Damnit! Where is everyone?!' she thought to herself as she dived around a block and toward Washington DC since she was on the out skirts.
The car went flying around the corner and continued on her and suddenly, just as she was running out of energy, it turned and went another way. Panting, Kalinka came to a stop. Leaning against a wall of the building, it suddenly caved in on her, burying her....
"The death of Kalinka Roberts. age 35 has had huge effects on the Reploid Trail going on this past week here in Washington. Dr. Cain says he believes that she was murdered by people within the government, but just a few days ago messages from remaining Maverick groups have come in claiming they had her murdered because they had infomation she was going to go against the Reploids to permentatly take them out. This has changed much debating and the final answer has finally been reached about the fate of the Reploids, though it isn't being disclosed to us just yet. Tomorrow the President will tell the world the final fate of the Reploids," the reporter said.
Third Robot Rebellion. Bringing up the data, the word Doc Robot flashed across the screen and a picture appeared of him. Glancing at it, he brought his eyes down to what the infomation said: Doc Robot was created by Doctor Wily in his Third Rebellion. He was able to use the weapons of others, so Wily used him to attack Mega Man with the powers from the robots from the 2nd Rebellion. Possible correlation with Dark Man.
Standing up, Death Star glanced at the computer in front of him. So, he knew who Doc was. Dark Man, he recalled, was the robot used to pretend to be Proto Man. But the large question remained. Where was Doc? What was he doing and why did he have such an interest in X and Zero? 'Some questions are never really answered,' he thought sadly to himself as he turned the computer off. Grabbing his comm. he contacted HQ, Dom coming on. "Ello?" Dom asked.
"Yo, Dom. You got that infomation on Cran, right?" Death Star asked.
"Sure did. But, does it really matter? From what things sound like, Reploid are about to be..." Dominator started, his voice trailing.
"Aye. Send the infomation to my computer, will ya?" Death Star ordered. After the exchange, the two hung up. Glancing down at the infomation he recieved, he closed it and went to find Cain to go to the President's big speech.
Death Star's mouth twitched slightly as he stood up and glanced down at Cain. Cain stood up a few seconds later and the two started for the airport. Death Star knew this was truly the end. Reploids were going to be shipped off, the Hunters were to be shut down. For the first time, Death Star knew things were finally over and never would be the same again.