#cobrahelm

[maverick-hunter-axl]

“Man...to think that kid’s come so far that he’s jumped a rank in a year...he’s really something else.”

[maverick-hunter-axl]

▶▶️

“Ow-!” Okay for the record, bounce-skidding across a sim room floor really isn’t a fun time. Especially doing it for the third time in like twenty minutes. Owww, I bit my tongue really hard too and hit my jaw on the ground . . .

“Y’alright there, squirt?”

I look up, nodding slightly as I take Forte’s hand and let him help me to my feet. He’s not even armed, he’s in jeans and a t-shirt and he’s kicking my butt . . . “I-I’m fine. I just landed hard again.”

He tips his head a little, giving me that look that’s kind of a scowl but I know it’s really just worry. “Y’sure ya wanna be doin’ this, kiddo?” he says after a long pause.

No! No I don’t, I hate fighting, I hate doing this it’s terrifying!

“Y-yeah!” I say, trying to give him my biggest grin. “Of course I do! I’m gonna be a Hunter like you and dad!”

“Not ‘til yer eighteen y’not.”

“Your AI was only thirteen when you enlisted . . .”

He smirks at that, tousling my hair affectionately enough to get a more genuine smile out of me. “Yeah, and I’d been alive for a century a’fore that,” he points out. “‘Sides, it ain’t my rule, it’s your dad’s. An’ good luck arguing with ‘im.”

“Yeah, tell me about it . . .”

Forte sits down against the wall with a soft grunt, waving his arm and beckoning me to settle down next to him. “Y’remember way back when y’were a tiny little thing?” he says. “When y’were so small y’could fit on my lap?”

“So before I grew four inches and got taller than you?”

He gives me a shove, but I just giggle, knowing that it’s only in play. “I remember,” he goes on, “there was one night ya couldn’t sleep, so ya crawled on toppa me an’ said you’re scared of fighting. Said it was a secret, and that y’wanted t’be a navigator.”

My grin fades in an instant, and I look down at my lap and don’t say anything. I do remember that, I think. I don’t know why he does. I mean, I was just a little kid who couldn’t sleep . . .

“Did’ja change your mind?”

That’s . . . that’s really hard to answer. I really wanna be a navigator but I don’t know if . . .

“Kid?”

I blink a few times, looking up and shaking my head. “I dunno. But I gotta learn to defend myself sometime.”

Before he can say anything else, I hop to my feet, trying to look prideful and confident- though the look that he gives me kind of makes me wonder if I just look like a goof. “Come on, we’ve still got a little time before bed! Let’s keep going!”

He narrows his eyes at me, but after a few seconds he gets up too, cracking his neck and taking up a lazy combat stance. “A’ite, kiddo, whatever y’say.”

[maverick-hunter-axl]

Hope for a Cure - Part 2

"Hey, anyone home? It's just Axl."

"S'open," came a half-attentive response a moment later.

Axl opened the door almost cautiously considering the cross tone he'd been met with, only to look down and smile when he saw a pudgy little pug puppy waiting to greet him, her backside wriggling with excitement as she wagged her stubby tail. "Aww, my own personal door greeter," he chuckled, bending down to pet her and immediately receiving several sloppy kisses in return.

He glanced up when the residence's other occupant didn't offer so much as a hello, shaking his head mildly at the sight. Forte was leaning back against the arm of the couch in a black t-shirt and boxers, a datapad on his lap and two bags of assorted chocolates under his arm, one of which was already mostly empty. Axl was almost afraid to ask how long he'd been in this position- and how long it had taken him to eat that much.

"Whaddaya want," Forte grunted, sensing that he was being stared at. "M'kinda fuckin' busy."

"Just came to see how you were doing," Axl said, scootching Plum farther inside so that he could shut the door and plop comfortably on the carpet. "Is he okay?" he added with a glance at the wolfbot curled up in the corner of the room, apparently sound asleep.

"He's fine," Forte said without looking up. "He's just picking up on my mood s'all. Fuckin' virus is givin' me a headache and I ain't even infected."

Again, Axl shook his head mildly, momentarily turning his attention toward the puppy still licking his arms and hands. Forte's temper had come a long way, but he could still be an awful grump when he was in a bad mood.

Then again, so could Zero. Must've been a family thing.

"Hey Ax, question for ya."

Axl blinked, sitting back and tugging Plum into his lap so that he could scratch behind her ears. "What's up?"

"Remind me, Zee wasn't infectious when he first met Sigma, was he?"

Axl was silent for a long moment as he thought over every history lesson he'd ever been given, finally piping up with a quiet reply of, "I don't think so. He wasn't infecting people, just...attacking them."

"S'what I figured. An' Sigma hit him so hard he passed out, right?"

"That's right."

"Woke up with no trace of that unstoppable violent nature."

"That's what he and X say, yeah."

A pause.

"That makes a lot more sense," Forte murmured.

"Really?" Axl tipped his head. "Then please explain because I've never understood it in the slightest."

Forte flashed him a sharp glare, and Axl held up his hands innocently, the pug in his lap whining in protest at the sudden lack of attention. "I'm not gonna say a word to anyone," Axl assured quietly. "I know what he was built for, he's told me that much. You can trust me. And so can he."

"Well..." Forte narrowed his eyes at the redhead for a few moments longer before looking back at the datapad with a sigh. "Zero kinda has...two sets of programming. One of 'em is y'know, a personality, everything any other 'bot would need to be able t'function. The other one is the shit that tells him t'attack anything that moves'n basically divide the world by zero. Stick 'em in the same processor active at the same time an' the second one overrides the first."

"Makes sense..."

"Near as I can tell," Forte went on, "Sigma hit 'im hard enough to jar his processor pretty damn good. Enough that the secondary set of coding...it kind of..." He paused, searching for the right word. "Exploded."

"Exploded," Axl echoed flatly.

"I dunno how else to describe it," Forte said with a shrug. "Likely as not it some of it ended up in Sigma just by transferring through the direct contact of Zero's forehead an' Sigma's sensory network, but it didn't leave Zero. It just..."

"Exploded. Okay, so then where is it now?"

"That's the thing," Forte said. "It's everywhere and nowhere. That's what I mean by exploded- it somehow got shattered into like seven hundred something tiny bytes of data scattered all over the place. They're harmless on their own like this."

"So there's...no way to reactivate that coding?" Axl asked hesitantly.

"Not unless ya pieced back together an' activated every single tiny bit and byte all at once," Forte said with a snort. "Only one who knows enough t'be able to find every piece of coding is Wily, so I'm pretty fuckin' sure we're good. I can't even find all of it an' I know what t'look for."

"Okay, so...what about the Virus- oof!"

The 'oof' came as a result of Axl suddenly finding himself with an entire wolfbot flopping against his back, Gospel giving a quiet whine of discontent and licking the gunner's ear. "Don't make that noise, Gos," Forte grunted. "Y'ain't gotta be jealous when you were the one sleepin' in the corner instead of sayin' hi."

"He's fine, Forte." Axl seemed completely unfazed by Gospel's weight, reaching back to give his cheek a scratch before rolling over to lay on the floor on his side so he could give attention to both dogs. "Anyway, you were saying?"

"Right. Anyhow, from what I can tell, I think...the fact that the coding uh...exploded- and ended up in Sigma in the first place- was the first sign of its adaptability. Once it was in Sigma, it...changed. It evolved and became more...more malignant an' able to spread more easily an' infect others. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point it fuckin' mutilated Sigma's original coding beyond repair."

"That would explain why he seemed to get less and less sane as the wars went on," Axl murmured thoughtfully. "So...how does this help us?"

"It tells us how the virus changes." Forte paused to unwrap a miniature chocolate bar and stuff it in his mouth. "That's why it's so damn hard to cure. It changes too fast, keeps adapting and evolving t'protect its...its core coding. When that 'divide the world by zero fuck everything' coding...exploded and transferred to Sigma, it pieced itself back together in Sigma's processor as the original Maverick virus. Not exactly the same as the coding that was in Zero, but similar."

"And...that's why Zero doesn't register as infected?" Axl said carefully. "And can't be infected?"

"A'course he can't be infected," Forte said with a derisive snort. "It's a variant of his own coding, his processor don't think it's anything foreign. It's just different enough not to completely override his primary personality like his original programming would if it got reactivated, so instead it gets dumped everywhere else."

"Like to his power output protocols?"

"Yep. An' he doesn't register as infected on a daily basis 'cause he isn't. And all those bits an' bytes an' what's left of his original malicious programming are too small and scattered to show up as anything on a scan. It just looks like normal nuances of his coding."

"Sounds like you've got this figured out pretty well. So why so grumpy?"

"Because I can't figure out how your stupidass coding factors into all this or why you're immune. Your fucking copy chip is a goddamn enigma."

"Ah..." Axl smiled sheepishly, scratching Gospel behind the ears before sitting up with a soft grunt. "Sadly it's kind of an enigma to me too half the time. Want some help?"

"No, I want ya to sit there and gawk at me all afternoon," Forte said with a roll of his eyes. "Either get your ass over here and help or piss off so I can focus."

"You really are grumpy, yikes," Axl muttered, getting to his feet regardless and moving to settle on the opposite end of the couch. "Got a cable on you? This is probably gonna be easier if I don't have to spend time explaining all this with words like 'exploded'."

"You're fucking hilarious."

"You're welcome."

Forte grunted disagreeably and handed over a link cable, and Axl fell silent to allow him to focus, their conversation flowing seamlessly back and forth over the wired connection; both units found it far easier to explain coding simply by data transfer rather than trying to put it into words. All the same, Axl sensed Forte’s focus quickly beginning to lapse, the Wilybot’s thoughts drifting and memories slipping over their link in flashes and flickers. Axl could only assume that they were from a time when Forte was much younger, but he didn’t speak up for fear of startling the smaller unit.

Flashes of...playing in the snow? Glimpses of a familiar, much taller blond, anger and jealousy and a strange sense of concern that Forte himself didn’t seem to understand, a brief image of placing the hilt of a saber in someone’s- Zero’s?- hand-

The memory cut off abruptly, and Axl jerked back to reality upon realizing that Forte was glowering at him. “Sorry,” Axl said. “You...met Zero? I mean, before-”

“Century ago,” Forte replied flatly. “At Christmas. I activated him for a bit while Wily was asleep. Before that programming was installed in ‘im.”

“I...I didn’t...know you’d…” Axl trailed off, frowning in concern when he sensed a muted thought slip across their link, an almost muffled murmur of, was there something I could’ve done? “Forte…”

“I don’ wanna talk about it,” Forte snapped. “It ain’t important, jus’ focus and help me figure this shit out.”

“All right, all right.” Knowing better than to pry, Axl quickly retreated to his own side of their link and changed the subject, turning his attention back to his own copy chip. “I don’t know a lot for sure, just that my creator...er...Vladimir...he...created the copy chips using the data of hundreds of different Reploids. And...and unless I’m mistaken, Sigma was included in that mix. So…”

“S’possible that…” Forte frowned, scratching the back of his head in thought. “Because the virus’s data is so similar t’Sigma’s, it’s enough that...your system thinks it’s normal coding, not somethin’ malicious.”

“Kinda like how Zero’s processor accepts the virus as normal?”

“Kinda, but on a much smaller scale.”

“Maybe…”

“Does that help at all?”

Forte shrugged. “A little. Anything is help at this point, this ain’t exactly my specialty.”

“You don’t have to force it to be your responsibility, you know.”

At that, Forte finally looked up, some of the frustration leaving his gaze as he raised his eyebrows at his adoptive brother figure. “Pot or kettle, Ax.”

“Ha ha. I’m serious.”

“So am I.” Forte looked back down at his datapad, falling silent once again and chewing idly on the end of his stylus. “I ain’t gonna give up, y’know me. An’ I’ll never forgive myself if I don’t give this all I got.”

[maverick-hunter-axl]

Hope For a Cure

"This fucking sucks."

"I think that's kind of an understatement, little brother." Axl leaned forward to rest his forehead on his palm, trying to concentrate on the steady rumble of the medical transport instead of on the Lifesavers poking and prodding at his everything. "Fuck..."

Forte gave a grunt of agreement, turning his gaze toward the datapad he'd been uploading scan results to. "Hate that fuckin' viral bastard," he grumbled. "Got all of Dyna's skill and ain't none of his morals. Feels like it’s just a matter of time ‘fore one of us gets caught off guard an’...”

“Yeah, I’m worried too,” Axl agreed softly. “We were lucky, the first time, that Dynamo was smart enough to have a backup of his data onhand…”

He trailed off when he sensed Forte wincing at the memory, his gaze softening visibly. “Sorry, kid,” he murmured. “Sore subject, I know.”

“S’fine,” Forte muttered. “Over’n done with now. Still damn overprepared of him, havin’ his data backed up like that.”

“More like on-point,” Axl said with a shrug.

“Y’been doin’ it too?”

“Once a month,” Axl replied. “Mine and the kids both. I know it’s not perfect or foolproof, but I’ll take a few weeks of memory loss if it means a second chance if...if that ever happens. I’m trying to convince X and Zee to do the same.”

“Guess I oughta think about it myself,” Forte said, his lips twitching in a frown as he focused his attention back on his datapad. "S'kinda weird though, don'tcha think they were acting different this time?"

"Forte, I'm afraid I didn't notice much beyond the world spinning and my arm getting snapped after Lux nailed me with that dart."

"No seriously," Forte pressed. "They didn't seem as..." Again, he paused, searching for the right word. "Destructive?"

"Tell that to my left arm and several of the coolant lines in my stomach."

"Will ya stop gripin' at me and listen?" Forte sat up, turning to fix Axl with a near-glare of frustration. "They weren't acting like the batshit programmed to infect and destroy virus that we fought a'fore. Seemed more interested in self-preservation than killin' either of us

Axl turned his head slightly, wincing as the lingering effects of Lux's hallucinogen-laced darts send a wave of dizziness through him. "I mean, y'know if they went all-out they coulda killed us both," Forte went on, speaking a little more rapidly now that he had Axl's attention. "Or at least maimed us 'fore backup got there. But it seemed more like...they just wanted t'disable us long enough t'make a break for it."

"They succeeded," Axl pointed out with a glance at what was left of Forte's mangled left leg. "That sounds like something a person with rational thought would do, not a walking virus."

"That's what I'm sayin'. S'why I grabbed a scan of their data best I could, somethin' didn't seem right." Forte shifted his gaze back to the datapad, his forehead creased with thought. "I know what the Nightmare virus's data looks like, Dyna's showed me. S'real similar to the Mav virus, just...subtle differences. It's a variant, ain't it?"

"Created by Dr. Gate during the sixth war, yes," Axl said with a nod. "The most well-known variant, though most of the infected were destroyed in the Sixth Uprising."

"Except Dyna."

"Except him, yeah. Though from what I gather, Dynamo was infected but never infectious. The Nightmare virus wasn't as virulent as the original strain, probably due to the coding differences and the fact that X and Zero managed to contain it and destroy the source so quickly.”

"Right..." Forte nodded slowly, squinting hard at the scan results on his datapad. "Still baffles me how a collection of viral souls can become their own stable person..." He looked up again, and it was clear from the look in his eyes that he was nearly on to something. "Y'noticed that too, right? It's always been them fighting for control a'fore, shared processor and consciousness with another Reploid's personality coding. An' when they didn't have another set of personality coding t'hold onto, they glitched the fuck out."

"I remember," Axl said, recalling the brief period when Lux had been the only entity in their own processor; the viral unit had made the jump from chassis to chassis a number of times up until now. "They haven't seemed to be fighting someone else for control lately. Maybe they struck a deal this time..."

"Dunno...don't seem to sit right with me." Forte narrowed his eyes at the datapad, his gaze brightening a moment later when something caught his eye. "Hey, lookit this."

"Forte, all I can see right now is blur. It's a little hard to 'look' at anything."

Forte drew a long-suffering sigh, rolling his eyes upward and shaking his head. "Don't get sarcastic with me, bro, this coding is weird. It doesn't look exactly like a virus but it don't look like two separate sets of data either. It's just...one."

"They've merged?"

"Sort of. M'not completely sure, but...it looks like Lux's viral data...changed itself to adapt somehow. Like it's trying t'become a person."

Axl blinked thoughtfully, falling silent for a long minute before hesitantly replying, "It wouldn't exactly be unheard of for a virus to evolve."

"But it evolved into somethin' less malicious," Forte pointed out, sounding almost excited over the prospect. "Ax, the reason the Mav virus has been so damn hard to cure is the way it's adapted over time, ain't it? Becomin’ some other malicious coding variant each time?"

"Like what it did to Sigma," Axl said with a slow nod. "So you're saying if we can figure out how it evolves and changes, then-"

"Then we might be able t'figure out a way to cure it."

There was a long silence, and Axl slowly laid his head back and closed his eyes. "Man, that'd be the day," he murmured. "We've been trying for years..."

"But this could be what we need!" Forte insisted. "I've seen coding similar to this before, back when Wily was-"

"Wait, shit." Axl sat up slightly, casting a sideways glance at one of the Lifesavers and switching on his communicator so that they could speak without being overheard. "I forgot that you were there when he was building Zero."

"I saw some of the plans and coding," Forte replied. "Don't remember all the details, but I have some idea. His intention was pretty damn clear, anyway."

Axl frowned thoughtfully, and Forte immediately shook his head. "Y'know damn well that he hates medics'n researchers more'n I do."

"I know," Axl said. "But you're also his brother. He'd trust you to look at his coding."

"Maybe...I c'n ask. I ain't no research specialist but I ain't coding-stupid. I could at least compare 'em and see if anything sticks out."

"Worth a shot," Axl agreed. "I never expected you of all people to end up being so interested in research and dev, cobra."

Forte shrugged mildly, his blue-violet eyes still intent on the datapad. "Everyone needs time off from fightin' sometimes. 'Sides, I ain't goin' anywhere fast for a few days on this leg. An' neither are you."

"True enough. I can toss the data for my copy chip at you too; that's what makes new-gens immune."

"Couldn't hurt." Forte clenched his fist for a moment, passion burning in his gaze even though he didn't look up. "Don't get me wrong, bro, I love a good fight. But I don't wanna kill someone if I don't hafta. It ain't their fault they're infected."

That brought a small, soft smile to Axl's lips. "You really have grown up, huh," he murmured. "That's the kind of mindset I expect from a student of mine..."

"You guys are the ones who taught me about fightin' to protect," Forte pointed out, sounding so far from the wild young warbot he'd once been that Axl almost wanted to cry actual metaphorical tears. "Protect doesn't always gotta mean kill. Shouldn't, anyway."

"Something like that," Axl said, relieved to feel that the hallucinogen's effects were beginning to wear off. "With a mindset like that, we might just be able to find a cure yet."

"I sure hope so, Ax. I sure fuckin' hope so."

[rockman-xavier-blog]

cobra-helmed-wilybot said:“You too? S'weird that she hasn’t pinged me about how her support unit’s gettin’ on with her in a while…”

“Yeah... we usually spend at least a couple of days a week together, and Sakura hasn’t dropped by to sleep on our couch recently, either... Dad and Cyril say that neither of them have been around.”

[maverick-hunter-axl]

“Maybe it’s a little mean of me to enjoy someone else’s suffering, but watching Forte go flying off of his bike this morning was freaking hilarious.”

[paradox-and-copybot]

❢ (For Kopin because these two need to meet dammit)

Kopin had, for once, intended to visit without any ulterior motives — Quint was running around with that Raichu person and he wanted to play, so he’d wanted to see if Bonnie and Clyde were available. He usually didn’t play with small kids, but they were kinda okay.

But the person that he bumped into was definitely not Axl, nor was it one of the pistolbots. It was some… blond person that he somewhat vaguely recognized. “Hey, watch it, blondie!”

[rockman-xavier-blog]

Chasing the Past

((Warnings: Obscene language from Forte's mouth.))

A week had gone by since Dimitri had attempted to destroy Hana’s life - at least, that was what had happened as far as Xav was concerned - and things had gone back to normal for the most part. Except, he knew for a fact that it would take Hana a long time to recover completely, if at all, from what he had done. That sort of thing was something that no person could easily take, whether they were a young Reploid girl, or a trained fighter.

Xav stayed home for the most part nowadays unless he was visiting Hana or Cappy, both due to Zero scolding him for overusing his new core - as if it couldn’t handle the power output, but better safe than sorry - and because he just didn’t want to face the world right now. He was doing better, but seeing Hana in such a state had made him tense.

Talk about a long tiring week.

Forte had tried his damned best to keep himself distracted between patrols and reports and training, but damn it had been hard to sleep- and focus on said reports and patrols and training as a result. Not that he thought he had much right to complain about ‘hard to sleep’, all the same.

Funnily enough, for the most part it hadn’t even been night terrors keeping him awake. Just too many thoughts in one place all at once. Worry, of course, for how Hana was taking all of this, but…

Well, he decided as he made his way to his bioroid friend’s quarters and knocked lightly on the door, he wanted some answers dammit. And he wanted to check on Xavier too, to be honest.

The bioroid had been lightly dozing on the couch, the TV on with some cartoon show that he wasn’t really watching, and his eyes had been closed. At the knock on the door, he frowned, wondering who it could be - Zero would just come in - and got off, leaving the show on as he opened the door.

“Oh, Forte…” He didn’t sound disappointed, and opened the door wider to let the other in. “Come on in. What brings you here today?”

Granted, given what the two of them had done last week, he wondered if the other wanted to go check up on the twins today.

“Restless,” was Forte’s simple reply, the wolfbot at his side giving a quiet snuffle of agreement. “Restless-exhausted, more like. Figured I may as well be social about it.”

All the same, there was a faint, worried frown replacing his usual lazy grin as he and Gospel stepped inside. “Hope you’re sleepin’ better’n I’ve been.”

Leaning down, Xav scratched Gospel behind the ears with a smile, before standing back up and heading back over to his couch after he let Forte in. “Come on, sit down, I’m fine with company, just…” He yawned. “I’ve been the same, pretty much. Don’t want to do anything except let time pass me by.”

The bioroid managed a faint smile up at him, leaving him plenty of room on the couch - Sakura’s favorite couch. “Sorta. I’ve slept better, I can say that for sure. I might have overextended myself...”

Forte didn’t waste too much time in flopping down on the couch, Gospel curling up contentedly at his feet, and not for the first time Forte envied his support unit’s ability to sleep anywhere any time he damn well pleased. “Yeah, it looked like y’were puttin’ out a hell of a lot of power with the wings and the fire...thing...armor.” He stifled a yawn of his own, shifting to get a bit more comfortable.

“S’not even bad dreams or any’a that shit,” he added, trying to find a way to word his curiosities without seeming outright nosy. Even if he felt kinda nosy. “Jus’ too much t’think about all at once. Questions an’ no way t’find good solid answers, y’know?”

“My Seraph Armor?” Xav said, nodding with a sigh. “It was the quickest way I could think of to get past that trap and then after that, I… I think I decided not to hold back. I think I was also uncertain about… whether I could still output that much power without killing myself, and you have to say, it was… deserved.”

He tilted his head towards the Wilybot, letting one hand hang off of the couch as he grabbed the TV remote and muted the cartoon show. “Oh, really? I’ve… gotten used to bad dreams, I’m afraid, but I’d love answers to some questions, too.”

“Same on the bad dreams,” Forte agreed with a slow nod. “S’not as bad as it used’ta be, year or so back, but god damn. Waking up with y’systems overheating sucks ass.”

He frowned, rubbing the back of his neck and deciding to try and find a different approach. “Still damn glad y’were there with me. Bein’ able to split up was a fucking godsend.” He paused a moment, trying to word his next statement carefully. “And those drone bugs came in real fuckin’ handy. Hornet Chaser, yeah?”

“No kidding,” Xav sighed. “I used to get a lot of bad dreams when I was younger, sometimes I wonder how Rhythm was even able to handle me and my nightmares back then. They’ve… stopped for the most part, but sometimes, something happens to bring them back.” And he didn’t want to think about them in the least.

“Thanks, and it was really nice, knowing that my back was covered too, with you and Gos.” He adjusted his position on the couch, letting his eyes close for a brief moment -- before reopening them. “...Yeah. Hornet Chaser, one of the few that I still have.” He should have figured that Forte would poke him about it, but it was the easiest way to make sure that the drones got destroyed.

“Heh, well, that’s what Gos is best at,” Forte said, giving his support unit an affectionate nudge with his foot. “Coverin’ yer ass so y’can focus on what’s important.” So that had been what he thought it was...kind of amazing that he remembered it at all. Considering how long ago it was, and considering that most of what he knew of that war in particular was from archived footage and news reports.

That had been one of the few times he’d chosen to hide instead of fight.

“S’been a long time since I saw that used,” he added. “Not since Wily’s Ninth Uprising, f’I remember right.”

Xav chuckled, smiling down at the wolf by Forte’s feet. “I believe it. Gos is a good dog, he knows what to do.” He got the feeling that Forte wasn’t going to let it go, and by now, Xav was tired of simply lying by omission, and just tired in general. Secrets… got people hurt. He wouldn’t openly tell his life story to everyone, but if people that he trusted asked the right questions…

Well, no point in hiding it from them.

“Yeah, that’s right, that was from when it was. I kept all my old weaponry on hand just in case.” He’d tried to, at least, but issues had caused him to lose most of the data.

“So...y’been around all that time?” Forte said, tilting his head just slightly to one side. He’d...had a bit of a suspicion for a while, really, but he hadn’t seen a need to pry; it was none of his business. And there had never been reason to bring it up.

Curiosity killed the cat, but he wasn’t really a cat person anyway.

He paused a moment longer, sitting up just slightly and raising one eyebrow, ignoring Gospel’s mental prods of confusion. “Well...ya never quite were a regular X-alternate compared to the rest, were ya?”

Xav frowned. “...Yes and no. It’s a bit of a long story… one that I’m still trying to make sense of myself, honestly.” The huge gap between his activation date and his age was… something that he was still trying to come to terms with, given the odd circumstances.

He took a deep breath. And there it was.

“You’re right, I never really was. I mean… there were more differences between me and them than the rest of them had with each other.” They’d almost all shared traits that he just didn’t have.

“M’startin’ to see that,” Forte said, looking...more outright curious than anything else. “More like...I think yours is the first ‘verse I’ve been to where…” Wow, why was that so weird to think? And Gospel whining at him mentally was really not helping. “Where Rock’n X turned out t’be the same person, ‘stead of brothers. Least, m’assuming that’s right. I wondered for a while, honestly…”

Gospel lifted his head, opening his mouth in a loud, mournful noise of confusion.

Forte looked curious. Xav had to wonder if that was a good thing or not, but at least the other was still the Forte he had met and befriended in the multiverse, and not at all thinking that it was something to fight him over. “Hmm… yeah, I knew of one other world where we - I - damn, I don’t even know what word to use - were the same person.”

He had to hide a smile at poor Gospel whining. It was probably confusing to someone that hadn’t lived with it their entire life. “Awhile, huh? Guess I couldn’t help but be myself even while keeping it under the wraps…”

“Just little nuances I noticed here an’ there,” Forte said with a shrug. “Nothin’ that someone who didn’t spend more time’n he wanted to around Lightbots would notice.” He looked down when Gospel whined again, rolling his eyes and giving his support unit another nudge. “Aw relax, dumbass, it’s still Xav. He ain’t any different’n he was five minutes ago so shut it.”

He paused a moment, and a grin began to twitch at his lips. “Never thought I’d see the day when I’d end up bein’ close friends with Rock of all people, that makes two of ya now. The multiverse is weird as shit.”

“Hm, you’ve got a point there, there’d be some habits that are undeniably him, wouldn’t it?” He closed his eyes. “It’s nice to know that I’m not too damaged to be him still, I thought that wasn’t possible anymore.” A slight chuckle escaped his mouth at Gospel’s whine. “He’s confused isn’t he?”

At that, Xav tilted his head to seriously consider Forte, his own smile spreading across his face. “You’re charming, what can I say? And speaking as a Rock, we’re very persistent creatures when we want to befriend somebody.”

Forte couldn’t help but relax and let his own grin broaden, not even bothering to try and act grumpy about it. “Fucking tell me about it,” he said with an amused snort. “You fucking Lightbots are all a stupid level of fucking stubborn.” And yet oddly endearing. Not that he wanted to admit as much out loud.

Why, why did he attract so many goddamned Lightbots, seriously?

“Seriously though, I was just curious,” he added with a shrug. “It was naggin’ at me a bit, s’all. Y’still Xav, one way or another.”

“Aren’t we?” Xav said, his smile wide by now; Forte’s mood was contagious, he couldn’t help himself. “It’s why we’re befriending you like this. Before you know it, you will have an army of Rocks that have declared themselves your friend.” The mental image was ridiculous, and he couldn’t help but let out a snicker just at the thought of it.

“Not a problem, though, I mean, you’re my friend, and if you reacted badly… well, it’d show that we weren’t as good of friends as I thought we were,” the bioroid said. “Thanks, though.”

“Heh, don’t rub it in too much,” Forte said, deciding not to think too hard about the image of himself and Gospel being followed by a literal army of Rocks.

Or rocks.

Both of those were really weird images.

He leaned back a bit, relieved that at least some of his questions were satisfied. “Ain’t never met one with that Seraph Armor thing y’got goin’ though,” he added. “S’kinda cool. Fuckin’ flaming angel. Reminds me a little of my own X, he’s a pyromaniac if I ever met one.”

Xav snickered for a few more moments before he managed to stop himself. “Hey, I’m just saying.” Forte and Gospel with him and a lot of other Rock units would be funny as heck, though.

He crossed his legs, stretching his limbs as he considered that. “To be fair, I never really… used it, if that makes sense. I think I was too young to handle the power output at the time, or something. I used the double Busters once and damn near killed myself. And almost blew my arms off. It wasn’t fun.” And it had been quite painful, from what he could recall. “Oh yeah? I think I met your X once or twice a really long time ago. Glad I’m not the only one that has the affinity for fire.”

“Don’t go the way my brother went and constantly be blowing limbs off,” Forte said with a roll of his eyes. “An’ I suppose that’d make sense considerin’ you’re part organic.” From what he understood, Xav was actually capable of physically aging in a way full synthetics weren’t, so it made sense to him that a high power output could be dangerous. “He thinks it’s soothing. Watching shit burn, I mean.”

He paused, as if he’d gotten an image in mind that was...rather unpleasant. “Ergh...well...depends on the shit, I guess.”

Xav winced upon hearing that. “Yeah, no, I have no plans on doing that on a regular basis. I like my body parts intact, thank you very much, even replacing my non-organic parts unnerves me.” He was very glad that he’d been unconscious for both core surgeries. “Hm, really? I wouldn’t say its soothing for me, but… it has this weird way of making me think that everything is going to be fine. I don’t… really like thinking that destruction is great, if that makes sense.”

He tilted his head, debating whether he should pry, but then decided that it was probably for the best that he did not know.

“Nah, makes sense I think,” Forte said with a thoughtful nod. “Sorta. I mean, I’m not one to talk; breakin’ shit makes me feel better in the moment ‘cause half the time I just want somethin’ to take it out on.” Granted, he was getting better at wisely choosing what was appropriate to take said anger out on, but his point still stood.

Gospel lifted his head with another soft whine, standing up and stretching before plopping his chin on Xav’s leg with a quiet snuffle. “Keep gettin’ unfortunate reminders, I guess,” Forte murmured. “Of why ya shouldn’t piss off a Lightbot.”

“Well, true,” Xav nodded, as he thought back. “...Doesn’t mean that I like destroying things, but I suppose it is a form of stress relief if the right target is in front of you.” Namely, people like Dimitri, or simulations that wouldn’t cause too much trouble if they were destroyed.

He gave a faint smile, scratch the back of Gospel’s head to soothe the support unit. “...Hey. You shouldn’t piss off a Wilybot, either. We’re… I guess none of us are considered ‘safe’ if we’re angry. And frankly, there’s little you can do to make me that upset.” He doubted that Forte would get him that angry.

That was a special kind of anger reserved for very few people.

Forte shrugged mildly, seeming to relax just a bit as Gospel did; to this day, he still found himself feeding off of his support unit’s emotions for support at times. “Didn’t figure I would. And I’ve pissed off Lightbots before. Pissin’ off Blues, now that’s another story, but he’s a pain in the ass.”

He frowned all the same, reaching over to give the bioroid’s shoulder a light nudge. “I’m more concerned about the shift from cold as ice to giddy mid-barbecue, frankly.”

Xav just winced. “Even I didn’t dare piss him off, that was just a disaster waiting to happen. He could’ve easily kicked my butt if he wanted to.” Sometimes he wondered just why Blues was the way he was, but there was no point in asking a dead Reploid that question. He just knew that he wasn’t a match for Blues.

At the nudge, he looked over at him, before wincing. “Oh. That. I… was really upset. I guess you could say that I was.. inflamed with rage?” It wasn’t exactly something he could explain to people, not when he didn’t know how to explain it himself.

“Nice pun,” Forte snorted, sitting back and crossing his arms. “S’worryin’ seein’ someone y’friends with get like that, s’what I mean.” Gospel made a soft noise of agreement, giving Xavier’s knee a lick and fixing him with big sad mournful wolfbot eyes.

The Wilybot’s frown deepened a bit, part of him wondering just how far it was even right to pry. “I was too mad t’really notice at the time, but...y’looked really damn happy burnin’ someone to death.”

The bioroid snorted quietly. “Sorry, I had a thing for puns when I was a kid, and I sometimes slip one in if it’s appropriate.” He smiled back down at Gos when the other made the worried eyes. “I… I understand. I’d be creeped out if you or someone got like that…”

Wincing, the bioroid toyed with the scarf around his neck. “...I was more happy about getting rid of a threat, that-” He cut himself off. “It’s… I couldn’t save myself, Forte, from him. But I could, at least, do something for Hana.”

“Less creeped out and more concerned,” Forte muttered, seeming to...visibly soften regardless at the bioroid’s statement. Gospel made another, more insistent noise of concern, shifting to place his paw on Xavier’s leg.

Forte sighed, shaking his head mildly and reaching over to take hold of Xavier’s shoulder lightly. “Goddamn Lightbots, always that selfless aren’tcha…”

“Sorry,” Xav said sheepishly, leaning back against the couch so that he could relax. The bioroid looked down at Gospel’s paw, patting it lightly before turning his head back to the Wilybot next to him.

“...Heh. I guess some things just never change, don’t they? I always try to look out for my friends, no matter what world they’re in.” That, right now, included the Wilybot and his support unit too, even if he didn’t outright state it, it was implied.

“Are you two okay?” He remembered that Gospel had been hit with the electric trap, and Forte had fought Hana, so…

“Eh, tired but been worse,” Forte said, resuming his previous posture with his arms crossed. “Gos didn’t take too much damage an’ the fight with Hana- or whatever the fuck was controlling her- was...uh…” Was still something he didn’t particularly want to think about too hard. “I been practicing. Pressure points.”

Didn’t make having to fight someone like that any less gut-wrenching, but that was the life of a Hunter, wasn’t it?

Xav nodded as he heard that. “I could tell you have.” In more ways than one. “I wish that it hadn’t had to come to this, but not much that I could do about it now…”

Sometimes being a Maverick Hunter was a curse, and even if killing others wasn’t anything new to him, he never liked doing it. It made him feel unclean.

Forte sighed, nodding in almost tired agreement and closing his eyes, a half-grin tugging at his lips. “Heh...should’a seen the looks on everyone’s faces when I told ‘em. Damn gladiator looked like he wanted to kill somethin’.”

His grin faded into a half-scowl, Dimitri’s words still...a little too fresh in his mind. “Come to think of it, with the nonsense that bastard was spouting he prolly would’ve killed somethin’, knowin’ his crapsack world.”

Xav raised his eyebrows as Forte mentioned a gladiator, but nodded. It made sense to him that a person like that would want to kill something. “Yeah, I’ll bet that he would have… a lot of people would have killed him long before we would have. I don’t feel too bad though… I gave him a chance and he squandered it with his anti-Reploid ideals.”

Those kind of ideals made him ill. It was no different from all the other wars that had occurred in human history to ‘justify’ hating someone for being different.

Wait a second… Forte blinked, sitting up slightly and loosening his posture a bit. “Wait did’ja not- y’don’t know what all happened, do ya? In the world that older alt of Axl and Skrah are from?” Oh, if anyone had heard anti-synthetic garbage… “They...never said anything, did they.”

Xav frowned, trying to remember his various conversations with the older Axl and Skrah, but shook his head. “I knew that they weren’t… very happy in their world given how anti-synthetic it could be, but one of them being a gladiator wasn’t something that I knew.”

Well shit. “Anti-synthetic’s an understatement,” Forte said, Gospel shifting over to plop his head in his master’s lap seeing as how he was currently deprived of head pettings dammit pet me. “So much sentiment that they’re arrested n’told to kill each other jus’ so humans can get rid of ‘em.”

He snorted angrily, reaching down to scratch Gospel behind the ears. “Fucking asshole would fit right in, prolly be at the head of it all. F’you’n I hadn’t killed ‘im Skrah prolly would’ve hunted his sorry ass down an’ done it himself.”

Wincing as he heard that - because no place that he’d been to had been as bad as that - Xav felt terrible for Axl and Skrah. “That’s disgusting, I swear. What’ll it take for people to learn that we Reploids are people, too?” Even in his world they still weren’t completely equal, but it was nowhere near as bad as Forte was telling him it was in Axl and Skrah’s world.

“He probably would,” Xav grimaced. “I almost regret not leaving him for Skrah, but I couldn’t let a monster like that go unchecked.”

“Build somethin’ with emotions an’ then get mad at it when it emotes,” Forte scoffed. “Been there, done that with my lovely creator one too many times.” Grumpiness aside, he still seemed almost...tired, more than anything else. “Roundabout fuckin’ way t’get there, but the point of all this was t’ask if you’re okay.”

Or as close to okay as one could get, considering the circumstances.

“Humans are nuts,” Xav agreed, even if he put in a kinder way. “Anyways… I guess I’m alright now. Kinda have to be alright if I’m going to cope with everything that has been going on. It’s been a really busy past several months for me, both physically and mentally.” He lightly touched his chest, where his ‘new’ core was resting, and then pulled his hand away.

“You’re tellin’ me,” Forte sighed, a little more relieved than he’d like to admit out loud. Okay, so he had a soft spot for Lightbots, sue him. Apparently that extended to various incarnations of Rock of all people in general.

Who would’ve guessed.

“Wish it’d start shiftin’ to a less shitfuck kinda busy real damn soon,” he added. Dealing with constant patrols and Maverick attacks in his own world was bad enough, just add several other worlds onto it, cool, that was fine. “I need a fuckin’ vacation.”

The Lightbot turned slightly to Forte, smiling at him. Even if it was Forte, he at least had someone that would agree with him.

“Don’t I wish that would be so.” He closed his eyes for a few moments. “...I need one too. Hey - I still have that chocolate fountain that Svirel got me for Christmas… why don’t we make Hana some chocolate-covered treats with that? And eat a bunch ourselves?”

They could at least do something fun to get their mind off of everything.

“I think I c’n go for that,” Forte said, managing a smile that was much closer to his usual lazy grin. “Heal my aching core with more chocolate than a normal person can handle.”

Gospel lifted his head from Forte’s lap, thumping his tail and interrupting with a wail that was much louder than it needed to be. “I think Gos says he’s only in if he gets a treat too,” Forte snickered, patting the wolfbot’s head roughly. “He says he feels left out otherwise.”

“Chocolate is the best cure,” Xav said solemnly, standing up and stretching. It really was great medicine for when one was feeling down, and considering how much Hana loved chocolate, he was sure that a few chocolatey gifts would at least perk her day up a bit more.

Chuckling Xav reached down to pet Gospel. “Oh, don’t worry. I still have some bacon strips in the fridge that I could give to him.” He usually bought them given Cappy’s taste for bacon, but he knew that Cappy wouldn’t notice a few strips going missing…

“Fountain’s in my bedroom. Meet you guys in the kitchen?” he said brightly.

Gospel gave another too-loud noise at the word ‘bacon’, his entire backside beginning to waggle along with his tail. “Ya said the magic word,” Forte said with a chuckle. “Heh, sounds good. Have a fuckin’ day off t’relax one way or another, I fuckin’ swear…”

If nothing else, he was damn glad he had someone to drag through this with. Even if it was a Lightbot.