As the girl moved more fully into his visual field, Shadow found himself blinking his eye as a slew of information regarding her seemed to suddenly spring forth. They had never met before, but- her name was Rebecca. Rebecca Light, an illegally created reploid based off the original blueprints of X Light.
He shouldn’t have known this. Why-
“Curious?” Pushing the strange informational burst out of his thoughts, Shadow turned his full attention to the young– reploid. “About what?” He had a few guesses but… at the same time, what was so curious about him? He was an outdated robot that should have been discarded decades over. Finding parts to repair him was more expensive than simply building a new body from current robotic models.
She was the far more curious one. Far more advanced than he was, at the very least.
She looked a little nervous about actually saying this, but built up the courage to do so.
“How you meld into the shadows and stuff. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before…”
So she had wanted to see how he did it by observing, and wondered if she could do the same. But she wasn’t arrogant enough to think dropping into the shadows was in her range of abilities. And trying would probably get her hurt.
She was simply curious about it right now though, and personally she thought his ability was far more interesting.
Their entrance was… roughly as Kai expected. The addition of the other child was a bit unexpected, but it wasn’t like he lacked a plethora of knowledge on him (Tomoe had been most useful for that). Factoring him into his battle strategy was hardly going to change things.
The child went barreling forward and Zero took his time. Seeing such patience in what was supposed to be a blood thirsty murder machine was odd almost to the point of hilarity, and Kai found himself grinning if only to offset the rage that was beginning to flood his system.
Zero. The… perfected warbot. The one that Kai himself would always be second best to.
He gave a slight nod of his head as they entered, and the slight sound of nails clacking around the floor would be the only hint to Cacophony’s movement as the wolf moved to block the entrance. His form was still shadowed, however, staying hidden until the perfect moment to reveal himself.
It took a few minutes, but he finally got up. Looking around before attempting to fix the now frizzy mess that was his hair. Why did he feel the need to just run in like that when he knew very well that this was a dangerous mission again?
Right. Rebecca! He and Zero are here to save her!
A look of concern was given as the boy rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.. you look like you’re about to snap in there. Not very fun being held captive, is it?” That- that came out a lot meaner than intended.
“I mean- God dammit you already know I’m concerned. Let’s just get to the point. How do we get her out?”
He fell quiet as he examined the cell surrounding Rebecca. It was an energy generator that completely enclosed her. Zero had seen them before, used mostly outside of the lairs of mavericks to both keep things in and out, but never one designed to function like this. The two ends that formed the enclosure almost, but didn’t quite, touch. If they had it would have caused the entire thing to short circuit, but the hair width of space between them was enough to keep them working.
It was impressive, especially since it seemed like it had to’ve pulled off with the first try. There was no way Rebecca would have sat still to allow her captor to ry more than once.
“We need to break the circuit.” Zero stepped around it, scanning the ground to look down the source. The small little black box that the wires ran to and from to power it. It would be close by and- ah-ha!
Zero crouched down beside it before pausing, fingers almost but not quite touching it. “… You said you were put here as a trap Rebecca. What kind of trap?” His scanner wasn’t reading anything out of the ordinary, but it felt a bit off that it was simply sitting there. The whole thing felt off. There had been nothing stopping them from coming here, nothing stopping them from freeing her…
Turning his attention back towards the entrance way, Zero narrowed his eyes briefly before inhaling sharply. They might have been able to enter without an issue, but his scanner was already picking up something big waiting for them on the other side now.
“He wanted to lure you and X in to kill you two and cause me despair from bein’ the cause of it, or whatever the fuck. He’s got a gigantic… hell wolf thing, too. It’s fuckin’ huge. Be careful.”
She didn’t see a single reason to hide anything from her Papa. It would only help him in the end if she shared as much as she knew. This next bit would likely upset Aerin and anger Zero, but she had worked it out herself.
“He’s got Tomoe, too. Said she made the ‘right decision to be happy’. Pro’lly infected her to get her to tell him shit. She dumped everything she knew on that Maverick, going by what he tried selling to me. It’s probably why this mission went ass up too, fucking information leaks.”
It would look awful and Rebecca didn’t think the Hunters would be able to keep this quiet if it leaked to the humans. She looked really annoyed at the idea. This wouldn’t end well for Aerin or herself. It would make X and Zero look awful in the eyes of the public for covering it up as well.
“He got onto me and ripped into X for not somehow automatically knowing Tomoe had issues too. I’m not fuckin’ psychic. Can’t magically know somethin’ unless she says somethin’. And if Tomoe wants to fuckin’ say somethin’, she can say it to our faces, not through some Maverick middleman who’s pro’lly lying.”
She was still a bit angry about that, but it was quite clear that she was also a bit upset as well. She’d likely calm down and think rationally later, but right now she was angry, upset, and frustrated.
At this point, she just wanted to go home. She had faith in Zero to stay alive, but she was worried more about Aerin. And herself, but she didn’t think that Maverick bastard would leave any of them alive, despite what he said.
It was… rather amusing that she thought he was being kind. Really, he had just been making things easier for himself–it was coincidence that she benefited from it. Nevertheless, he decided to refrain from correcting her.
If she wanted to believe he was kind, then who was he to burst her bubble?
Blues paused a moment at her question, carefully considering his options. He could always tell her they were simply colleagues, but then that could bring up what he did, which would not be preferable.
“Well…” He began, pushing himself off the wall, “I suppose you could say we ran into each other.” It was vague, and a lie, but what else could he say?
He decided to change the topic, so to avoid any further questioning. Perhaps that was suspicious, but he was always suspicious. It was only natural that he played his role of the morally-grey mystery robot, right?
“What is your name, child?” He didn’t miss the identification on her wallet, of course, but he didn’t want her to know that. The point was to seem less observant than he was, as not to be threatening.
“Like, literally or…?”
Hopefully that’d make him snort a bit. She’d feel a little accomplished with that, she liked making people laugh.
Her name? Oh! Right, her name.
“My name’s Rebecca. I’m just a trainee still but…”
She had been making strides in her stealth training, and no one but Blues had actually noticed her. Her dream was to get into the 00th unit at some point.
Though she didn’t mind him calling her ‘child’. After all, she had been modeled after a 12 year old. Even with her physical upgrade, she still looked around 13-14, and it was intentional.
The phrase “No amount of skill will protect you from the sheer luck of a chronic dumbass” popped into my head and if that aint a Big Mood™ i dunno what is
Kai arched a brow as he smirked at her. “More important things?” Mockery was all-but dripping from his tone as he took a step away from her. One hand went up to press against the side of his helmet as his gaze shifted to the Wolf; the over-sized creature nodded as he slowly rose to his feet before beginning to turn, leaving his post.
The discolored and miscoded version of X placed something on the ground several feet away from Rebecca. It was a small cube that slowly expanded, with wires that shot out from two sides to race in a straight line along the floor before turning at a sharp angle to connect with one another. A square was formed around her, one that she wasn’t about to just bolt from; Kai tested it by tapping at the ‘air’ to reveal the solid, translucent wall that had formed around her. “This will keep you here for now.”
Kai turned to leave as well, leaving Rebecca trapped in the empty room until her ‘saviors’ came. After all, what good would the trap be if the attackers were out in the open?
It wasn’t long until Aerin had run into the room. Spotting Rebecca instantly, and continuing to speed on in towards her. Leaving poor Zero behind in the process. Unfortunately, he was so focused on saving his sister, that he didn’t notice the trap she was placed in, face planting right into the ‘wall’.
He was electrocuted as a result.
“aaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAA–!”
It wasn’t long after, that he fell to the floor in a daze. Mistakes were certainly made on this day.
had been a mixture of bad timing combined with Zero’s guilt for allowing Rebecca to go missing in the first place. Tomoe’s disappearance was a heavy and constant weight that sat in the back of everyone’s mind, and adding another child to that list had clearly had negative side effects for Aerin. It had just been a few days but it was clear he was suffering.
And so, when he received the distress signal – and when Aerin had learned that they had picked up on one from her – Zero just hadn’t been able to say no.
Seeing him run face-first into the electrified field surrounding her really made him question that decision.
“Aerin-!” The word ended in a heavy sigh as Zero shook his head. Instead of barreling forward he simply dropped down into the room, scanner sliding down over his eyes as he immediately started to download all available information about the room. Schematics- traps-…
Walking slowly towards her- cage?- Zero shifted his scan towards Rebecca to ensure it really was her. “Hey babygirl,” he said slowly, hand reaching out to rest on Aerin’s shoulder as he helped him stand. “You doin’ alright in there?”
She had nearly screamed in frustration upon being put in the energy cage and had flopped down on the bottom of it, ignoring Kai mocking her even though she had been telling the truth.
It was a few minutes of staring up at the ceiling and making her tracking signal in her back flicker in the way she was taught to, that when she heard running and sat up to see what was going on. Aerin?
“Aeri-”
Oh. Oh she was doomed, wasn’t she? She put her face into her hands with a loud groan that Zero probably could’ve heard a mile away.
Once Zero actually got there though, she lifted her head to look at him, and looked up at her Papa.
“Papa? Yeah, I’m okay. The Maverick didn’t hurt me at all. It’s a trap, by the way. Yes, I’m pissed about it before you ask.”
She looked very put out by the fact that she was being used as bait to lure in her Papa. He could’ve been doing other important things but nooo, she had to get her stupid ass captured by that jackass.
Back in the Game 
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