Chapter 2: The Opening

At first, X didn't quite understand what his friend and mentor meant, he scratched his head in a comically human gesture and asked the doctor for elaboration. Cain, who was always a rambling talker who gave way to much background in answers to simple questions, Explained. "You see X, I found you in a Pod 20 years ago, in an old lab of Dr. Light that had been pushed underground after an earthquake. Today I was exploring a new lab that had been found that was remakably similiar and may have also belonged to Dr. Light....in it was a pod identical to yours."

X was stunned. Immediately he thought, there must be another one of Dr. Light's reploids in that tube, he was not alone. X had always felt alone, as being the first reploids, all others were created by Dr. Cain, other qualified robotics experts and sometimes reploids themselves, which were instilled with basic personality implants much like a human's DNA. X felt another reploid might bring him closer to Dr. Light. The excitement in X's face immediately registered, and Cain responded immediately with his hand, putting it up in a motion to stop and listen.

"X, don't jump to conclusions, the lab was almost totally trashed, there were no notes, no computers were intact...it was a lot worse off than the lab I found you in. We have no knowledge of whether or not the lab belonged to Dr. Light and what that pod contains. Since the computers are all smashed, I'm going to need you to open that pod for me, X" X excitedly took a step forward and spoke. "Of course! We'll find out what's in that pod, when do we leave?" X's excitement was about as subtle as a mountain, he tried to control himself for the doctor's sake, looking in to Cain's weathered face, he wondered what it was like to age.

"We leave tomorrow X, at 5.3 hours, now if you do excuse me, would you mind helping me back to my quarters? I'm on the brink of exhaustion and It's going to be a short night." X helped Dr. Cain to his feet, worried at his failing strength, the doctor never used to become tired like this. X helped the now-quiet Cain to his feet and walked with him to his quarters, where Cain bid him good night and immediately went to bed. X supposed that the doctor was unconscious before his head hit the pillow. X, giddy with excitement brought his arm up in front of his face, using the hand on his other arm to open the small patch on his forearm, the skin and tough supportive tissue behind it lifting up in a flap that was practically seamless and could not be easily seen by the naked eye. This was X's "watch" which told him a lot more than the time, which was 23.42 hours.

X gazed into the display and saw his energy reserves were at 84 percent. He realized with a slight chuckle that 5 and a half hours of regeneration would be more than sufficient to bring him to the max. X hardly ever drained himself lower than three quarters these days, Dr. Light clearly had a special understanding that escaped the minds of modern replication scientists. There was, of course, also the fact that the city was in peace-time right now, two years having passed since the last reploid war. As all wars, the reploid wars affected the sensibilities of the humans, some of the weaker minds became biased against reploids. X counted himself lucky that these days the worst violence in the city was an anti-reploid demonstration, although it saddened him that Sigma could tarnish the reputation of an entire species, if reploids could be called as such, so easily.

As he stepped into the reploid regeneration chamber in his surprisingly modest quarters, he supposed to himself that the humans were almost as much as fault for the violence as Sigma was, in their minds they placed the reploids in a collective that all were responsible for the actions of one. As he relaxed and he felt all of his systems slowly shutting down, X wondered if it was another reploid in the pod, and if so was it still intact.

The next morning, X who had traded his exhilaration for a quiet pensive thoughtfullness, met Dr. Cain outside the front door of the west wing of the Maverick Hunter's compound. The building was grand and magestic, it's architectural beauty eminating from its sheer size and simplistic ingenuity. The sun was not yet up, but there was a slight glow from the east as sunrise was only a few minutes away, the soft glow of light illuminated the compound and made it seem even more magestic. X wondered to himself how many times he'd have to look at this building before it became mundane to him. He looked to his right and found Cain also gazing upwards at the building, their eyes met and without word they both got into the transport. Such an understanding had built between the two friends that they rarely needed to speak in such moments, needing only a cursory glance.

X and Cain rode to the site in peaceful dual solitude, the excitement of the night before as faded as the letters spelling out the creed on the Thomas Light Museum that they were just now whizzing past. The transport, which was fully automated and equipped with a reploid brain, sensed the thick tension in the cabin, and responded with soft ambient music from hundreds of years ago. Dr. Cain sighed and relaxed as he closed his eyes and let himself get lost in the ancient piano melody, the tense muscles in his shoulders straining to relax.

X and Cain didn't waste words nor time upon arriving at the site. Almost wordlessly, a rarity for Cain, he guided X down past mountains of rubble displaced by carefully placed C6 explosive packs. Upon reaching the pod, X got a strange tingling in his thought processors, something that he had never experienced before. X turned to Cain and inquired of the feeling. "What do you call it...when you get the strangest feeling racing down your spinal wire, that you've experienced something before....it's like I've been here." Cain chuckled, always finding himself amused when one of his reploids shows their humanity, especially in a way he had never encountered before. "We call it Deja Vu, although in your case, there is a very strong possibility that you HAVE been here before. I'd say that's funny though X, I got the same feeling when I first stepped in here, even before seeing the pod, that's why my feelings are so strong that this laboratory once belonged to our late benefactor, Dr. Light."

X, who had equipped his buster arm in the case that he might need it, set it to universal key mode with a quick tap tap of his hand over the sleek metal of the arm. X wasn't in full armor, but did suit up into typical Maverick Hunter style protective uniform at Dr. Cain's request. Cain was now a man who was always prepared. X's universal key mode could open just about any lock that predated the latest update of the arm, which was certainly recent enough to open a lock this old. Before opening the lock X wondered if it was safe, he remembered there had to be a waiting period to test his own systems and it was only safe once all the lights were set to green. Although the pod looked basically intact, all of the lights had gone dead except for a few blinking white ones. He supposed it was life support indicators. X used the arm on the pod, wavering it over the pod in a sweeping motion until he heard a small beep from the arm, he then used the fire command to fire the arm, which set out a beautiful electromagnetic pulse. X gawked at the colors that he knew Cain could never see as he heard the pressure within the pod lessen with a sturdy hiss and a sigh. X quickly grabbed the pod and opened the heavy front door. Asleep in the pod was what appeared to be a female reploid.