Utopia

Chapter 5: Paradise

X, Zero, and Jade all stood atop of the cliff overlooking the lab of Doppler. They all watched as it exploded and collapsed to the ground taking with it countless reploids and humans who had served under Dr. Doppler.

The three warriors watched in silence as they took in what had happened and their surroundings. Zero looked at the rubble that was once his battlefield with a sense of pride and accomplishment ‘Another mission accomplished.’ He nodded.

Jade eyed the wreckage in front of her. An expression of relief swept across her face as she closed her eyes in deep contemplation ‘We did the best we could… Thank goodness there were at least a few innocent survivors… We did the right thing, I hope…’

X stared at the destruction beneath him, an expression of sadness and sorrow on his face. He looked down at his feet and sighed quietly to himself ‘How much longer? How much longer must we sacrifice innocent lives? All the casualties, the fighting, the carnage… Will it ever end for good?’

Jade turned away from the burning lab and walked towards the teleportation point. X and Zero turned to face her and slowly walked after her.

“Hey, thanks for helping us back there. You made our job go faster.”

“Yes, thank you Jade.” X nodded.

Jade paused for a moment not bothering to answer or face them “I suppose I have some explaining to do…” she smirked letting out a small giggle.

X and Zero stared at each other then back at her puzzled.

“I know I can trust you, I have always known, but I had to see it for myself… Our own survival depends on it…” She said closing her eyes.

“You keep saying we… who’s we…?” X asked questioningly.

“Where do I begin?” She whispered under her breath.

“From the beginning would be nice!” Zero cut in impatiently.

“Is your friend always a smart-ass X?” Jade winked.

“Yeah, try to throw a few back at him, but it also helps to ignore it if you can. That’s what I do.” X smiled.

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Jade smiled back.

Zero pouted and tapped his foot disapprovingly “Whatever. Continue.”

“X, do you remember our battle with Blizzard Buffalo?”

“Yeah”

“Do you remember what I told you?”

“I think so… About you showing me what we are fighting for… What did you mean by that?”

“Good memory… X, Zero I know I can trust you. We are all here for the same thing, for the sole purpose of protecting both humans and reploids alike. No matter what happens please believe in me and I will believe in you…”

Zeros face softened as X nodded in contentment. Jade continued her explanation.

“Zero, I know you thought of me as a maverick and I applaud you for that. You’re always alert and ready for anything. X, thank you for trusting me even though I’ve left you in the dark for so long. You are a good man. Now I’d like to tell you about myself, but I think it’s better if I show you first. Follow me…”

Jade motioned for X and Zero to follow her as she veered left of the teleportation point back to MHHQ. She stopped and put her finger up to her chin “On second thought if you want you can go back to Maverick Hunter Base first if you need to. It’s a bit of a long trip.”

“Nah we’re good. Lead the way.” Zero spoke up walking in Jades direction, X following suit.

“Ok then. Let’s get going. I’m sorry, but there is no teleportation point that is close by so we’ll have to walk it.”

As they walked outside of the city Jade tapped her headset “The Doppler crisis has been solved. X and Zero are with me and we are heading back to base.”

“Roger.” The navigator answered “Safe journey to you all”

“Thanks”

They journeyed far through: Mettool Town, Mechatropolis, Tron City, Rush Forest, the little rural village of Beat where they were well known for their various species of birds, and Netto village until they arrived at the Yashichi Mountains.

“We’re here at last!” Jade sighed in relief “I hate this long trip!”

“I don’t see anything…” X responded looking confused.

“Yeah, where are we?” Zero asked also confused.

“We are at the Yashichi Mountains to the far north. Far from your base wouldn’t you say?” Jade held up her headset “We’re here please let us in.”

“Ok 3, 2, 1… open.”

A loud machine came on as the front of the closest mountain began to turn fuzzy like a television screen. A large mechanical door appeared as it began to slowly open to a dark tunnel.

Zero, X and Jade went inside as the door closed behind them. They walked down the tunnel leading to another doorway. Jade typed in the door code as the last door opened revealing a large building with high ceilings, staircases, and people. She took off her headset and let down her long blonde hair.

“Welcome to my home X and Zero!” She announced proudly “Make your selves comfortable. You’re safe here.”

X looked around in pure astonishment at the sight of the place. Zero put his hand up to his eyes as he found the lights too bright for his eyes. Once he focused he too looked amazed at what he was seeing.

“First let’s go to the Command Room where we can talk in private.”

X and Zero followed her through the large open hall overlooking all the above floors. They entered another large room which had a large table in the center. The table was covered in different maps and papers much like their briefing room in Maverick Hunter Base. Surrounding the table were chairs and several monitors. Some were empty, and others were occupied by different people who seemed to wear similar headsets to Jades pair. Off to the side was a more cozy looking room with comfy chairs and a long table much like an office.

Jade walked towards a woman who was sitting in the end chair closest to the office room.

“Hi, we’re here.”

“Jade welcome back” The girl greeted standing up from her chair. The girl had shoulder length red hair, Caucasian complexion with green eyes and average figure. She wore a dark green outfit with black pants and white boots. Her green outfit consisted of a one piece skirt and shirt with slits up the sides. Shoulder pads on the shoulders and on the top right breast section of the shirt had a golden symbol of a sun on the front.

“This is X and this is Zero.”

“Hi there, my name is Kate.” The woman introduced shaking X and Zeros hands “I live here with Jade and the others. I am her navigator among other things…” She winked at Jade and giggled. X and Zero just looked at each other confused.

“Navigator…?” Zero asked.

“Yes. How about we go into the small office here and we can talk privately? We shouldn’t disturb the other navigators working around here.” Kate signaled for them to follow her into the small room.

“Take a seat anywhere you like.” Jade said plopping onto the chair at the head of the long table. Kate sat beside her and folded her hands on the table.

“Now, to answer your question Zero a navigator is someone who assists the fighter in battle. You can watch as your hunter performs their mission and guide them through it in other words. You can guide them by analyzing enemies for weak spots using your computer, analyzing energy readings, advising your fighter of upcoming dangers, different routes in an area etc. Do you not use them in Maverick Hunter? I’m surprised. It makes things so much easier from what I’ve been told right Jade?”

“Yes it does.”

X looked with intrigue at Zero “Hey we should recommend that to Dr. Cain. Maybe when we get more recruits we can train a few?”

“Good idea X. Keep that in mind.” Zero nodded.

“So… What is this place?” X asked staring at the two girls across from him.

“This is a shelter for reploids and humans to live.” Jade explained.

“A shelter…?” X asked in awe.

“Yes, a place where humans and reploids can live together in peace. The outside world is a very cruel place… So we provide refuge for all kinds of people. Originally we started as a homeless shelter for both humans and reploids who had no place to go, but since then we have grown to serve all kinds of different individuals.”

“Different people…?” Zero asked.

“Yeah, we provide a safe haven for reploids and humans who have lived on the streets, victims of abuse, reploids who had to flee from creators who still believe in robot slavery, reploids wrongly accused of being mavericks, humans and reploids who work in public service agencies who feel that their work has become corrupt and don’t agree with working there anymore for moral reasons and others, even reploids and humans who simply believe in our cause for equality and peace. We welcome all types of people with all different types of experiences and occupations.” Kate smiled.

“But we do have rules put in place here. We have conditions we expect followed or else you’re given the boot!” Jade said sitting back arms crossed “We expect the people here to be respectful of each other regardless human or reploid. We expect everyone to help out here and look out for others. We expect tolerance of others and no force of any kind towards anyone. We are all equal here human and machine.”

“Have you ever had mavericks come here or people who have betrayed you? What then?” Zero questioned.

“We have. We are always on alert for when and if the maverick virus takes over someone. In that case we make them leave just like if someone broke our rules. We don’t believe in killing them. We just send them away and if they start harming people then we leave organizations like Maverick Hunter to take care of it or we send Jade to watch them for a bit and if they start harming people while she spies then we take care of it ourselves. We are a non-violent shelter first and foremost.”

“So, you just keep everyone here prisoner in this place?” Zero questioned continuing his interrogation.

“No, anyone can leave whenever they want. We trust that they will keep us a secret. I’m sure people have blabbed, but luckily no one has come looking for us… yet. I hope that our whereabouts are not leaked to mavericks like Sigma or Vile. That could become dangerous.”

“That’s why you made me promise…” X realized.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you when we met X, but I had to make sure it was safe. Please understand.”

“What do you both do here?” Zero asked.

“I have many different jobs around here. I am a navigator obviously, but I also keep our Mission Statement and rules up to date and posted around the base. I also perform computer maintenance, interviews of newcomers, and potential staff, and try to keep the general atmosphere running smoothly.”

“I am our bases main defense officer. I enforce the rules and judge what needs to be done about any trouble maker. I also scout areas around the base to protect us from small scale maverick attacks; sadly we do not have the resources for a large defense unit. We can’t help much when it comes to the war effort I’m afraid…”

“I see. What kinds of resources do you have? How do you support yourselves?”

“Zero stop being nosy!” X snapped.

“No, it’s ok. We have nothing to hide from either of you.” Kate reassured them “How we get our resources has changed over time… In the beginning when we were barely on our feet and we didn’t have many people living here, I regret to say we had to steal from rival maverick organizations and the homes that some of the people were either thrown out of or abused in. They stole from their families to support us. As the years went by and we expanded we had to move to a safer location. One where the mavericks and anti-reploid right organizations wouldn’t find us, so we fled here to the Yoshichi Mountains… Because of years of global warming the mountain we are in now was largely cracked and the rocks had been heavily eroded. That gave us an advantage and we all worked hard to build our home here. Anyway once our home was built, back then it wasn’t as nice as it is now, we scouted the land around us looking for natural resources to use. We sent members out on scouting missions to locate resources for us to use. We found a large bed of water behind our mountain range, along with high wind velocities on the tops of the mountains, and the constant teamwork of everyone here we have managed to use the wind and water as our main energy and hydro supply. We do our best when it comes to food. We purchase large amounts of food by sending large sums of our members undercover as well we use the connections of our members who know people who run farms around the area. Since food is still limited we sadly have to put humans at priority since reploids can last longer without food and liquids, but we are trying our best to fix this problem.” Kate responded.

“You wear armour I notice Jade… Where did you get it from?” Zero inquired curiously.

“The mavericks I’ve had to kill wore armour, so after they died I would carry their corpses back to here, scrape out their innards, and clean the inside. After that I would take it to our technician members and they would fix up the weapons and features, so that I could still make use of them. This way I can always have a fresh selection of armour and weapons on hand.”

“Can’t you just modify your systems for that?” X asked.

“What do you mean?” Jade asked looking puzzled “I’m not a reploid X…”

“You’re not…?” X looked in total shock.

“No… I’m a human and so is Kate…”

“Oh…” X looked downwards almost disappointed in hearing this news. Zero put his hand on Xs shoulder. He soon looked up and decided to change the subject “How do you guys stay hidden? How have you managed for so long?”

“Thanks to our computer specialists and technicians we have been able to stay hidden easier because of the holographic programs like the one you saw when entering here. It’s a real weight off our shoulders.” Jade replied.

Kate yawned and stretched in her chair. Jade looked at her warmly while putting her hand on her partners shoulder “Getting tired? It’s been a long day hasn’t it?”

X and Zero looked outside to see that it had become dark since the many hours prior they had arrived.

“We should be heading back to too. We still need to report our mission from the Doppler Lab.” Zero said standing up from his seat “X let’s go home and rest for the night.”

“Ok Zero. We should come back tomorrow. I’m still interested in this place and have lots more questions to ask.”

“Sure. Now, let me call a few of our members to escort you guys home.” Jade offered walking towards one of the navigational computers.

X took one last look at the base before he walked out the door and headed for Maverick Hunter Headquarters. He still couldn’t believe what he had seen.

‘Maybe there is hope after all…’