Writing Origins: The Novelization

[Alexander]

ORIGINS: The Novel
By Alexander
Chapter 1

***

The day was fading into nightfall as a tiny hovercar drove into the lot of the Newtroy Technological Center. The pilot, the aging scientist Dr. Cain, stepped out of the vehicle and looked around.

"Well, doesn't this place look homey." he grumped, strugling to see in the dark light. Nearly everyone had left for the night; only a few people or reploids remained inside. Which, he thought to himself, is exactly why he came.

Walking inside the building, the automated doors opening automatically for him, Dr. Cain looked around. "Damn. She's not here." He said, agravated.

"I'm sorry to keep you waiting, Dr. Cain." A tall reploid scientist
said, walking up to Dr. Cain, who blinked in suprise. "Who the devil are you? How could you possibly..."

Dr. Cain stopped short when the reploid smiled and laughed, a happy and obviously female laugh. Dr. Cain stared. "What the blazes happened to your voice?"

"This *IS* my normal voice, Doctor." the voice said again as the
scientist's form faded away, revealing Alia, standing there, laughing.

"Quite a impressive device, Alia." Dr. Cain said. He, too gave off a
few laughs. "Very impressive. Though hardly the reason why I called you here."

"Right..." Alia's smile faded a bit. "Zero."

"Don't worry. Remember, this is what he wanted me to do, remember?"
Dr. Cain said. "I'm just repaying him for what he's done in the past."

"Okay," Alia said, though still sounding a bit sad. "Let's go!"

The two walked through the halls of the laboratory, passing only a few stubbornly persistent reploids on thier way. Opening the door marked "STASIS", they came upon the lonely black capsule marked "ZERO."

Dr. Cain set to work at the nearby controls, allowing the capsule to repressurize it self, the hiss of escaping gas filling the room.
Finally, the capsule's door opened with a quiet click, and the occupant slowly clambered out.

The red robot shook his head a bit to remove the tension in his servos, his long blonde hair swishing about. "Thank you, Dr. Cain. I'm glad your emembered me."

"Don't worry about it. I keep my promises, after all." Dr. Cain smiled as he looked at Zero. "Though I must admit that I didn't do all of the work."

He turned to Alia. "Alia here was a great help in getting you free."

"What?!" Zero said, his limbs going stiff. "I thought I said not to
tell anyone about this! Alia'll ruin..."

"Mr. Zero! You have my word that none of what happens here will ever leave my mouth." Alia said, sternly.

"Not even to X?" Zero insisted. "I...I can't have X know."

Alia paused a moment. "It will hurt to lie, but yes, not even to X."

Zero stood silent, before shrugging in a almost carefree way. "Well...I suppose that's all I can ask for. It's not like I can turn back now."

"I trust you mean to carry out your search then."

"Did you actually think I would change my mind?" Zero said, suprised. "I cannot wait any longer. Doctor, the dreams are coming back. Stronger than before. Stranger. I must find out what they mean before I lose control...again..."

"Then let's go." Dr. Cain said. "Alia. I thank you for your help."

"Your welcome, Doctor. Good luck, Zero."

"Right." Zero turned and walked to the door.

"It's time I found out once and for all who I really am..."
He paused, his fist clenched.
"...and who really made me." he said to himself.

***

Outside the building, a single figure watched the Dr. Cain and Zero leave the building and discretely enter Cain's hovercar, before driving away.

"My. My My My. Zero-boy's out and awake again, is he? Interesting how they tried to be so quiet about it. So very very interesting."

The figure smacked his fist into his palm, a wicked smile on his face as a globe of dark green and black energy appeared in his hand. He stared at it, grinning, then laughing insanely.

"I think I'll go see what this is all about!"

The figure laughed, slamming his palm into the Laboratory building.
Dark energy coursed through his hand as the building began to crumble.

Still laughing, the figure raced off into the night as the Laboratory exploded behind him, the first victim of the reploid's newfound madness.


*****

Bwahaha! What do you think?

The 'figure' shouldn't be too hard a guess. What may be tougher to guess is what he is deriving his power from, or what interesting discoveries Zero might make in his searches!

Stay tuned for Origins, Chapter 2!

[Alexander]

Chapter 2

Zero and Dr. Cain arrived at Cain's home a short while later. The crimson hunter looked around the house in a daze as Dr. Cain ran about, pulling out this map, or that section of notes.

"I always knew I should have organized these better," Cain said as he stuck his head in one dusty chest, before sneezing from the dust. "Maybe I should have cleaned them up a bit, too, now that I think about it."

"Could I help?" Zero asked quietly, pointing to a haphazard stack of scrolls and papers in one corner of the room.

"Sure, go ahead, just be very careful with them, please." Cain said absently as he opened another notebook.

Zero swiftly began looking through the scrolls and notes, organizing them as best as he could - which turned out to be very good. By the end of Zero's search, half of the notes were stacked in neat piles. To Cain's amusement, he noticed that they were organized into "Useless" and "Helpful" groups, the latter being very small.

"Zero, You won't find your answer here in these notes. I never
found you in the first place, after all...how could I possibly have the answer?"

Zero's head drooped. "I know, Doctor. But my mind refuses to let me think otherwise. I'm hoping for a miracle I'll never find."

"Many humans spend years doing just that and never realize it, Zero. Cheer up! All we need to do is find my notes on where X came from..."

"X? Why X?" Zero asked. "Why don't you look up where I was found?"

"Zero, I'm sure you can answer that question, if you just give it a bit more thought. No one *knows* where you were awakened. The first time anyone saw you was the day that you arrived at Maverick Hunter Headquarters, looking to join."

"That's half the problem, Doctor! I don't REMEMBER before that! It's all a blur, and whenever I try to sleep on it, the dreams come and torment me."

"Hmm...sounds like whoever made you doesn't like you snooping. Too bad for him, eh?"

"Heh." Zero chuckled, his confidence oddly restored.

"Hmm...what's this?" Zero pulled out another notebook, and opened it up. He gave it a quick look over before throwing it to Dr. Cain. "That look familiar?"

"This is it..." Cain said, looking over the book. "The notes fron my excavation of the Light Laboratory! Wonderful!"

"Light...the man who made X..." Zero said. "But how does that help me?"

Dr. Cain pulled out a map. "Simple. If there is anywhere you might want to look, that's the place to start looking. Even if Light didn't make you, I'm sure something is there to help." He carefully copied the map and handed it to Zero, who eagerly accepted it.

"It's a start." Zero said with a smile. "Thank you, Doctor! With this, I can finally begin the search!" He carefully folded the paper, and slid it inside the protected storage area in his leg.

"Well, now that that's over...why don't you come with me. I have one more thing to give you before you go." Cain said, walking out of the room.

Zero followed him to the Garage, where Dr. CAin pointed to a average sized, yet obviously not civilian, hovercar.

"That's the Æther flash, Zero. I designed her many years ago, before I had even begun to search around as a archeologist. Use her well."

With that, Cain turned around and walked away. He was almost through the door when he stopped and said, "Zero? If been wondering about those dreams. You said they got stranger...how so?"

Zero was silent for a long moment. "It was all the same as before, doctor. Until the end."

"The end?"

"Yes." Zero said. "Just as the voice was about to overpower me, another voice spoke...and he told me to never give up." With that, Zero turned and entered the Æther Flash, and closed the door behind him.

[Dead Fork]

[SIZE=1]Wow, this is truly a pretty good peice of work. If you keep writing you maight actually have something here. I can't wait for the rest of it. Keep it up.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=1]-Daniel[/SIZE]

[Turkey]

Hey, why didn't you tell us sooner about this?
Anyway, all I can say is:
Amazing...Very damn amazing. The story is very well done, and the characters are well characterized. I'm really looking foward to Part 3 and the comic.

[9mm Avenger]

You've got a talent for writing, Alex, good job. I look forward to chapter 3 and beyond. However, the last little part of chapter one is confusing, about "the reploid's newfound madness"....Or is that how you ment it to be?