MegaMan ZX: A Rookie's Problem

"It's been rather quiet in the Hunter's Guild for the past week ever since I was given this promotion.  I'm not quite sure why, but it may have something to do with Grey destroying Albert's plans of forming Ouroboros, because no one has since come up with any serious threats against the world…..Heh, I could easily get used to this kind of tranquility.  This is Supreme Officer Aile of the Hunter's Guild, signing off."

A simple button press and the recording stopped.  It hasn't even been a week and the hunter, known either as Aile or ZX in her biometal form, has already been given a promotion as a Supreme Officer.  Only the best could ever achieve that kind of status, but she wasn't quite sure if this was a good or a bad thing..  Her brown hair was cut quite short, but it extended down over her chair via a long ponytail, adding to her feminine figure.  In her casual clothing she's had since she started out as a delivery girl and joined the ranks of the other hunters, she's since risen up the ranks quickly and became one of the most well-known hunters in existance.  At least, that's how it turned out to be.  Giving a slight sigh, a call came through to her radio suddenly.

"Officer Aile, do you copy?"  That's a name she'd have to get used to as she picked up the receiver pressing a simple button.

"I'm here."

"Report to the Hunter's Guild as soon as you can.  We've got quite a surprise for you."

"On my way."  The transmission cut off as Aile merely sighed.  "This is getting just a bit annoying..  I'm considered a hunter too, not a messenger."  It seemed like ever since she got this promotion, all she's been doing were mere fetch quests and passing messages.  Sure, she still does hunting missions every once in a while when a robot goes out of control, but other than that there's been nothing.  Nothing memorable.  Aile was hoping something a little more exciting would happen soon, or else she'd die from the boredom.

Aile soon made it to the Hunter's Guild, where some of the members have been waiting outside for her to come.  She hovered her ship overtop the guild and warped to the surface inside.

"Officer Aile!" a lone soldier saluted as she entered.  "You made it just in time.  They've been waiting for you."

"Thanks." She simply replied as she soon entered, greeted by many familiar faces.  Then, there was one new face.  A rookie, depicted by his choice of attire obviously, with the simple yellow camo given to all new hunters hired by the guild.  "…who's this?" she asked.

Soon, one of the soldiers came up to her left.  "This is Jake, the guy our commander mentioned.  He's REALLY skilled!"  Jake nodded with a smile.  "A pleasure to meet such a high profile hunter as yourself, my lady."  Aile sighed, slightly annoyed by that phrase.  "Please don't call me that."
"I'll make note of that in the future."

"Aile, this guy managed to save a mass number of survivors, sometimes even without being given the order to do so!  He put his neck out for a lot of people!"

Jake spoke up again. "Alright, let's not brag about it ok?  Anyways, the reason they called you up here is for one reason.  You're in charge of soldier promotions, are you not?"

Aile perked up.  "I am.  What about it?"

"Well," Jake began with a smirk, "how's about if I show you what I got and you give me the promotion."

"Only if you follow the correct procedure."

Jake smirked a cocky smile.  'This is gonna be too easy', he thought as the two made their way to the training hall.  When it comes time to promoting soldiers to higher ranks, the training hall is used to test their minds and wits on how the actual battlefield works.  For Aile, soldiers always have to expect the unexpected when in combat.  Things happen beyond a person's control, and she firmly believes that all soldiers are quite unaware of this fact...well, besides the other biometal users she's encountered, like Grey and Vent.

Jake walked inside the training room as Aile stood outside to observe him.  All part of the procedure of promoting as the targets soon came flying out.  "Hmmm....I have to admit, he's pretty good..." She said, watching Jake take down target after target in mere seconds.  Shot after shot rang out from his rifle as Jake hopped around like a rabbit on steroids shooting down each and every target within a mere couple second gap.  Though it seemed like he missed a few targets along the way, he still made quite an impressive score, one that's required to even be considered a promotion.  Stepping out of the training hall finishing it, Jake smirked at Aile, confident that he was gonna get a promotion no sweat.

Aile merely looked at him with a rather serious tone.  "I have to admit, that was pretty impressive…"

"Heh, thank you, it wasn't a problem for me to-"

"However,"

"Huh?"

"You missed quite a few targets back there.  Let me ask you this…  If that were a real battle, do you honestly think a Psuedoroid would just sit there and watch you destroy its comrades without taking action?"

"I...I don't understand..."

"It's all about expecting the unexpected.  If you even leave one strong enemy behind, it could be a major disadvantage on you.  What if one of those decided to follow you and try to take you out when you're the most vulnerable?"

"I...I dunno..."

"Well, until you learn that, I can't give you a promotion."

Stunned, Jake watched Aile walk off back to her ship.  "But…..the passing score!  I got the highest score next to yours!" he shouted to her.  Aile merely looked back at him with a sigh.

"A score has no meaning on the battlefield.  You either fight or die.  That's all you need to worry about."

That night, those same words from Aile began to ring in Jake's head as he stared into the ceiling of his bunker.

"Score has no meaning on the battlefield…field….field…"

"Fight or die....die..."

Jake punched his pillow in frustration.  "GRAAH!  This is ridiculous!" he shouted in frustration, "I had that promotion right in the bag!  This is so unfair!  She may have saved us from the bullshit of Slither Inc, but that doesn't excuse poor judgment!"  Thankfully, he was the only one around to hear all of this, otherwise this would've been a little odd.  "There HAS to be a way to make her change her mind!"  With his mind cluttered with disbelief, he let out a sigh and tried to calm down the only way he could…by meditating a little to clear his thoughts...though he still tried to come up with a plan.

'Let's see...' he began with his thoughts, 'Aile is regarded as a top class officer.  Taking down Slither Inc as a mere child wasn't an easy task, I'm sure...  But she HAS to have some kind of weakness, but what?!  Alright, let's think.....what is ONE weakness every female shares?....hmmm......'

His meditation was soon disrupted by some noise outside.  He peeked out his door and saw a young couple playing around with one another.  The man was having some fun with his girl by tickling her sides and such, making her squirm all about unable to resist.  Seeing these events unfold…Jake smirked.

"I think I just found my ticket to promotion status…"

Back with Aile, she went inside the only bedroom inside her rather large ship now in a comfy pair of dark blue long johns.  She hated sleeping in here since it reminded her of her long gone friend Prairie, whose since gone missing a few months after the events with Slither Inc and all.  But nonetheless, this was the captain's quarters and she had no other place to stay.  God Forbid if she stayed in the barracks, where just about anyone could get inside her room without her knowledge.

"Madam Aile."

She jumped and looked back, only to see the X biometal in the doorway.  In her deep thoughts, she had forgotten that her biometals have minds of their own.  She sighed in relief.

"Oh…apologies.  I did not mean to frighten you."

"It's ok.  I've...just kinda had a long day."

"I came in to tell you that I was going to lock down the ship now."

"Doesn't Model Z usually do that?"

"Knowing him, he is probably doing his own thing right now, so I decided to do it myself.  However, I do must warn you that, due to the recent odd weather patterns, some parts of the ship lockdown have malfunctioned, but it should not be of any concern."

Lately, the hunter base and passing ships have been experiencing technical difficulties at night due to hard rain.  Experts think it's just a short in the circuits somewhere causing this, and would go looking for it when the rain stopped in the morning.

"That's fine, X..  Just do what you can."

"Of course, Madam Aile."  He hovered off like usual.  Aile gave a cute little smile, the first one she's had all day.

"Busy as ever, that thing is…"  She soon climbed into bed and began to drift to sleep.

The ship soon cut off for the night as everything onboard shut down alongside it...however, a slight creek in the entrance of the ship remained unclosed, leaving Jake with easy access inside as he pulled it down and rushed on in.  Normally he would've been given the boot by either model X or model Z, but since they had shut down for the night, there was no one to stop Jake at this point.

It didn't take long for Aile to wake back up...however; things didn't quite feel right this time...  For one, she couldn't move her arms or legs..  She felt like she was paralyzed!...at least, the bottom half of her body was anyway.  Though one look down revealed the reason her arms couldn't move: A grey cable was wrapped completely around her body, immobilizing them.  Why her legs couldn't move was a different story she had yet to figure out.

"Alright," she soon yelled out, "I dunno who the wise guy is whose grand idea this was, but that person is in deep trouble for this!"  She struggled to get the cable off, but as a human she was pretty much powerless to free herself without the models to help her.

"Deep trouble, huh?"

Aile gasped, instantly recognizing that voice.  "….this is a joke, right?  THE ROOKIE kidnapped me?!  Wow…"

Jake could merely ball up his fists.  "SHUT UP" he demanded, "I deserved that promotion!  I worked all my life to get up in the rankings, and I'm only one position away to get to the dream top!"

Aile merely sighed.  "So what does kidnapping me have to do with your problems?"

"You're the supreme officer!  You handle these kinds of decisions on a daily basis!  Just agree to the promotion and I'll let you go and life can go back to normal!"

If Aile could facepalm right about now, she would.  That was probably close to the dumbest thing she's ever heard.  "…You're kidding right?  Is that all this is about?!"

"How else am I expected to get it?"

Aile sighed.  "You're going to such extreme lengths just for a high profile title…  That's REALLY pathetic, in all honesty."

"ENOUGH!"

"Are you quite finished?  If so, then tell me how and why you paralyzed my legs?  And where the hell did you get this cable?"

"Grrrrr…..fine!"  Jake huffed in frustration, "I have a very good reason for that!  I'd rather kill myself than harm someone from the hunter base, so I came up with a better solution.."  As he said that, he walked toward her and lifted up her casual blue sneakers as he began to unstrap them.
Baffled by this move, Aile could only respond with… "Uhh…what the heck are you doing?"

"Relax, Miss Aile" Jake said as he let both of her sneakers drop to the ground with a loud thud.  Doing this, he soon revealed Aile's stocking feet…at least, they looked like it, however underneath the stockings, she was still wearing a pair of black socks to match with her black stirrup nylons.  "Let's see how you look without those socks.."  Jake soon peeled them off to reveal Aile's rather pale colored bare feet.  They looked dead sexy, even without much make-up to go with it, with those smooth arches and slender toes and cute toenails and…

"..HEY!  Are you even listening to me?!  I asked you a question!"  Aile struggled in the cable that has her tied up, but without the help of her biometals, she's unable to escape.

Jake soon let go of her feet and brought over a standalone camera.  "This is so you can feel as humiliated as I did!  I'm gonna record our entire session and, if you don't give me the promotion I deserve, I'll spread it onto the servers of everyone in the hunter base!"  Aile gasped in surprise…sort of anyway.

"Alright, I'll bite.  What are you gonna do?"

"Aile…  I'm gonna tickle your feet until you agree to promote me!"

Aile simply blinked, giving him a rather blank stare.  "….that's it?  Tickling?  That's the best interrogation method you could think of?  Wow, you really ARE desperate for this position, aren't you?"

"Shut up, just SHUT UP!"  Jake was obviously frustrated by all of this.  He soon pushed record as the camera began to document what was in front of its lens, which in this case were him and Aile.  As he did that, he calmly walked up to Aile, lifting up her still paralyzed feet, and began scribbling his fingers up and down her soft pale soles.  Aile squinted her eyes and let out a small giggle, but mostly tried to remain calm about it.  The last thing she wanted to do was to give in to a rookie hunter, especially one with such a rude attitude.

Jake kept this up, scribbling faster and faster, becoming more unpredictable with his movements.  Aile's feet couldn't move an inch as she just sat there and took it.  A wide smile grew on her face as she kept trying to resist the tickles.  It was obvious her resistance was slowly breaking, and Jake knew this.

"Don't you ever smile, Miss Aile?" Jake soon asked, "When someone tells a good joke, don't you just wanna…..ya know, laaaugh?"

Great, she thought, now he's taunting me..

When Jake moved up to tease her toes a little, Aile squeaked like a mouse in reaction.  Shit, she thought to herself again, there goes resisting.  After a brief pause, Jake soon resumed the feet tickling, and was met with quite a response.

"…..YEEHEehHEehEHEHEHHAaAHAA! OHOoHOHO GOHoOHOSSH AAhaHHAHAAHAH!!"

"Ahhh, THERE'S the laughter the world's been waiting to see…  Let's hear some more, shall we?"

"YUHuUHUHUHu AhaHAHshSHoHOoHOoLe!  OHoOHOHOHo GAhAHAD STahAHAHHAP!"

Aile furiously struggled to get out of her bonds, but it was no use.  These were the kind of cables used on out-of-control Pseudoroids whenever they were taken into custody, but ever since given the license to take down ALL threats using lethal force, they haven't really been needed to be used at all.

Jake would occasionally tickle up to her pudgy little toes, making Aile squeal with uncontrollable giggles.  Aile, meanwhile, soon began to feel the wear and tear of this style of interrogating.  Her lungs were getting dry, and it's only a matter of time before she loses her voice from all this.

A whole hour into this, and…

"GAHAHAAHAHAD  AAAHAHAAHHAAHA!  STAHAHAHHAHAAP!  PLEEHEHHEHEEEEHEHAHHAHASSEEHEHHE  WAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHA!!" By this time, Aile was in tears as Jake finally stopped his ticklish assault.  Panting desperately for air, Aile merely looked away from the rookie hunter.  She didn't even want to look at him right now, much less his face.

"So…  Am I a sergeant now, or not?"

"…." Aile sniffled due to her crying so much, "….nowhere close...rookie."

Jake growled and went back to tickling Aile's defenseless feet and toes, while she merely sat there and laughed and laughed.  She had no way to defend herself from this assault, and it seemed like this would go on and on all night until she agreed to his demands.

…at least, it WOULD have been all night, had her laughter not cause such a ruckus to the nearby camps.  It didn't take long for peeping toms to take a peek at what was going on and inform the higher-ups.  Not surprisingly, they weren't impressed in the least as they sent a couple of men to deal with the situation as soon as possible.

Two hours into the torture, and…

"EHEHEEHEHEHHEAHHAHAHAHAHHAHHHHAHAHAHAHA!!  EHEHENOHOHOHUGH!  STAHAHAHAP!  YOHOHOHU WIEHEHEHEHEHEN!!  AAHAHAHAHAHAHHA!!!"

The rookie finally stopped for real, leaving Aile a tearful mess.  She finally had enough.  No more. She couldn't take it any longer.

Aile was gasping for air after all of that ticklish torture.  "…enough…."  Aile looked down in dismay.  "If…it means so much to you…then I'll….I'll…"

Not a moment too soon however, soldiers bust down the metal door with a well-placed rocket and quickly took Jake down.  "What the fu-GAH!  GET OFF OF ME!"  Tackled by what seemed like an armada of rebels, Jake was quickly overwhelmed and taken into custody.  Aile, on the other hand, was freed from the cables and taken into ER to be treated for her leg paralysis and cable removal.

The next morning, a report had shown up into the local stands.  It turns out that Jake was actually a reploid, much like Grey is.  Thus, it explained how Aile was tied up with the cables, since it was due to Jake's strength that he tied them to her.  Jake was soon discharged and kept in stasis lock until his mind was fully recovered from the incident.  Aile, on the other hand…

"What do you mean I can't have the tape back?!"

Aile was talking to one of the representatives from Hunter Base.  It seemed they had retrieved the recording equipment used to record what had happened to her last night.

"We're sorry, Miss Aile, but we must show the public the dangers that Jake is and can possibly be considered a future threat."

Aile fell silent.  It'd be total embarrassment to show this tape to anyone...then again, she'd much rather not have this event happen a second time, so…with a mere sigh, she finally responded.

"…fine."

The video was tossed around the entire base, and to other local cities nearby, to warn of the dangers of Jake's kidnapping.  To Aile's dismay, she wouldn't be able to set foot out into public again without at least one tease from someone…though, if any good came out of this, at least her status as a Supreme Officer was unaffected by this event.

"…these next few days are going to be one big painful mess…"