#ummm m in normal person speak that means the obsession is back to manageable levels now

[euclydya]

in unrelated news the flowering stopped,,.

[currently-in-fanfiction-hell]

Days at the Hunter Base, CHAPTER 5: The Zero Fanclub (originally from my Quotev account)

It was a normal day at Hunter Base.

Too normal, in fact.

Despite it being so long since the last major Maverick incident, X, Zero and Axl still weren't used to the peace and quiet. Funny, since that's what the Hunters strive for, but they'd become so accustomed to the havoc that peace seemed to worry them.

So whenever an opportunity comes by for them to do anything at all, they'd take it up, in this case, it was going grocery shopping for Dr. Cain.

"Man, ever since when did we become his personal caretakers?" Axl stretched his arms out, all that shopping tired him out, all of them never expected a grocery list to be so long, in fact, they were taking a break at a nearby cafe, they were that tired.

"Axl, it's not his fault that his actual caretaker turned out to be sick with the flu, besides, it's not like he'll be able to manage all of this grocery shopping by himself, be considerate." X scolded him.

"Besides, you told us that you wanted to tag along, so it's not like you didn't have a choice, so stop complaining." Zero added, "At least it's all over now, all we need to do is drop this off at his place, right?"

"Yep," X nodded, "I haven't visited him in a while, so I hope you don't mind if we stick around a bit longer."

"No problem at all." Zero said, then he proceeded to look at Axl with a stern gaze, "Right, Axl?"

"R-right!" Axl stuttered, while he'd been a Maverick Hunter for long enough to get used to Zero's glares, they still, and always felt...intimidating.

"Great!" X smiled, "Let's not keep him waiting."

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They proceeded to walk out of the cafe, enjoying the nice afternoon breeze, when suddenly...

"OHMIGOSH!!! IS THAT ZERO?!" The high-pitched squeal of a teenage girl was a complete surprise to all of them, a moment later, a young, female Reploid ran up to them, or to be more specific, she ran up to Zero.

"Ohmigosh, are you really Zero?!" Her squealing became even more high-pitched, to the point where it sounded like she practically lived on helium.

She was bouncy, energetic, and couldn't stop fidgeting, she was also sweating all over.

And they thought Axl was energetic, this was a whole new level.

"Uhhhh...Yes...?" Zero responded rather cautiously, he was used to getting attention from journalists and the press, but for all of...this to come out of a young teenage Reploid?

...Wait, he thought, oh, great, not one of those again...

The girl's grin grew even wider, if that was even possible, "OHMIGOSH! IT REALLY IS!!!" she then motioned a signal to something behind her, yelling, "GIRLS! IT'S HIM! IT'S REALLY HIM!! COME HERE!!! WE FOUND HIM!!!!"

...a whole group?! 

X and Axl proceeded to back away slowly, but unfortunately for Zero, he wasn't able to do the same, a storm of teenage girls (both humans and Reploids) came out of an alley and ran up to him, bombarding him with squeals, questions, and adoration.

"I LOVE YOU, ZERO!!!"

What?

"KISS ME, ZERO!!!"

Huh?!

"ZERO!!! SIGN MY FANFIC!!!"

F-fanfic?!

Zero's face just stayed in a state of shock, this wasn't the first time he met someone like this, but to see so many in one place... it was overwhelming, to say the least.

X was watching this disaster unravel before his very eyes, his face in a state of pure horror, someone needed to help Zero, but X was the one carrying the groceries, which meant he had to choose between helping him or keeping the groceries safe, being the good person (or Reploid) he was, he dropped the groceries on the ground and ran up to help his best friend.

"Take care of the groceries for me!" X called out to Axl, who quickly grabbed the bags, without thinking, he rushed to where Zero was and grabbed his arm, Zero, who was understandably sweating bullets by now, turned around and saw Axl mouthing the words, "Follow me!" they looked at X, who nodded, knowing what to do.

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While Zero and Axl ran from the angry crowd, X tried desperately to calm them down, before the angry teenagers could chase Zero down, X blocked their way, the entire crowd stopped and went quiet.

Thing is, now he couldn't tell whether he made things better or worse.

The Reploid leading the pack clenched her fists, "Grrrr.... LET US SEE ZERO!" She yelled, the rest of the pack raising their fists in the air.

X would rather be anywhere else right now, but he learnt from experience that you'd have to stay calm if you want to handle hyperactive teens.

X sighed deeply, then said as clearly and sternly as possible, "Not until all of you explain yourselves." he paused, "I don't want to resort to violence, but I will if absolutely necessary, so can all all of you co-operate with me?" He took another deep breath and hoped that things would slowly resolve peacefully-

"HOW DARE YOU INTERFERE WITH OUR PLANS OF MEETING ZERO?!" One of them yelled, the others shouted simillar things in agreement.

They started trying to push past him, but he somehow managed to keep them from going on a rampage.

...Unfortunately, life, as he should've figured out ages ago, was never that simple.

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MEANWHILE...

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The two were escaping the crowd so quickly that it was all a blur to Zero, all he knew was that he needed to run, fast.

Eventually, they found a hiding spot in an alley, Axl put down the groceries that he had held in one hand, the other he had used to hold Zero's hand as they were running away.

After a few moments of catching their breaths, Axl turned to look at Zero and said, "Zero, I've never seen you like this before, you'd usually keep your cool around admirers, but I've never seen you- well, you know what I'm talking about."

"Well... yeah, I would, but there's just...so many of them." He panted, still exhausted from running.

"Heh, I suppose so." Axl said, "Y'know, Zero, to be honest, I think it's kinda obvious that you'd have obsessive fangirls stalking you."

"Hm? What's that supposed to mean?" Zero asked, what was so special about him? He was just another Hunter doing his job, that was all.

"Eheh, Zero, it's actually kinda suprising that you don't know." he said,  "You've just got those qualities that fangirls seem to love."

"O-okay..." Zero stammered, he didn't know why he was the one people seemed to be attracted to, and he didn't care, he just hoped that X could manage the mob all by himself.

What was he thinking? Of course X could manage it, if he managed to defeat Sigma multiple times by himself, then of course he could manage a crowd of screaming fangirls.

"...Hello? EARTH TO ZERO!" Axl yelled, Zero immediately snapped out of his thoughts.

"Zero, this is no time to be zoning out!" Axl told him, "We'll need to get back out there before X becomes roadkill!"

"Yeah, you're right." Zero said, "I don't want to give him any more trouble than I already have, besides, I think I've calmed down a little." He paused, looking at Axl, "So? Hurry up, we don't want to keep him waiting, do we?"

"Y-yeah, right!" Axl grabbed the grocery bags and quickly followed behind Zero, he hated being rushed, but it was understandable in this case.

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Eventually, Zero and Axl caught sight of X, who was currently holding back against the tackle of an angry fangirl (and resisting the pull on one of his feet thanks to another), they stopped and let go at the sight of the two other Hunters.

"Zero, Axl! Thank goodness both of you are back! I was really worried about you two, plus I wasn't sure how much longer I could hold b-" X was interrupted by heaps of incomprehensible screaming, "ZERO!!! OHMIGOSH, I'M SO HAPPY THAT YOU DECIDED TO COME BACK! CAN YOU TAKE A SELFIE WITH ME?!"

X yelled out loudly enough for the two Hunters to just barely hear him, "I'm sorry, Zero! I tried reasoning with them, but I think they'll only listen to you!"

"It's alright, X, I'll handle this." Zero stepped forward, the fangirls were  getting closer, "Okay, can any of you explain this?" He said as sternly as possible, something he was thankfully very good at.

One of the fangirls stepped in front, she seemed to be a mixture of shy, anxious, nervous and timid at the same time, she might've been the most sane of the crowd, "'Uh, Ummm, w-where do I start?! Uh, it's just t-that we're all your biggest fans. a-and w-we started a club dedicated to fangirling, all a-about you, of course," she was getting red in the face, obviously embarrassed, "I-it started off with just t-talking about you and writing s-silly fanfiction, but over time. we started doing m-more, ummm, questionable things, like..." Her voice trailed off, "Like...what?" Zero asked, not realizing that he had probably made one of the worst mistakes in his life, he could hear Axl give him a sigh of disapproval in the background and X backing away slowly.

The girl was a stuttering mess by now, the words at the tip of her tongue, but they wouldn't come out, perhaps it was for the best, Zero thought.

"You don't have to, it's fine, if it makes you feel that uncomfortable, then you should stop." he said, everyone sighed a breath of relief, Zero was glad that he dodged a bullet there.

"Anyway, I suppose I should ask you, how'd you manage to know where I was?" He asked, hoping that it was just stalking, and nothing else-

"Um- uhhhh.... I-we...ermmm..." her face was getting hot and sweaty, and was almost, if not redder than Zero's armor, suddenly, one of the fangirls from the crowd raised her voice.

"It was only a matter of stalking, sheesh, why are you such a mess?"

Someone else spoke up, "...And in order to do that, someone thought it was a good idea to break into Maverick Hunter HQ."

The club leader was getting red in the face, "H-hey!  It's not l-like we had any other options! Besides, it w-was a decision we a-all agreed on!"

The timid fangirl, the first to speak up inhaled, and then said, "No, it wasn't!  You FORCED us to agree! And even then, only two others volunteered for the break-in!"

Axl decided to speak up, "Besides," he said, "Wasn't there a better, more sane option? Wouldn't any normal human being- or Reploid just, I dunno, walk up to the nearest person and ask, 'Hey, do you happen to know where Zero was headed?' You know, something that DIDN'T involve breaking the law?"

"NO ONE ASKED FOR YOUR OPINION, LOSER!' The club leader screamed.

"Okay, I just want everyone to stop," X raised his voice, "Can we just talk it out without a second of shouting?"

"..."

"Alright," Zero continued interrogating the group, "So you broke into Hunter Base, and how'd you find out where I was?"

"Oh, we broke in, grabbed some purple-haired Navigator chick by the neck and asked where you were headed." 

Purple-haired Navigator... could it have been... Layer?!

"Y-you what?!" All three of them were shocked beyond any further wording.

One of the fangirls also decided to speak up, "You almost got arrested there! We saw it all through the side window!"

"But at least we didn't!" The club leader yelled, her sapphire eyes giving an angry glare.

Finally, X decided to get his point across, "So, what I'm getting here is that you broke into HQ without any sort of authorization and threatened a Navigator who had little to nothing to do with this, on the chance that she knew Zero's location, that's punishable by law!"

"Yeah!" Axl joined in, "You could get arrested by the police at any time now- wait, we basically are the police!" He smirked.

Zero smiled, "There's no need to arrest anyone, Axl, look at who's coming."

They all turned their attention to several Ride Chasers with the Maverick Hunter logo on them, Zero flashed a quick thumbs up towards a Hunter he recognized from his own unit.

"Sorry 'o keep 'ou waiting, sir." He apologized, "There was a bit o' a delay tracking 'em down, Didn't even expect you to be involved in this! Did anything bad 'appen to you, sir?"

Zero shook his head, giving another small smile, "There wasn't any trouble at all, don't worry." X shot him a look that was somewhat angry and teasing at the same time.

"That's good to hear, sir, now if you don't mind me, I'll 'ave to arrest these folks, HQ's probably gonna let 'em off with a bit o' the ole' interrogation, well, minus the ones who broke in an' threaten'd that Navigator, 'ope that lass is alright."

While a few members were kicking and screaming as they were being handcuffed, the rest accepted their punishment with no problem.

Before they were taken away, Zero decided to say one last thing, "You know, if you asked nicely without the aggresiveness, I would've been glad to give an autograph or something."

One of the fangirls turned around and said, "We know, well most of us, anyway, but thanks for putting an end to Liz's madness, most of us were too terrified of her to object to anything."

Liz turned out to be the Reploid leading the club, she was screaming agressively, trying to free herself of the handcuffs.

Zero laughed a little, "No problem, I hope this'll be an important lesson for all of you."

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"Hey, Axl, Remind me to request higher security once we get back to HQ." X said as they were walking to Dr. Cain's house, it was already late in the evening, he was probably already worried sick.

"Sure, we don't want anything like that to happen ever again, after all!" He grinned.

"By the way, Axl, I remember you telling me that I have qualities that fangirls seem to love." Zero said, "What exactly did you mean by that?"

"Hm? What's this? Something I missed out on?" X smiled.

Zero told him what had happened in the alley.

"Well, I can certaintly see what Axl meant by that." X nodded.

"Hm?"

"Well, to answer your question, Zero," Axl grinned, "You're insanely cool, and not just character-wise, they probably have a thing for your hair and the rest of your appearance, too."

"Oh, this?" He looked at himself, "I really don't see what's so appealing about it, looks too flashy to me."

"Riiight, clearly whoever made you cared more about your design than fixing your agonizing unawareness issue." Axl groaned.

Axl took out his phone and opened up some sort of social networking app, X and Zero stared to look at what he was doing.

Soon enough, he opened up some sort of tabloid profile, one of their latest posts was a poll titled, "Which of these Maverick Hunters is the Hottest?" And surprise, surprise, all three of them were the poll options.

It hadn't even been out for a day and the poll already had over 10,000 votes, Zero ranked first with 71%, X with 10% and Axl with 19%.

"See? Told ya, Zero, people go crazy for the hair." Axl grinned.

 Zero wasn't sure whether to be flattered or embarrased to rank first, he didn't look that good to people, did he?

No matter, it didn't matter if he was the most attractive or not, what mattered most was whatever he was tasked to do in the present.

Eventually, they reached Dr. Cain's house, way later than they thought they'd be, of course.

"So all of you are finally here! I was getting very worried, did something happen?" The old archaeologist asked.

"Let's just say that we ran into a bit of...trouble." Zero forced a smile.

"No matter, I'm just glad you managed to come, thanks for taking care of the groceries, I'm sure I can count on you again, right?" He chuckled.

"Dr. Cain, I'm sorry, but with all due respect, never again." Axl said.

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(Author's Note): I had a bit of writer's block writing this chapter, but I managed to get it done! I wanted to write a chapter with the kinda-4th-wall-break about Zero having fangirls, it took a long time to finish this one because I had to change some major plot points along the way, it was tiring, but I think it was worth it!