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Previous parts(please read first):
Chapter I:
-Part One: Meet the Family
-Part Two: It Comes in Waves
-Part Three: Box of Memories
-Part Four: Do I Know You?
-Part Five: Recovery
-Part Six: The Docks
-Part Seven: Going Up
-Part Eight: Ins and Outbreaks

Attached to a lonely dock, a small boat was trying to drift away. The choppy water and rain seemed to make a compelling argument towards rushing out into the ocean beyond. X pulled himself up with his scared arms, gasping for breath. The bandaids Emilia had stuck to him were still holding quite well despite all the water. One good hard pull, and he wreched himself out of the water and flat onto the small wooden dock.

He layed there for a moment while rain danced on his back. To some extent it helped sooth the bruises ontop of the large, stinging burn scar. X pushed himself up, onto his hands and knees and coughed a fair ammount of seawater onto the ground infront of him. As he coughed, grunnies began pulling themselves out of the water, joining him on the dock. A few shoook the water off, only to still be wet furrballs.

X rolled over, onto his back and laughed a little. He had survived... survived yet again. A grunny hopped onto his stomach and purred oddly. He put his hand on the creature. "We need to get out of this weather, little buddy. Help me find some shelter." X started to shivver.


A year and a half ago...

Paulie and Emilia pulled the limp, unconscious man up together. One arm each. The young man coughed, spitting out seawater and sand and began to mutter about odd things, "Such power... he's too powerful... what have I done? Failure." He quieted down again and the couple walked him back toward their small house near the beach.

When they brought him inside, he was sweating and shivvering. "I think he's sick, Paulie."

"Of course he's sick, Em. He's from G-Corp." Paulie had just noticed the embroidered logo on this man's coat and he didn't like it one bit.

"Let it go, Paulie." She said, walking him over to their couch infront of a small fireplace with dying embers still burning in it. They had no TV. "It doesn't matter where he came from. What matters is that he needs our help."

Paulie looked down. "You're right. I'm sorry." He smiled and looked up, "I'll go get some blankets while you get him out of those wet clothes."

A few minutes later, Emilia was helping Paulie lay the blankets on this stranger. Still out, the man shivvered and twitched. "Withdrawls," Paulie said, noticing more than the fresh burn scars on this person's body. "He must be loaded with all sorts of chemicals." Paulie stared at him for a moment. "We should give him the spare bedroom. This is only going to get worse."



X's scarf lay over the top of a crate, water dripping from its tattered ends. Opposite that crate, X sat on the floor, his back against another, shivvering and trying to warm up inside the cold warehouse. He didn't bother to move as he heard footsteps approaching and then stop nearby. X tilted his head upward at what he assumed was a person.

"Hey!," a fat security guard shined a flashlight into X's face, trying to intimidate the intruder. "Get going. You don't belong in here."

X rubbed his arms as he seemed to stare directly into the light, not flinching. "It's raining. We need to dry off."

"I don't care," said the security guard. He started to gesture with his flashlight, indicating a clear path toward an exit. "Get your butt out of my warehouse."

X stood up, using the crate he sat against as balance. He leaned against it. "I don't think this is actually your warehouse." He paused, "Is that a flashlight you're shaking at me?"

"What does it look like?" The guard rolled his eyes.

"It looks like you're trying to rush me out of here and maybe that's the only thing you carry." X took a step forward as he began to stretch out his hand in the direction of the guard.

The security guard took a quick step backwards and pulled out a can of pepper spray, which he pointed directly at X's eyes. "Don't try anything. Just get going." His hand shook.

X could hear the small canister rattling in the guard's hand. He lowered his arm. "That's probably a really bad idea, if you've got what I think you've got."

"Don't make me use this. I will use this if I have to."

"Alright," X said calmly, "Before you go spraying anything in an enclosed area like this, you aught to know something about me."

"What?"

X leaned forward a tiny bit, his face lighting up in the flashlight. "I'm already blind. I'm just trying to get the scarf I know is behind you."

"Oh." The guard let up, clipping his spray back to the side of his belt. He shined the flashlight into X's eyes, moving it around a bit to be sure of this fact. X hardly blinked. The guard lowered his light and stepped aside, adding, "Sorry, uh... you need some help?"

"No, I got it." X whipped his wet scarf off the crate, revealing the large, squarish, red letter G stamped on the side of it. He wrung out the scarf a little, dribbling water onto the floor.

"Hey, don't do that!," the security guard barked.

"Why not?," X asked, continuing to wring it out.

"The stuff in these crates is sensitive to excess moisture."

X stopped for a moment, finding another mass of wet on his scarf and wringing it out again. "That what they told you to say?"

"It's in the G-Corp security manual."

X stopped entirely, and turned toward the fat security guard, who was sweating a little at this point. "What?!" He twitched. "That place is still... impossible. Donovinh was supposed to..." He stared in the direction of the guard and ground his oddly sharp teeth, "You work for G-CORP?!"

The guard stepped back. He noticed the odd teeth and suddenly became aware of dozens of pairs of red eyes staring at him from all around. He turned his head to get a better look at the stranger in the warehouse and could see clear the scarf he now wore. The scarf itself seemed angry as he was certian it was flapping around in a non-existant wind.

"Eh... X lives," The guard stammered out before dropping his flashlight. The lense cracked on the floor and the light flickered out.

"You're damn right, I do."