The Shadows of the Rebellion: The Crimson Haze
By: Tcurbittraazxmtot
Chapter 1: The Story So Far
The Maverick Hunter Base was short of a leader. That's where Chief R came in. Chief R was thought to be dead after the traitorous move made by Colonel Redips. Chief R was found to be alive, barely. They repaired him and he was inactive for months on end. Then he woke up, as good as new. The resistance had in the meantime been under the control of Massimo, the faithful Steel Massimo. With the resistance all set up and running smoothly, the Maverick Hunters asked Chief R to join them and be their leader. He refused at first…but joined later as the Maverick Hunters Zero, X, and Axel had asked him to join in person, being reunited with their friends again set them at ease and gave them confidence. Chief R joined.
Soon after the Redips incident and the commissioning of Chief R, an energy source was located at a top-secret lab found in the middle of the arctic tundra of Maximus City. Chief R had the Maverick Hunter Navigator check up on Maximus City and found out on hidden and secret Maverick Activity. Plans were made and Chief R decided to send out his best team. Zero, X, and Axel were immediately signed up. The problem is that Zero went missing after a mission and now it was up to X and Axel to do the job on their own.
As far as the Maverick Hunters know, Zero is only missing. But really he was captured, and is currently trying to escape the clutches of the world's biggest new threat…Dr. Mercurus. After Zero was sent to the coast of the tropical dome of Gergan City, he quickly, and without ease, finished his mission to save the world from what used to be the worlds greatest threat. Dr. Whacky, a scientist who was angry and wanted to destroy the world for giving him such a crappy, half-assed last name, was planning to send a rocket of uranium explosives to destroy Maximus City. Zero was deployed and he literally kicked his ass to Maverick Hunter Base. Dr. Whacky was a simple mad scientist, no big deal.
But the real problem was with some Data he had found on the mission about a familiar subject that only brought him to bad memories. The documents he found were on…Supra-Force metal. Dr. Mercurus's spies found out Zero's intrusion on their affairs, and immediately sent several Mavericks after him. Zero was outnumbered fifteen to one, but he put up a most excellent fight, taking out seven of them and wounding a few others badly. He was captured and then taken to Maximus city and put in a holding cell. Now the story continues.
Chapter 2: Ground Zero
The guard bound Zero's hands and took his Z saber. He led Zero down the elevator and into the high security cells. It seemed like forever as the guard pushed him down the long hallway of prisoners who were unfortunate to find out about the plans. He passed several reploids who looked like average citizens of the city. But there were others who looked battle hardened. He was moved past one particular cell that had a female reploid. She was slender and looked like a first class fighter. He looked at her and she returned the look.
The guard pushed him onward and past a few more cells, about half way through the hallway and pushed him through an open cell like the others, pushing a few buttons and swiping a card through a reader as a force field suddenly appeared over the open entrance to the cell. Zero sighed lightly and leaned against the wall near the shield, looking at the ceiling. "Ok…a few more minutes and I'll be all set to put it into motion. Then I'll be able to get out of here and decimate this place and cause some trouble. Maybe even snatch myself some goodies."
A slight laugh came from the cell opposite the wall Zero was leaning against. "Planning on escaping? Hate to say it but I've been locked up in here for months and I haven't found a way out since." Zero blinked and turned his head. "Oh is that so, huh? Well your not me so I can imagine how that would be a difficulty. You sound familiar…do I know you?"
A laugh came and the o so familiar voice answered him back. "I don't imagine so. I've dealt with lots of people before, but I don't remember a voice like yours. I'm a bounty hunter, so I get around." Some shuffling was heard and the voice came again. "So what's you plan on getting out of here?"
Zero grinned slightly. "Well…before I was captured and locked up in here I activated a virus in their computer's database. It's completely undetectable so they won't find it. It will go off and destroy all their security so we can escape. Then I'll get out of here, get my weapon, let the escaping reploids from here cause a ruckus, then that's where I'll fight and defeat the boss here and save the day yet again."
A small chuckle came from the other cell and clapping resounded. "Bravo. Sounds like you've done this before. "Zero nodded to himself. "Yup. I'm A Maverick Hunter so it's in the criteria for the job. I don't suppose you'll help me huh? My money was taken, but I wouldn't mind some company and help, huh bounty hunter?"
Silence befell the cells and then he answered. "Sounds like fun." Zero gave a chuckle. "Well better get ready, the virus should go off any second now…" Just as Zero said, the virus shut down their security and the force fields fell. Zero ran out quickly and ran down the hallway, knocking down the guard and beating him up and stuff. After rendering the poor sap unconscious, zero turned and saw the female reploid he saw earlier. But only long enough to see her tackle him, and run to the exit, a glimpse of a tail as Zero fell to the floor.
Zero got back up and cut his bonds on the fallen enemy's blade weapon. He grabbed his Z Saber from him and hitched it back behind his shoulder and turned back to free his new comrade. He ran to the cell and looked into it, seeing something he thought he would never see again. The reploid who he thought he would never see again. He was looking face to face with the true, actual Bounty Hunter that he had supposedly met before. Standing before him was Spider.
Chapter 3: Cat Fight
Zero stood gaping at the sight before him. Spider was actually a reploid that Redips just copied! There was actually a real Bounty Hunter called Spider! He was shocked and it took a while before he could say anything. Zero took a step back and watched spider move out of the cell. "You're Spider! I didn't think you existed!" Spider let out a small laugh and shrugged. "I al pretty sure I do exist. How do you know me anyways? I have never met you before."
Zero shook his head lightly, getting himself out of the daze. "Well several months ago a few friends and I were trying to stop the mavericks from destroying a city. The leader turned out to be Redips, out leader, and we fought him alongside a friend we had met along the way named…Spider. The Redips showed us that he was actually spider. We never thought that he actually copied somebody." Spider had a grim look on his face. "D-did you kill him?" Zero nodded. "Yup. Defeated him in two turns!" Spider sighed. "Oh. I see. Well then I guess I don't have to worry anymore about him coming back. He was stealing my data so he could turn into me and locked me up in here. Thanks to you I'm out of here. Of course as promised I'll help you."
Zero nodded, and ran out of the door that leads outside. Spider followed him and now they were in a long hallway. Since there was no security, there were guards everywhere. They needed to get to the exit to let everybody escape. There were several guards in this hallway and a few of them were running this way. Zero smiled and with his Z saber in hand ran at them. One of the chickened out right there and ran back to where he was running from. Spider took him out the a single card.
Zero got close to the guards and then a red haze started radiating from him. With lightning fast reflexes he quickly moved around them and the red haze stayed behind, almost a replica of him and Zero took his saber, cutting them from behind at the same time the haze did, hitting all of them with several different slashes and swipes. They didn't see it coming until it was too late.
The guards were dead and now they could continue. They ran past the crumble of sizzling and sparking reploids on the ground as they were followed by all the different prisoners. They turned the corner and saw even more broken reploids. They continued until they reached a door that led outside of the complex. The prisoners ran out into the city. Now Zero and Spider had to take out the boss. Zero put away his Z saber. And where he put it came out a different handle.
It was red and white and if you looked at it long enough you could tell it was powerful and looked kind of like zero himself. "This is when I get serious. Time to kick their butt!" The blade of the sword was unlike any other. When zero activated the handle, flames shot out of it taking a somewhat blade-like form, staying straight enough to hit somebody with.
Zero ran down the hallway and running past the prisons they went deeper into the complex, going down stairs and even a few elevators. Then they reached the core. This is where they surprisingly found the female reploid. She was fighting some other female reploid who looked tough and professional. The unknown reploid was using small daggers, and was actually doing pretty well for herself.
Zero figured she would be time for now and looked around for the Dr. Mercurus. He looked around and quickly enough spotted the doctor working on a nearby computer, trying to quickly download the information onto a disk. Zero smiled and took the opportunity to try and spoil some other mastermind's plans. He jumped to the doctor and knocked him out of the seat and quickly right clicked the document, sent it to the trash bin. "Hey doc, you have any good games on here?" Zero emptied the trash bin must to be sure it was gone. "I'm kind of bored now." The doctor stood up and his eyes widened. "What have you done? Now wee can't continue our plans! This will cost you your life!"
Zero nodded. "Ok. Here comes the boss fight." The doctor laughed. "Oh you're not fighting me. You're fighting him…" The doctor turned and pushed a button on a remote control he had and a large reploid came out of an open doorway and looked at Zero. Zero watched it come out and blinked. "Whoa." The doctor shut down the core and ran along the walkway towards the core heading to pick up the supra force metal. Zero saw this but had his hands full with the reploid. "Spider! Take him out!" Spider saw the urgency in Zero's voice and nodded to him, throwing cards at the doctor. One card nicked his legs and sparks flew from it as he fell on the walkway.
The female reploids were still going at it. Although our mystery girl was kicking the others butt. Sparks flew as she sunk one of her daggers into the others shoulder. She screamed and fell to the side to escape the other from going into her chest. There were no more openings and so she backed off, waiting for the bad one to make a move. She was gasping for air, holding her lifeless arm in her free hand. As the doctor was taken out the bad one looked over for a split second, and in that second the other reploid ran at her, grabbed her good arm and swung her about, throwing her down the abysmal pit where the core used to be. Victory.
Zero although the greatest fighter there ever was was having a hard time with the giant reploid. He couldn't give a hard enough hit. He backed off for a minute. He3 knew he needed more strength. He needed to go into hyper mode. He stood there, and focused his energy. A large blue glow radiated from him until it was so bright you couldn't see him. Energy was circulating the room ad the light grew weaker, absorbing into Zero. Zero was now black, stronger, and ready for anything. The giant reploid attacked by smashing his large fists into the ground. With Zero's increased Dexterity he jumped out of the way and quickly ran up it's arms, using his flaming Red Lotus Saber he spun up into the air and creating a small vortex of flame with his sword attacked the giants head, slicing it right off.
Spider ran after the doctor, trying to hit him with cards to stop him but not kill him. The doctor grabbed the supra force and using his remote control transported it somewhere. The doctor was about to push the self destruct button but it was destroyed as Spider threw another card. The doctor was thrown off balance and fell off the walkway, grabbing onto the floor and dangling by only a few fingers. Spider reached him and held out his hand. "Grab my hand if you want to live!"
The doctor laughed. "You're all going to die! Since you destroyed the remote the self destruct will activate anyways. Hahaha!" The doctor released his grip from the walkway and fell down the endless pit. Spider ran back towards the others. "Hey! We need to get out of here! This place is going to blow!"
Zero powered down and put away his saber. The looked at the female reploid. She looked back and gave him a mysterious smile. Zero smiled back and ran over with Spider, looking at her slim figure, cat tail and cat ears. "Hey. We need to get out of here quickly." The female crossed her arms. "Sounds like a plan. Who are you anyways?" Zero held out his hand. "My name is Zero. I'll be your knight in shining armor today."
The reploid laughed lightly. "Nice to meet you Zero. My name is Kat." She shook his hand. Spider looked around. "Come on guys! We need to escape!" Kat nodded. "Follow me. I know the quickest way out." She led them to a door that led onto a circular platform that gave a large view of the city. Zero looked at the buildings and noticed that there was at least a thousand feet between them and the ground. "Whoa. How are we going to get out of here now?"
Kat looked down and smiled. "We climb!" She jumped off the building and grabbed onto it with one of her daggers. She slowly started to climb down the building. Zero laughed lightly. "Ok then. That settles it." He followed her, using his Z saber to stab into the wall. Spider watched them and sighed. "Ok then, I'll find my own way down." He used a special car that was attached to a small rope. He threw the card at a nearby building and swung down quickly landing safely on a lower building. Spider then swung again until he was safely on the ground. He ran to the bottom of the building and watched them slowly climbing down. The building started blowing up in certain spots. Spider watched them, unable to help. "Hurry up you guys!" Zero looked down and decided to take a shortcut. He jumped off the building with his saber and landed hard, watching Kat. "Jump! Or else you won't make it!"
Kat looked down and sighed as she jumped down just as the building exploded. The explosion knocked her off balance and Zero jumped to where she would land and grabbed in midair before she landed. She shook her head and smiled at him. "My hero." Zero smiled and let her up on her feet. "We did it. Now we can try and find where the supra force metal went to. Then we can save my friends and report back to HQ."
Spider sighed. "Ok then, count me in." Kat nodded. "Yeah. I want to help as well." Zero nodded. "Ok then. We should go to HQ first." Zero walked on and the others followed him. The went on, the next adventure right around the corner,