CHAPTER 3: WELL THAT ESCALATED QUICKLY
Zero and Ayden were both walking through the forest, still trying to catch their breath from the battle that has occurred just only moments ago.
Moments ago: It was a pretty heated battle between the small army of dogoos and radishers against Ayden and Zero. Furies of steel was being swung in different directions, blows and hits were being thrown, and battle cries (along with some real crying) were being yelled out. All of a sudden Zero jumped back and prepared his blade to use his "deadliest" attack he knows so far, Steel Slicer. Within a split-second, the remaining creatures were sliced in half, which left Ayden breathless and awe struck.
"Wow, Zero where did you learn such an attack," says Ayden, still out of breath as he walks alongside his partner.
"You mean my Steel Slicer attack? Heh, I learned that a few years ago," returns Zero in a pompous tone of voice as he is very proud of his attack.
Ayden looks at Zero who is flashing a cocky smile at him, and starts laughing, in which Zero stops smiling and starts scratching his head in wonder.
"Steel Slicer, that's the name of the attack? That name sucks", laughs Ayden as he slows his pace down and gently lays himself on the grass so he has something to grip onto as he completely laughs his very soul out…metaphorically.
Zero turns a beet red and glares right at Ayden. He then grabs Ayden by his collar and pulls him up to his eye level.
"OH YEAH MISTER, I WOULD LIKE TO SEE YOU COME UP WITH A BETTER NAME!" yells a very pissed off Zero.
Ayden calms down a bit before he pisses on himself, and starts to think up of a name that Zero can use instead of Steel Slicer. "How about Evil's Reckoning?" suggests Ayden as Zero puts him back down on the ground, but not in a gentle way.
"Evil's Reckoning? Damn that's good," whispers Zero to himself, as Ayden picks himself up off the ground and dusts himself off.
As the two continue to contemplate about the new name that Ayden suggested, a few screams ring out into the forests. Ayden and Zero about near piss themselves when they notice that the screams are human.
"What the hell was that?" questions Zero as he looks around the area that him and Ayden are in, and as he starts observing his surroundings, he sees Ayden running straight forward in front of them.
"Well wait for me jackass," says Zero as he runs after Ayden.
"It's the girls, quick it sounds like they are in trouble," responds Ayden as continues to run and lead the way for the two.
"You don't say," returns Zero in sarcasm.
"Smartass," thinks Ayden.
The two finally reach the scene of where the screams were ringing out, and sure enough Nepgear, Compa, and IF are to be found, fighting a giant dogoo. Ayden and Zero wait a bit to see how the situation plays out, before they make their heroic entrance to save the damsels (what assholes right?)
"Gear, don't you think you should be activating your HDD form by now?" asks a distressed IF as she, Nepgear, and Compa are backing up from the giant dogoo, which is now deemed Grand Dogoo.
"I-I can't, I'm not ready," responds Nepgear while she fights back tears.
"Please Iffy, don't pressure Ge-Ge," says Compa while all the girls continue to back away from the Grand Dogoo.
The Grand Dogoo starts to bounce fiercely towards the girls, and as the girls point their weapons towards the giant beast, Ayden and Zero finally decide to make their move.
The two jump in front of the girls and deflect the Grand Dogoo's attack just in the nick of time.
"Who the hell are you guys?" questions IF as the girls notice Ayden and Zero standing in front of them.
"Don't worry, we know Histoire, she asked us to help you girls out," responds Ayden quickly as he keeps his eyes on the target.
"T-Thank you," says Nepgear, but before she could finish her sentence, IF interrupts her.
"We didn't need any help," returns IF as she pushes her way past Ayden and Zero so she can get a better view of the Grand Dogoo.
"Well not from what we saw, right Ayden?" says Zero, but instead of responding Ayden pushes everyone down.
"Stop the bickering, and let's get out of the way!" yells Ayden as he pushes Zero, Compa, and Nepgear out of the Grand Dogoo's attack path.
Thinking he just won one for the team, Ayden feels like a true hero, but to everyone's astonishment, Ayden forgot to move IF out of the monster's path, and IF ends up right in the middle of the Grand Dogoo.
Spews of curses are falling out of IF's mouth, but since she is inside the Grand Dogoo, the monster's body absorbs all of the curses and makes them into angry muffling sounds.
"Whoops," says Ayden as he realizes what has just occurred.
Zero is the first one to pick himself off the floor, as doing so, he extends his hand out to help both Compa and Nepgear off the ground.
As everyone is finally off the ground, they all focus on the Grand Dogoo who now has taken IF prisoner in his body.
"Ew, poor Iffy," cries Compa as she readies her giant syringe.
"Please, we got to help IF now, I should have just activated HDD" says Nepgear as she fights back tears again and readies her beam saber.
"HDD?" questions Zero as he already unsheathed his sword and now points it at the Grand Dogoo.
"Now's not the time for questions Zero, we have to help IF out," says Ayden as he unsheathes his rapier.
Zero shrugs his shoulders and lunges for the giant creature, but just as he is about to land the first blow on the Dogoo, he hears Ayden yelling to him in an alarming tone.
"WAIT NO ZERO, DON'T STRIKE THE DOGOO," yells Ayden.
Hearing Ayden yell throws Zero out of his concentration and he ends up landing flat on his face and with the momentum he picked up, it was a very bad crash.
"Damn that hurts…What the hell kid?!" yells Zero from his spot in the dirt.
"Think about it, if we try to hit the Dogoo at any angle, there is a great chance we will hit IF as well," explains Ayden as he holds on to his rapier but points it to the ground.
"We don't want to harm Iffy, but we need to fight off this nasty creature," says Compa with a distressed look on her face.
"What can we do? If only I activated HDD as IF told me too, she wouldn't be stuck in the Dogoo," cries Nepgear as she lets the water works flow.
"Ge-Ge, don't cry, we will get Iffy out," says Compa as she tries to console Nepgear. She looks at both Zero and Ayden and requests in a defeated tone, "Please help us defeat the creature."
Zero and Ayden both nod and turn their focus back on the monstrous Dogoo and its hostage.
"Damn I'm pretty much stumped, you got any ideas kid?" mumbles Zero as he looks at Ayden who is thinking hard at the moment.
"Maybe…if we are able to pull IF out, we can then attack the Dogoo in a full-on assault." says Ayden in a tone that makes him sound like a winner.
Zero looks back at the target and sighs, "I mean, that is a smart and pretty obvious idea, but how will we pull her out, we don't have any chains or ropes to utilize."
"Well, we can make a human chain and pull her out that way," replies Ayden with a cocky smirk as he feels that his brilliant plan cannot fail.
"Well genius, will it work, because I heard Dogoo…goo is the stickiest gunk and it's even stickier than the stickiest glue possible," responds Zero in a not so satisfied fashion.
"Uh…guys, have you found a way to help Iffy out, if so please tell us," asks Compa as she and Nepgear stand by patiently trying to think of their own ways to help IF out.
Without responding to Zero, Ayden runs to Compa and Nepgear and grabs their hands, guiding them closer to Zero and the Dogoo. He then quickly explains to them his plan and reassures them that if that doesn't work, they will find another way. With that, both Compa and Nepgear nod and grab the forearm of each person to make a chain and Zero quickly grips as best as he can to what seems to be the strongest branch on a nearby tree (in the order of Nepgear-Ayden-Compa-Zero-Tree).
With the Grand Dogoo in their sights, Ayden starts to insult and taunt the Dogoo, hoping to bring it near them, which actually works to Ayden's surprise.
"Get ready Nepgear," says Ayden and Nepgear nods and once the Dogoo was right in front of them, Nepgear moves vigorously into the Dogoo and grips onto IF's hand.
"Okay, Ge-Ge has a grip on Iffy's hand," says Compa since Nepgear cannot speak due to her being inside the Dogoo herself.
"NOW ZERO!" yells Ayden in anticipation.
"No need to yell," responds Zero and with all his strength, he successfully pulls everyone's weight and out comes Nepgear and IF, covered in Dogoo slime.
"Ge-Ge, Iffy, I am glad you guys are okay," cries Compa in happiness.
"Yuck, this is really disgusting," says IF as she prepares her Qatar and catches a few breaths of fresh air.
"I'm going to have to take at least 5 baths to get this slime off me," cries Nepgear in disgust as she prepares her beam saber once more.
With that, everyone went on a full-on assault on the Grand Dogoo and within minutes the battle was over and the heroes won.
"Thank you for all your help," says Nepgear in appreciation as she looks at both Zero and Ayden.
"Yeah…thanks, you guys really saved our asses back there," says IF with a weak smile.
"Yes, thank you," says Compa with a huge smile.
Ayden smiles to the girls and says, "No problem, as long as you guys are all fine."
Zero doesn't look at any of the girls, which strikes Ayden as being odd since they are thanking both of them.
Everyone then starts the journey back to Planeptune, the girls walking chatting away and apologizing to each other, while they walk in front of the two guys.
"Hey Zero, why are you so silent right now?" questions Ayden, breaking the ice between him and Zero as they walk towards Planeptune.
"Hmmm? Oh I don't know, I guess I'm just tired," responds Zero with a not-so-reassuring smile.
Ayden looks down and the group finally gets back into Planeptune's borders.
The girls made their way to the basillicom before the guys so they can go take bath together, while it took Ayden and Zero a bit longer to reach the basillicom.
"Ah, welcome back," says a familiar voice as Ayden and Zero walk into the basillicom and into its foyer.
"Histoire, we were successful," responds Ayden with a big goofy grin as he approaches the small being.
"We?" asks Histoire as she remembers that she only ask Ayden of this task since he was the only one present at the time.
"Oh, my friend Zero and I," corrects Ayden as he turns and points to Zero who is leaning on a wall closest to the basillicom's front doors with a bit of a serious look in his face.
Histoire gestures to Zero to come over but he shakes his head no in a kind of playful manner.
"I guess he's shy," says Histoire as she turns her attention back to Ayden.
She then hands Ayden a sack full of 10000 credits, "This is for helping me out, thank you so much."
"I really didn't do it for the reward, I did it to be helpful," returns Ayden with another goofy smile and thinks, "But a better reward would have been to see Nepgear, IF, and Compa bathing."
"Take the credits though, you deserve it for showing bravery and saving Planeptune's CPU candidate and her friends from peril," says Histoire with a soft smile.
Ayden grabs the sack and puts it in his back pocket which he finds weird because his pocket was still flat, even though the sack was in it.
"Video game logic," thinks Ayden as he waves bye to Histoire and heads for the door.
"You are welcome to come back to Planeptune's basillicom any time," responds Histoire as she waves back to Ayden.
Ayden and Zero both leave the basillicom, which makes Ayden jump because he forgot that Zero was in the basillicom with him.
As they walk down the street, Ayden stops Zero and when Zero turns around, Ayden is holding the sack to Zero.
"Here take it all, you help out a lot today, plus you bought me a weapon, so take it all," says Ayden as he still holds the sack up to Zero.
Zero laughs and responds, "Well, thanks but judging by the way you look, I'd say you don't have a place to stay tonight, so I'll just take my half."
Ayden looks at Zero, smiles and responds, "Thanks Zero, for everything."
He hands Zero 5000 credits, which Zero took joyful.
As Ayden was about to split ways with Zero and find a hotel to stay in, Zero calls to him in a calm manner.
"Hey kid, I don't think I ever caught your name," says Zero.
"Heh...my name is Ayden White," responds Ayden.
"I'll remember that kid…I mean Ayden, adios," replies Zero with a smile. Zero then walks into a crowd of people, and Ayden loses sight of him.
After walking for what seemed to Ayden was hours, he finally finds a hotel to stay in. As he opens the door to his room and jumps onto the bed for a good night's rest, he looks out the window and says, "Well this journey so far is hell, but I'm actually enjoying myself. I hope to not only find my way home but to save Gamindustri alongside the CPUs and the candidates."
With that, Ayden kicks off his shoes and fall asleep instantly.
Meanwhile, in a dark alley on the other side of Planeptune, three figures stand covered by shadows have a very suspicious conversation.
"Hey dumbass, remember you aren't supposed to help anyone unless they swear allegiance to Arfoire and ASIC," says the first figure, who seems to act like a tomboy.
"Yeah chump, plus what if he was associated with the CPUs?" asks the second figure, who seems to be a small rodent.
"I was pretty sure he wasn't, so get off my ass," responds the third figure who is a very familiar person, "Look he was just a kid and he needed help to find some people, plus I wasn't helping out of the care in my heart, I work for cold cash."
"Whatever, if 'she' heard of your mistake chump, you would have been turned into dust, so be lucky we are covering you ass," says the second figure.
"Both of you stop bitching, listen I just received our next assignments from 'her'," explains the first figure as she looks at her portable device.
"You head to Lastation and try to locate the mascot disc there," says the first figure as she points at the second figure.
"Damn it chump, why do I get low grade work?" questions the second figure in a complaint.
"Stop crying, I don't make the orders, I just follow them," replies the first figure in a harsh tone.
The first figure then turns to the third figure and says, "And you shit-for-brains, you need to go with him to Lastation and assist with the finding of the mascot."
"What are you going to do?" asks the third figure with a pissed off tone in his voice.
"I have to locate the mascot disc here in Planeptune," responds the first figure, "Meeting over. We shall rendezvous in back here when we complete our objectives."
As the three figures start to walk in different paths, the first figure turn to the third and says, "Don't screw shit up again, or else we will not be able to resurrect the Deity of Sin."
"Whatever," responds the third figure as he walks away from the other two and out into the moonlight.
There, Zero looks up at the moon and sighs, "Whatever, just as long as I can get back home as 'she' promised, I will work to revive the Deity of Sin and bring ASIC to topple over Gamindustri. Zero then, walks down the street out of the moonlight and towards his next destination.
CHAPTER 3 END.
*NOTE: I wasn't expecting that, even from my own story, just kidding. I hope everyone of the Fanfiction community had a great year, and I will see you all next year in 2014. Thanks for the support -DragoonAssassin