Chapter 6: A Growing Menace
"Hmm, this one? No, perhaps that one? Gah, it's too difficult to decide!" Uni grumbled as she searched through the list of possible Guild requests, each one seemed dissatisfying to her and thus the Candidate continued to look for a quest that she was keen on. Meanwhile Mars and Nepgear were standing further away, watching Uni get grumpier and grumpier.
"Is she usually like this whenever the two of you go on a quest together?" Mars asked the Candidate of Planeptune.
Nepgear chuckled and scratched the back of her head. "Sort of, she prefers to do quests that challenge her and make her strive to do better than anyone else, it usually ends with Uni getting into some sort of trouble."
"Thought so," Mars said, sighing and shaking his head.
After Noire and Neptune had parted away from the group and headed back to the Basilicom the Candidates of Lastation and Planeptune, along with Mars, made their way towards the Lastation Guild in a cheery mood. Mars was forced to listen to Uni and Nepgear banter between each other, both CPU Candidates talked about the current situation in both their respective countries – which was apparently all well – and then they talked about what they had been doing during that time period. Nepgear's tale about her life was rather uninteresting to her as the Candidate had to do most of Neptune's work as well as feed her constantly while attempting to continue her robot project, Uni told Nepgear about her time doing work alongside Noire and a few of the Guild quests she did by herself, then the Lastation Candidate told her friend about Mars, at least parts which the young man allowed. The Planeptunian Candidate took great interest in what information Uni divulged about, mainly to sate her curiosity.
Once the group arrived in the Guild Uni told Mars and Nepgear that she would be choosing the mission for the day, this left the other two by themselves with little to talk about. Uni looked around and gazed at Mars and Nepgear, the two appeared to be bantering in small talk as their conversations ended pretty quickly before being started up again after several minutes. The Lastation Candidate turned back to the computer screen in front of her and continued to scroll down the page for a suitable quest, yet none interested her.
Tch, this is annoying. I've got to find a quest that can prove my worth, one that can give Mars a challenge and one that can help improve Nepgear's skills, but none of them can provide all of those together. Oh, wait a minute, this one was posted just a few seconds ago.
Uni clicked on a mission link and read out what it said. "'Unknown robots running amok in southern region of Lastation, request help. Reward: 1,000 credits'. Huh, not bad, not bad at all. I'll hopefully get a chance to prove my worth, Mars gets a challenge and since it is robots we're dealing with Nepgear can salvage their parts for anything she needs. I better tell them."
The Lastation Candidate approached Mars and Nepgear, both of whom had stopped talking, and stood in front of them. "Hey, you two, I've found a quest for us to do," Uni informed them. "We're heading down south to some grasslands, apparently there's a few robots on the loose so we're gonna take them down. Th-That is if you want to of course."
Mars was not sure about it but he swore that Nepgear's eyes sparkled as she heard that there were robots around the place. "Robots? Really? That's so cool! I'll do it!" Nepgear said, she almost yelled in a happy tone.
"Hmm, I'm interested in seeing these robots for myself," replied Mars. "I wonder if they're related to those killachines we fought up north?"
"Guess we'll find out. Come on, let's accept this quest."
The group walked up to the registration counter and Uni began the quick process of talking to the receptionist to accept the quests, what made Mars suspicious was how the receptionist would always glance at him and would raise an eyebrow before looking back at the Lastation Candidate in front of her as well as the computer screen next to them. After much thinking and glancing Mars realised that the receptionist that was serving Uni at that moment was the same woman who had given him the S rank quests a few days earlier, although he wondered why she was always looking at him from time to time. It did not take long for Uni, Nepgear and Mars to be assigned to the quest at hand. After the receptionist nodded at uni the Candidate returned to Mars and Nepgear.
"Alright, are we good to go you two?" Uni asked.
"I'm good to go," Nepgear replied with a nod.
"Sure, why not," was Mars' reply.
Uni glared at the young man for a short moment before shrugging and sighing. "Whatever, Mars. Come on, let's get going."
The wind blew swiftly across the faces of the three figures flying in the sky, their hair swayed around the place as the wind picked up speed, to one figure the whole experience felt rather soothing. This was Mars' second time being in the air, well his third if one was to count him jumping off one of the Lastation Basilicom's balconies, and he had to say that it felt surprisingly calming. The young man glanced over at his right and left to see Black Sister on his right side and Purple Sister on his left side, both were holding his arms tightly as they flew over the land. Black Sister had a serious expression while Purple Sister had an untroubled look.
"Why so serious, Uni?" Mars asked her.
"Nothing, I'd rather stay focused on the mission ahead than worry about anything or anyone else if I were you," Uni replied, her eyesight focused on the land in front of her.
"I'm not worried about you if that's what you're implying, I'm just curious is all."
Black Sister glanced over at Mars and sighed in defeat. "Fine then, if you're so interested I'll tell you. I'm trying to keep my attention to the task ahead so I won't loose focus, I want to prove myself worthy by destroying as many of those robots as I can within a limited amount of time. You should do the same as well if you want to keep up with me."
Mars sighed and shook his head. "Seriously, this again? I thought I already told you that you don't have to prove your worth in a way that you believe will gain the praise of Noire, you've already proven it to me in my opinion."
The Lastation Candidate looked away from the young man and seemed depressed. "You just don't understand. I need to prove that I am worthy to be Noire's sister and the CPU Candidate of Lastation, I have to do this, I have to."
Mars would have tried to further reason with the Candidate of Lastation but logic dictated that it would have had no effect on her, therefore the young man turned his head away and sighed depressingly. He failed to notice Black Sister looking at him with a curious expression, that soon turned into a saddened look as she gazed at him before looking away. As this all happened Purple Sister listened and watched the conversation between Mars and Black Sister before noticing their expressions afterwards, the Planeptunian Candidate's thoughts were filled with ways on how to treat the situation between her two friends but nothing came to mind. Everyone's thoughts were interrupted by Black Sister when they came across some farmland.
"This should be far enough," the Lastation Candidate said, her eyes staring at the farmland before them in the ground.
With a nod from Purple Sister the two Candidates, along with Mars in their arms, surged downward in a slow speed. They gazed at the farmland, the small barns and the house that was located nearby, but there was something off about the scenery, something did not make any sense to the three of them. Where were the farmers? Where were the animals? There were not any birds around the area as well to add to the oddity. Once the group landed next to a large area of wheat the Lastation Candidate gazed at the surrounding area and glared with suspicion.
"This is too suspicious, there isn't anyone here as far as I can tell," Black Sister mumbled.
The Candidate of Planeptune clenched her fists and gritted her teeth before speaking. "Hello? Is anyone there? HELLO?"
"Be quiet, Nepgear!" Mars whispered harshly. "We don't know what may be out there waiting for us out there."
With silence reigning over the group the three of them ventured forth through the farmland and made their way towards the house, their weapons in their hands and stern expressions across their faces. Mars kept an ear out for any noises due to his sharp hearing, yet he heard nothing but the wind, this only made the young man even more wary of his surroundings. Black sister and Purple Sister were just as cautious as the three of them passed several farm tools and a wheelbarrow, Mars approached it and took a look at the ground.
"What are you doing?" the Candidate of Planeptune asked Mars.
"I'm trying to see if there are any tracks, if there are any then we might know what happened here," Mars replied as he carefully gazed at the ground.
"I am fairly sure that there isn't anyone here," Black Sister informed the group.
"Could it have been the robots?" Purple Sister asked her fellow Candidate.
The Lastation CPU Candidate merely shrugged. "I don't know, why don't you ask Mars? He might have something."
"As a matter of fact I do," Mars interjected. "See these markings on the ground? A few of them are tracks made by some sort of wheels, heavy ones from the looks of it, then there are these heavy footprints that are too large for a human. Then, of course, there is this." Mars picked up a piece of metal that was stuck in the ground among the grass, it was around the same size of his hand and once the young man turned it over a bullet fell out, he picked it up and hummed away. "Hmm, so it's a .308 round eh? Same ammunition as my rifle. Anyway, I think those rogue robots were hear not long ago and now the place is deserted, at least I think so."
"We better go search the house, just to be safe."
Mars nodded, agreeing with Black Sister's statement. "Alright then, you two can go check it out, I'll be over by those barns over there if you need me."
"Hey, since when did you give the orders?"
"Does it matter? Anyway, good hunting." Mars stood up and walked over towards the barns, he ignored the cold glare that emitted from Black Sister and wandered through the wheat field, his eyes kept a close watch on the ground in case something was there. As Black Sister grumbled and began to walk in the direction of the nearby house Purple Sister caught up with her and walked side-by-side with her.
"Hey, no need to get grumpy now, Uni," the Planeptunian Candidate said with a cheery tone. "Just imagine what these robots might be like. Perhaps they're built with an x-ray attachment or even night vision, or maybe even jet packs and laser machine guns? The possibilities are endless!"
The Lastation Candidate chuckled as she saw her companion's eyes brighten with pure excitement. "Well aren't you just an excited little kid now, eh? I hope what you're fantasising about isn't real."
As the two Candidates arrived outside the house they saw that the front door had been blown into hundreds of wooden pieces alongside small piles of stone, a large hole now replaced what had once been the front entrance. Black Sister and Purple Sister carefully entered the house to see a grizzly sight: the family of farmers who ran the farm were dead, torn apart limb from limb, one body – that of an unfortunate woman – had its insides sliced open and the guts had spilled onto the bloody ground. It appeared to be a family of five people, two middle-aged people who were likely parents, two teenagers between the ages of sixteen and eighteen, then there was the mutilated corpse of what looked like a nine year old kid. Purple Sister swiftly placed a gloved hand over her mouth to stop herself from throwing up while Black Sister merely gritted her teeth and looked away, she was sickened by the sight that was before her and her fellow Candidate, neither of them had seen such a sight before and they never wanted to again.
"This is sickening, utterly barbaric, so… I-I don't know what else to say," Black Sister mumbled, her eyes continuing to avert the grizzly scene.
"Did the robots to this?" Purple Sister asked, the contents of her stomach barely able to remain in her.
"I guess so, but who would command them to do this? I wonder, could it be the same person who designed those killachines? If that's true then there has to be some sort of conspiracy going on."
Before the two Candidates could leave the confines of the farmhouse a rumbling noise came from underneath the two of them from underground, they looked down to see cracks forming under their feet. They barely jumped out of the way to see a dark green mechanical figure burst out of the ground and fly directly into the air. The machine had a glowing, red eye in the centre of its rectangular face, large, thick yet manoeuvrable metal sheets covered the mechanical skeleton, its robotic arms and legs were thin, a small saw was in the place of its left hand while a steel plated fist was in its right, a small laser rifle was attached to its right arm and a jet pack was built into its back.
"Oh for the love of…" grumbled Black Sister as she and Purple Sister flew into the air, avoiding the laser fire.
Black Sister fired round after round but the robot was agile enough to avoid the hits, this made the Lastation Candidate pissed off as she dodged the robot's saw before managing to hit her mark. The mechanical menace was hit in the back of the neck at point-blank range, sending it crashing to the ground with a large thud. As it attempted to get back up Purple Sister entered the fray and fired a few rounds at the robot's jet pack, the damage received caused the device to explode in a fiery blast, the two Candidates flew higher into the air to avoid the blast and shielded their eyes. Once it was over they both looked down to see a charcoaled robot with missing legs and with most of its back completely missing, Black Sister looked over at her fellow Candidate and gave her a big grin.
"It may have been quick and strong but it didn't have our brains," the Lastation Candidate boasted pridefully. But her attention was soon interrupted by the sounds of gunfire coming from the barn, the Candidates glanced over to see Mars running across the grassy ground with berettas in his hands, empty bullet shells were spread across the field around him. His attackers were three robots who had a similar design as the one who had been smashed by the Candidates, except one of them was bulkier and had wheels for legs as well as missile launchers strapped onto its shoulders, and it looked as if it was ready to fire. Soon afterwards one missile was launched at Mars, who just managed to jump out of the way and into a few hay bales, the rogue missile flew past the Candidates and crashed into the farmhouse, the fiery inferno that followed after the blast burnt the family's remains as well as destroyed the house.
"Bloody hell. Mars! Hang in there!" Black Sister shouted as she and Purple Sister flew swiftly over towards the young man.
As for Mars, the young man had given up on using his bullets against the metal hide of his mechanical opponents, although his main concern was how he was going to disable, or more likely destroy, the missiles before he was blown asunder. Mars grabbed his two axes and, with his eyes glowing blood red, he charged at his opponents, more specifically the missile launcher robot. The mechanical enemy seemed to be surprised with this counter attack but were prepared for it nonetheless. As Mars swung his left axe at his designated target one of the other robots swung a sharp and bloodied blade at Mars, blocking the attack before the sounds of gunshots were heard. Mars was sent flying off away from his opponents to see a machine with a minigun attachment over its right shoulder and a chainsaw as both its arms, blood dripped off the deadly weapons. Mars looked down at his chest to see bullet holes all over him, blood dripped down his black shirt, then came a barrage of bullets from the minigun.
"MARS!" Black Sister yelled, tears began to form in the corners of her eyes.
The two CPU Candidates watched in horror as Mars was mowed down by the robot's minigun, the bullets kept hitting the young man all across his body, when Black Sister looked at him she saw his body standing up but it was just about ripped to shreds except for the head and a small area around the heart, both of which Mars appeared to be protecting at all costs. When the mechanical killer stopped its attack due to a lack of ammunition the bloodied and hole riddled body of Mars remained standing, his blood soaked the grass around them. Then, much to the shock of the Candidates – and even the robots – a red mist flowed out from Mars' body, it engulfed the young man all over, then to the amazement of everyone and everything Mar's body began to reconstruct itself to how it originally was before the minigun blasted him apart, his limbs grew back as did all his organs, even his blood had been regenerated, his clothes were tattered yet managed to cover some parts of his body, although the Candidates were given a good view of Mars' scars. The young man looked at the robots and a wicked grin formed on his face.
"You can't kill what can regenerate," Mars explained to them, his voice filled with anger. "Now then, let's dance!"
Brandishing his axes once more Mars charged forward at the robotic killers, this time his speed was quicker as was his attacks, he swung strike after strike, parrying blow after blow and even headbutted one of the robots. The mechanical killer with the missile launchers aimed at the young man and fired one missile out of the remaining five, but the missile never found its mark, it was destroyed by a vengeful Black Sister of Lastation, an angry expression was plastered across her face as she aimed her mighty weapon once more. "EX Multi Blaster!" Black Sister shouted as a bright beam shot forth into the missile launching robot, the attack smashed into the idle missiles and exploded, causing the machine to blast into many different pieces.
Purple Sister surged forward and parried one of the robot's attacks against Mars, the young man nodded a thank you to her, she returned it with a small smile. The Candidate swung her blade around and brought it towards the robot's neck, the small gun attached to her blade was aimed directly at the robot's eye. She opened fired without mercy, never stopping until it fell, sparks spluttered from what was left of its head. With only one mechanical opponent left Mars felt confident in his chances of winning, especially since he was now rather pissed off and had an extremely irritated Lastation Candidate along with an utterly curious Planeptune Candidate with him. The robot looked around the area before deciding to do the only thing it thought was valid at such a point: self destruction.
As soon as the robot started to heat up quickly Mars knew that it was going to self destruct, but this time he was the closest one to the robot, not Black Sister, and this time the self destruction sequence was much quicker than the event with the killachines. As the robot exploded in a deadly inferno Mars could see the fire approach him at a swift rate, it was about to engulf him when something grabbed him from the right side of his body and tackled him to the ground a safe distance away. Mars and the figure skidded across the grass for several seconds until the explosion had died away, then Purple Sister came running up to them.
"Uni! Mars! Are you two alright?" the Candidate asked them.
"Wait, Uni?" Mars muttered, he looked downwards to see Black Sister on top of him, her face was close to his while her arms were wrapped around him, her legs were on either side of the young man. When the Lastation Candidate stared at Mars the young man could see the anger and sorrow in her expression and her green eyes.
Black Sister uttered no words when her fellow Candidate arrived, instead she leaned herself up until she was sitting on Mars' stomach, then she slapped the young man across the face with all of her might, the slap left a dark red mark on Mars' left cheek. It was then that the Candidate spoke, her face gloomy and her eyes half shut. "Don't you dare… don't you dare do that again," Black Sister muttered to Mars. "I thought you were dead when that minigun mowed you down, I almost cried because of you. You idiot! You damn, stupid idiot!"
"Calm down, Uni," Mars tried to reason with the Candidate, but to no avail.
"Shut up! Why did you let it do that? Why?! Grrrrrr! You're a damn idiot." Black Sister got off the young man, stood up straight before sighing. "Come on, we should head back, there's nothing for us here. Besides, the dead family in that farmhouse is probably nothing more than a pile of ashes by now."
"What family?" Mars asked. When Black Sister refused to answer he looked over at Purple Sister for an answer, but the saddened expression he received from her said it all. "Ah, I get, no need to say anything, Nepgear."
"If it's alright with everyone I'm going to salvage some parts from these robots, maybe they can come in handy when I go and make some for myself," Purple Sister informed the others, they nodded in response and the Planeptune Candidate soon got to work.
Mars and Black Sister were silent, no word was uttered as the two stood side-by-side, leaning on the steel barn wall. The Lastation Candidate was gazing away from Mars – who had placed a nearby oversized, dark green jacket covered in dirt over him – and towards the burnt down farmhouse, a depressed expression was apparent. Mars looked over at the Candidate and tried to talk to her. "Come on, Uni, don't be like this," Mars said to her.
"Like what? Angry? Depressed? *Sigh* Why do I even bother helping you?" Black Sister replied, her voice low.
"Please, Uni, just forgive and forget already, I didn't mean to worry you like that."
"L-L-L-Like wh-what? I-I-I wasn't worried or anything, I was just… concerned about whether my efforts to help you were all in vain, then my time would have just been wasted for nothing."
"How nice, and I thought you actually cared about me. I thought we were friends"
Black Sister continued to look away from Mars while blushing. "W-Well, it isn't that I don't care about you, it's… it's true that I think of you as a f-f-f-friend. Got it?"
"If you say so. Damn, you tsunderes are hard to read sometimes you know that?"
"I'm not a tsundere! Why do you have to keep using that against me?"
"Because it's true." Mars would have laughed if he could have, he found the tsundere's expression to be quite funny to say the least.
"Hmm, well that's odd," Ares mumbled as he looked down at a small, portable computer attached to his left arm, the screen was showing some statistics which troubled him.
"What's wrong now?" the blonde woman asked, her patience was running thin due to her perverted companion's desire to search through the Lastation hardware store for supplies to help create some more machines, to summarise the woman was ready to savagely beat her companion up with anything she had nearby before dragging him away to where they were supposed to be heading.
"Oh nothing much, it's just my robots, they've gone offline is all."
"Wait, what robots?" The shape shifting woman was suspicious and highly concerned of what the hooded young man had been doing in his spare time whenever they were not on a mission, this was just one example of her concerns. She stared the young man down until he chuckled nervously and scratched the back of his neck, sweat formed around his forehead.
"Well, the thing is… I kinda finished off some of the old man's projects and sent them on a test run, last I checked they ended up south of Lastation in some old farmland. Hope you aren't angry with me for this."
The blonde woman walked up to her companion, her face filled with anger and her eyes narrowed at the young man before her – who was now trying to make an escape until one of her arms lunged forward and grabbed him by the collar. "You idiot! Did you even know what those robots were for?!"
"Yeah: search and destroy."
"Much more than that, you perverted minded simpleton! Those were experimental machines that were supposed to be kept locked up until further notice, they were not meant to be let out, be outfitted with random gadgets and then let loose into the world. Who knows how many people have been killed because of you. Dammit, it's like the killachine problem all over again."
"At least you didn't hit me this time. By the way, is it a bad time to ask you out on a date?"
The woman glared viciously at him before letting go and sighed deeply. "You're an idiot, you do realise that right? If only your older brother could see you now, he'd probably knock some sense into you."
The young man's eyes wandered to the ground, for the first time the shape shifting woman could see sorrow in his blue eyes. "He isn't here, but we are. Come on, we better get moving once I buy all of these parts that I want, then we can get going to the base."
Black Sister and Purple Sister carried Mars and the robotic parts all the way back to the Lastation Guild, the day had started to grow older as the sun moved westward while clouds began to appear all over the place, it seemed as if the evening and night were to become either windy or just rain in general. Once they returned to the Guild the Candidates reverted back to human form and received the quest reward, then came the issue of dividing the credits among each other evenly. It was quickly resolved thanks to Nepgear saying that she did not want nay credits, the robot parts were enough for her. When the group returned to the Basilicom they found Noire and Neptune in the gaming room, both senior CPUs had empty cups of pudding laying around the couch and at their feet while their attention was fixated on the large TV screen in front of them. When Mars, Uni and Nepgear entered the room the older CPUs did not even notice them.
"Take that, Lonely Heart!" Neptune gleefully shouted, her face bright, cheerful and full of determination, a Lastation controller was in her hands.
"Hey! Grrrrr… that wasn't a fair kill!" Noire complained. "You just did a 360 no scope headshot, that never works! You must have cheated somehow."
"Oh don't be such a sore looser and lighten up already, we're playing game after all. There's no need to be- what?! Why?!"
"Heh, that was called vengeance. Nothing like a headshot to calm the nerves these days."
"But that wasn't fair! I was trying to explain stuff and all that."
"It's just a game, Neptune. Calm down will you?"
"Says the tsundere who just whined about getting killed by someone who didn't need to use a scope to snipe their ass."
"To hell with you!"
Mars, Uni and Nepgear looked at each other before silently agreeing to leave Neptune and Noire by themselves to argue in peace with no one around them, so the small group made their way out of the gaming room and walked in the direction of Mars' room, why was unknown to the young man. Once they arrived inside his room Mars sat down on the bed and sighed, he looked up to see Nepgear looking down at him, it was obvious that she had a question or two. Meanwhile Uni had sat down on a nearby chair and watched her two friends closely.
"Hey, um, Mars, do you mind if I ask you something?" Nepgear asked the young man. "It's alright if you say no, it might be a bit personal."
"Alright then, ask away, but be careful with your words," Mars replied, mildly dreading where this conversation was heading for.
"Alright then. Um, those scars of yours, what happened to you?"
Mars sighed and held his face in his hands, he immediately regretted to agreeing to answer Nepgear's question, but he knew that he had to answer her. "I… I've had these for a long time, a really long time. I'm not going to say any more about it, if you don't mind."
"S-Sure, sorry about that. Anyway, that's quite some power you've got, being able to regenerate all the time. That's pretty cool."
"It may be to you, but for me it's another matter entirely, and I rather not go into detail about it."
"If you say so, um, sorry if it's personal to you."
"Hey, don't worry about it. Anyway, I'm going to rest for a while, I'll see you two later."
Nepgear smiled and made her way to the door. "Sure thing, see you another time, Mars."
As Nepgear left the room Uni was about to leave until she turned around and looked back at Mars, both of them stared at each other for a short moment before Uni slightly smiled. "See you later, Mars, have a good rest and I'll see you later today."
Mars nodded in response as Uni exited his room, closing the door behind her. The young man looked outside to see the sky covered in clouds, the streets were alive and full of people going about their daily business as per usual, nothing was out of the ordinary. With another sigh Mars pulled the small leather bound book out of his right boot as well as the pen out of his left, opened the book up and began to write. The book was small and weather-worn, it appeared to have seen battle several times due to the marks on it, the pen was almost dried up of blue ink and the bottom of it looked as if Mars had chewed on it several times. Outside the wind picked up speed and leaves were sent flying all over the place, late afternoon had struck and to it the end of the day was nearing.
A/N: The plot is moving ahead now that I have a clear path for it this time, and I intend to stick with it – although suggestions are still appreciated nonetheless. How do you readers think the chemistry between Mars and Uni is working out? There aren't any intimate feelings bubbling on the surface as of yet, but with all the affectionate scenes that have been going on so far is it a bit too fast? Also, was the way I described the farmer family's remains a bit too gory, especially concerning the nine year old kid? I hope not.
I regret to say but some future chapters will be shorter than others, at least 4,000 to around 5,000 words in total for some (yes, I consider that small), this is because of a lack of ideas or even just a wild imagination that cannot be put into actual words. As for the robots, I got the idea about them from playing the Fallout 4 DLC Automatron, more specifically the enemy robot's design take after the pre-war Assaultrons. Whether this plays a part in the plot remains to be seen, but I think it adds a bit to Ares' personality as a person – a crazy mechanist at that. As always, leave a suggestion if you so desire – I'm up for any ideas concerning this fanfic – and have a good day readers.
