Sorry for the really late update, but let's just skip the troubles now.

Hikari Kiiro: Thanks a lot! I'll update a few chapters to keep up with the other place where I put this story as well.


Megaman ZX – The Novelization

Chapter 7 – Fire Rescue Mission

"Everyone, this way!" Aile yelled as she and another female Guardian was helping people to get out of the burning building.

Vent came out of the burning building, in his human form, along with a woman whose arm was on Vent's shoulder, "I need… help…" Vent coughed before handing over the woman to the female Guardian beside Aile, "She had hurt her leg during the fire. I don't the injury is that bad, but we need to get that injury taken care of!"

"Vent, are there still people in there?" Aile asked, getting a nod from Vent.

"Yes, I think there are still a few more people on the higher floors," Vent looked back to the burning building, "But I don't think they're gonna made it back here in time… The ceilings are about collapse…"

"Vent!" Another Guardian came out of the building and handed him a device before he fell to his knees and coughed hard, "Use… use that… to get the rest… out of the building…"

"Maquereau!" Aile knelt down to the Guardian's eye level before looking up at the female Guardian, "Chene! Can you take care of the others? I'm going in to help!"

"But Aile! It's too dangerous! We still have Vent and the other Guardians in there!" The female Guardian, Chene, rejected.

"Sorry…" Maquereau coughed, "They had got out… They had been too long… inside the building…"

"This is bad…" Chene turned to Vent, who had burn marks all over his body and was coughing, before turning back to Aile, "Okay, we'll take care of things here. You and Vent should go rescue the others and find the Maverick causing this fire!"

"Roger!" Aile rose up to her feet and turned to Vent, "Let's go!"

"Wait!" A boy ran over to Vent and looked up at him while crying, "My dog… He's trapped in the basement… Please save him!"

Vent smiled and put a hand on the boy's head, "Don't worry, we'll bring back your dog. I promise you," Vent turned to Aile, "Come on, we have to hurry!"

Aile nodded and the two of them ran inside the burning building. The two ran up the stairs to the sixth floor and Vent kicked the first door before they went inside and found a boy leaning against the wall under the window. The boy looked up weakly as the two approached him.

"Are you alright?" Aile asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, thank you…" The boy stood up while being supported by Aile as Vent was getting the portable transporter ready, "I think someone is controlling the Mavericks. This fire is his fault! He should be at the top of this building, getting ready to head to the next one over. You've got to teach him that if you play with fire, you get burned!"

"Alright, thanks for the info, kid!" Vent teleported the boy out to safety before he and Aile headed up towards the seventh floor.

Vent tackled the door open and let the smoke came out from the room inside. A coughing sound was head, "Who are you? Did you come to save us?" Vent and Aile went into the room and saw a man inside, "Thank you for saving me!" The man coughed again, "I think I saw something… on the next building… If it's the Maverick causing this fire, please teach him a lesson!"

"Don't worry, sir, we'll take care of the Maverick!" Aile replied before Vent teleported the man out to safety, "Vent, are all the people out?"

"Yeah…" Vent coughed, "We have to get out of the building… and get to that Maverick causing this fire!" Vent coughed once more before leaning on the wall for support, "We can get… to the next building… from the top floor, the eighth floor…"

"Okay, come on! We really need to get you out of here!" Aile put Vent's arm around her neck, "You've been too long here with all this smoke!"

Vent nodded weakly as he and Aile headed towards the top floor. Aile smashed the window with her bare hands to let the smoke out before she and Vent went out of the building through the window. Once they were out of the building, Aile let go of Vent, who lied down on the roof of the building next to the building they were in.

"Thanks…" Vent said as he was gasping for cleaner air, "Now I can breathe…" Vent got back up after a moment, "But I don't have time for this!"

"Yes, but you should rest for a moment after you inhaled so much smoke while in that building!" Aile told Vent as she pushed him back into sitting position, but he resisted.

"No, I'll go. I'm already fine now!" Vent pulled out Model X and Model H, "Come on, it's be faster if we try travelling on the air with this!"

"Okay…" Aile nodded doubtfully before holding the Biometals.

"Rock ON! Model HX!" Green armor covered Vent's and Aile's body and a pair of jet wings appeared on their backs.

"Let's jet! We'll teach that Maverick a lesson or two!" Vent said in excitement before using his jet wing to do an air dash towards the next building.

"Y-Yeah…" Aile took a few steps forward and looked down from the building before quickly stepping back, 'I mustn't look down… I'll be fine as long as I don't look down…'

Aile closed her eyes and used her jet wings to cross to the next building and landed on top of it. She opened her eyes and took more steps to the other end of the building's roof before closing her eyes once again and crossed to the next building with the jet wings. As she kept repeating the same process, Vent was already far ahead of her.

Vent noticed that Aile wasn't nearby and turned around, seeing that Aile was far behind him, "Seriously, what's taking her so long?" Vent let out a sigh before he sat down to wait for her, "If she needs help with flying, then why didn't she ask me? It's not like I'm going to make fun of her if she's afraid of flying…"

It took a while before Aile could reach Vent, who was waiting impatiently for her, "Why are you waiting here for me? You could've gone on ahead without me!"

"Yes I could, but I don't want to," Vent turned away from her and towards the door behind him before whispering quietly and hoped that she didn't hear him, "I-I just want to make sure you're safe…"

"Huh? What was that just now?" Aile walked closer to him, but he didn't repeat what he had said and shook his head, "Well, whatever excuse you're having, it had better not be anything stupid!"

"I don't think it is, but maybe you'll think that it is," Vent turned to Aile in a serious expression, "Come on, let's just forget about this and get into this building. I've a feeling that the Maverick responsible for this fire is still inside."

Aile just shrugged as Vent went through the door before she followed him in. The first room they were in was small and had some black burn marks on the walls. Two burning blocks were stuck on the two holes above their head, seemingly impossible of the blocks to fall on them without any strong force. The wall on the opposite side of the room suddenly broke and a lion-like Pseudoroid with burning mane came in through the hole.

"I came all this way expecting to find great warriors, but you are just children. All this associating with Mavericks and kidnapping people is interfering with my training," The Pseudoroid let out a sigh.

"Kidnapping? What have you done with everyone!?" Vent asked angrily.

"I have no need to tell you," The Pseudoroid replied, "Serpent promised to take me beyond the limits of my training and to give me the power of a god if I helped him. It sounded like an excellent proposition. I will do whatever it takes to get power."

"That's not true power! You can't get true power through evil!" Aile rejected.

"You might turn out to be stubborn opponents after all. My Biometal is burning to get a piece of you. The name is Fistleo, I am the Model F Pseudoroid. You are about to find out just how true my power really is!" The Pseudoroid, Fistleo, extended his arm before he charged at Vent and Aile at high speed.

'He's fast!' Aile thought as she and Vent were knocked away by the attack.

A burning aura engulfed Fistleo's body before he quickly climbed the wall behind him, or what was left of it, and kicked himself into the air while putting his arms in front of him, sending out fire on his path. Vent managed to dodge the fire by rolling away from his previous position before he charged both of his sabers. Aile barely avoided it as she ducked down when Fistleo was charging straight at her.

Once Fistleo landed, Vent did a quick air dash to cut the distance between them and released an electric ball from his shorter saber, which flew right towards Fistleo, catching him off guard and paralyzed him. Vent dashed towards him and let out another electric ball at the Pseudoroid, but this time from his longer saber.

Fistleo was left to be paralyzed again, giving Aile the chance to land a three-slash combo on him. The third slash managed to cut off Fistleo's arm, but the Pseudoroid still managed to survive. He extended his good arm at Aile and shot out a flamethrower at her.

"Overdrive!" Aile's body glowed for a moment before swinging her shorter saber, which cut through the flames.

"I-Impossible!" Fistleo looked at her in disbelief.

"Cancel overdrive!" Aile's body glowed once more before she closed in towards Fistleo.

She swung her shorter saber, leaving a small gash on his chest. She swung her longer saber, cutting through Fistleo's other arm. She finished her combo as she crossed both of her sabers before dashing closer and swung both of the pink sabers, cutting through Fistleo on his abdomen.

"How could this happen!?" Fistleo asked weakly, "I was transformed into a Pseudoroid… I was supposed to have the power of a god… But I was beaten by little children!" Fistleo roared angrily before his body exploded, leaving an orange Biometal floating on his place.

"Yahoo! Thanks for saving me!" The orange Biometal cheered, "I am the Biometal of the Flame, Model F! Let's get a move on! Who are we gonna take down next?"

"W-wait! I haven't even explained anything yet!" Aile said, getting the attention of the Biometal.

"I know, I know, Serpent is up to something sneaky with that Model W. It's all so complicated. I don't really know what's going on. I just know that he used my power to do his dirty work. If you're out for payback, I'm your model! Got a problem with that?" The Biometal, Model F, turned to Vent.

"N-No! Not at all!" Vent shook his head nervously before approaching the Biometal and Aile.

Model F paused for a moment before remembering something, "Oh, the password. Sorry, but I can't give the whole thing to you yet. Serpent split my power down the middle and the other part is with another Pseudoroid. If you can take that one down, I can give you the password."

Vent took Model F before he and Aile transformed back into their human forms, "Man, now I'm really tired!"

Aile saw Vent had dropped his arms and laughed, "Well, I guess now you really deserve a good rest after a good job in this mission. Let's just go back to the HQ and report to Prairie, and then we can turn in for the night."

"Yeah, now that sounds ni-wait! I think we forgot about something!" Vent got up suddenly.

"Really? What is it?" Vent pulled out the portable transporter before grabbing Aile's hand, "Hey! Wait-" Before Aile could finish, the two had teleported away and reappeared in the first building they were in, except that the fire had completely gone out, "Huh? Isn't this the basement of the building from before?"

"Exactly," Vent opened the door and peeked in, seeing that a dog was lying right behind the door, looking up at him, "Finally found you! The very last survivor!"

"The last survivor? But I thought you said that was every last of them!" Aile asked as she recalled when she asked Vent the question.

"Yeah, but you said 'people'," Vent knelt down and petted the dog, which licked him in return, "This poor dog isn't a person!"

"Well, I guess you're right," Aile shrugged and smiled, "Let's get that dog out of here and fulfill your promise to that boy!"

"Right!" Vent teleported the dog away with the transporter before turning to Aile, "It's a bad thing if I ever forget a promise, even if it's about an unimportant thing!"

"So you always keep your promises, huh?" Aile asked.

"Not always, and that's why it makes me feel bad if I don't," Vent looked at Aile with a smile, "And if I promise you with something, I must never forget it!"

"And what can you promise me now?" Aile asked, thinking of a sly plan to make fun of him out of pleasure.

"I promise…" Vent took both of her hands in his as he looked straight at her eyes, "I promise that I'll always protect you!"

"H-Huh!?" Aile looked at her hands nervously and looked at Vent, before turning away as she felt her cheeks heating up a little, 'W-What… was that? What was that feeling just now…?'