SUPER ROBOT TAISEN S ZERO

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Chapter 3 - Shadowed Alliances

Bardos Island, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, was not exactly what a sane individual would call a nice place: little more than a huge rocky spike protruding from stormy water, sculpted in the form of an enraged human face, it was constantly scoured by oceanic squalls, and the skies above it never cleared, and was constantly covered with black clouds peppering the sea with lightning and thunder. Winds howled incessantly, crashing against the razor-sharp reefs, and even going as far as to rip away small trees that had somehow managed to grow in such inhospitable terrain. Even just by looking at it from a certain distance, it was clear that it was a place inimical to any form of life...

And yet, the storm raging outside of it would have seemed almost like a tame summer breeze to two of the cursed island's inhabitants, at least when compared to what their superior had in store for them...

In fact, in a secret base excavated in the guts of the great rock towering over the whole island...

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"YOU FOOLS! You have failed me AGAIN!"

Baron Ashura and Count Brocken winced in fear as their superior's shaking and yet commanding voice struck their ears, and the man in question glared down upon them from a marble throne in the dimly-illuminated main room of the base. Neither of the two was having good expectations... their mission, in theory, should have been simple recon, and shouldn't have involved a fight with the Mazinger Team or anyone else - they only had to discover the true nature of the mysterious object that had briefly appeared near Bardos Island, then come back to report their findings. Instead, they had involved themselves in a battle and - like always - they had come back in defeat and disgrace.

The voice so bitterly repriminding the two generals belonged to the cloaked, staff-wielding figure standing upon the throne's steps: an incredibly old, insane-looking man that perfectly represented the "mad scientist" archetype, with long, unkempt white hair framing a dark, embittered face, wrinkled skin the colour of an ancient scroll, and bloodshot eyes filled with madness. His feverish, angered face was further decorated by a long white beard reaching his midriff and by a spiky moustache, and his body was wrapped in a midnight-black cloak, under which one could make out a dark green uniform complete with gloves and boots, without any decoration or notable characteristics. In his right hand, the man was holding a gnarled staff, similar to the one Baron Ashura was using to command his Machine Beasts, and his posture and behaviour only reinforced the air of megalomania hanging about him...

Which was only natural, after all, as the man in question was none other than the infamous Dr. Hell, an evil scientist that had been expelled from the scientific community after having been discovered performing illegal experiments with the gigantic artifacts retrieved on Rhodes Island in an expedition he had been part of long ago. An expedition which also included Dr. Juzo Kabuto, the man who would later become the grandfather of his sworn enemy Kouji Kabuto! Dr. Kabuto had expressed doubts about reactivating the dangerous constructs that had been excavated - the same constructs who would later be known and feared throughout the world as the Machine Beasts - but Dr. Hell had paid him no heed, and had continued his experiments, moved by an unholy furor.

And the results... well, the results were visible to the eyes of the whole world!

"We..." Baron Ashura began timidly, bowing in apology to his/her master. "We are mortified about this, Lord Hell... we... we thought that would be a great chance to catch the Mazinger Team off guard... and I had almost managed to take out the little girl and the fat idiot before the accursed Kouji Kabuto came and ruined everything!"

"Hold on a second there, Ashura!" Brocken interjected, his voice toughened with an heavy German accent. "If memory serves, you were the only one of us two who wanted to attack them, even if it meant contradicting orders... You said I could continue recon while you eliminated our enemies, yah?"

Ashura glared at his/her rival. "Tch, you're one to talk now! I've got a good memory too, for your information, and I remember that you were in agreement with that!" he/she fiercely growled. "So, why have you abandoned the mission to follow me? I could do that on my own!"

The former Nazi hierarch shrugged. "Yah, I saw that, in fact... If I didn't intervene with the Mechasaurs, Mazinger Z would have thrown you back in the grave you crawled from... not that this would have been a great loss, nein!" he shot back in bitter sarcasm.

"How dare you, you detachable brain?" Ashura insulted back, advancing threateningly towards Brocken. "Just try and repeat that, if you dare..."

"ENOUGH, YOU TWO!" Dr. Hell thundered, hitting the pavement with his staff. The resulting noise echoed like thunder in the room and caused his two subordinates to hop up in fear. "I have had enough of your childish squabbles! I care not one whit who started this... you failed the mission, and that's all that counts! You can't even complete such a simple task!"

Immediately, Ashura and Brocken stopped quarreling and turned to their lord, bowing in submission and respect. "P-please... forgive us, Dr. Hell!" they exclaimed in unison.

The old scientist wheezed, his tirade having spent him quite a bit... then, he regained his composure and breathed in and out, which served to calm him down a little. The anger in both his face and voice was substituted with a reflextive, almost solemn expression, as he began pacing back and forth in front of his throne, his staff scraping the ground as he did so. After a few seconds, in which Ashura and Brocken seemed to be asking themselves what was going to happen, their leader closed his eyes and began narrating.

"Long... long ago..." Dr. Hell said, his coarse voice riverberating on the walls. "...a still unknown civilization thrived... a civilization gifted with superior intelligence and knowledge... the Mycene Empire, who disappeared after a still-unclear catastrophe, only leaving the ruins of their glorious empire behind... as well as the weapons that had allowed them to take control of all the known world. It was a civilization whose technological knowledge was comparable to that of today's humanity... and thanks to this, the Myceneians had managed to create veritable living weapons, greater than anything that had ever been seen, and powerful enough to overwhelm any opposing army in seconds! The one currently known as Machine Beasts, the mighty weapons these superior people left behind after their disappearence!"

Ashura and Brocken stood in silence, intently listening to their lord's tale. It was a tale they had already heard a number of times in their unlife, but they always liked it.

"For centuries... millennia... these weapons remained entombed, hidden from the eyes of the world..." Dr. Hell continued, going from his earlier calm to an ever-increasing excitement, as it always was when the topic veered to that. "Until an archelogic expedition on Rhodes Island discovered them, together with all the mysteries their civilization had shrouded itself in! Oh, that was a glorious day for all the scientific world! Researchers from all around the world gatheredat RHodes to research this unknown population, and answer the questions the discovery had raised together with wat remained of the Myceneian cities... and among these, myself... and my colleague, Juzo Kabuto!"

Dr. Hell grits his teeth at the mention of his hated enemy, and his skinny hands convulsively gripped his staff. "As soon as I saw those steel colossi lying intact in front of me, indifferent to the insults of time... a new world opened up in front of me! I understood that, if we humans had mastered the secrets of the Myceneians... science could soar over new territories, doing things that had been thought impossible until then... we could have created a new world! But that idiot Kabuto... affirmed that the Myceneian science could be dangerous, and had to be used carefully... in particular, he said that the Machine Beasts should never be revived, despite the fact that we had all the necessary knowledge to do that! Hah! That fool... how can a scientist be so blind as not to see the new possibilities opening uo in front of him? I couldn't allow that... I had to show the world the possibilities that Myceneian science offered us! So, I kept doing research in secret, unveiling one discovery after the other... until I was discovered doing so-called 'illegal' experiments, and I was cast out the scientific community!"

In rage, Dr. Hell banged on the pavement again. "Those fools took away all I had... they ridiculed me, they tried to destroy my research and they left me on the streets to die a broken, pathetic husk of my former self! But I... I survived, and I came back to have my revenge! Hah! They laughed at me when I said I could bring the dead back to life!" The scientist interrupted himself and pointed to his two most trusted lieutenants with his free hand. "You two! You two, are you not the tangible proof of the success of my research, perhaps?"

The expression on Count Brocken's discorporated head became solemn, and the cyborg bowed respectfully to his master. "Yah, Doktor Hell... and for this, our loyalty to you is unquestioning." he affirmed.

"We will serve you and protect you even at the cost of our own lives." Ashura went on, bowing as well. As much as the two were bitter rivals, this was something both of them agreed on.

Dr. Hell seemed to calm down slightly after hearing his lieutenants' words, and resumed pacing back and forth in front of his throne, breathing in slowly and wheezingly. Then, with more composure but equal fervor, he continued his tale. "And this is why... this is why I want to get my revenge! Thanks to the Myceneians' superior technology, I could rebuild and reactivate the Machine Beasts, thus creating an unstoppable army with which I will get the respect and power I deserve! But there is still... that accursed thorn in my side... those two Mazingers created by the hated Juzo Kabuto, and piloted by his grandson Kouji and by Tetsuya Tsurugi! Despite all my plans... despite my army's power... they continue subverting me! Oh, but one day, their luck will run out! Not too far in the future, Mazinger Z and the Great Mazinger will fall before my power, and the world will have to acknowledge me as their sovereign! I, Dr. Hell, will be the ruler of all the known world, just like the Myceneians were in the past!"

A thunder emphasized the mad scientist's ramblings, and lightning cast some disquieting shadows on Dr. Hell and his sinister servants, who remained still in their place in silent contemplation, as their leader raised his staff in the air in a commanding gesture. Slowly, with a rasping wheeze, the scientist sat back on his throne, angrily thinking of a possible way to remove the obstacles that for far too long already had been in his way. Silence once again fall on the huge hollow room, only interrupted by the howling winds... and by the heavy steps of an iron-masked soldier respectfully approaching the scientist and his two lieutenants.

Ashura was the first one to acknowledge the soldier's presence, and he/she turned to him, affixing him with a cruel glare that his/her dual face only made more disquieting, as it mixed the coldness of the female half with the seeming rage of the male one.

"What is the matter, now?" the evil baron asked. "There better be a more than valid reason for this interruption..."

Under his superiors' chilling gazes, the masked soldier fell on one knee. "Dr. Hell... Baron Ashura, Count Brocken... I regret to come to you right now... but we have just been hailed... by someone who would have words with you, my lord and master!" he said shakily, well knowing how terrifying could Dr. Hell's rages get when he was given bad news or was simply in a bad mood...

Dr. Hell frowned in suspicion. It wasn't often that someone wanted to confer with him... something was definitely up with that, and he wouldn't have been surprised if that had something to do with his lieutenants' battle against the Mazinger Team. "Someone wants to speak to me?" he hoarsely asked. "And... who would that be, exactly?"

The soldier gulped nervously. "That... That would be Emperor Brai, my lord! The sovereign of the Hundred Demon Empire!"

The suspicion in Dr. Hell and his helpers was only deepened by those news. So it was just like Dr. Hell had imagined... according to the report Ashura and Brocken had given of the battle, as Brocken was going to support Ashura, his Guul had been followed by a small swarm of Bado-type Mechasaur units, all of which had been flagged as friendly. It was obvious that the Hundred Demon Empire had sent them for an important motive... and Dr. Hell had a feeling this could turn things around for him and his men...

"Emperor Brai, huh?" Hell growled, his bony finger scratching at his unkempt beard. "Fine, then... patch him through to me! I will personally see to this... unpredicted turn of events!"

The iron-masked soldier bowed once again and, secretly happy of having escaped his sovereign's ire, exited the room as fast as he possibly could while still remaining respectful, as his superiors got ready to answer the unexpected call of the demonic emperor. A few seconds later, as fate would have had it, a large black screen slowly lowered itself from the ceiling, placing itself just in front of the mad scientist and his generals, flickered for a few instants, and finally stabilized, showing the menacing, smirking face of the Hundred Demons' absolute monarch, complete with a bifurcated black beard hanging from his chin. His orange skin and his wild purple hair created a strange contrast that denounced Brai as clearly something more than a human being, which was even more emphasized by a pair of dagger-like curved horns sprouting from his forehead! Brai, dressed in his red uniform with golden frills and black boots, waited for the signal to be stabilized before starting his speech.

"My deepest regards, Dr. Hell. I trust my visit does not come in an inappropriate moment." the bulky demon emperor greeted, with an impeccably polite yet condescending tone and a slight grin on his face. "Anyhow, while I don't care much for... humans... I still am honored to meet one of the greatest scientific geniuses the Earth has ever known, Dr. Hell."

Brocken and Ashura frowned again, showing their impatience towards the demon emperor's verbose speech... and even their leader showed little interest in beating the bush. "Let us skip the introductions, Emperor Brai, and get strainght to the point of the conversation... namely, the reason why you contacted me. There has never been any cooperation between us, so... why did you send those Mechasaurs to interfere in my lieutenants' battle?" he asked directly, his beady, cruel eyes looking directly into Brai's yellow irises... and the demonic ruler, not intimidated in the least, briefly chuckled.

"Hehehee... straight to the point, right? As you prefer, I will say things the way they are without useless embellishments!" he answered. At a simple gesture of his head, the camera zoomed out from his face, showing that Brai was seated on a throne of white-azure stone, a sword in his hands and held against the ground. To his side, stood a tall and lanky yellow-skinned demon in a military uniform, who closely resembled - aside from his small angular horns and the longer, wilder hair - the infamous German dictator Adolf Hitler, complete with the short telltale moustache.

Brocken could not resist and produced a Nazi salute. "Heil, Fuhrer!" the cyborg exclained in slight embarass, while Ashura shook his/her head and murmured something under his/her breath.

"You already know me, I dare say..." Brai went on confidently. "And... this Oni to my side is my right-hand-man and military advisor, Marshall Hidler, the officer in charge of the attacks against the Saotome Labs and of the creation of new Mechasaurs and Mecha Onis."

With a barely-visible grin, Hidler bowed almost to a right angle. "Honored to make your acquaintance, gentlemen!"

Brai nodded in approval and continued with his speech. "As for what concerns the motive of this... reunion, and the reason why I sent those Mechasaurs to assist you in your battle, it's all quite simple, really." he declared. "You see, Dr. Hell... while the relationships between us have always resolved in more or less complete indifference, I thought that an alliance between us and other factions would give us the support we need to take out those thorns in our side, namely Getter Robot, Mazinger Z, Voltes V... and many other, which I won't be listing for the sake of brevity. If we were to put aside our differences, at least temporarily, and to join forces... I'm convinced that our enemies would not stand a chance! After all, they barely scraped through against a single one of us... let us imagine what we could do if we fought together!"

"Are... are you proposing an alliance to us, Emperor Brai?" Ashura asked in incredulity, his/her forehead wrinkling dangerously.

"Hah! That is preposterous! Do you actually believe we need to ally ourselves with you, to destroy Mazinger Z, Great Mazinger and the Photon Power Lab once and for all?" Brocken shot back. "We are not that foolish... we well know that you are planning to..."

Dr. Hell harshly hits the floor with his gnarled staff, creating a sudden noise that forced the Count to hold his tongue. "Silence, Brocken! Speak when it is your turn to do so!" the mad scientist thundered, affixing the former Nazi hierarch wth a death glare. Brocken grit his teeth and stepped backwards, raising a hand in front of himself in an apologetic gesture.

"I... I am sorry, Doktor Hell..." he nervously murmured. Dr. Hell kept staring ferociously at him for a while, then turned his attention to Emperor Brai and Marshall Hidler once more. A fierce, almost predatory grin appeared on the mad scientist's wrinkled lips as he answered Brai's invitation.

"I think... this is actually an intriguing idea, Emperor Brai! Pray, do continue..." he answered.

The demonic emperor chuckled in satisfaction, as he stood up fom his throne and walked towards a large table shrouded in darkness, Hidler not far behind him. Even with the darkness, though, it was still easy to see that there already were a few mysterious people seated at the table. "Ooooh, very well, Dr. Hell. Now that is an excellent and extremely wise choice. As you can plainly see, you are not the only ones I extended this offer to. Others, before you, have already expressed interest in this alliance. If you'd like to have a look to confirm yourself..."

As Brai motioned with his arm, the camera panned to the conference table, hinting at a few of the mysterious individuals who were seated around it. It was still difficult to see who they were, but still, Dr. Hell, Ashura and Brocken could see that one of them closely resembled an Oni of the Hundred Demon Empire, considering even he sported a pair of long, curved horns... yet, he looked younger and more aristocratic than Brai and his right-hand-man, and he was dressing more elegantly, almost regally, while his demeanor expressed pride, self-assuredness... and just a vague hint of silent rage.

To his side, there was a more alien-looking, while still majestic, individual, who looked like a humanoid eagle with a wild, messy plumage, and holding a long trident in one of his clawed hands. The shadowed individuals sent back at Dr. Hell a cold, hardly readable stare - it was clear that they weren't one hundred per cent confident about Brai's plan themselves, but they seemed to be willing to go along with it for now...

A few seconds passed in total silence... and finally, another bolt ripped through the dark skies, and a thunderclap that caused the screen to flicker as the camera went back to Brai and Hidler, who were standing near the table, waiting for the other part's response. Their eyes were affixed on the old scientist and his minions, silently asking for a confirmation or a refusal...

And finally, Dr. Hell smirked. "Truly interesting, Emperor Brai... therefore, you have a deal! Finally, by joining our forces, we'll crush those gnats who annoyed us for so long! Ashura, Brocken! This is my final decision, and I will not tolerate insubordinations! Is that clear?" he finally exclaimed, his staff pointing to his two lieutenant before they could say anything.

"Yah, doktor Hell... it is clear..." Brocken answered in clear reluctance.

"Certainly, Dr. Hell..." Ashura echoed. He/she was not sold on the idea him/herself, but he/she had never been the type to question Dr. Hell's decisions...

Onscreen, Emperor Brai gripped his hand into a fist, and his grin widened, showing his sharp canines. "Excellent! I knew we could come to an understanding... Dr. Hell!"

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TO BE CONTINUED...

Author's Note: And so, we see the first villain team-up of this crossover, even though we haven't seen half of those partecipating in it... Whoever thinks he or she has recognized the other two people seated at the table, is welcome to try and guess! ^_^

Next episode, we'll be going up in space, to see a few young people being suddenly caught up in a dirty war! There is tension among the space colonies... and a desperate operation on the Earth Union's part could end up having terrible consequences for both Earthnoids and Spacenoids!

And before you ask... yes, that means we'll be seeing the characters of Gundam SEED, Metal Armor Dragonar and (partly) Gundam ZZ!

Well, that will be all! I hope this was an interesting chapter... and I hope I'll be able to update soon! Greetings from Germany!