Chapter 3 The Disposal Center

"The Disposal Center is up ahead of you!" Ciel spoke through the transmitter. "Please rescue our comrade!"

"Yes, ma'am," he replied before heading through the piles of debris and battalions of enemies.

***

Zero ran through the rain that had begun to pour from the skies. Raindrops splashed against the floor around Zero. An X-Droid ran forward with its gun pointed straight at the Reploid. Zero jumped straight over the blue robot's energy bullets before slicing the X-Droid in to four separate pieces. The oil that was the lifeblood of all Reploids and robots spewed out before the droid detonated. Suddenly, a huge wind began to push him back!

"What the-"he cried out before nearly falling off the ledge. He jumped forward and landed only a foot from where he had leaped. "What is doing this!?" He quickly used his mechanical eyes to look for the source. He did a running jump and slashed the hovering machine into separate parts. The wind stopped.

"Enemy identified. Engaging!" shouted the voice of an X-Droid. Zero dodged a salvo of energy bullets aimed at him and looked at the machine. Before him was another X-Droid but with. wings!? A jetpack and wings were strapped to the robot's back giving it the capability to fly. His rifle opened fire once more with another barrage of fire.

"I have no time for this!" he shouted. His saber flashed with charged energy and was thrown at the evading automaton. It struck the shoulder of the droid. Nevertheless, the droid was still destroyed by the surge of lethal energy contained within the blade. Zero took his blade from the ground and hurried forward.

***

"Is he there yet?" asked an anxious Ciel.

"No, Ciel," replied a uniformed Reploid. "He is about to enter the Column Area."

Both of them were inside a mediocre-sized room. It was obviously the room from where all operations were carried out. Reploids sat in chairs giving out commands to patrols and monitoring enemy activities. Some Reploids tried to hack into the Neo Arcadia database, the enemy's warehouse of information. However, they were currently focused on Zero's foray into the Disposal Center. Ciel had a headset on and was anxiously watching a red dot on a holographic projection of the Center's surrounding areas. The red dot was labeled Zero and a blue square in the middle of the projection was labeled Disposal Center.

"I hope he's ok."

***

Zero reached an area strewn with round half-spheres. He cautiously walked forward. Hisss! Columns appeared from underneath the circles and opened up. Energy bullets rained down upon empty ground. The sensors found Zero rolling away from the group. Trying to impede his escape, they fired in front of him. Zero took out his Buster Rifle.

"Eat this!" he shouted. Bursts of fire came from Zero as he darted through the columns. Gun emplacements burst into flames as they detonated under the pressure. Zero looked forward seeing destroyed cars in front of him. It was a mark of what had happened to the city in the past and he grimaced as he began to calculate how many possible enemies could be hiding in there.

***

"He's past all the defenses!" shouted the Reploid in glee. The command center erupted in cheers.

"Through the shutter you'll reach the Disposal Center," Ciel said to Zero over her headset.

"Ok," Zero responded.

***

Zero walked past the entrance and through a hallway. He entered a doorway. A blue Reploid greeted him. It had wings and its head section was shaped like a eagle. It was obviously built for speed and flight. Below the platform, a reploid cried out.

"Hey! Help! Help me!" The reploid was obviously scared and frightened. He was sitting in a pile of his comrades' parts and about to join them soon if Zero didn't stop them!

"I'm Aztec Falcon," said the reploid, interrupting the captive's cry for help. "Harpuia, the Guardian, sent me to clean up."

***

In the command center, all was chaos. "Communications with Zero have been severed," informed one Reploid.

"Try to restore communications!" Ciel shouted. She sunk into depression. 'Communications are usually lost when a Guardian or one of their Apprentices is in the area. Hopefully, it's just the storm.'

***

They engaged into battle as the platform began to lower. Zero let loose a burst of charged energy from his Buster Rifle and he jumped over him. Aztec took the shot and rose into the air. One of her hands opened up turning the had into some sort of cannon.

"Die!" he yelled as he fired numerous lances of electric energy at Zero. One of the spears pierced Zero's shoulders. The vest tore and cloth was torn as the electric energy cut into the shoulder. He grunted in pain, before dodging the next batch of spear by jumping on the side of the wall. Aztec Falcon flew to the middle of the room and stuck his cannon into the catwalk. He channeled electric energy and it danced off the ground and up the walls towards Zero.

"Ungh!" he cried out as he was electrified by the current of power. He fell onto the still-lowering platform, his body smoking. Aztec Falcon walked up to Zero and planted his cannon on the Red Reploid's helmet.

"Heh heh. Time to clean up," he said charging his cannon.

"Not yet," Zero mumbled. Grasping his Z Saber, he swung up and slashed off Aztec's cannon arm. He then sliced Aztec's body in two. Coolant oil sprayed out before the body of Harpuia's Apprentice dissolved in a blinding white light.

***

Hopefully this chapter will look better! Anyways, I'm pretending that there is a Command Center in the Resistance Base's Data Room. It's all hidden and stuff so the enemy can't find it quickly. Aztec can also be called Astute. I think that was the Japanese name or something. This is pretty short but. hey! I did write this pretty fast. Not that it was rushed or anything. I hope you like this chapter!

Now for the people I would like to thank!

Uncreative Pseudonym

Zero Network

Viktor Mayrin

Lord Cirenmas

You have given ME the will to write some more! ^_^ Anyways, your help is much appreciated but I would have to decline. Thank you for correcting me on my grammar but I was actually pointing out to myself the format of the story. I just realized NONE of the paragraphs are TABBED. As in that little space before you start a paragraph. It's funny how I never noticed it. It looked fine while I was writing it. I changed the font back to Times New Roman because I think it was a problem with that. I also didn't do any of those amusing Author's Notes this time. This was a bit rushed so I didn't include them. As I prepare to post this, I would like to thank everybody, again I think, for reviewing. Yes I am going to make hints on Zero/Ciel because well. there are some hints in the game itself anyways. The reason why I declined help is because I am stubborn and selfish. ^_^; Heh heh. I think. Well, anyways, actually it's just that I don't want to bother other people. It was my project and I intend to finish it. ^_^; I also have my own resources too. I myself beat the game, I have access to a game script, and I also have access to a small analysis on the game. Did you know there are a lot of religious references in MMZ? Like Angel-X and X with his halo and robes? Well, I didn't. Anyways, I got to finish this up so I can get some sleep. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!

Scythe244

^^

P.S. if it's too bad, tell me please in a review or by e-mail. I will try to correct whatever errors that are bugging you. Bye bye!!