Zero Alpha

Mission Four: Geiger's Attack

Zero watched as Geiger directed the multiple cannons along his body towards the red reploid who had just freed himself from the city below. Geiger's size didn't matter to Zero even if Zero was three times smaller. Zero drew his saber allowing it to extend as the blade's glow turned blue from green. The ice chip he had won in a previous battle was what Zero thought would damage this reploid the most. The reploid known as Geiger obviously was designed for strength, which is shown by the fact he had ten beam cannons built onto his heavy frame. He was more like a living military tank opposed to a reploid.

"So you're another one of Alpha's flunkies?" Zero said with a grin.

"Flunky? I'm 'fraid not. Call him X by the way. You should not disgrace him by calling him by any other word." Geiger warned.

"He isn't X though. X was nothing like Alpha." Zero stated. "Your X is a false one."

"How dare you utter such blasphemy and slander?" Geiger roared. "X is much greater than you are, or ever will become!" Geiger fired the four beam cannons from both his sides at Zero who darted the blast.

"Alpha is no X; the real X was the stronger one." Zero commented as he jumped to the air in an attempt to strike downward upon Geiger with his ice blade attack.

"You fool!" Geiger fired blasts from his other cannons hitting Zero further upward into the sky. Zero extended his legs to touch the pillar that was another support to the ancient highway and kicked off from it coming back down upon Geiger.

"One hit from your cannons' isn't enough!" Zero sliced Geiger freezing the large reploid around the point of contact with Zero's Z-Saber. "Damn!" Zero's saber returned to it's original green glow. "The ice element chip has been fried. I can't use it again." Zero took the burnt chip from himself and flung it off into the desert wasteland. He turned back to face Geiger only to be met with a large metallic-white fist.

"Ciel..." Alloute, the young girl reploid walked into the lab of the scientist as night fell upon their new headquarters.

"Huh? What is it?" Ciel turned her attention away from her research to the young girl who had entered the room. The door shut close as the girl moved her way over. "What's wrong?"

"Mr. Zero said he'd stay with us. Well, he never said he would, but I thought he was." The girl mumbled. "He's a big liar. He never came back."

"Alloute...Zero didn't mean for this. I'm sure he wants to come back to you." Ciel responded.

"Then why doesn't he?"

"He, maybe he has other things to do." Ciel offered, but in truth sometimes she had asked that question regarding Zero. She hoped that if Zero were alive he would at least contact them. "He is a legend. Legends aren't supposed to hang around. That's why they're legends. They are just memories that will be there when you need it most."

"So, if I really needed, and wanted, for Zero to come back he would?" The young girl asked.

"I'm sure he would." Ciel said with a smile.

"Then, maybe he isn't a liar. Still, he said he's come back."

"He never said when he would. Now, go get some rest okay?" Ciel offered leading the girl out.

Alloutte showed Ciel her stuffed toy bunny. "This bunny needs to be fixed. He's bleeding."

Ciel looked to find the stitching on the back of the bunny had popped and the stuffing was sort of coming out. "It's not bleeding. Why would you ever say such a thing?"

"That's what people do. Even reploids. All the ones' I've known always looked like this, and that's what the others told me was happening." Alloutte replied.

"I'll fix him for you. You'll have it back as good as new by tomorrow." Ciel said with a smile taking the animal.

"Can I sleep here with you? I don't want to walk back. That odd reploid man scares me." Alloutte said with a worried tone.

Ciel nodded and brought the girl to her rather unused bed. "Of course you can sleep her if you want. Just be quiet okay."

"I'll be quiet." Alloutte said as she settled into the bed and went to sleep.

Ciel returned to her station and went to work on her solution to the energy crisis. She stopped however and looked at the bunny she had placed on the desk. "You're worrying us Zero. Come back."

Zero stirred as the night air had taken him by surprise. He hadn't thought that he'd been out this long. Geiger delivered quite a punch to his face. Zero shifted his arm and heard pieces of metal move aside. Little bolts had scattered as he moved a black tube. All around him were dead reploid bodies that had been lying here for a long while. Mavericks as he would guess. He couldn't figure out where Geiger was, but Geiger was still alive somewhere. Geiger must have thought him to be defeated and threw him back down the shaft he had gotten himself out from moments before meeting the large reploid. Zero could make out the moon at the top of the long, desolate elevator shaft.

"My body needs to rest some more. I can't make it that far upward at this moment." Zero noted as he sat up looking over any damage he had. The only clear injuries he could find is the bruise on his face, a crack in his helmet, and the fall itself. The fall and bruise were minor and would fix themselves in no time, but the crack in his helmet couldn't be repaired by his internal systems.

Zero...

"Is someone there?" Zero looked around him for the voice. It wasn't a male's for sure Zero was of that. It was a female's voice he figured since it was in that tone Ciel would whisper in. Ciel, Alloutte, and Leviathan were the only females he could remember. That voice was like theirs.

I'm waiting...so I can pick up where Geiger left off...you can come to me, or I to you...but I rather you come to me...

Another one of Alpha's followers. Why had another come in Geiger's place? Geiger probably couldn't fit down here, and if he did not without some complications. That must be the reason another was needed. "I'll come to you then. Wait for me."

Zero ran as hard as he could down the hallway he found nearby under some other reploids. That's when he was hit with a pain to his head causing him to topple and fall to his knees. Another memory?

He was killing anything that was in his way. Everything that was there. Like he were a Maverick himself. A tall reploid was there, and a memory threw a name to Zero. Sigma. Sigma was there and was attacked by this feral Zero who didn't seem like him at all. Zero couldn't stomach what he was doing. Was this something that linked to the cause of his entombment in that capsule?

Zero found himself with a young woman in his arms. A girl with brown hair, and he was distraught. Zero realized that this woman that was dead in his past-self's arms was someone important to him, but he could only recall the voice of the female reploid. Nothing more.

Zero stood up in the elevator shaft relieved the pain in his head had subsided. "The past of who I was won't ever stop coming to me. My body already knows who I am even if it has changed. My mind is just running behind." Zero dropped into the hall below him and moved quickly, but not at his fastest in fear it may be too early to go full-force about things. Zero was never going to get to stop fighting while any X-copy existed he had found. Still, something about that also made him excited.

**********

A thanks to my sole reviewer moonymonster

No to the novelization of MMZ. This is right after 1st game. The first chapter (Prologue) in which he fights the X-copy is the true ending to the game though. So sorry if you wanted to see the end otherwise. I like to be in the past and present at the same time and never realize it. If you think about it the past is present and present past so it works out. I think the writing style changed with slight this chap, but maybe not to my best.