AN: Sorry if that discussion went on a bit to long for your tastes, writing out the deities responses to the events is just as addictive as the rest of the story. And as FF.net is down as I'm working on this, well, I don't have something to yank me out of it, plus this way I get to have some fun with characters that weren't introduced yet at this point in the actual series. I could just imagine Anya as her demon self opening THAT sort of a gift and adding a fear other than bunnies to her. And its never a smart idea to listen to the ideas of people who know a lot about things that would make others wet their pants if you are trying to grant a vengeful wish. But as for who they are, I'm using them as the Powers That Be in this one, or at least a faction of them, who says that they can't have a sense of humor?
SPECIAL NOTE I now have a Yahoo group about this series its at so join it if you want, I'm trying a few things for the series that I'll put up there that can't show up here. It's adress is listed in my profile.
Hawkins- Thanks, I'm finishing this one before I finish Summer Vacation, its just one of those things where I can't help myself
The first sign the demons had that something was wrong was not the blast that freed a hostile that took several hundred of their number to put down, nor was it the destruction of a large portion of their cells, nor was it when the room they were holding things they had taken from their slaves was broken into and the door flung like a Frisbee at those inside of it to eliminate them. No, it was when their armory blossomed into a fireball that took down their own barracks in a wash of flame and shrapnel.
The machine was in control, and its protocols demanded total annialation of those who dared to injure him. The protocols his organic part had developed demanded that those imprisoned as he was were to be kept safe from the rampage, his machine half also assessed them as non threats.
It was then, that the machine broke the rules that were set for mortal beings, that point he had been designed to reach, it had been blocked from mortals to prevent one from changing fate, but his mind centered upon it. He had reached it, attained the unattainable, his mind centered upon the Zero Point, and he attained through it, true precognition.
What the seers said was precognition was not, visions show only a short glimpse into a possible future at a place to urge them into action to prevent it. Precognition is an entirely different animal, it shows the probable future around the one with it, in enough time that he can choose how to react to it, in the hands of a creature such as Zero, it made the destructive force he carried even more dangerous, he could aim for where they would be, where the shots would do the most damage, and he would know when and what attacks were coming. He had become a foe that was infinitely more deadly than he had been.
The energy bursts shot from him far faster than his design had anticipated as its maximum potential, explosions tore through his foes as the shackles he had torn apart to allow movement were snapped entirely open imbedded in demon skulls. On the other hand, his recovered blade was moving slowly it seemed, precision based death, each blow killing at least one if not more. The killing machine within him had only begun to surface before, now the killer had risen, one that had truly become something far more dangerous, and it was not just that the machine was there now, it was that the feelings he had identified as anger and rage and indignation fueled it.
Another part of it, a very small part was something within the blade, the part that allowed it to withstand the charmed Sword of Acorn was also beginning to awaken. The sword once known as Death Bringer among its incarnations through history millennia before one noble knight had used it to petrify Acaltha.
He was for that time he had become something that the demons viewed as otherworldly, a force of nature, and their doom. He was remorseless, without pity nor mercy, without feeling, without regret, he had become their destruction embodied in flesh.
Zero landed in the main chamber, the remains of the larger mechanical tools the demons were using collapsing all around him as the glowing, crimson eyes scanned his surroundings.
Motion...scan...demon...hostile...terminate....motion...scan...demon...non- hostile...safe...motion...scan...human...non- hostile...safe...motion...scan...demon... hostile...terminate...
His mind was tracking everything, the simple commands triggering making him an awesome sight amidst the energy bursts, explosions, and flames that erupted around him as the demons tried in vain to avoid the slaughter caused by the rampaging cyborg.
One charged him with a whip, only to lose nearly everything but his limbs with a burst of energy. Others attacked with the tools they had forced their slaves to use, but only faced the same fate as the whip wielder.
A swarm of them charged him, hundreds, nearly a thousand of them more than he could fight, but his mind identified an easy alternative.
He combined the fire of both palm lasers and aimed upwards, tearing loose a large section of the roof, collapsing it on his foes. Thousands of tons crashing down like a waterfall, superheated to the melting point.
Then something happened that the cold and analytical machine couldn't figure out a response to, one of the demons, the last one alive, had taken a hostage.
The light in the cyborgs eyes dimmed and vanished, replaced with the pale blue hedgehog's normal eyes, it was up to him to end this situation.
"I think I'm gonna hurl," Whistler commented as he sat besides the two gods, asked to observe.
"Okay, I underestimated his abilities, I shouldn't have enhanced them, but what can I do now?" the black winged one managed to say.
"It's not your fault, we can't predict his machine half, we weren't prepared for anything to be that close to breaking that rule."
"They're gonna kill me," Whistler muttered to himself, "I'm doomed!"
"No, they won't mess with you, they'll try to mess with me and I never really signed that treaty."
"You are one tricky pain in the rear aren't you boss."
"Yeah, sometimes warfare is best fought through guile and deception rather than an outwards show of force, but even I am rather shocked at my new chosen."
"Its unreal, that kid can cause more damage than any of the others I think, is he the one you're preparing to deal with the hell goddess?"
"No, but it is a possibility, currently that job lies with the chosen of Ares."