- CRIMSON PALACE, 0722 HRS -
Accel arrived at the derelict palace/fortress. "Sure hasn't changed much since X, Zero and Axl thrashed the place..."
Accel looked around. No sign of Red, his generals, or any Mavericks in the vicinity. Still, he kept his guard up...
Walking forward cautiously, Accel suddenly felt his foot make contact with something. He looked down and found a Reploid body, lying face downwards. Flipping the body over, Accel identified the dead Reploid as a Maverick Hunter alright. It was easy to identify them because of the Maverick Hunters badge. Furthermore... "Rank GA?! A rank GA patrol group getting wiped out by Red's generals?! Something's fishy here..."
Accel left the body behind and moved forward a little more, finding a rather rusty gate... it was open. He strode through it, into the courtyard of Red's Palace. There, having a good look around, he spotted three more bodies... one to his right, one right smack in the middle and one was slumped against a pile of rubble off to his left.
Accel turned right and examined that body first. "A large claw wound... like the one I saw in the snowfields..." Accel then headed around to the other side and examined the body slumped against the debris. "Whoa! This one's a nasty dent, now." Indeed, "dent" was an understatement. "Armour completely caved in... must have sustained repeated hits from a large blunt object..."
Then Accel walked to the middle of the courtyard, kneeled down and examined the body there. "A single hole through the chest... pierced the heart. It's a really clean hole... like complete varporisation..." He shuddered. Vaporisation was definitely something he didn't want to think of now.
Accel rose to his feet. looked at the other two bodies in turn, than stared at the body at his feet. "None of Red's generals have this kind of capability, or any Maverick to date... we're dealing with something much larger here... ?!"
Accel's head snapped up and he sprang to his feet, immediately on guard as he heard a creaking noise. Then, the doors to Red's palace in front of him began to open. A Reploid with a wolf-like helmet and black armour stepped out. Then there was a rumbling sound as the wall ABOVE the door collapsed, revealing a Reploid, who was... tall... as a matter of fact, "tall" was also an understatement. The... construct... was nothing short of GIGANTIC. It stood... two, three stories tall? probably three... and Accel had no doubt this was probably the being who'd caused the deaths of the Hunters here in the snowfields.
The reploid with the wolf-like helmet spotted Accel's badge and immediately adopted a fighting stance, with a simple exclamation, "Filthy Hunters...!" when suddenly the giant Reploid behind him said, "I'll take care of this, little one..."
Accel backed up a little as the Reploid floated forward and the other black-armoured one relaxed a little. Accel narrowed his eyes. He quickly dodged, jumping backwards, as the Reploid lifted his claw and slammed the blunt end into the ground where he had been standing a moment before, creating a huge crater. Looking up, Accel yelled, "What are you?!"
He heard a rumbling sound from within the Reploid before it answered. "My name is Diablos, and the little one is Kardina... Remember that, for those will be the last names you hear, pathetic fool!" Diablos' other claw shot forward with lightning speed, much faster than Accel anticipated, who barely managed to dodge to the side.
"Damn it...!" Accel than raised his buster and pumped shot after shot into Diablos' armour, but it produced nary a scratch, and only served to irritate the large Reploid. It's gigantic mouth opened and it let forth a roar, showing rows upon rows of sharp fangs. It then raised its two claws, and the black crystal embedded in it's right palm flashed once before shooting forth a laser. Accel cartwheeled to the side using one hand, while shooting at the giant with the other. It was still futile.
"What the-" Accel was cut short as the two claws lifted up and attempted to pincer him between them, but it didn't work as Accel was too fast and leaped, causing the two claws to crash into each other, and Accel to land neatly in the palm of one.
"Game over." Accel drew his blade and stabbed at the black crystal with all his might, only to find that his blade glanced off it as if it were nothing. "WHAT?!... ARGHHH!!" Accel screamed in pain as the claw he was standing on was suddenly engulfed by a black flame, leaving him severely weakened. Diablos then turned his claw over and dumped Accel onto the ground.
"No... way... what-" Accel tried to stand up, barely stumbling to his feet, when the claw slammed down on his back again, knocking him to the ground. ".....uhhh... what... damn..." Accel's functions slowly shut down, but he was merely knocked out.
"Shall we dispose of this one now, master?" the wolf-helmeted Reploid asked the titan.
"No... Let's see... Shadowsong "Accelerando" Wily... yes... he has potential, and considering his Wily-bot background... no, we shall not retire him. He may be... useful to us, yes..." The huge Reploid said, and grinned, showing off his white teeth again. He brought his claws together, and purple lines began to form around Accel inanimate form, encasing him in an icosahedron shape, before there was a flash of purple light and Accel's body could be seen trapped in the icosahedron.
Laughing evilly, the two Reploids turned and headed back into the depths of the palace...
- MAVERICK HUNTERS HEADQUARTERS, 0729 HRS -
Back at the Maverick Hunters HQ, Alia turned to Signas. "Um, Commander..."
Signas slapped his hand to his face and sighed. "No, don't tell me..."
"Um... we've lost Accel's signal..."
"Nooooooo..." Signas started banging his head on the table.
"But it's a little different from before."
"Hm?" Signas looked up.
"While the others had a huge energy spike just before they deactivated, Accel's had a smaller energy spike around 6 to 7 seconds before he conked out, and appears to have survived for a while after that..."
Signas stroked his chin. "Hmm... We'll look into that later. For now..."
"Do we have to send another squad after him?"
Signas sighed. "One more try... I guess. Send a bunch of rank GA Hunters, 9 of them... we can't afford any more or any less."
"Very well, Commander..."
As Alia returned to her work, Signas considered banging his head on the desk again, but research had proven that dents in the head weren't very good for the neural circuits, so he decided against it.
Instead he turned to large amounts of caffeine.
- CRIMSON PALACE, 0733 HRS -
"Okay, guys! Move out!"
The 9-member Hunter group moved into the courtyard, all on full alert.
From just inside the doors of the palace, a black-armoured Reploid observed their actions, and put a hand up to his ear.
"Master, they are coming."
Diablos grinned. "I'll let you dispose of them this time..."
"What will you do, Master?"
"I'll watch..."
Outside, the 9-member Hunter group were about to advance into the palace.
"No sign of that Hunter's body?"
"Nope, only these few."
"Are they repairable?"
"Yeah, the doctor's a genius... two of them are repairable at least, they just need a spare heart and the other sustained multiple structural fractures, as well as a lot of disconnected circuits... but he's up to it."
"Good, you two take em' back. Be back in 10 seconds!"
"Yes, sir!"
10 seconds later...
"We're back, sir!"
"Very good! NOW we can advance into the palace."
The group advanced into the dark, unlit hallway. They'd only moved a few paces when suddenly the light came on, surprising them. They spotted Diablos and Kardina at the far end.
"Who're you two...?!"
Kardina smirked. "You do not need to know that."
"...Team, fire at will!"
The group immediately began firing with their busters and pistols. Diablos quickly put up a shield as Kardina ducked behind a pillar. He unsheathed his two daggers. The Hunters stopped firing momentarily. Kardina popped out from behind the pillar and threw both daggers at the nearest enemy. The considerably more experienced Hunter managed to shoot both daggers out of the air with his buster, but was soon felled by a barrage of plasma shots from the KZ-Busters. Kardina then ducked behind another pillar. He stole a peek then cartwheeled from behind one pillar to behind another without using his hands, and firing at the Hunters with his KZ-Busters all the time. He managed to get another one through the head, and one more through the leg.
"We're two down!" yelled a Hunter. Kardina picked off the one with the injured leg, then dashed across the hall, holstering his pistols and picking up both daggers, before jumping from pillar to pillar, closing the gap between him and the Hunters. He tried to slash one, but he was unexpectedly fast and managed to dodge before shooting Kardina in the left arm.
"...Ugh!" Kardina grimaced and fell back, hiding behind one of the pillars again, but this time the Hunters were more ready.
"Okay team! Cyclone formation!"
The group of Hunters scattered and took up their positions in such a way that they were covering the four sides of the room, using the pillars in such a way that they were only vulnerable from two directions, behind and in front of them. Behind there would be another Hunter covering, and in front would be a stretch where the enemy would also be vulnerable to buster fire. The remaining two Hunters were free to move as they pleased, so Kardina's fighting space had now been reduced to only the center arena.
Kardina moved to the side corridors of the room, but he found a shot from a buster waiting for him, striking him in the chest. "Hunter scum...!" Kardina returned to the center, but found two more Hunters who immediately whirled around and started firing. One ceased firing and drew his beam sabre, which Kardina countered with his twin daggers, quickly bringing out the sword blade. After dancing with the Hunter in a flurry of blades for a while, Kardina managed to fell him, but he did not do so unscathed; he had gotten a minor scrape in the right shoulder.
The second Hunter then took out his other weapon that had been behind his back. It was a sledgehammer. Kardina laughed. "You'll never hit me with such a clumsy weapon, fool!"
The Hunter swung the hammer at him without saying a word. Kardina ducked the swipe aimed at his head, then sprung forward, only to find that the Hunter was swinging the hammer downwards, having predicted where Kardina would be moving. Thinking fast, Kardina leaped and landed on the hammer. The Hunter took hold of one end of the sledgehammer and lifted it up with a mighty shout, causing Kardina to fly up and over his head and also sustain an injury to his back as the head of the sledgehammer caught him. Kardina landed with a thump on the floor and looked up. His eyes widened as he saw the Hunter about to smash the hammer onto him. He rolled out of the way just in time and stabbed the Hunter in the leg, crippling him, before jumping away and punched a few holes into the Hunter's body with his daggers. His screams alerted the four remaining ones to his death.
"Team! Inferno formation!" The four Hunters took out their melee weapons - a scythe, a hand-axe, a normal sword and double daggers - and encircled Kardina while closing in on him. Kardina sheathed his daggers and drew his KZ-Busters again, firing at the dagger wielder, who managed to deflect all of them. Two of the Hunters opposite from each other- the dagger wielder and the sword wielder- rushed forward and tried to strike Kardina with their weapons. Kardina dodged, but he looked up to see a scythe swinging at him. He received a nasty gash on the chest, but he also felled the scythe wielder, jumping up and slitting his throat before bringing out the sword blade and stabbing him through the heart. Kardina then whirled around as the sword wielder stabbed at him. He jumped and quickly threw his knife, nailing the Hunter in the head. Then he spun in mid-air and threw his other knife at the axe-user, who blocked it, but then soon died to plasma shots from the KZ-Buster. He then landed and turned round to face the dagger wielder, who was undoubtedly the leader. The Hunter snorted, dropped his daggers, and drew his own buster. Then began a fierce firefight between the two. Both consistently used the pillars to avoid each others shots, and both sustained multiple hits. There was no clear winner for a while until Kardina finally gained the upper hand and shot the Hunter through the heart.
Kardina spat on the Hunter's dead body and retrieved his two knives. Diablos finally spoke. "Good job, Kardina... you have much potential."
"Thank you, master." Kardina bowed his head and the two moved through the castle again, towards the inner sanctum...
- MAVERICK HUNTER HEADQUARTERS, 0747 HRS -
Alia turned to Signas. "Um..."
"They're gone, aren't they."
"Yeah. No energy spike this time though..."
"In any case, looks like we're going to have to send the crimson devil himself..."
- ANADE FOREST, 0749 HRS -
A certain red Hunter was slashing through the vegetation, feeling bored, when he suddenly received a transmission.
"HQ to Zero..."
