Capcom holds the copyright for any Zero, 1, 2, and 3 that appear in this fic. The only characters belonging to me are Iris and Aniyu Canina.
Super ElfWorenx Note(WN): Thanks to Rioni for pointing this out. This story does, in fact, take place after Z3. However, as you can see, the Guardians are not stripped of their authority in this story, but were in Z3 by Weil. For the record, I have never played Z4, so I have no clue what happens to the Guardians after that. But as of now, I will say Weil was defeated and the Guardians are now in control again. I know about the Z-Knuckle(or something or other; thanks to the website Rockman Perfect Memories) and I will involve that in this. Got that? Guardians are in control of Neo Arcadia because of Weil's defeat.
Resistance base--
Zero and Iris transferred back from his long, grueling mission with nothing to show but 25,000 glimmering crystals, a broken Chain Rod, and a grin saying 'I am dead.' Ciel rushed up to him calling for him. "Zero! Zero," she called, waving her arms at him.
Iris cocked her head at Ciel and mewed sweetly. "Hey Ciel," he answered in his standard monotonous voice, still smiling though. He showed her the busted Chain Rod and sighed heavily. "Boy, is Cerveau gonna be ticked."
"I'm sure he'll fix it for you like always," the blonde scientist assured her favorite red Reploid. "Iris do anything interesting today," she asked, still baffled by Iris's power.
Zero responded simply with a shake of his head. "She didn't do anything apparent, that's for sure." He reached over and rubbed the hovering cat's fur, making her purr. "I did feel a bit stronger and slightly faster, but only while I was in danger," Zero mentioned and stopped rubbing Iris. The Elf cocked her head and flew to Zero and nuzzled his neck. "But she kept me company between Reaverbot attacks."
As they started walking to Cerveau's lab, a perturbed expression crossed her face. "Are the Reaverbots becoming more powerful? I noticed the energy readings are slowly increasing over time…" Ciel visibly shivered. "At this rate, they'll be as powerful as Omega X in Seraph form in a matter of weeks…" Just that thought was enough to make her pale.
Zero placed his hand on her shoulder and gave her a look of reassurance. "I doubt that's possible, Ciel," he said turning her face to meet his gaze. "But they are getting steadily more powerful each time I face them…" Now, Zero's the one with the unnerved face. Iris began to nuzzle up to his cheek, purring loudly. Both Ciel and Zero allowed themselves each a laugh. "She's always there to help somehow," the red Reploid laughed as he and Ciel neared the development lab.
They stood in front of Cerveau's lab and Ciel cleared her throat. "Well, Zero… Uh… good luck in there." Zero sighed, looked to her and nodded. As the door opened he stuck out his chest and marched in. "There marches a brave soul," she joked as the door shut.
"Hello? Cerveau," Zero called out as he looked around the lab, slightly nervously. After calling several more times, the red Reploid concluded that Cerveau wasn't available. "Oh darn," he said with a slight smile, "Looks like I'll to come back in a week or two." With that he looked to Iris and smiled a little more and turned around to leave.
"Zero? Is that you," a stern voice called from the back. Zero's smile dissolved into a defeated expression. "What do you need?"
Zero turned to see Cerveau, absently repairing a resistance soldier's gun without having to watch what he's doing. "Hey, Cerveau. How's it going," he asked, slightly gloomy. "Wonderful. Now I'll have to show him the busted weapons…" He looked to Iris, who looked back with large, innocent cat eyes, and sighed. "Wish me luck…"
Cerveau finished working on the gun and turned to set it on a table and to get another gun. "Not so good. I've been repairing guns all day for the soldiers. How was your mission in those ancient ruins," he asked, not turning back to look to Zero.
"Uneventful. More Reaverbots to fight. And they seem to be getting smarter and more powerful," he commented and produced the broken Chain Rod from behind his back. "Look what one of the larger ones did…"
Cerveau lifted up part of his visor to examine the weapon he had fashioned for Zero from the Triple Rod. He was surprised it took so long since the last repair to break again. "Goodness. What was that Reaverbot like," he asked, concerned. If these bots were getting stronger, he figured it may be advantageous for Zero's weapons to be upgraded. Zero described the massive Reaverbot to Cerveau as he scribbled down something on a pad of paper. The robot had large, crab-like claws, a heavily armored torso, tank-like legs and a large head with three cannons and the traditional Reaverbot Eye. He also went into detail about the Reaverbot's fighting style, it's speed, the weakness and intelligence level. "Hmmm… Seems to me your weapons need a severe upgrade," the weapons expert commented.
"Yeah, I kind of figured that." Zero handed over the rod and turned to leave, but Cerveau's hand stopped him.
"I'll upgrade them, but it'll require 5,000 Crystals for each weapon. 20,000 for your Rod weapon, Shield Boomerang, Z-Buster and Z-Saber. Your Z-Knuckle still works, right?"
Zero held up his hand and activated the Z-Knuckle function. "Yeah. It works just fine."
Cerveau nodded with a slight smirk. "You're going to have to use that more often. If these Reaverbots have any useful weapons, take them and use them as much as possible." He reached into his lab coat and pulled out a bracer-like device with a green and a red button in the center and placed it around the Z-Knuckle arm. "Once you obtain a weapon, you can chose to download its data by pressing the green button, and upload it to any object in your hand with the red. If you have a saber weapon downloaded, you can grab onto a pole and transform it into the saber. I call it the Weapon Bracer. Use it to download four different weapons."
Zero looked at this bracer and smiled. He grabbed a Resistance gun and downloaded the data by pressing the green button. "So, I can grab anything and make it into a Resistance gun," he asked as he grabbed a discarded metal pole. After pressing the red button, the pole flashed and became an exact duplicate of the gun. "Cool…"
"However, once you upload a weapon, the data for the weapon will disappear. You will need to continue downloading weapons until your weapons are upgraded," Cerveau warned. "Now go so I can finish the Resistance's weapon repairs and get started on yours." He collected the 20,000 crystals and the weapons from Zero. But before Zero handed over the Z-Saber, he downloaded its data for later. "Ah, taking proper precautions, I see?" Zero responded with a nod, turned and headed out.
"Thanks Cerveau. Tell me when those weapons are finished ASAP."
Ciel leaned against the wall across from the lab when Zero stepped out. She immediately walked over to him with a hopeful smile. "How'd it go in there, Zero," she asked in a sweet voice, expecting the worst.
"Better than expected," he said, showing off the Weapon Bracer. "With this, I can snag a weapon from an enemy, download the data for it and upload it into a random object. Once it's finished uploading, the object takes the shape of the weapon," Zero explained.
Ciel gasped and looked at the black band on his wrist. "Zero, that's great! But wouldn't your other weapons suffice," she asked, slightly confused.
With a nod, Zero held out the remaining 5,000 Crystals. "Had to use 20,000 to upgrade all of them to handle these Reaverbots." Ciel looked at his palm and made a sour face. "It's worth it, Ciel…"
"I know, but why so much? Isn't he aware that there is an energy shortage?"
"More so than the rest of us. My weapons are too advanced to upgrade cheaply." He closed his hand on the crystals and put them in a compartment on his leg, just below the gun holster. He turned and started towards his room, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go feed Iris these 5,000 Crystals."
Ciel immediately stood up and run to Zero. "All 5,000," she exclaimed when she made it beside him. The red Reploid looked beside him to Ciel. "How many Crystals have you already fed her?"
Stopping to tabulate a ballpark guess, Zero looking to the ceiling and saw Iris's green light flicker. Finally, he turned to Ciel and shrugged. "I'm guessing on the side of thousands?"
"Approximately 795000 Crystals," Ciel shouted, matter-of-factly. "You're wasting crystals on an Elf that just won't mature!" She pointed to the hovering Iris for emphasis. She looked to Iris with slight annoyance. "That Elf hasn't changed one bit since you found her two years ago! I think it's time you give up! She is not going to mature!"
Iris lowered her head and flew behind Zero. Peering over his red shoulder to Ciel and hissed. "Ciel? It doesn't matter to me if Iris matures, but I promised her I would always feed her. For the past year-and-a-half, I've been feeding her solo," he fought back, without a hint of frustration. "I'm sorry for wasting energy, but a promise is a promise, Ciel."
Ciel looked away and huffed loudly, a rare act of childishness from her. "Fine. Do what you like. See if I care…" With that, she walked of towards her lab. Zero stood in the hall and stared at Ciel's door with surprised eyes. He then sighed and started for his room with Iris not far from him, waiting to be fed.
Neo Arcadian Base--
Harpuia walked into the production lab, being lead by Fefnir wearing a broad grin. "Fefnir, what are you leading me to this time," he asked grumpily, having seen this before. "You had better not be leading me to another one of your practical jokes."
"Aw, relax, Harpy-Boy. I'm not gonna play a joke on you," the large red Guardian chuckled, grin broadening.
With a sigh, Harpuia place his hand on his forhead and sighed. "Last time you said that, it took me weeks to get that red gel-like substance out of my hair…" This caused Fefnir to laughed loudly. "It was not funny. My jade hair was orange for another week after the gel subsided…" Fef laughed even harder this time. "Of course, Leviathan's hair was bright pink after your mishap on her… I'll admit, you almost got me laughing there, but we're going to need to fix your personality chip if you don't shape up."
Fefnir laughed loudly and shook his head. "Come on now, Harpy-Boy. Those were just pointless pranks that meant no harm." Sages's humorless face meant one of two things: his disgust for his fellow General's nickname for him, or the face that Fefnir had made a bad joke at the wrong time. This time, it was both. "Alright, alright. Party pooper… I was just tryin' to-"
"Just show me what you wanted me to see," the green Guardian yelled, losing his resolve. Fefnir looked to him blankly and continued leading him. He constantly muttered other stuff about how dull and boring Sage was. "You just keep going, don't you?"
Resistance Base--
Zero sat on his bed, watching as Iris ate the Crystals in sets of four or sixteen. He continued to wonder the mystery behind Iris. If she came from Mother Elf, wouldn't that make her a Baby Elf? If the sensors don't indicate it, most likely it isn't. But why did the scanner give out scrambled data? So many questions came up, but once one is answered, several more spring up in its place. He sighed and fell back onto his pillow. Suddenly, a loud booming knock came to his door. Zero closed his eyes and got comfortable. "Come in."
The door opened and a tigress-like Reploid walked in with lithe strides. Her tail swished seductively behind her perfect posterior as she leaned on her staff, watching Zero and lightly purred. "Sleepy, are we," she asked, sexily.
Zero recognized the voice and, without looking up, knew who it was. "Hey Katt," he said, eyes still closed.
Katt puffed out her cheeks and glared at Zero with her glowing emerald green eyes. "You're no fun! You didn't even look at me," the tigress complained.
With a sigh, Zero acknowledged her need for attention, sat up and looked her up and down. "Okay. I looked. Now what?"
She stamped her foot impatiently and glared more frustrated at him, "Well? How do I look?"
"Uh… Sexy," he asked, not sure what she wanted today. Katt smiled brightly, and blushed a bit. She had on her low cut blue and red torso armor with the spiked shoulders, a spiked black collar(which is odd considering she's a cat), spiked bracers on her wrists with gloves and boots of the same coloration of the torso guard. She seemed to favor no armor from the waist down to her knees, which made Zero think… "What your point Katt?…"
"Nothing," she said with a shrug and a slight hip thrust to the left, "I'm just bored and want you to compliment me." Zero nodded, almost understanding his tiger-Reploid friend. Suddenly, she tapped her staff on the ground repeatedly and loudly, making the red Reploid and Iris jump. "But you promised me a sparring match in the Training room!"
Zero shrugged at her and lied down again. "Sorry. Got no weapons…"
"Oh bull. Catch," she said and tossed him her staff. Thinking quickly, he reached out with his Z-Knuckle arm and caught the weapon. "I heard you and Cerveau," she said and gestured to her twitching tiger ears, "I know you can download weapon data and upload it into inanimate objects and obtain the weapon. Press that green button on your bracer," she commanded and crossed her arms over her modest chest. With a growl, Zero did as he was told and downloaded the K-Staff data into his bracer and tossed it back to her. She caught it and used it as a cane. "Now let's go to the training room and spar." With that, she turned around and swaggered her hips out the door and headed towards the training room.
Zero looked to Iris and sighed deeply. "That girl has more stamina than any other Reploid I know…" He got up and walked out the door after Katt and Iris followed closely behind. "This 'sparring' match will take a while…"
Neo Arcadian Base--
"Fefnir! For the last time, will you forget about this and show me what you want to show me," Sage yelled as Fefnir pounded at a vending machine.
"No way! I put 100 Zenny in this thing," he shouted back and continued pounding on the malfunctioning machine. "I! Want! My! M&M's," the red Guardian hollered between pounds.
Harpuia sighed and shook his head. "It is only a pack of candy… It is not of national importance… What is of importance, not national but important, is showing me what you want to show me!" He leaned against another vending machine and glared at Fefnir with his piercing gaze.
He clenched his fists and grit his teeth at the machine. The reinforced glass window was cleaned so perfectly, Fefnir was looking back at his own distorted features. "Maverick machine," he yelled and armed his flamethrower and aimed it at the vending machine. "I shall retire you!"
"Now, Fefnir. It's not worth it…"
Sage's words couldn't have come later. Fefnir already pulled the trigger and the vending machine was pummeled with weak fireballs. After ten or so, the machine blew up, sending snacks flying every which way. Bags of pretzels, potato chips, and a few candy bars nailed Sage on the head, on his leg and on his chest. Fefnir smiled happily as he grabbed a bag of Peanut M&M's and showed it to Sage. "Victory!"
Sage sighed again and slapped his forehead. "Now that you have gotten your candy, can you please show me what you want to show me? I've more important-" He was cut off by Fefnir yelling that the M&M's had melted and the bag was now just a warm chocolate milkshake with nuts floating. "No kidding, Fef. You only shot fireballs at the machine…"
"Well, I ain't eating this," he declared and threw the bag casually behind him.
"Fefnir, did you get Sage yet," Leviathan asked as she walked into the mess hall, only to get a bag of melted M&M's splattered onto her face. The chocolate covered her face and peanuts were all over as well. She wiped off the chocolate from in front of her angry eyes and licked the stuff around her lips. "Fefnir…"
"I didn't do it," the General of the Jin-en protested and threw up his hands, accidentally tossing the chips from the bag behind him.
As the two Generals bickered, Sage growled and slapped his forehead for the umpteenth time and grumbled something to himself.
Resistance Base--
Zero's K-Staff copy was just as strong as the original. He was amazed how Cerveau managed to duplicate the downloaded weapon so perfectly. Besides the coloration, it was near impossible to tell which was which. Strength, swing speed and handling capability is replicated 100 accurately.
After a parry from Zero's staff to Katt's, she performed a perfect back flip and landed on her feet a few feet from her partner. "You handle a staff pretty well, Zero," she commented and purred at him, playfully. Zero looked to the staff copy in his hand and looked back to Katt. "But I'm a master with the way of the staff!" She leaped forward with a battle cry made beautiful only through her voice.
Zero parried her overhead strike by holding the staff horizontally. Using this moment of recovery, he reared back and dove forward, staff still against staff and forced Katt down. Her back was slammed against the ground as her staff slipped from her grasp. To signify his defeat over her, he pressed the staff against her throat. "Game," he called out.
Still on the ground, she opened her eyes slowly. Her emerald green eyes shone with desire as she looked into Zero's cold blue eyes. She was silent. Stunned. Surprised… In love… She felt so weak; all she could do was gaze back into his eyes. So cold, yet warm. Her mouth was frozen and her artificial heart pounded inside her chest. Her thoughts raced. She imagined Zero leaning a bit further to plant a kiss on her awaiting lips that were dry with anticipation. Katt felt herself tremble beneath his strength. No Reploid had ever made her feel this way…
Zero looked down at her and raised an eyebrow. "Do you give up or not," he asked, staff still on her throat. She still couldn't say anything. She only nodded with her blank face. After that, Zero stood up and cast his copy Staff aside. "That was fun, wasn't it Katt," he asked as he held his hand out for her to take. She was still in a trance; her emeralds looked right at Zero. "Are you alright," he asked, noticing her odd behavior, "Perhaps I hit you harder than I thought."
She snapped out of it with a gasp and quickly took his hand. As he helped her up, she decided quickly to tell him this revelation. She suddenly realized she loved the Reploid that rescued her from Neo Arcadia almost two-and-a-half-years ago. Since that fateful day, Katt had some strange feeling about him. Now, she understood what that was. "Zero, I have something to tell you," she said and leaned forward. Zero looked into her eyes and nodded. "I love you."
Katt had joked around a lot around Zero. Always swaying her hips when he followed, giving him seductive looks, purring whenever he was around. He couldn't take this seriously because of her jovial attitude, so he cracked a smile. "Heh. That's a good one, Katt," he said with a smile. Katt was about to protest when Zero turned to leave the room. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't find the words. "See ya around, Katt. This was fun," he said as he left the room with a wave.
As she watched his retreating form, she felt something on her face; a warm sensation gliding down her cheek. She reached up and touched it only to feel wetness. "Tears," she thought out loud. Katt was crying. "He took it as a joke…" More tears streamed from her eyes as more thoughts bombarded her simple mind, threatening to drive her insane. "Am I joking? It's getting so bad, I can't even tell if I'm joking," the tigress-Reploid lamented as she dropped to her knees. "Maybe if I catch some Z's, I'll forget about this. I don't like this feeling…" With an audible sigh, she took her staff, stood up and swayed her hips as she made for the door. "…Well, I do seem to act very seductive around him… Maybe I… nah, it'll blow over." She left the training room and headed down the hall to her room.
Once again, Zero dropped on his bed and tried to sleep some more. He looked over to Iris who picked up where she left off on eating the crystals. She was cute, even if Zero tried to ignore it. Her cute face with her white, furry muzzle, her cute button nose, the way her tail swishes when she plays with a ball of yarn. Though she was a Cyber Elf, she was the same size as a housecat. "Wait a minute… She was never this big… Is she maturing," Zero thought as he watched Iris. "Is she growing because of the Crystals?" He sat up and watched her bat around the remaining 4 Crystals. She turned on her back with the glowing shards in her paws as she continued to play with them. Soon, she got tired and ate each Crystal one at a time…
The moment she swallowed the last remaining Crystal and licked her chops with a purr, a strange sensation befell her. Her body began to glow more and more brightly and begin to hover. "I-Iris," Zero called as he stood up and approached the glowing mass of Cyber Elf. The mass continued to brighten and the light blinded Zero. "Iris!" The glow slowly subsided as the mass began to grow in size and drop back to the ground. He looked down at it as a young woman began to appear from the light. He noticed a pair of green cat ears and a long, green cat tail that matched her flowing green hair. "W-what the?..."
She fidgeted a bit and started to pick herself up, a little shakily. The woman got to her knees and progressed slowly to her feet. When she finally stood straight up, Zero couldn't take his eyes away. She was gorgeous; a perfectly proportioned, perfect female body. Her skin was a bit darkly toned; she had a curvy figure, and a very lovely, beautiful face. Purple streaks traveled down her eye to under her chin. Very slowly, her eyes opened. They were a dazzling forest green, and they were aimed at Zero. She wobbled a bit as she tried to speak. "Z… Zero…"
"How do you know me," he asked the well built cat-girl and stepped back.
She only smiled weakly and stepped closer, clumsily, purring "Zero…" She passed out after two steps.
With his quick reflexes, he managed to catch her before she hit the ground. "Okay, if she is who I think she is… this is very odd," he commented and draped her over his shoulder and made for the Infirmary wing. He would have a lot of trouble explaining to the Reploids he bumped into what happened, and why a naked girl is over his shoulders.
End of Chapter II
Two Years Later…
Worenx Co. Corner
Worenx: You added Katt into this?
Shade: Yes. Problem?
Worenx: Problem? Of course not! Is that the surprise you mentioned before?
Shade: Most of it.
Worenx: WHAT'S THE REST?
Shade: …Okay, you're getting a little too into this. I think it's time for a nap.
Worenx: Yes… Naps are good… Nighty-night… starts snoring and passes out on Shade's typewriter
Shade: Argh…