Fefnir and Zero were staring at a giant hall filled with machines, all of them were producing electricity and several sparkles shot out occasionally from them.
The entrance hall didn't indicate any presence at all but Zero and Fefnir investigated moving deeper into the complex.
"I don't get it." Fefnir said after they had reached the fourth empty hall. Nothing unusual was there according to Fefnir and he didn't see any sign that anyone had been here for years. Even the dust was left undisturbed.
"I don't like this." Fefnir said, walking before Zero and looking around as they entered the next chamber.
Suddenly a golden figure appeared before them, it stretched out his hand and spread its palm.
"Halt." Bullion said.
"You!" Fefnir yelled and then he whispered to Zero through the corner of his mouth, "It's one of the executioners. A maverick." Zero's eyes shun. What was it with the word Maverick that annoyed him, even if it wasn't spoken about him?
The wolf-like reploid stared at Fefnir in hatred and snarled, "Perhaps I am Fefnir the guardian. But I am proud to be one who fights against you and the humans."
"I have not come to address you Mr. Fefnir, I need to speak to Mr. Zero." Bullion said with venom in his voice.
"Leave us." Zero said, his voice cold he was staring at Bullion, who stared back.
"What!?" Fefnir asked astounded.
"Leave this chamber." Zero explained, still staring at Bullion.
"What are you talking about, let's get him!" Fefnir waved his arms and made some rude gestures towards Bullion.
"I said LEAVE!" Zero shouted the last word, and the offended Fefnir retreated away from the chamber, swearing.
"You... you want to talk to me? Then go ahead." Zero said to Bullion, studying the feral-looking reploid.
"Mr. Zero, a pleasure to meet you." Bullion held out his paw for Zero to shake but the blond reploid didn't move.
"I see... Well, I am here to inform you that we are not attempting to retire you. But the guardians, in fact we would gladly accept the one who retired Phantom and Copy X to lead us." Bullion spoke, his voice sounding like a mixture of welcoming and rejecting tones making his intentions unclear.
"The master eagerly asked me to speak to you and tell you of his offer. We will not attack you unless there will be no other choice. However, if you will continue your path as a guardian and help them in their quest to defeat us I sadly announce that we will have no choice but to destroy you." Bullion finished.
"Even if I wanted to join you, how could I trust you?" Zero asked bluntly.
"You can't. You don't know us and we don't know you. But we know of you, we fight for the sake of reploids around the world, as are you. You fought Neo-Arcadia to defend innocent reploids and so are we. In order to defend reploid kind we must destroy Neo-Arcadia." Bullion explained. He was a reploid of little patience he always got to the point straight away instead of stalling time.
"If you fight Neo-Arcadia then you must fight me. I will not let you destroy the humans." Zero said a bit louder than he intended.
Bullion sighed, and stared deeply into Zero's eyes.
"You have fought thousands of mavericks and risked your life time and again for the humans. You have protected them from Elpizo and the dark elf, but today how did they express their gratitude? By throwing whatever they could at you that's how. Humans are selfish and self-centered. That is the only reason why Copy X. ran Neo-Arcadia so they won't have to make 'big decisions' and face the consequences of their mistakes. They are lazy and stupid Neo-Arcadia deceives them. Tell me, did any one of the humans who attacked you today said anything about Copy X?" Bullion asked but received no reply.
He smiled, as Zero understood what he was getting into, the humans don't even know about Copy X being destroyed.
"You see? Who knows how much more they haven't told you." The wolf snickered.
"Maybe you're right. But I am a guardian and no matter how the humans treat me I will protect them until my last breath." Zero said.
Bullion's smile faded as if it was never there.
"Fine, I must say you are making a mistake but you leave us no choice. Thor!" he called out, and heavy footsteps were heard behind Zero.
He turned around to catch an unconscious Fefnir.
The reploid in front of him was humongous; he was at least three times Fefnir's size.
He had a winged Viking-style helmet and in his hand he held a massive war hammer.
His face was that of a gorilla, his mighty hands wielded the hammer with skill.
Thor was the name of an ancient Viking god of thunder.
"Goodbye Zero." The wolf said, leaving Zero, the unconscious Fefnir and the giant Thor.
Thor threw his hammer at Zero who jumped back and as he landed on the ground he noticed an electricity bolt course through the metal.
It hit him and he fell backwards after a moment of being paralyzed.
Thor picked up his hammer and swung it at Zero, missing. The hammer shot a bolt of electricity straight at Zero, who in the meantime implemented the ice chip.
"Ice on electricity." He said to himself as he dodged the bolt skillfully.
He jumped around the room, confusing the giant and jumped at him with his Z-saber charged. He hit him dead on, on his chest and Thor froze.
Zero was charging up for another attack but was swiped as Thor recovered much faster than he expected him to.
"Rats!" Zero yelled as he hit a provider (generator) and got electrocuted.
He was paralyzed and the electricity coursed through him, he was afraid his CPU would fry but just then help came in the form of Fefnir, who pulled Zero away from the provider. Receiving a nasty shock himself.
"Thanks..." Zero panted.
"No problem, now about that guy..." he shot at Thor three times but Thor was unaffected.
"Electricity Fefnir, your cannon won't help." Zero said, "Better just step back and let me handle him."
"Huh? No way!" Fefnir said and launched a gigantic fireball from his cannon.
The fireball, while not actually hurting Thor caused him to stumble backwards.
"That's it Fefnir! You distract him and I'll attack!" Zero thought up a promising plan. That is until Thor shot another energy beam at him instead of Fefnir.
Zero dodged and understood that melee combat won't be such a good idea.
"Fefnir, use that rapid attack you used on me!" Zero yelled and dodged another bolt, quickly hitting the wall and then shooting at Thor with his buster, not even scratching him.
Fefnir nodded and summoned his second arm cannon and then fired rapidly at Thor, who was pushed backwards with every shot.
"I have to take careful aim." Zero said to no one in particular as he prepared to fire. Charging his buster and aiming carefully Zero yelled and shot at Thor's head, hitting it and freezing the entire reploid.
"Stop shooting!" he yelled at Fefnir, Fefnir then indeed stopped shooting.
Zero started charging up for another attack but this time he was hit from behind by something far more powerful than he ever felt.
He was launched forwards straight into a provider and from the force of the blow he crashed through it. Electric sparks frolicked around him as he slid on the floor to a halt.
It was a doppelganger that Bullion summoned, a Thor doppelganger.
"Another doppelganger!" Fefnir exclaimed and opened fire on the doppelganger; his largest fireballs didn't even faze the titan.
"It's not a doppelganger it's the real thing. The one we've been fighting is the doppelganger." Zero said.
Thor than used his prized technique and shot out his hammer, creating a tremor in the ground causing it to electrocute.
Zero and Fefnir fell, electrocuted to the floor.
Meanwhile in Neo-Arcadia...
Harpuia wandered around in his chamber, his wound was healed but he couldn't stop worrying about Fefnir and Zero.
"I must do something." He decided, but then stopped.
"But if they're alright they'll both think I'm pushing in on their action. And I wouldn't want that." Harpuia circled the room in a fast walk.
"But what if they do need help?" he asked himself.
"I think I'll just visit Leviathan and ask her what she thinks." He decided and left towards the maintenance room.
He entered and looked around spotting Leviathan looking in interest at the maintenance reploids fixing her shoulder.
"Hey Harpuia, they said it wouldn't take so long I'll be out in ten to fifteen minutes or so." Leviathan said with a smile when she saw him approach.
"Listen Leviathan, I've got a bad feeling that Fefnir and Zero are in trouble but I don't want to make them think I'm trying to keep an eye on them or to steal their action." Harpuia said.
"You men are all alike, action this and that. If you're worried why don't I come along with you so they won't accuse you of 'stealing their action' sheesh." Leviathan said.
"Okay, Leviathan." Harpuia said and sat down nearby to wait for Leviathan.
"I just hope they'll be fine in the meanwhile." Harpuia thought.
After a while in the energy provider...
Zero and Fefnir were cornered, Thor had released his doppelganger and the two got them exactly where they wanted the.
Bullion appeared in a flash of white and said, "I warned you Zero. Now you'll have to face the consequences of your decision." Bullion smiled evilly and laughed mockingly.
Suddenly the doppelganger Thor was sliced in two and the original Thor stumbled forwards.
"What?!" Thor asked, as he turned around and saw Harpuia and Leviathan with their weapons drawn.
Zero was relieved to see Leviathan again, especially since she wore her helmet this time.
Bullion studied the situation, all four guardians against him and Thor.
Thor would be subdued easily but he was way stronger than Thor, but still the master warned him not to engage in combat with the guardians yet.
With a white flash and a snide remark Bullion disappeared.
It was now the four guardians against Thor.
All four attacked at once; slashing, firing, whacking, hitting, firing some more and all charged their attacks unleashing a wave of destruction on the helpless Thor.
When they had finished Thor was scrap metal.
"They're getting stronger." Zero said as they swept the energy provider for more enemies, Zero found a lightning chip and took it, knowing it would be usefull.
"The other two were weaker, it took all four of us to take that one down." Zero said, he started enjoying working in a team. Each with their special skills to add to the battle, their advantages like Leviathan's in the water, Harpuia's in the air, Fefnir and Zero on the ground. And their attributes, the speed of Harpuia, Fefnir's strength, Leviathan's agility and Zero's endurance were all invaluable.
But something deep inside Zero told him he was stronger, he was better than the weaklings he considered as friends. But he pushed these thoughts away from his mind.
They were back at the mission room of Neo-Arcadia and were preparing for the next mission.
"All that's left now is the Mayan temple." Harpuia said, "We should all go but split up. Covering more ground. Should anyone encounter an executioner or one of their doppelgangers or reploids call for everyone immediately." Harpuia briefed.
"Okay operator. You know what to do." He said and the four disappeared in a white flash, to reappear each in a different part of a jungle.
It was time to destroy the doppelgangers once and for all.
To be continued...
Author notes: I did put two asterisks where I switched places but as I noticed now they hadn't appeared on the Fanfiction text. Wonder why...