Chapter 20:
"Zero!" the sleeping reploid heard the muffled cry and some pounds on his door.
"Zero open the door or I'll open it!" Zero stirred so violently he fell out of his bed.
"Coming!" he said through his blanket.
"Hurry up already!" the pounding continued.
"Just a second!" He sleepily tried to remove the blanket from himself but failed.
He tried to stand up but slipped and fell,
"Ow..." he groaned and finally managed to remove his blanket from himself.
"I'm still waiting!" The voice said.
"I said just a second!" Zero yelled and summoned his armor.
"What is it?!" Zero said angrily as he opened the door but his jaw dropped when he saw Leviathan standing in front of him.
"Leviathan! You're okay!" he exclaimed and hugged her.
"Did you have any doubts?" She beamed at him.
"No, but I'm really happy to see you standing again." Zero said with a wide smile.
"Well, but I'm afraid we're going to have to come clean. Harpuia and Fefnir must be suspecting something by now..." Leviathan said and raised an eyebrow when she saw Zero's face.
"Fairy, I'm afraid that Fefnir is..." He sighed, "Deceased..."
Leviathan's face turned almost as white as it was when Camazotz sucked the blood out of her.
"I... No, not Fefnir! You have to be kidding me... How...?" She stuttered.
"Harpuia said that someone, activated the fleet's self destruct sequence altogether, causing the entire aerial fleet of Neo-Arcadia to explode and very unfortunately Fefnir was aboard one of the transports..." Zero explained sorrowfully.
Leviathan clapped her hand over her mouth in shock.
"The entire fleet? How did they...? It would have taken the best hackers in the world... Computer geniuses! I can't think of any way it could be done..." Leviathan spurted.
"Those executioners cost Neo-Arcadia a lot but I fought one of them and beat him. They are no match for my f... for us." Zero said quickly.
"What is it?" Leviathan asked suspiciously.
"I... it's nothing really. We, we need to talk to Harpuia." Zero hurried out of the room.
"Oh by the way, Hubershnicdt came by a minute ago and wanted me to give you his comm. frequency so here you go." She gave him the note.
"Why would he want you to have his comm. frequency by the way?" She asked as the two marched along the hallway.
"He's my protégé." Zero answered briefly.
"So you have a protégé eh? Which reminds me, what about poor Fenrir Hahira? Did he go down with Fefnir...? Poor Fefnir." She said sadly a tear lingering in her eye before slowly sliding on her smooth artificial skin.
"No, he's alive but he's pretty sad. Poor guy." Zero said as he was about to open the door to the mission room but Harpuia already did from the other side.
"Harpuia, I've been looking for you." Zero said.
"Zero come in, ah Leviathan I'm glad to see you again." Harpuia said.
"Actually we'd like to talk with you alone for a second..." Zero said, glancing at the room full of reploids behind Harpuia.
"Sure, let's go over to the overlook tower." Harpuia said and led them to the elevator.
The overlook tower was a secluded spot that only the highest-ranking Neo-Arcadians had access to. It was practically at the top of the Neo-Arcadian tower; from up there all of Neo-Arcadia could be seen in all of its glory.
The elevator went on and on for what seemed like minutes until they arrived at the top.
Zero and Leviathan sat at the table and Harpuia went to get an energy drink. A drink made of energy crystals. The drink was somewhat like coffee for reploids.
Harpuia sipped from the can and sat down.
"So, what is it?" he asked looking at the two." Zero and Leviathan looked at each other and Harpuia raised an eyebrow.
"Two weeks before Zero joined us he and I met in a place where there were sightings of the dark elf. And well, we have been together since. I mean, all of those missions I told you about weren't really missions..." Harpuia spit out his energy drink.
"What?! Why haven't you told me about any of this? Zero? Leviathan?" He looked at them furiously.
"That's exactly why." Leviathan crossed her arms over her chest, "We knew you'd react like this."
"Leviathan you know we don't have time for all of those things. Especially now with the executioners crisis!" Harpuia said.
"Well I don't really think that's any of your business! We just wanted to tell you because we thought you'd like to know!" Leviathan shouted and stood up.
"Oh yeah? You couldn't have chosen a better time! Fefnir is dead, the entire Neo-Arcadian fleet is crushed and those executioners are out there ready to kill us!" Harpuia yelled.
"I have to go to the training room, I told Hub I'd meet him there so see you." Zero lied and dashed off towards the elevator, leaving Harpuia and Leviathan shouting at each other behind him.
He went down the elevator; it seemed to be much faster now.
He reached the training room's floor and exited the elevator.
He raised his comm. and typed the frequency; there was a pause and some static before Hub's voice answered.
"Hello?" The voice inquired.
"Hub, it's me Zero. Come meet me in the training room, time for your training session." Zero said to his comm.
"Ja, I shall be right there!" Hubershnicdt said.
Zero walked down the corridor towards the training room and turned a right at a corridor.
Surprisingly as he turned he saw Hubershnicdt leaning against the wall of the training room as if he was waiting there.
Zero asked him about that and he simply answered:
"Guards quarters are right there." And pointed down the corridor.
The two entered the training room and started the training session.
At the Executioners' stronghold...
"I'll show him..." Vulture muttered, an insane spark in his eye as he seared the black metal plate back to the front of his helmet.
His short jet-black hair was very untidy now, and Vulture was still filthy from the fight. Obsessed with defeating Zero he neglected himself in favor of his armor.
"I'll kill him... he doesn't know who I am..." He said as he took out a laser pen and colored the searing marks black so they wouldn't be spotted.
"Umm... Vulture?" Whirlpool asked hesitantly and Vulture hurriedly put on his helmet.
"Yeah?" he asked and turned around.
"I'm going to my mission now so I'll see you soon." She said.
"Take care." Vulture said, "Don't let him beat you."
"I won't, bye for now." She said and left Vulture alone.
Vulture looked at his hands, the frail hands, the hands that failed him.
"No. I will show him the power of an executioner... I will retire him! And I will stop at nothing to do so!" Vulture laughed maniacally.
"Vulture, I'm afraid you are going to have to wait a while." Vulture heard the all too familiar voice of Bullion.
"What do you want?" Vulture asked, a dangerous spark in his cold green eyes.
"Remember, the master ordered you to stay put until..." Bullion started.
"To hell with the master's orders!" Vulture yelled defiantly.
"I will kill Zero, even if it will cost me my life." Vulture said with an eerily calm voice and put on his helmet.
"And no one, not you Bullion, not even the master will stop me." He dashed forwards and rammed Bullion out of the way.
Bullion jumped quickly to his feet and was about to give chase when a hand held his shoulder.
"Let him go," Said Daemon, "there is a lot of rage in that one. I think you should leave him be for now."
Bullion sighed and removed his helmet, his long blond hair gently sliding down to his torso.
"Don't worry," Daemon said, "Soon we will destroy Zero and Neo-Arcadia and then we will have no worries."
Bullion looked at Daemon for a second and said nothing, then after a silent moment he spoke, "I understand his frustration. I wish him good luck in his quest."
At Neo-Arcadia's core a few hours later...
"So, you understand now? If you use this technique it will be harder for enemies to hit you with any ranged weapon." Zero finished the training session with Hubershnicdt.
"Ja, you are masterful master Zero. You are a great varrior and a teacher I am honored to serving you." Hubershnicdt said bowing very low in front of Zero.
"I have a question Hub, this knife you have..." Zero started.
"The knife? It vas made by my creator, a great scientist he vas. He explained to me once how this knife is vorking he said there are tiny nano-bots on the surface of it, sharpening it and repairing it, making it indestructible as vell as poverful. They also dispense plasma as the blade collides forcefully, thus making the veapon very effective." Hub explained shortly to Zero, holding up the knife.
"I see, so it is as effective as a beam saber?" Zero asked, carefully studying the weapon.
"It is old technology, predates saber technology I believe. But I keep it as a souvenir, as it was passed from generation to generation in my creator's family." Hub said, staring lovingly at the blade.
"Okay, that's all for today. I'll see you tomorrow." Zero said and the two left, Hub leaving towards the guard quarters and Zero towards his own.
About halfway down the corridor his comm. ringed,
"Zero, get over to the mission room." Leviathan's voice was heard and he changed his direction, heading towards the mission room instead of his quarters.
He reached the mission room to see two guardians with their back to each other and their arms crossed on their chest.
"What is going on?" Zero asked, raising an eyebrow.
"We received a distress signal from a cargo vessel a few minutes ago." Harpuia said,
"Okay let's go! You have the location of the vessel right?" Zero said.
"I'm not coming." Harpuia said bluntly, and Leviathan looked as if she received a slap to the face.
"Excuse me?" Zero asked, completely flabbergasted.
"You heard me, I'm not coming. Not with that hag." He said quietly to Leviathan so the operators wouldn't hear him.
"Why you..." Leviathan started moving towards him.
"Oh I see, say you two I've got an idea! Why don't we all play hide and seek?" Zero smirked.
The two blinked at him angrily, "If you want to act like children there is no room for you as the guardians." Zero said loudly, ignoring the stares of the operators.
"Get back to work!" Harpuia bellowed since he did notice their stares.
"Let's just go Leviathan, if he won't come that's his problem." Zero said.
"That's right, besides I thought you two might want some time for yourselves..." As soon as Harpuia had said that there was a loud crack as Leviathan slapped him across the face.
"Transfer us now!" She yelled angrily and she and Zero both disappeared in a blinding flash of white.
Harpuia was stunned; he held his hand to where Leviathan had hit it.
He heard a chuckle behind him ant turned around to see a cleaner. He grabbed the cleaner by the collar.
"You're fired!" he yelled at him, the cleaner wasn't scared and he wasn't nervous at all. He just grinned back and said, "No Harpuia you are." And with that Daemon summoned his armor and punched Harpuia in the face, causing him to lose his balance and fall.
"You!" Harpuia said, and suddenly looked around realizing that many reploids were in danger.
"Get out of here now! Call Falcon and Fenrir and Hubershnicdt here at once!" Harpuia shouted as he narrowly avoided a smashing kick to his stomach.
There was a large commotion and all of the reploids exited the room, leaving Harpuia alone against the threat.
Meanwhile in an abandoned cargo vessel in the ocean...
"Can you believe that Harpuia! Humph, the idiot. Said that I'm being childish." She then imitated Harpuia's voice which was pretty good, "Leviathan you know we are not allowed... Executioners are about to kill us." She returned to her normal melodic voice. "I checked, and if we were dating before you became a guardian it's okay to keep dating afterwards. That overprotective creep! Who does he think I am, his sister? Bah!" Poor Zero had to endure Leviathan's complaints. That was probably the only thing about her he really couldn't stand. But he simply shrugged it off and started exploring the ship with her.
To be continued...