Author note: This may be considered another executioner chapter since they are the protagonists here, only three of them anyway.
Chapter 24: Attacking Neo-Arcadia.
"This is too easy." Daemon complained, "We're in the center of Neo-Arcadia and no one even noticed! I thought they're supposed to be on alert status." He and Bullion were both hidden in cloaks and hoods so they couldn't be recognized, it seems this worked unexpectedly well.
"Oh be thankful Daemon," Bullion snapped, "It'll make our job easier, we only have an hour so it is good that we have met little resistance so far. We'll be able to cause more destruction in our time limit."
"I suppose…" Daemon sounded a bit disappointed, he hoped for a good fight.
"There's a human district up ahead, they will not know what hit them." Bullion said with a malicious grin.
"Bullion, you completely screwed up that sentence. It's like this: 'They'll never know what hit 'em.'" Daemon said in a low hoarse voice.
"What does it matter?" Bullion asked, irritated.
They reached a large barricade in which were a guard booth and six pantheons; four hunters and two guardian pantheons. Nearby stood a reploid dressed in Neo-Arcadian uniform and he looked at them in disinterest.
"Halt." A pantheon said, his monotone robotic voice loud. "This is a human only district, stand-by for inspection."
"I am afraid we can not comply with that order." Bullion said dryly.
"If you will not comply you will be detained." The Pantheon spoke again.
"Oh I'd like to see you try." Daemon said and instantly a chain ball emerged from the depths of his cloak and crashed into the Pantheon's head, crushing it completely.
The reploid gasped and tried to get to the alarm switch on the side of the guard booth but was intercepted by one of Bullion's beam sabers, which hit him right in the chest, he was deactivated almost immediately.
Bullion took out the second beam saber and slashed horizontally at a Pantheon guard, slicing its head off completely.
The Pantheon hunters started firing at Bullion and Daemon, they agilely dodged the bullets and jumped in the air, landing right in front of them.
Daemon used his chain ball and pierced a Pantheon's chest; the chain ball didn't stop there, but kept on and crushed the Pantheon hunter that was behind the one near Daemon.
Bullion quickly jumped sideways and picked up his second saber, and then he somersaulted forward and slashed a Pantheon hunter horizontally and followed with a vertical slash, cutting it to four pieces. Bullion proceeded with a dash and jumped when he was right in front of the second Pantheon, he landed behind him and stabbed the back of the Pantheon's head, deactivating it.
The two looked at the unchallenging foes now lying at their feet. Daemon mock-yawned and said, "How boring…" Bullion chuckled and the two proceeded down to the human district.
At the Neo-Arcadian underwater base and water purifier…
Whirlpool smiled as she just disposed of another Pantheon guardian.
There weren't any Pantheon hunters, so they won't accidentally pierce the hull of the base and cause a flood.
Another Pantheon came up behind her so she twirled her harpoon in her hands and stabbed backwards, piercing the Pantheon's abdomen, the cooling liquid (Pantheon's substitute for reploid blood) sprayed on Whirlpool's back.
She left the harpoon stuck in the still active Pantheon and walked away. The Pantheon moved to follow but the harpoon exploded a second after she walked away.
She summoned another one to her hand and whacked sideways at another Pantheon, the blow sent him flying into the wall where he slid to the floor, deactivated.
Whirlpool laughed as she threw her harpoons like javelins at two other Pantheons, those exploded in a brilliant blast.
She summoned yet another harpoon from her seemingly limitless supply and twirled in her hands slowly out of boredom.
"I need to reach the reactor core and destroy it, then the base would go boom." Whirlpool thought and chuckled to herself.
The most challenging thing she encountered was a reploid who shot a few buster shots at her before being pierced by three harpoons; two to the chest and one to the head.
Then he exploded, whatever was left of him flew in every direction.
"If I won't find something challenging soon I might, just might get bored." She thought.
"Well, well what have we here?" She asked as she entered someone's quarters.
The room was rectangular; on the left side was a very large bed, put so that the side was touching the left-hand wall and the bottom of it was touching the wall in which the door to the room was on. Next to the bed was a small bedside table with a reading lamp and a handkerchief. In the front of the room were a desk and several filing cabinets, on the desk were a name plaque and a picture but they were too dusty to see what was on them. The right-hand side was empty except for a large PRS (Personal repair station).
Whirlpool stepped closer and blew on the name plaque it read 'Blizzarak Staggroff'.
Whirlpool picked up the picture and shook the dust off it; there was a picture of Leviathan there, saying, "Keep up the good work." And signed, "L".
"So that was before Zero eh? I'll hold on to this." Whirlpool said and transferred the picture to her quarters in the stronghold.
She smiled triumphantly; suddenly the mission didn't seem quite boring at all. She proceeded through Blizzarak's office to the next room.
The core of the base was completely automated; in fact it was simply a very large machine. Blizzarak's quarters were before this machine to make sure nothing and no one would come in here. As far as Whirlpool knew Zero destroyed Blizzarak, she couldn't care more where he served.
She looked at the core; it was a large machine inside a central room, a really large machine.
"I Should either destroy it, or make it shut down. Hmm…" Whirlpool made a concentrating face and then smiled, "I think I'll destroy it."
Neo-Arcadia, Human district…Bullion jumped down and stabbed with both of his swords to his sides, penetrating the armor of the Pantheon hunters and then he pulled the blades in a ninety degrees angle to his front, slashing the Pantheons' sides and causing them to collapse on the floor.
He stood up and smiled, he looked over at Daemon, which was having the time of his life; he destroyed a Pantheon using his spike ball and then took out a grenade from a compartment of his armor and threw it at a nearby building, blasting a hole in it.
"This is more like it eh Bullion?" He asked, laughing.
Bullion smiled and pulled out a crossbow; he placed an arrow on it and aimed carefully at another building. He shot the arrow and as soon as it collided it made a gigantic blast that caused the building to collapse on its neighbor, which collapsed on another building.
Daemon looked at him in shock, "I have to get one of those." He yelled at Bullion.
Bullion laughed heartily before loading the crossbow with another arrow.
"This is the Neo-Arcadian police! Drop your weapons and place your hands above your head!" A voice coming out of a police-cruiser said.
The police cruisers were small, but efficient peacekeeping shuttles.
They were fast and agile, suitable for pursuits in the city as well as moderately armed.
They had two laser cannons and a large plasma cannon and were the basic squad car for the Neo-Arcadian police.
Bullion aimed his crossbow up to the belly of the cruiser and shot it, the officers that hadn't seen the devastation caused by Bullion's arrows did not even try to avoid it and the cruiser exploded in mid air, hailing parts on the road and sidewalks below.
Daemon laughed as what was left of the cruiser crashed into a building, causing one of the floors to collapse.
"We have about forty minutes Bullion! Let's kick it up a notch!" Daemon called and crushed a Pantheon guardian that just arrived.
A squadron of Pantheon hunters showed up and opened fire at Bullion and Daemon, Daemon jumped high up in the air and powered his chain ball, swinging it at them and crushing them. He landed in their midst and swung his chain ball around, crushing every Pantheon that was near him.
While the Pantheons were distracted Bullion ran up to them and started hacking and slicing them with his beam sabers, ripping into their armor like a hot knife through butter. "When are the guardians going to get here?" Daemon asked impatiently, "I want to kill them already." He complained as he crushed the last pantheon hunter with his spiked energy ball. "Oh quit your yapping!" Bullion said irritably, twirling one of his beam sabers in his hand as he watched an incoming Mutos reploid.
"Freeze, in the name of the Guardians!" The Mutos called, his shape most resembled a large tiger, and he wore some sort of chain armor running from his collar down to his stomach. Leg plates protected his legs, and his large and muscled feet were encased in black jagged-soled boots. He held in one of his clawed hands some sort of whip and in his other a shield of sorts, more like a small buckler when comparing it to the size of the reploid holding it.
Bullion sneered and snickered as the reploid approached them slowly, "And you expect to defeat two executioners by yourself when your precious guardians could not?" He asked, crossing his arms on his chest and smiling maliciously along with his comrade. The tiger tilted his head to one side and asked, "Who said I was alone?"
Even Bullion and Daemon's high senses couldn't sense the good old stealth squadron's most promising students sneaking up behind them. Phantom truly did a fine job training them.
It came as a shock to both Bullion and Daemon as they were struck from behind, two swords making a large gash in their backs. The twin reploids behind them leapt backwards and disappeared.
"What's this trickery?!" Bullion demanded, turning around agilely and searching for the aggressors, Daemon kept an eye on the Mutos tiger and didn't blink.
The next attack came from their sides, to sharp kicks caused Bullion and Daemon to crash into each other. "Augh!" Daemon yelped in surprise as he crashed into Bullion.
"I've never expected this!" Bullion said excitedly as he turned around to look for the attackers again. "How exciting." He said, "Finally someone who can match us."
"This is cowardice, hiding in the shadows!" Daemon roared, the Mutos tiger laughed.
"If only Vulture was here…" Bullion said, "He was the one who was supposed to fight Phantom." They heard a loud metallic clunk from the direction opposite of the tiger and as the two turned to face it the tiger leapt from behind them, using his very strong feet to jump directly at them, hitting Daemon across the back with his whip, he also attempted to smack Bullion with the buckler but Bullion held his shield with one hand and kicked his abdomen, causing him to release the shield and soar backwards.
Bullion crushed the shield effortlessly in his hand and he felt a stab in his side. Blood seeped out of the wound in his side, when he turned his head he managed a glance at what hit him but couldn't see it clearly. Daemon stood up and went protectively in front of his partner, "You bastards! I'll kill every last one of you human lovers!" He yelled, the response was in the shape of two large fireballs directed at him. He deflected them easily with his energy spike-ball and saw Fefnir, standing in front of him with an expression of superiority.
Bullion who meanwhile was covering the rear heard a whistling noise and jumped out of the way just in time to avoid Harpuia, who quickly rose after him and kicked his back. "I cannot believe the guardians caught us off guard!" Bullion said loudly as he somersaulted so he could land on his feet, "Us, the executioners! This is unacceptable!" Bullion said, clutching his side as he landed on his feet. "I don't understand Master!" Bullion said seemingly to no one, "How can this be? We are the fastest, most powerful reploids in existence, you told me that! How can we get injured by these pathetic weak replications of X?"
Harpuia hovered nearby, sabers raised and ready. Daemon still stared at Fefnir without blinking, who in return glared at Daemon. "Bullion stop your whining, we can take them on." He said, he never got to prove how right he was since in that minute a figure teleported into the battle. A reploid cloaked with a silvery-white cloak with golden decorations whose head was covered with a hood stood now between the fighters. He stretched forwards one of his hands and suddenly two reploids appeared out of thin air. The two were black cat-like reploids with yellow eyes, prolonged pupils in the midst of the yellow that was their eyes. They hurriedly jumped backwards to join the tiger reploid and Fefnir and took a defensive stand, holding twokatanas in front of them.
Harpuia soon flew to join them, now all were facing the new participant in the battle.
The reploid said in a deep echoing voice, "Greetings Harpuia, Fefnir, Slash, Clash and Suspor." He gestured first at Harpuia and Fefnir and then at the two cat reploids and the tiger reploid. "I see Mr. Hubershnicdt is joining us along with Mr. Falcon and Mr. Hahira." He added as the three raced over, Hubershnicdt and Fenrir on foot and Falcon in the air.
"Who are you?" Harpuia yelled at the reploid, holding his sabers at ready.
"I am the master of the executioners, my name is Haze. It is nice to meet you again Harpuia." Haze said, the satisfaction in his voice rang out in everyone's ears. Harpuia frowned for a second, but when he finally remembered he dropped his arms to his sides. "You!" He said, Fefnir also seemed to understand and bared his teeth, "Impossible Harpuia, don't believe his lies!" He yelled, raising his cannon and firing twice. Haze raised his hand and with two calm and swift movements deflected the fireballs.
"So you finally found out who the real Leviathan was eh?" Whirlpool cackled at Leviathan. "The bombs you planted on the fake Harpuia stole from you were very helpful!" Leviathan yelled, feeling a scorched part of her face that was bandaged temporarily.
Whirlpool laughed heartily and pointed at Leviathan, "Oh, Ms. Neo Arcadia is no longer that pretty huh?" She asked mockingly, nearly doubling over from laughter.
Leviathan lost her temper, she raised her own harpoon and charged at Whirlpool, whose face became dead serious and all hints of laughter faded from her face entirely as she blocked her.
"When will you guardians understand that you can't take us on?" She asked, looking Leviathan straight in the eyes. "We won't… let you… kill the humans!" Leviathan puffed as she tried to whack Whirlpool with a combo of three strikes. Whirlpool blocked it expertly and stared at Leviathan again. She suddenly pounced at Leviathan and pinned her to the floor, choking Leviathan with the shaft of her harpoon.
"Let me tell you about the humans I know," She said, rage flaming in her eyes, "One abused me, the others tortured Daemon to the verge of insanity and others let Copy X slay our reploid brethren for so long." She said, the anger in her voice emphasized, "Is that what you choose to die for? A bunch of needy, greedy exploiters?! You guardians never had to take what common reploids do! They are being robbed, abused and tortured right under your nose and you don't even care!" She yelled at Leviathan, a small tear forming in her eye. "You were never abused! Your dead buddy Copy X made sure of that didn't he? Didn't he?! You are so confident that you fight for what's right that you stop looking around you!" The tear rolled down her cheek slowly and dropped down to Leviathan's own cheek. Leviathan looked up at Whirlpool and for the first time she understood, the executioners really believed in what they were fighting for. They really believed humans to be evil; they really believed that they should be destroyed… Whirlpool quickly jumped off of Leviathan and pointed her harpoon at Leviathan's throat. "We unlike Copy X, gave you a choice." She said, "You chose to fight us, you chose to protect the humans. I'll give you one more chance to make your choice, but the next time we meet you'd have better made the right one." Whirlpool said, turned around and hurled her harpoon at the core. The core started malfunctioning and alarms went off. "Core malfunction, please evacuate all personnel." A metallic voice said as small explosions came from the core machine. "Ta ta for now sugar." Whirlpool said and blew a kiss at Leviathan, returning to her old self after thetantrum she let out and disappeared.
To be continued…
Author notes: Don't worry, you probably don't understand a thing but almost everything will be explained in the next chapter, the rest will be explained later on. Goodbye for the meanwhile.
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