Megaolix, I'm a Zero/Iris fan myself. But while I don't mind resurrecting minor characters, I'm not going to bring back any major ones. Capcom's had plenty of time to bring Iris back, and it's obvious that they won't. Besides, it looks like their's trying to pair him off with someone else now... (Bleh)
Ri2, fictional liberties.
Sorry for the dull A.N.'s but due to FF's new guidlines, I'm pushing the boundaries just by doing this. (No comments about thisin reviews, please.)
Begin Chapter!
Whatever those things were, they just kept coming; and so Sandra and the other humans just kept running.
How could this happen? Neo Arcadia had always been free from Maverick interference. An attack on Neo Arcadia was unheard of, unbelievable, the concept was just plain… wrong, almost morally wrong. This was Neo Arcadia, they had the right to be free from such interference.
But whatever those mechanical things chasing her were, they obviously didn't feel the same way about their actions.
And so they were forced to run.
Sandra glanced back over her shoulder, gauging the distance between her and her pursuers. The mechanical creatures were closing in fast. If they were given another few minutes, and they'd be on top of her… She needed a miracle to escape.
A soft crunching sound came from behind her, causing Sandra to look back over her shoulder.
A red Reploid had come out of nowhere, and was now standing between Sandra and her pursuers. The robot's right hand twitched slightly, pressing the activation switch of a green Saber in his palm.
Her miracle had arrived.
"Back off," The Reploid commanded the onrushing mechanical beings. "Now."
Sandra slid to a stop, there was something in that Reploid's voice… Something that sounded like approaching destruction, or a natural disaster that was about to erupt, whatever it was, it made it clear that he wasn't someone you wanted to mess with.
Evidently, the mechanical beings didn't detect what Sandra had. They continued to advance.
"You made your choice." The Reploid muttered, his tone clearly said: "It's your funeral."
The lead monstrosity rushed forward, intent on pounding this new obstacle into the dust.
The red Reploid flicked his Saber around in his palm so that his blade was pointed toward the floor. When the monstrous creation snapped it's fist forward to crush the warrior, the Reploid bounded upward over the attack. The robot's momentum carried him down the length of the monster's arm and onto the top of it's barreled torso, right in front of it's domed 'head'.
The robot's arm lashed out, his saber raking along the top of the dome. A scarred rip in the 'head' appeared down the length of the Saber's course.
"Some things never change, no matter what century it is. The weak spot is always in the head." A small grin passed over the Reploid's lips as that thought appeared in his mind.
In one smooth motion, the Reploid drew his right hand back, depositing his Saber into his holster. The next second and his hand wasexploding forward and piercing through the wounded dome.
The robot hauled a screaming Reploid through the holed dome and out of the mechanical creature's torso. With a flick of his arm, the warrior sent the attacking Reploid flying through the air. The attacker slammed into the side of a nearby building.
An audible snap sounded as the Reploid collapsed to the ground in a limp pile. It was obvious that he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon.
"Who's next?" The warrior turned to the other creatures and ignited his blade.
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Harpuia slid to his right, evading the storm of blaster-fire that came exploding out of his opponent's cannon. As he continued to weave and circle out of harm's way, the Thunder Guardian racked his brain in an effortto come up with some weakness that the Ride Armor possessed.
The Thunder Guardian snapped his swords through the air, discharging a twin crescent of energy on his opponent. The attack just bounced off of Ride Armor's hide.
A growl slipped from the Guardian's throat.
"It has to have a weak point." The green Reploid dropped to the ground and took up a defensive position. "Some place where it's vulnerable."
"Harpuia, do you read me?"
"What the-?" The Thunder Guardian blinked in surprise. "How did you get this frequency, Ze-"
"You need to encrypt your Pantheon's communications controls better. Enough about that. These things have a weak point- their domed heads, anything can get past that spot. Over and out."
"The head…" Harpuia's eyes narrowed as he took in this information.
The lead Ride Armor's left arm snapped about, bringing it's cannon around to bear at it's opponent.
A storm of blaster-fire erupted from the Armor's weapon. With incredible speed the energy bursts shot towards the Guardian.
Harpuia's blades were faster, however. Launching himself directly at the attack, the Thunder Guardian's weapons became a blur as they cut through the air and intercepted every single blaster shot. When he got in close, Harpuia shot into the air, just barely skinning past the punch hurled by his opponent. Another second and he was directly above the beast's metal dome of a head. A blast of thunder energy later, and the Ride Armor was exploding from the inside.
The Thunder Guardian hit the ground and set his sights on his next opponent.
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Leviathan snapped her staff about, blocking the hailstorm of plasma energy that had come screaming from her opponent's cannon. She'd already been informed by Harpuia about the Ride Armors and their point of weakness, it was just a matter of getting in a position to exploit that weakness that was the majorproblem. But once a solution to that problem was found, the Ride Armors went down in seconds.
The Ice Guardian launched herself into a high front-flip and landed atop the roof of a nearby building.
The Ride Armors followed her move and started firing at the Guardian.
Leviathan danced away, leaping off of the building and over to the building across the street. Again the attackers tracked her, and adjusted their aim to target her.
Taking a breath to steady her nerve, Fairy Leviathan leapt off of the building and shot down into the teeth of the plasma fire. Twisting and bucking to avoid the bolts of energy, the Ice Guardian sailed down, unscratched, towards the lead Ride Armor.
She twirled her staff above her head to build up momentum and then Leviathan brought it down, carrying all of her strength and speed, into the Ride Armor's head. As the tip pierced through the dome, she pumped out three quick shots of her elemental Ice Energy.
Razor sharp icicles exploded out of the Ride Armor's skin- from the inside.
Back-flipping off of the demolished Ride Armor, Leviathan soared over to the next attacker and began putting it out of it's misery.
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Fefnir gasped choked as the huge finger's tightened around his chest. In trying to overpower the Ride Armors he had been facing, the Fire Guardian had inadvertently left himself wide open to an attack from behind.
And one of those blast Armors had taken advantage of that opening. The beast had clamped it's huge hand around Fefnir's torso and proceeded to slam him into the side of a building repeatedly.
Now it was trying to crush the life out of him.
Fefnir groaned as he felt his outer shell beginning to creak from the force wrapping tighter about him.
The Ride Armor snapped it's arm about, ramming the trapped Fefnir against the wall again. The Fire Guardian's head snapped forward and backward, rocked by the violent motion.
"Get a grip!" Fefnir chided himself. "There's no way you're losing to some stupid Maverick, now get out of this mess and fight!"
The Ride Armor drove him into the building again.
Fefnir willed himself to block off the pain and agony coursing through him. Forcing himself to focus, he distanced himself from the punishment he was receiving. It was happening to someone else, someone far away…
And then the thing's fingers tightened again.
Fefnir's eyes widened in shocked pain, his focus lost, as the painful, crushing force nearly doubled in intensity.
Then he knew, knew from the bottom of his heart, that this was it. He was going to die.
The Ride Armor sent his hand forward again, slamming the Fire Guardian against the building yet again.
Fefnir didn't care, he was beyond feeling or caring at this point. No matter how hard had he strained against the giant's fingers, he hadn't achieved even one-fourth of an inch of space. It was over, he had fallen.
The Guardians would be down to two.
His only hope was that Harpuia and Leviathan would be able to carry on the fight with his absence.
Leviathan…
"Fairy," Fefnir mumbled, "forgive me…"
Don't you die on me.
The Fire Guardian blinked.
Stay safe, Fairy.
Don't you dieeither.
What was he thinking? Fairy was still out there, was he just going to turn over and play dead?
NO!
Fefnir's eyes narrowed. He wouldn't give in. Failure was not an option.
Gathering himself, the Fire Guardian began pushing back against the giant fingers that were trying to grind him into pieces. A sharp whine filled the air as his servos increased their power output in an attempt to out-battle the Ride Armor's grip. The sound began building in intensity as Fefnir's effort doubled, tripled.
Even though it was encased in a metal robot, it was obvious that the Reploid piloting the Ride Armor was shocked by Fefnir's sudden defiance.
Screaming in rage, the Guardian put even more power into his mad attempt at freedom. Was it his imagination, or were the beast's fingers starting to tremble slightly? It was hard to tell since Fefnir was pouring so much of his own strength into the task at hand that his body was shaking and rattling in the Armor's grip with tremendous ferocity.
And then a spark lit up on Fefnir's armor, then another. And yet another. Slowly but surely the sparks began igniting more rapidly, until a full-fledged fireball erupted around the Guardian as he summoned his element to help him escape.
The Ride Armor jerked it's hand away, holding the Fire Guardian at arm's length in stunned disbelief.
And then Fefnir shattered the fist.
Or more accurately, he sent the fist flying in every direction as it exploded into thousands of metal fragments and pieces of wiring. The debris rocketed away, slamming into whatever was unfortunate enough to be it's path and burrowing into all obstacles.
"Let's go!" Fefnir snarled at his opponent. "Let's GO!"
But, after that impressive display, the Ride Armor had no intention of going toe-to-toe with Fefnir. Instead the beast turned and began chugging away as fast as it's blocky legs could take it.
"WHAT!" The Fire Guardian bolted after his tormentor. "Running away? You COWARD!"
As he ran, Fefnir locked his cannon's sight on the retreating Armor and cut loose. Fireballs filled the sky as he pumped shot after shot after his opponent.
Several bolts struck the Ride Armor, but failed to do any serious damage.
Fefnir leapt into the air, rebounded off of a nearby building, and slammed into the ground in front of the retreating Ride Armor. Without giving his opponent a second to react, the Guardian launched a flurry of firepower at his adversary.
The attacks slammed into the ground in front of and behind the Ride Armor, and exploded into clouds of thick, choking smoke. Lost in the midst of the black clouds, the Ride Armor slowed to a halt and began looking around in bewilderment.
And then a rush of motion caught the Armor's sensor. The metal being looked up to see Fefnir exploding through the swirling mist, and in the Guardian's free hand was the sparkling orb of energy known as the 'Earth Breaker'.
With a roar, the Fire Guardian slammed the destructive sphere into the Ride Armor's domed head, and grinned in triumph as the world exploded around him.
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Harpuia glanced around, his eyes checking out the area in an effort to locate any more hostiles.
Nothing.
He had cleared the area of these Mavericks and wiped out the attacking Ride Armors. The battle was over, but he had this uneasysuspicion that the real war was just beginning.
Turning around, the Thunder Guardian's eyes landed on one of the injured Reploids that he had forcibly ejected from the attacking Ride Armor. Harpuia stepped over to tower over the Maverick, there was nothing else that he could call that Reploid.
"Who are you?" Harpuia glared at the Maverick at his feet.
"A martyr," The Reploid smirked. "A fallen soldier of Delta…"
"Delta?" The Guardian processed that name. "What is Delta?"
"You, traitor, won't know- ever." With those words, the Reploid jerked and went into a split-second spasm. Once the seizure had passed, the robot collapsed to the ground in a limp pile.
Warily, Harpuia knelt and studied the fallen Maverick.
"He destroyed his own processor…" The Thunder Guardian stood and stared at the empty shell before him. "Whatever he knew is gone. Along with his personality… and essentially his life."
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"We have a lock." The TransServ Operator commented and glanced at her companion. "Recall."
The two Reploids looked up at the TransServ came to life, filling the room with a soft glow. A few seconds later and the form of Zero began to materialize on the pedestal. when the warrior's form was completely solid, the brown ring retracted back into it's platform, signaling that it was finished.
"Welcome back, Zero." The Operator waved to the warrior. "It looks like you had a time over at Neo Arcadia."
"Perhaps." The deadpanHunter stepped down off of the platform and headed for the back door. Without another word he stepped through the portal and exited the room.
The crimson warrior slipped out of the doorway and headed off down the corridor. In the end, the situation at Neo Arcadia hadn't been as bad as it had first appeared. Once the Guardians knew to target the Ride Armor's domed head, the attack had been wiped out in minutes.
As toward who was behind the attack, that was still unknown. And since all of the Reploids that Zero had dragged from the Ride Armors had killed themselves, the warrior suspected that they wouldn't be getting much by way of information from them.
But there would be time to wonder about that later. Right now, he had to track down Ciel and explain what had happened.
The crimson hunter strode down the corridor, and then worked his way down to Ciel's lab. Within minutes he had arrived at the blond woman's lab and had pushed the door open.
Empty space greeted him.
Allowing himself a brief moment of displaying his emotion, Zero raised an eyebrow. Ciel rarely left the lab during the daylight hours, and if she wasn't here then that meant that something was going down somewhere on the base.
"Merge," The Reploid spoke aloud, knowing that the Cyber Elf would be at his side unless he was running some errand or attending to business elsewhere.
"Yes, Mr. Zero?" The blue sprite materialized behind the Red Reploid.
"Where's Ciel?"
"Ms. Ciel in communications room."
Zero nodded his response and then left the room. A few minutes later he arrived at the aforementioned room and opened the door.
Sound and light poured from the opening, announcing that someone was in the middle of a live transmission. The Hunter slipped inside the room and took up a position in front of the back wall.
The warrior's eyes flicked about, taking in the scene before him. Ciel and Cerveau were talking with two humans, one male and one female.
"Yes… we'll accept your offer." Ciel was saying. "Thank you."
"No need to thank us." The woman on the other end of the transmission commented. "We believe in your cause. This is the least we can do."
"How do we make the exchange?" Cerveau wanted to know.
"We've fixed up an abandoned air strip on the South Continent." The man replied. "No one's around that area and the patrols don't pass by it very close. We'll send you the coordinates and expect a rendezvous in one week, third day. You can set the time, although dusk would be preferred…"
"Dusk will be fine…" Ciel nodded.
"Then we have agreed." The man nodded back. "Over and out."
"This was unexpected." The blond woman placed her hands on the console and then leaned on the station. "Who would have believed that they have supplies that they want to donate to us?"
End Chapter!
Next: The real fic begins!