Honor of the Saber
The blue soldiers opened fire on Zero. The reploid responded as well as he dashed right into enemy fire, ducking down low to avoid the fire. The three blue soldiers only got one shot off each before the crimson reploid was right next to the center solider. Zero, dashed right under the soldier's cannon arm, reaching out his arm up to the soldier's neck, as he took the machine as a hostage. His other arm reached for a holster on his other leg, which Ciel hadn't even noticed. He pulled out a hand-held buster while using the solider as a shield, he fired a direct shot directly into another soldiers head, which exploded into a thousand pieces. Ciel screamed as she thought Zero was about to die.
"ZERO!"
Zero turned around to notice the last guard, arm cannon about to fire. The crimson reploid moved his arm around his hostage, so now he only had its shoulder. Zero ducked down throwing the solider right into the threatening blue solider. The firing solider shot hit the ceiling as his fellow soldier's body knocked him down. Zero jumped up toward the soldiers, landing one of his feet directly into one of the soldier's head causing to break apart and without even looking pointed his buster and blasted off the other soldiers' head. Ciel stood in shock at how quickly Zero had just taken care of the soldiers; she looked at Zero in awe. The crimson reploid didn't share the same opinion as Ciel.
"Lets go."
Zero began to walk toward the entrance, where Ciel and her guards had come in threw. Ciel realized that she didn't have time to stare in awe; she could do that from the safety of the resistance base. She quickly ran after Zero, making sure she didn't loose her one and only guardian.
"What's happening?"A green reploid was tapping his screen as if to make sure his tactical screen wasn't malfunctioning. He was ordering troops to surround the run down research facility the resistance soldiers had escaped into but with much surprise all the forces inside were going offline. His screen contained several thousand blue dots that where roaming through out the building, but now slowly a path of fading dots could be seen in the display.
"They are fighting there way out..."
The green reploid was looking at the path they were taking through the building and quickly found where they would end up, if they kept going. He brought up his COM link with the force's in the area.
"Golem AZ02, Head to these coordinates."
The green reploid entered them into the computer and then sent them to the specific unit.
AZ02, Acknowledged Heading to Location.
The green reploid sat in his chair and moved uneasily, sitting around and commanding was not his thing but he had orders to over see the capture of Ms.Ciel, and he wasn't one to disobey orders.
"I like to seem them defeat a Golem!"
He snickered, as he knew the resistance was very much under-manned and didn't even have the firepower to destroy a signal Golem. He knew once the resistance soldier's got there, Ciel would have come right into Neo Arcadia's hands. He smiled and then thought a bit about his decision. He then got back on her COM link to the troops.
"Golem AZ01, report to these coordinates."
AZ01, Acknowledged Heading to Location.
Ciel just couldn't help but watch as Zero took out everything in his path. He had already destroyed many different models of soldiers in a matter of seconds, but made it even more surprising how effortlessly he did it. She had already seen enough to believe it was really Zero.
"Come on!"
Zero didn't stop; he was fully focused on his objective. He had already taken out the two soldiers snuck up from behind. Ciel slowly came out from her hiding place, behind a large section of collapsed ceiling. Zero had stopped for her, but he still looked around as if still sensing the danger around them. She wasted found it hard to keep up with the legendary reploid, as they spent more time moving then they did fighting or that how Ciel felt. Zero began to move again as he lead them into a narrow corridor, Ciel stayed close to Zero as they walked. Zero seemed very alert as if he sensed the presence of a powerful foe. On the walls was notes and signs of different departments of the run down building, however it was the sight of on sign that caught Ciel's attention. Ciel ran over to the sign and quickly reads it; it says 'Trans Server - '.
"If this place has a working trans server, we might be able to get back to the resistance base if we can get to it!"
Zero heard what Ciel said but he was paying attention to another threat, but he wasn't quick enough to warn Ciel.
"CIEL! GET BACK!"
She didn't have the chance as an arm ripped threw the wall with the sign on it, grabbing Ciel's arm. She screamed as she struggled against her attacker but she didn't have the strength to escape its grasps. Zero rushed toward Ciel only to see the whole left wall break apart and a group of five blue soldiers came through it. They however didn't carry the same weapons as the soldiers before, they all had energy sabers, and they seemed to be far more able in combat then the cannon soldiers.
"Sabers..."
Zero was distracted as he thought about sabers and how he felt like he needed one, as if he would be much better with a saber then a buster. The front solider took this attempt to charge forward and slash at Zero from the side. The crimson reploid quickly jumped back to avoid the swing and fired a buster shot at the soldier's head, like he had done with all the others before. The solider however brought its saber up to defend against the attack and Zero's shot deflected toward the remaining wall. Ciel screamed as a cannon solider came through revealing itself as Ciel's attacker; it began to drag her down the hallway from Zero. She yelled and reached with her remaining hand for Zero.
"ZERO!"
Zero had a sudden rush of energy as something in Ciel's cry triggered an unexplainable reaction in his emotions; he felt his energy begin to gather. He dashed forward at the first saber solider, the saber solider quickly swung at him. Zero caught the soldier's arm with both hands at the lower and upper section and gave one big pull, ripping off the soldier's sword arm while still moving. He then threw the arm straight ahead past the saber soldier's and right into the body of the cannon solider attempting to take Ciel away. Ciel almost had a heart attack as the sword arm had only been about a half an inch from hitting her instead of the solider. She quickly looked at Zero, she yelled out to him.
"NO!"
Ciel watched as the four remaining armed soldiers all swung at Zero, who had dashed right in between them all. Zero quickly jumped up avoiding the blades, while still moving forward. He planted his foot right on the back of on one of the soldiers attacking, allowing him to jump higher and move forward even faster. Zero twisted in mid air and turned to the soldiers, with his buster he fired one charged buster shot right at the middle of the crowd. The buster exploded with fury when it hit the ground, causing all the soldiers to fly like rag dolls in different directions. Zero landed on the ground ahead of Ciel, back towards her. He slide all the way back to her cause of the excess force he had gathered. Ciel and Zero both watched to see if the soldiers got back up, but none did. Ciel had to say something now; she had already been saved twice over.
"Zero... your amazing!"
Zero turned to her and was about to say something when a loud rumbling began. Zero turned back toward the hole in the wall, as suddenly it became larger as a huge machine tried to crash through. Zero pointed his buster at the body of it but that was all he could see, the thing was so huge, he could only make out the belly of the robot and its head was somewhere on the second floor of the building. It hovered using a heavily armored hover unit at its base and it appeared to have rocket systems on its back, but it was hard to tell from the front. Ciel yelled, as she knew what it was.
"It's a Golem!"
Zero was about to fire his buster when her heard the roar of rocket engines, the Golem was charging forward at them, destroying the entire corridor with its huge body. Ciel had turned to run, but she never made it completely around when she was swept off her feet by Zero. He had picked her up, holding her with two arms as he using his dash system to their fullest power, as it became a race to out run the Golem. Ciel looked over Zero's shoulder at the Golem and finally was able to see its face, it was glowing green with energy.
"Its about to fire its plasma laser!" yelled Ciel.
"Direction!" yelled back Zero.
Zero couldn't turn him around to tell where it was aiming, he couldn't risk slowing down and being destroyed the Golem or risk losing Ciel. Ciel took note at how the head was aimed. She noticed the Golem didn't directly target them, its head somewhat off to the right.
"RIGHT!" screamed Ciel.
The Golem fired its thin beam of super charged energy at Zero, but Zero quickly pulled himself over to the left of the collapsing corridor as the beam went right up the right side of the corridor. She was looking backward and he was looking forward, he knew to inverse her directions to avoid the fire. He noticed ahead a collapse in the corridor ahead, it seemed to lead somewhere below the building.
"Hold on!" yelled Zero.
The Golem was charging energy again but it seemed aware of Zero escape path. The Golem brought its head down as if it was doing one big head butt, and now its speed increased as its hover and rocket system worked together to increase its speed. Ciel closed her eyes as she wished it were all one bad dream.
"It's going to hit us!" yelled Ciel.
"Not today." replied Zero.
Zero slide right into hole in the corridor with Ciel still tightly in his arms. Zero didn't expect the hole to drop down so far as they began to fall rapidly down. Ciel looked up as her hair began to get in her vision as they fell. She could see the Golems head, perfectly over the hole, stopped and still charging it energy.
"It's going to fire!" yelled Ciel.
Zero looked up and noticed the Golem also. He quickly looked down to see if there was any path at the end of the hole, he spotted an entrance at the bottom. He quickly panted his feet and back against the wall, as if trying to slow his decent. Ciel watched in surprise as Zero's armor began to take damage as it was ripping against the wall.
"You're going to rip yourself apart!" she yelled.
Zero couldn't believe that the hole was this far down, it didn't seem to end for far of a fall it was. He only grinned as if he knew what he was doing.
"Not if that thing does first!" said Zero.
Ciel looked back up as the energy became focused and then it unleashed upon them racing towards them. She could only close her eyes and scream as she thought it was over. Zero left his body go forward but kept his legs firmly panted against the wall, he let the friction and motion of his feet send his body forward. He let his body come to a steep downward angle and then triggered his dash system, ejecting him from the wall and sending him straight for the pathway at the bottom of the hole. He curled his body a bit, so that he could turn his landing into a safe roll. He kept Ciel tight in his arms making sure he didn't loose her. He hit the ground hard on his upper back and kept rolling, trying to insure Ciel wasn't hurt by the landing. The plasma beam hit the bottom of the hole with a loud crash sending sewer water everywhere, it got all over Zero's back as he turned almost instantly to check the Golem didn't follow them.
"That was close." said Zero.
Ciel opened her eyes and looked around, amazed to be still alive after that fall and the attack. Zero set her feet back down on the ground, but she almost fell over in surprise of the moment.
"We're alive?" asked Ciel.
"As far as I can see." sarcastically replied Zero.
Ciel put her hand up against the wall as she tried to catch her breath; her hand felt a sign against the wall. She turned and read the sign; it said 'Trans Server - '. She forgot about her tiredness and quickly turned toward Zero.
"The Trans Server is up ahead!" said Ciel, in a more positive tone.
Zero and Ciel began to walk ahead down the dark hallway; it had sewer water almost everywhere. It was clear they were as close to the bottom as they could get. Zero stopped as they reached a dead end, he didn't like the looks of things. Ciel walked up to the pile of rumble to see if they could get through it, but it was too thick to move by hand.
"I guess we have to go back." sighed Ciel.
Zero felt his sixth sense of danger, as if someone had just snuck up very close.
"Ciel get away from there!" yelled Zero.
Zero reached out but it was far too late, Ciel was standing straight up when the blockage behind her suddenly broke apart and a huge hand about the size of a person reached out and grabbed her. She didn't even move, all Zero saw change was her eyes go wide with fear as she was easily overpowered by the massive hand. Zero dashed forward, and chased the hand into a large computer lab room. Zero came in and looked at another Golem, he now saw the thing had two arms along side. The room was tall enough and large enough for the massive robot, it had come down through a huge hole in the ceiling of the room. He drew his buster and stood ready to fight the massive Golem.
"Zero! RUN AWAY! A buster won't work on its armor!" yelled Ciel.
Ciel was now beginning to struggle but really she was wasting her energy, as the robot didn't even have to use any of its massive strength at all to hold her. Zero heard her but he didn't have a choice, all he had was a buster and he wasn't about to run away. His mind instantly eliminated that opinion. He would never run away. He decided to make the first move; he dashed right at the massive machine and then jumped at it. He brought up his buster and charged it as his feet met the chest of the massive Golem. He jumped off the massive Golem in an attempt to be able to see its head. He fired a direct shot at the Golem's head when it came into sight but the Golem was ready for the attack. The blast hit the Golem's head and dispersed causing no damage and then it opened its mouth revealing its plasma cannon, and fired right where Zero would be. He didn't have any means to dodge the attack, it happened so quickly. The beam hit Zero directly in the chest sending him into the wall, leaving a small crater in the wall as he did.
"Zero!" Ciel yelled.
She was surprised his body survived the attack; it would have normally got straight through anyone else. The Golem fired its second fist right at the new crater, but Zero quickly pushed off the wall, jumping over the fist as it made the crater in the wall even bigger. The blast to his chest left a black spot showing where it should have pierced through the crimson armor, but Zero didn't seem to worry too much about the pain as he ran across the wire that connected the fist to body, firing his buster like mad at the Golem's head. All the buster shots kept being deflected by the Golem's heavy armor. Ciel felt movement as she was brought up between Zero and the Golem's face as using her as a human shield. Zero stopped firing to avoid hitting Ciel but when he stopped the hand came out and swung at Zero, backhanding him onto his back.
"Zero! RUN! PLEASE!" screamed Ciel
Ciel couldn't see how the legendary reploid would escape this problem, it really seemed like it was over for him. Zero slowly got back on his feet, the gem in his helmet now cracked from the attack, and a deep pain in his chest area caused from the beam. He knew for sure now a buster would never break that armor.
"Damn it!" cursed Zero.
Zero remained standing, trying to think of a way to defeat the massive Golem. Zero watched the Golem carefully till suddenly one of the computers came to life in the room. It displayed an image of an entry with rainbow colored rings around it, and the entity itself was only a ball of light revealing nothing of its form. The Golem was distracted as it turned to scan the computer. The monitor suddenly exploded and the entity was real floating in the room now. The ball of life pulsed and then and a green saber appeared out of it, handle and all. The saber flew right to Zero and landed in front of him, its blade in the ground. The blade was completely green and it made a very steep V shape for a blade, widest at the hilt and smallest at the tip. The handle was completely white and it seemed to be designed to fit somewhere. Zero was surprised at this sudden appearance of a weapon, as was Ciel.
"USE THIS!" The entity spoke like a person but with a muffled voice.
Zero seemed too surprised to pick up the sword just yet, and Ciel stared at it.
"A cyber-elf?" questioned Ciel.
Ciel's friend, Passy, was a cyber-elf and she researched them as well but she had never seen a cyber-elf like this before, it was in a class all by itself.
"Who are you?" asked Zero.
The ball of light didn't answer for a few seconds and then replied when the Golem turned its head back towards Zero, while he was still staring at the cyber-elf.
"DON'T WASTE... TIME... YOU MUST... SAVE THE GIRL!" said the entity in its muffled voice.
Zero looked back at the Golem, who had begun to charge its plasma weapon but when Zero looked back for the cyber-elf it was gone as quickly as it came. The saber however remained right in front of him still waiting for him to pick it up.
"Right."
Zero picked up the saber and with great surprise it came so naturally to him, he held the saber in an offense stance. He felt like he could do anything now, his buster was now second rate. He felt like all he needed was his saber and he could get anything done. The Golem didn't warn or taunt, it fired its plasma cannon directly at Zero. Zero brought his saber up and cut the beam in half, redirecting it around him. He smiled it was all too simple to him; the saber was his best weapon without a doubt.
"Time to retire you." said Zero.
The Golem attacked with a fist launch attack like before, but Zero jumped over it and run up the wire from the fist and then jumped again at the Golem's head. The Golem brought up Ciel to defend itself from his attack. Ciel watched in fear as he was going to attack anyway. She closed her eyes as he swung and a second later she felt the Golem release her. She fell to the ground and the Golem's fingers fell to the ground with a huge crash next to Ciel as Zero had cut off all the Golem's fingers. He then pushed himself off the palm of the very same hand he cut and jabbed his saber into the Golem's head. The Golem stopped moving and its hover systems almost instantly died. The Golem fell backward lifeless as its primary systems had been destroyed. He pulled his saber out and jumped off the Golem, landing right next to Ciel.
"Rust in peace." said Zero.
The Golem crashed into the ground sending dust everywhere as Zero turned to Ciel to see if she was all right.
"Are you alright?" asked Zero.
She looked up at Zero, who had offered his hand to help her up for the first time. She pulled herself up with his help and then looked once more at the lifeless Golem. She looked right back at Zero in pure awe. He put his saber away in his side holster that wasn't taken by the buster; he looked down and realized that the saber perfectly fit in it, that the saber was his by design.
"You really are the legendary reploid, Zero!" exclaimed Ciel.
Zero finally looked at Ciel directly for the first time, but this time it was a face of worry.
"Zero? Is that my name?" asked Zero.
Ciel seemed stunned; he didn't remember his past at all. He had been fighting this whole time without a clue of who he was. He seemed to be thinking deeply and then shook his head in defeat.
"I can't remember..." said Zero.
"Don't worry it should ware off, you memories will come back in time." replied Ciel.
"What if I'm not Zero?" asked Zero.
Ciel smiled for the first time since they met, and with that a pleasing sensation went threw the reploid caused by Ciel's smile.
"You saved me, even if you aren't Zero, your still my hero." said Ciel.
Ciel looked over the Golem to notice that it broke wall when it crashed, revealing the Trans Server room.
"The Trans Server Room! It still functions!" exclaimed Ciel.
She could see the active power in the Server by the blinking lights on the server. Zero remained where he was, he thought about what she had said and about his lost memories.
"Come on Zero! Before they come with more Golem's!" exclaimed Ciel.
Ciel was already over at the Trans Server computer typing information in to set the location of the teleportation. He slowly walked over the Golem and then stopped and looked at the computer the cyber-elf had appeared from. He only had one thought now about all the events that had just happened.
"That thing... it knew me." said Zero.
He turned back to Ciel who finished programming the Trans Server so that they could finally escape to the Resistance Base. Zero had no idea what was in store for him but he had a rough idea that Ciel may have a good idea.