Chapter 16 - The Darkness Grows
A mysterious purple glow filtered throughout the room slowly, tentacles beginning to sprout along it and expand outward across the room. The tentacles wrapped around a Reploid laying atop a small metal bench, the energy within the tentacles beginning to spill slowly into the black Reploid.
"Hss... Climax.." The black Reploid began to glow a deep purple and then shot straight upward, his body turning.
He dropped back down the table, the purple glowing filtering around his form and then dispersing inside of him, the deep red flare of his eyes lessened and then finally dispersed as well. Climax turned to the glowing purple orb and took a step back with one foot, staring silently toward it.
"Yesss Climax.. Missss.. me?" Climax swallowed heavily, replying as steady as he could, "Yes master.. But I thought you died.."
"You.. Should know better.. Than that, Climax.." Climax nodded lightly, "Of course, master."
The tentacles billowed back into the floating purple orb, letting Climax relax slightly, but he made sure not to show it outwardly. The glowing purple orb filtered through the air and bobbed in front of Climax a little.
"You.. Have a job.."
"What must I do?"
"Minionsss.. And.. A new body.. For me.."
"Yes, of course.."
Climax bowed and leaped from the metal table, the orb swiftly evading Climax's form as it came down. He wove itself in the air for a moment as Climax made his way from the worn down warehouse, his eyes glancing back slightly.
'I can't believe this. I'm back working for my brother.. The glowing purple orb of Doom.'
Climax leaped from the doorway of the warehouse. The stairs had long since disintegrated and left the doorway over five stores away from the ground. As he neared the ground, he ignited his boot thrusters and swept outward across the ground, missing impact by seconds. He deactivated his boots and began run almost immediately, keeping up his momentum.
'I know the perfect place to go to find allies. Hopefully they are willing to help someone of almost pure Dark Energy.'
The female Reploid stood stock-still, surrounded on all sides by upgraded versions of Joe's, each one carrying a shield and twin busters. Her black lips curled up slightly as she grinning, twin beam axes igniting in her hands, green like the gems on her gauntlets, with black handles and silver accents strewn along it. She flowed easily, both blades blazing around her as she went to work, doing what she had always done best; killing things.
Climax stood at the corner edge of a building, the sound of a battle raging caught his attention halfway down the road he had bee running. He glanced around the corner, scanning ahead with his eyes. He jerked behind the wall as a he severed Joe head bounced along the road. He smirked a little, shaking his head as he stepped out from around the wall, walking toward the female slayer.
She spun around a final time, cleaving apart the last two Joe's, sending their bodies in opposite directions, her eyes gleaming dangerously as she deactivated the two axes, watching as Climax approached her from where he had been hiding. She watched him stop in front of her, the sunlight glinting off the green gems on her gauntlets and in her hair.
"Hello Lull.. Nice to see your axes still have their pleasant lullaby."
"..."
"Right.. I have a proposition for you."
Lull perked a brow and slid her twin axe hilts away, following after Climax as he turned away from her. Climax followed down the road they were on and turned to the right, with Lull close behind him, eyeing the black Reploid with some suspicion.
A large eruption tore through the roof of the small building, a group of Mets disintegrating into the air as they flew. The silver Reploid drew back his fist and slammed it through the lens and entire body of the Tracker, tearing its insides out. He leapt into the air, be swallowed up by a swarm of Flies. He growled angrily and spun around, a blade of silver energy ripping through the horde. He landed, dashing forward, drawing the saber up along the ground, taking apart a Spincutter with one blow, the remainder of the enemies began withdrawing. The Reploid watched them leave, and then watched them all explode just outside the building. He walked over to the door and watched Climax appear with a female Reploid. He smirked a little.
"Who's the chick?"
"Shut up Dark Squall. Come with us, I have a job for the two of you, but only after we get one other."
Dark Squall nodded, flicking his fiery red hair back over his shoulder, following after the pair. He flicked off his saber, the silver blade dying and pulling back into the blade. He set it back into its place, his silver armor gleaming alongside Lull's silver and Climax's black.
Flagpole's red, white, and blue armor flashed in the light, his fists enlarging to twice their normal size as he punched through the oncoming laser, the blast splashing over his armor as he dashed forward, returning his fists to normal size. He leapt over the next blast and landed behind the Walking Cannon, spinning on his right heel and slamming his fist down through the machine's entirety, ripping it apart with his bare hands. He threw the spare parts away from him, sighing heavily.
'I get stuck in the middle of a western showdown with a Walking Cannon while Blue is off doing.. Who knows what. This is great.. Just great.'
A small Reploid leapt around the street, its purple saber striking down each Maverick Bird as it tried to cut her down in the air, or while she was on the ground, for the small amount of seconds she ever WAS on the ground. She leapt up once more, spinning around in a quick circle, cutting through the last pair of green Maverick Birds as they passed at the same moment, twin simultaneous explosions occurring on either side of her. She grinned gleefully, leaping into the air once more.
"Hey CN." She glanced toward who talked to her.
"Hi Climax, and Lull. Who is that?"
"This i-" Dark Squall cut him off, "The name is Dark Squall."
"Ah."
"I have a job of the three of you.. My master is back.." The three all stared at him for a moment.
"Ragnarok."
Cicero was getting sick of all this paper work, especially since none of it was his. Every five or ten minutes, he lost count, Sherrie would drop another stack of folders next to his door, and soon it was getting out of control. He decided it was time to fix this.
"Sherrie. Can you come in here please?"
"One moment."
"No. Now."
"Hmph.. Fine."
Sherrie walked into the room, throwing a few folders on to the already growing stack of multi-colored folders. She looked displeased with him, but then again, that wasn't anything new. She was always mad at him. He stared up at her, signing the bottom of the last important folder on his desk, tossing it with the rest of them.
"Wake up the president."
"No."
"Do it."
"I don't have to listen to you." And with that the receptionist strolled from the room, leaving Cicero to grind his teeth together angrily.
'Damn! Damn! Damn! I'm tired of doing all of this work by myself. If she won't wake him up, I'll do it myself.'
Ragnarok lashed its tentacles out across the room, watching on to the head of an old Reploid, drawing it in. The energy was still present inside of this one, so he began converting it, slowly, sucking the last remnants of energy into himself, sealing it away as Dark Energy. He would have sighed, if it were possible for a purple orb to sigh.
'Climax.. I hope your decisions.. Are better than the ones.. You've made in the past.'
Blue was quicker than the group of Joe's on rider chasers thought he was. He waited for them to pass him before he bolted, catching up to them easily. He morphed both of his hands into busters and destroyed the two Joe's in the back, leaping up on to the two chasers, using them as a pair of hover skis. He began charging both busters at once, waiting for a moment, before firing both blasts simultaneously blowing out the thrusters of the other chasers, leaping down and landing on the broken chasers, blowing the heads of the Joe's off with low-powered shots. He smirked as he ran ahead and fired medium-sized blasts into the bikes, all four exploding as they reached him.
"Hehe. Don't underestimate the power of Blue." He turned and looked around him, studying his surroundings for a moment.
'No sign of Flagpole. I need to find that size-shifting bastard before he gets himself into trouble.'
Cicero pushed open the door to the President's rest room and slammed his foot into the end of the bed, jerking Goompas awake. He groaned and stared up at Cicero's face through sleep-glazed eyes.
"Wha' y'u wan'?" Cicero snickered a little.
"Wake up President Goompas. I'm not going to do all your damn files for you."
"Ugh.. Fine, fine.."
Goompas pushed himself up out of his bed and grabbed his tie and tied it back on around the collar of his shirt. He pulled the lapel down over the red tie, stuffing it down into his shirt. He snatched his shades up and placed them on to his face, nodding to Cicero as they both left the room. They began splitting the folders in half once they reached Cicero's office, making sure that Goompas got all the more important files.
'I wouldn't want Cicero to discover that the Government was rebuilding Reploids..'
Duo's ship rocketed through space quickly, his massive form squeezed into the fastest, yet smallest ship that he was capable of getting into. He shifted a little to get more comfortable in the tight ship, sighing heavily. His scanner placed on Earth was picking up more traces of Dark Energy in different sections of the world. He would be in for more than he would be capable of dealing with on this one.
'If I get into more than I can chew, I'll call in for back-up.. Hopefully they make it there in time to keep me from getting killed. Hopefully..'
Climax re-entered the warehouse that he had been in when awakened. Lull, Dark Squall, and CN all followed in closely behind him, all expecting something different than what they encountered. Climax strode across the room and stood beneath the glowing purple orb, which began unleashing tentacles, pulling the three Reploids into the room and keeping them from leaving.
"Welcome.. Minionsss.."
"This.. Is Ragnarok.. For now anyway." Climax grinned darkly as the purple energy began to spiral around the room about the five of them.