Chapter 21 - DEATHVILLE 26XX

Blue's form was a solid azure blur as he dashed at full speed through the old, beaten down town quickly. His soft blue eyes darted to and fro across the beaten path that he was taking. He had yet to see any sign of Flagpole anywhere, but he wasn't going to give up just yet. Flagpole may not be on this side of the town, nor would he probably ever be, but he was determined to find his partner before he ran out of juice and needed a recharge.

'I'm coming for you, Flagpole. Blue has always been there to watch your back.' He sighed heavily and pulled the power from his left buster and transmitted it to his dash thrusts, increasing his speed slightly.

Ragnarok's tentacles took hold of each Reploid in the room at once, excluding Climax, and sent a small surge of Dark Energy into their forms. The three of them would never notice that they had been infused with this small amount of Dark Energy. Only those infected with a mass amount of Dark Energy, like himself and Climax, would be able to detect the Dark Energy in their forms. And Ragnarok was only planning on using it for tracking them as they did his bidding.

"Climax.. Hassss called you all.. Here.. For me.."

"We get that part, but what do you want from us?" Dark Squall snapped loudly, the Dark Energy was taking a liking to this one, melding itself into his emotions.

"Quiet, Dark Squall. Ragnarok is speaking." Climax grit his teeth a little, shaking his head.

'Maybe I picked the wrong people.'

"Sss.. I have insss-erted.. A locator into.. All of you.. I have alssso hired sssomeone to help around.."

"What!" This time it was Climax that burst in with an interruption.

"Yesss.. I hired a man.. By the name.. Of Fear." Climax grit his teeth and ground them together.

Climax turned his eyes away from his floating brother, his teeth grit tightly together beneath the mask covering part of his face. His left hand, the one farthest from Ragnarok, shook angrily.

'Does he not think I'm capable of this job? I'll show him! And this.. Fear! He'll FEAR me! HA!'

Flagpole's already large form began to increase in size and almost double itself in total mass. He swung his now massive fist forward, cracking his knuckles against the broadside of a brick building. His form quickly began to decrease in size and returned to normal in about the same time the building took to finally fall.

"Heh.."

The building shook and the pieces of brick crumbled beneath one another and the building fell into itself, like a massive domino structure. As the pieces fell, small explosions ruptured upward through the rubble, proving that he had picked the right building. He sighed and scratched the side of his face lightly, staring away for a moment.

"This place is so easy to destroy.." He reached out for a metal beam sticking out from the rubble and spun it over his head, he slammed the metal pole into the ground and grinned, "Welcome to Deathville!"

He released the pole and took off running, his form slowly decreasing in mass, changing his body from a taller sized Reploid into that of a gnome-sized Reploid. His speed increased multiple times the smaller he got. He rip up dirt and gravel as he took off running, vanishing into a cloud of dust.

The sunlight streamed down around the old church building, showing how significant it was, or used to be, to the small town. The soft sound of steam erupted from within the silent building. Within the small church, where the altar had once been, stood a gleaming Stasis Pod containing a single Reploid. The pod was activating on its own, like a timer had been set for him to activate on this particular day. The jade paneling faded from sight and the Reploid's scarlet oculars lit up and he stared into the world once more.

"You're finally awake again, Shori.."

A single Reploid limped its way through the cemetery, its form half ruined. Multiple parts of its body was missing, and should have been dripping with coolant, but he had been long since dead, that all of his coolant had leaked from his body. He sighed heavily and slammed his right fist into a nearby tombstone, the stone cracking and exploding beneath the force. He stood up straight, the upper part of his left arm slowly reforming as he walked.

'Small price to pay for immortality, I suppose..'

'Fear, you're talking to yourself again.'

'...'

'Don't act like that, Fear. You know I'm here for you.'

'Where are we supposed to be going anyway?'

'You're almost there.. Only a little farther. Maybe we can get you some spare energy from somewhere.'

'I need it, don't I? Heh.. I'm missing more than a few body parts.'

'I've kept you alive this long. I won't stop now.'

'Good.'

Fear closed his eyes as he forced himself to walk a little quicker. He had to make it to the warehouse and meet up with Ragnarok, or whoever this guy was, and get his assignment. Perfect Divine had been with him for quite a few hundred years, and he had never let him down on making sure that he had gotten repaired completely. Fear stared at the ground as he stumbled along, he couldn't think without Perfect Divine knowing what he was thinking, he couldn't do anything without the sentient being sharing his body knowing what he was up to.

Ragnarok's form quivered slightly in the air, before he drew his tentacles back into himself, looking like a harmless glowing purple orb floating about six feet in the air. A single tentacle spun out from the bottom of the orb and snuck across the room, tapping Lull on the forehead and then moving to Dark Squall, doing the same to him.

"You two.. Kill.. Reploid.. Disss-turbancesss.."

"Of course." Dark Squall snorted a little and walked out of the warehouse, with Lull following along behind him, her beam axes already out and in her hands, her fingers tight around the shafts.

Ragnarok's single tentacle swept across the room and dropped down to CN's level, lightly tapping her on the forehead and nudging her back a little. CN grit her teeth behind her lips, hiding her displeasure of a tentacle even touching her. It 'sensed' her dislike and slipped back into Ragnarok's orb form.

"You.. Find more.. Help.." CN only nodded and spun on her heel and exited the building rather quickly.

Climax crossed his arms over his chest, his back to his brother's bodiless form. Ragnarok floated over to Climax and crept around in front of him, floating at Climax's eye level. Multiple tentacles erupted from Ragnarok's form and wrapped around Climax's entire form, locking his body in place.

"And you.. Find Fear.." Climax stared angrily at his brother, not saying anything. "FIND HIM!"

Ragnarok's tentacles snapped and went flooding back into his body as Climax sent a ripple of Dark Energy around his body, the two energies connecting and breaking the hold over him. He turned and walked out of the warehouse at a slightly increased pace than normal. Ragnarok hovered back over to the entrance of the base, waiting for a helpless Reploid to go running past so he could collect more energy.

The church seemed to be singing within the light of the sun, which was directly above in the center of the arc of the sky. The shingles, though old, still shimmered within the sunlight. Shori stretched himself out and crept along the platform his pod was on. He stepped down into the center aisle and walked slowly toward the door. His gray armor reflected the sun streaming through a few holes in the roof, sending rays of crimson across the church walls from his carbon rubber suit. He reached his hand up and flicked the golden spikes on his helmet, smirking a little.

"Everything seems to be in place.. But where are the rest of them?"

He turned around a few times and then noticed a staircase off to the right side of the church. He headed for that door, his scarlet eyes never moving from where he was heading. He set his hand on the door frame and walked through the slim doorway, walking down a staircase into a lower section of the church.

He stopped in front of a group of four Stasis Pods exactly like his own upstairs. He set his right hand lightly on the paneling of each pod in turn, moving from left to right. He walked back over to stand in front of all four of them at once. He walked over to the first pod and set his hand lightly to the green glass.

"Reaver.. Awaken." The sound of his voice activated the programing to the pod and set it on reactivation, as he walked to the next pod.

"You too, Velocity.." His hand lightly touched the glass as he moved on to the next pod in the line, his voice clear as he spoke, "Awaken Giro."

He walked over to the final pod and stood in front of it, the other three pods slowly going through the procedure of reactivation. The four pods were all supposed to be activated all at once, instead of one at a time, so they would wait for the other ones to get to where they could be released at once. He set his hand to the glass and stared at the Reploid inside.

"And finally.. Iylth. Wake up."

The last pod went through the process rather quickly, catching up to the other three pods. All four of the pods all activated at once, the paneling sliding away and steam filtering from the bottom of the pods. Shori crossed his arms over his chest, waiting for each member of his small team to reawaken from their long and deep slumber.

'I'm surprised that this church is even still standing after all this time. I set the internal clocks of the pods to reactivate me after four centuries, I didn't think it'd actually do it.'

The steam had all been released and he heard the panels evaporate away from around the pods, meaning that the four Reploids within the pods should be activated. He smiled slightly and took a step forward. He barely had time to dive out of the way as a clawed hand came shooting through the steam from the first pod, the claws tearing into the wall behind where Shori had just been standing. He stayed down, hiding behind the staircase.

'What the hell?'

Reaver stepped down from his pod, his arm tightening and breaking through the wall and retracting back into place. His black armor shimmered slightly as the steam cleared out from around the room. His silver claws quivered lightly as he glanced around the room, his face a blank piece of black metal paneling.

"Come out Shori.. I know you're hiding. Don't hide from poor little old Reaver.."