Chapter Two: Welcoming Committee
The endless dunes of Hueco Mundo stretched before Ulquiorra. But they were not as they once were.
The moon was in the sky as it had been before, yet there were subtle differences. His eyes could detect craters that hadn't been there before. How many cycles had passed in this place while he slept? It was irrelevant, for he saw the signs of the human's presence.
They had established their facility above the Menos Dimension. And Ulquiorra stood above it on a great clifftop.
"Be warned," said Nemu. "The explosion has been set to three minutes."
"More than sufficient time," said Ulquiorra.
Stepping down, he began to scale down the stones toward the sands below. As he did, he saw nothing alive. Even the lizards the walked this place were nowhere to be seen. Scaling down, he set his feet down onto the sands and walked over them.
His hand was on his sword as he made his way toward the facility.
First, he would reactivate the sensor systems. Memories came to him now of the general means to do so. It was a start. With that information, he could learn what Kuroschutchi had learned. With that information, he could annihilate his enemies once and for all.
Even so, he sensed something.
A presence.
Glancing to one side, he saw a lesser hollow rushing over the dunes. Making after it quickly, he followed it down and slid to a halt near a wall. It was made of metal, and below he saw the sand had been cleared away. His eyes gazed over the ancient ruins that he had not seen in many cycles, covered by dirt.
No hollow had ever succeeded in drawing those up. No hollow had ever cared to try.
All around them were innumerable hollows, moving about. They had not yet seen him. Descending down into the ruins, he crept up behind one and pulled it behind a pillar. Grabbing its mouth, he ripped the top of its head off, then stole around the pillar. Dropping down into what had once been a courtyard, he plunged his hand through the chest of another. Pulling out the heart, he dragged the corpse around a pillar. Another came round the other side at the same moment.
They looked around for their comrade. Mere moments later before Ulquiorra stalked forward and snapped their neck. He let them fall to the ground as he leaped back up and hid behind a pillar. Some of the enemies were leaping down and saw the corpses. Ulquiorra took their heads off with a bala while moving on.
Another saw him and raised a hand to fire a bala of its own-
Then it was cut in half.
Trash.
All of them were trash.
The bodies faded away as Ulquiorra moved on. Those had been some of the more powerful hollows. Those he had faced before had been the weakest of kinds, having absorbed only one or two souls. These, however, were obviously more dangerous.
As he walked, he sensed two presences he had not felt in previous cycles. Lowering his aura, Ulquiorra hid behind a dune as they came over the edge. Neliel had not changed much, though her wavy green hair was still longer. Her enormous breasts were now packed into a white and black outfit. One that clung to her wide hips in a fashion that incited lust. The outfit unexpectedly suited her, rather than the green rags before. Her cheeks still bore the blush tattoos.
Grimmjow, however, had shorter hair, now spiked. He wore a similar outfit that showed off his muscular abdomen. His white skirt glowed around him.
With both of them were many higher-level hollows. Ulquiorra would not be able to confront these ones directly.
"Has there been any word from Yammy, Grimmjow?" asked Neliel, hand on her sword.
"What do you think, Nel?" asked Grimmjow. "The fucker barged in there first to fight Ulquiorra. Any reason we're sending him in? We both know he's the weakest."
"Yammy and Ulquiorra got on well in the last cycle, Grimmjow," said Neliel. "He's the most likely to join his side if things turn against us. Better he dies first then defect later. Though, of course, I hope he succeeds.
"More importantly, the point of the mission was to remove Ulquiorra before he could awaken.
"Last cycle, he came too close. You know what will happen if he succeeds in consuming the entire Hollow Race."
"He's not going to get the chance." scoffed Grimmjow. "I'll-" He paused. "Where are the guards."
And then the mountain exploded in the foreground, as many tones of rock collapsed down onto the sands. Ulquiorra felt what was called satisfaction as he watched them look around in fear.
"What the hell?!" said Grimmjow.
"So Yammy has failed," noted Neliel.
"Fan out! Find Ulquiorra!" snapped Grimmjow. "If you find him, bring word to me! I'll kill the bastard myself!"
"No," said Neliel. "We'll confront him together as one — all of us at once. None of us can defeat him directly. If you fight Ulquiorra directly, you will lose. I dropped that temple on him ten cycles ago. We'll do worse this time."
Ulquiorra had walked onward as he listened. His senses were well attuned, and now he was making his way to the edge of a cliff. Around him, he saw many of the human structures. They were unadorned, without decoration. There was a raised track leading into the distance toward another facility. It had been destroyed at some point, however.
Nearer still, Ulquiorra saw a great tower rising high into the air. And several other facilities around. Still, this main road seemed too exposed. It would not be wise to confront Neliel and her kind directly just yet. Scaling higher up, he scaled over a set of pipes, hot to the touch, and saw two Arrancar hollows walking.
They were both thin. One of them had short, blonde hair, the other had black pigtails and violet eyes. With them were a great many other, lesser hollows. "Any reason we've got to sit around here, waiting, Menoly?" said the black-haired one.
"You know what Mistress Neliel said," said Menoly. "We're supposed to clear up any human survivors and observe for a fleet."
"Yeah, but why the hell do we have to do this, anyone?" asked the black-haired one. "We've already wiped the humans out, or most of em. Why the hell should we still be taking orders from that... monster."
"Loly, you know what the orders are-" began Menoly.
And then they looked and saw Ulquiorra as he dropped down in front of them.
"Ulquiorra," said Menoly.
Ulquiorra sent a bala toward them, but Loly pulled one of the lesser hollows in front. The use of a living shield saved her, and she drew a dagger. "Attack!"
Menoly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her off, even as the hollows surged toward Ulquiorra. "Retreat!"
Ulquiorra hacked through a hollow with his hand. He roundhouse kicked another into oblivion, before leaping into the air. A surge of balas later, and they fell dead as he landed and pursued. However, Loly and Menoly were nowhere to be found.
Likely they were going to find reinforcements and alert higher level creatures. He'd have to eradicate them before Neliel, or Grimmjow got back. "Excellent strategy."
Making his way after them, he turned a corner and came to a number of strange devices. They seemed to be focused on pumping. Perhaps a generator or some sort of engine. Whatever it was, many hollows were surging there.
Rushing to meet them, he fired a cero.
As he did, they scattered, so only a few were consumed. Then they followed massive volleys of balas that Ulquiorra was hard-pressed to evade. One caught him in the shoulder as he cleaved an enemy in half. The pain of burning flesh was insignificant. But it meant his enemies became more motivated.
As he cleaved one in half, more landed and fired at him. Like minnows, they ran away as he, the higher predator, cleaved them down. But minnows had no power to unleash an attack of their own. Yammy would have been of help here. His rampage could have been a distraction to draw off the main force while Ulquiorra entered.
More burns were put on his body as the old healed. More hollows were coming to help against him. It was time to get some distance. Surging backward, he came to even greater cliffs and landed on a fan. The enemy scrambled after him from all around.
Ulquiorra drew his sword. His power exploded outward. Now there would be no hope of stealth.
With lightning speed, he surged around, hacking and slashing all around him. Bodies were cleaved, as wherever he went, the bodies of the slain piled up. Waves of balas consumed one creature after another. For a few, furious instants Ulquiorra consumed all around them.
Then, walking over the disintegration corpses. He sheathed his blade while feeling a bit winded. Several wounds were on him, but they were swiftly healing. Soon he leaped across a gap and made his way through a cave system, killing several more as he did.
Soon enough, he came to the facility itself. And yet it was oddly empty. There did not appear to be any stairs leading up. Perhaps access was only meant to be attainable through the tracks leading in. There did appear to be some doors, but he found that his balas and ceros did nothing to them,
As Ulquiorra scaled up, he found this absence of defenders suspicious. Then, just as he reached the top, something leaped at him with massive jaws. As it came, he caught the beast by the hair and smashed its skull on the metal. It broke and bent steel as Ulquiorra clambered over the corpse. More came at him from both sides, firing balas. But Ulquiorra rolled forward and raised two hands to blow them apart.
Even so, he felt a slight injury. Moving forward, he saw arrancars, not hollows. All were weaker than Loly and Menoly, judging from their monstrous appearance. But all of them clustered together as Ulquiorra surged toward them.
As one, they unleashed ceros that shot toward him.
Ulquiorra slid to a halt, surprised by this. Coordination between hollows was something he'd dismissed as impossible. He hardly raised his hand to fire his own cero before it hit him. For a moment, the two blasts shuddered against eachother. Then the enemy blast overtook his. His hand was burned as he struggled to halt it with one hand. Bringing up his other, he slipped and lost his footing, and the weakened blast consumed him.
The Arrancar clustered, staring in hope.
Then Ulquiorra got up and began firing balas into them. They scattered too late, and most of them were killed in an instant. The others tried to flee and were destroyed. Ulquiorra walked on to the doors, which slid aside for him.
Beyond him, he saw the image of Nemu Kuroschutchi. "Welcome to Section 12 Resource Operations. This facility was one of the first constructed for the colonization effort. It was founded after the discovery of Hollow energy. It deals with ore gathering, docking, and communications array.
"If you're a volunteer, Central Forty-Six would extend it's gratitude to you for your service. If you are among the indentured service, please cooperate. Your service is of value to us."
"Why do you continue to read this documentation?" asked Ulquiorra.
"Standard procedure is to continue the loop so long as anyone is present," said Nemu. "The rules and parameters are to be maintained, even in crises.
"I am opening the doors.
"Bear in mind that this facility is in lockdown. It may be necessary to circumnavigate the defenses in place to secure the facility."
Ulquiorra scaled up the steps, walking past the bodies. He found himself somewhat curious about something. "Should those defenses have not been destroyed already."
"Unfortunately, they were turned against us," said Nemu as Ulquiorra reached the airlock. "It began with raids. Hollow attacks became very well-coordinated. They caught our exploration teams off guard whenever they left, weakening our garrison. That ground our operations to a halt. Then there were strange blackouts. The creatures also began to fight with better organization. There were regular periods where I was unable to observe certain areas. Master Mayuri became increasingly upset and took to disciplining subordinates.
"Reinforcements were requested from Central Forty-Six. Plans were made to bring an entire division here under General Byakuya Kuchiki.
"Then, the attack came.
"A transmission was broadcast out en masse to all parts of the facility. One of our employees arranged for multiple dimensional breaches in several critical areas. The placing of these breaches resulted in it being impossible to respond quickly.
"At the same time, an outside attack-"
Suddenly Nemu's voice fizzled out. Around Ulquiorra, he could sense a spiritual pressure he had before. And he saw on the walls familiar tendrils growing through the halls.
"Nemu-kun, could you please be quiet for a minute. I'm supposed to introduce myself." said a bubbly, cheerful voice. "Hi, I'm Orihime Inoue. I'm taking control of the communications system using my friend Aureniero. I kind of, sort of let the hollows into this place. Now, I don't mean any offense by this, and it is kind of mean, but everyone here had to die for being a threat..."
An attitude Ulquiorra could respect.
Author's Note:
So here, we have chapter two.
I don't usually include this much action within the context of a fic. However, given that Ulquiorra is an omnicidal maniac, and these are hollows, endless blood and action is pretty much the norm. With luck, I've made a reasonably interesting narrative in the process.