Chapter 4: Sky Lagoon (2) – Search and Rescue
Zero and his unit looked upon as the proud airborne metropolice Sky Lagoon came toppling and crashing down to the ground from 30 meters high. Nothing much they could do as the situation was deemed too dangerous, so they had to wait until everything settled down before they could move in to assess the damage.
The entire city had been grounded, reduced to rubble and scorched in fire. Debris of buildings had filled the entire landscape and turned it into ruin. It was a painful sight.
"The carnage… It's horrible…" Zero gritted his teeth as he watched in disbelief to Sky Lagoon's fate. "The Mavericks will have to pay for this!"
"Commander! There are survivors under the rubble!" It seemed that all the remaining 10 of Zero's men had not seen the end of the day, as they scattered around to rescue any survivors fortunately to stay alive throughout the entire ordeal.
"Good! Rescue them all! I will go ahead and scout the area!" Zero dashed out of the place to further analyze the situation, leaving his members to help out with the rescue. Doing so should be most efficient as they could save as many survivors as they could while Zero moved quickly to detect any lingering hazards, probably some Mavericks were still hiding around.
As Zero made his way through the rubble, hopping and skipping onto the debris to further proceed, he was soon caught by surprise by the Trap Blasts concealing themselves behind the crumbled building walls, sprouting out as Zero approached them and began firing energy projectiles. Before they managed to release these projectiles Zero had already cut them down with his Z-Saber using his magnificent speed which he took pride of.
Some of the remains of the rubble were unstable and crumble immediately the moment Zero skipped onto them. Joining in the parade were a bunch of Kyunbyunn, bee-like Mavericks which only meant trouble upon encountering them. Despite their small and agile bodies, Zero did not have much trouble slicing them into half.
"There are Mavericks around… this place is far from being safe...:" Zero thought to himself. Still unsure who the perpetrator of this incident was. Whoever it was, Zero would ensure that he would be amply punished, preferably with his own hands, as he could not forgive such a cruel act causing the death of thousands.
After a few skirmishes with the Trap Blasts and Kyunbyunn, Zero found himself in the presence of a very familiar face.
"Iris! What are you doing here? Are you okay!?" Zero called out to his romantic interest. The female Reploid was badly wounded and found it difficult to move an inch of her body. It took her a considerable effort to look up to find Zero.
Judging from her wounds, who knows what calamity had befall onto her, she could well made it down her all the way from the top, crashing down and breaking most of her locomotive circuits.
"Zero…" she spoke in a severely weakened voice, "did you come to save me?"
"Yes! Hang on!" Zero hurriedly raced to her side and administered her an emergency energy pack, rejuvenating her vital circuits and restoring her bodily functions. "Feeling better?"
"I was here shopping with my friends, and a huge Maverick appeared..." answered Iris, still feeble and not fully recovered.
"It's alright, can you make yourself back to the base? I will handle things here." assured Zero. He couldn't just leave her here, as there's no telling when a stray Maverick would come and attack her. Yet he had a mission to fulfill, to investigate the damage and continue to track down the perpetrator.
"I think I can..." Iris attempted to activate her teleportation circuits, with much effort, her electrical energy left just enough to perform the teleportation, as her body glowed in a brilliant yellow and slowly vanished.
Zero had a faint smile for a brief moment, relieved by the fact that Iris had been out of harm's way. "Is this really one of Repliforce's? I really doubt it… no time to think! I will have to take him down!"
He pushed ahead and it did not took too long before he met the familiar dragon Maverick, codenamed "Eregion".
Eregion was still flying around and causing havoc. Without a moment of delay, Zero hopped onto the many debris of the collapsed buildings to gain some height, with amazing dexterity, he climbed enough to strike down the dragon Maverick's wings and brought it crashing onto the ground.
"You will pay for all the lives you had killed!" Zero mercilessly shoved down his Z-Saber onto the head of Eregion, attempting to slice it from the center, however, it was stopped as Eregion managed to grab the blade with its powerful claws and shoved Zero aside.
Zero hastily retaliated, his feet caught the wall he was aimed at and stamped his way out, gaining some air as he prepared a second attack against the towering Maverick. Eregion then landed on all four of its extremities, pointing his mouth forwards, revealing a cannon inside.
"!" Thankfully with enough momentum, Zero managed to hop onto the nose of the Maverick and suspended himself on the air long enough to survive the barrage of blue energy spheres.
Zero landed, and was down on his left knee for a second before getting back up and resumed his charge. Eregion sensed this, and quickly unleashed a fast, vicious, horizontal claw attack. This time, Zero managed to dash just underneath the attack and returned another horizontal slash of his own, separating the Eregion from its two legs, causing it to fall over and immediately decapitated as Zero slashed its head away.
The now headless Maverick did not move a single inch, as it froze on the stop, toppling down due to his uneven weight falling over, "strange… I could not find the Repliforce logo anywhere on its body…" Ending his identification attempt on Eregion, Zero slowly walked away from the defeated dragon Mechaniloid.
A white uniformed Reploid blitzed into the scene, "Zero! Long time no see."
"Colonel! What are you doing here?" Zero asked, seemingly to ask everyone he saw today the same question, while it was a simple form of inquisition, it could also be a form of interrogation.
"I've come to save my sister Iris, I hope she's okay." The tall Repliforce officer responded promptly, as if he had nothing to hide.
"She's fine! I've just rescued her! She should be back to the Repliforce HQ by now." Zero returned. His relationship with Colonel wasn't poor to begin with, for one, the two of them were rival fighters, both of them share the same favorite weapon, an energy saber, and they frequently duel with each other. Secondly, they had been cooperating together in various missions in the past. However, they had not seen each other in the past 2 months.
"Oh? Thanks, Zero. I owe you one…"
"... Colonel." Zero did not give the opportunity for his rival to finish his sentence. "I have a question for you. Did your unit attack this place?" Zero did not pull any punches in questioning the brother of his love interest. This wasn't the time for friendship or any other relationships to take over. To Zero, the mission objective was the absolute priority.
"What are you talking about?" Colonel shrugged his shoulders and brushed off the question. "Repliforce had come to help, we weren't involved in the attack."
"The Maverick Hunters had suspected that you had become a Maverick." Zero replied in a dry tone.
"What!" Colonel was shocked to hear such a blasphemous accusation.
"Disarm, and come with me to the Hunters' HQ," offered Zero.
"... I am afraid I can't", Colonel answered after closing his eyes and thought for a brief moment. "Soldiers will never drop their weapons! I won't do it, not even for you, Zero!" Similarly, Colonel was an egotistical figure who was utterly proud of the Repliforce. He would not be so weak and surrender so easily.
"Then they will lay down the judgement that you are a Maverick!" proclaimed Zero.
"Then so be it! The Repliforce prefers war over dishonor and shame! Good bye, Zero!" Without further ado, Colonel zipped out of the scene. Those were the words of an arrogant soldier, no doubt.
"Colonel!" Zero was too late to stop his friend, and the die had been cast. "Damn! At this rate, the entire Repliforce will be branded Mavericks!"
Zero clenched his fist and punched the nearest broken pillar in fury. His feelings totally puzzled, as he would have to face his friend in a probably inevitable war in the near future. Not to mention, Iris was also part of Repliforce.
"Commander! There you are!" the Shinobi Unit members made their way here and reconciled with Zero. "The others had already finished scouring the area and rescued all possible survivors. The number of survivors is seven hundred, together with the combined effort of Commander X's 17th Unit. Estimate amount of casualties is two thousand!"
"So many had perished… let us return to the HQ right now."
"Roger!"