Zero awoke rather early, feeling well rested, although still quite confused about everything that had happened. He pulled on his undertech, and snapped his tech suit on over it. He had a difficult time getting his hair to go through properly, but, after having to redress thee times, he forced it to feed through the back of his helmet, and walked out of his room.
He walked back down the marble corridor, hoping to find his way back to the command room. He found his way out into the dimly lit corridor that he had learned went almost all the way around the command room, and followed it until he found a doorway leading into it. Zero stepped inside, and saw it already bustling with silhouettes of pantheons, soldiers, mechanics, and many another variation of reploids. He walked warily to the large command screen, being careful not to have another run-in with someone like Leviathan.
"Good morning, my friend. I hope you enjoyed your accommodations last night." Spoke a familiar voice beside him as he neared the giant display on the wall.
"Good morning to you as well, and yes, indeed I did." Zero replied, not trusting the commander since his many obvious displays of strictness and temper the previous day.
"Very good, now follow me." X beckoned him to the screen, and placed his hand on a small screen on the wall. After a brief light show, his hand had apparently been accepted, because a panel in the wall hissed loudly as it slid slightly back into a recess, and slowly began to roll into the rest of the wall, revealing a long, black hallway, the end of which Zero could only barely glimpse as a flickering orange speck in the distance.
"Well? Shall we go in?" X asked as he stepped in himself.
Zero walked in after him, walking blindly towards whatever caused the light that flickered in the distance, being extremely careful to stay away from X, knowing what would most likely happen, were he to accidentally run into him. As the two neared the end of the long hall, Zero recognized the faint seams of a more refurbished, comforting room, not a cold, war-like rawness, or old-fashioned wood planking. A blending red and yellow light flickered and crept into the hall, fading into blackness as it turned the corner. He turned that corner and felt the soft light fall on his face along with a soothing warmth, all caused by a crackling fire in a stone hearth on the opposite side of the room. Zero saw Leviathan and Fefnir sitting in a pair of old sofas around the fire, obviously relaxed. X continued walking, and wordlessly beckoned all three of them into a door to the side of the fire place. As the two arose from the stupor they had fallen into in their resting places, the door opened for X, who had continued towards it, revealing a harsh, bright light in the room on the other side. Zero followed, although disliking the ugly light, he even more disliked X's potential wrath. The two guardians stood, without even noticing Zero's presence behind them, and followed X into the door, letting the cold, harsh light back into the fire lit room. Reluctantly, Zero followed as well.
The fluorescent lighting instantly fell on Zero's face, and almost blinded him, being the most powerful light he had been under since his awakening. His eyes soon adjusted, though, and he saw Leviathan, Fefnir, and Harpuia sitting all next to each other, as well as a reploid in an almost completely black tech suit, trimmed with edges of white, all in a design resembling that of a gothic cathedral. Small red rubies dotted around his head, each glowing ominously. He wore a long, tattered cloak that fell to the floor around him, and covered all that was visible of him above the long desk he stood behind. A large, blue reploid built to resemble a buffalo, his horns formed purely of ice, a crouched, shadowed, and cloaked old dog-like reploid, a small white and red reploid with a torch on its tail resembling a monkey, and a tall, proud reploid, following the common design of the birds of prey. Each set of four sat in a row on either side of a large, tall backed, white chair in which sat X in a very relaxed-looking pose, head in hand.
Zero was entirely unsure of what to do, and stared blankly around the room, while eight of the nine others stared at him, expecting him to move. X, however, sprang into action.
"Oh, where are my manners? Zero, this is Phantom, the one guardian you had no chance of meeting yesterday." He gestured towards the tall, dark, cloaked reploid beside the other three guardians. "And literally so, there is no newcomer with any chance of finding him when they want to." This remark brought forced laughter from the crowd around him. "And these are their top generals:" he said, pointing to each one in turn "Aztec falcon," the bird, "Hanumachine," the monkey, "Blizzack stagroff," the buffalo, "and Anubis Necromansess III," the dog-like one. "We are here to discuss our next move in the war. Would you care to join us?"
Zero hesitated, but didn't want to cause X to go berserk, and said, "Yes, I would."
"Wonderful!" X clapped his hands together in a very feminine manner, "Now, if you would, go stand by phantom behind the desk over there, and we'll begin." X turned and sat in his high, white chair. "Now, observe!" X opened a panel cover on the arm of his chair, and pressed a few buttons, dimming the lights and bringing up a holographic display, showing a shifting, glowing ball of light, statistics and readings shifting and changing all around it. "My friends, this is our next, and perhaps our final target."
"A cyber elf? What the hell are we wasting our time on something so trivial for?" Fefnir interrupted.
"Oh, but, my friend, this is anything but an ordinary cyber elf." X replied. Zero felt as if he was being unnaturally, and even dangerously friendly. "This is a new cyber elf, designed with uncommon power by a minority resistance. They are trying to halt our plans by using it against us. They had an intelligence leak, and now, we are going to intercept the transport, and take it for our own."
"What are we going to do with it once we recollect it?" Spoke Phantom in an oddly distorted voice, "It will be too dangerous to simply store away, and to use it would bring too much destruction to the site it was used, were we to use it, what would happen were a battle to erupt in an area populated by humans?"
"A wonderful question," X replied. "You see, we will use this elf to end the war. Once we recover the elf," He pushed a few more buttons, and brought up a map showing a red line along what looked to be a highway of some sort. "From the caravan transporting it somewhere along this road," It showed a blue line cutting across the red line, and moving towards a large blue dot that Zero assumed was where he was now. "We will send it by train to this laboratory, where they will duplicate the elf." A blue line continued from the blue dot across a large river. And to a second, smaller dot. "We will then bring out a disposable army that can wipe out the resistance in one fell swoop!"
The lights returned to their normal state, and X seemed sad that he was no longer able to play with his war toys. "Sir, I have foreseen the plan you set before us, and I have created such a tactical composition to remove the cyber elf, temporarily cut the resistance supply lines, and destroy the entire caravan." Spoke Anubis Necromansess III in a deep, ominous tone.
"Very good, again you are quite well prepared for the meeting, let's have it!" X replied.
"Observe." Anubis glided slowly towards the wall, his cloak flowing behind him as if his legs were nonexistent, sending chills up the back of Zero's neck. Anubis placed his hand on an access panel by the door, and connected straight to the system, bringing up a map of the route that the resistance caravan was to be taking. The map the zoomed in on a bridge crossing a canyon, and became a three dimensional map. "First, we will send Fefnir and a battalion of his men to the bridge," It showed a swarm of tiny soldiers slide onscreen, "As soon as the caravan arrives on the bridge, you will open fire," several models of large trucks came onscreen, the tiny soldiers began firing upon the trucks, stopping them. "Once the caravan has stopped, Fefnir and his team will plant charges across the road, and continue fire." The miniature soldiers continued firing against a team of soldiers that came from the caravan. "Then Harpuia will send a team of his men, via air transport, and infiltrate each truck until they find the Cyber-elf." A pair of airplanes lowered more tiny warriors onto the trucks, and the lifted them back up. "Fefnir's team will retreat, and detonate the charges." The far left team ran back off of the screen, and the bridge fell apart, taking out a large portion of the caravan. "Harpuia's jets will take out the rest of the caravan, and recover any other recoverable cargo, and then all will retreat." Anubis' hand left the panel, and the display disappeared.
A single pair of hands clapped slowly as X rose from his chair in a standing ovation. "Wonderful! Absolutely marvelous, as always, General Necromansess. I do believe that this is the plan we will follow. Now, Fefnir and Harpuia, go gather your troops and prepare them for the battle: We will commence when they finish the project, which should be in approximately ten days. The rest of you are dismissed." He began walking towards the door, and the others began to do the same.
Zero ran ahead to catch up to X. Once walking beside him, the commander spoke; "Is there something else you need?" without looking towards Zero.
"Yes, uh… actually," Zero was finding his usual confidence crumbling before the fear incited by X's presence, "I was wondering, about where you found me, When I woke up, there was a second voice I heard, I-it sounded like a girl's, and I, well, I was wondering, well, if I could see her?"
"There would be no problem, but I am inclined to ask you why." X replied.
"Well, you see, I simply wanted to learn as much as I could about the world we live in, and, well, I supposed that speaking to a resistance member would give me a little more insight into the way they think."
"Very wise of you, Zero, Indeed, I will show you to the detention block she is kept in." X started out into the command room, Zero following.
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"Here you are" X said, punching a password into a panel on the wall beside a heavy metal door. TTTSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHH... The door hissed aside as Zero stepped in, and saw a truly pitiable sight. The cold, bare room was hardly lit by dim, flickering fluorescent lights, and years of old, rotting scum lined the walls. Not even a cot hung on the wall.
"What the hell do you want?" sounded an angry voice from the corner. A shadowed lump that Zero had not noticed roused from it's nearly perfectly camouflaged position. The figure of a slender young girl stood silhouetted in the shadows, not surprising Zero at all, which seemed in turn to surprise her.
"A talk is all." Zero replied in a calm tone.
"You might as well execute me, I won't tell you anything." She snapped back.
"Who ever said I would execute you?"
"What else would you do with me?"
"Talk. That's all I want to do, I'm not evil; I just want to hear your side of the story." Zero looked up behind him, and instantly regretted having said that, for a small, black camera stood mounted on the vertex of the walls.
"Don't worry about that, I rewired it the second I got here, it thinks it's watching an empty room with me crying in the corner periodically." The young girl stepped out of the shadows. She wore a bright pink human tech(1), somewhat dirty from her sitting on the grimy floor for a day. Her long blonde hair fell in a few strands about her face from under her helmet. Her face was young, and her body looked no older than 16.
"I suppose we should begin with formal introductions. I am-"
"I know who you are." She cut him off, "Everybody knows who you are. I, however, am Ciel, leader of the resistance force." She gave a mock curtsey.
"How cute." Zero replied.
"I try. Now I suppose you just want a run-down of what's happened since you left, right?" Zero nodded. "Ok then." Ciel leaned back against a wall, And Zero followed suit after she mentioned that it would take a while. "Well, I most definitely wasn't around when it started, but my grandfather told me all about it. He said the maverick wars escalated to a terrible level, bringing destruction to every corner of the earth. many evacuated to space, but the war even followed them up there.
"Finally, in Sigma's 'endgame' as he called it, both he and X were killed; Sending the morale of the maverick hunters spiraling downward. Soon, the greatest hunter to ever live gone, the remaining mavericks rose up under a new, faceless leader. And began to wreak havoc on the barely recovering earth yet again. Almost immediately after the onslaught of the so-called 'Neo Domine', a new research was developed, and cyber elves entered the world. This weapon was at first exclusive to the hunters, but a leak soon sprung, and the warriors were evenly matched. The world was nearly destroyed on several occasions.
"Finally, a single warrior who nobody managed to identify drew their leader onto a space station, and there defeated him, and banished him in a stasis chamber to an outer rim of the solar system. There was a short time of peace and recovery before X was found again. Some how, his body was whole, and so were most of his systems. The recovery effort continued, and finally, I was born. Soon after I turned 16, X was reanimated, in an effort to help the world restart.
However, he soon took too much power for himself, and began the Neo Arcadia movement. He also vowed to destroy all remnants of the mavericks. But he went berserk, and began killing off anyone who supported even an improvement to his system. And even some who were entirely loyal to him. Now, my resistance wages war against him, and recently, on top of everything else, the world's natural resources ran out completely, and synthetics are a poor replacement."
"So, an energy crisis?" Zero asked.
"Yes, and I'm afraid that the few benefactors we have won't supply our troops unless they hear from me. The entire resistance could starve to death!" Zero could sense a true tone of care in her voice.
"Oh, that won't be a problem."
"What? What do you mean?" Ciel seemed incredulous.
"Because, I'm breaking you out."
Footnotes:
1. A human tech is a tech suit designed to interface with a human's mind. These came about far later than Reploid tech suits, due to the great amount of biotechnology and organic interface required to make one. Even in the current age, they are extremely difficult to come by, and are worth a small fortune.
Author's note: YES! The one you've all been waiting for! The first level finally begins! Sorry for the delay, it would have been up sooner, but I was on a week long computer ban. I'll try to speed it up next time. And please, give me some feedback people! If you read it, I seriously want to know what you think.