A combat class model like himself was the worst that could happen. Walking past the recently mangled bodies of green soldiers, he saw another green soldier, except brighter in colour, taller, slender, and covered in proper armour. He/she/it was looking mighty pissed at the Resistance member quivering in his boots.

"Get out of here," Zero dismissed Colbor, "Run back home to mommy."

"Z-Zero! I'm saved!"

"Quit yapping. I heard what you said. Don't need me to infiltrate the enemy base, eh?"

"I'm s-sorry!" Colbor bawled as he retreated. Zero sighed, holding up his palms in a devil-may-care posture.

"I apologize. They're such children."

"Zero! So, you do exist. I've heard so much about you!"

"What? Did they use my body in porno flicks?"

"You bastard, why did you join those Mavericks?"

A moment of rage passed through Zero's eyes and was gone.

"A better question is, why kill off innocent reploids?"

"As decreed by Master X, inferior reploids must be eliminated to conserve energy."

"So it's an energy crisis that caused this?"

"Enough talk! My name is Sage Harpuia, Guardian of Master X and Sky General!"

"Blah, blah, blah. I fight all the time. Talking's rare."

Twin energy blades emerged from Harpuia's forearms.

"But so much can be said in battle!"

Zero stuck his Z-Saber in the ground.

"You know what? I'll play this by ear."

"You fool!" Harpuia cried, and took flight. He swooped down on Zero, who just jumped over the Guardian and kicked him between the wings.

"Real smooth, fly boy."

"Insolent Maverick!"

Harpuia got up and slashed forward, sending energy beams from his twin blades. Zero dashed under one, hopped over the second, and, using the momentum of his jump, landed a left hook that forced Harpuia to one knee. Plastic flaked off dented metal. Without hesitation, the red warrior grabbed one of the green Guardian's wings, flipped him bodily over his shoulder and smashed him into the ground, wrenching said wing free in the process.

"And now, you can't fly," Zero announced, tossing the broken appendage aside. The green Guardian, circulatory fluid dribbling from a corner of his partially smashed mouth, gritted his teeth, pushed off the ground, winced, and fell to one knee.

"Damn… you!"

He teleported out. Zero recovered his Z-Saber and went on his way.

888

"Thank you, Zero. Colbor meant well… please forgive him."

Zero shrugged. Ciel nodded.

"Well. That's the first time anyone dealt with a Neo Arcadian – much less a Guardian – in hand-to-hand combat."

"Weapons slow me down," Zero stated matter-of-factly, "But the phase blade construct of the saber and rod allow for more efficient elimination."

"Oh… okay then, but please, don't place yourself in danger."

Zero's smile was both reassuring and condescending. Ciel looked at her toes.

"Right. Uh…"

ALARM! Red lights and klaxons heralded chaos. Zero blinked.

"ENEMY TANK APPROACHING RESISTANCE BASE," shouted the static voice of a perimeter guard, "SHIELD CANNOT HOLD. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."

Ciel frowned and yelled above the klaxons, "Zero! I'll evacuate with the others. You approach the tank from behind and try to stop it!"

Zero saluted.

"I'm on my way."

888

They trusted him. Well, she trusted him. He emerged from the disposal centre just in time to see the tank fall from the sky and crash land.

"There must be a weakness, even if it's a giant tank!" Ciel insisted over intercom.

"I've already found three," Zero assured her. From his vantage point on top an overturned car, Zero performed a dash jump directly over the tank and went to town on his pogo stick, aka the Triple Rod. He bounced off the grenade launcher until it exploded. He bounced off the flying enemies the tank emitted. When those were gone, he landed behind the tank and performed endless spinning slashes on the rear mine-deploying unit. When all three weak points were exploited, the hatch on top opened and a Pantheon wielding a chain gun tried to fend Zero off.

"Silly robots."

Zero continued his assault of spinning slashes, ignoring the energy bullets that scorched his armour until the Pantheon exploded inside the tank, sending the tank's power cells critical.

888

"You killed a tank in thirty one seconds."

"Yep."

"With a pogo stick."
"The first half, yeah."

"All righty then."

Ciel noted this in her records.

"You're a speed demon."

"Is that my new rank?"

"No, it's a criticism. You didn't take the time to defeat the enemies the tank emitted!"

Zero tilted his head to one side.

"Eh? I killed the tank, including all enemies inside it!"

"Nevertheless, it's going against your record."

"You're such a noob, Ciel."

"Speed demon."

"Noob."

"Speed…"

"Excuse me!" Alouette interrupted. Zero pounced the reploid child and gnawed her head.

"You're the biggest nurse cyber elf I've ever seen!"

"AHHH!" Alouette squealed. Ciel clawed Zero off of her.

"Alouette is NOT a cyber elf!"

"But she's miniature and has giant round eyes!"

"You chewed off part of her hair!"

"Yes, and it was delicious!"

Ciel stared at him, patting the poor child mimic who was mimic-sobbing into her leg.

"What did I tell you about cyber elf abuse?"

"Bah! Noob."

"Ugh! Would you make yourself useful and secure the energy crystal factory for me?"

"Why?"
"We're running out!"

"I can gather more."

"The factory can manufacture five hundred per minute! Now get moving…"

Zero was out the door before she could say "you idiot".

888

Approaching the perimeter, Ciel warned him.

"Zero, there are sensors which close the shutter to the factory. Be careful."

"I'm using the ventilation shaft."

"What shaft?"

"The one above the main entrance. Didn't your scouts see it?"

"Um… no?"

"Amateurs! Zero out."

Inside the energy crystal factory was a study in timed jumps. The yellow construction mechaniloids, which normally threw giant spiked balls at him, were now hover-transporting steel beams across a bottomless pit.

"I guess the resistance can't get in here because reploids can't jump. But what is a bottomless pit doing here? We aren't thousands of feet above ground, and this doesn't look like the Mines of Moria."

He hopped from one moving platform to the other, ducking under soldering irons and smacking away the occasional flying robot.

"I will never understand why reploids incorporate fatal traps into the most basic building design."

Not that he needed them, but he collected the abundance of energy crystals littered throughout the stage. Heck, he had accepted it as his hobby.

"Now what… okay, I didn't expect this."

The top floor was a corridor lined with spark plugs that shot electricity in lethal arcs. Zero used the multi-directional Triple Rod to poke out the ones in the hard-to-reach corners, and pogo'd over the ones on the floor.

"Well, that was easy."

The boss of the area was not. It was pure mechaniloid with eight arms, three elemental attacks and a chain gun. To top it off, the thing floated through the air. Zero relied on his reflexes to avoid its snapping dragon heads, flames, ball lightning and minty fresh breath. As for the chain gun, he kicked off the wall and over the shots, landing charged Z Saber bursts on the thing's round central core.

"Meh, I hate bosses I can't rebuff with smarmy comments."

When it went down, a Flame Chip remained hovering in midair.

"Does anyone know how that is physically possible?"

"Just take the thing and get back to base," Ciel ordered over intercom.

"Yes, mother."