Zero2 Ch.17
Flaming Battles, Freezing Souls
Zero came down from his teleport in the middle of the field. He had only a split-second before he felt heat approaching from behind him. As he rolled to the side he twisted to face behind him.
"Magma, you traitor, still you insist on attacking me." He snarled out, charging his busters as he did so.
"You should've known all those years ago Zero. After all, none of the rest of us could ever match your skill." Magma spat back, throwing another firewave in Zero's direction.
"Then where the hell was your problem?" Zero replied as he easily jumped over the wave. He fired off one round of the buster, a level 4 plasma wave knocking Magma into a tower behind him, leaks springing from multiple places.
"It's rather simple, Zero," Magma commented, holding up a fireball in one hand. "None of us would ever be able to match your record as a Hunter." Magma suddenly threw the fireball behind him into the leaking pipes. The world around him and Zero exploded.
"What the hell's going on?" Alia shouted as suddenly all of her sensors' readings went haywire.
"Simple, that which we were trying to prevent just happened anyway," Light commented from the main screen.
"You don't mean?" Crystal asked.
"I'm afraid so. The entire field just went up in flames."
"Is there any way we can reroute X and the others?" Alia asked.
"I calculated for this and adjusted your coordinates Alia. They'll be placed down outside of the battlegrounds. The good news is that apparently only the surface of the fields is on fire. I'm still getting massive resource readings from below ground." Light responded.
"Good, at least the humans will be able to use that later." Alia replied.
"Be that as it may for the moment Alia, we've still got another problem. We have to get someone into the main building and shut the main connection valves or the possibility of the underground going up still exists." Before Light had even finished Crystal had already typed in the commands to bring up Zenton's communicator.
Zenton, X and Toronto all set down only to find a sudden heated shockwave blowing them all off their feet.
"What in the hell was that?" Zenton asked as he stood back up. "Oh fuck....I'm not seeing what I think I'm seeing am I?" X and Toronto had both stood up and now joined him in staring slack jawed at the inferno before them.
"Unfortunately, Zenton," X replied. "It looks like it. Watch inside the flames as well. I think you can make out Zero and the Mavericks fighting still."
"How can he withstand the heat?" Toronto rumbled.
"I remember this," Zenton commented. "He mentioned it fighting Signas one day. The Z-Saber helps regulate his ability to withstand extreme temparatures as long as he keeps it in it's socket."
"So the only way he's staying alive inside there is to limit his ability to fight, while up against four Mavericks?" X commented.
"Afraid it looks that way." Suddenly Zenton's communicator chimed in {Yeah, what's up?}
{Zenton, this is Crystal, Zero's in trouble!} Crystal's voice came through, thick with worry.
{I can see that much, but what are we supposed to do about it? None of the rest of us can handle the heat in there.}
{That's not our main problem, I'm pretty sure Zero can handle the Mavericks, but we need someone to teleport into the main building at the site there and shut off the main valves that are connecting to the oil reserves underground. If we don't get them shut off, there's a chance of the entire field exploding.}
{Wait a minute, you mean it hasn't already?}
{No, what's on fire right now is only the surface.}
{You've gotta be kidding me. Get me in there now!}
Before X or Toronto could figure out what was being talked about Zenton had already been teleported.
"Well, crap." X commented before changing into his Gaea Armor, and equipping Duff McWhalen's ice powers. "Looks like it's up to us to help out Zero."
"Go then. This is a fight I cannot participate in." Toronto rumbled, causing X to stop for a moment. "I have no way to withstand the heat levels within the inferno. I will wait out here until either the temparature drops, or the fight is over." X nodded as he ran off down the field with all the speed the Gaea Armor would allow him.
Zero dodged as fast as he could to try and outrun Flame Stag and Blaze Heatnix attacking him from seperate sides. As he was thrown back from one of them making contact he flew straight into Magma Dragoon's grasp.
"What's the matter Zero? Can't take the heat?" He spat in the Crimson Hunter's face. Zero drove his knee up into Magma's lower jaw.
"I can take it just fine. I'm just wondering though," he replied as he dodged Flame Stag once more. "You never answered me earlier. You can't match my record as a Hunter, so what's the point of all this?"
"If we cannot match you Zero," Magma replied as he and the others surrounded Zero. "Then we can defeat you. After all, if you can defeat the one who defeated so many, then you could've beat them as well, no?"
"Wrong again Magma. When it takes 3 of you to defeat me, you only prove how weak you truly are in the end." Zero's face was lit by a grin.
"You'll die for your remarks Zero."
"Won't be the first time Magma. And I'll be damned sure to make sure I take the three of you with me." Zero's face was no longer grinning. Instead an cold expressionlessness had replaced it. As Magma Dragoon looked at that face, he knew his fate was sealed.
"To the end then!" All three Mavericks rushed at the lone Hunter.
Zenton dropped in and quickly retrieved his axe from the apparently middle-of-nowhere pocket that Light stashed it. As he walked forward he kept in contact with Light through his internal comm channel. {You sure you got me in the right place, Doc?}
{Don't worry Zenton, you're in the right place, look to your right. There should be a row of levers. Make sure they're all flipped to the off position} Light commented as Zenton continued to walk through and then proceed to shut off the levers. Zenton could hear all the machinery shutting down around him. Suddenly he heard a loud clank from behind and turned just in time to avoid being splatted with the muck from Flame Mammoth's trunk.
"Okay, I knew Sigma hired in some big boys, but damn, you sure take the cake, ya know that?" Zenton rattled off, determined not to lose his edge.
"And you, are rather a bit of a pipsqueak to think you can defeat me." Flame Mammoth roared in response.
"Strange, last time I checked X is actually a bit smaller than I am. And he took your ass out simple enough." Zenton smirked, finally shifting into his armor.
"That was merely a mistake on my part in underestimating him." Flame Mammoth said, lobbing another gunk ball which Zenton easily avoided.
"Strange. Then why'd he manage to kill you again after that?" Zenton's smirk grew even wider.
"Enough talk. Let action decide your fate!" Mammoth roared once more, then proceeded to blow fire around the room, catching all of the gunk that he'd lobbed before on fire.
"Whoa, okay, big boy here talks loud, and carries a lot of hot air. Time to cool things down a bit I think." As Zenton bounded backwards dodging another flame wave he used his magic to throw an opposing wave of ice out. He suddenly teleported behind the oversized Maverick, swinging his axe once to cause a crack in the thick armor plating that Mammoth used.
"I sincerely hope you can do better than that." Flame pumped his trunk and arms in the air in triumph again, not seeming to have realized that the crack on his back was splitting further. As Zenton continued to sit still Mammoth suddenly stopped and toppled over.
"The hell did he just do?" Crystal asked as she had watched the whole scenario from her monitors. Light merely began to chuckle.
"He just put that axe to use for something completely opposite of what I thought he would. Instead of using it with brute force like most axe wielders, he used it merely to open a crack in Flame Mammoth's armor." Light continued to chuckle.
"I'm not sure I understand," Alia commented, looking over at Crystal.
"Me neither," the flame haired girl replied.
"It helps if you know that he has access to magic girls," Light commented. Both girls gave each other a 'the point is?' type of look and then looked back up at Light. "Once he formed that crack with the axe, he merely set up a spell inside of Flame Mammoth's armor. He literally just froze the power generator of a fire Maverick. Rather ironic one could say."
Zenton teleported back to the surface only to find that X had been sent back out of the fight.
"The hell are you doing out here? Shouldn't you be in there helping Zero?" Zenton proceeded to yell at both his brother and X.
"We can't do anything." X said. "I'm not sure how, but the temparature in there is nearly lava levels. It's barely within a range that I think Zero can even stand."
"But I thought you guys went into volcanos after Mavericks before." Zenton yelled some more.
"We did Zenton, but back then we had Robot Suits capable of withstanding the heat of the lava. We no longer have access to those suits, and without them, even I can't withstand the heat levels in there."
"Since when did Zero's power surpass yours? I thought you were the original?"
"I was. But Light modified Zero's already nearly equal power to make it even greater than what it was."
"Why?"
"That, is a question I think you should ask the Doctor some time." X said, an odd look on his face.
Within the inferno, Zero still fought for his life, dodging them for every opportunity he could. He had already injured all three of them, but not enough to render any of them incapable of fighting yet.
"You...guys are making this....an awful long way about...your deaths," Zero stated between breaths. Magma, Blaze and Stag merely all began to circle once more.
"Perhaps, but if we are to die, we, as you, will make sure to take you with us." Magma said as he charged up another fireball. As he tossed it Blaze Heatnix dove in at Zero from one side while Flame Stag took a ground approach from the other. When Zero jumped forward to dodge the two of them Magma threw the fireball straight in his path. Zero was thrown back against another burning building. A small force field could be seen to jump into action around him as he made contact with it, saving him from being burnt.
"Thank you saber. You've saved me more than enough times in this fight." He thought to himself as he dropped to the ground. "There's not much else I can do. I'll have to release the power limits on this armor again. I only hope that I can keep the others out of the blast range." Zero suddenly planted both feet in the ground solidly, surprising all three Mavericks.
"System Override: Code Zero Delta 3345." As Zero brought both cannons up and watched the display show up once more, he heard Light and X both come in over the channels.
{Zero, that's not necessary! If you need to pull out of the fight!} Light ordered.
{Don't let this be your last fight Zero, it always took more than this to take you out before.} X yelled.
{It doesn't matter. I can't use my saber in these circumstances or I fry. Without my saber against these guys, I'm as good as done for. Better to take all three of them out now while we've got the chance.} Zero replied while letting the cannons charge run higher than it had before. As he watched the three Mavericks all began to charge their own weapons.
{Damnit, Zero, don't do this! What about Crystal?!?} X screamed over the comm link.
From their hillside a mile away, Zenton, Toronto, and X could only watch in horror as the field below them was suddenly lit with a blue light, that unmistakable brilliant blue that could only be plasma fire. The blast eminated from one end of the field and went across to the other side of the mile long area. As the energy began to dissipate it left lightning crackling in all the air pockets left. No more fires burned in the field, having all been blown out in the blast. A large v seemed to be cut into the land where the machinery had all once stood.
Author's notes: O.o That's not the way I meant that chapter to end....seems to work better than what I had in mind though. ;; Anywho, read, review, flame me (yeah, real good idea after a fire chapter, ne?) do whatever ya please, but leave me reviews, I like'em, they make me feel good.
BTW, my apologies for the crappy indentation and what not, for some reason fanfiction dot net didn't take my formatting too well. I had to go back and single-space everything in the quick-editor. o.O I'll see if I can't solve that issue for next chapter.