Well, none of you guys managed to guess Edge's true identity, but that was expected. Anyways, here's the next chapter:
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Guardian HQ
Vent wakes up and looks below from the top bunk to find Aile still asleep. She's usually awake before me. Vent grabs a nearby pointy object and pokes Aile with it.
Poke. Poke.
"Five more minutes, Boss." Aile turns as Vent stops for a moment. Is she having a dream about when Boss was still alive? I wanted to be there to save him, but I couldn't do anything in the end…
Aile wakes up and rubs her eyes for a moment. "What time is it?"
"It's nine in the morning." Aile checks the clock to confirm Vent's message. "You haven't slept in like this since that time you ran across Innerpeace delivering packages." Both of them smile for a second, but it turns into a frown as they remember the death of their beloved boss.
"Vent, do you ever miss him?"
"Yes… All the time." Vent looks down to the ground for a moment, thinking of something else appropriate to say.
"Well, I'm sure he would be proud of us right now. We've managed to defeat Serpent and protect Innerpeace. Come on, Vent, let's go." Vent nods, slightly comforted by Aile's words, as he leaves the room.
"Well, at least we still have each other."
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"The two of you want to practice your shooting again?" Zero turns from the Guardians shooting at the targets as Vent and Aile enters the room.
"Actually, we were hoping for some other type of training." Vent looks at the Guardians shooting at their targets. The lights are on, and they seem to be doing okay.
"Decided to give up after your last failure, huh? Fine then, come this way." Zero leads Vent and Aile into another door and opens it, revealing a large, empty room. Zero hands Vent and Aile two long pieces of metal.
"The rules are simple, one of you have to hit me with that. It'll help you with close distance combat and strategy." Vent and Aile nod as Zero dashes. The two of them reach into their pockets as Zero speaks again. "One more thing, no biometals allowed. You have to try this in your human forms."
"What!?"
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X walks along the hall the hall and finds Edge. Edge has his ears to a cell phone as X goes forward to greet him, but stops as the Edge's conversation reaches his ears.
"Alright, position the troops around Innerpeace. I'll take care of the rest." Edge closes the cell phone and dashes off. X pursues him, but gets the hallway splits into two different paths.
When did he get that fast? This is bad, there's only a small chance I'll be able to catch up with him, I better tell the others. X turns back as he runs to the Commander's Room to find Prairie.
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Vent and Aile start to pant as they chase Zero across the room. "This isn't fair! You can run way faster than us!"
"A lot of other people can. That's the whole point of this exercise." Aile dashes to the other side as the two of them close in on Zero, trapping him into the wall.
"It's over now! You have no where else to run." Zero smiles as he jumps up the wall and flips off, landing behind Vent and Aile. "Oh, come on!"
Vent and Aile prepare to run at Zero again, but the ground starts to shake. "What the heck was that!?" Vent rubs his head as he stands back up.
"Trouble. Let's continue this later. Right now, we need to go see Ciel and Prairie to find out what's wrong." The two chosen ones nod as they follow Zero out of the room.
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"What's going on?" Zero, Vent, and Aile rush into the room to find everyone else already there.
"The engines have been damaged, Guardian HQ is falling down." Ciel looks at Zero. "X just informed us that he saw Edge talking to someone on the phone suspiciously and he's been missing since."
"He decided to betray us. I had a feeling that something wasn't right about him." Vent looks around the room. "Did Prometheus and Pandora have a hand in any of this as well?"
"Well, the mighty chosen one have stooped to talking about us behind our backs." Prometheus and Pandora enter the room as Vent's eyes turn to them. "We've been in our rooms the whole time. If you don't believe me, then just check the security cameras you put in there."
"The airship has fallen to the ground, we're surrounded by mechaniloids!" Prairie types in a few co-ordinates as pictures of Galleon Hunters and Pantheons appear on the screen. "Pantheons!?"
An operator hits more keys as red dots appear on the monitor. "Innerpeace is surrounded by hundreds of mechaniloids as well. There's too many of them!"
"Vent, Aile, X, and Zero, go to Innerpeace and defend the citizens. Everyone else defend the base." The four of them leave the room as Prairie gets out a speaker to make an announcement to the rest of the Guardians.
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Innerpeace
"There's too many of them! We need more backup." Vent fires at a Galleon Hunter, just to be attacked by a Pantheon from behind.
"Stay together!" Zero yells through the crowd as mechaniloids are tossed through the air. "We need to get rid of any openings." X, Aile, and Vent nod as the four of them stay close, shooting at all directions.
"Is there an end to them!?" Vent fires again, but the destroyed mechaniloids are quickly replaced. A pantheon jumps up and lunges at Vent, but is taken down by guns.
"We're here to help!" Guardians rush into the battle as they shoot at the mechaniloids. Vetn nods as he raises his X Buster and fires, destroying a whole line of enemies.
"That's more like it!" After destroying a few more mechaniloids, a large light beam comes out of the ground, separating Zero and X from Vent and Aile.
X tries to go after the two chosen ones, but mechaniloids block his way as he keeps on shooting. "It's no use, there's too many of them!"
"Don't worry. I'm sure they'll be alright." Zero and X continue to fight off the mechaniloids with the help of the Guardians, leaving Vent and Aile alone to fight for themselves.
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"Where are the others?" Vent and Aile dash and destroy the mechaniloids as they try to search for the other Guardians, X, and Zero. "Where are all these mechaniloids coming from!?"
"This ends here, chosen ones." Vent and Aile turn to find a blond haired figure with a purple visor and dark red armor. In his hand, the figure holds a green saber.
"Boss! How are you still alive?" Aile looks at Girouette and notices the change in his armor. "Something's wrong, Vent, his armor is a different shade of red than usual."
"Boss, what's happening out there?" Aile motions for Vent to back away as Girouette draws his saber.
"He shouldn't even be able to Rock-on now that we have Model Z. Something definitely isn't right. Look out!" Girouette charges at Vent and slashes him with his saber. Vent falls down to the ground
"What are you doing!?" Aile raises her buster at Girouette as she starts to shake. "I don't want to fight you again, Boss, please stop this!"
"If you surrender now, then perhaps I'll let you live. If you two want to survive, then join the winning side." Aile fires the buster, but Girouette easily avoids the attack. "Weaklings like you don't stand a chance."
"Whoever you are… there's no way you're Girouette!" Vent stands up as he starts to cough. "There's no way the Girouette I knew would say those things. Rock-on!" Vent transforms into Model ZX as he gets out his ZX Saber.
"I don't want to fight him again, Vent." Aile looks at Vent, and then at Girouette. "There has to be another way."
"If we don't fight, then we'll get killed. Think about how Boss would feel if he came back to his senses to realize that he's killed us. We have to do this." Aile weakly nods as she raises her buster.
"Talking isn't going to help you defeat me!" Girouette jumps into the air to dive at Vent. Vent blocks the incoming saber with his own as Aile fires her buster. "Too slow!"
Girouette turns in the air while tossing Vent, throwing him into the incoming blast. Girouette grabs onto Vent and tosses him to Aile, knocking her down as he stabs his blade into the ground.
Light beams shoot out of the ground as Vent and Aile are knocked into the air. The two of them revert back to their human forms and Girouette closes in on them with his Z-Saber in the air.
"It's over now." Girouette brings the saber down and stops as he hears Aile scream. "Vent… Aile…" Aile looks at Girouette for a moment to see the same blue eyes she always knew through the visor.
"GAAHHH!" A dark light surrounds Girouette as he looks at them again, this time with his eyes covered by the darkness of the visor.
"Rock-on!" Vent transforms into his FX form as Aile goes into her PX form. The two of them separate and surround Girouette, unleashing shurikens and fireballs at him.
Girouette jumps out of the way to avoid the attack and dashes at Aile with his Z-Saber. "Look out!" Vent fires a fireball as Aile throws a shuriken. Girouette disappears just as the attacks are about to hit him.
Vent gets the breath knocked out of him from Aile's attack as Aile gets burned by the fireball. "The two of you are pathetic!" Girouette appears behind Vent and lifts him up by the neck. "In the end, the two of you will never have enough power to defeat me!"
Girouette throws Vent into the sky and jumps up. He dashes downwards to deliver a slash at Vent and kicks off the wall to attack again. A shuriken stops his movement as Aile catches Vent in her arms.
"Gotcha!" Aile lowers the boy as two shurikens appear one on each hand. "He's a lot stronger than last time." Vent nods as he prepares his twin buster. "NOW!"
Girouette lowers to the ground as Aile and Vent unleash their attacks. Girouette dodges one shuriken and a few fireballs, but the shuriken turns in the air and hits him from behind.
The force of the attack pushes Girouette into the other shuriken and a large fireball, sending him down to the ground. "Don't think you've beaten me yet." Girouette stands back up as electricity surges through his body.
Vent and Aile flinch as they look at Girouette. This is just like last time… Girouette stabs the ground, sending light waves at Vent and Aile, knocking them back.
"Vent, Aile are you two there!?" The voice of Zero calls out as the two chosen ones get back up.
"We'll have to continue this another time."
"Wait!" Vent tries to stop the red reploid, but he teleports out just before he could touch him. Vent turns to Aile. "Do you think things will be like last time?"
"I don't know." Aile thinks back to the last fight with Girouette and compares it to the one they just had. "For a moment there, it seems that he was back to normal. He could have finished us off, but something stopped him."
X and Zero appear to find the beaten up chosen ones. "Come on, you two, let's get back to base."
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Outside Guardian HQ
Harpuia, Leviathan, and Fefnir fight off the mechaniloids in one area as Pandora and Prometheus destroy everything in sight. The Guardians start to fall down from the massive numbers of the mechaniloids as the five of them keep on fighting.
"The five of you are in a tight spot over there." The mechaniloids seem to stop and make way as Edge appears.
"You are the one behind this!" Harpuia raises his dual blades as he prepares to fight. "You've threatened too many lives for me to let you leave this place alive."
"We'll just see if you can really defeat me." A bright light starts to surround Edge as he transforms. His black hair grows and changes to a silver color as his clothing starts to change as well. "I don't think I'll need that disguise any longer."
"You… how are you still alive, Yuriskah?"
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Yeah, most of you guys probably though Yuriskah was long gone when Kid Forte appeared. I thought that none of you guys would get it right. Remember to R&R