I haven't really been able to go on the computer much lately due to schoolwork, but here's another chapter for all you readers to enjoy:
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House of Mirrors
"You're still nowhere near strong enough to defeat me!" Girouette charges at Aile and grabs his Z-Saber with both his arms and thrusts the blade downwards. The blade digs into the metal floor as Aile jumps into the air to avoid the incoming attack and lands on Girouette's hand.
"Is that all?" Aile jumps up from Girouette's arm and lowers her saber, preparing to do a downward stab. Girouette flicks his saber up with a swift movement, sending a strong torrent of wind upwards and sending shards of glass on the ground in Aile's direction.
Aile stops her attack in mid air and holds her saber in a defense stance to protect herself from the projectiles. Girouette fires a saber wave, pushing Aile upwards and slamming her against the roof. Aile falls down after the impact, with a few chunks of her armor missing, but she stands right up again, completely ignoring her injuries.
Girouette charges at Aile and prepares for another attack, but Aile jumps back and spins her OX Saber, sending blue energy scattering around. Ice forms on the floors and walls of the building where the attacks hit and Girouette stops moving as four of the blue attacks hit him on his hands and feet.
"I can't move!" Girouette tries to move his Z-Saber with his frozen hand, but fails and Aile moves closer, brandishing her purple saber.
"Well, you proved to be quite a problem for us, but I'll end that right now." Aile stops playing with her saber when she reaches Girouette. She brings it behind her as the air around the blade stills white the saber connects energy.
"When this attack hits, it will be all over. I'll be nice and let you have one last request." The OX Saber finishes charging, but Aile doesn't swing it at Girouette yet. "So, is there anything you want to say?"
"The thing that's changed the most about you since using that biometal is your ego. Your rise in power pales in comparison to that!" The ice on Girouette's hands shatter and he swipes pushes the Z-Saber on the ground to propel himself upwards.
Aile unleashes her charged attack, but Girouette manages to disappear before the attack makes contact with him. The sheer force of Aile's attack sent a large wave of wind forward, hitting the wall and shaking the building. Rocks and materials begin to fall down from the roof as from the shaking and the wind rips through the wall, creating a large hole.
"You can't hide from me forever! Come out!" Aile sheaths her blade and draws her buster, blasting at every direction with semi-charged shots while looking for Girouette. Vent manages to roll away from the falling projectiles as Aile brings down the whole building.
"Aile! If you keep this up, you'll destroy the whole place!" Vent tries to get through to Aile, but she ignores him and keeps on firing, looking for Girouette. She's out of control, I need to get out of there now!
Vent pushes himself up and heads toward the door, but a large rock chunk blocks the way. "Well, that takes care of Plan A." A red blur passes him and the rock shatters into pieces and so does the door. Vent stands there for a moment before realizing it was Girouette.
Vent follows takes the same path as Girouette and runs toward the door. Vent is barely one meter away before the whole building explodes, knocking him back and scattering flames on the grass outside.
The silhouette of Aile in her OX armor appears as she slowly walks out of the building with ash on her armor, but no physical injuries from being in the explosion. "You've got nowhere to hide now, Girouette."
Aile draws her pistol and points it at Girouette. Girouette grabs the blade with both his hands and positions it horizontally at shoulder height in a defensive position.
"Die!" Aile pulls the trigger and a charged shot at Girouette. Girouette recoils from the attack and moves back about a meter, but doesn't go down from the attack. "DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Aile fires three more shots, but Girouette starts dashing forward and nullifying all the attacks with his saber. Aile puts away her pistol and grabs her OX Saber. Girouette prepares to attack as he gets in range, but Aile swings her blade and launches a purple shock wave along the ground toward Girouette.
Girouette disappears before the shock wave touches green wave touches him. Aile ducks as strands of her now blond hair is cut by what seems to be an invisible blade. Girouette appears behind Aile and Aile puts her hands on the ground. She puts one leg out and spins around, tripping Girouette.
Girouette loses his balance and begins to fall downward, but is raised into the air by Aile's flame saber uppercut attack. Aile jumps into the air to follow Girouette, but he grips onto his saber and regains composure, stabbing downwards and sending Aile back down. Aile drops her OX Saber as she drops down and hits the ground with a thud.
"You're a lot stronger than I first thought, but you're outmatched." Girouette lands on the ground and begins walking toward the fallen Aile.
"You're nothing more than a mere copy!" Aile slams her hand onto the ground, sending columns of blue light outward. The attack catches Girouette offguard as pieces of red armor begin scatter in the air. Aile laughs an insane laugh and Girouette falls down on the ground.
"Zero was merely a copy of me, and you're nothing more than a copy of him. A fake like you will never be able to defeat me." Aile grabs onto her OX Saber again and slashes at Girouette, shattering his visors. "I want to see the look on your face when I slowly rip your life away from you."
Girouette focuses his blue eyes on Aile as she laughs maniacally. "Hmph… I've already been there once." Girouette digs his hand into the ground and grabs a handful of dust. Girouette throws it at Aile, surprising her.
"What are you doing!?" Aile starts to furiously rub her eyes with her palms as she tries to get the dirt out.
"Fighting dirty…" Girouette disappears and reappears behind Aile a moment later, saber in his left hand. A huge gash appears in Aile's armor as energy begins spilling out.
"No! This can't be!!" Aile screams in pain as her armor slowly begins to fall apart and she reverts back to her human form. Aile collapses onto the ground and Vent rushes up to her.
"Aile! Aile! Are you alright!?" Vent turns his attention to the person across from Aile. "Boss…"
"I guess I've finally opened my eyes to what I was doing…" Girouette begins to fall down as he reverts back to his original form. Aile and Vent both manage to stand up and stop Girouette's fall.
"Boss!" Girouette coughs out some blood onto the ground and makes a weak smile. "Boss, don't die on us again."
"My fate was decided a long time ago… I know that this is the path chosen for me." Girouette looks at Aile and Vent. "It still isn't even close to over yet, Vent, Aile, go back to Guardian HQ. Go and stop Yuriskah from achieving his goals!"
"Wait, Boss, we need to take you to the medic wing first!" Aile tries to offer Girouette a hand, but he doesn't take it.
"It's pointless at this point. It'll be nothing but a waste of time. Hurry, you two, and just leave me here. I have some unfinished business to attend to." Vent and Aile prepare to leave, but Vent notices a glint in the ground.
"Over there!" The two chosen ones dig the shiny object out to discover a damaged Model O. Vent and Aile almost shake as they hesitate on what to do with the biometal.
"I say we just leave it here or destroy it right now." Vent looks at the dark red biometal. "It's caused us enough trouble already."
"No, don't be so reckless, Vent. You still haven't learned, have you?" Vent and Aile turn their head to Girouette, still lying on the ground. "If you leave it here, then someone might discover it, or even worse, it might get repaired somehow. It's best to just take it for now and leave it somewhere safe in Guardian HQ. Besides, I don't think it can do any damage in the state it's in right now."
"Alright then, Boss." Aile puts Model O in her pocket as she looks back to Girouette. "Are you sure you don't want us to help?"
"No, it's pointless."
"Boss, once we stop Yuriskah, I'll tell Prairie to send someone to get you. Promise me that we'll see each other again." Girouette gives a slight nod as tears begin to well up in both Aile and Vent's eyes.
"Come on, Aile, we better hurry." Aile sniffles before the two of them head toward a nearby trans-server and Girouette watches the two of them disappear and he weakly begins to stand up again.
"I've chosen this path, and I know that I'll be going back to where I came from before Yuriskah rebuilt me." Girouette stands up fully as a light begins to surround him. "We'll see each other again sooner than the two of you expect, Vent, Aile."
Girouette disappears from the park, leaving the area abandoned.
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Guardian HQ
"Vent, Aile, the two of you are back!" Prairie looks in surprise at the two battered chosen ones. "The two of you look like you're going to collapse any second."
"We'll be… fine… send us to where… Zero and Forte is…" Aile manages to speak between breaths, but after her last word, she collapses. Vent falls down on his knee as well before fainting on the ground.
"Take these two to the medic wing at once!" Four Guardians nod at Prairie's command as they carry Vent and Aile out the room. Prairie sighs and looks at Ciel. "Did you find anything new?"
"We still can't seem to reach X and the others. Wherever they are right now, all signals are blocked." Ciel types a few more keys. "Wait, I've locked onto the co-ordinate we've sent Zero and Forte to!"
"Where are they right now?" The monitor begins to zoom in as Ciel begins typing in another computer until a similar map shows up.
"This isn't good…"
"What is it?"
"We've just sent Forte and Zero to the remains of Ragnarok…" Prairie checks the monitors to check for herself and realizes the words are true.
"This day seems to get more dangerous by the hour." Prairie sighs as she looks at the map. Forte, come back from Ragnarok this time, please. You too, Zero, both of you better return safely.
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"This isn't working very well!" Prometheus begins digging at a slower rate and growls in frustration. "It seems whenever we remove a rock, another one just comes and takes its place."
"If you have a… better idea… we'll be glad to hear it." Harpuia continues to dig a way out, but he and everyone else in the room is already showing signs of trouble in their systems. We're running out of time, and we seemed to have barely made any progress at all! Harpuia begins reaches for the hilt of his saber and puts it against the rocks.
"What are you doing, you'll set off the bomb!" Fefnir looks at Harpuia for an explanation, but the determined look on Harpuia's face was enough to convince the red reploid that he knew what he was doing.
"We've got no more time left. This could be our only chance to get out." Harpuia activates his beam saber and it slowly goes through the rocks. Harpuia pulls it out as sunlight shines in the cave and the toxic gas begins to leave, getting a sight of relief from everyone.
Everyone sighs with relief and then Harpuia begins with the next part of his plan. "I'm going attempt to contact Prairie. On the count of three, I want you all to ram down the rocks."
"Are you crazy!? If we do that, we'll get ourselves killed." Prometheus tries to look at the others for support, but sees everyone trusts Harpuia. He looks at Pandora, who's silently weighing the possibilities of Harpuia's plan working. "What do you think about this?"
"This looks like our only possible way of getting out of here." Pandora concludes after a few seconds.
"Alright, but if anything bad happens, just remember that I'm not responsible."
Harpuia nods and removes the communicator from his helmet. He grabs it with his hand and moves it outside the crack he made. "Prairie, Ciel, are the two of you there?"
"H… Harpuia, is that you?" Harpuia holds the communicator up higher as he tries to get a better signal. "What's happening, are all of you alright?"
"We're fine, but right now, we're in a pretty difficult situation." Harpuia pauses for a moment. "Listen, can you teleport us out at the count of three? We're stuck somewhere right now, and it's important to get out of here as soon as we can."
"Alright, I'll bring the Guardians we've sent with all of you back. Tell me when you're ready." Everyone looked outside to see white life surround the unconscious green uniformed soldiers until they were the only people left in the blast radius.
"Are all of you ready?" Harpuia looks back at the others as they nod. "One…" X readies his buster, Prometheus gets out his scythe, Leviathan draws her staff, Pandora points her staff toward the rocks, and Fefnir's hand begins to glow. "Two… Three!" Harpuia draws his other blade and creates a whirlwind attack.
Everyone attacks simultaneously as the bomb begins to beep very fast. "Alright, we've got a signal! Prepare for transfer immediately!" White light begins to surround everyone as the bomb explodes. The cave is destroyed as rocks begin flying in every direction, but the reploids managed to get out on time.
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Guardian HQ
"That was a close one…" X's buster transforms back to his hand as he goes to the wall for support. "I don't think any of us could have survived another minute in there. How are the others doing?" X looks at Prairie and Ciel.
"Vent and Aile just returned from their mission, but Forte and Zero are still out there. All of you look like you're near a system shutdown, maybe you should go to the medic wing." The others nod in agreement to Ciel's suggestion as they head toward the exit. "It looks like this will be the last battle with Yuriskah. If Forte and Zero can't defeat him, then I don't know who can."
"I really don't like this, sis. Forte doesn't have a lot of experience in combat and Zero isn't in his best state right now." Prairie thinks back to their capabilities and what they know of Yuriskah so far. "It looks like even Zero might not make it out of this one."
"I'm sure Zero knows what he's doing, he always does. He's been in tougher situations before, all we can do now is trust them." Ciel looks back to the monitor. "As for Forte, he's lived for longer than all of us, I'm sure he knows how to stay alive."
"I guess you're right…" Prairie clutches onto her pink doll as she thinks back to the events that happened one hundred years ago.
I know I've said this a lot of times Zero, but be careful and come back to us alive. Right now, we need you more than ever, so promise me that I'll be able to see you again after all of this.
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Ragnarok Remains
"This is where I first awakened…" Forte and Zero begin to look around as they search for any signs of disturbance. Forte turns to Zero after ten minutes of looking for clues. "Did you find anything yet?"
"No, there doesn't seem to be anything wrong here. Still, I hate just being here, brings back some bad memories." Zero sighs as he checks around. "Maybe there was something wrong with the signals, and there isn't any threat here."
Forte looks and notices another passage that they haven't explored yet. "Look! Over there!" Zero follows the direction that Forte is pointing at and enters the new passage. "Do you see anything?" Forte follows from behind as he looks around.
"That's strange. This leads directly to a dead end…" Realization dawns on Zero as the last word leaves his mouth. "Get out of here now!" Zero pushes Forte out as energy bars begin to form from the entrance to the passage, trapping Zero in. "It was a trap all along!"
"Well, I wouldn't want to take my chances with two people at once, now would I?" Yuriskah enters the room to find Forte and Zero. "Well, I expected to fight Zero first, but I'm not picky. I'll defeat you first."
A red saber begins to form in Yuriskah's hands and he begins walking closer to Forte. "This is where it all ends for the two of you!"
Forte's two arms transform into two purple blades as Yuriskah moves closer. Forte manages to cross his blades in a defensive position and stop Yuriskah's attack as he strikes. "You'll be the one getting defeated today!"
"Well, seems like you've gotten just as powerful as Girouette said. That's a good thing. I need you to be strong when I absorb you!" Yuriskah jumps back as he prepares to strike again.
Zero clutches his Z-Saber as he swings again at the energy bars, trying to break free of his prison. Forte might be strong, but I don't think he's ready to face an opponent like Yuriskah yet. I need to get out of here fast and help him! Zero slashes again, noticing some damage before clutching his chest in pain and falling down on the ground. Damn it! Not now!
"It seems like you're in a hurry to die, Zero. Don't worry, I'll deal with you soon enough. I've heard about the problems you've been having from Girouette, so you better just stand back and recover your strength. After all, I want a challenge from the Legendary Reploid Hero."
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This battle will probably spawn several chapters before Yuriskah is defeated, but that doesn't mean that Forte will return to normal just yet… Anyways, remember to tell me what you guys think so far by leaving reviews, I'll update faster if I get that. :)