A Very Bad Day

Zero warped back to the H.Q. as soon as soon as he had defeated Split Mushroom. To his surprise, Split Mushroom wasn't working with the Repliforce, but with someone else. Zero thought about this as he started walking down the hallway he was in and into the Main HQ where Iris and the other remaining Maverick Area's were located.

Zero had a choice of who Split Mushroom was working for. It could have been Sigma since he was one of Zero's top acrh-rivals. It also could have been Doppler though he had supposedly died. It might have just been a simple Bounty Hunter who wanted to kill Zero for the sport of it, Zero didn't know. He was going to think about it over his date with Iris which he hoped to have tonight.

Zero walked into the Main HQ and found Iris looking over some files. "What are you doing?" Zero asked.

Iris put the papers down and walked over to Zero. "Nothing, just looking at Dragoon's files." Zero nodded.

Dragoon whom Zero had met at Sky Lake was now a Maverick. He had betrayed the hunters and helped Repliforce bring down the lagoon.

"What are you doing tonight?" Zero asked. Iris shrugged and looked at the screen which showed each Mavericks location. There were six small red dots on the map. Zero had defeated two Mavericks already.

"I-I was wondering," Zero stuttered. "Would you come with me to the lake tonight, behind the HQ on a date?"

Iris turned to him with a look of shock on her face. "Zero!" She yelled. "We're in the middle of a war! The Repliforce is on the move! We can't love in the middle of a war, a crisis! Zero, you're the center of the war! You represent the hunters! We can't love now, not here, not at this time!"

Zero started to get mad and frustrated. "Iris, please! I haven't seen you in so long! I've waited a long time for us to meet again! Iris, I-" Zero stopped. He wanted to tell Iris how he felt about her, how deeply he felt about her, but he didn't have enough courage. Quickly, Zero gathered up his courage and blurted the words out of his mouth. "I love you!"

Iris turned away from him. She loved him too. She was deeply in love with him, but was now the right time to love? Iris sighed, she knew of only one answer that would solve all their problems.

"We can't love," she said turning back to him. "We can't love here, now, ever. It would never work."

Zero expected to see tears in Iris' eyes, but instead he felt tears dripping down his face. Zero turned away and quickly wiped his eyes when Iris wasn't looking. He was a hunter, not a cry baby. He turned back to Iris and nodded. "Ok," was all he said.

With that, Zero warped from the room and into the fiery volcanic mountain where he would find Magma Dragoon.

The volcano had danger around every corner. Eruptions were constantly happening and huge boulders with fire surrounding them were falling from the sky. Zero ran forwards and then went down a hill.

BOOM! Four huge boulders started rolling down after him. Zero jumped over the first one and then jumped up into the air and grabbed a cliff to avoid the second one. Zero did the same to the third boulder, but fell and got hit by the last one. Zero skidded all the way down the hill after the boulder hit him. He quickly got back up and wiped himself off. He didn't have any permanent damage.

Up ahead, Zero jumped from cliff to cliff, dodging boulders that got in the way. He continued jumping until he came to another hill. Zero looked around, he sensed eyes on him.

Flash!

Zero turned, but nobody was there.

There was a crackle like some rocks falling. Zero turned once again, but still met nothing. Then, as quick as Zero could, he turned around and saw a Metool. The Metool (Met for short), taken by surprise got killed right away from Zero. Zero smiled once he had defeated the Met, but unknown to him, that was the least of his troubles. Four more boulders on fire were rolling down the hill along with two Repliforce bats ready to drop bombs on Zero when he came close!

Zero jumped into the air and hoped over all the boulders this time. He wasn't going to make the same mistake as last time. The bats swooped over to Zero, once Zero was back on the ground and dropped some bombs on him. Zero rolled out of the way from these deadly attacks and then slashed a bat down with his Z-Saber. The other bat dodged the saber and rammed Zero in the back. Zero stumbled, but kept his balance all the same. With a mighty war slash, along with a war yell, Zero slashed down the bat. Once the nuisance was dead, Zero continued his trek up the hill and into the volcanic area two.

Zero entered the volcanic area two at full speed and looked around. Fireballs were falling from the sky, the path Zero was on looked like it was crumbling and Repliforce units were in huge ride armor tanks. To put the last sentence in a shorter form, I would say: It was much more dangerous than the first area.

Zero walked forwards and heard a Crack! Zero looked around. Could it have been another Met bothering him?

Crack!

Zero looked at his feet. The ground underneath him was cracking. He jumped back just in time and landed safely on firm ground. All that was left in the chunk of path in front of him were small platforms being held up by ground that hadn't been destroyed yet. Zero looked down into the cavern he had just made. Lava was at the bottom of it, waiting for Zero to jump in so it could devour him. Zero looked at the small pieces of land ahead. His only choice was to jump from platform to platform without falling.

Zero stood back and ran at full speed towards a platform. He jumped! And then landed safely on the platform. Zero was relived, but he still had more platforms to jump to. Zero jumped to the next and the next, each time he jumped, it got easier and easier. It wasn't a surprise when Zero became tired of jumping.

Zero sat down on the platform. He looked behind him to see the platforms he had already jumped on, but they weren't there. Zero gave a frightened face and looked down. Strangely, he didn't see a crack or the slightest thing that would tell that it was going to fall under his weight.

Then there was a rumble, a rumble Zero hadn't heard before. Zero looked up and saw a huge flaming boulder dropping from the sky, right above him. Zero jumped to the next platform a split-second before the boulder hit the platform and it disintigrated.

Zero wiped his forehead and jumped to the last platform. From there on, there were no platforms, just a strait road with Repliforce units in ride armor on it.

Zero started walking up the trail, slashing at the robots who got in his way. Zero searched and soon found some ride armor. With his armor, Zero was no match for the other Mavericks.

It wasn't long before Zero reached Magma Dragoon. His ride armor had been destroyed before Zero could reach Dragoon so he couldn't fight him with it on. Dragoon had a smile on his face. A smile full of evil.

"Zero, it's really you!" He said in a surprised voice.

Not beating around the bush, Zero quickly asks, "Why did you betray us?" Dragoon didn't answer which made Zero get more angry. "Answer me Dragoon!"

"I have no answer for you my friend," Dragoon answers in an almost mournful voice.

"Dragoon!" Zero yells. Zero doesn't want to fight his friend. Not now in the middle of a war!

Before Zero can try to talk it over, Dragoon lunged. BAM! Zero got the wind blown out of him.

"Come on Zero, put up a worthy fight," Dragoon taunted. Zero nodded and staggered to his feet.

"I'll show you a worthy fight!" Zero screamed.

Dragoon smiled and blew out a breath of fire. With all of his might, Zero jumped over the roaring flames and behind Dragoon. There was a slash and Dragoon's arm was dripping with blood. He smiled and rampaged again but Zero jumped and once again got to safety. Zero slashed again with his sword, but Dragoon rolled aside, almost falling into the lava to the right of him.

Dragoon and Zero started to breath in deeply and out deeply. They were both tired, but this gave Dragoon an opportunity to formulate a plan. With a scream of rage, Dragoon lunged at Zero once more. Zero jumped into the air again, but was very surprised when Dragoon jumped right before him.

CRASH! The two robots collided, but Dragoon was ready for the crash. With a slash, Dragoon pushed Zero to the ground. From there on, Dragoon continuously slashed at Zero's chest like a mad man. Zero tried to reach for his saber which had fallen by his foot, but it was no use. Dragoon had pinned Zero like a mouse in a trap.

Dragoon raised his hand and slashed again, this time cutting Zero's lip which started to bleed. "STOP!" Zero yelled.

In confusion, Dragoon stopped attacking, but kept Zero pinned just in case. "Stop now Dragoon or you will regret it." Dragoon stopped for a moment, but then lifted his hand high, ready to punch Zero once again. But again, he stopped.

"Please Dragoon, you don't have to do this," Zero pleaded. Dragoon shook his head and slowly said, "I'm sorry." He then connected his fist to Zero's face.

Quickly, Zero kicked the hilt of his sword which made it fly into his hand. "Wait Zero, this is-"

Dragoon didn't get to finish. Instead he got Zero's Z-Saber stuck right in the middle of his heart.

Zero pulled out his saber and kicked Dragoon to the floor. The mechanical Dragon was in a crumpled up heap.

"I wanted to defeat you," Dragoon said in a slow painful voice. "Then he appeared."

Zero stepped forward, treating his lip. "He? Who?"

Dragoon winced and continued. "He told me he'd give me power only if I worked for the Repliforce."

Zero continued to stare blankly at Dragoon. "What?" Zero asked.

Dragoon shook his head slowly and said, "I couldn't refuse the offer, sorry Zero." With one more sad look, Dragoon exploded in a ball of flames.

"Dragoon!" Zero yelled as he back away from the intense heat. Dragoon was gone and Zero had no clue what was going on. It was a bad day, a very bad day.