Previously:
"Thank you so much, Miss! You saved me!"
Chapter 5
The Ruler of the Desert
A few days had passed since the cyber elf rescue mission. Colbor knocked on the door with Zero's name on it.
"Good morning, Zero. Today's a fine day, so let's stop locking yourself in your room and-..." he was cut off by the sudden hiss of the door opening, followed by a pair of arms reaching out and pulling him into the room, straight into a choke hold.
"Colbor dear." Zero's sickening sweet voice rang into the said reploid's ears. "Behold, I finally got the chance to thank you for abandoning me, your dear comrade." the pressure of the choke hold increased.
"Wait...Gah!..." Colbor tapped repeatedly on the arm holding his neck. "Give...give..."
"So, Colbor dear." Zero continued exerting pressure into the hold. "Let me hear the most suitable excuse that might save your hide from this situation."
Colbor kept tapping on the arm, unable to speak. Zero noticed this and loosen the hold a little. Colbor took in a deep breath. "I've no excuse or whatsoever to your traumatised experience of almost being raped."
"Almost raped?" A vein popped on Zero's head. "You call that rape? Just what the hell is wrong with that processor brain of yours?" she squeezed the neck again, with much greater force this time.
"Gah!" Colbor tapped on the arm once again. "Give...give...!"
"Ohoho~!" A flash of light came from the door, followed by a noticeable sound of clicking. "What a nice scene to start my day."
Zero and Colbor looked up to see Andrew holding a small squarish black box in his hands, grinning from behind his beard. "Go on." the old reploid said. "Continue with you're doing. I won't be a bother."
Seconds of silence breezed by. The next thing Andrew knew, he was hit by a flying Colbor, slamming both of the reploids into the wall opposite of the door.
"Stupid pervert!" the red-faced Zero screamed as the the door hissed close.
"Ah..." Andrew's voice floated from under the younger reploid. "The innocence of youth."
"Shaddup." Colbor slapped the old reploid at the head as he pushed himself from the tangled mess. "What's this?" he picked up bits of the black and silver plastic.
Andrew slowly pushed himself off the floor and stared at the ruin that was beneath his elbow. "Aww man!" he collected the rest of the pieces into his hands. "That was an antique!"
"What the hell is this?" Colbor passed the pieces in his hand to Andrew.
"It's a camera." Andrew tried to put the pieces together. "It's made during the 20th and the 21st century. There isn't many of these nowadays."
"21st century?" Colbor stared at the pieces. "That's at least two hundred years ago. Where did you find it?"
"Somewhere." Andrew started walking towards the cafeteria of the base.
"Well whatever." Colbor followed behind. "Let's get some energy crystals, I'm starving."
"Energy crystals?" Andrew stared surprised at Colbor. "You eat energy crystals?"
"Don't you?" Colbor deadpanned as they entered the cafeteria, which always seems to be empty.
"Stupid perverts..." Zero grumbled under her breath as she slowly tidied up her room, given to her on the first day of her arrival. As the room used to be completely empty before her arrival, it was still rather bland in term of furnitures, and decorative items.
Zero sighed at the pot of the flowers on the desk, placed at the corner of her room, and the stuffed toys arranged at a corner of her bed. Being a combat reploid, Zero wasn't the one to decorate her room with flowers and stuffed toys, or anything of sorts, Ciel and Alouette did. Zero had denied their entrance to her room many times. However, Ciel insisted that a girl must have those as a minimum decorative items in her room, and placed them in there with force.
"But why flowers and stuffed toys?" Zero wondered aloud. "I'm not a little girl like Alouette." she glared at the said items, hoping that they would disappear at her will. "I'm a combat reploid, a machine meant to destroy." she reminded herself grimly with a sigh.
"Zero." Colbor's cheerful voice echoed from the door. "I know you may be on a slimming diet, but you still have to eat no matter what."
"I will come out when I want to, or have to!" Zero yelled back, annoyed at the comment. "Now go away and leave me at peace for a while!"
"Whatever you say, girl." Colbor replied, followed by the sound of his footsteps getting further away.
"Annoying prick..." Zero grumbled again. She slumped onto the side of her bed, closing her eyes, with her knees pulled up to her chest.
Those few days had not been good for Zero. She re-thought about her dreams that recurred in her sleep during the past few days.
"What are those dreams? My memories?" she opened her eyes and stared into the space in front of her.
"Zero!" the said reploid turned around. A blue female reploid slowly jogged up to her.
"Hey!" Zero raised a hand into the air, which was in turn slapped into a high-five by the overly-hyper blue reploid. "What's up, X? Still as active as ever, eh?"
"That's because I've to catch up to you as soon as possible." X stuck her tongue out at Zero. "Zero Stealth Squad Commander, Zero. Speaking of irony."
Zero chuckled at the title given. "Well quit bouncing around then, B Rank Hunter X." she grinned playfully. "You're damaging the floor."
"Hey!" X stopped and pouted, puffing her cheeks to their limit. "What was that suppose to mean?"
Zero couldn't help but snickered at the cute expression of the younger reploid. "I meant what I said." she pointed at a random crack on the floor.
"That was there since forever." X retorted with another pout, added with a glare at the hairline crack.
"How would you know?" Zero continued teasing. "This building isn't that old."
If X could pout more than she already does, she would have done so. Arguing with Zero was never an easy task. In fact, she had never won once against the older reploid.
"Zero~!" the blue replod whined. Zero burst out laughing, clutching her aching sides. "That's not funny!" X started pounding her fists on Zero.
"Ah! Ow! Owowow!" Zero defended herself from the assault. "Okay! Okay! I'm sorry!"
"Zero you're mean!" X huffed and turned away.
"Bullying X again, Zero?" A deep voice came from behind the crimson reploid. "You didn't change at all, even after receiving the commander rank."
"Dragoon!" Zero whirled around, grinning at the humanoid dragon reploid. "Is your shift over?"
"Dragoon!" X jumped at the reploid.
"Not too long ago." Dragoon caught the girl with one hand and sat her on his shoulder, who went playing with his horns. "How about you?"
"No shift till next week." Zero's grin turned to a cocky smirk. "Say, how about we go and have a drink?"
"I wanna come too!" X pipped in.
"Are you sure about that?" Zero cocked an eyebrow at her. "My memory serves that the bar don't serve alcohols to pipsqueaks like you."
"I'm a B rank Hunter!" X retorted loudly. "I should at least have a luxury of drinking alcohol."
"Really?" Zero challenged.
Dragoon laughed at the bickering between the two. "Alright. Alright. X can come along." he smiled, ending the argument with X sticking her tongue at Zero, who in turn retaliated with her own. "But she can only have juice." X's jaws dropped.
"Why?" she whined, as Zero grinned triumphantly.
"Heard that, pipsqueak?" the female reploid taunted, only to receive a light rap on her head. "Ow!"
"That's enough, Zero." Dragoon smiled, ushering the two of them towards the lobby. "Ever hear that karma will get back at you?"
"Nah." Zero rubbed her head, where the bump was starting to form. "You should have hit lighter. I'm not wearing a helmet, ya' know."
Dragoon laughed again. "Told you it's karma." he grinned at his companions.
"Whatever." Zero rolled her eyes and walked on. "Come on." she turned around to see X and Dragoon staring at her in shock.
"Zero!"
"Zero...Zero..." Ciel continued shaking the female reploid, who seemed to have her eyes closed. "Zero, wake up!"
Alouette stood on the other side of the sleeping reploid, staring at her with concern. "Is Zero going to be alright?" she asked softly, tugging at Ciel's shirt.
"She will be fine." Ciel assured Alouette and slapped Zero in the face lightly. "Zero, wake up."
"Ugh..." the female reploid stirred a little, groaning.
"Zero!" Ciel's face brightened up.
"What's wrong?" Zero creaked an eye open. "Is there a mission for me?"
The group stared at one another, perplexed. "What happened? Why are you sitting here beside your bed, not lying on it?" Ciel asked, concerned.
"I must have fallen asleep." Zero rubbed her eyes and slowly stood up, feeling wobbly. "How long was I asleep?"
"I calculated that you've been knocked out for around...four hours." Colbor stated. "Told you to get something to replenish yourself."
"Colbor, you're not helping here." Ciel frowned at him, who shrugged and exited the room. "Here." she passed an energy crystal to Zero. "Your energy is running low."
"Thanks." Zero accepted the crystal and popped it into her mouth. She swallowed the rock-hard object, slowly feeling herself getting recharged by the second. "Doesn't taste as good as I thought." she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "But still better than nothing."
Ciel and Alouette smiled at each other upon the comment.
"By the way, Ciel." Zero's voice turned their attention to her. "Can you do me a favour and stop decorating my room with toys?" All of their gazes turned to the stuffed animal toy held in Ciel's hands, then at Ciel's sheepish smiling face.
Neo Arcadia Air Base
"Come on!" A hushed voice echoed from behind a pile of metal crates, soon followed by a group of shadows slowly creeping towards an aircraft.
"Who's there?" a voice echoed loudly from the other end of the hangar, startling the group. "Show yourself!"
"Shit! Go! Get on! Go go go!" the group scrambled hurriedly into the aircraft. Seconds later, the engines started up, dust churned in the air as the spinning propellers picked up speed and lifted the aircraft.
"Mavericks! Somebody close the gate!" a soldier reploid shouted. "Don't let them get away!"
"Come on! Come on!" the pilot of the aircraft gritted his teeth and pushed the lever forward, urging the aircraft towards the closing door.
"Shoot them!" the soldier who screamed ended up receiving a slap at the back of his head. "Ow."
"Are you stupid?" the one who slapped him was none other than Fefnir. "This is our main aircraft hangar. Do you want everything to be destroyed?"
"I-...I'm sorry, Lady Fefnir." the soldier repeatedly bowed his head in apology.
"Send in Anubis' force." Fefnir watched the aircraft passed through the gate. She smirked and turned back, slowly walking into the main building. "Make sure there's no survivor leaving the premises."
"Understood, Lady Fefnir." the soldier saluted and rushed off to find the sub-commander.
"Yes!" the reploids within the aircraft screamed with cheers as they passed through the dreaded gate.
"Next stop, freedom." the pilot announced, grinning as he slowly steered the vehicle to the left. "This is Falcon 1. I repeat, this is Falcon 1. Is there anyone out there? We're the escaped reploids from Neo Arcadia." he tried connecting to any available line he could find. "I repeat, is anyone out there?"
"Ksssss...This is the resistance...Ksss..." a voice suddenly came in. "Ksss...I repeat, this is the resistance...Ksss...Did you say that you're the escaped reploids?"
"Falcon 1 to resistance." the pilot replied, happy to receive a respond. "Yes, we're the escape reploids. But Neo Arcadia will be after us soon. We need a shelter for the time being."
"Ksss...Understood. Come to the side border of section 34. We'll be there to receive you."
"Roger that!" the pilot grinned and made a turn for the destination."Good news people." he yelled to the back of the cockpit. "The resistance are waiting for us!"
"Way to go dude!" a couple of reploids pat his back whereas the rest celebrated even more than they already were.
The pilot smiled back to his friends, failing to notice the sounding alarm.
"Well, time to g-...!" he was cut off the sound of a cannon blast, followed by the sudden rocking of the aircraft. All of the passengers were thrown off their feet, falling and landing clumsily on one another.
"What the hell?" the pilot looked out of the cockpit window to find one of the engines burning. "Resistance! This is Falcon 1! We have been hit! I repeat! We have been hit!"
"They have caught up with us!" one of the passengers screamed. "We're going to die!"
"No one's going to die!" the pilot yelled back. He looked out of the cockpit window again to see the sandy ground closing towards them, fast. "Everybody brace for impact!" he shouted before the aircraft slammed into the sand, trembling as it dragged a deep trench with the tip of its nose.
Coughing, groans and moaning of pain could be heard as everything fell into silence along with the dying engine.
"Everybody alright?" the pilot reploid asked aloud, grabbing his broken arm.
"Ugh...my leg..."
"It's not good." a random reploid replied. "We're in no condition to move at all."
"Damn it!" another reploid cursed. "We're in deep shit now!"
"The resistance will be on their way now." the pilot assured his friends with a smile. "Have faith in them."
Resistance Base
"What's the problem?" Zero entered the command briefing room.
"Ah, Zero!" Ciel said, her back facing the female reploid. "We've been received transmissions that a group of abducted reploids hijacked an enemy transport plane and had escaped."
"And?" Zero looked over Ciel's shoulder, only to see her furiously typing on the keyboard. "They're suppose to come here?"
"Yes." Ciel continued typing. "But the plane disappeared over the desert."
"Are there any survivors?" Zero leaned over the girl's shoulder, staring at the screen.
"I'm not sure." Ciel mumbled, uncertain. "We've sent our scouts to look for them. However, due to the amount of hostile enemies in the area, they are having much difficulties doing so."
"Call back the scouts." Zero stood back up. "I'll search for the survivors with them."
"Thank you, Zero." Ciel instantly lit up in gratitude. "I'll call them back. Proceed to the west gate and wait for them."
"Roger that." the combat reploid was already on her way out of the room.
"And Zero." Ciel called, stopping the reploid at the door.
"Yeah?" Zero turned and glanced over her shoulder.
"Please be safe."
"Got it." the reploid smiled and continued her way.
It didn't take long for Zero to reach the gate facing the vast land of golden sand. She looked around for the scout team, only to find a guard reploid standing at the beside the gate, looking into the desert worriedly.
"Are the scout team here yet?" Zero's voice badly startled the female guard, sending her squeaking and pointing her rifle at Zero's face. The combat reploid immediately raised her hands above her head.
"Z-Zero?" the guard took a careful look before relaxing and lowering her weapon. "You startled me."
"Sorry about that." Zero apologised sheepishly. "Guess some of my memories are getting back to my body. I...seemed to startle people quite often."
"It's alright..." the guard turned to faced the desert again.
Zero surveyed the face of the reploid, finding nothing more than worry plastered on her face. "You alright?" she asked.
"I'm worried about the lost reploids." came the reply. "I want to go look for them, but the desert is filled with dangers unknown even to the scouts."
"It will be fine." Zero placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'll bring them back."
A small smile crept onto the guard's face. "Thank you, Zero. And good luck."
Zero was about the reply when the scout team reached the gate, panting from running almost endlessly. "Damn it!" the last reploid jumped through the gate right after throwing a hand grenade at the horde behind them.
"What's the situation?" Zero fired a couple of shots, taking out some of the machines and hitting the grenade, exploding it before it even touched the ground. The explosion incinerated the rest of the enemies in the group.
"We've located the overall area where the plane landed." one of the scout said. "But the enemies forces are too much for us to handle."
"Leave them to me." Zero charged forward into the desert, her helmet forming on her head. "Scouts, follow my lead. Guards, take out anything either of us missed."
"Gotcha!" the guards stood at the gate, readying their weapons. The scouts looked at each other for a moment before running after Zero.
Desert landscape
"Any sight of them?" Zero scanned the area as the remains of her enemies fell onto the sand before her.
"Nope." the scouts checked their radar. "No sign at all."
"Hold on!" one of the scout suddenly shouted, freezing everyone beside him. "I've got something."
"What's with the over-dramatic yell?" one of his comrade backhanded him in the chin. Zero tried her hardest not to laugh.
"Three klicks north-west from here." the scout, ignoring the slap and the bruise under his chin, pointed at the direction, revealed to be a tall sand hill. "That's the best I can get."
"Here goes nothing." Zero started towards the hill.
"Zero." a voice out of nowhere froze the whole team again. Suddenly, a hand burst out of the sand beneath Zero and latched its fingers onto her ankle.
"What the-!" Zero felt her body slowly sinking into the sand as more figures burst out of the sand and latched onto her body.
"Zero!" the scouts yelled, running to her.
"Stay away!" the combat reploid screamed. "Get to the survivors! I'll hold them off!" the scouts reluctantly nodded and rounded Zero slowly. Zero turned to face the figures grabbing her, and saw that they were reploids. But the reploids were not the ones she had fought from before. These reploids had parts of their faces and bodies peeled off, revealing the mechanic skeletal features within them.
Zero shuddered at the realisation of what they were. "Zombie reploids."
"That's right." the voice came again, this time accompanied by the appearance of an Egyptian reploid slowly floating down towards her. "They are my minions, and they only listen to my command."
"What?" Zero tore a couple of arms off, and smashed several skulls with a swing of her reverse roundhouse kick. "Name yourself."
"I'm Anubis Necromaness the Third." the reploid smirked. "I work for Fefnir, one of the Four Guardians. I'm the king of destruction and the ruler of the desert."
Destruction. Something clicked in Zero's mind. "King of destruction?"
Anubis chuckled deeply. "Yes, and you will fall under my power."
"Your power?" Zero threw a torn torso at Anubis, who dodged it rather easily. "Using dead reploids to help you in a fight, I'd hardly call that your power."
"Silence!" Anubis waved his staff. "I will tolerate no further insult!" he pointed at the reploid with his staff. "You will pay for that insolence with you life!"
"I'd like to see you try." Zero smirked as she shoved the zombie reploids off her body. "Show me what you've got." she ignited her saber.
Anubis howled into the sky as the zombies crumbled on the sand, slowly sinking into them. Zero leaped into the air, spinning her saber right for Anubis' head. The Egyptian reploid smirked again, turning into a pile of sand just as the energy blade cut through him.
"What the-?" Zero dropped heavily into the sand beneath her. "Where the hell is he?" she scanned the area, with both her eyes and the radar detector in her system.
"You can't fight what you can't see." Anubis' voice echoed from everywhere around her, followed suddenly by a spiked pillar rising beside her. Without waiting for her reaction, the pillar slammed into Zero, pushing the struggling reploid towards another pillar.
Zero noticed several other pillars rushing towards her. Igniting her boost thruster, Zero forced her body to the right side and rolled out of the way, just seconds before the pillars slammed into each other, crumpling into piles of sand. "That was close." she muttered and stood up.
"I'm not done yet!" several pairs of hands erupted from the sandy ground and latched onto her ankles. Zero struggled to pull off the hands attached to her. A sound of shifting sand made her look up, finding herself staring at the swirling orb of moving sand, slowlw taking the form of Anubis. The Egyptian reploid smirked at Zero. "Submit and I'll offer you a swift death, and maybe a high position among my army of undead troops."
"I don't need a puppet master." Zero glared at her enemy. "I work things by myself."
"That's sad to hear." Anubis made it obvious that he was feigning sadness. "Because the other choice is this desert as your burial ground." he pointed his staff at Zero, a red energy orb began to charged at the tip of the staff. "وداع ، خردة المعادن الأسطوري(Farewell, legendary scrap metal.)" he said in Arabic and smirked.
"Ugh." Zero started punching and kicking the hands away, along with the rest of the zombies that came with them. "This is bad. I need a way out."
Combat System Technique Activated
Zero noticed her right palm began to glow. "What now?" she muttered as flashes of words and letters appeared within her eyes. "This...this is..." her eyes widened a little before returning to normal. "Here goes nothing!" she clenched the glowing palm into a fist and slammed it towards the ground.
Aye Aye people! I'm back! OMG! Zero's going to use one of her techniques! *GASP* What is it going to be?
Okay, I'm being overly dramatic. Sorry for the long wait. I've been pretty busy, be it school work, or slothing around. And due to these facts, I may not update as frequent as I used to, and the plot may not be as good as I would want it to be. Even I feel sad for myself...
Anyway, if you feel that you need my fresh chapters of Rockman Zero: Return of the Crimson Maiden. You can either PM me or add the request to the reviews. Anyway, Have fun! XD
Preview:
"If it isn't Rei..."
"Who's that?"