Omega/Zero: Where am I?
Me: Ummmm... How'd you get here?
Omega/Zero: Who are you, Human? Come to die?
Me: Ummmm, no. This is beyond the 4th Wall. You, kinda, sorta, have no power here... please don't kill me...
Omega/Zero: No power you say, yet you tremble before me. (Draws Beam Sword) Let's see how powerless I am.
Me: (panicked) Kill me now and you'll never get to realize your full potential!
Omega/Zero: Oh really? And how can YOU make that happen?
Me: I'm the Author. I have all sortsa nifty abilities. One of them being to make you infinitely powerful... Powerful enough to rid yourself of Zero.
Omega/Zero: (deadly stare) You lie.
Me: Nope. That's my ability. I write it, it happens. You just gotta not kill me now, and do me a favor.
Omega/Zero: Favor? I don't bargain with Humans. (Raises Beam Sword)
Me: JUST GIVE THE DISCLAIMER! THAT'S ALL! I'LL HANDLE THE REST!
Omega/Zero: Very well, Human. But if you fail to grant me my freedom, you'll not live long enough to regret it. This Human owns nothing belonging to whatever Capcom is. His tale and the individuals called OC's, that I intend to destroy, are all his creations. Now, give me power!
Me: Just keep reading, Omega. You'll get your prize. (Wipes away sweat)...i really am gonna get killed before the end of this...
Chapter 11- The Passing Storm
Roto and Avery watched as Omega Zero ripped Kay apart, gawking in fear and awe at the 'God of Destruction'. As the wounded general teleported away, Omega turned his attention towards Roto and Avery, the pair already nervous after watching the display of power. Roto tapped the side of his helmet, activating his comm.
"Ummmm, Iris. He's headed our way now..." Roto said with more than a bit of tension in his voice.
"He's got 70 seconds left until his Fail-Safes kick in. You have to keep him busy until then." Iris responded, not giving Roto much hope for survival.
"That's a REALLY long time considering he just shredded Kay in SECONDS! HowtheHell are me an' Avery supposeta keep THAT busy?"
"Just run. Make him attack you and stay out of the way. As he uses attacks, it'll drain his power faster. Just stay away from the attacks at all costs. They're Ultra Deadly." Iris offered, a hint of sympathy in her voice.
"Great... Sounds easy enough... NOT!" Roto closed the comm channel and looked at Avery. "Ok Av, we're in for some serious shit for the next 65 seconds. Here's the plan: you hang back here and pelt him with Full-Charges an' I'll keep his attention on me as much as possible. He starts comin' for you, run your ass off and I'll distract. Think you can handle that?"
"Yessir!" Avery said with more confidence than Roto actually felt.
Dashing away from Avery, Roto moved diagonally in Omega's direction and Booster-Jumped high into the air. At his apex, Roto pulled several spherical orbs from compartments in his armor and launched them towards Omega. As they landed around the Black Armored Destroyer they exploded into blue pillars of high intensity flame that surrounded him. Landing behind Omega, Roto fired normal shots from his N-Buster into the flames hoping to cause him to turn away from Avery. It worked. Roto watched Omega walk through the fires unscathed and swat away the Buster rounds like tennis balls with his bloody colored beam sword. Roto shook his head as he checked the timer in his HUD-53 seconds left.
Growling, Roto tossed a spread of cryo-grenades at Omega. The Black Armored Reploid waved a hand and scattered the projectiles away from him. 'Telekinesis?! What the HELL is he?!' As Roto was trying to wrap his mind around how powerful Omega was he saw a Charged Shot crash into the Dark Zero's head and barely make him twitch. This turned the attention from Roto to Avery. 'No way, big guy...' Roto thought, 'I'm the one you're lookin' for.'
Roto dashed toward the Incarnate of Destruction and leapt feet first at him in a drop kick that caught him full in the side. Activating his Boosters on contact, Roto added extra thrust to the attack and managed to send Omega skidding across the floor and directly into another Charged Shot that knocked him into the air. The advantage didn't last as Omega gained control of his fall and somersaulted to land on his feet, a look of Rage crossing his face. Roto checked the timer again- 30 seconds left.
"Dammit man... How the hell can I keep this up?" Roto quickly thought of a plan. "Come on Red! I know you're in there somewhere! You gotta shake this screw loose an' get your ass back here!"
Omega laughed, a vile sounding cackle of ominous intent.
"There is no 'Zero', boy. He's nothing but a false identity. An augment designed to overwrite what he, what I, AM!"
"Says you. But, who the Hell are YOU? How long did you exist, Omega? 50 years? A hundred? Zero's the legend. You're just a Virus. And Zero's kept you locked away from the world on PURE WILL for centuries. He's doin' it now. Fightin' you off, pushin' you back into whatever depths you crawled from! You couldn't beat him a thousand years ago, ya can't beat him now!"
Omega roared and swung his blade at Roto unleashing a huge crescent wave of red-black energy at the green armored Reploid. Barely dodging the attack, Roto still found himself caught by tendrils of crimson lightning as the energy wave passed and dropped to one knee. Iris' voice crackled over the comm.
"Roto, respond!"
"I'm good, I. Just a bit shocked." Roto replied checking his HUD for a damage readout, but Iris was ahead of him.
"Your armor integrity is at 46%. Energy level are in the yellow, a little over 50%. You need to stay further away from those energy attacks or you're going to have a systems failure." Iris stated.
Roto was thankful for the Operator monitoring his status, giving him one less worry in this situation. The timer was at 20 seconds and he was running out of ideas when another of Avery's shots smashed into Omega causing the Mega-Maverick to launch a horizontal energy wave at the young fighter. "AVERY!" Roto screamed as the Imperium solider dashed toward the wave and baseball slid under it, instantly being enveloped in crimson tendrils, as Roto had been, but managed to clear the projectile and shakily return to his feet. Roto looked to the young Reploid who tossed him a 'thumbs up', "I'm good sir!" He said.
"15 seconds kid! Let's make 'em count!" Roto said. Setting his Buster to Quick-Charge, he dashed around to get behind Omega as Avery created separation for himself and blasted the black armored terror again making him focus on him. As Roto got into position he tossed a magnetic charge onto Omega's back, cycled his Buster to a medium power and unloaded into him. The resulting blast was enough to topple the seemingly invincible Reploid, allowing himself and Avery to once again create a good separation but the attack had left Roto's power levels near critical. 'Shit... Between busted up armor and low levels, this'll be the longest 10 seconds of my life...'
Omega roared once more and, gathering energy, slammed his fist into the ground causing geysers of purple-red to erupt upwards and outward from the point of impact. Roto was in full Booster-Dash toward the wide-eyed Avery before hearing Iris' shout of "RUN!" over the comm, snagging him by the arm and dragging him towards the cave mouth of the ruins until Avery activated his Boosters as well. Pushing their acceleration capabilities into overdrive, Roto and Avery never looked back at the rising columns of pure devastation as they could feel the and force of the attack biting at their heels.
Glancing to Avery, Roto saw that his leg armor was smoking and his Boosters were beginning to fail dropping him behind and closer to the pillars of death following them. 'Not today!' Roto thought as he grabbed hold of Avery's armor and activated his 'Redline' mod, a speciality program designed to shunt any available power into his Booster system, and rocketed forward. With a mighty heave, Roto tossed Avery with all his strength towards the cave seconds before his own Booster flared out with a sickening 'POP-HISS'. Losing all traction, Roto hit the ground in a hard tumble, rolling end over end for what seemed like an eternity, before landing on his chest and skidding for a dozen yards to a painful stop.
'Aw, Hell... Almost made it...' Roto thought as he braced himself for the incinerating wave of death chasing him. 'At least it's Omega an' not some Nihilist scumbag slaggin' me... See ya soon, Sis.' Roto closed his eyes, waiting for fiery oblivion to consume him. After a few seconds of feeling pain all over from his injuries, Roto reopens his eyes and looks back to witness Omega clutching his head and screaming as if taken by a violent headache and his armor shifting back and forth between crimson and black. Avery limps forward as fast as possible, joining Roto to watch the spectacle.
"What's going on?" Avery asked confused.
"Zero, kid. He's reassertin' control over Omega. I knew he could."
Even from the distance they could hear the shouts of Zero and Omega separately. The dark voice howling to be left alone and its icy cool counterpart telling it off. It was strange to watch someone do battle with them-self so blatantly, but according to history this was part of the painful process Zero had to go through. Roto gained more respect and admiration for the Crimson Hunter as he watched his struggle, knowing well that the hardest battles weren't won on the field, but inside oneself.
Several more painful moments passed as Avery and Roto slowly approached Zero/Omega, catching his attention. Zero's voice rang out clear as he saw them.
"Stand back! ...He's... Not gone... Yet...!"
Omega's voice followed.
"Come! Let...me...rend you! Give...me...Power!"
"You're history, lug-nut," Roto scoffed, "Zero's gotcha. Back under your rock ya go."
Omega roared once more, but it was too late. As the Reploids' body finally collapsed his armor flashed once more and remained red. Zero had, again, conquered the Beast and passed into unconsciousness. Walking over to him, Roto and Avery hefted Zero from the ground and started back towards the base as Iris came over the comm channel.
"Great work, guys. Get down to the workshop and get yourselves fixed up. Not many can say they outlasted 'The End', but you two just earned a place in Hunter history, I can tell you that."
Roto smiled through all his pain and looked to Avery, who was also smiling.
"Ya hear that, Av? 'Hunter History'. Gotta say, worth every dent!"
"Yes sir!" The cheery young Reploid replied, more excited to have survived that anything else. And Roto couldn't blame him.
A/N: Nice and short, but necessary to portray the struggle that Zero faces when confronted with Omega. No pain like internal/mental pain. Betcha all thought Roto was gonna bite it hard towards the end, right? Please, R&R. As per the norm: good, bad or otherwise. I can only improve with your help. Next chapter coming soon.