//------------------------------// // Let me tell you a story. // Story: Xero's After-the-Final Fight // by The P Co //------------------------------// It was a terrible day for Xero, at this point he was known by a different name, but he had long forgotten it. Coming home from school, being a freshman in highschool was hell, he grabbed a knife from the kitchen before his mother came at him in drunken rage. The bitch in question fell down the stairs, getting up with little damage, she looked at her son, her green eyes stared at him, glazed over in alcohol. She charged at him, yelling obscenities, obviously confusing her son for her husband, Xero looked almost exactly like his father, except his hair was longer. He stabbed her, he didn't care anymore, he stabbed his mother to death, the unreasonably sharp knife piercing her flesh again and again, if his sanity had degraded a few millimeters less, he would have raped her corpse, satisfying primal needs in her bloody body. His father came home, hyped up on crack, he tackled him, cutting his throat, stabbing him. He was 16, and he killed his parents. <> He had been found by a secret order, they were ninjas, but more modern. Mastering the usage of blades, Xero was a deadly being, he held little regret for who he killed, but that was because he only killed the wicked, the evil, innocent people did not deserve to die. Unless they stopped being innocent. Ambushing a group of corrupt SAS members, he and his team killed them all, taking their guns and ammunition, as well as all of their supplies, firing off the bullets so the other soldiers couldn't use them, breaking the guns when they were finished, they made a dash for an escape. He had successfully completed more than 30 ninja missions, he was fully trained, a master of the martial arts, all of them. That's when it happened. He died how he lived, running and fighting, all it took was a bullet to the head, one that slipped through his swinging sword of a shield. The soldiers who attacked were packing high tech weaponry. He awoke, ripped from death by wires and circuitry, all of his childhood, and most of his teenage years, right up to the day he snapped and lashed back at the ones who lashed him like a puppy in a corner. He was known as Xero, the blitzkrieg swordsman, under the command of Omega, the juggernaut gunner, fighting alongside his commander and comrades, Askad the nerdy demolitionist, and Kary the ridiculously human-like android with an imagination-based-superpower of electrical energy. They were Bolverk Squad, in like slightly odd looking yet normal people, and out like the Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Many missions went by, dozens, each done perfectly, none of them died, only got hurt, the last 2 missions they went on were different. 'ALRIGHT PEOPLE, MOVE ALONG, IT'S JUST A FEW DEAD POLITICIANS, heh heh, NOTHING SERIOUS!" Omega shouted to the crowd, using his megaphone function, some were in cars, most on the street, the Squad had just blown out a building and had killed several politicians who were supporting Bio. Int., MBORF's rival. Xero was helping the normal soldiers prod the innocent bystanders along, using the point of his Slicer to provide more force. "LOOK OUT!" Askad shouted, Xero turned to see it. 2 civilians had left their car, they had apparently kept several knives and a gun in their vehicle. 1, 2, 4, 7, dead. The 2 opposing people were killed, though with well placed throws and shots, they had killed 7 MBORF soldiers, Xero was trying to block the bullets, but to no avail, Askad and Omega killed the pair with a shot from the Joy Filly and a Sticky Death grenade. Xero had tried his best, but 7, SEVEN of his fellow soldiers were dead. The next mission was much harder. Their objective? Terminate XV Rushing through the battlefield, his major upgrades to his armor gave him the speed to parry bullets, he and Omega tore through Bio. Int.'s army, crushing and shooting and blasting and cutting though hundreds of soldiers, even spies. Omega had taken the offensive on XV itself, Xero took care of Kary after she exhausted herself in killing the XV infected beings, and Askad had died. Leaving the young-ish girl to charge up, he recieved an upgrade to his armor, a 2.0 update. Able to block the force of about 6000rpm, he was even faster and much stronger than before. Omega had killed XV, Kary and charged up and took out the strays, Xero destroyed 3 FUCKING HELICOPTERS, it was amazing. Carrying Omega, as the heavy-weight man was the only one in the group who couldn't fly, the commanding officer reported in their success. Kary attacked them suddenly, Xero couldn't keep himself and his 1258 kilogram weighing comrade away from the assault. He was knocked out of the sky and caught by the young girl who he called a team-mate. Waking up strapped to a wall, Xero found himself staring at a copy of his face. "Like it? It's you, after all, a better you, anyways, fucking human soldiers, trying to keep people alive, they always fail, somehow, somewhere, there is failure." Kary lamented, throwing the copy of Xero's visage onto a table. "They're going to execute you like the sorry dumbasses you are." Kary informed, she looked different, another spurt of aging, she was a full grown woman, rather than a young teenager, almost 10 years of difference, from 13 to 22. "Why am I strapped up like a spinning target, Kary?" Xero demanded, he was thoroughly pissed off at this point. "Because you're scheduled for execution, after taking measurements of your body, they'll lock you up, it'll be a week before you die at that point." Kary teased. "Well then why the fuck are you here? You're not a doctor or a scientist." Xero argued. Kary got intimately close to Xero's face, running a gloved hand over his skin and through his rough stubble, she was close enough to bite him. "Because, Omega didn't want to talk, all he said was 'I'm sure Xero can convey both of our feelings about this', so I came to see you." she explained, moving about his face, admiring his musculature. "Right, well then, here are my and Omega's feelings about this, you're all fucking traitors, you'll all be killed at our hands, we'll make you suffer 10-fold what we have to endure during our wait." Xero ranted. "I.... see....." Kary blushed suddenly, she was still intimately close, mere millimeters from his face, but he could still see the slight pinkening of her skin. *smoooooooch* Kary had just kissed him. "What the fuck was that for?" Xero demanded, wishing to set his mouth on fire. "The scientist said *huff* that I'll experience fluctuations in *huff* behaviour as I adjust *huff*, because my growth spurt had added *huff* a lot of chemicals that I didn't have before *huff* I've basically skipped through puberty, *huff* and, in making me the most humanoid android ever, *huff* Askad made me experience growth like a normal human *huff*, I don't know how to deal with these feelings *huff* as I didn't have time to learn how *huff*, and I feel new feelings and think new thoughts, *huff* and I'm thinking something very enjoyable *huff* and since you're strapped up and the scientists gave me an hour, *huff* and only 5 minutes of said hour are gone *huff*, I think I'll do what I want with you." Kary was getting really flustered and red-faced, breathing heavily, blowing hot puffs of breath at Xero's face. "Why don't you go shove your snatch in Omega's face." Xero spat the vulgar slang words at her, he did NOT like where this was going. "I think it would be awkward if *huff* I had my way with him while the *huff* doctors were trying to work." Kary replied, her breath was coming out very hot and steamy. "Weeeeeeelllllll, fuuuuuuuck...." Xero complained. "That's the spirit." Kary teased, kissing him again. *zzziiiiiiiip* *rustle rustle* "Shiiiiiiit, make it quick then, I want my torture to be over as soon as possible so I can die faster." Xero complied, he had given up. *zzziiiiiiiip* *rustle rustle* *drip* Then sex happened. <> Xero drank heavily of the bottle of bleach he had stolen from the cleaner cart, pouring it in his eyes and all over his body as well, nobody opposed. If he tried something, they could easily kill him, and if he died, it would be all that much easier. Gulping down mouthfuls of the foul tasting strong-alkaline liquid, he felt himself not getting any closer to death. His cybernetic parts cleaned his body of the poisonous-if-consumed liquid, he was left with a particularly tainted piss afterwards. Sitting in his cell, warming soap and shaping it into a knife blade, he briefly considered trying to use it to kill the guard and get the keys, but that was a stupid idea. Thinking back over it again, he considered the idea, applying a more scientific view on it. The waxy material would dry and harden into a solid that was hard enough to support a blade sharp enough to cut un-reinforced flesh. The flesh of a normal soldier. After finding that the food was poisoned and that was how they were expected to die, succumbing to primal needs, he rationed his food like Omega said, eating only of the first and second days of poisonous food, the later days were meant to kill. Playing dead, a single guard was sent to carry him to the incinerator, as he was not very heavy and a single guard could carry or at least drag him to the location. Moving very subtley, grabbing his soap knife, he cut the guard's throat, taking the guards metal combat knife and pistol, he silently made his way to find Omega. Finding his C.O., Xero tackled the first guard and threw his knife into the second one's head, beating guard 1 to death, Omega stood and grabbed the pistol Xero purposely dropped in front of him. "Alright, time to get out of here." Omega instructed. "Yeah, hold on." Xero said, choking the guard he was sitting on and punching him, the guard suffocated before internal bleeding killed him. "Alright, what's the first step?" Xero asked, the pair moved to the elevator, luckily no alarms had been sounded. "First we find our Vertebral Armors, then, if they're not able to be equipped normally, we steal the information capsules and escape, fight and don't die until the data is completely downloaded, then inject ourselves with our armor data, get suited up, and escape the city below." Omega debriefed. "And what makes you think that they haven't destroyed our armors?" Xero argued. "Those 2 technological amalgamations are worth more than the entire fucking staff's total annual salary, they're not going to just destroy it, the very thought is like Bill Gates burning his ocean of money." Omega countered. "Right, so, the plan is good enough, coming from you, how are we going to get to our armors without dying first?" Xero argued again. The door to the elevator opened. Every mook looked to the door to see who was there, they saw the pair and looked back to their own activities, then they realized who they just saw and got ready to fight. "Use style code: Desert Hawk." Omega commanded. "And what the fuck does that mean?" Xero querried. "DAMNIT XERO! VULTURE TACTICS!" Omega shouted at his subordinate's stupidity. "Oh, right, that one." Xero replied, charging forward. With the pair's masterful fighting skills, they recovered their armors and escaped the shuttle. Getting down to the city and fighting their way into safe-ish areas, they equipped their armors. Fighting for almost an hour, genociding the entire MBORF force, they reached the train station. "You lost." Omega taunted his speedy companion, smoking a cigarette. "Yeah yeah, stick it where it fits." Xero countered his heavily armored brother-in-arms, flipping him off. "What a sore loser." Omega sighed. "Yeah yeah, well, if I didn't have to fight a fucking artillery cannon, I would have kicked your arse." Xero argued. "Right, well, let's just take a breather for right now." Omega suggested, taking in a deep breath to emphasize his point. "Oi, well, we just owned those assholes, if you wanna make this 1v1, just say so." Xero challenged, resorting to gamer-speak. "No thanks, we need to get out of here." Omega declined. The train Omega had hoped for was rolling to a stop in front of them. "And that is our ride." Omega informed, about to flick away his cigarette. *BOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM MOTHERFUCKING LOUDNESS* The train Omega had hoped for was crushed to shit. "Was." Xero cheekily corrected. 2 visors shined in the darkness. "I hope I offend you when I say your plan looks like a pile of shit." Xero insulted, leaning forward. The offenders revealed themselves, they were robot copies of Omega and Xero, suited up in their old armors, as the humans had stolen the new ones. "Holy SHIT, OUR OWN ACTION FIGURES, we're fucking FAMOUS man!" Xero liltily joked, nudging Omega forcefully. "So that was the catch, they needed recent battle data for those automatons." Omega analyzed. "I see, isn't this thrilling?" Xero querried, prepping the Boomknives. "As a matter of fact, it is." Omega answered, sounded mildly amused, summoning one of his Ballisticas and the Joy Colt. "Come on, let's fight, catchphrase time." Xero insisted. "Heaven or Hell!" Omega shouted. "Let's rock!" Xero followed up. Then they fought their robotic clones. It was tough, they sustained a lot of damage, but they did it. They may have taken out half a city in the process, but the robots were destroyed. Kary entered the equation. A long and very drawn out fight, involving deceit, realization, power-ups, destruction, and much more, it finally happened. Kary was dead. All that was left was Xero and Omega. Problem, Omega was taken over by the XV infection, directly by the XV itself, I might add. Omega used the unbroken half of the Light Arrow to try to hit Xero and kill him, Xero merely backed up from each swing. Xero tried to deny it, tried to deny that the man who he had grown close to, the one he trusted with his life, that Omega, the man who was Xero's only ally and hope for safety, as Xero was for him, was taken over by a deadly creature driven by violent instinct rather than conscious thought. "Come on, just give me my sword back, we'll find your gun, and we can get the hell out of dodge." Xero insisted, his voice was starting to falter. "Just how long do you plan on fucking around, Omega?" he continued, he was breaking on the inside, dodging the amatuer swings of the sword. "After killing ALL these assholes, taking out all of MBORF's army, and freedom is finally at hand, you're just going to let yourself get taken over by that... by that THING?" Xero's voice was desperate, clinging helplessly to the hope that Omega was actually alright. "Come on man, cut it out, you're not like this, you kill companions as much as I smoke, and I don't smoke at all." Xero sounded defeated, dodging further and further. "This isn't you, this isn't you at all, please, just stop this nonsense, we can escape, we can get out of here. We'll never have to deal with MBORF, Bio. Int., or any of this ever again. We can live a normal life, please." Xero pleaded, he was exhausted, and on the verge of tears. The infected Omega continues swinging. Xero was mad now. "Come on MAN! Fucking PULL IT TOGETHER!" Xero commanded, he reached behind himself, feeling the Joy Colt, he brought it up and put it against the infected Omega's head. Omega stopped swinging, he took a step back. Banging his head on the ground a few times, punching the scorched dirt, and stabbing the half of the Light Arrow into the ground, he got up, breathing deeply. "Ugh, *huff puff* *sigh* Thanks for that, *huff puff* now, come on, finish me off." Omega demanded his own death. "What? Why?" Xero questioned, he was confused. "I managed to suppress XV for the time being, you need to kill me before it regains control and makes me kill you." Omega explained. "Come on, walk it off, pussy." Xero crudely suggested. "Not possible, this thing is taking over my body and mind, I'm struggling to resist killing you right now, you need to kill me before it takes over again." Omega pleaded. "It wasn't supposed to end like this, man." Xero argued. "Circumstances got in the way, come on, you were the one who was going to cut my head from my neck, right?" Omega repeated the same words that Xero had said to him before the battle. Xero was tired and angry, grabbing the sword was all he could muster at the moment. "If anything, you were a great person to know, a better soldier, and an even better friend." Omega said his final words. "Tch, fuck you." Xero couldn't say much. He brought the sword up, ready to swing. "I'll see you in hell, chap." Xero said his final words to his comrade. "Heh heh, we'll all be waiting for you." Omega replied. Xero swung the sword wide, the deed was done, Omega was dead. Taking a few steps to some softer dirt, Xero collapsed to the ground from exhaustion. <> Waking up with a dry mouth and an aching head, Xero sat up and drank from his canteen, he only now realized he still had it. Replenished slightly, he got up and began digging, giving the remains of Askad's robot, Kary, and Omega a proper burial, if coffin-less. Standing at looking to the horizon, with half of the Light Arrow in one hand and the Joy Colt in the other, Xero left the city. Bolverk was no more, he disregarded his codename Xero, opting to use it as his actual name, as his real one had been deleted from his mind. He travelled far, disguised himself, got a good life, counterfeiting money and getting his health back up. In his mid-sixties, he found her. He found Enid, a young child abandoned by her family, forced to live on her own. He saw potential in the black haired girl. He took her in, raised her properly, taught her everything he knew, and most of what Omega knew, from what Xero could salvage from his juggernaut C.O.'s databanks. The time had come, at 90 yeards old, Xero had to fight MBORF again, the Vorpal Soldiers even had Warp-Able guns at this point, painted white. He and Enid fought them away, away from their home, their home in the ruins of New York City. That's when it happened. A Black-Hole-Bomb, Enid had ran away, Xero had slaughtered another quarter of the army before it hit. All he heard was a whooshing noise, his vision faded to black, his body de-aged. leaving him 19 again, his hair having white highlights to its normally bluish-black color. The darkness faded to blue, and he fell. Fell out of the sky, into a lake. <> "So then, I hit the water, got out, looked at myself, killed and ate a manticore, took a big drink of water, and found my way to Ponyville." Xero continued. The CMC stared at him, their wide, bright eyes glimmering in the light, but shining with confusion. "And that, my dear fillies, is how I ended up in Equestria." Xero finished his long-as-hell explanation. "We wanted to know how you got your cutie mark, bro." Scootaloo re-asked the CMC's question. "Oh that, that was easy, I wrote a message to Twilight asking to be turned into a pony, I wrote it in Japonese to piss her off. She still ponified me, and I learned how to turn myself into a pony at will, my cutie mark was there when I changed, it's the symbol on my power core, 'X' for Xero, but adding a knife to each side, like Omega had a horseshoe for Omega, and I guess he would have a bullet to each side, that one would be a bit weird, though." Xero gave the 10-times-shorter explanation of a cutie mark story. "But, wait, that doesn't help at all." Applebloom complained. "Well I never promised, as a matter of fact, I didn't even SAY that it was a useful story." Xero reassessed the situation. "Come on bro, you GOTTA have some wisdom for us, even some intelligence would do." Scootaloo pleaded. "Alright, here's my wisdom, work at your talents more, before discarding them, you could be throwing away your special talent, without realizing how good you are, 1 test is not proof, 10 tests is enough." Xero philosophized, using the basics of the scientific process to help him. "So, we should work at our talents more, to see if they really are our talents?" Sweetie repeated Xero's statement in the form of a question. "Yes, yes you should." Xero assured. "Alright, let's go, Crusaders!" Scootaloo took charge and led the group down the mountain path, carrying her friends down, Applebloom in one hoof, Sweetie Belle in the other. Xero watched the departing trio to make sure they left safely. Returning to his base, he still drew blanks on what he was about to do. Throwing his hands into the air in exasperation, he groaned in aggravation and left. It was almost nighttime, he went back to his town-house, watching the night sky for some time, thinking back to his life-story. He realized something. He was really fucking weird. He didn't care, he lived in Equestria, which was more than 1000 times weirder than him. He drifted off to sleep, briefly chastising himself for going into such detail with his tale, he didn't care for long, the past had passed and he couldn't change it. He slept silently, nothing penetrating his unconsciousness. His mind was exhausted. <> Carrying a depressed Pinkie to Sweet Apple Acres, Xero had to stun her, as she would be kicking and resisting him. He couldn't have that. Setting her on the ground, un-stunning her by hitting her pressure points again, he pushed her into the barn. "Happy Birthday, sadass." Xero said to her, giving her a Blood Blaster sonic-power jab to send her into the barn against her will. He briefly wondered what would happen next. Not immediately next, he knew she would complain, and then feel like a complete goddamn idiot for forgetting her own birthday. Xero wondered what the next big event would be. Checking his calender, he realized what came next. The Grand Galloping Gala was a few days away. He returned to his base, the thought of wearing a fancy suit to the Gala made him remember what he was going to do. He was going to make new armor. He sat down at his interface and got to work.