Maverick: Chapter 2
Changing Times
Unknown Forest Clearing
Year Unknown
“Aaagh!”
“Luna!”
“Fall back! Fall back!”
“Do something!”
“Don’t be a hero! Fall back!”
Don’t be a hero. Hero. The word had once meant something to Zero. It used to secretly please him whenever Alouette or Ciel or Hirondelle would call him a hero. It made him feel… respected, even loved.
I don’t recall ever calling myself a hero, and I have always only fought for those I believe in.
“Ciel… I’ll come back.” Zero closed his eyes and got to his feet. When he opened his eyes, he was greeted with one of the most bizarre and confusing scenes of his life. The clearing was littered with the wounded and battered bodies of… horses? “What in the world?” muttered Zero under his breath. There were ten of them, all adorned in golden armor save one, who donned dark blue armor reminiscent of the night sky. Some of them appeared to be unicorns, but the two larger horses had both wings as well as a horn. Their armor was more ornate, and looked like they were in charge. The larger, more regal white horse was kneeling over the slightly smaller dark blue one and tending to her wounds. Six other horses lay strewn about in the wreckage of Ragnarok, bruised, battered, and some bloody. One lone horse, a white one with a blue mane and golden armor stood staring ahead with a look of terror on his face. Zero followed his gaze and blinked.
A large dragon-like creature loomed overhead, larger than even Omega when he had first crash landed in the Arctic. It’s murky greenish-brown scales glinted in the light and completely encompassed the creature – a Hydra, he remembered the ponies calling it – from its claws to the barbs on its tail to its… heads? “Great… first talking horses, now mythical dragons? What next?” muttered Zero as he prepared to make an entrance. The Hydra raised its foot and extended its claws, ready to crush the terrified horse underneath. Zero saw this and immediately sprang into action. “Look out!” he shouted as he activated his armor’s dash to propel himself across the clearing in an instant. He tackled the horse, whose head reached Zero’s forearms, and landed with a grunt out of reach of the Hydra’s devastating stomp.
“What in Equestria…?” started the horse as he snapped back into focus. Zero gestured for it to stay down.
“Stay here. I’m here to help, not fight.” The white horse started to speak, but Zero silenced him with a finger. “Later, if there is one.” The horse blinked, probably shocked, but nodded. Zero turned around and lifted his sword tauntingly, trying to draw attention to himself. The Hydra noticed him, and he charged the roaring beast.
Zero jumped, avoiding a stomp from the Hydra and landed on its knee. He ‘wall-jumped’, as they called it back at the Resistance, up the Hydra’s torso and climbed onto the back of its neck. The Hydra quickly realized what Zero was trying to do and sent a ball of fire at him from one of its gaping jaws. Zero grunted as he lost his grip, and was left dangling from one hand from the scaly neck of the Hydra. The Hydra struggled, trying to shake him off in annoyance. “No you don’t!” grunted Zero through gritted teeth. He swung his arm around and punched the Hydra in the neck as hard as he could, punching through the skin and sending it roaring in pain. Zero took the opportunity to scramble up the backside of its neck and mount the top of its head. He stood up and grabbed his Saber from his sheath and raised it above his head. With a final shout of rage, he brought the sword down and drove it into the Hydra’s skull. As the head died, the other heads squealed in pain. The Hydra fell to the ground with a massive thud, shaking the forest and crushing a giant swath of trees in its path. As it lied on the ground, writhing in pain, blood seeped from the Hydra's wound until it stopped moving. Zero jumped from the top of the Hydra’s head and landed almost silently and sheathed his Z-Saber. The ponies shrank back, amazed and afraid of the crimson creature that had so easily killed one of the most feared predators in the Everfree. Zero straightened up and turned, his long blonde hair obscuring his face from the onlookers. He dashed from the clearing into the forest beyond, leaving the ponies to ponder what they had just seen and who that mysterious figure was.
~ ~ ~
“What was that about?” asked Charite after catching up with Zero. Zero shrugged.
“They didn’t pose a threat and they needed help. I helped. It’s what I do, remember?”
Charite flicked her ear, an instinct that came out of nowhere. “Yes, but you should have stuck around. Let them thank you. You would have drawn less attention that way.” She shrugged her new shoulders and blinked. “I’m still confused about the form change though. Why a Unicorn? They don’t exist, I thought.”
Zero raised an eyebrow. “Okay, first you explain how that would have drawn less attention. Then I’ll explain about the Unicorn part.” He flinched inwardly, remembering the last encounter with a mythical equestrian being. That’s what I said about Pegasi, but look at Weil’s creations. Minotaurs, Cerberuses, cockatrices; most of his Generals were based off of mythical creatures. What if they aren’t that mythical or far-off as we thought? Zero looked at Charite. She took that as a gesture to explain.
“Well, look at it this way. Now that their mysterious savior has disappeared, they’re going to try to locate him. You’ll be in every news broadcast, newspaper, and magazine and radio station, all looking for their ‘Red Hero’. If you’d just approached them, then you’d have saved yourself all that attention. They would wait to put you in the media to find more about you. You know I’m right,” she added when she noticed Zero’s skeptical look.
“Whatever. I’ll take my chances. They might not have been a threat then, but they might be now.” He checked his vitals, looking at his health bar. It was at halfway… but filling? “What the…?” he muttered. “Charite? Are you healing me?” he asked his companion. Charite shook her head slowly, confusion dawning on her head. “Well, it seems that I’’m… regenerating.” Charite’s eyes widened in shock.
“No, that can’t be right. A Reploid can’t regenerate by itself. It’s been proven! They aren’t organic-” Charite stopped mid-sentence. “Can it be?” she mumbled. Zero narrowed his eyes.
“Can what be?” he asked. Charite hesitated. “It… could be… that you…” she kept stopping, considering her words carefully. Zero sighed in frustration.
“Charite, just tell me already.” The yellow Unicorn closed her eyes and took a deep breath.
“Well, Zero, I think that you are becoming more organic than synthetic.”
“Explain,” said Zero.
Charite blinked. “You know how there hasn’t been a trace of any type of machinery?” she asked. Zero nodded, unsure of where this was going. “Well, I believe that the same forces that turned me into a pony are turning you into a form more suitable to this world.” Zero frowned.
“Then why am I not turning into a pony as well?” he asked. Charite frowned as well.
“I don’t know. Perhaps it’s because you can adapt to exist here easier than I could. I couldn’t survive outside the reaches of the Cyber World, remember?” Zero nodded.
“That makes some sense, but why are we here? And what forces are changing us?” Charite frowned, her eyes solemn. “That, I don’t know.”