SEQUENCE 1: A Candle In the Night
"What do you think, Zero?" The earpiece in his helmet buzzed.
Zero looked up to see his fellow Hunter, Athena, staring at him expectantly. He touched his own helmet and his voice cut through the howling compartment.
"Say again? Over."
Athena gestured at the palm-sized windows cut into the walls of the ship.
"We're pretty high up in the mountains." She explained. "Do you think we'll run into some Ursa models?"
"If we're lucky." Zero turned his buster over in his hands. The solid piece of metal felt reassuring in his gloves and the core glowed with a warm yellow light.
"How do you mean?" A couple more helmets turned toward the conversation. Zero didn't look at them as he replied,
"Thick forests usually mean Asps. They navigate better between the trees."
Satisfied, the other Hunters turned back to their own thoughts, but Athena continued to stare across the aisle. For a moment, the line was silent and the crew of eight mercenaries bounced absently in their seats as the shuttle flew them to their destination. Athena switched to a private channel and nodded toward the front of the craft.
"What's the vibe you get from our mysterious new friend?"
Zero didn't answer immediately. Instead, he turned his grey eyes toward the cockpit and quietly scrutinized their client. A short figure of slender body and soft touch, the biggest thing about "Doctor Xiel" was her cape-like ponytail and the heaviest thing about her was the air of constant regret. At that moment, she was busy helping the bronze-limbed leader of the Hunters, Commander Piece, pilot the dropship low over a wooded and rocky landscape.
"Petroid. Early thirties, at least. Used to giving orders, but not used to fighting. Well-studied, well-cultured, well-prepared, but not arrogant about it." Zero shook his head. "She'll either be smart enough to keep her head down in a firefight, or a complete headache to take care of."
"Whoo." Athena whistled. "Wish I look that good at thirty! But how do you figure? All petroids look fourteen to me."
"Calling a petroid a 'doctor' automatically adds a decade to their age." Zero estimated. "And her eyes are ten years older than that."
"Ok, but I didn't ask for her dossier, Zero. I asked what vibe you got."
"Vibe?"
"I'm just saying. Do as many missions as you, I figured you must have a sixth sense keeping you alive." A tinge of admiration shone in the young girl's eyes as she stared at the seventeen-year-old "veteran" before her.
"It's not complicated. Trust nothing and nothing can betray you."
"But you trust us, right?"
"I trust you to do your jobs, yes."
For a long minute, the only sound was the thick humming of the ship's vent engines. Athena mused,
"Don't you think it's weird, though? A clever, rich girl shows up out of the blue and handpicks a bunch of mercs to go on a treasure hunt? You don't think she's hiding from the-"
"Stop right there." Zero snapped. "Or you'll forfeit your plausible deniability."
"Right. Sorry." Athena absently brushed the wrinkles out of her red and orange Hunter uniform.
She hadn't said anything that the rest of the dropship wasn't already thinking, though. The Hunters only existed in the barely-legal sense because even the great armies of the Enterprise either had no power this far out on the frontier, or didn't care to police it. They tolerated the Hunters and small militias like them, but only until they could be pinned as criminals. Commander Piece had kept the Hunters alive fighting vermin for homesteaders. However, it wasn't his fault if some rich client said there were "vermin" to be found in a nearby old-world ruin.
But Doctor Xiel was a unique case, even among prospectors. Most clients that hired an armed escort were mere treasure hunters, gamblers who risked the discrepant war-torn ruins of bygone cities in the hopes of finding valuable technology. Contracts were risky and relied entirely on a percentage of spoils recovered. Not like Xiel. The self-proclaimed doctor had stepped into the Hunters camp with no warning, no reputation, and no companions. What she did have, though, was a location, a deadline, and a mountain of energy crystals. For as discreet as she was trying to be, she was fooling no one. Doctor Xiel was hiding from the Enterprise.
"Here we go! Touchdown in two minutes!" Commander Piece's voice boomed over the airwaves as he turned around to face his Hunters. "Before anyone gets any bright ideas, this is first and foremost an escort mission. We've been hired to protect the doctor and that's just what we're going to do. Each of you have been chosen because you've got a nose for trouble. Keep it to the ground for me, will you?"
Eight helmeted heads turned toward the front of the ship. Eight faces silently asking the Commander why he would accept a job from someone they knew nothing about. His answer was one of his patented smirks. A confident gesture reminding them that his job was to keep them safe. Even more so than the client. It was all he had, but it had always been enough.
The tired transport's engines screamed as it set its wheels down upon the shoulder of a mountain. Zero and the seven other gunman leapt from the back of the ship and raised their busters. All around them, dark green pine boughs formed a canopy of shadows and the little patch of sky above them was dominated by the white head of a stony mountain. The air had a brisk edge to it.
"Clear!" The radio cracked.
"Clear!" Zero echoed, his narrow eyes piercing the trees for any sign of mechanical predators. Or worse.
"Ladies and gentlemen, you know the op!" Piece appeared with Doctor Xiel beside him. "Athena and Boreal, watch the Bucket. Everyone else, fall in. Nov's got point."
"Rodger!"
"Um, Commander?" Xiel glanced up with her wide eyes. "Are you sure that's a good idea? We're already a small group. Shouldn't we stick together?"
"And leave our transportation unmanned?" Piece huffed. "Ma'am, we can't protect you if we can't leave at a moment's notice."
"... Right." The doctor apologized.
"Everyone else, form up! Stay close."
"... Got it." Athena cast a quick glance at Zero. By that time, all "noses" were pointed at the doctor.
The line of Hunters slithered into the darkest sanctum of the cold forest, Xiel pushing toward a shallow crevice in the rough mountain. Zero took up the rearguard, his breathing measured and wary, but not a needle moved in the quiet forest. No metal bears or armored snakes disturbed the peaceful scene.
Finally, just as the last of the blue above was swallowed by the arms of the mountain, they found it. A pair of overgrown metal doors, the remains of an armored bunker, nestled within the rock like a hermit crab in a granite shell. Xiel wasted no time, but stripped a nearby console of it vegetation and began plying it with commands from a glowing device on her wrist. Zero recognized the architecture as military in design, representing the greatest security the past world could conjure, but beneath the doctor's coaxing, it readily gave up its secrets. With a tired groan, the gates slid apart and released a breath of stale air.
"Athena," Piece touched his helmet as he stared into the bunker. "We're going underground. Radio contact might be intermittent."
"Understood, sir." Already, the young Hunter sounded disappointed to be left out.
To everyone's surprise, the echoing hallway that they stepped into was as still as a tomb. No automated systems confronted them, no lights switched on at their approach, no chests full of energy crystals greeted them. For more than a couple Hunters, the initial excitement of cracking a military cache evaporated as the bunker revealed itself to be perfectly unadorned. Zero's buster hovered just under his chin as he waited for the other shoe to drop.
[What was that?] A voice cut the silence.
Like an arrow loosed from its string, Zero spun around and fell to one knee, weapon at the ready. The next Hunter ahead of him, Auror, hesitated for only a moment before following suit.
"What is it?" Auror hissed into the radio.
"I heard something." Zero peered down the dark metal hall. As one, the rest of the team responded, pressing themselves against the bare walls and leveling their busters down the way they'd come. Pierce nearly smothered the doctor as he moved to cover her.
[Who's there?] The voice returned, ringing in Zero's mind as clear as spring water.
"Identify yourself." The Hunter continued searching for the speaker.
"Zero, what is it?" The commander demanded.
[I asked first. Who are you?]
"That voice." Zero explained. A glance at the other Hunters, however, immediately revealed the disconnect. "I'm picking up a signal. Young female, no accent." Exasperated, the soldier tapped his helmet. "Athena? Did you leave the private channel open?"
[Who are you talking to?]
"Aw, hey Zero!" Athena's voice was filled with static snow. "Thanks for calling. I was getting bored over-"
"So that's not you I hear?"
"Hey, you called me."
"The coms were silent until I asked you 'what was wrong'." Auror offered. The other mercenaries nodded.
"This is Zero of the Hunters." The boy cautiously stood up. "You are interfering with an official communication channel. Identify yourself or-"
"Zero?" A gentle hand touched his shoulder. He looked down to see Doctor Xiel staring up at him with her wide eyes alight with excitement. "You can hear her? Is it telepathy? Has she said her name? What does she sound like?"
The young Hunter glanced up at his commander as a number of pieces to the doctor's enigma fell into place. The bunker wasn't designed to hold weapons or loot, but a different type of wealth altogether. Information. Specifically, in the form of a consciousness. One which was reacting to their proximity.
[Zero, huh? Edgy. So, is that like a nickname or a call sign or...?]
"Commander." Zero let the doctor's hand fall from his arm. "If I've been compromised by whatever is in this facility, then I should retreat out of its effective range."
[What!? No, don't go!]
"Agreed." Piece nodded. "Join Athena and-"
"No!" Xiel squeaked like a rusty axle. "Zero, you're up front with me. We have to move, we're so close!"
"Close to what?" The commander stepped in front of the doctor as she dragged the hapless hunter back down the hall. "You may have bought his services, Ma'am, but Zero's safety is still my primary concern!"
"And I promise you, Commander, that it's mine as well." Xiel's eyes flashed with electricity. "Especially if he's in sync with the Artifact. He might be the safest one here!" Pierce only shook his head.
"Zero?"
"The unknown contact doesn't seem hostile." The young Hunter explained. "We should finish our contract."
"Very well."
[Not hostile? Well, you're just a real charmer, aren't you?]
Zero remained silent.
The hallway finally ended, releasing the explorers into a cathedral-like athenaeum. The floors were inlaid with pulsing magic circuits and the walls were filled with shelves of gently glowing cartridges.
"Data disks." Commander Piece noted.
"Yes." Xiel's eyes twinkled at the sight. "She was quite the reader."
"Who?" Zero demanded. The doctor only smiled.
"Let's get you two introduced, shall we?"
Wandering through the forest of knowledge, Zero could see why Doctor Xiel wanted to keep this place secret from the Enterprise. Neo Arcania hated the Old World, and for good reason. After all, the nations of the past were to blame for the apocalypse. Their greed and folly had scorched the Earth and threatened to wipe out humanity, so to prevent their poisonous philosophies from harming the New World, all information regarding the time before was destroyed. Books were burned, data disks were melted, engravings were scratched out, and even finding a "dollar" was enough to get you and your family arrested.
"Here! Looks like she's still safe."
[Whoa! Okay, we're moving now.]
Doctor Xiel alighted on a dais at the far end of the room. As soon as her wrist-mounted computer spoke its magic words, there was a soft hiss and a pillar lifted itself out of the ground. Nested within the column was a radiant orange core of arcane technology, a skull-sized gem burning like an amber sun. Zero could feel the entity watching him from its pedestal.
[You're Zero?] The voice asked.
Zero inclined his head.
[You're smaller than I imagined.]
"You're one to talk." The boy grunted. Ignoring the confused glance from his commander, the Hunter turned to Xiel. "This is a petroid core isn't it? Has it been living here since the war?"
"Not just any petroid!" Xiel shook her head emphatically. "This is a Biocrystal."
"And what does that-" But Piece's voice was cut off by a burst of static.
"Fsst- Commander! Co-fff-ander Piece!"
"Athena? What's wrong?"
"Fzzss- the Enterprise! Golems! I count four -zzt- golems! Scorpio- type! They just -ffft- out of the ground! Commande-" There was a burst of white noise and the line went dead.
"An ambush?" Even without blood in her veins, Doctor Xiel's face went pale. "Hunters! Follow me! I have another way out of here!"
[What's happening?] The block of crystal shouted into Zero's mind.
"Take cover! Defensive positions!" Piece ordered. "Do not fire at the Enterprise unless fired upon."
"They won't let you surrender, commander!" Xiel cried. "We have to run!"
"And whose fault is that?" By that time, Commander Piece was spitting venom.
"Zero! You're with me!" The doctor shoved the entity and its casing into the Hunter's arms. "Hurry!"
"I'm not leaving the commander, Ma'am." Zero didn't budge.
"But you can't stay! They'll kill you! They'll kill all of you!"
"They can't kill us if we don't oppose them." Piece explained.
"You don't understand! They will burn this mountain to ash if they knew what was here!"
"What makes this Biocrystal so important to them?" Zero demanded. The doctor's voice was suddenly very somber as she breathed,
"Because, it's the only thing powerful enough to stop the New Moon Enterprise. You and her, together you can save the world."
"Contact!" Auror called from the front of the room.
It was over in a moment. Zero saw the Hunter with his empty hands held above his head. He saw the giant metallic shadow rushing through the entrance hall like a flood. He saw the creature swing a titanic arm at the young human. He saw Auror reduced to a stain on the athenaeum's wall.
[Oh my god...]
"Run!" Xiel screamed.
The room exploded with the pulsing song of the remaining six buster weapons. Streaks of molten yellow light filled the air and beat against the hide of the assailant, but with no effect. The golem was sixty tons of ceramic metal forged in the image of a scorpion. Little more than a living weapon, its primitive mind surveyed the world through a set of eight smoldering lenses while its claws and the cannon mounted within its tail dispensed judgement.
A lucky bolt of magic slipped past the mechaniloid's guard and extinguished one of its eyes. The victory was short-lived, however, as the creature turned its tail toward the offending Hunter and opened fire. The decapitated body slumped to the ground.
"Retreat!" Piece shouted, half-covering, half-chasing the fleeing form of Doctor Xiel.
The doctor dove for a side passage, an alcove housing a terminal and what looked like the dormant husk of a transceiver platform. Without hesitating, she began waking its long-cold circuits.
"No matter what happens, Zero, you have to get out of here alive!" She whimpered as the scorpion golem warmed up its tail and burned three holes in the wall of data disks. Among the slagged ruins was the body of another Hunter, Cons. Zero shot a glare at the doctor. The transceiver was sluggishly rousing itself, but their armored adversary was bearing down on them with all the speed and fury of a tidal wave. If the golem wasn’t stopped, or even slowed, there was only one outcome for the cornered refugees.
“Sorry Ma’am, but that’s not what my contract says.” If one death could ransom the lives of the party, then the wasteland was being unusually generous.
“Zero!” Doctor Xiel screamed as the young warrior threw himself from the cover of the alcove.
[Wait! Come back!]
The golem rounded its gaze on the lone combatant as Zero dove for the pillar that once held the Biocrystal. Its tail flared and large craters of molten metal appeared in the column, but the Hunter was untouched.
Bamph! Bamph! Bamph!
The small buster barked defiantly, sending burning orbs of magic hurling into the monster’s tail. The armor shook off the shots as if they were gnats, but the creature paused in its advance.
“There!” The transceiver hummed victoriously and a ring of blue light appeared on its pedestal. “Zero! Hurry!”
[He’s not coming…] The artifact whispered.
“Go!” The Hunter waved at his commander. “You don’t have long! Hurry!”
“You heard him!” Piece struggled to contain Doctor Xiel. “He’s bought us time!”
“We’re not leaving without him!” The small petroid thrashed against the man’s heavy grip.
“Idiots! Just get out of h-”
There was a sharp, all-consuming pulse that shook Zero’s body, and then numbness. The Hunter teetered on his feet, only vaguely aware of the voices shouting both inside and outside his head. He looked down and saw the wound, a gaping void where his stomach used to be. Slowly, Zero knelt forward as his life flowed out of him. Blood and water rained down on the metal floor.
Satisfied with its kill, the golem advanced on the last survivors, the cannon above its head humming like a death knell. Zero balled his fists and fought for breath, his lungs struggling with the lack of support. As he resisted the darkness engulfing his vision, the giant Scorpio stepped over his trembling frame.
Bamph! Bam-bamph!
Zero’s weapon roared to life, throwing three more knots of molten energy at the creature’s underside. The first bolt impacted against its armor, but the next two buried themselves in the mechaniloid’s fragile joints. A sharp twang, screamed through the cathedral as the machine skittered backward in surprise. Two legs dragging at odd angles.
It wasn’t much, but it was all he had. Zero continued pulling the trigger on his buster even as his eyes fell blind. To snatch a handful of lives from the jaws of death would be his final act of defiance against the pale horseman.
[Not so fast, kid.]
Through the tendrils of darkness choking his consciousness, Zero thought he saw someone running towards him, a small slender girl, brandishing a drop of the sun in her hands.
Suddenly, a light enveloped the boy. The sky tore open and he found himself kneeling before clouds of radiant orange fire. And a goddess. A woman stood above Zero, strong, but graceful, with a corona of red and gold hair and eyes alight with pale blue fire. She knelt over the wounded Hunter and held out her hand.
[If you want to keep fighting, come with me.] Her mouth didn’t move, but her warm eyes smiled at the corpse before her. Summoning the last tatters of his strength, Zero lifted his arm and touched her fingers.
His body caught fire.
A white power coursed through his veins, soaking his muscles and penetrating into his marrow. Liquid light bled from his eyes and wept from his skin, but there was no pain. He wanted to scream, but his voice was drowned by the rising inferno. When the flames finally receded, Zero found himself on his feet, his mind clear and his body light. Wrapped around his chest and limbs was a cast of glistening crimson armor.
[Huh. So that’s what it’s like…] The woman’s voice sounded within Zero’s head.
“I’m going to need some answers pretty soon.” The Hunter muttered.
[You and me both, but first thing’s first.] As fast as thought, Zero’s body leapt back as a giant metal claw pulverized the floor where he had been standing. [We’ve got a pest problem!]
The golem’s tail flared to life and threw a storm of bolts toward Zero, but the shots appeared to fly slower than before.
[Don’t clench!] As before, Zero’s body wove through the attack, threading through the barrage as if dancing.
“You’re doing this, aren’t you?”
[Just relax and let me drive. You’ve earned a break.]
“Not to sound ungrateful, but I still have a job to do.” Zero crouched and dove across the floor, snatching up his fallen buster and bringing it to eye level. The solid weapon felt like a feather in his hand.
Bamph!
The single shot streaked through the air, finding its mark within the barrel of the mechaloid’s cannon. The beast chirped in anguish as its fragile magic circuits sparked uselessly.
[Not bad! But it's time to end this.]
Zero felt his right arm go rigid. From his wrist, a short rod of metal slipped into his palm and as soon as his fingers closed around it, a wave of turquoise fire blossomed from the tip, taking the form of a crystallized delta.
“A saber?”
[Now!] Zero’s body flew toward the scorpion just as it refocused its eyes on him. The metal claws were splayed, the arms were slack, the face was exposed. Like a bird on the wing, the Hunter leapt onto the golem’s face and plunged the saber between its smoldering eyes. Armor gave way like paper and the internal crystal circuits burned bright orange as the weapon rent it asunder. For a moment, the behemoth shuddered, and then all its eyes went dark at once.
All that remained was a husk of split metal, still smoldering inside.
“... What in starfall?” Commander Piece swore quietly. Zero turned around to see Doctor Xiel trying to cry through her android eyes.
“It, you, I mean, both of you…” She sputtered.
[Who’s she?] The voice in Zero’s head queried.
“I was under the impression you could tell me.” The boy let go of the saber’s hilt and it vanished back into his wrist. “She seems to know everything about you.”
“I can’t believe it worked!” Xiel continued. “After all these years…”
“Doctor.” Zero’s voice was grave. “At this point, I don’t know who has more questions. Myself, or the lady inside my head.”
"Yes, that certainly sounds disconcerting!" The petroid laughed. "And I promise I'll explain everything once we have a chance to breathe."
"Where does this transceiver go?" Piece scowled.
"A safe location." Xiel said simply. "After we're through, I'll destroy this node remotely so no one can follow."
"That's a lot of security."
"It's mandatory when you have the Enterprise chasing you." The doctor looked at the ring of survivors around her. "By now, it's probably no secret that I... that I work with the Resistance."
"This morning, we were just a herd of dumb guns for hire." The commander huffed. "We Hunters had plausible deniability until you gave the Enterprise a clear reason to terminate us."
"They were always your enemies, commander." Xiel scowled. "Just not on paper."
[Hunters? Enterprise? Resistance? I'm lost.]
"And we don't have time to explain." Zero cleared his throat. "According to Athena's transmission, there may be three more Scorpios on the way."
"Yes, of course. Please, step on the pad."
The transceiver's dais wasn't meant for major transport and only five bodies could stand in its field comfortably. Four, in the case of Commander Piece. Zero stayed with the doctor as the petroid input the required security handshake into the platform's terminal.
"What you did was very brave, Zero." Xiel's voice was low again. "I can see why she linked with you."
"And who is 'she'?"
[Oh, I don't know. Why don't you ask "her" yourself?] The Biocrystal rolled Zero's eyes. Though only irritating at first, the gesture caught a glimpse of a large dark shape skittering through the athenaeum.
"Contact!" Without thinking, Zero crouched and threw his weight against the petite doctor. The force of his blow knocked the petroid off her feet and sent her flying into the ring of confused Hunters just as the transceiver's magic consumed them. There was a torrent of blue light and they were gone. The platform was empty.
But even before Zero could restart the transportation sequence, the new golem had opened fire. Flares of destructive magic chewed through the transceiver, slagging its terminal to a pile of ash and glass.
[Shoot!] The entity clicked Zero's tongue. [Alright, follow me, we can still escape if we breach the maintenance tunnels!]
The turquoise saber flashed, rending open an ancient wall, and Zero ducked inside just as another golem emerged at the far end of the room.
"Something you read?"
[Kind of. I helped design this place.] Was the entity's answer.
Before long, the sound of mechanical claws tearing open the walls faded into the distance. After what felt like an eternity of cutting through tunnels and blast armor, the Biocrystal guided Zero up a ventilation shaft and into the free air. With the sound of rending metal, the saber cut through one last grate and the Hunter found himself perched on the edge of a cliff within a rocky canyon. A thread of crystal blue water hissed far beneath him and in the distance, the first rays of evening were beginning to paint the sky in golden hues.
Isolated from his squadron and adrift in an unfamiliar landscape, Zero quietly realized that the only person on Earth who was as lost as himself was most likely the Biocrystal he was wearing.
"It's not a callsign." He murmured.
[Huh?]
"My name." The Hunter explained. "It's Zero."
[I see...] The voice hesitated. [Well, nice to meet you, Zero. My name is Sunset Shimmer.]
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Great story you got here :)
Did you mean Doctor Ciel? This story screams Mega Man.
Okay... please let there be more.
I have a really strong hunch that the Mane Seven will end up being the equivalent of Biometals.
Shadow: Finally! A Megaman ZX crossover!
...Heck yes.
Ah, so Zero and Sunset will have a Master Chief and Cortana kind of relationship? Cool.
certainly intriguing, and i want to read more. shall you deliver? i certainly hope so
What an opening! Can't wait to see more from you!