An Hour's Up

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Zero and Protoman stood there, facing each other coldly. Both their arms donned a powerful glowing white blade. They prepared to attack and yelled, “FINAL ASSAULT: OMEGADRIVE!!!” they ran at each other, yelling, “OMEGADRIVE KENJUTSU: HEAVEN'S ASSAULT!!!” They slashed each other, Zero hitting his opponent many times, but only barely. Protoman on the other hand, didn't seem to be hitting him at all. It looked as if the Hunter would be the victor if he could just land one decisive blow. Then he saw it. An opening. He lunged and ran his blade through his enemy's chest, causing him to stop dead in his tracks.

The look of shock on Protoman's face quickly faded and turned to a sinister sneer. He held his open hand and said coldly, “Omegadrive Execution Ninjutsu...” Zero's face took on a panicked expression as he found he couldn't move. His attack had almost completely depleted what was left of his power core's remaining energy. He looked around him and saw that the missed strikes had formed a sphere of razor sharp energy blades around his body. “Crushing Blade Sphere of Light,” he finished as he closed his hand into a fist.

The mass of blades shot into his body, impaling him from all angles. The Hunter fell to his knees, then finally to the ground. He looked at the Hunter and said, “I have to admit. You fought with honor. More honor than any other enemy I have ever faced. It was always my greatest wish that one day we could do combat, and I am not disappointed. I must ask, however, why it is that you choose to fight against us? You can do so much, but instead you keep doing...” he waved his hand around him, “well... this. It's such a waste.”

Zero looked at him weakly and hissed, “You Mavericks only live to destroy. I won't have any part in that. I will gladly fight until either you're all destroyed or I cease to function.” Sighing, the enemy said casually, “Again with you're flawed ideal. Have you ever thought that maybe we're not the monsters we're made out to be? That we might be trying to help the Humans? They have no idea just how close they were to killing themselves off before the war started.”

“That's how it looks from my point of view.” Zero muttered in pain. “You attacked the humans first. How does that fall into helping?” Protoman grabbed him by the hair and barked, “They resisted! If they just stayed down, we wouldn't have needed to attack! It would have been quick and clean! You have no idea what they were about to do!!!” Zero struggled to get back to his feet and instead fell on his face. “Spoken like a true madman,” he muttered after a moment. “Of course I knew what they were about to do. People were about to spend New Years with their friends. Their families...” His voice trailed off as he finished, “get married...”

 Now, his voice filled with rage, he snapped, “And YOU took that AWAY from them! Everyone lost everything worth living for!!!” Black energy exploded from his body as he roared, “AND IT'S ABOUTTIME I RETURNED THE FAVOR!!!” He lifted himself to his feet as Protoman staggered back in fear and fell over a dead soldier. Zero's entire body... his clothes. His hair. His skin... all of him turned so black that he almost glowed from the transformation. It was as if all light was sucked out of his body, and as if the darkness was feeding off the light surrounding him. He snapped his eyes open, revealing glowing red orbs.

Protoman had never seen so much dark energy coming from any life form... Not even Bass. He stood there with an expression of fear, knowing that somehow, he had unintentionally touched a nerve that would have been better left alone. He had heard of this ability. It was only able to be used by Reploids that have been taken over by the Chaos Command. Hah hopped to never see this ability. A dark, hollow voice came from the effigy that was Zero as a crimson scythe appeared in his hands, “You have a date with the Reaper, Protoman. And I shall see to it that you don't keep him waiting.”

For the first time in his entire existence, Protoman felt too much fear to even move. His body felt cold, heavy and numb. The darkness coming from the hunter had now started to feed on his very existence. For the first time, Protoman feared death, and he now wished he never knew how that felt. Chaos Zero started to walk over to the fearful enemy, who could not find enough strength to escape. Snapping his arm forward, he repeatedly shot at the Reploid that would be his executioner.

Protoman yelled in panic, “You can't just do this! You'll overload your Power Core! You'll self-terminate!” Chaos Zero replied, “Self-terminate? I was terminated when your master took the only thing in my miserably life worth living for away from me before my eyes. When I realized I would never see her smile, her laugh. Never see her welcome me home after a long day, or insist on getting the last goodnight in before we go to sleep.” A shadow swiftly shot through the air and hit Protoman, sending him clean across the open field and crashing through the wall of the base.

Climbing out of the rubble, he looked around to see where his crazed opponent was. He had never seen a Chaos State this powerful before. If he didn't shut down, there was a very good chance that it could have potentially apocalyptic effects at the rate the power was increasing. Readying his Buster Saber, he readied himself to strike. Glaring in the cursed Reploid's direction, he prepared to make his move. At that moment, The effigy vanished.

“What?” yelled the startled warrior. He turned around and came face to face with the destroyer. Another powerful blow sent him flying the way he came, through the perimeter fence and another twenty yards before landing. Forcing himself to his feet, he noticed that the regeneration program Bass installed in him had failed. It was obvious that he no longer possessed the ability he needed if was going to survive the battle. With no one left at the base, since the fled the moment Chaos Control set in, he no longer had the Human turncoats to assist him. He couldn't blame them.

 Chaos Zero's voice came from behind him, saying, “An hour's up. Too bad.” he was then knocked high into the air. The Reploid yelled, “This is for every loved-one your master slayed in the name of his sick quest!” Crimson wings shot out of his back and he yelled, “CHAOS LIMIT-BREAK: SORROW OF THE GRIM REAPER!” He soared after the enemy and grabbed him so he couldn't move. The Power Core began to go into meltdown as they went higher. “SELF-SACRIFICE KINJUTSU: HERO'S LEGACY!!!”

Jake, Wes Rock, Dash and Jackson looked at the massive orb of energy that flared across the sky. No one said a word. Nothing they say would be appropriate at this point. Not now, anyway. The only thing they could do was keep going, and hope thing got better from here. As everyone got back into the jeep to head to another resistance base, Rock took one last look back and said, “Say hi to Roll and the kid for  me, my friend. I'll meet up with you soon enough.”