Just the Beginning, Part 3

 "Brother?"

 The reploid gone maverick, with a mane of flames surrounding his neck and almost enveloping his muzzle, glanced over to the one calling him, who had streams of frost sitting on his mane.

"What is it, brother?"

"You know our objective."

"No need to tell me twice, brother! Kill all humans in sight and paint their little base with their blood!"

"And?"

"Steal and destroy all data related to us so they can't call for help!"

"And?"

The frosty wolf reploid stared at his brother, confused.

"I'm confused, what am I missing, dear brother?! I know what I have to do!"

"Ah, but you forgot, dear brother..."

A smirk crossed his face, although it looked more like a snarl.

"Let us not leave a trace that any humanity lived here. Crush their hope, and deliver the dusty remains to their little commanders. That, perhaps, will send the signal that Firemane and Frostmane, the Wolf Brothers, are not to be trifled with."

---------------------------------

"Those two again!"

 Stan grumbled to himself as he suited up, Sasha and Tina getting ready for battle alongside him. "Why does it have to be THOSE two again? Least now we get a chance to smash their faces in, but they took out a good part of our men before they got away!"

"They won't escape this time," Sasha said calmly, making sure her guns were all loaded up.

"Heh, I'll make sure of that. Damn wolves don't know when to piss off."

Sparks flew as Stan put on some knuckles and put his fists together. Tina took out what looked like a chakram and spun it round her finger.

"The men are mobilized."

"Damn right they are. Already fighting the mechaniloids and faceless one-eyed reploids, too. As mooky as they come."

There was a distinct sound of a gun, locked and loaded.

"Don't underestimate them. They killed our men last time, they can do so again. Show no mercy."

"Way ahead of you. I'll make sure not a piece of them remains, for what they did."

Sasha turned to Stan for a moment before opening the doors out, leading her little group into the fray. They could hear the gunshots, the screaming, the howls of the two brothers carving their people into pieces. It only fueled the fires in their hearts as they went in, guns a-blazing. Sasha pulled out her two guns and fired plasma bullets right into the eyes of mechanaloids, blinding them before Tina took out her chakrams and sent them flying, watching as the outer ring lit up with plasma energy and carved the arms off the robots. Stan was more than happy to jump right into a crowd of mavericks and start swinging, watching the lightning arc between reploids with each and every punch.

These three brought hope to their own. They had skills and talents that they could only dream of having. They had the respect of the General, given the armor that would withstand more hits from reploid forces than the regular sort. They were the people that they couldn't afford to lose.

They were called the Lightbringers for a reason, after all.

And the Lightbringers fought to the tooth and nail.

Soon, the mavericks started sending out Preons to attack, with big heads and stun-gun hands. They charged recklessly, allowing Stan to leap above them and kick them down.  Sasha clicked something on her gun and fired a laser at one of the preons that bound it, before she tugged it over to her. By the time it was unbounded and ready to stun her, she was up in the air, firing two plasma blasts simultaneously and blowing the head completely off. Her guns were smoking, and she took the chance to blow away the smoke from the barrels before any more came.

 They were stunned. Even though they were mechaneloids, they could still reason. They weren't completely mindless. They could reason out that if they got any closer, the woman with dark skin would blow them to bits, or the teeny girl would saw them apart, or that the blonde man would  drive his fist through their "skulls." They hesitated to strike, taking steps back. Unsure.

"What the hell are you guys waiting for?!" a voice barked. The preons knew that voice well by now. "Kill them! Or do I have to do everything for ya?!"

Sasha was the first to strike, letting loose a flurry of bullets towards the source of the voice. She could see a blur, dodging them with relative ease. She could also feel the temperature of the room drop by a few degrees, even the Mechaniloids starting to shiver. She could feel the eyes on her, she could sense that blood lust... That blood lust she encountered before, the one that took so many of her good men... Those who had families...

 Her expression did not change as she came face to face with Frostmane, death's cold breath breathed in her face.

-----------------------------------------


He wondered why nobody was here in the lab.

He had only woken up a few minutes ago, but he had figured at least Tina would still be around. Apparently not; maybe she went off to do other things? Pisces sighed. The first company he ever had in a few hundred years, and he probably gave a bit of a bad impression. And he couldn't talk to them much. And he had no way to repay them. Did eternal servitude count? Probably not.

Initiate System Diagnosis.

STARTING DIAGNOSIS....

DIAGNOSIS COMPLETE.

HEAD: OK. FINS FUNCTIONAL. SOLAR PANEL FUNCTIONAL. SOLAR POWER GENERATOR AT 50%.

FACE: OK. BOTH EYES FUNCTIONAL.

TORSO: FUNCTIONAL.

ARMS: RIGHT ARM FUNCTIONAL. LEFT ARM IS OPERATIONAL, BUT BUSTER IS STILL INACTIVE DUE TO ERRORS.

LEGS: FULLY FUNCTIONAL. EMERGENCY BOOST SYSTEM ACTIVE.

ENERGY: FULLY CHARGED.

BUSTER USE MAY CAUSE FURTHER DAMAGE TO ARM IF USED. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

So she wasn't able to completely fix it? Well, she was only 10. It was too much to ask a 10 year old to repair a buster system based off X's. She still did a very good job with everything else. What can I even thank her with, though?

Where is she, anyway?

SCANNING AREA.

His fins flopped as he stared at the walls intensely, his radars picking up large energy spikes. Organics and inorganics were detected. That could only mean one thing: The humans were facing Mavericks. Fighting hard for survival.

WATER AND FIRE ELEMENTAL ENERGY SPIKES DETECTED. MAY BE ASSOCIATED WITH HIGHER LEVEL MAVERICK REPLOIDS. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

Wonderful. It had been a long time since he faced any high leveled mavericks on his own.  And if they were high leveled, the humans were going to have a hard time taking them on.

First thing's first: get disconnected from this recharge station.

Then, to make sure that thing was in its right place. After standing up with no problem at all (which was a relief, after his legs felt heavy for so long), Pisces pulled a small, blue cylinder out from his back and pressed a button on it, watching as it shifted into a full trident.

It's still in good condition... Great! She'd be so happy to see I was taking good care of it. Even after all this time..

No. Can't dwell on that. Focus on the now, Barret: Protect humans from harm. Try to get Mavericks to disengage. If they don't, as they usually do, then strike them down before they can do any damage.

Let's just hope my fighting skills haven't rusted after all these years.

When a few humans, ordered by Tina, came into the lab to make sure the reploid was okay, all they could see was an empty recharge station. All they could hear was the distinct sound of something boosting away, into the fray.