E002

= T1W: Enter Zero (Episode #002) =
==Prologue==
Shaw Dawkins is a 3rd generation MMA fighter, who has "retired", due to the sport being in its dying days and no competitions available at all. Not many institutions are looking to hire an ex-MMA fighter, so he does the only act remaining - joining D.A.S.K., a company whom public image is that it ensures and privatizes worldwide security, but behind the scenes is involved with a lot of shady stuff.There he trains in weaponry, particularly long range guns - sniper and rifles and given time, he performed better than everyone else and had the best track record of successful missions.
However, after 6 years of service, at the age of 24, some people at D.A.S.K. were getting concerned with his involvement, his powers and him knowing too much. Unknown to him, there were talks about forcefully "retiring" him. Shaw has no idea what's about to happen, but opportunity may smile upon him as he's about to encounter something he's never even thought possible in his lifetime.
==Chapter I==
Shaw is having dinner with his mother:
 : When are you getting out? : Moooom, we've talked about this! You know someone has to get their hands dirty. : Why yours? Do you have any idea how difficult is for me to go to sleep every night, thinking about you? : I'm protecting people! : Are you now? Why do I have a hard time believing that's the main purpose you joined that organization. : Because it provides. I'm not a kid anymore, I need to take care of myself and you...and there are many rumors about this organization, but nothing has been proven. So please, let's drop this conversation... : You know I want the best for you. I just have a bad feeling about this. : You've been saying that for 6 years. Even if they don't care about me, they care about our missions getting completed, and D.A.S.K. doesn't play around. So I'm in good hands. : Oh my god... : What? : Is that part of your humoristic agenda? : I'm not joking. : Well, it's been 10 sentences and you haven't said or played a joke. Are you sick? : Ha-ha, mooom! I'm not that bad! : You're the biggest jokester I know. You don't take anything seriously. : Okay, listen. I promise I'll file for a break to be with you. I've got a lot of savings from this job, we can do some travelling if you like. : That'd be great. Though I'd be happy if you just use your savings and retire. : I'm still years away from being able to comfortably retire and be financially independent for the rest of my life. Plus, I'm extremely good at my job. : Oh yeah, every mother longs to hear that her kid is a great killer. : Hey, I'm not a killer. I neutralize threats, I've ensured the safety of millions and I've never failed. The safety of all is more important than mine. : That's a noble thing to say, but I just care about you, not the world. You're my son! : I'm adopted! : Shaw! : I'm kidding! You did complain about me not joking around, right? : Just finish your meal! : They're sending me on some general routine mission tomorrow, eliminate some troublemaker, who's hiding and nobody has seen. After that, I'm taking a break to be with my family, I promise!
ONE WEEK EARLIER:
 : You have no idea how sorry I am for doing this! : No, Prince Mantis! Spare us! : I have to!
Sounds of screams of heavy body piercing and swift execution of countless deaths. A mere moments later, sounds of a cage breaking can be heard and nothing can be seen, but a fleeing dark shadow.
The image moves to an alien kingdom in a world, far far away from Earth. An alien mantis guardian approaches a figure that appears of royal origins.
 : Your son has escaped, your Mantis honor! : He is out of his mind. He is the rightful owner of the throne of our Kingdom. What is he up to? Where is he going? : We can't track him, milord. He's swift, unlike any other Mantis. : What kind of a prince runs from his father's throne. I thought by sending him to prison briefly he will come to his senses. Bring him to me! : Sir, he's headed to the teleporting facility. Right now, only Nathael is there guarding: : WHAT?! He won't dare use it! He has never used it before...but we can't risk it. : Your orders, milord? : Hmm...there's no room for mistake...Awaken....HIM! : You mean?! : Exactly, dark-raider. I want Null Shadow awaken and sent after him! Null Shadow has never failed an assignment! : By your divine will, my King!
Meanwhile in the multidimensional center, gate collapses in and ZeroCage emerges, numerous dead guards behind him and facing an old friend:
 : Zero...I heard the distress signal.... what are you doing? : Revenge!
ZeroCage raises his arm and temporarily paralyzes Nathael to the wall, using psionic force.
 : Are you seriously locking me out? Me, your friend for half a millenia!! Have some honor, Zero!
ZeroCage starts working on the machinery:
 : I don't know who to trust anymore, dear friend. You have to forgive me. : Your blades, Zero...they're glowing! That's no good! : The Demonic Soul Vessel Blades become stronger the more focused and determined I am. And I've never been so determined in my life. : What are you up to? : I will go to the Viridium System. I need to go to the Tomb of Malenkoth. It's my first quest of power. You ever heard the stories? : Yeah, of course. It's radiating so much energy, but No one ever can contain it. No one has made the Tomb out alive. : Well, they didn't have my blades. I'm setting the teleporter to one way, so our people can't follow me back. : What if you need help... you may be hunted, but you're still a royalty, a prince, a future king here. Be reasonable, Zero! : All meaning of reasonable went out the window last night. Did you know about our brothers and sisters? : Well.... : DID YOU!? : ....Yes....We're just told that they're the casualties of war and that you can never get 100% of the population to agree to the royal family's words... : Who in the universal hell agrees with slavery? No one here is able to speak out agains the authority. I realized that people here didn't respect me ...they just feared me....that's not a way to rule our homeland, brother! That's not a way to treat our own people! That's how you win wars! And we've had peace for centuries! : Zero, I understand, but if I let you escape, it's treason on my part! They will kill me! : Don't worry, friend. I already know what to do.
ZeroCage slices his friend's hand off. Nathael begins screaming in terrible agony:
 : You'll tell them you tried, but I cut your hand off. You'll live and it will be repaired. You can thank me later. : Zero, Nooo!
2 more guards emerge and ZeroCage slices them quickly than they could even focus their eyes at him. All the settings are now entered to the teleporter, the information is encrypted and he steps into the teleporting pad.
 : I'll be back, Nathaniel! I promise! And I will bring glory, freedom and justice to our world! Not to 95%! Not to 99%! But to 100% of our people. I will end this tyranny madness that everyone calls peaceful kingdom. : Arsh'Ayaar, dear friend!
A beam of light consumes ZeroCage particle by particle in femtoseconds time as he begins degrading into a beam of light and sent at light speed towards his desired destination.At that moment, the highest ranking dark raider Null Shadow emerges: : Nathael, you weakling. Of course you let him escape. : I tried to stop him, he cut my arm off and swore to kill me if I make another move. : His majesty would sacrifice your life dearly if it would mean keeping ZeroCage here! Where is he? Interrupt the teleportation now! : I can't! He encrypted it! : And how did he know how to do that? : He's royalty...Everyone from the royal family is instructed on how to use and encrypt their travels. : Move out of the way, Nathaniel. Go into your pod, enter regenerative state and for your sake - I better not see you anytime soon. : Fine. But if you plan on stopping him, I wouldn't bother. You know when Zero sets his mind on something, it's as good as done. : Then I guess he never really set his mind on beating me in the training grounds. I'm going after him. But first...
A huge red-flame glows and auras appear in the room as Null Shadow draws his Demon Breaker Blades and starts destroying the facility.
 : What in the depths of hell are you doing?! - says his royal majesty the King, telepathically : You said you want your son back! I'm doing what needs to be done! The teleporter pad can be rebuilt. I'm going for the things that can't be. : Urrhmm...Fine, dark raider! I have complete trust in you! Bring ZeroCage back! Alive! But if you must, kill him!
The teleporting unit was in its last cycle when teleporting ZeroCage, while getting pummeled and destroyed by Null Shadow. A few of the data keys went missing. ZeroCage's consciousness and material were all already transferred, but the missing material included his target destination. Instead of teleporting safely in the outskirts of the Viridium capital, he............
==Chapter II==
He finds himself in a rocky area, mountain range near an ocean. The interruption of the teleportation had sent him in a different area than the one intended. Earth!Meanwhile at the nearest D.A.S.K. command center, 30 miles away:
 : We have detected unusual quantum activity just up the coast, commander! : What is it, sergeant? : It's ...unidentified at best, sir. : Send a squad! Check it out! If it's an alien, destroy it! We have no authorized permissions for alien teleportation in this area.
ZeroCage slowly, but surely picks himself up having just planted his body to the ground decelerating at 10% the speed of light. Thankfully, the alien mantis species have one of the strongest, most durable materials in the universe as their flesh and their skin is incredibly resistant to pressure. He looks around to familiarize himself with the setting, still unsure if he's where he needs to be. Not too long from that, the troop squad arrives at the area, loaded with weapons.
 : Be extremely careful, men! : Look around! : You, follow me!
Long behold, they find ZeroCage, who is still struggling to realize where he is:
 : Freeze! : What? : Don't move! : I had a pretty messed up day already, so if you please - stop shouting at me. I don't mean you any harm. : Who are you? Where do you come from? : I am a prince mantis, I have crashed onto your system as someone in my home planet disrupted my travel. How good is your quantum computing on this planet. I need to continue my journey.  : Quantum computers? They're a myth. Even the most optimistic technologists of our time say we're centuries away from realizing them on a large scale. : ...Great....so nowhere to go for a while.... : I said don't move! : And I said I don't mean you any harm.  : We'll see about that. We'll take you into custody. : Hands in the air, alien. You'll be staying in a cage until we figure out what to do with you.
Upon hearing these words "custody" and "cage" ZeroCage gets very, very angry.
 : CUSTODY!?!? CAGE?!??!? DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM! - the mere screaming creates vibrations in the air - I AM ZEROCAGE, NO CAGE CAN EVER LOCK ME UP! YOU PITIFUL MORTALS! WHERE AM I!?!? : FIRE!!!
Over 6 soldiers begin firing their rifles at ZeroCage. He appears to be unharmed by the bullets.
 : That's all? My turn now!
ZeroCage draws 2 humongous blades with spikes all over them, glowing light, but bright purple and silver colors, with a buttery-golden yellow handle with a glowing purple orb at the bottom of the handle. Proving to be swift and agile he jumps and almost disappears out of thing air and appears at the right moment to strike, dropping down two of the soldiers in an instant.
 : Ha-ha-ha-ha! Organic and mortal. How easy. I was expecting more of a challenge.
Soldiers scatter but he quickly reaches one of the fleeing soldiers and tackles him to the ground, landing on his head, unconscious. The entire soldier squad retreats and leaves him behind.After a few minutes, the knocked down soldier comes to his senses by kicks in the body from ZeroCage.
 : No, no, no. Don't kill me, please! : I don't want to kill anyone. Not on this planet anyway. WHERE THE HELL AM I?!  : Planet Earth... : You have to be more specific. : Um...Milky Way? : Ok, you listen up. And stop shaking. You will live. You need to go back to your team and inform them that I don't mean any harm to anyone here. I'll just need an isolated laboratory with your best quantum engineers. You can't be that far off, it's easy as differential calculus applied in six dimensions. : Differensix...what?  : Nevermind. You want me out of your way, right? I will be, it will be low-cost, it will only take a couple of years, if we're lucky. I need to create a quantum tunnel in which to resume my journey.  : Okay. Hold on. Commander Rayne speaking. Come get me. The alien is benign, he will not harm us. He just needs some help. : He is dangerous and cannot be trusted. Tell him to turn himself over. We always get what we want, one way or another. : Sir, do you really expect me to say that? : No need. I already know what he said. : What?! : These are radio waves, right? Extremely primitive technology. Mantis toddlers can catch the signals and read them. Hand me that device.
The frightened commander hands ZeroCage the radio transmitter:
 : Listen to me, pesky arrogant earthling. You will give me what I want or I will take it forcefully. I already dropped two of your troops and I am able to slay you before you blink with an eye. Give me what I want and I will be out of your way. You're certainly not going to do any experiments on me, I know that's the first thing alien species want to do when they discover alien life. Do you think I'm stupid? : So you have two blades, you're fast....barely...and you can survive standard procedure bullets. Good for you. Nothing we can't do here as well. We'll be seeing you soon, ZeroCage. : Yes, I am. Bring it, earthling. If you don't want to cooperate, you will pay with your life. There's nothing on this planet that can scare me or drive me away. : We'll see.
Communication channels abruptly close:
 : Your boss isn't very smart, is he? : I'm sorry, we just act by the protocol. This is our planet and we want to protect it. : It's alright. You're my hostage now, you'll help me talk some sense into your friends. : I'm your what?! : You got a problem with that? : No, no no, no. I just...didn't hear well. Okay, I'm your hostage. : Now get me out of here.
They get on the only remaining jeep and the commander drives towards their base.
 : What a desolate and ugly place is your planet. Is everywhere like that? : Oh no, this is just an isolated case. We have very beautiful mountains and sea. 
They approach the base soon enough.
 : Stop here and follow me. : No, we can't. If we stop here they'll shoot us. : You already saw your guns only scratch me, I will survive. : But I won't. And you can't use me to negotiate. Let me drive to the assigned parking area.
ZeroCage agrees, but he is betrayed by the commander, who enters a military hangar that gets locked from each side as soon as they enter.
 : You betrayed me!? I trusted you! Where is your honor, earthling? : Sorry, mister alien. Nothing personal. Just doing my job. Our motto is - one life sacrifice is nothing if you're to save trillions. My name will go down in history as a savior by sacrificing myself. You may kill me now, but our faculty will deal with you. We don't let any threats come harm our planetary system - foreign or domestic. In the end, everyone bows down and respects the authority of D.A.S.K.
 : The day where I bow to anyone has not yet come. But I like you. Loyal to your cause. I will not kill you, earthling. Like I said, I don't want to kill anyone here. I need to extract revenge upon my own father, but first I have to...
Before he can finish his sentence, he gets interrupted:
 : No, you have to kill me! This place will get filled with poisonous gas, I will die a slow and painful death if you do not kill me swiftly. Do it!
 : I am immune to most toxins in the world. I will be just fi....
Well, he wasn't immune to that one. Although it won't kill him, the poison weakens ZeroCage bit by bit. His body starts glowing bright neon green and yellow as his skin cannot handle the poison well, chemically.
 : I feel weak....but also....stronger at the same time... : The poison...is unbearable.....I can't hold for much longer. Kill me! KIll meeee! Stop my agony.
As he said "Stop my agony", ZeroCage remembered how not too long ago he ended the misery of his own people, knowing they will suffer more.
 : It would be honorable to end your agony, earthling. But since you betrayed me, I owe you nothing. You will die a painful death now. : Noooooooooooarrghh...
ZeroCage's blades began glowing:
 : So, you do have souls. Maybe I underestimated you, earthlings. Now to show you that your poison doesn't have such an effect on me like on your kind.
He swings his blades at the walls and begin scratching them, but no serious damage. He is trapped. The poison slowly gets to him and he faints unconscious.
 : That was his last breath! Open the locks and send all squads in. Capture him and lock him in the lab for experiments. That flesh of his will prove to be our next big breakthrough in armors. He also handled the deadliest poison we got quite well. It's our lucky day, gentlemen. Our best catch by far!
Things look grim for ZeroCage. He's unconscious, surrounded by an elite force of D.A.S.K. soldiers and is about to become a lab rat. His destiny for greater power looks shaken.
The hangar locks are open, the air is filtered and dozen of armed soldiers storm the building.As the soldiers surround ZeroCage to quickly examine him and take him to custody, he immediately snaps back, draws his 2 blades and begins swinging them in all directions, taking no shortage of casualties. They shoot at him, but he's too quick and dodges almost all the bullets or somehow makes them backfire at other soldiers.
 : Lock the doors again! Lock them now! 
As soon as he hears that order, he quickly storms off the hangar and starts seeking for an open place where he cannot get locked in, but it's all buildings and hangars. He finds himself surrounded in the new building he gets, which doors and locks also completely shut. He's surrounded by soldiers, lights turn off and they turn on their nightvision.
 : You're done for! Got any final words? : Wait...do you really think that I'm inside here, trapped with you?
Small pause, everyone looking at each other as Zero shows an evil smirk.
 : You're the ones trapped in here with me!
In less than 30 seconds all of the soldiers were dropped bodies at his hands. He realizes in the new building he is there is no poisonous gas, or they would've already deployed it at him. He looks at many windows in the highest area and begins escalating to the top by taking any route he deems possible - stairs, platforms, even bouncing off walls.
 : Recruit Elite Task Force 7. Prepare the railguns. I want Shaw Dawkins here. It's time for his...final mission. : Good call. He's swift and can test the waters with this alien. : Yes, plus, he's beginning to know too much. He'll be a worthy sacrifice. Inform him it's a routine mission and we're hunting some beast-like human that we've never seen. He'll see it as a challenge, not a threat! : I'll have my task force ready by tomorrow. What about the alien, sir? : This is Building 7. He cannot break out. Not even a tank can. We'll keep him there for now.
PRESENT DAY:
 : Just finish your meal! : They're sending me on some general routine mission tomorrow, eliminate some beast, who's cut loose. Probably another failed experiment at genetics. After that, I'm taking a break to be with you, I promise!
==Chapter III==
Shaw is sent as a part of a small cannon fodder group inside the building where ZeroCage is, D.A.S.K. officials sure he's going to be murdered by the hands of the alien. ZeroCage kills all of the soldiers, as they were being relentless. Shaw understands too late that he's been betrayed by D.A.S.K. and gives up, takes his head down in shame and waits for the bitter end. ZeroCage has his sword above his head, looks at him and screams at him:
 : Aren't you going to fight, petty human? : Just finish it...I'm done...betrayed by my own people...you're probably more worthy of claiming my life. : Hmmm....
ZeroCage realized that Shaw is being betrayed by his own people and sent as bait and testing the alien and nothing more. He decided to spare Shaw's life and asked for a way out, but Shaw said there is no way out and they'll probably be trying all sorts of toxins and gasses inside until both of them were dead.To their surprise, one of the walls started melting from the outside and both of them and D.A.S.K. officials monitoring the facility were looking at what's happening. the glow started to become bigger and bigger and started melting the wall. From all the lava-like formation and smoke emerged Null Shadow, who had arrived to Earth to hunt ZeroCage down.
 : Tetsujinn! : Hello, Zerou. I've come to bring you home as a prisoner or to take your life. You make the decision. : I'm not going anywhere that I don't want to. : Thanks for making it easier. I'll be the Supreme Mantis King, while your glorious existence is forgotten.
As he said that, he attacked ZeroCage and the two engaged in a fierce deadly battle. Shaw stepped aside, not knowing what to think or do and D.A.S.K. watching from above and from their monitors at their stations were even more flabbergasted. After a long, continuous fight, Null Shadow gained the advantage by starting to chase Shaw instead of ZeroCage and Zero blocked the attack, however leaving himself defenseless and being knocked down to the ground.
 : Beg for mercy, Zero! I don't want to kill a brother mantis! You will be my servant when we return and I become king. You can still have a good life. : Never! Finish it! : As you wish.....
He raises his blades and is ready to swing it at Zero's almost unconscious body
 : Hey knucklehead! : Huh?!
Shaw had regained consciousness and had Null Shadow locked and aimed at. He let go a huge blast with a blast-gun that knocked Null Shadow far back, making him crash in the wall of the facility, bending and cracking it. Shaw immediately figures that this is their way out, but the blast-gun has ammo for only one more shot.
 : Hah. Petty earthling. You will pay for your lack of respect to your superior life-forms!
Null Shadow starts to chase him down, but Shaw is very agile and is able to dodge a few of Null Shadow's charges at him. Shaw starts to lose breath from all the running and jumping and his bullets prove useless against Null Shadow's metal-like skin.
 : I can do this all day, mortal! : Same here, you charcoal piece of garbage.
Null Shadow throws one of his blades that pierces Shaw's coat and nails him to the ground. While he's trying to get rid of the coat, Null Shadow lunges at him:
 : Going somewhere? : Um, no... I'm right here... : Say your prayers. You're about to die. : I ain't religious, garbage can.
At this point ZeroCage returns to the fight, uses psionic force to trip and stumble Null Shadow down. He charges at him with 2 blades and Null Shadow barely gets back on his feet enough to defend himself. He draws his second blade that was tipped in the ground and the two of them exchange a dozen sword clashes, No one seeming the definite favorite. Eventually Null Shadow knocks one of ZeroCage's blades and he's now dominating with 2 swords against a defending Zero with only one. He knocks him down, knocking away the second sword. ZeroCage is now defenseless.Shaw, now recuperated, shoots with his signature Desert Eagle gun at Null Shadow, but Null Shadow intercepts the bullet and looks evil as he has both his enemies where he wants them.But, to his huge surprise the bullet was a not a normal bullet by any means and exploded in his face, creating smoke and distracting heavily Null Shadow for a few seconds. This buys ZeroCage just enough time to quickly snatch one of his adversary's blades and fiercely pierce his foot, rooting him to the ground.
 : ARRRRRGHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Null Shadow lets loose an epic moan, having just been rooted to the ground by his own weapon. He still holds the second weapon in his hand, swinging left and right.
 : A true warrior never fears dying in combat! Finish it, Zero! I would die honorably, serving my King and my land. While you will always know you won this fight unfairly, with outside help from this mortal.
ZeroCage hesitates greatly.
 : DO IT! Come on, he's been trying to kills us this whole time!
ZeroCage doesn't know what to do. He's extremely confused.
 : Your father... : Shut up! He's not my father. Not anymore. : Go home. You don't belong here. Now, are you going to finish this? : I'm quite certain you were sent here to bring me home. Alive. Yet your greed has consumed you. Your lust for power and the throne made you want to kill me. How honorable is that? Do you really think you'll die a hero? : I...
ZeroCage takes one of his Soul Vessel blades which begins glowing with an intense aura. He looks at Null Shadow, who is now with closed eyes and waiting for the bitter end. After a brief second that felt more like a minute, everyone watching what's going to happen, Shaw from the corner, D.A.S.K. from above.
 : I've waited for this moment for a long while...I lost to you at every practice and every training ground there was and every fight we had. I was always second. I've dreamed beating you...
ZeroCage swings his blade and...He only roots his other foot to the ground.
 : Arghhhhhhh.............I...I don't understand...Why? : I just realized beating you doesn't mean killing you. I feel released and free. I don't want to kill you. I don't like you one bit for what you came here to do, but you're still like a brother to me. We grew up together. You're powerful. Your people need you to protect them. Go and do it, until I return and claim the throne! You may not believe me, but I want to make things better!  : You're an idiot. You know we'll be waiting with the most elite guards for you if you're trying to do anything crazy. You can still grab the throne, just come back... with me!
ZeroCage pulls both blades off Null Shadow's feet, who then knees briefly from the damage that's been done. Shaw comes nearby in a guarding position, aiming at Null Shadow's head.
 : And let myself be controlled? No way. I mean to do good for everyone, not just the royal family. There are far too many horrible things happening in our kingdom that you simply don't care about. : You're delusional. You can't make everyone happy. You can't make everyone love you. There will always be hatred in this universe. Jealousy. : I'll change that. : You will fail trying. Can I have my blades now? : Wait, wait...How do you know he's not gonna start...you know...chopping stuff. : A Mantis knows when he's defeated. We're safe. Now get out of here! I hope I never see you again. : Hm...you and I both know that's highly unlikely.
Null Shadow connects both his blades to make a huge symmetrical form. The blades' runes start glowing and he pierces the wall, starting to melt it slowly. D.A.S.K.realize their security is breached and they delete all their data and evacuate all nearby facilities.Not too long , the wall is melted with an enough perimeter of a whole so that Flying Shadow, Null Shadow & ZeroCage can walk through it.
 : So I guess this is it. : I won't forgive you, darkraider. Your lust for power is respectable, but it will also be your doom. Next time, I won't be so kind. So don't try to stop me. : We'll meet again, Zero.
The runes on Null Shadow's Demon Breaker Blades begin glowing again and a huge beam of darkness takes him particle by particle and sends him back to Planet Rei, where he admits defeat to the Supreme Mantis King.
==Epilogue==
Shaw takes ZeroCage to a hideout where they're safe and undercover. ZeroCage enters a meditating state for a few days to regenerate while Flying Shadow goes home to take his mother and hide her as well from D.A.S.K..When Flying Shadow returns to their hideout, ZeroCage has already been completely revitalized and greets him by dropping a large crate right in front of his feet: : What's this? : See for yourself.
Flying Shadow opens the crate and stumbles on a very futuristic suit made of strong fibers and is in total awe by the look of it.
 : It's for you. Afterall, you're a human. A cunning and good one, I'll give you that, but still human. You'll need it. : Now, we're talking! We're gonna do this, buddy!
ZeroCage gives off a smile (or the alien mantis equivalent of a smile) and then turns and looks at the sunset and thinks about what's next...