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Hello, all. Some of you might know me from the Gamefaqs boards, but I doubt it. I have a fanfic, and several people have suggested that I post it here. Please be gentle...

It was a time of peace on Ragol. It had been seven years since X Launcher crushed Neifirst’s rebellion, and there had been no major incidents of violence since. Many hunters and most of the Pioneer 2 military had been dispatched to begin the exploration and pacification of a recently discovered planet, Vanadile. The few Hunters that were left had less and less to do, and many were enjoying their retirement. As the sun rose over the new settlements on the surface of Ragol, little did inhabitants know that it would be the last peaceful sunrise any of them would ever see.

The sunlight streaming into his room awoke Sye, a small boy of 10. His birthday was two days away, and he couldn’t wait. His parents had emigrated on Pioneer 2, and he was born about 9 months after X’s defeat of Dark Falz. He was an odd child in many ways, quieter and more introspective than his friends. He dressed and went into his family’s living area for the morning meal. He was getting to go with his Dad today to explore some ruins, and had been looking forward to it for months. As he ate breakfast, he thought about all the neat things he would soon see. Meanwhile…

Jonas Sage had just made it to his desk at the Pioneer archives, chugging down a cup of coffee and trying to rid himself of the legacy of his late night. He was the head archivist, and a fairly accomplished archaeologist. Although he didn’t like to mention it, he was also a retired Force. As he powered up the view screen on his computer, the “New mail” alert flashed in the corner of the screen. One new message… Sender: Elly Person.
Mail from the lab was usually never a good thing. He resigned himself to having his already bad day completely ruined, and clicked on the message, hoping it wouldn’t be yet another unwanted reminder of things in the past…
‘ Jonas, it’s Elly. I’m sure you’ve heard about the recently discovered ruin on Ragol dubbed the “Temple of Light.” We were going to detail a team of scientists to investigate it, but recent scans showed that is crawling with D-Cell monsters. Since unidentified ruins on Ragol have a nasty habit of spawning horribly deadly creatures, we decided to go with a different team for this investigation. Since you are one of the highest ranking hunters on left on Ragol (retired or otherwise), and the only one with archeological experience, you were nominated to investigate. Report to the Hunter’s Guild for more information. Have a nice day, Sage. Love… Elly.’
Having proved his intuition right, he left his office to head to the Hunter’s Guild… silently cursing Elly the entire way.

As Sye’s father came in, the look on his face showed that he had bad news. “I’m sorry Sye, but we can’t go see the ruins today. Scans showed that there are monsters inside, and they are getting a team of hunters to go in and clean it out first. It would be too dangerous to go right now.”
“But dad, why do we have to wait for the Hunters? You said that there was nothing bad left on Ragol.” “Why do you always break your promises!?” With that outburst, the young boy ran outside into the forest. He just wanted to be away from his dad, and to be alone for a while. Little did he know that he was not alone, and he was about to get a much closer look at the ruins…

As Sage walked into the Hunter’s Guild, he was surprised to see a short, slender, purple and green- colored Racast behind the counter. “Greetings, Mr. Sage” the Racast announced. “I am Labyrinth.” “Are you here about the ruins job?” Sage replied in the affirmative, and was handed a PDA with the mission information on it. He entered in his security code, and the screen began displaying the coordinates of the ruins, and the results of the D-Cell scans.
“How did you know who I was, Labyrinth?” Sage asked, as he continued to scan the data. “I was informed before your arrival, and was told to give you all possible assistance. Ms. Elly seems to think quite highly of you.” Hmph… she would, Sage thought. “So, Labyrinth, are you one of the ‘highly skilled hunters that are supposed to accompany me?”
“No sir, I am not a combat model. I was originally a prototype military model, but I have been assigned to be a supervisor for the Hunter’s Guild. My combat modules were removed, and I was reprogrammed after the defeat of Neifirst.”
“Yeah, when there are no more wars, there’s usually no need for weapons.”
“Precisely, sir.” “Do you know how to get in contact with the hunters listed on the mission briefing?” “Or would you like me to summon them?” Labyrinth asked.
“ I know how to contact Megatron, but you may need to contact this ‘Lucca’ for me.” “Oh, and… whoah!” Sage broke of his scanning of the data with a loud exclamation.
“Sir, what is the matter?”
“This must be important, if they’re actually bringing HIM in on it…” Sage had a look of surprise on his face, puzzling the android.” I thought he retired after the whole Neifirst thing.”
“ ‘He’ who, sir? Are you referring to the hunter known as X? He is being brought out of retirement for this mission. The Principal feels it is important to make sure that everything in the ruins is ‘taken care’ of. “
Sage’s only reply is a look of amazement. “Ok, Lab… you contact X and Lucca, and I’ll go see where Megs is hiding. I’ll be back in about ten minutes…” With that, Sage turned and strolled out of the Hunter’s Guild, leaving Labyrinth to the task of contacting the few remaining hunters.

In the forests of Ragol, Sye was awakening as if from a dream The last thing he remembered was running away from his kitchen table after a fight with his father. The next thing he knew, he was standing in this clearing… looking at the vine-covered entrance to what looked like an old temple. It was the ruin his father had told him about, but he had no clue where he was. ‘Oh well,’ he thought. ‘Since I’m here, I might as well look around.’ There didn’t seem to be any guards, or anything. He slowly approached the darkened entrance of the temple, looking in wonderment at the mural carved on the pillars supporting the ceiling. As he came to the massive doorway, his head began to hurt. Right before he passed out, he read the words carved above the door: “ Here lies the path to the Great Light. In times of peril, the Espers will appear to save us all.” He then blacked out again. Any outside observer would have seen an eerie glow begin to emanate from his eyes as he stood and strode confidently into the temple. To Sye, however, he was having the same dream he had been having off and on for the past few nights. A dark man in mage-style robes was chasing him, looking for something. Each night, the man got a bit closer, but was stopped short every time. This time though, it looked like the man would catch him.

Sage had returned to his apartment to retrieve some gear from his hunting days, then used a nearby communicator to contact his friend Dante, a retired hunter and the creator of Megatron. Megatron was a highly advanced combat droid, programmed with free will and the combat skills of a veteran hunter. He was currently residing at Dante’s house, since the recent peace had left him without much to do.
Sage: “Hey Dante, it’s Sage. How are you?”
Dante: “I’m fine, bro. You wanting to talk to Megatron?”
Sage: “Well, yeah. He’s supposed to go with me to explore some ruins.” “Apparently, the powers that be think that it’s too important to leave to hunters, and they are afraid regular scientists would get shredded.”
Dante: “I know. Elly contacted me. Some type of ‘top secret’, very important mission. I wish I could go with you, but I have to watch the kids. And the actuator on my arm’s acting up again. You really think you’re gonna need Megatron to deal with some dumb Dimenians, though?”
Sage: “The administration sees it as ‘better safe than sorry’. “
Dante: “Yeah right, you’re just out of practice. Wuss…”
Sage: “Bite me, Dante. And let me speak to the hunk of bolts, please.”
Dante: “Alright, just a sec…”
Sage arranged for Megatron to meet him at the Hunter’s Guild, then went back inside to wait for his android companion. As he walked inside, Labyrinth fixed him with what, for an android, would be a questioning glance.
Lab: “Any luck contacting Megatron, sir?”
Sage: “Yeah, he’s going to meet me here. Any luck with X and Lucca?”
Lab: “Yes, sir. They will meet you at the coordinates in thirty minutes.”

When Megatron arrived, he and Sage left immediately. Materializing on the surface of Ragol, a few minutes away from the coordinates, they took time to ready their weapons. Sage removed a few capsules from the pockets of his coat, and released the Red Handgun and Yasminkov Handgun from inside of them.
Mega: “If you’re a Force, how can you use the Yasminkov 2000? I was under the impression that only Rangers were licensed to use them.”
Sage: “I’ve completed the Ranger certification course, and I’m licensed to use them. And I have ways of making sure I actually hit with it…”
Mega: “Yeah, Dante mentioned that you were ‘weird’. How long did you two work together? I’ve known you since I was created three years ago, but Dante seems to have known you longer than that.”
Sage: “Dante and I used to be partners, hunters working together. Then his arm got messed up, and work for hunters died out. We both retired, after a two-year career together. We’ve known each other most of our lives, however.”
Mega: “That’s interesting. He programmed me with parts of his personality, and fighting skill, but didn’t put in any of his memories.”
Sage: “He wanted you to learn on your own. That, and we made a drunken bet that even with bits of his personality, you wouldn’t be half as much of an ass as he is if you didn’t have his memories.”

With that, the Racast and the Fomar continued to gird themselves for the possible battle. Megatron double checked his D-Parts, and hefted his Spread Needle. Sage settled his guns into the holsters built into his Sacred Cloth armor, and they headed for the ruins of the temple.
As they approached the entrance, a short Ramarl garbed in purple stepped from the shadows of one of the pillars. “You must be Sage and Megatron.” “I’m Lucca.” They exchanged pleasantries, and then decided to wait on the last member of their team, X. After about ten minutes, however, they received a call from Labyrinth.
Lab: “X has been detained, and will be there in approximately one hour.”
Sage:” Great. We’re just going to go ahead and go in.”
Lab: “Very well, just be cautious.”
Sage announced that they were going on ahead without X, to a flurry of protests from Lucca. “But, it’s against regulations to not wait for the assigned members of the team!” Sage and Megatron just looked at each other, then walked past the sputtering purple-haired Ramarl.
Mega: “So, we have a ‘legend’ that doesn’t show, and a rookie who’ll probably try to attack with a copy of the rulebook. This should be fun…”
Sage:” Let’s just hope we don’t need X. If we run into something that the powers-that-be though only he could handle, we’re probably dead.”
As they continued into the ruins, they began to see the bodies of Dimenians scattered here and there.
Lucca: “Do you think X beat us here?”
Sage: “No way. These dimenians hit what they were aiming at. X isn’t that sloppy. Besides, they were burned. X’s weapons of choice are katanas. A strong tech-user passed through here recently.”
Mega: “Oh, well lets hurry before this ‘strong tech-user’ steals all of our kills.”
Lucca: “I don’t think you’ll have to worry about that…”
A troop of about twenty Dimenians had appeared from one of the cavernous rooms up ahead, and were slowly tromping towards them, their footsteps loud on the carved stone floor.
Sage: “Get ready, everyone!”
Mega: “Who died and made you the leader…?”

As the Dimenians slowly tromped towards the group of hunters with their claws upraised, Sage shouted for them to “Scatter!” Not bothering to draw his weapons, he simply began gathering power for a Gifoie technique. A few seconds later, the outward-spiraling cascade of flame slammed into the first row of Dimenians, but other than some slight singeing, there was no noticeable effect.

Megatron: “Wow, Sage, you are really out of practice. That should’ve fried them. Ah well, that’s what this is for…” Megatron draws his Spread Needle, and begins blasting away at the approaching monsters. The rapid-fire spread of needles hits the first couple of Dimenians, temporarily paralyzing them, but doing little damage. Not that it really matters, since he wasn’t aiming to kill. The Spread Needle’s paralyzing shots stall the lead Dimenians, and in the limited confines of the corridor, the majority of the Dimenians are hemmed in by their fellows, unable to move. They snarl their rage, but at the moment are unable to do anything about it.

Mega: “So, since we have about 30 seconds ‘til they start moving, anyone have any bright ideas? Other than ‘give them a bad sunburn’ plan thought up by our illustrious leader, of course.”
Sage: “Shut up, Megatron. I do still have some techniques that work. Shifta! Deband! Now, make with the killing.”
Lucca: “I’ll handle this.”
She then proceeds to pull out a Red Scorpio, a powerful type of photon launcher, and begins sending blasts of energy at the hapless crowd of Dimenians. The already powerful shots, boosted by Sage’s Shifta, tear through the Dimenians with a terrific force. A few seconds later, they have been reduced to pools of oddly glowing purple goo…
Mega: “Well, that was easy. Why are you here again, Sage?”
Sage: “Let’s… just go.”

The crew of Hunters continues onward into the ruins. Meanwhile…

In the residential district of Pioneer 2, a slender Humar wakes from a near-coma like sleep and groggily rolls over to turn off the communicator that has been beeping at him for the past hour. Realizing that he’ll be unable to turn it off from his prone position, he (reluctantly) stands up and stalks over to the wall-mounted unit. “You have one new message. Classification: Urgent. Sender: Elly Person.”
‘Great, what does she want…’ he thinks as he clicks on the message.
“X, it’s Elly. Remember how we said we needed you to clear out a ruin for us? You know the one that was rated as being so dangerous that only a hunter of your caliber could possible come out alive? The one that we were willing to pay you handsomely for? Well, the team that was supposed to go with you left an hour ago!!! Please hurry to these coordinates. Thank you, Elly.”

“Well, seems like the skank hasn’t changed much in the past four years. But, I am getting paid for this.” Twenty minutes later, he was dressed and headed downstairs to grab his trademark weapons. As he descended the stairs, he was greeted by a 5’ 10” Hunewearl with an eye patch.
“Leah, I’ve gonna head out on that mission. Two hundred thousand meseta is almost worth getting up at this hour.”
“You do realize that it’s almost noon, right?”
“Jeez, I’ve saved the entire population of Pioneer 2 three times. You’d think I could sleep in once in a while…”
After dodging the pillow his roommate threw at him, he made his way to a safe inset into the wall of the living room. Hitting the combination, he reached in and withdrew two katanas. One was obviously the legendary Katana known as Yasha, but the other appeared to be one of the many fake Agitos that were the weapons of choice for aspiring hunters. Upon closer inspection, this blade was revealed to be the OrochiAgito, the one true Agito. It had been through countless battles with him, and was partly the reason why those scrub hunters happened to like katanas so much. In the hands of a novice, it was a powerful weapon. In the skilled hands of X, it was unstoppable.

Properly equipped, the long-haired Humar left his apartment for the nearest teleporter, slowing only to check out the many female hunters that lived in his district. Being a legend often has its perks, yet it was a measure of his increasing age that he didn’t take advantage of them. “Besides, Leah would gut me. Oh well, I can dream. Hope these idiots haven’t gotten completely slaughtered yet.” With these thoughts weighing on his mind, he stepped lightly into the teleporter, disappearing in a shimmer of light

The young boy named Sye was staggering through the ruins, incinerating anything in his path. In the back of his mind, a small sliver of "himself" could see what was going on, but had no control over it. He did not know how he was wielding this awesome power; he just knew that when a monster would pop up, it would die. He was terrified, but a certain part of him reveled in it as well. Feeling compelled by something he could not explain, he pressed onward, unable to regain control of his body.

As he threaded his way through the ruins, fighting off monsters with arcane abilities he never knew he possessed, and incapable of simply running and fleeing as he so wished to, he came upon a large, intricately carved door deep within the abandoned temple. Stepping up to it, he placed his hands into two large circles that were invisible to the naked eye, and chanted words that the logical part of his mind did not know.

MUTT DITTS POUMN! , he cried, and the massive door slid open on a recessed track, arcane seals upon it glowing with a mysterious light. As he peered into the gloom, he could dimly see an enormous altar, but the thing standing in front of him drew his more immediate attention. As the creature stepped forward (which a small part of his mind registered as a "Delsaber", from the holos his father had shown him) raising its bladed arm menacingly, he simply raised his right hand and unleashed a black wave of energy, obliterating the monster completely. He stepped to the altar, and picked up the dagger lying there.

With a cold detachment in his eyes, and the logical part of his mind screaming at him to stop, he held out his palm and sliced into it, letting the blood drip onto a dimly inscribed seal upon the floor. As a wave of white light filled the room, he lost consciousness...

The intrepid group of hunters pressed on, fighting off the relatively light resistance they encountered. Eventually, they came to a large room with two doors. As they stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind them, narrowly missing Sage's coat.

“Wonderful, what a great place for an ambush.” Sage quipped.

“Well, let's get on with it then. You know, you have yet to actually kill anything...” Megatron replied. Any further remarks were cut short by the arrival of 20 Deldepths.

‘Um, Sage... any plans?” I've never encountered these creatures before. Lucca had backed up, and was readying her Photon Launcher as the black disks began transforming into their roughly humanoid form.

“They are primarily Technique users. They can cast Barta techs as well as Megid. When they transform into their disk form, they are practically invulnerable. Be careful.’

And thus the battle began. Megatron strafed to the side, away from the entrance, blasting away with his Spread Needle all the while. Sage pulled his Red Handgun, and began tracking the skittering monsters, firing off a couple shots at a time that usually missed. Lucca was having no better luck with her cumbersome Photon Launcher, having not connected with a single shot yet.

After about ten minutes of frantic dodging and firing by our heroes, things were looking rather grim. Megatron was slightly damaged, Sage had narrowly avoided a few Megid-y deaths, and Lucca was terrified. Suddenly, as she dodged a Gibarta stream, she backed up straight into the path of an oncoming Megid. The glowing orb passed through her silently, and she crumpled to the floor, weapon falling from limp fingers.
‘Lucca!” Sage cried out, but with the swirling Deldepths forming a ring around her, he was unable to approach within Reverser range.

“Sage, I think we have a problem...’ Whatever else Megatron was going to say was cut short by a double blast of Megid that crumpled him.

With only one target left, the 15 remaining Deldepths swarmed around Sage.

I suppose I have no choice he thought, as he prepared to release the mental blocks he had erected around his psionic abilities. With a loud cry, he flexed his mental muscle with a wave of Telekinesis, pushing back the encroaching ring of death.

Huh, I guess that's all I have left... damn.
Just as the Deldepths were about to close in for the finishing blow, a streak of light was seen.

When Sage looked closer, the first ring of Deldepths began to slide apart, sliced in half by an incredibly keen blade. Looking over to the other side of the room, he saw a slender Humar in a black battle suit, sheathing a katana with a smug look on his face.

‘The other Deldepths are dead too, don't worry. You must've blinked... Sorry I'm late, by the way. My name is X.”

As the unaccustomed mental exertion of using his telekinetic abilities caught up to him, Sage had time for a muttered thanks before falling to the floor, unconscious.

“Well, I cut that a little too close... any longer, and they would've been dead. Ah well, that's what Moon Atomizers are for.” X thought, as he withdrew a small capsule from within his pocket.

One Moon Atomizer later, Sage had been returned to a basic semblance of consciousness. After reviving the others with Reverser, he popped a Trifluid to stave off a head-splitting energy deprivation headache. Since the room had stopped spinning, he proceeded to introduce everyone to X.

"Everyone, this is X..." Sage began to say.

"And I'm the reason you're all still alive. Sorry I'm late." X finished smoothly.

"Oh wow, it's really you! The slayer of Dark Falz, the person who crushed Neifirst's rebellion. I'm Lucca, nice to meet you. I can't believe I'm standing next to a legend! This is so cool... Is that the real Agito? Can I have your autograph? Blah, blah, blah..." Lucca began to gush excitedly. She didn't stop even when Megatron stepped forward.

"Nice to meet you, X. I'm Megatron. I've heard a lot about you."

"Uh, hi...." X reluctantly shook the hand the Megatron offered. His experiences with JiEin had made him a bit less wary of androids, but he still wasn't exactly a fan.

"So, Sage... you have telekinesis, so does that mean you have telepathic abilities as well?" X asked.

Lucca, to Megatron: "Sage has psychic powers?"

Megatron: "Yeah, he just sealed them away a long time ago, for some reason."

Sage, looking distinctly uncomfortable, replies: "Yeah, I have telepathic abilities too. I didn't want to unseal the blocks I put up, but I had to, or die. "Turning to X, he continued; " And just because I have them, doesn't mean I'm going to rummage through your mind like a sock drawer. I only use my abilities when I actually have to. You have nothing to worry about. None of you do..."

X: "Hey, relax. I've worked with a telepath before. Some crazy newman force girl. She was pretty nice, she just thought I was her uncle. I know you all have a code of ethics you follow. If you didn't, you would've wiped my mind of the memory of you using telekinesis before I said anything."

Sage: "Heh, good point. Do you mean Ayame? I helped train her."

"Yeah, that's her. I was asking to see if you could possibly scan ahead for D-Cell monsters, so we can avoid another ambush like this. I had the element of surprises, but without that I don't even think <b> I </b> could take on that many Deldepths and come out unscathed."

"I can try, but D-Cell thought patterns are very chaotic, and hard to pick up. That, and I haven't used my powers in years. There's also a lot of psychic interference in these ruins all of a sudden. "

"Well then, let's get going." X said as he stepped towards the door. The other three fell into loose formation behind him. Megatron and Lucca on the sides, with Sage relatively well-protected in the back.

Altar room:

Finally, I shall be able to leave this fleshy prison. X thought he killed me, but I'm going to delight in proving him wrong...

Sye is unconscious, laying in the middle of a light-streaming arcane circle that is inscribed upon the floor. If anyone had been there to watch what was happening, they would've seen a brilliant white light arc up from the floor, and would've heard a keening, ever-changing song in their heads. Since no one was there, however... no one could see what took place as Zio summoned the power of the Great Light...

Sage, walking at the back of the group, suddenly collapsed to one knee, barely able to remove his staff from it's capsule to catch himself before he fell flat on his face.

Sage: "Unhh!"

Lucca:" What happened? Are you ok?"

Sage:" I... think so. Something is very, very wrong. We have to hurry."

Megatron:" I'm picking up a massive energy reading from a little further inside the ruins. It's amazing the amount of power that's being given off... I've never seen anything like it."

X:" I can feel it! We need to go, now. This is not good..."

Meanwhile, in the Military High Command Sensor Station...

A tall, caped Humar is standing in front of a computer display as technicians work. He is dressed in dark blue, with a silver mane of hair stretching down to a midnight blue cape. As an alarm goes off, he turns to look at the monitor.

Technician: Sir, we're picking up an anomalous reading from the ruin that was scheduled to be investigated today.

Caped Leader: Report!

Tech: It's a massive surge of energy. It's almost on par with the original readings of Dark Falz's energy!! What should I do, sir?

Leader: I'll handle this myself. *to his communicator*: "Brom, Kikuu, meet me at transporter three. And hurry. We have a situation..."

Tech, to other tech: "What's so bad that Eriror himself is going to investigate?"

Tech2:" I don't know, but I'm rather worried. Brom, Kikuu and the Commander are three of the most powerful soldiers we have. If they can't handle it, we're doomed...'

As the group of hunters quickened their pace through the temple, they at last came to a large open room with a massive doorway at the end. As they stepped inside, a large green energy barrier appeared over the open doorway. Through the distortion of the field, they could see a pillar of white light shooting towards the sky, through the ceiling.

X:"Wow, that doesn't look good. Wonder what's gonna try and kill us now?"

Megatron:"Oh, probably... THAT! Look out!!!!"

He was cut off by the materialization of an enormous Delbiter. While most Delbiters are the size of a Crimson Assassin or so, this was almost as big as a dragon. It was glowing with a faint green aura, as well. It stomped, shaking the ground and knocking Lucca down. It then fixed its sights on Megatron, roared and fired off a huge beam. With the speed at which it happened, he was unable to dodge. The force of the beam sent him into a wall, where he lay still and unmoving.

X:" Spread out! It's probably about to charge." He practiced what he preached by leaping to the side and drawing his katana, then settling into his typical fighting stance, sword held high above his head with both hands, point towards the Delbiter.

Lucca had time to draw her Mechguns, having eschewed the cumbersome photon launcher. As she began rattling off shots, they seemed to hit an invisible barrier a few inches in front of the Delbiter, doing no harm.

Seconds later, the Delbiter charged her at full speed. Sage managed to telekinetically push her out of the way of the Delbiter's horn, but she got his by it's shoulder and rebounded off a wall. She was once again removed from a major fight within seconds...

With only X and Sage still standing, the situation looked grim. X charged at the Delbiter, charging his sword with flame and leaping upward at the last second. His trademark Ryuenjin attack would have no effect this time, however. As his sword contacted the barrier, an enormous surge of energy was sent through his blade, temporarily paralyzing him. He fell to the ground with a shocked look on his face, and was barely saved from the trampling hooves of the Delbiter by a tk push from Sage.

Well, this looks bad. I'm going to have to overload the barrier somehow. But first, I need to stop it from moving. Sage thought, as he began firing at the Delbiter with his Red Handgun. The shots only served to enrage it, doing no appreciable damage. They did take the creature's attention off of Sage's wounded teammates, however.

With an ear-splitting roar, the beast charged. Sage was barely able to move out of the way in time, helped along with a telekinetic boost.

The Delbiter was not so lucky, and impacted directly with the wall. Barely fazed, it turned to face him again, shaking off bits of debris that had cascaded on it from the shattered wall and weakened ceiling.

Seeing the weakened structural integrity of the ruins, Sage suddenly had an idea. Firing past the Delbiter at the ceiling, he succeeded in knocking loose a shower of rock chunks. Aided by the pillars, stones and chunks of wall that lay around the room, Sage began using his telekinesis to bury the monster.

That won't hold it for long, but it should be just enough time for what I need to do. With that thought, he began charging his Red Handgun with technique energy in one handas he drew his Yasminkov with the other.

A fully charged shot should overload the barrier... then I can strike.

Unfortunately for him, the Delbiter had managed to free itself at this time. It stood, shaking off chunks of debris, then reared and let out a scream. It then dropped to all fours, and prepared to charge...

Frozen in a position of utmost concentration, Sage was relatively defenseless. Lucca, however was not. She had feigned taking a hit to get off an open shot, and fired off a blast from her Red Scorpio at the creature. It hit the barrier, made a shimmering distortion, then dissipated.

That brief distraction was all Sage required, however. He finished charging his shots, and yelled at the creature.

"Now, you die!!"

He fired his two shots simultaneously. The shot from the Red Handgun, boosted by all of his technique energy, was fired off in an enormous sphere of green energy. It hit the barrier first, and completely overloaded it, doing no harm to the creature. The second shot, from his Yasminkov, did quite a bit more damage... boosted by his telekinesis, it hit with the force of a meteor, blowing the Delbiter's head completely off.

Drained by his exertions, he slumped to the floor, breathing heavily.

Behind the barrier, a presence screamed in anger and frustration.
Damn! I'm so close. I've activated the path of the Nephilim, and have absorbed almost enough energy to leave this fleshy prison. Only a little more...

His dark prayers were quickly answered. A pulse of energy hit the circle from above, as if the energy streaming off of it was calling to something far greater. Sye screamed as the pulse hit his body, raising him off the floor. A dark cloud emerged from his body, and seemed to begin absorbing the energy. As the circle of light seemed to dim, the cloud took a more specific shape. Seconds later, a revived Zio stood in the center of the circle...

Now, for even more power!

Great Light, I beseech you! Allow me to cleanse the universe of all who oppose me!!!

And with those words, the Great Light granted his wish. A indescribably bright light filled the room, as a torrent of divine power flowed into him.

When the light faded, Zio stood over the slumped body of Sye. He had changed, however... his hair and eyes were pure silver, and he was dressed in clothes of the same color. He sparkled with energy now, glowing with power even to the untrained eye.

Meanwhile, back at the sensor station:

Tech:" Commander, the energy output just spiked!! It's a thousand times more energy than Dark Falz. It's enough energy to destroy the planet ten times over!!

Eriror:"Relax. We're on our way."

With that, the Humar and his companions stepped into the teleporter, fully convinced that they were the last hope of Ragol.

In the room adjacent to the one where a horrible usurpation of power had just occurred, Sage let out a yell. "Aah!! What the hell was that?"

Megatron, who had just recently finished repairing himself, replied: "It probably has something to do with the massive surge of energy I just picked up. Do we have to go in there...?"

X finally managed to get to an Antiparalysis, and got to his feet slowly. "That was pretty impressive, Sage."

Sage: "Thanks."

Lucca returned from testing the barrier to the next room, which had grown to fill the doorway, and had become completely opaque. "Well, we can't get through right now. I guess we'll just have to wait until whatever's in there is done."

Megatron: "What a great plan! Wait for the ancient evil to kill us, huh? Why didn't I think of that?"

Just then, they all heard a loud voice scream:
" Great Light, I beseech you! Allow me to cleanse the universe of all who oppose me!!!'

The voice was followed by a flash of incredibly bright light, that even screened through the opaque barrier was blinding.

Megatron: "I'm thinking that's not a good thing."

X: "No, it's not. It's...

Sage: "Zio. And he just attained an immeasurable amount of power. We have a problem..."

As Sage said this, the barrier disappeared, and a silver-garbed figure stepped through the doorway.

In an oddly lilting, musical voice it said:

"I am Zionus. I am the avatar of the Great Light's true power. To oppose me is death. Prepare to face your doom, for I am power incarnate!"

I don't have much time to read it all but the bit i read was great and i'm sure the rest is too
i'll look out for other fanfics!

That's pretty good! I would post mine, but I made FIVE stories! It would take up at least 10 pages!!!

Well, if any REEAAALLY want to see them, I might send them via E-mail. If they like it, I may post it...

Anyway, this is a good story!

interesting

Excelent story. Keep up the good work woth more.