Days turned into two weeks, and at ten o’clock, two weeks after capture, Oren said. “It’s time.” Then he turned into a black mist with two glowing spears where his eyes were, and rushed into Nero’s body. There was a surge of pain as Nero’s chains shocked him, the intensity of the shock increased every second, until all the lights in the room blew out, and the chains shattered. Outside the cell, the two guards said “Did you feel that?” as the room shook. They turned to look at the heavy metal door. Purple electricity danced all over it. They drew their weapons and one guard muttered, “Aw shit.” As they inched back from the door, a pair of burning white eyes shone in the darkness of the cell. Then the door flew off its hinges and crushed the two guards against a wall. From the darkness of the cell, Nero stepped forward, his skin pitch black, eyes burning white, and energy radiated from his body in the form of purple flames. The only difference between how he looked now, and when he first fought Dom, was his mouth was normal. With a shrug of his shoulders, the flames dissipated. “Dam, I forgot how good this feels. Now, let’s try and concentrate it, just like chaos boost.” Nero said with a slight echo in his voice. “No! Nero, that’s what happened last time when you lost control! You can’t concentrate my powers due to their evil nature, they will take over your mind and I’ll have to leave your body again!” Oren’s voice called from in Nero’s mind. “Hmm, then let’s try adding a bit more power to the mix!” Nero shouted. Nero crossed his arms across his chest, waited till he could feel his power along with Oren’s, then threw his arms to his sides, and with a mighty roar, began combining his power with Oren’s. A large red and black aura surrounded him. A thick red line streaked its way down Nero’s arms starting at the shoulder, and ending at the wrist. A circle with a triangular symbol appeared on the backs of each of his hands. Nero’s burning white eyes turned bright, glowing red. The scars on his back shone red for a moment, and then they vanished. “Oh yeah!!! This feels amazing! I don’t think I have ever had this much power at once! Let’s see what this ascended dark form can do!” Nero shouted with a laugh. Nero stuck out his right hand, and effortlessly charged a well over sized black chaos bolt. Red and purple electricity crawled all over the orb. The amount of power Nero had managed to conger up without any effort, surprised even himself. Nero put his arm behind him and faced his left shoulder to the security wall that kept him from escaping the cell block. “Chaos… JAVELIN!” Nero shouted as he hurled the lightning like bolt at the wall. The explosion was so large, that when the smoke settled, he could see that the damage was far more than just the wall, the entire security center was chard or on fire, with bodies lying every where. “Whoa… nice” Nero chuckled. Nero casually walked through the carnage until something caught his eye. Nero saw a sign hanging above a door, almost untouched by the blast. It read, “Confiscated goods”. “Five bucks says my guns, sword and cloths are in there.” “You’re on.” Oren replied. Nero could hear voices on the other side of the door. They sounded panicked. There was the sound of tables being flipped on to there sides for cover, the loading of guns, and the growls of what Nero guessed were some sort of guard dog demons. “Sound’s like they’re getting ready for us, let’s not keep them waiting.” When all the noises stopped, aside from the growling, Nero booted open the door and walked in with his hands in his pockets. Two lizard demons lunged for Nero. He didn’t even flinch, and with a grin, the demons heads exploded into a shower of blood and grey matter. “ Pathetic, next!” Nero yelled. Bullets struck Nero from every direction. They had no effect other than leaving holes in his body and pissing him off. A high caliber bullet struck Nero’s chin and blew half his jaw off. Nero slumped to the ground, and the guards began to cheer. The pools of crimson blood on the floor and spattered on the wall, turned a deep black. There was a hair raising chuckle, and the black pools started to flow towards Nero’s body. The pools seeped into his body and his wounds began to heal. Nero stood up and the missing half of his jaw regenerated. With a laugh Nero said, “My turn.” A thin line of red appeared on the necks of all the guards. Then there heads flew off in a fountain of blood. Nero was soaked in blood. With a shrug, the blood flew off him in large drops, and splattered all over the room. After a bit of searching through boxes, Nero found his stuff. “Thought so...” Nero muttered. Nero put on his shirt and trench coat, put all his weapons in there places and said, “Now, we’ve got to find this ‘core’ thing, blow it up, and go home.” “My guess is that it’s in the sub levels of the base, I can sense a large amount of energy radiating from there.” Oren said from inside Nero’s head. “Hey, quick question Oren. Once we get back home, you can separate from me, you know that, right?” Nero asked. “I guess I could leave your body again, but that would cost you a lot of my power. But, I can leave a ‘seed’ of my energy in you, it would grow over time and you could eventually unlock powers that exceed my own.” Oren answered. “Sound’s good. You get a body, and I get some power. Now, next stop, the core.” Nero walked out of the confiscated items room back into the destroyed security center. He hovered a few feet above the floor, cupped his hands at the wrists, and stuck the behind him. A purple aura appeared around him as a black orb began to grow in his hands. With a shout, Nero shot his hands forward and a huge black beam shot from his hands and tore through floor after floor until there was a large explosion. Nero flew down the massive whole strait to the bottom. When he reached the bottom, Nero looked around. There was a crater from where his beam had hit, and walls lined with cages. Nero noticed a flaming sign. He waved his hand at it, and the flames disappeared. The sign read, “Holding area, authorized personnel only. Nero looked around a little more and found a service elevator. “I guess that’s how to get to the sub levels.” Nero muttered. He walked up to the elevator and pushed the button. The indicator above the door didn’t show the elevator moving, but a hand scanner popped out of the wall instead. Nero placed his hand on the scanner, knowing it wouldn’t accept him. There was a loud buzz, and all the cages in the room flew open. Pairs of red eyes glowed through the dark cages, and a hoard of lizard demons emerged, along with Wolf and spider like demons. “Fun.” Nero said as he drew his sword. “Nero, you could wipe them all out with a single glance with the power we have! Why are you going to fight them?” Oren asked. “You’re right, I could do that. So why fight them? For fun!” Nero shouted as he lunged into the mass of demons. The lizards fell quite easily, because they attacked blindly, one after another, with out any coordination with there comrades. The Wolfs were a little more difficult due to there pack mentality, and there fast attacks. But just like the Lizards, the all died. The spiders hung back, flinging needle like hairs from there forelegs at Nero, and occasionally lunging at him from behind. When Nero got close enough to one, it would hiss, bare it’s fangs and try to spray him with silk. The spiders were a little more delicate than the lizards and wolfs, and a lot more fun to kill. Nero found himself ripping there legs off until they were a thrashing stump, then slice them down the middle. The spiders bled a green, gooey blood that smelt kind of funny. Nero shrugged off all the blood and gunk from his cloths, and whipped off nobility on one of the wolfs fur. Then he turned his attention to the elevator door. Nero turned on the chainsaw feature on nobility, and pumped energy into it until the spinning blades glowed white. Nero slashed along the boarder of the door, and once it was loose, kicked it into the dark elevator shaft. Nero jumped down the shaft with out the slightest hesitation. As Nero flew down the shaft, the concrete walls turned into glass walls, and Nero could see the entire sub level. There was a bunch of guards, demons and people in white coats. There was also a group of larger people in guard uniforms. Nero guessed that they might be some sort of human like demon guards. Nero looked down and saw the bottom of the shaft with the elevator at the bottom. Nero braced for impact, and smashed through the roof of the elevator. “Whoa! What was that?” A voice shouted from out side the elevator. “I didn’t hear anything.” Called another voice. “Well I’m going to check it out.” The first voice said. “Yeah, well be careful, that prisoner escaped, and he’s extremely dangerous.” The second voice replied as it faded away. There was a ding sound, and the elevator doors slid open. Nero hovered above the elevator, and waited. A guard walked into the debris filled elevator, and the door closed behind him. In one swift movement, Nero swooped down, grabbed the guard by the through, and slammed him against the elevator door. “Where’s the core?” Nero asked as he tightened his grip and lifted the guard off his feet. “*Gack* It’s the big purple thing in the middle of the room! You can’t miss it!” The guard gasped. “Thanks.” Nero said. Nero squeezed the guard’s neck. When he let go, it resembled a crushed juice box. Nero hid the corpse on top of the elevator, opened the door, and slipped out as silently as he possibly could. “Nero, let’s try something, press against a wall, and pretend you’re a shadow.” Oren said. “Um, okay.” Nero replied a little puzzled. When Nero pressed himself against the wall, he felt lit he was being pushed through a wall of jello as he turned into a shadow on the wall. “Cool.” Nero said. Nero didn’t resemble anything, he was a formless shadow. “You can change your shape at will like this, grate for sneaking around.” Oren explained. Nero snaked his way from the wall to the floor and bolted to the closest guard’s shadow. Once he made contact with his shadow, the guard made a slight groan, followed by a zombie like stair. Nero could feel his mind connecting with the guards. “Cool, shadow mind control.” Nero made the guard walk to where all the guards, demons, and what he could now see were scientists, were gathered. A large purple portal opened up. And a box thirty feet high started to make its way through from the other side. Nero glanced around through the guards eyes. And just like the last guard said, a humongous purple pillar was in the middle of the room that stretched from the floor to the ceiling and at least fifty feet wide. That must be the core… Nero thought to himself. Five minutes passed, and the box had fully emerged from the portal, it was thirty feet tall, a hundred feet long, and sixty feet wide. Scientists began rummaging around on panels on the box, pushing buttons, and typing stuff. Another ten minutes passed, and Nero felt his control over the guard slipping away. His zombie like glair turned back to normal. He shook his head, and stammered, “How did I get here?” The guard turned and walked away, with Nero still in his shadow. When The guard had gotten twenty feet from the crowd, Nero shot up from the ground in front of him, covered his mouth and stabbed him through the through with his own knife. A wolf demon’s nose began to twitch. The fur on his back stood on end as he turned around and snarled at Nero. Every one turned and saw him, dead guard in hand. “Any one without a weapon, leave now.” He said as he drew harmony, which was pitch black. The scientists finished typing franticly, and progress bars appeared on the screens all along the box. When they were done, the scientists fled. All the enemies raised their weapons and bared their teeth. “Kill him!” someone shouted, and a volley of bullets flew at Nero. Nero turned into a shadow on the floor, and streaked his way towards the enemy. He shot up from the floor like a bullet, and sliced a guard in half. Bullets ripped past Nero as he slashed each and every one of his foes to pieces. When the battle was over, Nero walked towards the core. “Now, how am I going to blow this thing up?”Nero asked himself. There was a buzzing noise, like an alarm from behind him. Nero wiped around to see red warning lights on top of the giant box as the top began to slide off. Nero watched speechless as a giant, human like, robot sat up in the box. It climbed out of the box and stood in front of Nero the robot was so tall, it’s head was only a mere thirty feet from hitting the roof. Flaps opened and closed all over its body revealing hidden rockets, cannons, and turrets. Then it’s eye flashed red, and it looked down at Nero. It didn’t have a human like face, but instead had a sleek looking head with two antennas on the side slicked backwards, a large square of black for a face, and a single large solid red glowing eye in the middle. “Uh, you must be Talos. How nice to meet you! I’d love to stay and chat but…” Before Nero could finish, Talos swept at Nero with a giant robotic hand, and grabbed him. “Ah! Shit! Let me go you over grown toaster oven!” Nero struggled with all his might to get free from Talos’ grip, but to no avail. Talos brought Nero to its eye level, and said in a booming, mechanical voice “Subject; Nathan Edwards Ruben Opal. Code name; Nero. Threat level; minimal. Action; Terminate life signs.” “Who are you calling a minimal threat?!” Nero shouted, still struggling to get free. A panel slid back on the bottom of what would have been Talos’ chin, and a large cannon folded out, and aimed at Nero’s head. “Let…me…GO!” Nero let off an enormous chaos blast that sent Talos staggering, and forced him to release Nero from his grip. The cannon went off, and Nero was barely able to dodge it. The cannon blast hit the glass surrounding the core, it began to crack, not a lot, but enough that Nero could slip through it as a shadow. Nero flew at Talos’ head and placed his hand in the middle of its eye. “Take this!” Nero yelled. He shot a large beam, point blank, into Talos’ eye. But instead of going through its head, it dispersed in all directions when it made contact, like a jet of water hitting a wall. Nero wound up and punched Talos when the beam didn’t work. Nero felt every bone in his hand scream out in pain as they broke, and then healed. “Dam your tough! Chaos pulse!” Nero stuck out his hand at let off a pulse of colorless energy large enough to knock Talos backwards a few feet, and flew behind some crates. “God dam it, how am I going to beat this thing!” Nero said quietly. “If we can overload the reactor, the explosion might be strong enough to do the job.” Oren suggested. “Good idea, but how are we going to do that with a hundred foot, killer toaster trying to get us?” “I noticed a crack in the core’s covering, you could easily slip through it as a shadow, but once inside, the nuclear contaminants could kill you, I’m shocked there hasn’t been a leak already.” “Dyeing is a chance I’m willing to take in order to save the world. Let’s do it.” Nero announced. Nero turned into a shadow on the wall and bolted for the core. Talos was still searching the area for him and didn’t notice a stray shadow making its way to a crack in the core. Once inside, Nero returned to his physical form, and the instant he did, the pain was intense, his skin was melting off and healing back at such a rate, that it looked like Nero was dripping with tar. “Rrrrrr, oh god this hurts!” Nero shouted. “Now what Nero? A chaos blast isn’t going to cut it here.” “Do you remember, a rebellion news report, about a near atomic blast in the B.C waste lands?” Nero asked. “Yes, why” Oren asked. “That was me perfecting a new move…RAAAAAAAAAAAAH!” Nero let out an loud yell as his black body began to glow a deep purple. “CHAOS…ERUPTION!” The purple glow solidified, and turned Nero purple, then a huge explosion emitted from his body. The entire base was reduced to rubble, and Talos was no wear to be seen when the dust settled. Nero’s skin healed one last time, and returned to normal. He took one big gasp of air and fell unconscious. As Nero slowly regained consciousness, he could feel himself being shaken, and a voice calling his name. The sun made Nero cringe as he slowly opened his eyes. “Hmm? Just five more minutes…” Memories of what had just happened flooded Nero’s mind and he sat up with a jolt. There was a sharp pain and a thumping noise as his head smacked against something hard. “Ow, Geez! You got a hard head, you know that?” Said a female voice. Rubbing his forehead, Nero lolled his head to the side and came face to face with Kris, who was also rubbing her forehead. “Kris? How did you...” “Know where to find you? Let’s just say that you weren’t exactly subtle about taking out the base, just wait until you see the surveillance footage. Eris and I took one look at the explosion and knew it was you. She said that you were fine and would probably be back at the base soon, but I had to be sure.” Nero noticed Kris’ cheeks were damp, and her eyes were red. “Were you crying?” Nero asked. “Yes, I found you here, and I was so worried that I had lost you again.” Kris said softly. “Heh, it’s going to take a lot more than that to kill me! Especially when I have got a beautiful woman waiting for me to come home.” Nero said before he leaned in and kissed Kris. “Now, let’s go home.” Nero said tenderly. “Wait, where is Oren?” Kris asked. Nero closed his eyes and his skin slowly faded to black. “Closer than you know.”