Run.

She'd been running ever since she learnt how. This situation was no different, except for one important difference: if they didn't find him, they would all die.

The reploid soldiers in green kept a tight circle around her, both to guard her from bullets and pick her up if she fell. The forest was dark, but to Pantheons – Mechaniloids modeled after Megaman X – it was bright as day. Only the lights of the compound guided Ciel's path. Things were getting worse, though, as a ponderous roar far behind them signaled the arrival of Megaman X's latest toy: the Golems. Giant, yellow, hovering fortresses of metal equipped with the latest in Maverick-killing technology. Some reploid soldiers stayed to delay them while the rest ran with Ciel, their human leader, inside the laboratory.

The place was a mess. It had been abandoned after the Elf Wars destroyed it and what it was built around – Zero's stasis capsule. Sure, the reploid who fought beside Megaman X a century ago was the stuff of legend, but considering how poorly the war went against Neo Arcadia, a legend was the only hope left for the Resistance. An incomplete battle report from the Elf Wars, fragmented data from ancient databases and ever-circulating rumours were the last chances they had left.

The energy weapons of the Golems cut a bloody swathe through the reploid soldiers. They thundered over the fresh corpses to join the Pantheons in the chase.

Getting closer, now. Run through the multiple access hatches. Passy, the fairylike Cyber Elf zooming beside Ciel, picked up huge energy readings behind the giant containment door they ran into. She was an elite hacker elf, and was sensitive to such things.

"Allow me, Miss Ciel!"

Milan set the explosives and the door blew inward. Inside were the remains of a stasis capsule over thirty feet tall and ten feet wide. Thick cables ran from the ceiling to the kneeling, bent figure of the one they had sought and died for.

Megaman Zero.