Deep within the Gryffonian Royal Prison...

In the deep, dark cells of Gryffonia (quite unlike the cells that Zero was kept in), Trixie (and the rest of the ragtag group of adventurers) sat alone; Hammerfist had a cell to himself, due to the fact that he nearly took up most of the single cells that the countries' most corrupt criminals resided in; to say that the gang's thoughts had turned to a darker shade was, as they say, the understatement of the century.

Instead of waiting for someone to break them out, Octavia and Vinyl were planning with Trixie via telepathy; being unicorns, they were extremely lucky that Trixie had kept her spell book with her in a Magi-realm (a magical realm separate to the corporeal world, that is linked to the owner mentally and, quite obviously, magically.)

The fact that Gryffons (stereo-typically in the capital), were incredibly stupid, also helped.

'So, what's the plan?' Trixie inquired, a minor tone of her old jerkiness of her old self within her mind voice. Mostly, however, it was filled with venomous hatred, directed towards the ones that took her boyfriend from her. It was also brimming with boiling anger, and the usual hope that lay within her surprisingly tender and fragile heart (a secret she had only told Zero himself).

'Oh, the usual, I suppose. Jailbreak?' Octavia grinned happily; she oh-so-loved jail breaks. It was just like in the romance-action novels that Rarity lent to her, when the dashing heroes escaped and saved their near-fallen comrade in a blaze of glory. Now that she thought about it, it was all a bit Deus Ex Machina, wasn't it?

'Yup. And I know just the muscle-bound, pissed off Minotaur to help us out with it. After all.... these prisons were made to hold Gryffons. They won't even know what hit 'em.'

Of course, that's when a ear-splitting, earth shattering roar shook the very foundations of the prison, so loud that brick and stone dust fell down from the roof.

Meanwhile, in the Arena...

Against Zero, stood a giant, hulking and deadly, three-headed Hydra; its scaled were a deep forest green, while its eyes were of the deepest midnight black. The almost-demonic-in-appearance being had a cream underbelly and talons/claws so sharp that they could easily split some of the world's toughest magic shields apart.

Breathing a heavy smoke out its nostrils brought Zero cybernetic blue lenses toward the creature's face; with worry, he noted that its mouth was foaming a yellow.... well, foam; perhaps it was rabid.

Another world-piercing bellow from the beast broke Zero from his appearance analysis, as it lumbered toward him, heads snaking away way above, poised for attack. Not wanting to risk anything, Zero tried to activate battle mode....

And found he simply couldn't. For some unknown reason, some of his abilities weren't activating. It wasn't all that hard to find the symbolic reason behind his inability to unleash his full potential; upon the pale and clammy foreheads of each of the Council (if you don't know who they are, remember the earlier chapters; they ruled Gryffonia with absolute dominion) members, were signal jamming devices that stopped his powers.

Put simply, they emitted a signal that stopped him accessing certain parts of his technical server (in layman's terms... his robot brain, made of metal and electrical parts). That left him... his speed boosters, strength booster and something he only had as a last resort; his self-destruct. Oh, and his traction that allowed him to grip onto walls still worked.

At once the beastly monstrosity attacked, its heads still zooming toward him, continuing their snake-like form of motion (so as to confuse him). Their three sets of razor sharp teeth gleamed as their cavernous maws opened; the teeth gleamed like yellowed enamel daggers, so sharp they could cut through rock.

Zero, being a robot of both instinct and logic, jumped out of the way, landing on the wall and zooming forward; at speeds that felt like they were breaking the sound barrier, he spun round and round the arena wall, so fast that he simply became a blue and grey blur.

The Hydra, used to simply crushing its opponents and being done with it, screeched in rage, trying (but with no avail) to destroy the small grey creature. In doing so, its stomps started removing parts of the wall; this prompted the audience to flee in terror, screaming and generally in disarray. A few even got stomped on; all that was left were a few feathers and some squished entrails.

Zero grinned, jumping toward the Hydra at amazing speed; when one head turned (the others were preoccupied, bickering with each other) in his direction, he focused by throwing his all into his right fist and yelling;

"FALCON PAWNCH!" At the top of his audio range he yelled, metallic fist hitting against hardened scales.

With a lurch, the first head was knocked unconscious; using his momentum, Zero kicked off the head as it fell backwards and onto its body. With amazing velocity, he bolted toward the wall once more, landing on it with a shockwave.

And still, the council sat, immobile in their chairs as they watched with interest toward the small grey metal being beating one of the most dangerous beasts in Equestria.

Zero, still thinking in overdrive, chuckled as he grabbed a large chunk of concrete arena wall and jumped high in the air above the two others heads; snapping the wall in two with his strength, he grinned, bellowing out a saying of his own make.

"SUPER ULTRA MEGA SEXY WALL KILLING TECHNIQUE!!"

With a smash, the second head was interrupted in his argument as two large chunks of wall split his skull in two, bone cracking with a sickly yet satisfying sound. The third head, in its mix of confusion, fainted outright, black eyes rolling back in its head.

And so the Hydra fell back, no longer standing on its feet; Zero free-fell until his feet hit the now-showing underbelly of the Hydra. With the members of the council showing enraged expressions on their faces. Standing, from his landed position, he looked up at them with a expression of barely controlled rage.

"I want you to tell me where my friends are. If you don't, you can consider yourselves dead already. I'm not going to repeat myself, so listen closely. Equestria is on the brink of war. Whether you think you can lend a hand or not, we need your help. There will be casualties; that's life. So I tell you this; if you don't, chances are you'll be wiped out by whatever's coming, after us. So give me my damn friends back, stop this madness and take off those devices!"

Quite suddenly, a Texan twanged voice cut in.

"That'll do, Subject Zero. Councillors, I advise you listen to him"

Author's Note

Hey all! Sorry about being a bit ghosty around this site as of the past weeks/months/dawn of time. :(

Exams have been tough and, to be honest, I've been on holiday, am currently doing NCS (google it) and have my results (GCSE), as well as sixth form coming up.
So unfortunately to say, while I shall still be writing, I shall be a tad busys still. However, do not let this dissuade you from reading this story! I shall still post chapters and work day and night to make all you awesome fans happy. :)

On an unrelated note, how are you all? My Editor is on holiday, the lucky bugger. :3

Also, I would like to host a contest; the challenge is this:

What shall fans of this story be called? If not, why?

That's all for now, folks!!

~AxtontheMechanist