. . .
Tell me the story of how you ended up here, I've heard it all…
We have no chance of recovering, sharing the joy and misery, joy and misery…
. . .
Thetis didn't recognize the other people in the room with him, but he figured that they must have been Mega Men too. There was a girl who could have been about the same age he was, she had short brown hair and had her bangs dyed a nice dark orange color. He figured that she worked out or something, but she certainly didn't look very girly like his sister Minas did. Then there was a guy in the corner, his purple-black hair was spiked up like he had gone through a windstorm. He had a rather long scarf wrapped tightly around his neck and concealing the lower portion of his face; Reploid, Thetis decided, this guy was a Reploid like he was. Another guy was in the room as well, sitting as if poised to strike for some reason, this guy had mint green hair that covered almost the entirety of the right side of his face. This dude had a long sword with him, the blade covered with a blood red sheath adorned with gold accents. Thetis was impressed by the sword, but quickly grew bored of looking at it. Perhaps it was time for introductions now?
"My name's Thetis!" the young Reploid remarked, waving excitedly at everyone. Only the girl and the dude with the sword looked up, the guy in the corner didn't even flinch.
"Good for you kid." the girl mumbled darkly under her breath. The dude with the sword shifted a bit in his seat to sit up a bit straighter and gave Thetis a small bow.
"I am Aeolus Harisma-Malay." he said. "Son of philanthropist Helios Malay."
"Oh! I know about you!" Thetis agreed happily. "Your family's from old money, right?"
The girl let out an annoyed scoff, but Aeolus ignored her to affirm Thetis's claim with a nod.
"What's your Biomatch?" the young Reploid then questioned curiously.
"Biometal Model H."
"Model F." the girl finally spoke up, her tone unreadable. "The name's Atlas by the way."
"Neat!" Thetis thrilled, excited that he had the two of them talking now. "I'm a match for Model L. Did Model H or Model F ever try to talk to you? Model L and I have a pretty short conversation the other day, but then Master Albert came along and took her away for bit."
"Only once." Aeolus nodded. "After that we didn't have much time. As with your experience, Master Albert claimed the Biometal after a training session."
"Why do ya think that they take the Biometals away from us after each training session?" Thetis asked. "Man, Model L and I get along so nicely, she reminds me of my sister!"
"I, for one, would like to discuss certain things with Biometal H." Aeolus mumbled. "He knew a part of my situation, and we didn't have time to discuss it earlier."
Atlas did all that she could not to say anything about her adventures with Model F. The other Reploid did nothing, instead looking straight ahead and unblinking. Perhaps he was deactivated and just stood there to scare them or something?
"So, what'chu in for?" Thetis cheerfully asked Aeolus as the boy Reploid swung his legs. He seemed as if he was asking about his favorite television show, not questioning about the obviously horrific accident that led them to Master Albert's 'care.'
"Some Mavericks crashed my wedding." Aeolus told him, his expression dull and tone bland.
"Wedding?" Atlas snorted. "Aren't you, like, seventeen?"
"I'm nineteen." Aeolus replied with a cold stare. "My bride was seventeen. And she knew things that most, oblivious, seventeen year olds her age shouldn't even know about. Her parents didn't want her, I barely wanted her- and just when I thought that I could be satisfied with her as my wife, she was gone. Smoke and ashes under Maverick's flame."
"Wonderful analogy." Atlas sneered before diverting her attention elsewhere.
"What about you then?" Aeolus then questioned Atlas. "What wonderful event brought you here and brought about your cheery disposition."
Atlas's expression darkened. "I had to fight a lot for a peace in our little crap district, unlike your old money." she muttered hatefully. "And for what? I still came home to a sad, half-assed, drunken mother who didn't give a shit about me. Glad I left her behind; Now she'll grow old and die, knowing that I rejected her."
"Sounds pretty harsh." Thetis marveled. "Why didn't you, like, try to kill her or something? You know, if you were making all the payments and stuff, why not just get rid of her?"
"She was still my mother." Atlas snapped. "Some humans like to pretend we have an ounce of humanity in us!"
"Must certainly not be you then." Aeolus mumbled under his breath.
Hearing this, Atlas stood up so quickly that Thetis jumped in surprise. "You wanna start a fight you prick?! You want to say it again to my face this time and we'll see how yours is rearranged!"
Aeolus gave her a blank stare, then carefully started to prop himself up from his seat with his sword. After attaching it to his hip, the young man walked toward Atlas in a slow and controlled stride.
"Human blood has yet to touch this blade." he said to her in a low, dangerous tone. "Would you like to be the first?"
"You wouldn't dare." challenged Atlas.
Aeolus moved closer toward her, the scowl on his face was venomous. "I have dismantled too many Mavericks in one night with this blade, but still failed to protect the one that mattered. With your story and applying some logic, one or the both us will die eventually. So if it is a fight you want, then I'll give you first hit."
Atlas said nothing, instead looking at him in a mixture of disbelief and accepting the challenge. She didn't act on either whim, which led Aeolus to take his seat again. From there, the room started to feel darker as the animosity between the two increased. Thetis couldn't stand it.
The Reploid in the corner apparently couldn't stand it either, and started to move. He turned his head slowly in the other's direction. In a cold, metallic tone, he addressed them;
"MODEL DEFECTIVE. SIARNAQ SET TO BE DISMANTLED. SIARNAQ IS ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE, MUST NOT BE FOUND. SIARNAQ IS DESIGNATED BIOMATCH OF BIOMETAL MODEL P. HEMORRHAGE TO BE SCHEDULED."
"Huh… so that's why he doesn't talk." Thetis remarked as the Reploid, Siarnaq, resigned back to an idle state again.
"If I have to hear him talk like that one more time," Atlas growled, "So help me I'll fix him so he won't talk at all. Stupid Reploids..."
"My sis could probably fix him." Thetis decided. "Wish I knew where she was… I kinda miss her."
"At least you have the assurance that she could still be alive." Aeolus said to him. Atlas turned to look at Aeolus with an odd, but slightly hated, look.
"Are you sexually repressed?" Atlas teasingly hissed at Aeolus. "Is that why you keep talking about shit no one cares about sweetie?"
"Even if that were the case, it would be highly inappropriate for our current situation." he growled back. "Unlike some characters here, I know how to repress my emotional conducts."
"Repression can only reach so far until someone snaps." smirked Atlas.
"So wait!" Thetis quickly declared before the other two could chew each other out again. "Am I the only one with a happy life before being chosen?!"
Atlas and Aeolus looked at him. "Yes." they concluded in a single breath.
Thetis opened his mouth to marvel at this new revelation, but was interrupted by the door opening. Everyone (but Siarnaq, who continued to act as a fancy statue) looked as a Reploid girl came into the room. She surveyed the room with blood red eyes partially hidden behind the bangs of her light green hair. No one knew what she was there for, nor did she say anything. After a few moments she left again looking distraught. The four looked at each other and each raised an eyebrow. What was that about?
Thetis took this as an opportunity to lean against the door to see if he could gather any information. Aeolus and Atlas didn't move at all, feeling as if they shouldn't care.
"She's not there." a muffled female voice said from the other end of the door. "I don't get it, Master Albert said that the Mega Men were in that room. But she isn't one of them."
"I told you Pandora that she wouldn't." a second voice -a male one- shot at the female. "The only one that ever cared about her was you. Even if she was a Biomatch, and if Master Albert cared about her the way you say he did, whatever Biometal she's attached to isn't going to be mix well with her health- if you catch what I'm saying."
The female mumbled something that Thetis couldn't catch, but the male scoffed at as if it had amused him. Or upset him. Either seemed appropriate given otherwise.
"Master Albert should-"
"I should do, what, Pandora?"
Hearing Master Albert on the other end made Thetis jump away from the door, earning an odd look from Atlas and Aeolus.
"Master Albert is here." Thetis told them. This got their attention, and Aeolus and Atlas set to arranging themselves a bit better. Atlas mostly grumbled though. Even Siarnaq came back online and stood at attention for Master Albert's arrival.
"Thank you for letting them know I was arriving." Master Albert coolly told Thetis from behind him. The young Reploid jumped at the sound of his voice; there had always been something about Master Albert that Thetis couldn't decide whether he trusted or not. Must've been the way he looked or something.
"Greetings Mega Men." Master Albert then addressed to the others. They all gave their own (mostly) respective greetings. Behind Master Albert was the girl Reploid from before and a male Reploid in what reminded Thetis of his Mega Man armor. The male Reploid did not look pleased, then again, Thetis had a feeling that he never looked pleased.
"Today will mark a momentous occasion." Master Albert announced. "Today, we will begin a certain challenge- a challenge to the death."
Whoa, wait! Death?!
"It will almost be like a game; a Game of Destiny."
"I didn't agree to stay at Legion to fight more!" Atlas growled, nearly jumping out of her seat to emphasize her point. "You told me that all of that was behind us!"
"You have a strong will." Master Albert calmly said to her. "As do the rest of you three. If you want out of this little game, then you may forfeit… at the price of your own life."
Atlas didn't move for a moment, thinking over the idea fleetingly, before taking a step back.
"Think of the Game of Destiny as… hide and seek. There are others in our city that hold the same strong will as you, but the world can only suffice with one. All of you have a connected Biometal already, correct? Those Biometals are far too powerful for the weak, so I would like you to find others who can compete with the Biometal's power, and eliminate them."
"Would that not effectively create more situations similar to ours?" Aeolus questioned. He was now standing up on his feet as well, using his sword to lean on for balance.
"What was that saying, 'only the strongest will survive'? When the weakest have fallen, then your four will battle each other. If one of you can become the victor of that battle, you will face off with my own creations; Prometheus and Pandora."
Instinctively, Thetis looked at the male and female Reploids that had come in behind Master Albert. Well, that made sense… sort of. Then something clicked in the Reploid's mind.
"How are we supposed to face them when they're much more powerful than we are?" he asked. Master Albert smiled (or was it a smirk?) at Thetis.
"You are aware that when you connect with a Biometal, it is referred to as a Megamerge, correct?"
Thetis nodded.
"Were you aware that it is possible to Megamerge with more than one Biometal at a time?"
Thetis shook his head this time, looking down in the process. Master Albert's smile grew, seeming a bit more malicious this time as he reached behind him for something, then pulled it out to show Thetis and the other.
"Behold," he decreed, "Biometal W. It is the strongest Biometal in existence, fueled by a bitter human's soul. When you Double Megamerge with this Biometal, you will be strong enough to surpass even Prometheus and Pandora's potential."
"Why wait until then?" Atlas demanded, as wheels started turning inside her head.
"Because Double Megamerge is permanent to the Biometals in question." Master Albert informed her. "If you are unable to keep up with the expanded power of two Biometals at one time..."
"That's bullcrap!" Atlas spat. "You were just going on about us having the strongest wills of anyone on earth!"
"I did say that." agreed Master Albert. "But are you sure that you are able to handle the power? Some days I doubt if my own creations, developed and built specifically for handling such a Biometal, are able to handle its power."
The room fell silent as they thought the idea over. Prometheus and Pandora seemed to be a bit miffed about his evaluation of them, but this wasn't about them.
"Well then Mega Men, what will you decide?" Master Albert inquired, looking as if he already knew their answers. The Sage Trinity member sure was persuasive, Thetis gave him that. Aeolus was the first to make a motion, and walked over to Master Albert and bowed in front of him.
"I wish to Double Megamerge with Biometal Model W."
"So do I." Atlas spoke up, walking over to Master Albert. Siarnaq followed suit and bowed to Master Albert as well for his response. Thetis still wasn't sure- something wasn't right about this. If the Double Megamerge was permanent, shouldn't he ask Model L about her thoughts on the process?
"I want to Double Megamerge too!" he quickly decided, promising to himself to apologize to Model L later if the Double Megamerge hurt her.
Master Albert gave a smile that sent chills up everyone's spine. "Wonderful."