Master Albert, the greatest scientist in the entire world, awoke on a floating slab of metal.
It seemed as if a thousand years had passed since he was collapsed at the feet of his Reploid "son" and mortal enemy Grey, knowing beyond any doubt that the next time he closed his eyes, they would never open again. If Grey didn't kill him—though he probably wouldn't, being the spineless defective he was—the explosion of the Biometal fragment he used in the final battle with Grey almost certainly would.
Ah, yes, the Biometal—Model W, to be specific. The monstrously powerful superweapon Albert had created to wipe Earth's surface clean so that it could be born anew was now nothing more than scrap metal strewn amongst the ruins of Ouroboros, Albert's flying battle station, bobbing on the surface of the sea like a garbage patch.
The calming effect of the serene blue sky over Albert's head and the peaceful water surrounding the ten-foot-across piece of Ouroboros on which he sat was the only thing keeping Albert from exploding with rage. The plan to reset the world that he had been laboring over for hundreds of years had been shattered in mere minutes just as it was finally coming to fruition. And here he was, stranded in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight, doomed to die a slow and painful death from hunger and thirst while the undead civilization of oblivious fools around him celebrated. What unbelievable injustice!
Calm yourself! he snapped to his own emotions. The struggle is not over. There may still be a way to topple Legion and restore balance to the world. Calling on the power of his cybernetically enhanced body, Albert initiated the transformation sequence that would have ordinarily loaded the data and abilities of Queenbee the Hymenopteroid into his system, allowing him to utilize her powers of flight. Unfortunately, the result was nothing but an error message on the HUD overlaying his vision.
With the destruction of Model W's databanks, all of my A-Trans data was lost, Albert realized. My ability to copy new data is still intact, but without any of the extra abilities I've acquired over the years, all I have is my own powerless form, and it's hardly equipped to traverse hundreds of miles of open ocean. Is there anything left for me to do but sit here and rot?
Just as Albert was about to accept his fate and power off his A-Trans system permanently, the water around twenty feet to his left began to bubble. Startled by this sudden disturbance, Albert turned to look, only to see the sleek blue body of Chronoforce the Xiphosuroid emerge from the surface of the water.
"Chronoforce!" Albert called. "My scans indicated that you were destroyed by Grey a few minutes before Ouroboros' explosion! How did you survive?"
Chronoforce chuckled. "I'm not too sure myself, but if I had to guess, I'd say Model W finished its automatic reconstruction of my body just before it was destroyed. I suppose the other Pseudoroids weren't revived in time, though. I can't even find their smoldering remains down there."
"So that's why you took so long to surface," Albert responded. "Even so, try not to keep me waiting too long next time."
"There won't be any delays in the future, sir," Chronoforce answered, his obedience programming kicking in. He then paused for a second, unsure of how to continue. "Listen, I don't have much energy left in my batteries. Without Model W to send me power remotely, it won't be long before my AI freezes and I shut down entirely. I could swim you to shore with my remaining energy, but you'd still be without food or water, not to mention a wanted criminal throughout the world."
"Unless you have any other suggestions," Albert said, "I'm willing to take what I can get."
"There is another option that I've been considering," Chronoforce replied, "but it's very risky. As you know, the negative temporal effect my Time Bomb has on the area around me has no magnitude limit, so if I ramp up the energy input enough, I may be able to send us back in time to a point when Model W still existed, giving you an opportunity for a do-over of sorts."
"Intriguing," Albert said. "Time paradoxes were proven to be contradictory to the nature of the universe centuries ago by physicists, however, so what exactly is the risk?"
"I've only used this time reversal technique twice before, once during each of my battles with Grey, so I have almost no experience with it," Chronoforce responded. "Therefore, I don't know how much energy is necessary to send us back a given amount of time. I could overshoot it and land us in the days of Neo Arcadia, or waste all of my remaining power turning the clock back five minutes. It's nothing but random chance where and when we'll end up."
Albert considered this for a minute, sighed, and finally said, "Very well. If I find myself unable to change my fate, so be it. My future is even bleaker if I decline, or even if I re-copy your high-speed swimming abilities." Standing up, careful not to capsize the fragment of Ouroboros on which he rested, he ordered Chronoforce, "Use the data you've acquired from your usage of this ability so far to estimate how much energy is necessary to reverse time by 24 hours. Assume the duration of the time reversal state is a linear function of the energy input. When you have the result, activate your Time Bomb. Your reserve power is draining by the second, so we have no time to waste."
Chronoforce floated unresponsive in the water for a moment, performing the necessary calculations, and then said, "Energy input estimation complete. Time reversal should require precisely 1.21 gi—uh, 2.47 terawatts." Noticing Albert's unamused expression, he quickly added, "Excuse me, sir, but the reference was unavoidable."
"No matter," Albert dismissed. "Activate the Time Bomb! I have a world to reset."
And with that, they vanished.