Whoo! I'm on a roll with the Hetalia/Megaman fanfiction. And yes, I happen to like using my OC!Philippines character. A lot. Though in this fic, she doesn't quite embody the personification of the Philippines. There's a reason for that and it shall be explained in further chapters.
The Hetalia characters are a bit different than their canon counterparts in this fic.
Anyways, guess this would be the prelude to the more recent of my Hetalia/Mega Man X/Zero fanfic, 'Mother'. Basically how Clara and X met from his awakening to the turmoil that led to the Elf Wars and the aftermath.
Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Mega Man franchise, or in this case the Mega Man X series. I do, however, own Clara.
Entrance
Clara Reyes gulped down the remainder of her water in her water bottle before glaring at the man who was standing in front of her, shoveling away at the sand completely unaffected by the heat that was bearing down on them. How in the world had she managed to let her friend convince her to sign up for the archaeology course again?
Okay, it wasn't all that bad. Clara had enjoyed listening to the professors talk about their experiences out on the field, of discovering artifacts and technologies that had managed to survive the Cataclysm. The Cataclysm being the Armageddon event that had practically wiped out civilization and left a good portion of the Earth bare a hundred years ago. But that was it. She liked the listening to the stories part but being out in the sun all day, digging at the sand with a very high chance of coming across nothing?
That part she didn't like so much.
But that was what she was doing anyways. She was stuck in the baking sun with an archaeological dig whose purpose was to try and find something that the famed Robotics scientist of the time, Dr. Thomas Xavier Light, might have left behind.
Finally noticing the look that she was sending in his direction, the man stopped digging and looked up at her with a puzzled reaction.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
Clara folded her arms across her chest and glared at him even harder.
"Why is it that whenever we're in any other class besides archaeology you're practically dead to the world?" She was referring to his constant falling asleep in class. "But in archaeology class you're the number one student?"
Heracles Karpusi had been Clara's best friend ever since they had been placed in the same third grade class. The start of it all had been when a cat that Heracles was playing with had climbed up a tree... and couldn't get down. How such a tiny kitten had gotten so high up in a tree was anyone's guess, but no one was willing to climb up it to retrieve the poor thing.
Everyone except Clara.
Clara had climbed up that tree and retrieved the cat with no trouble at all, even if had taken her about twenty minutes to climb back down with the troublesome pet in hand. She had gotten in trouble with all the teachers after she was back on terra firma, but at the same time she had also gained a friend in Heracles who was eternally grateful for her retrieving his cat.
Now eleven years later they were still best friends attending the same college and taking the same archaeology course. Clara was interested in both nursing and robotics while Heracles interests lay in history and archaeology. Especially in regards to anything to do with Ancient Greek, one of the few histories that had survived the Cataclysm. One day he took a book out on Ancient Greece and -bam!- he was hooked. Sadly for him though, the dig they were on had nothing to do with his specialty but he liked digging for past artifacts and technologies all the same.
Heracles, in all his easy going glory, blinked slowly at her with half-lidded eyes and shrugged. "You know I like archaeology. Just how you like robotics and nursing."
His voice was as patient and understanding as it was the past times she had complained to him before.
Clara sighed, knowing that this hadn't been the first time the question had come up between them. This was the seventh time in the days they had been at the dig site that she had brought up the topic.
"Sorry," She sighed, taking the shovel she had stuck into the ground during her temporary break and resumed her own digging, ignoring the fact that her clothes were sticking to her skin uncomfortably.
Heracles merely grunted and continued his work as if she hadn't struck up a conversation in the first place.
She had no idea how much time had passed since she had started digging again but she suddenly felt someone tapping her on the shoulder to get her attention. Turning around, she saw Heracles holding out what looked like a still icy cold drink towards her.
Clara immediately snatched the cold drink out of the man's hand and took a long gulp. After drinking more than just half of the contents, she screwed the lid back on to save the rest for later.
"...you look like you needed that." Heracles finally said when Clara was finished greedily drinking what he had given her.
The girl in question blinked several times before realizing that her friend was right. The upper part of her arms were completely sore, her hands were calloused, her legs felt like jelly, her skin was red indicating sun burns and her clothes were covered in sweat. Looking over his shoulder, she saw that the sun was beginning to go down as well.
"Urgh." Clara winced, "how long have I been at it?"
Heracles took a gulp of his own drink before he answered. "It's been over a little two hours since we last talked."
Clara winced again, though part of the reason was because the pain and sore muscles were beginning to catch up with her now aware mind.
"That would explain why everything hurts then."
Her friend just nodded and waited for what he knew was going to come next.
And as expected, the dark haired girl collapsed on to the ground with a loud thud. Well, as much of a loud thud one could achieve when they collapsed on the soft surface of the sand.
"Oh god, everything is burning." She groaned. Clara estimated that it would be around an hour or so before she recovered enough to at least crawl over to her assigned tent, pulling her body by her fingers.
"Want me to carry you to your tent?"
"No." Was her immediate answer.
Actually, Clara appreciated Heracles offer and would have taken him up on it but declined due to the fact that she had to share said tent with one of his many admirers who would make her life even more miserable than it was in this hot desert.
Libby Kenneth was a fellow classmate in archaeology class who was well known for not only for being a bonafide bitch but for her massive crush on Heracles as well.
Clara could deal with her just fine, but she already found the archaeology dig draining enough as it was. No need to make things harder but ticking off the college's Queen Bee as well in this godforsaken heat.
Ever since that house party last year that was just begging for a police visit, Libby Kenneth had taken it upon herself to make the post-secondary lives of every girl (or boy) who was interested in being as so much as friends with Heracles horrendous to the point they dropped out just to get away from her. Naturally, she didn't take Clara and Heracles being best friends since childhood very well, especially considering that the two of them had dated for a few months when they were in high school. She had tried to break up the friendship between the two of them and nearly succeeded had it not been for Clara's cousin discovering what Libby had done and exposing it to the entire campus.
Since then, Heracles had broke off the relationship he had with Libby and pretty much ignored her after wards even though she did practically everything in her power to get his attention.
And even though Heracles had made it clear he wouldn't put up with Libby doing anything to hurt his friends, that didn't prevent the girl from making Clara's life miserable.
"...Libby Kenneth?" He asked.
His friend raised her head from the ground and glared at him.
"Why did you have to sleep with her of all people that day?"
Like the previous times she had asked that question, Heracles merely shrugged. He had amazing patience considering that Clara had a tendency to ruthlessly pursue topics that gnawed at her, the most recent being why she had allowed him to convince her to take the archaeology class if part of it required that they volunteer for a dig as part of the class curriculum. It was required if they wanted to pass the class and get their credits.
"She may have a horrible personality, but I can't deny that she was good in bed."
For what had to be the billionth time in a week and the millionth time today, Clara glared at him.
"You and your need for sex. Was she the only one you slept with during that party?"
There was no denying it: Heracles Karpuski had satyriasis. A pretty bad case, in Clara's opinion at least, of it too. He loved having sex (something he did not deny) and wasn't all that picky about who he had a one-night stand or a friends with benefits relationship with. He had been notorious in high school for sleeping with most of the student body, save for the freshman and a majority of the sophomores once he got older.
With his soft silky brown hair, olive green eyes as well as his tanned and toned figure that was reminiscent of the gods in the Greek legends he loved to read about, there was no shortage of people who wanted to sleep with him much to his delight and Clara's exasperation.
Thankfully he had calmed down once they graduated from high school... although not that much.
Clara wasn't comfortable about this aspect of her best friend as she believed in having sex with someone you had a very close relationship with or after marriage, but she thought that tossing out years of close friendship with Heracles because of his hyper sexuality was stupid and thus remained best friends with him despite his constant need of a bed companion.
"No. I had sex with three others, though Libby was the best out of all of them."
Clara gagged before forcing herself up into a sitting position. As she did so, her hand scrapped against something that was buried in the sand. Something that was made out of metal.
"Huh?" She immediately forgot her tiredness and irritation as she began digging away at the sand where she had felt the metal.
"What's wrong?" Heracles asked, going over towards Clara.
"I felt something metal here." Clara didn't look up as she continued to dig with her hands, ignoring the stinging pain of her finger tips. After a few minutes, she uncovered what looked like a piece of metal sticking out of the sand. With more digging, she found that it was attached to a metal surface.
At some point, Heracles had also gotten out on his knees and was helping her uncover whatever it was she found. Fifteen minutes of silence and digging later, they were finally able to see what it was.
The metal sticking out had been a handle.
And attached to the handle was a metal door.
A metal door that happened to be an entrance that led somewhere underground.
Whoo! Done the first chapter. And yes, the chapters are short. I don't plan on making the chapters of this fic very long. But I hope you like it anyways.
And yes, Heracles is promiscuous. Its even canon, but I didn't want to portray him as being a player since most players tend to be jerks. Heracles just enjoys the sex, and anyone he sleeps with gave their consent.
