Date: July 4th, 25XX

The building was old. It was about time for this lump of metal to be brought down. It was a historical landmark, true, but the blasted thing was falling apart. Even as the middle-aged demolitions engineer climbed the stairs, he had to sometimes vault a fallen beam or even cut through a stack of them with his buddy and their metal cutters.

"Who did they say this place belonged to before?" his fellow engineer asked in his gruff voice. He was late middle-aged and had kept his beard. He was also the expert, unlike the former engineer who had only been on around a decade. It was surprising to note that the professional had missed the details of the place.

"They said it belonged to the Sage Trinity," he explained. "You know. Master Thomas, Master Albert, Master Mikhail."

The expert snorted. "Master Albert, my eye. The man was only a reploid using that body to control whatever that damned game was."

"Yeah, yeah, well, he's gone now, thanks to Grey and Ashe."

He vaulted over another beam, his tools clinking in his belt. They had reached the top floor. It was probably the most clean of the floors. The others had broken glass from the windows, thanks to the vandals, dust from lack of cleaning, and, of course, more and more fallen metal beams.

"Shiam, why did they send us to look for something valuable in this place?" the expert asked.

The expert, a man by the name of Kigim, was a veteran in blowing things up. He had been on the job for years now, so it was right for him to have the title of "Demolitions Expert". His hair was grey for the most part, except for a few strands of brown in his beard that refused to fade into the common grey.

"You never know, Kigim," the younger human said, feeling his way on the wall. "You never know when it comes to former robot builders. The Maverick Hunters said that they'd give us a bounty on any and all reploids we find, whether they're operational, close to operational, or not at all. I guess the boss figured it was worth a shot. I'd say he has a decent chance of getting something."

His hand ran over what turned out to be a hand scanner. He jumped away from it, at first, then wandered closer. It denied him access, but now he was curious as to what it held. The door couldn't be too far away.

"Yo, Kigim! Get me the torch!"

Kigim responded in the affirmative, and, with a little help from Shiam, got the metal cutter to the top and near the scanner. The younger one took the duty of cutting through the wall in a wide fashion, claiming that since he found the scanner, he should be the one that opens it up.

Hours passed, and their torch finally ran out of fuel. It was night-time, and everyone else had already gone home. Kigim told them that much. Shiam was determined to get through that wall. It was unusual for this building, Legion, to have such thick walls, giving Shiam rise to believe that one of the Sages were hiding something. Which one of them, he didn't know. It didn't really matter anyway.

"Kigim. It's a risk, but bring me some 6X."

Kigim lifted his hardhat. He had been resting on a fallen beam the whole time. Apparently even napping. It amazed the younger engineer how Kigim could sleep through all the noise. "What'd jya say?"

"6X, Kigim. The wall is too thick. I can't cut through it."

"Right. I'll bring it up, if the others didn't make off with it."

While Kigim sauntered his way downstairs, Shiam began to look around the floor. It was amazing, the structure of the place. It was built for both elegance and strength. Especially the top floor that he was on. The top floor held the main meeting room, the same room where Albert first showed his intentions. Shiam entered this room, taking off his helmet in a sort of reverence to all that had happened here.

He had heard the stories. The stories of how Grey and Ashe had come to Legion to stop a maverick attack, fought Siarnaq, and then tried, unsuccessfully, to fight Albert. He imagined the fight as best he could. From what he heard, they had fired off shots, using the power of their biometal, but Albert blocked them all with his Model Ws. He imagined Ashe and Grey running across the floor, then stopping as soon as their shots were useless.

His gaze was drawn to the shattered window that reached to the dome that capped off this room. Albert had shattered that to make his escape. It was a shame, really. The window was beautiful and majestic. It was a pity to see such a grand thing get destroyed.

He could vaguely hear his teammate calling out his name. Sighing, he donned his helmet again and left the broken room that breathed so much history.

In his teammate's hands was a pod with four other pods connected to it. Shiam grabbed this explosive, which they called the six-X, thanked his companion, and placed the central pod on the wall. He grabbed one of the side pods, extended it diagonally up and to the side. He did the same with the other pods.

It was called the six because it carried less power than C4, and X for blowing out walls in an X fashion. This explosive mainly was used to weaken walls. After a wall was weakened, it could most likely be knocked down with a sledge hammer.

"'kay! Ready to go!" Shiam said, vaulting over a beam that Kigim was already taking cover behind. He pulled out a detonator and pressed down on the button on top. The central pod went off first, followed by the other four pods detonating simultaneously. Kigim and Shiam checked their work. It had definitely weakened the wall a lot. Although, Shiam's cuts had also helped, so maybe all that time wasn't a waste after all.

The hole in the wall fell easily to a firm hit with a hammer. He had been right about the placement, luckily. It saved them from having to use a second explosive.

The hole led into an unadorned hall. At the end of the hall, another room. The room was larger than the hall, and computer equipment seemed to be at the end. Shiam swallowed. Kigim laid his hand on the younger human and urged him on. Why did this feel like a bad idea? Wandering on a robotic engineer's hiding spot? Oh. 'Cause it's hidden? he thought as he walked towards what seemed to be a reploid capsule.

The room held many more capsules. There were ten in total. They were all hooked up to one giant machine that appeared to have stopped working only recently, judging from the heat of its cover.

"Kigim, I don't feel good about this," Shiam said, rubbing his neck and backing away a step from the capsules.

"Don't be such a pussy, Shiam. It's nothing. We'll check out to make sure there's at least one reploid, then we can leave, 'kay?" He rubbed away the dust from a capsule with the inscription: SKNR-00. There was some glass over where the head of the reploid could be. If they rubbed that way... Curiosity took the better of Shiam, and he wandered over to check out the capsule as well.

He regretted it as soon as the glass broke.

Kigim fell instantly, blood streaming from the wound in his skull. The capsule was opening and Shiam was too frightened to move. He could only watch as a reploid wearing a white cloak rose out, a bloody knife in his hand.

The reploid walked out calmly, flipping the knife, a karambit, by its hole. Many more knives were kept in a red sash around his waist. He was clothed entirely in white except for his boots and gauntlets which were a brown leather.

What did I get myself into?

"Who are you!" Shiam said, stepping back from this warrior. The strange reploid said nothing. It only stepped forward, its red eyes focused on him. "What do you want!" It wants blood... we invaded its territory... I'm screwed...

It lowered its hood, fully revealing its red two-tailed bandana and brown ponytail. It raised its knife just as Shiam's back touched the wall.

"I want a challenge," was its cold reply.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"