I opened my eyes and found myself in Ciel's lab, lying down on the teleporter. The sounds of beeping computers echoed throughout the room. I got up, believing that Kuroyukihime was here, probably asleep somewhere because I had been out for so long.

"Kuroyukihime!" I called out. No answer. Was she somewhere else?

I walked around the floor and looked at a few more things to wait. After calling her name several times, I figured she wasn't in the building. Perhaps she was buying groceries or something? I went to the stairwell and climbed the stairs. Arriving back on the first floor, I noticed that the things we bought an hour or two ago were still on the couch. She wouldn't leave those, would she?

Before I could go back down to the lab, I heard the door handle move. Someone was trying to get in? Ciel's caretaker, maybe? I walked over to the door and opened it from the inside. I was surprised to find a rather large fellow standing in front of me. He had violet hair and eyes, with a masculine look and rather noticeable cheekbones…

"Who're you?" he asked me in suspicion.

"I'm Lan. A friend of Ciel's," I answered without hesitation.

"Ahh. I'm also a friend of hers. My name is Serpent."

"Nice to meet you." I shook his large hand, which crushed my smaller one as we shook hands.

"What're you doing here?" he asked.

"Well, that's a long story… Do you mind sitting down?" I asked.

"No, not at all. I have time."

I took the bags off of the couch and quickly told Serpent that my girlfriend bought them and that we were coming here just to check on some things.

"If you're a friend of Ciel's, you must know that she's dead… right?" I asked him.

"Yes. It was heartbreaking news," Serpent said, shifting his gaze towards the ground. I thought I saw him shudder, but perhaps I was imagining it.

"If you're a friend, do you know what she's been doing?" I asked.

"Yes. She was hunting down Model W."

"That's correct. She managed to destroy it, but then found out that it had created Model W fragments. So she set out to destroy those too, until she was brutally murdered…"

"There are Model W fragments?!" Serpent exclaimed, excited.

"Yeah. She never told you?" I grew suspicious of this Serpent. If Ciel didn't trust him enough to reveal that information to him, I shouldn't trust him too much either.

"No, she never told me this."

"Interesting. Well, my girlfriend and I were looking for a teleporter so we could go and destroy those fragments too, and we found one. It leads to several places that could potentially hold a Model W fragment."

"I see…" Serpent said. He stood up and faced the door.

"Are you leaving so soon?" I asked, getting up too. Was he going to tell his friends? Was he going to wait for me to leave and then sneak inside?

"I have to thank you. Lan, was it?"

"Yeah."

Serpent whipped around and pulled out a pistol and pointed it straight at my face. I instinctively reached for Model Z around my waist, but felt nothing there. Where did it go? Did I lose it downstairs?

"Dropped your own gun, eh?" he asked.

Something like that, yeah. I answered in my mind. "Maybe," I said.

"Like I was saying before, I have to thank you for the information. Now tell me more. How many Model Ws did you find?" he asked.

The situation right now was dire. I needed to make as much time as I could, as well as call for help. And being a Burst Linker, I had all the time in the world.

"Burst Link," I whispered.

The world around me turned blue as I accelerated. I reappeared as my school avatar, a copy of the original Zero without his helmet. I ran downstairs and into Ciel's lab to look for Model Z. I looked near the teleporter, but couldn't find it anywhere. Where did it go? Did I leave it back at the storage facility? Or did Kuroyukihime take it? But she couldn't use it since she wasn't Model Z's Biomatch.

Nevertheless, I had other ideas. I opened up the Brain Burst menu and opened up the Matching List submenu. I scrolled through the list until I found the person I needed. Then I pressed their name and requested a duel.

Instantly, I transformed into Cobalt Warrior/Blue Hero and reappeared on the End of the Century stage. My opponent appeared in front of me and was surprised to see me.

"Lan? Why did you challenge me?" asked Sky Raker.

Sky Raker was a blue duel avatar who used to roll around on a wheelchair because she believed she could touch the sky if she cut off her legs. Unfortunately, she never did touch the sky in the Accelerated World. She believed that was her dream. But during the Rangarok incident, she realized that her dream was to fly in space. That was why she had her jet-pack. It was more suitable for space combat anyway. So after that, she grew her legs back and was a very formidable fighter in Nega Nebulous.

"I'm kind of in a dire situation and I need some help," I said nervously.

"What did you do this time? Did you blow up a school?" She was already scolding me.

"No! Nothing like that! It's just that… there's a man holding a gun to my face and I could be shot at any moment," I said the second part quite fast.

"Did you do something to him?" she asked, putting her arms on her hips.

"No."

"Did you do something bad?"

"No."

"Then why is he holding a gun to your face?"

"Fuuko, why was there a person trying to destroy the world one year ago? This guy is as crazy as Dr. Weil. Please come help me."

"Well, alright. Where are you right now?"

I sent her a message with Ciel's address. Sky Raker's eyes flashed, meaning that either she had something planned, or she was going to do something unexpected…

"I'm shopping right next to that place."

I stared at her for a few moments before falling to the ground. Of course she was. She and Kuroyukihime are best friends; they had an interest in the same things. Not to mention the fact that they had mirrored personalities. Kuroyukihime was quite assertive most of the time but also really kind. Fuuko was really kind and caring, but could get assertive if she needed to.

"That's terrific! Please buy a gun or something and shoot this guy!" I said, half-joking. If she had a gun, I'd definitely just let her shoot Serpent in the face.

"Lan, you know very well that I can't buy a gun."

"I was only joking about buying it."

"I know. Anyway, we should get out of here so I can come over. Stay alive, okay?"

"Yup. Please hurry."

I requested a draw and Fuuko accepted it. After a flash of white, I returned to the real world and Serpent was saying something that I didn't pick up.

"Uhm, can you repeat that?" I asked.

"Are you going deaf all of a sudden?" he laughed.

"It's the gun, it's making me nervous," I said quite fast, making it seem like I was nervous.

"My apologies. I need to have this thing out so you don't run away."

That's not the reason why you have that out. You have that out to scare the information out of me and then kill me afterwards so I don't tell anyone I told you this.

"Very well, I will repeat myself," he said with an evil smile. "How many Model Ws did you find?"

"A few." I wasn't going to give this guy an exact answer. I didn't know the exact number anyhow, but still.

"That's not an answer," he stated. He shot the ground near my foot as a warning shot. I didn't even flinch.

Although on the inside, I was shaking in my boots. Maybe Zero was consciously making sure my body wouldn't show any signs of fear? If so, thank you Zero.

"There's one in this building right now," I lied.

"Really? Are you sure?" he asked slowly.

"Yup."

"Lead me to it. Or I will shoot you."

Idiot, you'll shoot me whether or not I show you.

"Yes, of course. It's this way…" I said, slowly turning around.

A familiar sound pricked my ears. It was the sound of Fuuko walking. She had artificial legs, so they made noise whenever she approached. I've never dodged a bullet before, but this was probably going to be my first and only time I'll ever attempt to.

The speed of a bullet fired from a pistol like his is about 700 kilometers per hour. If you use Physical Burst, the bullet speed will slow down by 10, meaning that you have to dodge an 70 kilometer per hour bullet. Even then, I don't think you can do it. Once again, I'll help you by boosting the acceleration time of Physical Burst to about 20 times. Zero said in my mind.

Serpent didn't notice the sound and believed that it was something else entirely. I took the opportunity to whip myself back around and kick the gun out of his hands. My right leg connected with his right hand perfectly, but due to the body size ratio, my kick moved his arm but didn't drop his gun. Serpent reacted a little too slow and shot the ground.

"Why you-!" Serpent grunted as he recovered and pointed the gun at me.

"Physical Burst!" I commanded as he shot.

I jumped to the right immediately once I entered the state of acceleration, giving me enough time to dodge the bullet safely. The experience was quite amazing. I was able to see the bullet shoot straight out of the muzzle, and then see the muzzle flash. I became the first human being to ever dodge a bullet at close range.

"Wh-What is this?!" Serpent cried.

He was about to shoot another bullet, but the door opened and something quite tough slammed into his head, confusing him for a few seconds. Fuuko was standing right behind him with serious eyes and wielded a frying pan. She slammed the pan into the side of his face and knocked him over. For a girl, she was pretty strong. Then she kicked him in the groin with her artificial leg.

If this were a manga (and it was turning into one), Serpent would have gone flying into the wall and Fuuko would have jumped and kicked him into another room. But that didn't happen. Instead, Serpent put a pained expression on and went into a fetal position.

"Nice hit!" I cheered.

Fuuko hit him again in the head with the frying pan, hoping to knock him out. In manga, Serpent's head would have sunk into the floor. Then I would kick him down two more floors and then it'd be over for this bad guy. Unfortunately, this wasn't the action-packed manga I was looking for.

"Will you go unconscious already?" Fuuko muttered irritably. I've never seen this side of her before.

"He's pretty tough," I said. Then I noticed that he finally dropped the gun to hold his groin with his hands and grabbed the gun.

"Good thinking, Lan."

I pointed the gun at Serpent and thought about shooting him. After all, he was about to do something with the Model Ws. So why not kill him?

"Lan, you can't shoot him. He might have some useful information," Fuuko said.

"I'm not sure if holding a gun to his face is going to do anything. I mean, it's not like he'll talk. You don't have to talk to the guy who's interrogating you, you know. This isn't a poorly written children's book."

"First of all, I don't think there would be a person interrogating another person in a children's book," Fuuko sighed, "And second of all, he may give us what we want."

"Never!" Serpent yelled.

"See? Told you."

Fuuko walked back to Serpent and kicked him in the groin again. I wanted his eyes to pop out or him to go flying, but he just keeled over in pain on the ground. Well, at least I learned something. No matter how tough a male looks, you just gotta kick him in the balls to beat him.

"Will you tell us what we want now?" Fuuko asked Serpent.

"L-Like I… said… N-Never!"

"Wrong answer."

She kicked him in the balls again. I walked over to where she was and stood over Serpent.

"We can do this all day, you know," I said.

"Lan, if he doesn't answer our questions, I grant you permission to shoot him in the groin," she said in her normal and gentle voice.

That was the tipping point for Serpent.

"O-Okay! I-I'll tell you w-what you want!" he cried. "Just don't sh-shoot me th-there!"

Fuuko and I glanced at each other in satisfaction and proceeded with the interrogation.


I blocked Prometheus's initial strike with his scythe. But he was faster than I imagined him being and swung his scythe another direction and struck my side. I dashed out of the swing so I wouldn't get cut in half and attempted to cut Prometheus with my two blades. He dashed back and was engulfed in a purple flame. It disappeared and Prometheus was no longer there.

Did he run away that quickly? The fight just began! I thought to myself.

He reappeared in the air and charged down with his scythe down as well, creating a wall with his blade. I jumped to the side and Prometheus crashed down a floor. As he fell through the ground, purple fire sprouted out from where he fell and rained down on me. I didn't expect it, so I was hit by one of the flames. I felt the burning sensation all over my body, causing me to scream out in pain.

Prometheus crashed through the top floor again and landed with an evil smile on his face. He charged me again with his scythe acting as a wall. I couldn't cut through it, nor could I go head on without getting hurt again. So I dashed forward and moved slightly to the right to dodge his scythe. Prometheus predicted that and stopped dead in his tracks. I also predicted this, so I jumped into the air and drop kicked his head as hard as I could.

My dropkick landed successfully, toppling Prometheus over. I dashed forward and used one of Lan's favorite special attacks, Shoeunga. It looked kind of awkward since I was using two blades instead of just one. Despite this, the rising slash was equal in power and sent Prometheus into the air.

"Vorpal Strike!" I yelled out.

Vorpal Strike was an Incarnation attack that Black Lotus, my duel avatar, used. I wasn't sure if it was possible to use with Model Z, but since it gave me two blades and allowed me to use Death by Barraging, maybe it'll give me my Incarnation attacks too?

My right Z-Saber shot itself out and struck Prometheus in the chest. It then disappeared right as it struck him and reappeared back onto my right arm. I jumped into the air to slash Prometheus down with both of my Z-Sabers. However, despite taking a sword through the chest, Prometheus smiled evilly and disappeared right as I was about to slam my blades down on him.

Prometheus reappeared above me right as I landed back on the rooftop. His cape spread out into five ribbons and changed color into a disgusting yellow. He sent out four flaming skulls in different directions, none of them heading towards me. What was he up to? He was completely vulnerable, so I jumped up and slashed him multiple times with my double blades. But then I was struck by four purple flames that were shot out from somewhere faraway!

I felt the flames lick my face and burn my body as they went through me. I landed on the rooftop, exhausted and hot. It was too difficult to go on...

More flames came from the four flaming skulls from before and struck me again. I screamed in pain and fell flat to the ground, unable to move.

"The Red Mega Man has already fallen? That's too bad. Looks like I get my prize!" Prometheus laughed.

"N..No..." I gasped. I tried to raise my right arm, but it was useless. My body was too tired and too hurt to do anything.

"Pandora, extract the password data out of them," Prometheus said as he grabbed the Model W fragment.

"Of course..." said an emotionless female voice from behind me.

It took my all to turn my head and see a white Mega Man that held a rod and wore an egg-shaped helmet. The two ends of her helmet separated off and hovered over Vent and me. I felt it doing something to me, but I couldn't tell from my angle of view. I didn't feel any pain, so she wasn't ending my life... yet.

"Why... are you..." I tried to ask.

"Letting you live? Because your role in this Game of Destiny is to fight. If you somehow manage to survive until the end, then you'll know who you really are... And perhaps all there is to know about the world!" Prometheus said.

I don't understand. I said in my mind. I couldn't move my mouth anymore. My vision was getting dark and foggy.

Rest. Model Z said. Don't overexert yourself. You don't want to die after saving Lan.

I followed Model Z's advice and fell into a deep slumber, despite the raging fire around me.

[Database]

[Pandora - A mysterious Mega Man who is permanently R.O.C.K.'d ON with Model W. She's related to Prometheus.]

[Serpent - A colleague of Ciel's. He could be related to how she died.]

[Kurasaki Fuuko - Also known as Sky Raker in the Accelerated World. She's Kuroyukihime's best friend and vice-versa. She cares deeply for others, even if they are people she just met.]