Megaman ZX Advent – The Novelization
Chapter 10 – The Floating Ruins
Ashe and Grey reported in their mission in the Highway using the transerver at the back of the area before teleporting themselves to a small cave in a forest-like area. The two silver-haired Hunters headed out of the cave and saw that the road ahead of them was straight ahead and no Mechaloniloids were blocking their way.
"Alright, all clear!" Ashe said after she and Grey had checked the area and moved on, but the moving ground stopped them.
"W-What!? Aaargh!" Ashe and Grey flattened themselves on the ground as the ground they were on suddenly moved higher.
Once the ground stopped moving, Ashe got up and looked around, seeing that the ground they were on had floated high above the ground, "Huh!? W-We're floating! What's going on!?"
"Ashe! Grey! Can you hear me?" Thomas' voice was heard from the two's communicators as Grey got up to his feet, "That area is experiencing a gravitational anomaly. Also, powerful energy reactions have been discovered. In all likelihood they are the cause of the gravitational anomaly."
"Alright, we'll check this place out!" Grey ended the connection before turning to Ashe, "Let's go! The one causing this gravitational anomaly should be at the back of this area!"
"Yeah," Ashe nodded and was about to take a step forward when suddenly the wind around them started blowing hard, "Whoa! The wind in this area is strong!"
"Yeah, maybe it's because we're so high up!" Grey looked ahead and saw another floating ground in front of them, "But we have no choice other than to ignore the wind because we need to jump from one piece of ground to another!"
Ashe and Grey walked slowly as the strong blowing wind kept pushing them back before stopping at the edge of the ground. Grey jumped ahead and cleared the Mechaniloids on the ground away as he waited for Ashe to jump across. They shielded themselves behind the higher ground and waited for the strong wind to die down before they jumped over the higher ground and proceeded deeper into the ruins.
"Whoa!" Grey managed to grab a small tree branch before he could fall off the ground as the wind pushed him forward, but unaware that the wind had pushed Ashe towards him and made both of them fall off, "Yikes!"
"Sorry!" Ashe said as she held on for dear life on Grey's leg, "Grey, can you pull both of us up?"
"I'll… try…" Grey looked up and saw that his grip was slipping from the tree branch he was holding on to, "Darn it… the branch…"
Grey's grip on the branch loosened and the two Hunters fell, but Ashe's legs managed to land on a small floating platform. Ashe grabbed Grey's leg hard as she tried pulling him up, but failed as he was too heavy, "I can't pull you up!" Ashe noticed that the platform was going up towards the ground they were on, "Grey, I have a plan!"
"What is it…?" Grey asked from below.
"Listen, I need you to morph into Buckfire and use the rocket jump against that ground piece once I released your leg!" Ashe looked down at Grey, "Are you ready? I'm going to release it now!"
"Alright, go for it!" Grey yelled before Ashe released his leg.
Grey quickly morphed into Buckfire and kicked himself up against the ground, before landing safely on the ground piece across. Ashe morphed into Siarnaq before she jumped towards the ground Grey was on and pulled out her claws from the back of her hand, clinging herself on to the edge of the ground before pulling herself up and morphed back into her Model A form.
Grey, who had turned back to his Model A form as well, took the lead as they went through a few Mechaniloids to blast through before jumping across to the next ground piece. With the wind blowing around the Hunters, not many Mechaniloids were seen around as most of them got blown away by the strong gusts of wind.
They walked through the empty ground and made it to the edge to see a tall tree growing in front of them. The two morphed into Siarnaq before they used their claws to cling to the tree without getting blown away by the wind. Once the wind died down, they climbed up the branches they were on before jumping to the nearby branches to cross to the next ground piece.
Just as they were both about to jump to the next ground piece, more gusts of wind blew. Grey ignored the wind and jumped on to the ground before transforming back into his Model A form. Ashe, who was on the branch lower than Grey used to be on, morphed back into her Model A form before jumping to grab the edge of the ground, but her grip slipped.
"Ashe!" Grey saw Ashe's grip slipped and fell, but he managed to catch her in time, "Hang on, I'll pull you up!" More gusts of strong wind blew and pushed Grey closer to the edge, but he managed to gather the strength to pull Ashe up higher and throw her behind him.
Ashe landed safely behind Grey before she helped him up, "Thanks Grey, but why do you even bother saving me even after I emptied out your pockets, throwing you and your bed just to wake you up, and talking to you a lot every night that you can't sleep until I do?"
Grey let out a sigh, "I wish that you didn't just remind me about those nightmares…" Grey turned to Ashe with a smile, "It's just that we're partners and I don't think we can get through to Albert if we don't start working together," Ashe was about to open her mouth to speak, but Grey cut her off, "And it's not because that I'm your little brother, okay? Because I'm not your little brother!"
"Alright, I promise that I'm not going to little brother anymore!" Ashe walked past Grey and stopped with her back still turned to him, "You look younger than me and we have the same hair color, so that's why I considered you as my little brother," Ashe turned her head to Grey as she smiled, "Shall we get going?"
Grey nodded before he followed Ashe and walked to the other edge of the ground, finding another small flying platform in front of them. They got on to the platform before it took them to a more static ground. Ashe and Grey got off the platform before it flew back to the other side and the two Hunters walked around the ground before they noticed the humming Biometal sitting on a small set of stairs next to them.
"Is that… Model W? But what is it doing here!?" Grey asked as he and Ashe looked up at the Biometal.
A man in green teleported in front of them and stood in front of Model W, "Inescapable destiny… So, you came, Model A Mega Men. But I'll be taking the Model W."
"Aeolus!" Ashe recognized the man in green, "What are you doing collecting all those Model Ws!?"
"That's a silly question…" Aeolus turned his head away from the Hunters before he pulled out a green Biometal, "You call yourself Mega Men, yet you don't even know the significance of Model W… You fear what you don't understand, and eliminate what you fear… It's because of foolish people like you that there is conflict."
"I don't know about all that ideological babbling about, but I personally think that it's kinda like a threat," Model A's voice was heard.
"So it is," Aeolus turned back to the Hunters, "In the ideal world of mine, fools like you have no place!" Aeolus transformed into his Model H form, "Time is up, you fools!"
Aeolus jumped up and used his jet wings to air-dash towards Ashe before getting his sabers ready to cut her, but Ashe managed to sidestep in time and pulled out her buster guns to counter the attack with her charge laser followed by her laser shots. While kept Aeolus busy, Grey took the chance to dash behind him and morphed into Thetis before sending an ice dragon at him.
Aeolus charged at Grey before swinging his shorter saber and sent out whirlwind to hit both Ashe and Grey. Grey took the hit directly as he was the closest to Aeolus while Ashe only got blown away a little by the attack. Grey morphed back into his Model A form before charging his buster gun and aimed his Homing Shot gun at him, but Aeolus' three-slash combo had knocked his gun and Grey missed his shot.
As Aeolus was about to approach Grey, Ashe had fired her reflect laser and distracted him away for Grey to release his charged shot followed by a few regular buster shots. Aeolus swung his shorter saber once more and two whirlwinds headed towards the Hunters. Ashe and Grey jumped out of the way to dodge, but not noticing that Aeolus had jumped up and air-dashed once more towards Ashe before landing a slash from each of his saber on her shoulder.
Grey released a small charged shot before following it up with his Homing Shot, distracting him away from Ashe as she charged her buster gun. Grey charged his buster gun as well, leaving him to hit Aeolus with his Homing Shots. Aeolus dashed at Grey and landed a cross-slash on his chest, knocking it back, before he continued with his three-slash combo.
Grey rolled away to dodge before turning to Ashe, who nodded at him, before turning back to Aeolus with his buster gun pointed at him, "Take this!"
The charged shot from Grey hit and knocked Aeolus away, before Ashe followed up with her reflect laser, "And eat this!" Aeolus was knocked against the small set of stairs where the Model W was before he slowly got back to his feet.
"A defective and a plebian… I'll never acknowledge foolish people like you, Model A Mega Men!" Aeolus teleported himself away along with the Model W, leaving his data for Ashe and Grey to copy. As soon as they absorbed the data, some sparks appeared on their bodies for a moment as they yelled in pain. More data poured out from Model A along with a faint image of a few people behind the shadows.
"EXTRACTING FROM CODE UC80 TO AC195. EXPANDING REPORT DATA. The power of Biometal isn't something to be had by just anyone. It's a power which should only be obtained by a Chosen One, one with the ability to change the world. I devised this cipher to lock away the power of the Biometal. A cipher that would allow only the Chosen One to unleash its power. In other words, it's locked to its Biomatch. All Humans who get a bionic body have to come to Legion for inspection. All Reploids have come to Legion to have their life-cycle setting checked. I made sure that every bionic body part and Reploid I inspected was infused with my DNA. That is the key to the cipher, the proof of being the Chosen One. Yes, by viewing this data, you now have within you my DNA."
"Who is this guy anyway!?" Model A asked in frustration.
"… So, we're relatives of Albert!?" Ashe asked in disbelief.
"I know it's hard to take in, but try not to think about it," Model A comforted the two shocked Hunters.
"Uh… I guess…" Grey nodded hesitantly.
"That Albert guy just used his position as one of the Sage Trinity to do whatever he wanted!" Model A continued in irritation.
"It's true that Albert knows about technology more than anyone, but we don't know that was the kind of man he was," Thomas' sighing was heard from Ashe's and Grey's communicators, "We should've known better…"
"It's okay, we were kinda prepared for it," Ashe replied as she reached for her communicator.
"Alright, the area should stabilize soon. You should head to Scrapyard for the next destination," Thomas said before he ended the connection.
"Okay," Grey stretched his arms tiredly, "One more to go and we're back to the camp for resting!"