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Chapter 14

/Maria's P.O.V.

Maria threw the door to the roof open. After she had FINALLY gotten past the mechadoloid guard, Prometheus had left, and Grey, Vent and Neo were all demerged and Neo was looking rather pleased.

"NEO!" Her brother turned around. Maria walked up and gave him an icy look. "What. Happened. Here?"

"I met up with Prometheus." Neo replied casually. "He mentioned his sister, and we had an extremely extensive conversation on Moral values, Redemption, Model W, Albert and Cyrus's ambitions, the maverick raids, and his sister's life, which hangs on his service to Model W. I suggested that he might become a double agent, and he said he'd give it some thought. A lot of thought, actually. After all, this involves the lives of people all over the world, and Pandora, and himself for that matter, so Prometheus told me he'd give me an answer if I gave him some time to think everything over. And Grey here hung around and was insisting that I try my supposed powers of 'memory reading' on him, while ignoring all of Vent's 'you're such a child' comments."

Maria and Ashe both stared at him. Their expressions must have been priceless, because Neo, Vent AND Grey burst out laughing. "Do you two know what you look like?" Neo asked, clutching his gut and giggling uncontrollably. "You look like a pair of cows that got hit by a jackhammer."

Ashe shook her head wildly. "You know, Maria, ever since you and your brother became megamen, things have gotten weirder and weirder."

"I noticed." Maria replied weakly. After securing the area, the group of friends headed back to Hunter's camp, while Grey doubled back to meet up with Prometheus.

/At hunter's camp, three days later

"I'm bored, sis." Neo complained. He was sitting on the couch tossing Model O up and down and looking up at her. "I'm tired of training and there's nothing on TV. Can't we go somewhere for once?"

"You feel up to that?" Maria leaned over and glanced at him.

"Of course I do! Aren't you bored?"

"YES!" Maria exclaimed, startling her twin. "I want to do something too, but I didn't know if you wanted to go anywhere! You were pretty moody lately! But if you were bored, you should've told me!" She pulled Neo to his feet and ran out the door. "Where should we go?"

"I dunno…" They stood in silence for a few long moments.

"How about…somewhere no one's gone before?" Neo suggested, eyes brightening suddenly.

"That sounds like a great idea, but where would we go?" Maria asked, hyped up at the prospect of adventure.

"Past area A99." Neo replied, after thinking it over. "There's a network of caves there, and no one's gotten through them before."

"Why not?"

"It's rumored the place is protected by a mutant." Neo answered. "No one's sure because so far, none of the adventurers have come back yet."

"You're sure this is a safe thing to do?" Maria asked dubiously at the mention of the mutant.

Neo smirked. "Come on, sis. We've taken out armies of mavericks and you're worried about a mutant animal?"

"Good point." Maria smiled. "Let's go!" They ran out the gate and to the transerver.

/Area A99

Maria and Neo touched down by an old radio tower and looked around.

"This place is so barren…" Maria remarked. The ground was covered in frost and soaked by acid rain. There were caters everywhere.

"It's an war zone from the Elf Wars." Neo said, glancing over his shoulder like he was expecting the ghosts of the dead soldiers to appear behind them. "That's probably why. The land was so devastated it isn't fit for farming, much less anything else."

"I see…" Maria idly wondered if Omega had been in this battle, and then shook the thought away. This wasn't the time to dwell on the blood-crazed spirit she had to channel. She was on an adventure. To boldly go where no one has gone before! Maria had always wanted to do that.

"Come on. The tunnels are this way." Neo signaled towards a cave at appeared to be in the centre of the field. Maria paused, and then followed him in and downwards.

/Area unknown

Dark, dusty, damp, and you can barely see where you're putting your feet. Right. Like Maria had been expecting anything less.

"I don't see any mutant." Neo announced, sticking his head down one of the tunnels.

"That's nice." Maria muttered. "I HATE mutants. What kind of idiot came up with mutation anyway?"

"Doctor J. Psychotic Moron." Neo replied dryly, implying that he felt the same way. They started walking. Maria dug the edge of her blade into the wall so they'd know how to get back. There was silence, except for dripping water, her blade marking the wall, and the sound of their footsteps.

/Later

"Do all secret underground tunnels go on seemingly forever?" Maria asked after they had been walking for what seemed like an hour.

Neo stopped. "Do you see that?"

"Huh? I can barely see anything down here-" Maria stopped. A dim light was coming from the end of the tunnel.

"Over there." Neo said adamantly. They rushed forward. Reaching the end of the tunnels, they stepped into a room lit by blue crystals that seemed to be on fire. In the middle of the room sat a fairly large computer.

"Wow. A computer?" Neo didn't reply, but he sat down on the chair and turned it on. "What is it?" Maria pressed, putting her arms around his neck. Neo flinched under the touch but didn't push her away. He hadn't liked being touched after he had returned from Laputa. Maria gave him space, but she insisted on giving him a hug once and a while, in another effort to nurse her brother back to normal.

"It's got some kind of data file on it." Neo replied absently. "…It's dated back 200 years…written by Doctor Ceil-"

"Ciel?" Maria's Model O demanded, while Neo's half let out a startled yelping noise. That half of Model O seemed to have a personality that leaned more towards animal than human, which Maria found really creepy. It didn't speak; it growled, hissed, or yelped. She didn't think she'd ever get used to it. But that wasn't important now.

"What's up, Model O?"

"God Maria, how could you not know? Doctor Ceil is the one who gave me this form and CREATED the other biometals!"

"WHAT?" Neo turned back to the screen, his eyes flicking over the jumbled assortment of data. "I can't make heads or tails out of this." He said in frustration.

"Maybe one of the Legion operators could." Maria suggested, pulling a memory stick out of her pocket. "Let's download it and bring it back." Neo nodded, and Maria quickly copied everything in the computer's database onto her stick. She thrust it into her pocket and looked around.

There was the way back, but another tunnel lead further downwards. And judging by Neo's expression, he wasn't done looking around yet. "Maybe there's more to find down here that way." He said.

"Maybe…but Neo…I feel like we're being watched…" It was true. Maria's sixth sense was driving her crazy. The twitches and stiffness in Neo's joints got more intense, he could feel it too.

"Keep your saber out." He said, his voice rock steady. "And don't relax your guard." He gripped Maria's hand tightly. Maria wanted to say that she could take care of herself, but bit her tongue when she saw Neo's worried expression. He was rather overprotective of her, refusing to let her go out on a mission without him, and Maria had a sneaking suspicion she knew why.

Neo claimed he felt no fear, but he was terrified by the thought of losing her. And terror can easily turn to anger, towards anyone at that, and Maria didn't want that animal-like, pitiless, blood-hungry version of Neo to take over again. She played along to keep him calm. Slowly they stepped into the next tunnel.

/Later

Just walking down the lightless tunnels was bad enough. But walking down lightless tunnels and feeling like something big, dangerous, and possibly hungry was watching you was much, much worse. Maria's muscles were tensed as she scratched the wall with her blade. Her breathing seemed louder than normal.

"God, the feeling is so heavy I can barely breath." She murmured, needing to break the silence. Neo nodded in silent agreement. He stepped into a fairly large cavern. Once again, the blue crystals seemed to be on fire and lay littered on the floor. This time, there was no computer. Just a badly damaged hologram projector.

Neo looked like he was about to say something, but his eyes widened. "Hit the deck!" A black blur flew over their heads and landed in the middle of the room. Maria looked up and gasped. It was a giant creature with the head of a goat, the body of a lion, and a three-headed snake for a tail.

"Well, we were wondering what was hungry." Neo said darkly. "Now we know."

The mutant snarled and then hurtled towards them.

/Author's Note: Killed you all with the cliffy, huh? Until next time! And REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! THE BLUE BUTTON! PRESS IT!