Chapter 25: Cygnus Wing The Swan Warrior

"Prepare to witness the great power of Cygnus Wing!" the sky blue Merged Being shouted as he spread his big white wings apart and brought his arms together in an attempt to create a mini wind storm. "Furious Breeze!"

"Whoa!" Geo exclaimed as the blast of air pushed him a few inches backwards. "That's some strong breeze! It's causing the others to go flying!"

"Be careful around this guy Geo," Omega warned the boy while addressing him by his name again. "He's a lot smarter than Taurus Fire. Don't underestimate him or his abilities for a second."

"That's quite a considerate warning to be giving your human companion," Cygnus Wing said with his arms crossed. "To what does he deserve such a kind word of advice from you? What has he ever done for you that would make you so compelled to go so far as to give him a warning of sorts?"

"I'll tell you what he's done for me," he replied as he trained his head at the swan-like FM-ian. "He's given me a place to stay when I had nowhere else to go to. He taught me about Earth and what it has to offer. He has given me something that I thought I would never have had again. He showed me friendship. He made me once again experience what friendship was. For him to give me so much and not try to help him in return would be considered unfriendly."

"Again with the friendship crap," the swan sighed as he impatiently tapped his white gloved fingers on his arm. "It seems as though you didn't learn anything from your first friendship tragedy. I guess it's up to me to teach you again the pain that friendship can cause you."

"I'm afraid that I'll be the one teaching you," the Wave being said with a growl. "The subject for today: Complete and utter defeat from the one that you insist on calling a traitor!"

Then let us begin with our little teaching contest. Let us see who can teach the other better. I believe that I'll be the winner, though. You have no chance of landing a single strike on me."

"If he can't hit you, then I will," Geo replied as he brought his free arm under Omega's head to keep it steady. "Don't forget that you're fighting against two people here."

"Humph, I suppose this would be the one time where I should take heed of Taurus' words. He was right on you being able to retain your consciousness during a Wave Change. Oh well, that just means that I'll get to defeat two beings instead of one. Double the fun and double the trouble. Feather Darts!"

With great speed, Cygnus Wing reached into his left wind and pulled out a few feathers. Without wasting a single second, he threw them at the two of them as if they were regular darts.

"Buster Shot!" Geo exclaimed as Omega shot a few energy shots at the oncoming feathers, therefore canceling each other out.

"Not bad for a human. You even figured out how to use one of the traitor's attacks as if it were your own. I commend you for that. But can you dodge this next and more devastating attack? Wing Rush!"

With amazing agility, the swan FM-ian suddenly disappeared from their line of vision. Surprised, Geo attempted to look for the Wave being but had no luck.

"Where did he go?" he asked as he looked everywhere and still could not find the Wave being. "He couldn't have just disappeared."

"Move it!" Omega exclaimed. "He's behind you!"

Acting on reflexes, the boy turned around and saw the body of Cygnus Wing right in front of him. His right arm was raised up in preparation for a strike. At the last moment, he managed to get away from the brunt force of the attack, but still got clipped on the shoulder and was sent flying a good yard or two away. As a result, he landed on his back with a thud.

"Jeez, that's one strong wing!" he said through clenched teeth as he made a move to get up onto his feet. "I didn't think his wing would have been that strong. Who would have thought that he could have moved so fast, for that matter?"

"That's how he rolls," Omega explained. "And if you thought that the hit you got was bad, just think about how much worse it could have been if you hadn't moved away in time."

"A pity that I couldn't make it worse," Cygnus Wing replied with his arms crossed again. "I suppose I underestimated the capabilities of your human host traitor. It's time for me to sharpen up my skills and stop playing around. From this point on, the kiddie gloves are off."

And with the speed of the fastest fowl to ever grace the planet, he took to the air above everybody and everything. It was so fast that Geo and Omega could barely manage to keep up with him.

"It looks as though Cygnus Wing's Wave Change somehow enhanced his fighting abilities a bit," Omega speculated with a grunt of surprise. "I've never seen him move this fast before."

"You should know why my powers are amplified," the swan said as the big wings on his back kept him afloat in the air. "Whenever a Wave being fuses together with someone who has the same Wave Signature, their powers become stronger. Surely you knew that by now. Oh, how silly of me. How could I have forgotten such an important detail? This is only your second time performing a Wave Change in your entire twelve years of life."

"So what if this is only my second time performing a Wave Change? What business is it for you to know? I fared pretty well on my first try. Last time I checked, I took down Taurus Fire and, at the same time, knew what I was doing. So I forgot that one little detail. Big whoop. I'm still going to mop the floor with you like I did with Taurus Fire."

"Are you sure that was all your doing? What's to stop me from saying that your human 'friend' did all the work for you? For all you know, he could have done all the work and left you thinking that you performed some modicum of work with your pitifully weak skills."

"That's not true at all Cygnus Wing!" Geo, who had been silent for most of the conversation, exclaimed. "In fact, it's quite the opposite of that. Omega did most of the work while I just stood around on the sidelines waiting to be called on for help. I barely contributed anything to that battle. For you to say that Omega knows nothing about fighting and insinuating that I have even a mediocre amount of battle expertise is nothing short of insulting."

"Geo's right," Omega agreed with the boy as he seemed unfazed at his unexpected defense. "I did do most of the work. However, that doesn't mean that he didn't give me a lot of help. If he didn't allow me to use his body for the Wave Change, I wouldn't have stood a chance. If it weren't for his willing cooperation, then I wouldn't have been able to utilize the full potential of my weapons and battle expertise."

"Weapons and battle expertise? Allowing the use of one's body for the sake of a wave Change? Don't make me laugh. Humans were born for the sole purpose of enabling us the use of their bodies without consent. They weren't meant to be freely given. As to battle and weapons expertise, what in the world are you talking about? You couldn't aim your gun properly to save your life during your training exercises back on the FM Planet. You expect me to believe that you have even the smallest amount of battle prowess in the battlefield?"

"If you put it that way, then yes," Omega simply replied. "I don't think that it's that hard to imagine that I got somewhat better during our little game of tag out in space. After all, we were at it for a good few months. It also helps when you only have your imagination to occupy yourself and a good photographic memory to go over and create techniques when you're bored."

"You created your own battle moves? Now this is something that I have to see in order to believe. I doubt that you're even telling the truth, though. Knowing you, you're jus trying to bluff your way out of this one."

"If that's what you think, then consider us even on your attempt earlier to psyche me out. It didn't work when you tried to make me doubt my ability to fight. I'll show you what I can do. Once you see what I can do, you'll regret ever trying to underestimate me!"

"It's one thing to say it, but it's another to do it. Can you deliver on your words? I highly doubt you'd be able to. I doubt that just as much as I do with you being happy with this bond that you have created with this human. You're nothing but a sorry, no-good emotional excuse for a FM Warrior."

"Hey, watch what you're saying!" Geo backed his Wave friend up. "Whoever messes with my buddy Omega here ends up messing with me. Don't think for a single minute that you're going to beat the two of us. We're definitely going to shoot you out of the sky and beat you into the ground!"

At this, Omega was completely astonished at the fact that the boy would come to his defense like that. In his heart was an unexplainable, yet familiar, feeling. It was very hard to explain, but he guessed that this was the joy of knowing that someone cared so much about him that they would stand up for him. The last time he had ever felt this feeling was before the incident with his other friends occurred.

"Tough words coming from a no-good excuse for a weakling of a human," Cygnus Wing insultingly replied as he reached into his left wind again. "I suppose the time for our little chat has come to an end. And without further delay either. I didn't enjoy a single minute of it. Feather Darts!"

For the second time, the swan reached into his left wing again and immediately threw another small barrage of sharp feathers at the pair. This time, Geo dodged the projectiles instead of canceling them out with Omega's weapon and they harmlessly struck the concrete floor.

"Running away, are we?" he chuckled teasingly. "Such a sad sight. You're going to have to do more than that if you intend on beating me. Wing Rush!"

With the speed of the fastest flying bird known to man, Cygnus Wing sped towards them at an extraordinary rate. This time, he had his wings spread straight out and was prepared to slice through them. It was so fast, he was sure that he would have struck his target.

However, that was not the case this time. Once again at the last second, Geo managed to dodge the attack. He moved faster from before so he would not repeat the same mistake. It paid off and he escaped without a scratch.

"So you mastered the art of dodging," Cygnus Wing said in a slightly irritated tone. "I never expected you to be such a coward. You always seemed like the type to always go head first into a fight Omega."

"I think you're confusing me with Taurus," Omega replied as he allowed energy to build up within him. "I don't go looking for fights. I only fight when I have to. This falls into that category."

"If you're going to fight, then at least make it a bit more lively," the swan mocked yawn as to show that he was not paying attention. "This is enough to bore me to sleep. Oh well, easier fight for me. Swan Army!"

"Swan Army?" Geo repeated with confusion. "How is he going to make an army of swans come out of nowhere?" "Like this," he replied with a simple twist of his wrist.

At this single movement, a group of ten small pure black and pure white swans appeared behind Cygnus Wing. They resembled nothing like him yet their eyes told that they were menacing enough to be taken seriously.

"Be careful," Omega warned as he continued to collect energy. "Those things act like a grenade. They're small, but deadly."

"They're grenades?" Geo asked to make sure he heard correctly. "I thought he was just all feathers and speed. I didn't think that he was a blasting type of guy."

"Don't worry, I got it all under control," the Wave being replied in a confident tone.

"Fly, my darling little children!" the swan commanded the ten smaller birds behind him. "Give the traitor and his human companion a blast that they won't soon forget."

At this command, the small army immediately flew towards Geo and Omega at a somewhat slower pace than Cygnus Wing's. Their eyes were glowing bright red as the approached closer and closer.

"Watch me take care of these little birdbrains in one go, Geo," Omega boasted as he finally collected enough energy for an attack he had been preparing. "Shotgun Scatter Shot!"

When the collective energy was released, it took on the form of a light purple round ball. It traveled to the center of the group of baby swans at the same speed a regular bullet would have went. Once it reached the center of the group, the ball of energy exploded and energy fragments were blown in all sorts of directions. Since it was in the direct center of its intended target, all of the baby swans were struck and blew up before they reached their destination.

"Oh yeah!" the Wave being yelled out in triumph as Geo took his arm off from under his head. "How's that for being a Wave being who's only done a Wave Change twice in his entire life? Do you still think that I'm nothing but a worthless traitor who can't even hold out on his own?"

"It appears that I have seriously underestimated you, traitor," Cygnus Wing replied with a huff. "I never would have expected that you would be capable of creating your own style of fighting. It's impressive that you were able to destroy all ten of my swan grenades. However, I wouldn't be celebrating just yet. I have a few more tricks up my sleeve. Feather Darts!"

Once again, the swan threw some more sharp feathers at the pair. However, instead of flying towards them like they had anticipated, the feathers took a different direction and flew harmlessly past them.

"What in the world is he trying to do?" Omega asked as Geo turned his body around to follow the projectiles.

"I don't know," Geo replied nervously, "but whatever it is, it's bound to be nothing but trouble."

"You do not know how right you are on that accord," the swan said with an evil smile gracing his lips. "In fact, I believe the truth behind my motive will just suddenly blow up right in your faces!"

At this remark, Geo finally understood the intended path of the feathers. With great speed and urgency, he brought Omega's head up to eye level and quickly aimed at the projectiles. That's when he came up with an on-the-spot idea. Without giving it a second thought, he felt a small amount of energy being focused at Omega.

"Homing Shot!" he blurted out as a few small energy bullets came out of Omega's mouth and made their way towards the feathers at a speed faster than its target.

Within a matter of seconds, the bullets made contact with the feathers and knocked them out of the sky, thus putting their flight path to an end.

"Don't you dare think about trying to destroy that shuttle engine behind me!" the boy exclaimed as he turned around and kept Omega's head trained at Cygnus Wing. "A blast from that can easily take out AMAKEN and everything around it! There's no way am I going to let you do that!"

"Figured out my little plan, did you?" the swan hissed out as he descended back down onto the concrete floor. "You found out that I was really aiming for that engine. That's pretty good. You also discovered how to utilize your Wave being's power and make it your own. Impressive."

"It wasn't that hard to figure out bird brain. I just took Omega's words on creating battle moves into consideration and decided to give it a try."

"And I truly commend you for that achievement, human. However, the intention that you have so nicely crafted out for me is beyond correct. My true goal is to destroy you human so I can easily beat the traitor. I see now that if I allow the two of you to fight together any longer, then I'll never have a chance to win. The next best thing for me to do is to force your body to un-fuse with the traitor and take him out when he's most vulnerable. As for you, you'd be burned to a crisp before anybody can even come close to save you. The whole part about having your precious AMAKEN go down with you is just a pleasant side effect of my plan."

"You're planning to do what?!" Omega shouted in surprise in response to what he just heard. "You're planning to kill Geo and a whole bunch of other people just to get a chance at me?!"

"In a manner of speaking, yes," Cygnus Wing simply replied without any kind of remorse in his voice. "Seeing as how you're so stubborn and refuse to go down without a fight of sorts, this is the easiest way for me to get to you. Besides, what's a few dozen lost lives compared to those of a hundred million on this pathetic planet? It's not as though anyone's going to be missing them anytime soon."

"How can you act so uncaring about it as if it were nothing serious?!" Geo asked in utter shock. "You're talking about killing so many innocents here! These are valuable human lives we're talking about!"

"Valuable human lives?" the swan repeated. "What's so valuable about a human life? For all it's worth, all it causes is nothing but unnecessary trouble. I could hardly care less about it. All I care about here is the mission. All I care about is capturing the traitor alive and bringing him before the king of the FM Planet to answer for his crimes. That's all that matters to me."

"I can't believe that you actually said that!" Omega said as he shook his head in complete disappointment. "How dare you consider killing off innocent people just to satisfy your own goals."

"Spare me the details. If you're trying to bring me on a guilt trip, it's not going to work. If this is the way it has to be in order for me to capture you, then so be it. Feather Dart Rush!"

In this new and unfamiliar move, Cygnus Wing moved as fast as he did with a regular Wing Rush. However, he also had a set of feather darts in his hand. With it, he dashed towards the shuttle engine behind Geo and Omega. The movement was so fast, the boy and his ally had no time to react against this new attack.

"It's time to end this once and for all," the swan said as he prepared to throw the darts in his hand. "Prepare to witness the greatest explosion of your life. In fact, let's make it into your only greatest explosion of your life!"

Making sure to leave no window of opportunity for a counter attack, he threw his darts directly at the engine with amazing agility.

"Nnnnooooo!!!!!" Geo shouted helplessly as he watched the darts inch closer and closer to the engines themselves.

It was as though time itself had somehow slowed down around him. As every second slowly passed by, he saw the darts creep another inch towards their target. Nothing stood in their way as a form of obstruction. Many emotions started to flood into him during this altered time phase. Anger, fright, shock, hopelessness; they all came to him as if a dam had busted inside of him.

Another second passed by. In a few more seconds, the darts would damage the engines, causing it to explode and destroy AMAKEN and everything near it. There was nothing to do except to wait for the inevitable.

However, that time never came. Just before the darts struck the engine, they suddenly came to a stop. At this point, time seemed to flow normally again. Even so, the darts still floated in place, seemingly frozen by some unseen force. It looked as though they would not be moving anytime soon.

"Wh-what's going on here?!" Cygnus Wing exclaimed in shock as he saw his attack suddenly stop. "Why are they not moving in for the finishing blow? What's wrong with those darts?"

Suddenly, the said darts fell to the floor and disappeared without a trace, leaving a dumbstruck Cygnus Wing and a relieved Geo and Omega staring at the engine.

"Looks like I brought it up just in time," a familiar voice echoed through the intercoms around the garage.

"Is that you Aaron?!" Geo asked in surprise as he saw a slight flicker surround the shuttle engine. "Where are you?"

"Main control room," Aaron hastily answered. "I just put a force field around the engine. Use this time to take out that Wave being. The force field isn't built to sustain that much damage. Hurry up and finish this before it reaches it's limit."

"Thanks Aaron!" Geo thanked the an as he regained his composure and got himself ready to fight Cygnus Wing again.

"It looks like your plan failed," Omega replied in a teasing tone. "Now you have no choice but to fight us in this form."

"Humph, it's nothing but a minor setback," Cygnus Wing huffed as he attempted to brush it off. "I can still beat you in the conventional way. It'll just take a little more time than I would like. Besides, I can't possibly see you beating me in your nameless Merged Form."

"That doesn't mean that we're not going to give it a shot!" Omega answered back as he prepared for one of his attacks. "Rapid Mega Buster!"

In response to the rapid energy shots, the swan immediately conducted a few quick agile movements and successfully dodged the attack. He then took to the air where he could easily dodge more attacks.

"Multiple Feather Darts!" he shouted as he took a bunch of darts into both his hands and threw them towards Omega and Geo.

With the combination of skill and observation, Omega shot down some of the darts down while Geo dodged other oncoming ones. With each others help, they managed to survive the onslaught of darts unscathed.

"Enough of this!" Cygnus Wing shouted in clear agitation. "I shall end this little game here and now! Swan Army!"

Just as before, ten baby swans of both pure black and white color appeared behind him. With the same graceful flick of his wrist, they charged at the pair with the same red eyes staring at them.

"Same thing as before?" Geo asked as he propped Omega's head up for better leverage.

"With a little experimental twist," Omega answered as he quickly collected more energy for the one attack that could effectively take care of this explosive army of swans. "Shotgun Scatter Shot!"

Once again, a light purple ball of energy was shot out and made its way to the center of the swan group. Once at the center, it exploded into tiny little energy fragments and destroyed the grenades.

"Performing the same little parlor trick again won't do you any good," the swan replied through clenched teeth. "It'll only delay your inevitable defeat."

"Who said I was performing the same trick?" Omega cockily spat back as he prepared himself for another move. "How about you watch and then tell me if it's the same move or not."

With that said, the energy fragments that came from the previously light purple ball began to come back towards Omega. Once they were all back, it seemed to be attempting to reshape itself. However, it didn't seem to be doing a very good job. Instead of reforming itself into the perfect round ball it once was, it was now all jagged and pointy as if it were a medieval ball and chain sans the chain.

"Prepare to enjoy this new move I made up, Cygnus Wing," the Wave being smiled as the ball of energy finished reforming itself. "I hope you like it just as much as I do. Homing Fragment Bomb!"

As if he was chucking a big pointy rock, he threw the jagged energy ball at Cygnus Wing and waited for it to hit its mark. However, it fell just a bit short from his position up in the air and fell to the ground. When it struck the concrete, it exploded in a puff of black smoke.

"That was your pitiful excuse of a new attack?" the swan asked as he began to laugh. "And you actually had me worried there for a second. That pitiful ball couldn't even manage to hit me. Just what were you hoping to accomplish with that?"

"More than you could ever imagine," Omega simply replied as he kept his eyes on the cloud of smoke. "Just wait and see."

A couple of seconds later, something shot out of the smoke and headed right towards Cygnus Wing, who was still somewhat paralyzed with laughter. Before he could get a chance to react, he was struck on one of his wings, causing him to fall to the ground. Then a whole bunch of the small energy fragments from the bomb came and continually struck the swan. None of the fragments missed their mark, who was forced to lay flat on the floor as they continued to bombard him.

"Y-you…!!!" he managed to utter as the barrage came to an end. "How did you…"

"A good imagination when I'm bored and a photographic memory," Omega answered the swan's unasked question. "I told you that I can create my own battle moves. That's what you get for sorely underestimating me and Geo here."

"How could I…have been beaten by…a traitor and his…no good weakling of a human? And in his…nameless Merged Form…no less!"

"Because you only believed what you wanted to believe," Geo explained with a tired sigh. "You already figured that Omega had no battle experience and I was nothing more than a weak human who couldn't hold his own in a battle. You refused to let those facts change, no matter how many times you've been proven wrong."

"I've…never been wrong," the injured swan struggled to say. "You are…nothing but a…weak human! And that…traitor…is nothing more…but a pup…who thinks he…knows it all!"

"You just don't get it, do you?" the Wave being sighed in defeat. "So what I'm just a pup in your eyes? That doesn't change the fact that I have gotten better over the months that you have been chasing me. It doesn't matter if my Merged Form doesn't even have a name. You guys never took the time to even offer me a choice of, so it ends up being your fault."

"As if it matters now. You don't…deserve to have…a name attached to… your Merged For…"

"Megaman," Geo suddenly interrupted them.

"I'm…sorry?" Cygnus Wing managed to respond quizzically. "What did you say…just now?"

"I said 'Megaman'," the boy repeated. "That's the name I cam up with for his Merged Form: Megaman. What do you think about it, Omega?"

"Y-you actually came up with a name for me?" Omega asked with surprise clear in his voice.

"Yeah, I did. So how do you like it?"

"I-it's got a nice ring to it. That and it seems to fit well with what I have been doing lately; creating new attacks and adapting to different occasions and all."

"Ha, ha, ha!" the swan laughed painfully. "So you came up…with a name. A very…poor excuse for a name. No matter what you call yourself…, you'll always be a traitor…in our eyes. Until…we meet again, traitor!"

And with that, he released his hold on Tom's body and retreated back to wherever he and his other comrades where hiding out on Earth.

"W-we did it," Geo said with a shaky sigh as he felt his connection with Omega go away. "We took care of Cygnus, protected AMAKEN from further damage, and saved Tom."

"We were pretty good," Omega agreed as they fully separated from each other and had their own bodies again. "Especially you Geo. You kept up with him pretty well."

"Oh, I just provided the movement," the boy replied as he tried to brush off his end of the work. "You're the one who did most of the work."

"Don't shortchange yourself. You're better than you think you are and don't you forget it. You're seriously the best partner a Wave being could ever ask for."

"Thanks…, Megaman."

"Megaman… I really like the sound of it. I think it's official then. From now on, our Merged Form is going to be called 'Megaman'."

"Geo, are you okay?" Aaron's voice echoed from inside the garage.

"I'm fine," he answered back. "I'm not sure if you know this, but Tom's passed out over here."

"He is?!" the man exclaimed. "I'll go ahead and send the medical team down there right away. In the meantime, go ahead and wait for me in my office. I'll be right there to talk to you about what happened once I'm done here in the control room."

"Alright. Come on, Omega. Let's get going before somebody like the Satella Police comes and catches us here."

"Oh, please tell me that we don't have to deal with them again," Omega whined as he followed Geo back into Aaron's office.