Well... it's been... a while...? Sorry it took so long to update this, but I wasn't planning for it to take this long. My project deadlines were keeping me from writing for the past few weeks and then there's the writer's block...
Ushindeshi: Sorry for the late update, but here's the long awaited chapter!
Now here's the new update: finally an action scene coming from the new generation of Mega Man!
End of Era
Chapter 6 – Showdown at the City
"Yes?" a man with long green hair tied into a loose ponytail put a hand over the communicator on his ear, "I'm still in class. Can't you wait until class is over?"
"Forget about the class, get over here already!" a woman's angry voice came from the communicator, loud enough for the class of young humanoid kids and reploids behind him to hear, "Storm is out there fighting those mechaniloids! I can't do anything to help him without Model F!"
The man let out a sigh as he put his free hand over his eyes, "I thought I already told you to bring the clone! You know Storm hasn't been trained enough for field battles more than anyone!"
"Save the arguments for later, you idiot!" the woman yelled once more, "You will get here Aeolus, and fast!"
"W-Wait, Atlas!" the communication ended with a click before he could respond. He turned back to his class and saw the anticipating stares he was getting from his students before he sighed, "Class is dismissed early for today only. Make sure to finish your project by next week and don't forget to study for a quiz tomorrow."
The man, Aeolus, left quickly as the sounds of children whining and complaining echoed as he ran through the hallways and out of the building. He reached for his light green coat's pocket as he stepped outside and flew away in the green armor he used to fight in. He had to go quickly before he and Atlas could experience another nightmare like how it was years ago.
"Hah!" Storm, armed with a pair of buster guns and the familiar red armor had slammed both of his busters to the ground to create a wave of flames towards the incoming Diadrakes.
The attacks hit the dragon mechaniloid, but the fire wasn't strong enough to knock them down. He tried digging his heels in when both of them tackled him, but the second dragon mechaniloid managed to knock him back. When the first one was about to return with another hard tackle, he slammed one of his buster guns square on its face to knock it away. With the first one taken out, Storm fired a small bomb from his buster guns at the second Diadrake, which exploded on its body.
Once he had taken care of the two bigger mechaniloids, he looked at his sides where the other Guardian members were fighting. While they looked more experienced in the battlefield compared to he was, the strength of their weapons weren't enough to take the approaching mechaniloids in one hit. He had to help them by modifying his bullet path to help with some chip damage against them.
Estelle and Oriel couldn't do anything but watch helplessly by the base entrance before Atlas came out from the building, "Kids, take shelter inside! This is too dangerous for civilians to be around here!"
"But Chief…" Estelle turned to look at Storm once more, who was shooting at a pair of flying Galleons, "Storm is…"
"He's going to be… fine…" Atlas finished her sentence slowly as she watched the bullets the Galleons were going before she saw one of them hitting one of the loose roof plates above them, "Look out!"
Before the two siblings could completely aware of her warning was for, Atlas had already dived towards them and the heavy metal plate fell behind her. The loud clanging sound of the fallen metal had distracted Storm for a moment, "Tch. You guys are playing dirty."
Storm slammed his buster guns to the ground, damaging any nearby mechaniloids while sending him to the air as he changed into his Model H form. He swung his twin sabers to send out a swirling tornado to immobilize the attackers as he ran back to his mother and friends.
"S-Storm! What are you doing here?! Get back out there!" Atlas scolded, "Leave the commander's children to me!"
"You-" a heavy object happened to fall behind Storm as he stopped talking and turned around, seeing the shadow of a big figure with a fluttering cape behind him. He glanced nervously at the three behind him before tossing an item behind him, "Fine, use this."
"Model… F…" Atlas looked at the red Biometal as she held it in her shaking hands, "I…"
With his small task done, Storm summoned more tornadoes to send the newcomer flying away. Unfortunately, the figure was too heavy for Storm's wind-based attacks to completely budge him from his spot. The figure moved his big hand to his back, taking out a big cannon from behind, but Storm managed to send a ball of lighting paralyze him before he could aim.
With Storm finally managed to push the paralyzed newcomer to give Atlas some space, the brown-haired woman managed to transform herself as she stood in front of Estelle and Oriel. Compared to the battle-ready Storm, Atlas stood still on her place while she was shaking as she pointed her buster guns at the nearest Gyrocutters.
"C-Chief, why are you shaking?" Oriel asked innocently.
"N-No, I'm not…" Atlas nervously before seeing that her hands were clearly shaking uncontrollably, "Maybe I am… I haven't been out here for years…"
"Guh!" the sound of Storm being knocked down to the ground by the figure's cannon got the three's attention.
"No…" Atlas looked at Storm in fear as her transformation was starting to undo itself, "Not… again… no… more…"
The Guardian Chief's breathing became faster as she fell to her knees and her armor was gone. She went deaf to the calls of the two nearby along with the loud thud as the red Biometal hit the metal floor. Her mind went back to replay the moments from her last fight over and over again, with the same words repeating itself in her head.
"The baby couldn't survive…"
Storm rolled aside to avoid being flattened by the big cannon his opponent was holding, until the figure decided to fire a few homing missiles which he didn't expect as he took the hits directly. Some of the missiles had also hit the ground around him, covering his surroundings with a cloud of black smoke. He couldn't see anything with thick smoke around him, so he summoned a bigger tornado to clear the air around him.
Once his vision was clear enough to see, Storm was met with a charging cannon aimed at him at point-blank range. He barely dodged the laser cannon as he dashed sideways, letting the fatal beam struck and completely annihilated a big part of the building's edge. He looked at the newly-created hole nervously as he imagined what could've happened to him if the attack hit him instead. Along with the big hole, Storm was expecting to see his friends along with his mother nearby, though one friend was missing from the spot.
"Stop iiittt!" Storm turned around the moment he heard the familiar voice and saw the charging teen as she was holding an iron pole-like object above her head, "Don't hurt my friend!"
The big newcomer casually looked at Estelle as she closed the distance and tried hitting him with the object she was holding. From Storm's point of view, the pole didn't even make him twitch as he took the hits without showing any sort of pain or causing any visible dents on the newcomer's green armor. She looked like she was making a fool of herself as the newcomer simply stared at Estelle as she restlessly hit him around.
"Stop it already, Estelle!" Storm called out to her, "This guy isn't at your level!"
"I already did," Estelle spoke up as she was still swinging her pole around, "my own sword training!"
The big newcomer's eyes glowed red as he took his cannon in his hands once more, ignoring the flailing teen trying to damage him. Storm noticed that the big cannon had showed signs of changing shape, though Estelle was still too busy trying to get the bigger figure to fall. He readied himself as the cannon was still changing before quickly dashing towards them to grab Estelle before a huge knife fell on top of them.
At the last second, Storm changed his plan and pushed her away instead as he quickly pulled out his sabers to block the incoming sawtooth bayonet knife. The force was too much for him that he was sent crashing to the ground, creating a small crater around him. He stared into the newcomer's glowing red eyes and the scar across his face as he tried pushing the bigger figure off him, though the knife slowly made its way past Storm's crossed sabers.
Noticing the incoming sharp object, Storm tried putting one of his feet on the big newcomer's abdomen as he tried pushing him aside with the force from his jets. The force proved to be enough to send the figure rolling away to the base. He expected his mother to be ready to send him away with her buster shots, though his mother was curling on the ground while shaking continuously.
The big newcomer took this as an opportunity as he gave a sign with his hand and more mechaniloids charged in past the other fighting Guardians, who had their numbers greatly reduced. Storm took a quick glance at Estelle as she was rubbing off the dust from the minor scratches from the fall earlier before using his jets to dash faster in front of his mother and Oriel. He held his sabers lowly as he scanned the enemies in front of him.
He was already exhausted enough from using his strength on his jets to move faster and tornadoes to attack, but the enemies he had to face on his own were still too many and too strong. The mechaniloids were marching in through the final layers of defense as the last standing Guardian member had fallen and the big figure was standing in the middle of them with another beam cannon attack being charged up. He ignored his fatigue and the fact that his transformation was starting to fade as he readied his sabers once more.
It was too late for him, as the cannon had already charged up before Storm could take another step and the green armor covering his body had already disappeared. The green Biometal had replaced the sabers he was holding before as he faced the incoming laser attack. His legs refused to move and he had no other choice but to take the attack head on without any form of defense as he braced himself and closed his eyes.
But the attack never hit him.
A force of wind was blown from behind him as he opened his eyes and saw the big figure in front of him lying on the ground, paralyzed. Another figure with identical green armor descended between him and the newcomer with the exact same twin sabers in his hands, "I have a feeling that this wouldn't happen if your mother isn't being so stubborn."
A feeling of relief came to Storm as he let out a small smile, "Father…"
Aeolus turned to his son with a stern look on his face, "You're not ready to be out on the battlefield yet. You still need to master using Model H's power and don't focus too much on improving your control over Model F."
"Y-Yes, Sir!" Storm replied nervously before he noticed that the big figure had slowly got back to his feet, "Is it fine for me to watch you fight him?"
Aeolus turned to the big figure as he had commanded the remaining mechaniloids to charge in before turning back to his son, "I won't need to do much here. There are two others coming for backup, as well as some sort of business they need with this reploid," Aeolus turned to the big reploid, "Who are you and what's your connection with either the Guardians or the Hunters?"
The big reploid stood still as he glared at the older Chosen One before putting his cannon beside him, "I don't have a name anymore. I am only created bearing the creation code WP-002 with the base body of a reploid named Craft."
"Craft?" Storm turned to his father from the surprised tone of his voice, "Where have I heard that name…?"
The sound of explosions interrupted their conversation as the mechaniloids, which had got closer to the base, were slowly either shot or cut down. The reploid noticed the decreasing number of his army as he took his cannon once more but turned against the Chosen One, "If you want more answers, try and find my creator. With his powerful creations, I highly doubt that you will know what you want before being taken out by them."
The reploid raised his hand and as if on cue, the remaining mechaniloids stopped their charge and retreated. Among the sea of mechaniloids, the two backup fighters arrived and the sight of them got the reploid's attention.
"You…" Vent looked at the reploid in surprise, "You survived the fall from the airship back then…"
The reploid was as shocked as he was, though for a different reason, "It… it can't be… ugh…" the reploid was holding his head as if in pain as the red glow slowly disappeared from his eyes, "Ze… ro…?" the reploid winced in pain before his red eyes were glowing red once more as he dashed off and away from them.
"W-What was that…?" Ashe asked in confusion as she watched the reploid disappeared into the sea of retreating mechaniloids.
"He was there at that time," Vent spoke up as he undid his transformation while walking towards the group of five near the base, "That reploid was there when the airship was attacked those years ago… He was…"
"Daddy!" Vent's train of thoughts were interrupted as Oriel ran towards him, followed by Estelle.
"Oh, good to see you two are safe," Vent gave his children a smile, though his smile soon faded as he let out a sigh, "And of course, you're both grounded for leaving without a word."
With Estelle and Oriel complaining in the background, Aeolus had already transformed back to his human form and approached Atlas, who was still curling up by the wall. Seeing his wife still being unresponsive after his arrival, Aeolus let out a sigh and turned to Storm beside him, "Storm, can you get the medical team to take the injured and your mother into the medic wing? Everyone and especially your mother need some immediate treatment."
Storm gave him a nod, "Understood."
Aeolus watched as his son left into the building and sat beside Atlas, who wasn't completely aware of his presence. He took her cold and shaking hands as he tried positioning her so that she was leaning on him without her trying to push him away. It wasn't his first time dealing with her trauma of those years ago, but simply being there silently next to her was the only thing he could ever do.