Sorry for the longer delay, though it's not intended at all for it to be this long. MS Word decided not to work for me anymore (can't save, can't create new, and all that editing stuff) that I have to use other alternatives to write, except the docx file output isn't supported here until I edited something in Google Drive. Anyways, here's the new chapter for now!
End of Era
Chapter 8 – Chosen One of Model X
Estelle let out a sigh as she walked through the hallways of the Guardian Base with a blindfold over her eyes. Vent was pushing her to lead her to their destination, but Estelle felt like they had been walking aimlessly for a long time and that she was getting impatient herself.
"Not even a clue, Dad?" Estelle asked impatiently, "I know I like your surprises, but I feel like we've been walking in circles for a while."
"You'll know when we get there!" Estelle could hear the sound of a door sliding open, letting her know that they had entered a room, "Okay, we're here!"
Estelle eagerly opened her blindfold cloth, but her excitement on her face soon faded, "This is Fleuve's lab," Estelle turned to Vent with a disappointed look on her face, "Really Dad? This is your surprise?"
The smile never left Vent's face as he turned to the older researcher and the younger teen, "Fleuve, Storm, is it ready?"
Fleuve gave him a nod before he turned to Storm, who was standing beside him, "Storm, please show Estelle what you're hiding behind your back."
"Alright, but I'm not involved in this decision," Storm walked over to the confused Estelle and took her hand, putting the blue metal object on her hand, "Here. These old men are the ones who came up with this surprise. I'm just here because I happen to be here and your old man dragged me into the plan."
"T-This… this is…!" Estelle ran a hand on the object she had just received with a smile on her face, "Dad, is this really…?" Estelle turned to her father as he held an identical object in his hand.
Vent gave her a nod and a smile, "Congrats, Estelle. You've finally earned yourself the right to have your very own Biometal, Model X."
"Yes… yes!" Estelle lifted the Biometal above her head in excitement, "Yes! I'm now a Mega Man just like Dad and Storm!"
Fleuve let out a cough, getting Estelle attention, "Before your excitement gets yourself in trouble, let us tell you one more thing."
"One more thing?" Estelle asked in confusion.
All eyes in the room turned to Vent, who rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Y-Yeah… about that…"
"Vice Commander, did you…?" Storm suddenly asked.
"I can't…" Vent shook his head, "I can't get her to agree to this, so yeah… Aile doesn't know about us giving the Biometal to Estelle."
"As I expected," Fleuve commented before turning his attention back to Estelle, "As you've heard from your father, please keep this from your mother. We've decided that giving Model X to you is the best option to do, should another incident with the Mavericks occur once more. We will need an extra hand and you're a suitable candidate."
"I don't feel like I want to tell her anyway," Estelle replied coldly, "She's only obsessed in dealing with those dumb Mavericks instead of taking care of her family anyway," Estelle turned around and headed for the door, "Thanks for the surprise, Dad. I'll go and find Ashe to train together for now."
The room went silent as Estelle left, with Vent looking at the door where his daughter had gone through in worry, "Estelle…"
"Well, looks like your distress signal made it to me just in time," the silver-haired Hunter commented casually as she leaned on the wall next to the medic wing door.
A blue-haired man was standing beside one of the beds and nodded in response to the Hunter's comment, "I happened to be in the city, so I was thinking that sending a signal asking for help around here should reach someone from the Guardians nearby," the man turned around, showing the red triangle on his forehead as he let out a smile, "Thanks for the quick response, Ashe."
"Thetis," Aile called out to the man as she stood on the opposite side of the bed while watching as Rose tended to the unconscious young girl lying on the bed, "Tell me, is this the work of the Mavericks as well?"
The smile on Thetis' face soon faded as he nodded in response, "Yes, we were having lunch together while we were in the city when they attacked."
"I see…" Aile responded quietly before she headed towards the door, "The rest of the Guardians are still looking into that matter with those Mavericks. For now, you can stay here while Iris recovers."
"O-Okay…" Thetis replied awkwardly as he watched Aile leaving the medic wing without another word, "At least… you're still willing to save my daughter, even if she's humanoid unlike me…"
"Huh?" Ashe turned to Thetis as his eyes never left the closed door, "Did you say something?"
Thetis calmly shook his head, "No, it's nothing."
"Oh well, suit yourself," Ashe gave him a shrug, "If you're feeling curious or you happen to miss being a bullied victim, you can try and get in touch with Atlas."
Thetis let out a chuckle as he walked towards the door, "She's got a family to look after and a whole base of people to lead. I doubt she would come up with more pranks… like the old days…"
"Well, I guess you're right… though are you leaving so soon?" the door in front of Thetis slid open, but instead of leaving the blue-haired man turned to her with a smile.
"I believe that my daughter is in good hands," Thetis turned to her as the smile on his face turned into a more serious look, "Speaking of which, are you still looking for him?"
The cheerful attitude faded from the silver-haired Hunter, replacing her smile with a frown, "Still no luck. But I still believe that he's still alive out there, somewhere…"
Thetis nodded in understanding, turning towards the door once more, "I'm sorry I can't help… I'm still looking for my wife and that's still my main focus for now."
"I'm fine with it. Your wife is more important to you, so I kind of understand," Ashe replied as she watched Thetis leaving the room.
"T-This is…" Ashe turned to the source of the soft voice and saw Rose as she was holding Iris' brown bangs.
"What is it?" Ashe's voice had startled the young nurse as the Hunter approached the bed, though Rose had quickly hid anything that was originally covered by the unconscious girl's hair.
"N-No… I was just… s-seeing things…" Rose nervously shook her head, "P-Please, leave this to me."
Ashe stared at Rose as the nurse continued checking and bandaging any visible external injuries, "O… kay… Well, I guess we're going to count on you to take care of her!"
The door slid open as Ashe was heading out, but the sound of footsteps going away from the door was something that she couldn't miss.
Estelle was panting as she went down through the elevator, seeing the floor she used to be on slowly getting out of her sight. She held the blue Biometal close to her chest as she recalled the conversation she had accidentally heard until she was caught for the first time when the blue-haired man she had never seen come out from the medic wing.
"Oh?" Thetis saw the surprised Estelle as they stood in front of the closing door, "Ah, are you Estelle, the daughter of the Guardian's current commander?"
"Ah! Uh…" the brunette looked around, seeing as she was the only one nearby that the man was talking to, "Y-Yes, I am…"
"I see," the man nodded in understanding, "You can call me Thetis. I'm… well, I guess you can say that I'm an old acquaintance of your parents."
Estelle simply gave him a slight bow, not knowing what else to do. She slowly found her head turned to the medic wing, "Is she… is she your daughter?"
"Yeah, but that's about all I can say for now," the warm smile from the man's face disappeared, "I need somewhere else to go, so-"
"U-Um!" the man stopped as Estelle called out, lowering her head as she faced him, "Please… don't tell anyone that I was here!"
Before he could respond properly, Estelle had run to the other direction, "Ah! Wait!"
The door to the medic wing slid open soon afterwards as the silver-haired Hunter was leaving, though she didn't miss the sound of footsteps coming from that direction, "Thetis, who was that just now?"
"N-No one important," he nervously replied, "Just a regular member running through."
"Huh…" Ashe's suspicious gaze was aimed at him, though she wasn't in the mood to dig into any trivial matters, "Okay, I'll be on my way too then…"
"Y-Yes!" Thetis gave her a nod, "Please take care of yourself!"
Ashe didn't bother turning around as she walked away, though she gave him a waving hand as she left.
Estelle was leaning against the training room's wall as she was catching her breath. Her hands found themselves on the blue Biometal she had just been given before she took it out and stared at it. She had been given something that she had always wanted in her life, but she felt like she wanted more than to just have the Biometal in her hands. She wanted to fight and she wanted to prove that she could take care of herself just fine in the battlefield.
Another thought came to her mind as she walked into the middle of the training room. Her original plan was to have Ashe train her in the buster department, until she heard the old truth she had never heard from the other adults. Ashe had always been like an older sister figure to her after Prairie passed away, but the tone of her voice that she heard a few minutes ago told her that she was also holding out a painful memory from that time.
Not just her, but the man who called himself Thetis had also his own pain that he wasn't telling. There were two missing people from the big fateful battle fifteen years ago, yet neither of her parents had mentioned it at all. If they were so important, shouldn't they be looking for them? Wasn't the Guardians supposed to be helping people and not just tracking down Mavericks to destroy all the time?
The reason was the commander, who was none other than her own mother. The grip on the Biometal got tighter at the thought of her mother, whom she had come to hate due to what she had done. She wasn't being the commander as she was being a tyrant who got stuck in her past. But… she was still willing to help and save Thetis' daughter and the image of her mother being a past-obsessed tyrant was shattered.
Estelle never knew what her mother truly wanted to do, but she couldn't bring herself to try and understand her. In the end, hate was her response but her heart was crying out for the truth rather than the dark path of hate. But… she had been given the chance to find out the truth herself, now that she had the Biometal which could help her fight.
A target board appeared a few meters in front of her as she focused herself to transform, "R-Rock On!"
Estelle could feel the surge of power flowing into her body as solid blue armor started covering her body. A blue helmet was secured on her head to protect it as her right arm had transformed into a buster arm. Calmly, she aimed at the target board as she felt the buster she had charging some energy.
A small shot was fired, hitting the board right in the middle of it, much to her surprise, "W-What…" a satisfied smile was on her face as she admired the burning hole she had just made, "was that…?"
The target board switched itself automatically into a newer one as Estelle took a few steps back. She charged her buster the same way, firing her shot in another bullseye. The excitement of hitting on targets was starting to get into her as she jumped back in excitement while the target board switched again.
Estelle was almost leaning against the wall as she charged her buster, aiming it at the target board. She took the time longer to charge her buster before releasing it, but the force of the shot knocked her against the wall. When she saw the board, the shot had missed a few millimeters from the center but took out most of the upper side of the board.
A sudden sound of slow clapping surprised her as Estelle turned to her side where the sound was coming from to see Ashe clapping for her with Storm on her side with the look of disbelief, "I guess you have your mom's skill alright."
"Ashe! Storm!" Estelle lowered her buster arm before transforming back to her human form, approaching the two newcomers, "Since when are you guys here?"
"Hey, I'm here too!" Estelle turned to the sound of her brother, who had just come out from behind Ashe, "That was so cool, Estelle!"
"Ah!" Estelle rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment, "T-Thanks! I was just trying out stuff, that's all…"
"Yeah, sure…" Storm didn't sound convinced as he commented, "It looks like you're pretty much natural at this like you've done that for a while. It took me a couple of months to finally get used to handling them."
"I don't know…" she turned to look at the Biometal sitting in her hand, "I just feel like… I know what I want to do and… just do it…"
"Well, let's just save this conversation for later on, okay?" Ashe gave her a light tap on her shoulder, "It's getting a bit late and your dad is waiting for us to get something to eat. You know how impatient he is when-"
"You're… Ashe, correct?" a Guardian member had interrupted the Hunter as he stood behind the group while holding a piece of broken disk, "One of the Hunters asked me to give you this."
"A broken disk?" Ashe commented while looking at it without any interest as the Guardian member bowed down before leaving, "This is just a broken junk, not the treasure that worth something!"
"Let me," Storm took the broken disk off her hand, flipping it around as he tinkered around with it, "This should be easy enough for me to fix. Maybe it contains something useful."
"That's just what we'd expect from you!" Estelle commented in excitement, "I'm curious to see what's in it too!"
With a moment of cracking and flipping around, Storm handed the disk back though in the form of a device, "Here. From the looks of it, I think it's more like some sort of a recording device."
"Huh, I guess you've got Aeolus' brains," Ashe commented with a slight surprised look on her face before she turned her attention back to the device in her hands, "Now, let's see what we have here…"
The sound of the button clicking echoed in the empty training room followed by static sounds. The static soon died down to reveal the sound of footsteps before they came into a stop, "C… Com…"
Ashe's eyes grew wide in surprise as the recording stopped there, not budging at all when Storm took back the device from her, "Ugh, great. Looks like the recording is corrupted too. It's something I can't fix, but I think Father can think of something to do with it."
Estelle nodded in agreement, "Okay, let's take it to your old man later then," when she turned to see Ashe, she saw that the silver-haired Hunter stood there, not moving, "Uh… are you okay?"
"T-That…" Ashe spoke up, stammering, "Grey… that was Grey's voice…"
"G-Grey?" Estelle and Oriel had a questioning look on their faces, though Storm was fully aware of the name.
Checking things here again, but I think I don't see any formatting issues for now with the doc. If there's anything fishy the format, please do let me know immediately through the review section. Also, the updates might be slowing down from all the new ideas that I feel like I need to jot down before everything either when poof or just... rot.