Not my old 'usual' schedule to update and more words than probably most chapters up until now, but here's some action!

End of Era

Chapter 9 – New Clues

The green-haired Chosen One was flipping the device in his hands while running his fingers around different parts of the device before finally putting it down on the table, sliding it across to the silver-haired Hunter, "There. That should fix it."

"Wow! It looks new!" Estelle, who was sitting next to the Hunter, commented in amazement.

The Chosen One let out a sigh, "Seriously. You need to stop calling me on fool's errands like this, Ashe."

"You're the only one we can ask, Aeolus," Vent spoke up from beside him, "I don't think Aile would like it if we ask Fleuve to fix it."

Aeolus gave him a nod in agreement, "True enough, but that doesn't mean that I have to be the one to fix it. There are other Hunters here who can help."

The green-haired Chosen One had pointed at the Hunters walking around in the Hunter's Camp cafeteria where the group was sitting in.

"Yeah, yeah," Ashe brushed off the complaints surrounding her as she took the device in her hands, "Let's save all the complaints later and listen to this already!"

"Storm and I aren't staying," Aeolus had risen from his seat, followed by his son, "We need to head back soon to check on Atlas."

"Ah, that's right," the vice commander turned to the father and son as they were going to leave, "I hope she gets better soon. Things aren't going to be pretty with a competent chief being out of commission."

Aeolus only gave him a silent nod without any change in his expression before he left with Storm as Ashe was trying to listen to the recording device behind him.

"Let's see…" the Hunter was looking around the device until she came across a slider, "There. This should make the recording loud enough to hear."

Loud static noises were the first things they could hear, though the static soon died down and replied by the sound of footsteps on a metal terrain. The footsteps came to a stop and followed by some rustling noises.

"Come in, Prairie. This is Grey reporting."

The familiar voice was heard from the recording, much to the group's surprise.

"I found the hidden door you're looking for. It looks like the data you found before are correct after all."

"Wait, what hidden door?" Vent interrupted suddenly, prompting Ashe to pause the recording, "Prairie never told us anything at all…"

"I'm not sure," Ashe responded as she shook her head with a pained look in her eyes, "I can think of something, but I don't know why Prairie never told you guys when you are obviously part of the Guardians."

"What's on your mind then?" the brown-haired vice commander was looking at her in a serious expression, "Even if it was only a few months different, you know Grey more than me or Aile do."

"Vent, don't you remember the time when Grey and I took down Albert years ago?" the Hunter's eye clearly told him that she was onto something, "You told us about going with the paths we chose, right?"

"Uh… yeah?" Ashe let out an irritated sigh after seeing the confusion on Vent's face. It was obvious enough to her that he had forgotten.

"The path he decided to choose… was to find out about himself," she gave her answer as she closed her eyes, recalling the past events of many years ago, "I'm a humanoid and a distant relative of Albert, that much I can find out. But Grey? He's a reploid but somehow has Albert's genes and he wanted to find out why and how. His curiosity might led him to being missing a few months before… that happened…"

Vent responded with a silent nod, "For now, let's just continue listening to the recording. Maybe we can at least know where the last time he made in contact with Prairie."

Ashe gave him a nod before playing the recording once more. After moments of more clanging footsteps, the same voice was heard.

"I think someone has been using this lab recently…" there was a short pause along with beeping sounds around, "No, this is…!" silence followed, before a loud thud was heard as if a blunt object had hit a thick glass material, "I'm sorry, Prairie. I have to end this report here for now while I'm checking all the data here. Grey, out."

The recording ended with a beep, leaving the group curious about the thing which had surprised Grey in the recording.

"S-So… are we going to check this place and thing out…?" Estelle asked nervously, breaking the silence on the table.

Vent and Ashe turned to each other, nodding, before the older brunette turned to the younger ones as Ashe walked away from the table, "We will try and check it out. The two of you should go back to the Guardian Base or your mother is going to be worried."

The stern look on her father's face told her that any kind of argument she was going to put up would be useless, so obeying would be her only option for now, "Fine!" Estelle let out an irritated sigh, "I'll be your really well-behaved daughter who can actually transform to help out."

"We won't be fighting anyone, Estelle," it was Ashe's turn to speak up as she returned to the group, "You might have your mother's skills, but you're still inexperienced."

"Then fighting on the front line will give me-"

"No!" Vent's voice was stern, though there was a hint of desperation in it, "Please Estelle, just be a good girl and stay out of trouble. I know that you have a Biometal to protect yourself, but it's best that you just stay out of this problem."

Estelle only gave him a look before slowly nodding, "Okay, fine…"

"Come on, Vent," Ashe was the first one to walk away from the group, "Let's go. We should look into this soon before Aile finds out."

The vice commander only gave her a silent nod before leaving as well, leaving only the brunette siblings at the table, "Come on Estelle, let's get going too. Mom is going to be-"

"Sorry, Oriel," Estelle gave him a big smile, which was rare enough coming from her that the younger of the two was looking at her in fear, "I need to see Storm for a bit, so you just go on ahead, okay?"

"Um… okay…" Oriel nodded while still in doubt with what his sister was trying to do before leaving as well.

With Oriel out of sight, Estelle put her hands together in excitement, "Alright! Now let's grab Storm from the base and head out for the younger generation to finally do their thing!"

"This is not what I signed up for," Storm let out a sigh before he blew away the cobwebs he managed to trap himself in with his tornado attack, while Estelle was casually looking around the old lab, "Besides, didn't you mention that we're not supposed to be involved in the adult's problems?"

"Yeah," she replied casually as she looked around the broken capsules in the room, "It's their problem and we're not getting involved in it. We're just going to explore this old lab and be gone before they know we're here."

Storm sighed in annoyance, "If we're caught, I'm not bailing you out even if you're Commander Aile's daughter."

"I'm not her daughter," Estelle replied coldly, looking at her with anger in her eyes, "I'm not that cold-hearted witch's daughter! I refuse to acknowledge it!"

Storm didn't respond, fully aware of the bitter relationship between Estelle and her mother. It was best that he didn't bring that part up, knowing that she got her temper issues from her father.

There were only sounds of footsteps hitting the metal floor as Storm looked around while Estelle was trying to know about the two capsules in the room. The screens showing the information of the capsules' former owners were both cracked, but the commands were still functional. The only issue she had would be the fact that she had little to no knowledge about technical stuff.

"Hey, uh… Storm?" the brunette turned over to her friend, who in turn looked at her after hearing his name being called, "Can you take a look at this? You know that I'm not good at this… thing."

"You only mentioned that we were just going to explore, not to pry into some old data," the green-haired Mega Man had given her a stern look, though with Estelle's rebellious attitude, it wouldn't be effective on her.

"It's part of the exploration," Estelle motioned her hand to tell him to come to her side, "Come on, my junior. Your senior here needs your help here!"

Storm groaned in annoyance as he gave up and approached her, "Fine! But just because I'm a year younger than you that doesn't mean that I'm your junior. To be exact, I'm more experienced in-"

"Details, details!" the brunette had shrugged his complaints casually as she moved aside to let the green-haired teen look into the screen for information.

His fingers danced around the screen with his attention focused solely on the information displayed on the cracked screen. The cracks weren't bad enough to limit his sight from any important information, though it would be a nightmare for Estelle, as she was never good at working on anything that required actual thinking. With a bit more typing to be done, the screen showed a few numbers and letters which made no sense to any of them.

"What's this?" Estelle had forced herself back to look at the numbers and letters on screen, "WP-002? Who named someone like that anyway?"

The code hit Storm with realization as he remembered the battle in the city, "WP-002… is a project code…"

Storm suddenly rushed towards the other capsule, typing like crazy on the screen, much to Estelle's dismay, "H-Hey! Tell me something already!"

Storm had slammed his Biometal-enhanced fists to the screen once he was done typing, "This one is WP-003… What do these codes mean…?"

"Storm!" Estelle almost yelled to call out to him, finally pulling him out from his thoughts, "Got anything to share?"

The green-haired teen gave her a nod, "In fact, I do, but-"

The sound of something exploding in the next room had interrupted him and prompted the two of them to direct their attention to the door leading to the next room, "W-What was that just now?"

"Whatever that was, I don't think it's good news," Storm turned to Estelle, who was also looking at him, "Come on, Estelle. Let's go!"

She gave him a nod in response as they both dashed away, though towards different directions. When she saw Storm dashing past her, she stopped in her tracks and called out to him, "Hey, where are you going? Someone in there might need our help!"

"Are you crazy?!" Storm responded in anger, "Vice Commander Vent and Ashe would most likely be there to help too! Do you want us to get caught loitering around here?!"

"The Guardians are supposed to help people in trouble, right?" Storm's anger subsided for a moment, "Maybe they could be there too, but shouldn't the people's safety be our priority first compared to ours?"

"Well, it's-" the green-haired teen drew a blank when trying to come up with a comeback, seeing Estelle's persistence on helping along with the code he had been taught for years of his training, "Fine, let's just go and get this over with!"

"Gah!" the red-armored brunette was thrown against the wall, falling down next to the injured silver-haired Hunter, "Even with the two of us… he's…"

"Give that back," a cold glare was visible underneath the attacker's black and white helmet as he pointed a glowing short knife towards Ashe, who was holding a device closely to her chest as she had transformed back, "That does not belong to you."

Ashe shook her head, "No… this is… a clue for our missing friend…"

"Code WP-001 does not have something called 'friend'," the masked attacker was ready to throw his knife at her, "Perish."

"Not so fast!" before the knife could be thrown, a blast of energy had shot his wrist that he dropped the knife.

There was no signs of pain on his face, only the same cold glare still visible under the helmet. Vent weakly turned to the direction where the shot had come from, only to be shocked when he saw people who weren't supposed to be there in the first place, "Estelle! Storm!"

"H-Huh?" the younger brunette noticed the familiar voice, shocked that it was her father who was calling, "Uh-oh…"

Estelle had expected to get an earful right there, but the pained look and the concern in his eyes told her otherwise, "R-Run! This guy isn't someone you can deal with even with the two of you together!"

"Please accept my apology, Vice Commander," Storm spoke up as he stood firmly beside his friend, "I tried to stop her, but it seems like the two of you at least need some help to get to safety."

Estelle nodded in agreement, pointing her buster at the robotic figure in front of them, "We're not here to fight. We're just going to immobilize him somehow to buy some time to escape."

"Somehow," Storm let out a smirk as he got his pink sabers ready in both of his hands, "I can think of something…"

"No! Don't!" Ashe called out desperately, though her pleas went deaf to the two as they both charged at the masked man.

Estelle and Storm separated as they were getting closer to the man, with Estelle going to the left and aimed her buster for small shots and Storm flying up with his jets. While Estelle's buster shots were dodged easily by the man, Storm had put his sabers together to form balls of electricity over and over until there wasn't much space left for the man to move around.

The brunette Mega Man was going to end the seemingly easy fight with a charged shot, only for the attack to hit thin air as the man had disappeared from their sight. Sharp pain could be felt from her back as the man was floating around with his big spinning shuriken, dropping knives on the ground which Vent and Ashe had to dodge as well.

Storm countered with his three-hit saber combo aimed upwards, dropping the man to the ground as the previous electric balls disappeared. He used his jets to propel himself towards him as they clashed between sabers and knives, until the man suddenly ducked from Storm's crossed sabers and kicked him hard on the stomach. With him sliding through the room, the man threw more knives at him but only to be shot accurately by Estelle with her buster.

Estelle had kept her distance with her shooting out her buster as the man tried catching up to her, leaving her no time to charge for a more powerful shot to hit him. Even when he was seemingly distracted by the brunette's shots, the man could still skillfully avoid Storm's slashes and tornadoes by spinning himself around and landed on his spinning shuriken once more.

With a combination of raining knives and the man himself throwing more knives from above, the two weren't given any opening to attack at all, until another armored fighter decided to join in with a vertical slash. The saber didn't hit the shuriken, but the shockwave caused by it managed to knock the raining knives out of the way for Estelle and Storm to counter.

A half-charged shot from Estelle managed to knock the man off his shuriken, but he wasn't aware of Storm's presence behind him with a bigger tornado he had created. The man fell to the ground after being spun and electrified by Storm's tornado, though he could easily get back up with a crack on his helmet and a small tear on the cloth behind him, which was now clearly visible to them.

"You remind me of someone," the man turned to Vent, who was forced to transform back due to exhaustion, "Your name?"

"Vent…" the vice commander replied as he was panting, "I… never know you…"

"Code WP-003. Base body of Hidden Phantom," the man replied before turning to Ashe, who glared at him as she held the device in her arms defensively, "Keep it for now. I shall retrieve it later for my lord."

Without another word, the man left with a puff of smoke, leaving the mess from the fight earlier.

"Well, shall we go home now?" Estelle innocently spoke up, walking out of the room, only for her to be stopped in her tracks.

"Not so fast, young lady," Vent sternly told her as he used the last of his strength to pull his daughter to his side to face him, "Why are you and Storm here when I clearly told you to go back to the base? And especially why Storm is here when he's supposed to be taking care of Atlas?"

Storm had transformed back and saluted, "Sir! Mother is doing fine after some intensive care from the medical unit. I'm allowed to go because Estelle," the teen looked at the nervous young brunette with a glare, "told me that she needed a friend to explore an old lab."

Estelle turned back to look at her father's angry eyes as she laughed nervously, "T-This counts as an exploration, right?"

Vent continued to give her a glare for a moment, until he let out a disappointed sigh, "What am I going to do with you…?"

"Before that," the silver-haired Hunter spoke up, breaking the father-daughter argument as she showed the device she was holding, which had the same shape as the one they were given earlier, "When you guys were talking in the cafeteria before, I asked the Hunter who found the other device that he found it in here. Looks like this is the only new recording we have for now, but I think we should get our injuries taken care of before we look into this new clue."

Storm gave her a nod, "Yes, but I might have some other clues that might be useful. I'm still quite unsure what these are supposed to mean, but the capsules in the room next door apparently belonged to the person we fought just now and that Craft from the city. Or at least, that's how I believe it."

"What do you mean?" Estelle was the one to ask, "How do you figure out that they were actually from this place?"

"The codes," Storm replied shortly as he looked at the other three in the room, "If I recall correctly, Craft mentioned having a creation code of WP-002. That man we fought just now mentioned that he had the code WP-003. I saw those codes on the screens for the capsules next door."

Vent stood in silence for a moment before shaking his head, "I don't like the sound of this. For now, let's head back to the base and get ourselves healed without Aile knowing what's going on," he let out a sigh as he turned to his daughter with a disappointed look on his face, "There's enough troubles for today and I really don't need another one to add."

Estelle lowered her head in guilt as they all walked out of the room, "S-Sorry… Dad…"