Not my best decision, but I rushed the chapters anyway XD

So what's the Biometal? I wonder...

End of Era

Chapter 12 – On the Move

The brunette siblings had made it back to the transerver room in the Guardian Base, creating a pool of mud as they arrived. Their little treasure hunt in the river had caused mud to be stuck on their clothes, which made hiding their mess a lot harder than they originally thought. They would have to be quick about cleaning themselves up and then retrace their trail to clean the muddy mess they would be creating in the hallways.

"Well," Estelle let out a sigh as she and Oriel stepped out of the transerver room, "she is definitely not going to be happy about this…"

"He is not happy about that too, you know," the siblings let out a shocked gasp as they turned to the source of the voice, finding their father with a glare in his eyes, "The mess you two made here tells me enough that you're skipping training."

"But…" she tried making up an excuse, though the glare was still directed at them and particularly at her, "Sorry, Dad…"

"Vent," the man turned in response to the shoulder tap he had as his blue-haired comrade had walked up to him, "Let's hurry and head for the city. We have to be quick before someone out there gets hurt. Storm and my daughter won't be able to hold them off for long."

Vent gave him a nod, "Got it. You go ahead, Thetis. I'll catch up with you later when I'm done talking with the kids," Thetis responded with a nod as he went ahead into the transerver room. Vent turned back to the siblings with a sigh, "Please, Estelle, listen to me for once and leave Oriel out of your troubles! I can't contact Ashe to babysit you two all the time and I can't watch over you when I'm being sent to the fields over and over again!"

Estelle and Oriel went silent as Vent let out another irritated sigh as he tried calming himself down. He took another look, which was more like a worried look rather than a stern one before he went into the transerver room without another word.

Estelle hung her head from the scolding, looking at the traces of mud being transferred from her body and clothes to the floor. In her silence, Oriel had grabbed her hand as he looked up at her sadly, feeling the same guilt as her sister for disobeying. She turned to the direction of the control room, which had become her most hated room, thinking that while she might not be able to get some answers she wanted, it was worth a shot to try rather than doing nothing.

This would most likely be her last time to disobey her parents, but it would be for a cause good enough that she would be forgiven. Except, her brother would have to be out of it for his own safety.

"Oriel," she spoke up softly as she looked at her brother with a serious look, "I have to go back out there again, but I don't want you to come because it's too dangerous," she gave him a smile as she crouched down to his eye level, "Now go clean yourself up and stay in the base, okay?"

Oriel looked at his sister for a moment before giving her a slow nod, "Okay… be careful out there, okay? You have to come back home along with Daddy!"

"I will," she stood up once more, putting a hand on his head as she smiled at him, "I promise."

Estelle, with the leftover mud on her clothes partially dry, stepped into the lively control room. The operators were all busy communicating with the members on the field, with the commander herself not noticing the young brunette's arrival in the room. There was a bit of movement on the commander's chair as Estelle approached her, though Aile didn't turn around to see her.

"Commander," Estelle called out to her with a stern tone, "Can you tell me what happened in the city?"

There were beeping sounds coming from the other side of the chair before a reply came, "Another maverick attack is happening in the city. It happened shortly after you and Oriel left the city."

Estelle closed her eyes as she let her shoulders drop, "So you knew all along."

"I'm tracking every member's transport records from and to this base after your escape a while ago," Aile responded without looking back, "Go back to your room and don't get involved in the affairs of the adults… please…"

The whisper at the end had caused Estelle to let out a surprised gasp before she lowered her head for a moment. Her thoughts were insistent on the hatred she had for the commander in front of her, though her heart had heard a different tone at the end. Rather than the usual cold tone to keep her away from the fields, it was the motherly tone she hadn't heard in years.

The young brunette clenched her fists before she ran out of the control room with a barely-audible whisper, "Sorry, Mom…"

Aile heard the door sliding open and close even as her eyes were still directed at the holographic screen in front of her. Her hands had curled into fists as well before she took a deep breath to calm herself down as she couldn't have another emotional breakdown. Her focus would be the Mega Men present on the field to fight off the mavericks to ensure their safety and the safety of the city residents as well.

The blinking red dots on the screen had made her tense as the numbers had quickly covered almost the entire screen compared to the very few blinking blue dots. Shifting her attention for a moment, she glanced at the monitor on her desk instead with a single word shown over a series of lines. The word password.

She had to enter a password, which meant that the data she wanted to access wasn't for just anyone to see. The problem would be figuring out the correct password, as using the previous user's name as the password wasn't safe. She couldn't think of anything else to be used as the password, especially not when her focus was divided between finding the right password and tracking the number of attacking mavericks. And those numbers were nothing to laugh at.

Her hand reached the metal objects in her pocket, which had made the pocket as their home for the past eight years. The images of the battlefield had filled her mind as her hands trembled at the sight of people dying, but it wasn't the time for her to be afraid. She had failed the last time she had fought and she wouldn't make the same mistake. Her friends and family needed her, but not as Commander Aile. They needed her as Aile, a friend and comrade-in-arms.

Storm was in his Model H form as he released another tornado to blow away some of the flying mechaniloids, combined with Iris' Model L's powers to create icicles in the vortex. Even as they had taken out many of them, the other mechaniloids had snuck up on them to attack from behind. Both of them were too tired to react quickly, being thrown back without having the chance to react at all.

Iris' transformation had faded, leaving her in her vulnerable reploid form for the flying Galleons to aim at her. Storm had stood in front of her to block the attack with his Model F's buster guns, though with his tired state, he wasn't hoping much on protecting. Both of them braced themselves for the incoming shots, though the sound of shooting didn't come from the Galleons.

Pieces of the destroyed Galleons hit the ground in front of them with loud clanging sounds as Storm and Iris turned to the side to see the brunette already in her blue Model X form. Her buster was charging up for more, shooting down the mechaniloids around them with hardly any effort. Once the coast around them was clear, she lowered her buster arm and panted in exhaustion.

"Sorry… it took so long…" she let out a tired smile between her panting before slowly bringing herself back up, "I'm… still not used to using this much strength… in a short time…"

"Huh," Storm scoffed, "You still need more physical training for battles lasting this long…" the green-haired teen suddenly looked up, sensing a newcomer to the battlefield coming, "Stay sharp, Estelle! I sense something powerful coming this way!"

"Yes, Captain!" Estelle gave him a playful salute, which prompted him to sigh for her playful attitude in the situation. Iris had come out from behind Storm, which Estelle noticed as the girl wasn't familiar to her, "Hey, who's that hiding behind you?"

Storm took a glance at Iris as she came out of her hiding place behind him, "Iris. She can transform to help us too, but she can only do it in a much shorter time than we all do."

"Not the best place for a meeting, but nice to meet you!" Estelle gave her a hand wave, which the girl responded with a doubtful one, before a big figure landed in the middle of them, "Hey, watch where you… Wait, it's you again! That Craft guy!"

The figure had released his big cannon from his back as he looked at Estelle, "I see that you're a Mega Man too now," he had aimed his cannon at her with a smirk on his face, "Well, no matter. You will die along with everyone else!"

Estelle had frozen in place, which had forced Storm to switch over to his Model H form to quickly dash towards her and pushed her out of the way to safety. Before they could react, Craft had swung his cannon around him to knock the three young Mega Men out of the way. Just before they could land, the big reploid had thrown a few bombs at them which exploded once they made contact with the Mega Men.

The three of them were thrown farther away and apart from the explosion. The dust caused by the explosion had decreased their area of vision, though it hadn't bothered the big reploid at all as he navigated through it without problem and headed towards where Storm and Iris were. Storm's transformation had cancelled itself from both damage and limit, putting him in a defenseless position.

Estelle's transformation was almost fading as well from the damage taken. She felt pain all over her body from the hard-hitting attacks she had taken as she looked over to where her two comrades were. The dust had started clearing up that she could see better, though what she had seen wasn't the sight she had wanted to look.

Iris was unconscious with her head under Craft's foot as the big reploid had grabbed Storm by his throat. The teen was struggling to break free from the reploid's strong grip on him, though his efforts were for naught as his whole body was brought down to the ground. Iris' head was slowly being buried under the reploid's weight as he slammed Storm over and over to the ground as the teen's face was covered in his blood and dust.

Estelle looked in horror from all the bloodshed she had to see as her hands shook violently in response. The more-experienced Storm had already been beaten down like he was no trouble at all and the new friend she had just met was suffering being stepped on. She had to do something to help them, but the shots coming from her shaking buster arm wasn't making a dent or scratch on the reploid's armor.

She needed more power to save her friends, but the power was something that she didn't have.

"I shall lend you the power you need."

Estelle froze in her place as the familiar voice echoed in her head, "W-What…?"

"You need my power to destroy him. I can give you that much power to take care of him."

She shook her head, "No, I… I don't have to destroy him… I only want power to save them… to save my friends… just… a bit more power…!"

There was a static sound in her mind as her consciousness slowly faded. Her mind went blank, only leaving the sight of the brown rock she had found earlier in her head. The crystals on the rock glowed brightly, covering the sight in her mind with bright blue light before the same voice from before spoke up, "Biomatch found. Biolink Established! M. E. G. A. System Online!"

"AAAHHH!" Estelle yelled out in pain as a beam of energy had formed around her, surprising Craft as he stopped and released the unconscious Storm from his hands.

"I-Impossible! That power…!"

The energy beam shot out to the sky, gaining the attention of the other fighters on the field.

Vent, Thetis, and Aeolus had gathered in a circle in the middle of a mechaniloid army as they looked up at the energy beam. Ashe and Siarnaq, who had just arrived at the city to help as well, stopped in their tracks as they saw the beam of light shooting at the sky. Aile had arrived as well, still in humanoid form, coming from a different side of the city when she noticed the beam of light.

The commander's eyes grew wide as she recognized the energy reading, "No… that can't be…!"