New chapter is here and that means Biometal reveal time!

End of Era

Chapter 13 – New Powers

The feeling was different for her then. Power was pouring into her body when she first transformed as Mega Man Model X, though the strain for using it longer than she should was making her too tired to move. She could transform as Model X's Biomatch, though only for a limited time as her ability to transform came from her parents. There was no information about her not being able to transform using another Biometal, assuming if what she had found back then was one.

As unbelievable level of strength poured into her body, she could feel dark emotions she couldn't get when transforming with Model X. The strong feelings of hate were starting to overwhelm her, grasping to her heart like they were trying to tear her apart from the inside. She was facing the cost of the powerful transformation and was losing, but if she had lost there, she knew that she couldn't win against the powerful enemy outside.

A black helmet had formed around the brunette's head, with golden long hair flowing out of the back of the helmet. Black and red armor had overwritten Model X's blue one, replacing the buster arm with a purple saber firmly held in her hand. The blue crystal glowed as circuits started forming in it, before the young brunette looked at the surprised big reploid in front of her with her glowing red eyes.

"Guh!" the reploid suddenly clutched his head in pain as he tried to keep looking at Estelle as she slowly swung her saber around, "W-What… is this sensation…? Are these… memories…?" the reploid watched as Estelle had slowly made her way towards him with the purple saber at her side, "The name… Zero… no, those eyes… you're not him…!"

Estelle swung her saber at him, though the reploid had blocked it with his cannon. Even with the saber blocked from slicing his body in ease, the force Estelle had put into the swing was strong enough to have him down to one knee. With enough force he put into his own cannon, the reploid managed to knock her to the side with his big weapon to get some time for him to attack.

The emotionless stare coming from Estelle had made the reploid flinch, sensing the cold sensation of the stare. The sudden movement coming from the brunette had the reploid react with his homing missiles, having the fired projectiles hit her head-on as she charged at him. The collision caused more smoke to cover the area, which reduced the other two fighters' vision of the battlefield.

"W-What's going on…?" Storm wondered as he nervously held onto the fainted Iris, "What did Estelle do just now…?"

The clanging sounds of metal were heard from the smoke before it cleared out, showing the exhausted reploid along with Estelle as she stood in front of him as if nothing happened to her. The reploid quickly pulled out his sawtooth bayonet knife from his cannon and ran towards her, though the attack had only met Estelle's saber as she parried it before countering him with a three-hit combo slash.

The reploid was knocked back from the attack, though the newly-created distance between allowed him to aim for a beam cannon. The attack had hit her, though she wasn't showing any signs of pain on her face as she landed safely in front of him to counter once more with a burning uppercut. The reploid threw a few grenades at her, with one of them hitting the saber that it exploded.

The explosion had thrown Storm and Iris farther from the scene along with Estelle, though the brunette quickly rolled in the air while swinging her saber. As she rolled in the air, her saber released icicles around her and hit both the ground and the reploid himself, freezing anything they hit. She landed on the ground, pulling out her buster alongside her saber as she released two shots from her buster before sending a shockwave from her saber at the end.

The reploid knocked away the weak charged shots before using his cannon to block the shockwave, though Estelle had disappeared from in front of him when he removed the cannon from his line of sight. A sharp pain in his neck was felt the moment there was an extra weight at the back of his neck before he was sent flying to the other side of the field.

Estelle had delivered a powerful jumping kick on his neck as she landed in her kicking position. Before the reploid could recover from the previous attack, the reploid was hit by energy-filled rocks as Estelle had slammed the ground in front of her. The attack had pinned him back down due to the fatigue and damage, though the helplessness he had on his face, Estelle had brought her own fist back to the ground and caused pillars of energy to shoot out from the ground and the sky.

The attacks hit him hard, leaving him motionlessly at the ground as Estelle approached him just to plant her feet on the big reploid's chest. The reploid looked at her in pain as she put her saber under his throat, ready to slice his body in half easily. The reploid let out a pained sigh as he closed his eyes, "Go on… destroy me… I have no regrets…"

Estelle raised her saber, ready to give the reploid his dying wish, though the pain in her head had stopped her.

'This is not what I want!' the brunette's true consciousness resurfaced as she felt the intentions her body had as she towered over the helpless reploid, "Stop…!"

The brunette had dropped her saber to harmlessly to the side as she fell to her knees, clutching her head as the voice from before echoed in her head, "Don't you want to finish him off after what he had done to your friends? This is your chance and I shall lend you the strength to do so!"

"You… you're wrong…" the brunette's eyes had returned to her usual green color as she weakly looked at the two fighters sitting up on the other side of the field, "I… I only want… to protect…"

The transformation on Estelle had undone itself as the brunette lied down next to the damaged reploid, passed out from overexerting her strength from the battle. Storm and Iris had recovered slightly from the damage they had received, but couldn't get to her side quick enough before a cloaked figure had appeared in front of Estelle and the reploid.

"I see… this copy of Craft is imperfect as well," it was a male voice, void of any emotion before he pointed a buster gun at the reploid.

"Forgive… me… My Lord…" the reploid spoke up weakly, "Those memories… memories belonging… to Craft…"

"Memories… such useless component for a combat reploid such as you," there was a sound of clicking coming from the gun, "Die."

A shot from the gun had made it through the reploid's head before red liquid started pouring out from the wound. The reploid lied motionless before the cloaked man easily kicked his limp body out of the way as he walked towards the unconscious Estelle.

"A fine job for the new model to house a fine combatant's data, but not as fine as the Chosen One for Model O," the man nudged Estelle's unconscious body with his foot, though he didn't get a response, "You're not dead already, are you?"

"Hands off my daughter!"

The cloaked man casually side-stepped the incoming vertical shockwave before Vent arrived along with Thetis and Aeolus, all still transformed. The adults had gone over to their children's sides with Vent holding Estelle protectively and looked up at the man. His eyes grew wide as he recognized the familiar face under the cloak, looking at him in disbelief.

"N-No way…!"

"Vent, look behind you!" Aeolus had warned as he saw another cloaked man behind the vice commander, but the brunette was too shocked to react.

Before the cloaked man's purple saber made contact with him, a charged buster shot had landed on the saber to cancel the attack. The man jumped back to face his attacker, looking at the incoming brunette with her buster pointed at him, "It's you!"

Vent turned around to see the newcomer, which was the sight he hadn't seen in years, "Aile!"

"This is a disadvantageous position!" the cloaked man with the buster had backed away, though only to meet a sharp metal on his back, "What?!"

"This is as far as you go," the man with purple armor told him as he raised his kunai blade up to the throat, "Surrender."

"Don't go anywhere else, both of you," Ashe had walked out from behind the purple-armored man, "Not after Siarnaq and I tried finding you for years," she pointed both of her busters at each of the cloaked man, "I don't want to do this, so please…"

The cloaked man with the gun let out a laugh, much to the Chosen Ones' confusion, "We only have one out of two options to ask, and we'll be waiting for your answer at a later time."

"What do you want from us?" Aile sternly asked as she kept her eyes on both of the cloaked men.

The cloaked man pointed his gun at Estelle, prompting Vent to protect her with his body, "This girl, is option one," the man removed his gun from her before aiming it up at the sky, "Second option, the Ciel System."

"What if we refuse to both?"

The cloaked man laughed once more after hearing the commander's response, "If you've been a good commander all along, you're wise enough to choose one from those two options. I still have a big army to send to you and I will always create new ones, more than you all can destroy!"

"Not if we defeat you two first!" Ashe had fired her laser shots at them, though the shots had harmlessly made contact with the purple saber.

The cloaked man with the gun turned to his companion, "We're leaving."

The other man responded with a silent nod before grabbing his companion, jumping over the Chosen Ones blocking their way before they made quick jumps to the higher buildings before the Chosen Ones could respond, "Wait!"

"This isn't the time for them!" before Vent could chase after them, Aile had grabbed his arm to stop him, much to his surprise, "If he has an army of mechaniloids that he can recreate at will, then we need a plan to get through to him."

"Aile," the commander shifted her focus on her Hunter friend as she looked at her with a serious look, "I guess you've figured everything out yourself, huh?"

Aile responded with a nod before she looked up at the direction where the two had gone to, "From those recordings some of the old data from Prairie's archive I've managed to decipher, I have a picture of the situation. And of course… the identity of that person."

"Yeah," Vent let out a sad nod as he knelt down beside Estelle once more, "I still can't believe it… and he tried to kill Estelle too…"

"He won't," the commander's answer was short, prompting Vent to look up at her, "He wants her alive, or we give him the Ciel System. We can't give any of them to him."

"Can we save this dumb talk for later?" Aeolus had bluntly asked as he helped Storm back to his feet, "None of us are in any condition to fight after that raid. Should we have the kids taken care of first before talking in proper places like the control room for example?"

"Well," Ashe casually shrugged, "As blunt as he put it, Aeolus' right though. I don't know what happened, but I do believe that Estelle needs a lot of attention after all that excitement."

Thetis nodded in agreement, "I second that, though there's something that's bothering me about that person…" he looked up at the buildings, "That person… is him, right?"

The cheerfulness on Ashe's face had faded, replaced by a sad frown, "Yeah, sadly my bet is right on this. He is our Grey…"