I'm kinda confused with the timeline, Shulk looks way older in the cutscene where the expedition to retrieve the monado is presented, so I'll assume that at the time of my story he is like 7 or 8. (So the Monado expedition happens later and Shulk is a little bit older to rephrase)
XenoEmblem4TW chapter 3
Continue please this piques my interest! Shulk helping make mechon plans is going to be a disaster and then the issue of him going to the colony to discuss the truth? I feel like that won't end well because they will think he is brainwashed or made to fool them. Either way convincing other people that the Bionis is really trying to end them all isn't going to happen that fast. Also, is he going to age still or will he be forever young but with advanced intellect and mechanical body? Basically an adult in a child's body syndrome?
In still continuing this story, however as it's not my main story updates are slower :)
You are giving me a lot of ideas, I'm trying to explore every aspect and to strong basis at the same time.
Shulk's body will be mentioned later, but for now I'm going to focus on a totally different character, can you guess who it is ? :)
icypika chapter 3
Ooh I can't wait to see where this goes from here. Does Shulk look enough like a Hom to get to the colony and not be attacked? Wouldn't Dickson recognize Shulk from Valak Mountain? I love this concept so much
That would be a bunch of good questions ... but too bad, Shulk is a lite genius so that won't be a problem, read to find out why :D
"... You can't use him as a weapon"
"You think I am assimilating him as a machine ?"
"Of course I am ! You saved him and know you are sending him back ?! He doesn't look like a hom anymore, and- ... Zanza's disciple will recognise him"
"... I'm scared ... Zanza is accelerating his plans" Egil turned around and sat, he looked at the metallic ground of the Mechonis. "If I fail not only the Mechonis will disappear but every form of life in our world ... and maybe the others"
"... then what should I do to help you ?"
"I- ... I want to give Shulk his own face ... I- ... HE made me realise that we cannot use mass produced faces, each living being has his own advantage compared to the others ... this is what we will do, we will a perfect face for him"
"... Can I be honest with you ?"
"Always"
"I- ... I ready feel like you are becoming once again the Egil I like ... do not take it as an offence it's-"
"No ... it warms my hearth to hear that ... we will win right ?"
"I-I hope so"
"I saw how Egil did that ... he places his hand in the circle and-" Shulk wasn't prepared, as he pressed his fingers on the glass panel it felt like his whole body was projected away, he couldn't feel his legs or his arms. He was above the Mechonis ... he could see Sword Valley, he was ... in a mechon ?
Out of gears Shulk tried really hard to pull out and he ended up falling , his head hurt a lot.
"You should try to avoid that" Egil had entered inside the data center, he knew Shulk would be here, he noticed back at the shrine how their holograms were fascinating him "this technology wasn't conceived so your kind could support it"
"S-Sorry, I- I realler want to know how you bend the light"
"Hum ... this is the observation panel, it is connected to the mechons tasked to scout outside the Mechonis, here let me show you" Egil walked toward another panel, Shulk dent know what he did but after about 10 seconds a bigger hologram appeared at the centre of the room, it was showing what the mechon was seeing ... it looked so real, just like looking throught a window.
"It looks so perfecf"
"Almost, it is only a bunch of small dots close from each others you know ? Come closer, you will see"
It was true indeed, if you looked close enough the image was only a lot of small coloured particles carefully places to form an image ... an image ...
"Egil ... do you think you could do this anywhere ?"
"... yes ... what are you thinking about ?"
"No one can see the dots if they are too far away right ? ... what if ... what if you could place an hologram all Round an object, could you hide it ?"
Technically Shulk was right, the machinas used this technology for millennia, they never thought to use it this way and after seeing it only a few times a young boy, not older than ten managed to create the perfect camouflage.
"... you are a genius Shulk, you just found a way to infiltrate the Bionis"
"C-... camouflage ... on a face ? Egil it's ... it's just too big and-"
"On a face yes but in not asking you to make such a thing possible while it's moving, I came up with a plan-well we rather" Egil designed Shulk with is hand and they young hom simply nodded "Once on the Bionis Shulk won't need his face but we had to find a way to hide it"
"Oh, then if the face will not move then I can make it without problem"
"Thank you ... could you also had this functionality on Shulk's body ?"
"Of course, but it will be a prototype for now, it may not be perfect"
"This is exactly what we need to watch the Bionis ... we should have thought about this years ago ... oh tell me Shulk how old are you ?"
"I'm 8"
"... even more impressive in that case"
"And you ?"
"... this doesn't seem appropriate, You are free now Shulk"
"Well Shulk ... would you like to build your face with me ?"
"Can I ?"
"Yes, of course ... I will do most of the body but if you have any suggestion feel free to tell me"
"... you said the face was too big for a complete camouflage right ? What if you could build it separately ? Like the hum ... OFFENSIVE or DEFENSIVE units ? Some parts of their bodies are floating around"
"... good idea I could, your face will only be used to travel after all ... but ... il you want I can give you a small weapon"
"It's ... it looks like a sword but the blade is Strange"
"Originally it's a weapon made for a mechon, you have to activate it, like this"
Vanea took the sword in her hand and made a movement with a her hand to twist the handle of the sword, it opened in two and suddenly a flame bursted out of the sword.
"W-what is this ? An hologram ?"
"No, it's a laser, it is created by using a crystal ... I'm sorry I can't explain everything as it isn't so simple"
"Does it hurt ?"
"It is made to cut throught even mechon armor, only the armor of a face is strong enough to resist it"
"Thank you Vanea"
"This one is a bit big for you" Vanea twisted the handle again and the sword diminished "I will make one smaller for you"
"... where are the other machinas ?"
"Have you ever noticed that there was a fallen arm close from Mechonis's foot ?"
"Yes ... but ... Mechonis already has two arms ?"
"Mechonis lost ot during the great war, Egil rebuilt it, it is almost finished now ... the other machinas live on the fallen arm, away from the conflict"
"... so you and Egil are the only ones fighting ?"
"They- ... they tried to stop him, Egil is acting out of revenge and hanger, he gave them the choice, they could either help him or leave ... and they did"
"Why did you stay ?"
"... I always hoped that one day Egil would find another way to leave in peace with the people of the Bionis ... if Zanza disappears then maybe- ... maybe we could go back to how things were before the great war ... today I think Egil is changing, you have only been here for a few days and you already changed him so much, I think you are giving him something he really missed during all those years, you are giving him hope"
"Hope ... my parents used to say that it is something very strong ..."
"Hehe ... Egil would say it's a terrible lie ... but when he says that he is lying to himself"
"Your movements are very fluent ... you are learning fast"
"We started only a week ago, and I haven't tried to fly yet ... how does It feels ?"
"Not so different to be honest, after all you are still touching something"
"Oh ... also, it's about the foots ... I mean ... could you maybe make them flexible ? It might help to gain more stability, Yaldabaoth doesn't need this feature since it is way bigger but smaller faces need to be able to move quickly"
"I will tell Vanea ... are you still sure about this ?"
"I haven't changed my mind" Shulk thought about opening the main frame, just lik Egil Egil laught him so he could get out "Because of me you missed the chance to stop all of this and- ... and I?don't want to see anyone hurt again"
"... you want to change what Zanza planned for you ? You want to change your destiny right ? ... This is a very noble thought but ... sometimes things have to happen, you won't always be able to change the future If I may say"
"... changing the future ... is it really possible ?"
Egil looked back at the capital ... Shulk couldn't see his face but he knew that a lot of thoughts were fighting each others in the mind of Egil. He was a genius, after all he is the one who created most of the mechons, the faces included, but he had one weakness ... he was scared.
"Zanza ... when he attacked I- ... at first I thought he was simply monstrously strong but I later discovered that the Monada could manipulate the waves of ether ... and I started theorizing" Egil turned back and walked toward Shulk to sit right next to him "If the ether is the basis of all life ... and that the Monade can manipulate, then the Monado must have the capacity of anticipating it's movements"
"So that's why the monado is said to be the only weapon effective against the mechons"
"Yes ... I'm still trying to figure out a way to counter this ability ... I don't know yet how it manipulates the ether but once I will know we will definitely be able to counter this damned sword AND Zanza" Egil closed his eyes for a moment and layed on the ground "... once you reach the Bionis, make sure to call us every day"
"... I will"
"I finished it yesterday but I wanted to keep it as a surprise"
"I'm sure you did a wonderful work Vanea"
"I named it ..." Vanea dramatically pressed a button on the console of her workshop to reveal the face inside "Face RUBIS"
It was entirely red, except for the lines covering the arms, the legs, and the main frame, the head was similar to the ones of the mass product faces but it had some kind of hood above it.
The legs and the arms weren't directly connected, instead they were constantly floating close to the main part of the face, the torso.
"It was a good idea to disconnect the arms and the legs, you can assimilate them as drones ... OhI almost forgot" Vanea went into another part of her workshop and brought back a smaller version of the sword that she showed to Shulk a few days ago "I hope you will like it"
"Thank you Vanea !" Shulk grabbed the sword, he took a few steps away from Vanea and Egil and repeated the same movement that Vanea did to activate the sword.
"RUBIS ... because of the color ?"
"Yes ... I wanted to call it HOOD at first but I think one of your prototypes is already name like this"
"I can't recall ... anyway, Shulk we have to connect this gave yo your body, so you can pilot it"
"... connect ? ... but I can already pilot the mass product faces right ?"
"You can of course, but I meant piloting outside"
"Outside ?"
"Look" Egil raised his finger and the face extended both of his arms "it may look hars but it's in fact really simple"
"Come here Shulk, it won't take long"
Shulk sat on a desk, Vanea soon came with a few tools ... it felt really Strange to have parts of his body removed, Shulk really missed his Hom body but at the same time he liked this mechon body, to him it was a symbol, a symbol of hope and ... gratitude.
"It might feel weird at first, Egil doesn't need to have this kind of remote controllers so it's very different than simply thinking about moving the face ... no offence"
"I'm not ... what Vanea means is that this time you have to be careful about your movements ... maybe to make it more simple to should find a way so Shulk can activate and deactivate the remote controls ?"
"That's what I planned ... still try to not break it on it's first day" complained Vanea
"It's a face hahaha, you said it is one of the most resistant Mechons" argued Shulk "... say ... which one is the most resistant then ?"
Vanea gave a quick glance to Egil who in response rolled his eyes before answering to Shulk "the Ancient Daedala ... it's one of the survivors from the great war ... we used to have a lot of thos model but they were all destroyed ... expect him, but ... he became rogue and I had to lock it somewhere"
"You didn't try to fix it ?"
"Oh ... you can try if you want, trust me he REALLY likes visitors" Shulk remained silent to Egil's irony
"Here, finished" Vanea put back the parts of Shulk's body that she had to remove to place the remote controllers. "How about we try your face now ? Get in the pilot seat and walk it out"
Shulk spent the next days with Vanea and Egil to work on his face, Vanea was adjusting the control, even completely changing them if it was needed and Egil was mostly the one teaching Shulk with is own face.
"I think you are ready, you can still progress but you already have a wonderful control, you can even fly by yourself ... honestly it took me weeks only to be able to float but you ... you simply are amazing, you have a great balance"
"Thank you Egil ... then that's it, I'm really leaving tonight"
"You are ..." both of them got out of their respective face and sat on the ground to look at the Bionis "Do not try to recover the Monado by yourself, you would just end up getting killed and ... if someone happened to see you like this it would be even worse"
"... I won't, I know my mission ... I only have to find the Monado and report to you"
"Simple enough, I can't send any scout unit ... this Dickson might sense it, however he would never expect something invisible ... your idea is simply amazing"
"... If- ... If you ever save another hom like me ... do you think they will join us ?"
"I hope they will"
There we go ! Next chapter we will take a look at Colony 9 !