The wall blocking the path to the Elder Ruins at Nino Island fell into rubble as the yellow-gold, dragonlike version of Geetz tore through it. That task done, the Servitor reestablished human form and walked though the barely-seven-foot doorway he had made, MegaMan following closely behind.
On the other side of the wall was a completely bare room, with no passageways whatsoever leading from it. There was not even a crack in the wall to indicate where any potential exits would be. A glance upward revealed a thick ceiling as bare of cracks as the walls. The floor below the two interlopers was equally blemish-free, although not quite as heavy-looking as the ceiling. The only strange thing the Digger could discern was the line of rust or corrosion of some sort at the baseline where the floor met the wall, which completely encircled the room.
"Um, Sera?" MegaMan inquired into his communicator. "Are you sure this is the place? It looks like a dead end to me."
"This is the correct destination," Sera confirmed. "The room you are in was once an elevator room, with the entire floor serving as the elevator platform. However, when the Elder System was shut down, the elevator mechanisms were removed to help prevent access to the control station, and the open shaft sealed off. The floor you see now is the seal, but these readings indicate that it is severely corroded and treacherous to walk upon. Proceed with extreme caution."
"Understood," came the duel reply, then MegaMan and Geetz started to make their way across the dangerous floor.
"How are we going to get through this without killing ourselves?" the former wondered aloud, before remembering who accompanied him. "Er, um, no offense or anything."
"None taken," the Servitor assured him. "And to
answer your question, any attempt to break through
should be done with extreme caution, as Mistress Sera
said." He squinted at the floor, then continued,
"According to the diagnostic readings this unit is
picking up, the ideal area in which to break through
is seven centimeters to the north, next to the wall.
The floor in that location is relatively weak, whereas
the surrounding surface is strong enough to withhold a
striking blow in the adjacent area."
With this, Geetz started making his way carefully toward the aforementioned area, treading carefully.
"Be very careful," Sera's guardian warned. "The entire flooring in this room is severely weakened and very unstaaaAAAAGGGHHHH!!!"
At the instant he issued his warning, the floor beneath Geetz gave way with a deafening crash, and the Servitor unit plunged straight through, much to MegaMan's horror. A few seconds later, a loud SPLOOOSSHH! followed by splashing and coughing sounds rose up from the hole in the floor, which soon subsided. A bit apprehensibly, the young Digger crept up to the edge of the hole, and peered down into it.
The room below was about seven and a half feet high at most, and housed what seemed to be a vast lake. Along the edge of the lake was a two-foot wide strip of cement along the northern wall, upon which Geetz was hauling himself out of the water. Once on dry land-so to speak-the drenched Servitor unit turned to face the huge lake, apparently taking readings on it.
"Hey, you alright?" MegaMan called. "What do you see down there?"
"This unit is undamaged," Geetz reported. "It appears that this chamber is the first room in the Elder section of the ruins. Apparently it flooded when Terra's ocean levels rose dramatically. The chamber extends out of this unit's range of vision, making it at least five hundred and seventy-five square feet wide."
"Now that the barrier and the electronic sealings are down," Sera announced via the communicator, "I can pick up the ruins on this Spotting equipment easily. This room is, in fact, seven hundred feet long and six hundred feet wide. The entrance to the next chamber is directly ahead."
"Understood," MegaMan told her, then prepared to jump down the hole in the floor. Just as he was about to jump, however, a sudden inspiration struck him.
"Hey! Geetz!" the young Digger called down to his companion. "You remember when you first boarded the Flutter?"
"Yes, quite clearly," the Servitor barely had time to answer before he was thrown roughly to the floor courtesy of the weight that dropped down onto him. MegaMan stood triumphantly where he had landed on Jiji's back for a second or two, then stepped off and turned toward his victim.
"Ever hear of the phrase 'an eye for an eye'?" the young Digger mocked, then pulled his Rebreather out of one of the storage panels in his armor and began positioning it in his mouth, in case they would have to go underwater at some time.
"Are you able to swim?" Geetz asked, ignoring MegaMan's antics.
"Er...um, no," the other replied around the breathing device. "I never really learned. Besides, this armor's too heavy."
"In that case, you might as well have stayed where you were," the Servitor sighed. He got up onto his hands and knees, and began to change once more into a Reaverbot dragon. "If you are unable to swim, then this unit will carry you across."
MegaMan hesitated, then clambered back onto the creature's back, and the two pushed off from the concrete shore, into the water. The rather generous volume of air within his body gave Geetz the necessary buoyancy, and he swam by folding his legs and wings against himself and wriggling his tail alligator-style. MegaMan, for his part, clung to the large spike that rose up from where the Servitor's shoulder blades would be in a human. In this way, the pair made their way through the oily, black water. Despite the echoing of the waves generated by their passing, the atmosphere felt thick and oppressive, and claustrophobia seemed to be pressing in on them. The silence was almost suffocating.
The teenaged Digger occupied the time by observing the dark waters around him. The dim lighting provided by the few working lamps that ruins seemed to have could barely penetrate below the surface of the lake, and subsequently revealed little of any interest...except for the occasional skittering shadow just below the surface. MegaMan warmed up his Buster Gun, preparing for an attack.
"Geetz, do you see those weird things in the water"
he asked his companion.
"Yes," the golden Fiiru replied. "They are only fish."
But MegaMan did not relax. His well-trained Digging instincts told him that there was danger nearby, and instinct never lies.
"Get ready for any trouble, anyway," the cyborg boy told his partner.
"Weapons online and fully powered up," Geetz informed him, and not a moment too soon, because an instant later, a large school of shadowy shapes glided through the water towards them. MegaMan aimed his weapon as best he could at the dark shapes, but the lack of lighting and rippling of the water's surface distorted his perception of them.
One of the shapes leapt up abruptly, revealing itself
to be a fish-shaped Reaverbot similar to those the
Digger had encountered in the upper ruins last year,
on his quest for the Keys. The vicious robot cleared
the surface of the lake and lunged for MegaMan, jaws
gaping hungrily. A couple of plasma shots dispatched
of it quickly, but several others quickly imitated
their predecessor, and the oily water churned with
their thrashing. The young Digger aimed and fired as
fast as he could, trying to hit as many as possible,
but there were just too many!
At one point, one of the creatures latched onto his
left arm, digging for the soft flesh under the armor.
Icy with panic, MegaMan flailed the captured limb,
yanked at the Reaverfish's tail as hard as he could,
pried at its jaws, all to no avail. The little
monster bit deeper, sending a wave of fiery pain down
the boy's arm. He felt a warm trickle of blood
beneath the metal shell coating his arm, then a
grinding as the thing's teeth gnawed through the
cybernetic components of his arm, to the bone beneath.
Finally, as a last resort, the young cyborg started
banging the little monster against the Fiiru's back as
hard as he could. The Reaverfish thrashed hard at
first against the blows, then the thrashes were
reduced to twitches, and the twitches soon ceased
altogether. By this time, the thing was no more than
a twisted chunk of metal, which the young Digger
quickly pried off.
Geetz, meanwhile, was having troubles of his own, as
he was in the water along with the Reaverbot fish.
They came from all directions, mostly from below, and
were on him in a feeding frenzy, their small but
powerful jaws clanging like demented bear traps in
anticipation of the feast. But their meal would not
be easily gotten; the Servitor unit put up a valiant
struggle. Although his flame attack was useless
underwater, the plasma cannons still worked, and he
put those to good use. Whichever Reaverfish the
plasma missed was either crushed in the powerful jaws,
slashed with deadly talons, or swatted apart by the
lashing tail of their would-be prey...until one got
lucky.
MegaMan saw the one robotic pirhana the gold dragon
had missed swoop in for the kill. Its hungry jaws
opened wide, then dug in deep into Geetz's flank near
his left hip, ripping a good-sized chunk of metal
plating away, then darted off. The Digger could feel
the shudder of pain that spasmed through the
Servitor's body, and saw the afflicted limb slacken,
as though the mechanical devices beneath had been
damaged as well.
"We've got to get out of here!" MegaMan called as he knelt down to inspect Geetz's wound. The hole in the plating was about an inch and a half wide and as long as the boy's hand, but very deep. Some kind of dark liquid was oozing out.
"Agreed," the Servitor unit replied. "Unfortunately,
the damaged plating in this unit's leg is admitting
too much water, and the extent of the damage is
worsening."
"Try to go ahead and get going anyway," the
ex-Purifier commanded, then carefully leaned over to
place his hand over the gaping hole in Geetz's armor
to prevent any further leakage. At the same time,
MegaMan aimed his weapon at the remaining Reaverbot
fish and blew them apart as best he could.
"Understood," Geetz confirmed, and forged ahead once more. The going was rough; the Reaverfish thinned out only slightly, and MegaMan's kneeling posture made sighting difficult, which impeded his abilities. After a while, this position became painfully uncomfortable; his knees ached, his back hurt, his feet fell asleep, and his hand grew numb from being immersed in the freezing cold water. And the Reaverfish continued to swarm around them, trying their best to get more than a single bite out of the intruders.
MegaMan was so busy picking off the Reaverbot pirhanas from behind, he didn't see the last one leap up from the other side until he caught its shadow falling over him like a cloak. The young cyborg turned to meet this new threat a half-second too late. Beast and boy collided with the ringing of metal against metal, and both tumbled into the dark waters, where the Reaverfish's brothers were waiting.
MegaMan hit the surface of the water hard enough to
knock the wind out of him, as the once useful
Rebreather device was dislodged from its proper
position from the blow, and thrown back into his
throat, blocking his airway about the same time the
inky lake closed over his head. The young Digger
fended off the subsequent panic attack just long
enough to dispatch of the attacking Reaverfish, after
which he flailed helplessly against his liquid prison.
MegaMan clawed at his throat, instinctively trying to
remove the Rebreather, even as his more rational side
told him that even if he could reopen his airway, it
would do no good against the surrounding waters.
The water around him wavered as Geetz submerged as well, in an attempt to retrieve his partner. The Servitor angled himself downward toward MegaMan, and dove after him. At first, he caught up, and for a moment, the Digger was sure that he would be saved. His hope evaporated painfully away when he tried to grab ahold of the dragon's body. The gold metal was slick with the surrounding water, and MegaMan's fingers slipped uselessly down the smooth surface. He felt the deep groove of the connection where two plates of metal armor connected, but he could not get his fingers deep enough inside. Then, the two were seperated once more, this time for good.
This can't be it,! MegaMan thought desperately. This can't be how I'm going to die! Not while I'm so young! Not when the world needs me most! Panic returned full force with these terrified thoughts, and he renewed his struggles. But, as he had told Geetz earlier, MegaMan's armor was far too heavy and not at all buoyant. He continued to sink, despite his best attempts to swim. The surface was growing impossibly far away. He could barely make out Geetz's sillouette, then the avian shape was gone, vanished like a fever dream. MegaMan's heart froze. Had Geetz abandoned him?
Nevertheless, the ex-Purifier reached out to the dwindling surface, pulled water aside with grasping hands, kicked furiously at the darkness, and swore never to give up, even as his limbs seemed to turn to lead, and his body grew unbearably heavy. His furtive kicks and struggles weakened, then stopped altogether.
The lake seemed bottomless. MegaMan felt as though he could fall forever in this weird slow motion, and never touch the floor of the chamber. He let his numbed body shed all its tension and go limp. His mind grew hazy and detached. If his vision had grown dark or cloudy as well, the sheer murkiness of the water allowed no indication. The young Digger's world had been reduced to pure blackness and a dull pressure against his chest; the burning pain of drowning had grown distant, leaving only a strange, empty feeling.
Death wasn't so bad after all.
Then...MegaMan was vaguely aware of something cold and hard as metal around his wrist...Geetz's claws had grabbed ahold of him at last...and he was being pulled up to the surface of the water, where he was dragged out onto some kind of concrete platform. Someone shook him violently by the shoulders and yelled in his face.
"MegaMan Trigger! Respond!" a voice shouted. It took
MegaMan a while to recognize it as Geetz's. The
Servitor had resumed human shape yet again, and was
attempting to revive him as best he knew how. The
hard vibrations caused the Rebreather to shift a bit,
allowing the tiniest thread of air into the dying
cyborg boy's lungs. Not much, but it was enough to
clear some of the clouds out of his head, and bring
him back to full consciousness.
Gasping pathetically, MegaMan brought his hands to his throat, this time attempting to communicate what was happening. Geetz only stared, looking mildly confused.
"Trigger," he said. "That breathing device appears to be improperly installed."
Gee, ya think?! the Digger mentally responded. The lack of sufficient air prevented him from voicing this statement aloud, however.
"MegaMan Trigger, you realize that this situation is,
essentially, your own fault," the Servitor continued,
narrowing his eyes slightly in disgust. "If you had
not become a Carbon, you would not be in your current
situation. Therefore, you will receive no sympathy
from me!"
With that, Geetz punched MegaMan in the stomach as hard as he could
Groaning, eyes nearly bulging in pain and disbelief,
the young Digger doubled over miserably. That was
when he realized that the Rebreather was no longer
choking him. The device flopped out of his mouth and
onto the ground with a clatter. Simply breathing had
never been so satisfying, and the former Purifier
gasped deeply, bringing sweet air into grateful lungs.
He glanced up at his companion, disbelieving.
"Is that better?" Geetz asked.
"Yeah," MegaMan replied, still a little short of breath. "Thanks. And to show my appreciation for saving my life, I'm going to teach you the Heimliech manuever as soon as conveniently possible!" He started to get up. "Let's go!"
Once more, Geetz became the golden Reaverbot-although MegaMan noticed that the transformation took a little longer than usual-and the two of them set out once again for the next chamber.
Aboard the Drache hovering over Tonje Island, Roll leaned back in her seat and stretched as best she could while sitting down. The two solitary blips on her radar screen indicated that all was well in the ruins below, so the young Spotter decided to grab a quick snack out of the paper bag she had brought along.
Roll had barely finished her sandwich before a warning alarm buzzed. Leaning forward quickly, she scanned the instruments for any approaching dangers. The alarm came from the outside sensors, and, according to the readout on the monitor, two very large Reaverbots were headed toward the Drache.
Sure enough, a few seconds later, the tiny ship shuddered violently from a blow to the outer hull. Acting almost on reflexes, Roll grabbed the controls and fired all of the outer guns. Apparently the thing was out of range, because a second blow reverberated through the Drache, and the terrified girl saw the wall behind her rupture along the seams. A metal tentacle snaked through, the pointed tip searching along the equipment nearby.
Roll slid her chair over to the ship's navigation
panel, grabbed the steering column, and began to yank,
shove, and twist it wildly in an attempt to shake her
attacker off. No result. A second tentacle appeared
through the crack in the wall. Her heart in her
throat, the young Spotter reached over for the
communicator to call for help...
Tron, Gatz, and the Servbots had been making excellent progress through the Elder ruins when Roll's frantic call came through their communicators.
"Tron! Gatz! I need help!" she cried. "There's a Reaverbot attacking the Drache! Hurry!"
As much as she despised Roll, Tron could not let her die that way. MegaMan would never forgive her. She turned the Gustav around, and headed back for the entrance. Once outside, however, she ran into a new problem: the Drache was at least ten feet up, and the Gustav, wonderful mech though it was, could not fly.
"Miss Bonne, abandon your mecha and climb onto this unit's back," Gatz ordered. "It will carry you up to where Miss Caskett is."
"What about my Servbots?" Tron asked worriedly.
"They are lightweight, so they may come along as well.
Besides, we may require their assistance."
Tron hesitated, then did as she was told. Once she and the Servbots were aboard, Gatz jumped into the air and flew toward the Drache. As they arrived, the pirate girl gave an involuntary gasp at the thing that was attached to the small ship.
The Reaverbot seemed to be made of nothing but tentacles, with no apparent central body. Red-lensed eyes gleamed on the ends of some of the longer tendrils, and more than a few were buried in the Drache's hull.
"Okay, boys!" Tron declared to her Servbots. "You
know what to do!" She fired the Beacon Bomb she had
grabbed from the Gustav at the tentacle-Reaverbot.
The tiny robots crawled rather reluctantly from behind
her and attacked, unable to resist the Beacon Bomb's
orders. They leapt onto the beast, shrieking their
war cries of "Ya! Ya!", and started yanking at the
many tendrils as hard as they could. Meanwhile, Gatz
flitted over to the other side, and scorched the
remaining limbs. The robotic octopus howled in pain,
and reached for its attackers with the tentacles that
were not buried in the Drache's hull. Gatz's superb
flying skills and the Servbots' tiny size made the
effort fruitless.
Tron fired the Beacon Bombs again and again, while
Gatz swooped and dove, firing at the monster with
everything he had. All efforts came to a stop when a
thin, shrieking noise arose from the Drache: the sound
of metal being torn. For a moment, all was still.
Then, with a loud clatter, the ship disintegrated,
spilling Spotting equipment, emergency supplies, and
Roll to the ground below.
"C'mon!" Tron ordered, and pushed down on the
stabilizing spike on Gatz's back to steer him into a
dive. He obediently dove toward the flailing Spotter,
claws outstretched to catch her, and his passenger
tightened her grip on the stabilizer in
anticipation...then was suddenly yanked from his back
by the Reaverbot octopus, which also tumbled to Terra
beside them. Gatz had no time to retrieve her,
though. Roll was in much greater danger, and
therefore took precedence.
The Servitor unit edged closer to his target, then straightened out horizontally in midair, just beneath Roll. The plan worked. Gatz felt a sharp jolt to his back as the carbon girl barely cleared the stabilizer and landed safely upon him. He sighed in relief, then settled gently to the ground, next to where the Reaver-octopus and Tron were, and scurried over to them while Roll jumped off and ran alongside him.
The Reaverbot of many tentacles lay writhing on the
ground, clutching its prey by the throat. Tron,
meanwhile, was kicking and clawing at the thing around
her neck with every ounce of strength she had, but her
struggles were growing feeble.
Gatz wasted no time in rushing up to the struggle and joining in. Supporting himself on his wings, the Servitor lashed out with rapier-sharp talons, severing multiple tentacles with a single blow. The Reaver-octopus twitched in pain from the blows, then reached out with whatever tendrils it could spare to try and deal with this new threat. Gatz dealt with these quickly and efficiently.
Roll, meanwhile, used Gatz's distraction to creep in close to where Tron was. The pirate girl was not doing well; her struggles had nearly stopped, and her eyelids drooped halfway shut. The constriction around her neck prevented her from swallowing, so bits of foam coalceased around alarmingly blue lips. Panicked, Roll grabbed some of the tentacles and yanked. Her adrenaline-flooded muscles strained surprisingly effectively against the Reaverbot's limbs. The fact that Gatz was weakening it helped also.
After nearly ten minutes of tug-of-war, the Reaver-octopus finally gave up. Too weak to hold on any longer, its tentacles lost their tension enough for Roll to pull Tron free and drag her to safety. Gatz, meanwhile, finished off the beast, then turned to where the girls where.
Tron lay eerily still in Roll's arms, her eyes glazed over. Her face was a terrible shade of ashen blue. The Servbots crowded around, yanking Tron's limp arms and shouting her name, and the young Spotter could see the tears forming in their large, black eyes. Not even the barest whisper of breath escaped the pirate girl's lips.
Roll started to panic. True, she didn't care much for
Tron, but she still couldn't handle the idea of
watching someone die in her arms. She laid the
lifeless girl on the ground, and started shaking her,
wishing that she could remember anything about CPR.
Gatz, in humanoid form once more, approached, and watched Roll struggle for a few minutes. Then he gently placed his hand on her shoulder.
"Allow me," he offered. Roll nodded miserably, and backed away. The Servitor went over and knelt over Tron's lifeless body. While the Spotter watched, he drew a deep breath of air, bent down, and breathed into Tron's open mouth, her chest rising accordingly. He straightened, and she exhaled, but that was all that happened.
Twice, three times, four times more Gatz attempted revive Tron without luck. On the fifth time, the pirate girl coughed violently, spasmed, and opened her eyes.
"I just had the most wonderful dream," she murmured excitedly. "I dreamt that I was sitting on the beach with MegaMan, and he kissed me! On the lips! Five times!" Meanwhile, Gatz looked uncomfortably at his shoes, while the Servbots figdeted and mumbled, as though wanting to say something.
"Better not tell her," Roll told them. "She might have a nervous breakdown." A bit louder, she declared, "Well, with the Drache destroyed, it looks like I'm coming with you guys after all. Hang on while I get my Spotting equipment. I think it survived the attack..." She hurried off toward the remains of the tiny ship.
"Oh, hooray!" Tron grumbled sarcastically as she got to her feet. "The ditz is coming with. She'll have to ride on you, Googoo, 'cause she sure as heck isn't riding in the Gustav with me!"
"Understood," Gatz replied.
After a few minutes, Roll returned, stating, "C'mon! Let's get going!" And so they headed back into the ruins.
---
"Wait a sec! Shala-kun ruins is actually Nakkai Ruins?!" came the high pitch sound of Teasel's voice. The green-armor clad pirate was just about in shock as he heard this- the Nakkai ruins was the same place that he'd managed to get to before the whole problem with Glyde and Loathe had happened. Bon was floating closeby, once more in his large 'powered-armor' form, as the 'young' woman before them nodded. He still hated the fact that the map he had paid so much for had been almost worthless in the long run (it cost so much!), but at least he and Bon still knew the way to the Ruins.
Indeed, it was strange that Teasel even knew about the ruins in the first place. It was hidden pretty deep in the desert, but according to the information that the pirate had given her, their largest obstacle could well be dealt with before they had a chance to face it. There were few records of reaverbots that came from the earliest days of the systems being set into place- several reaverbots, however, were known to this once Mother-unit. The first, of course, was the 'Guardian'-class reaverbot. Those were able to continue protecting the area that they were assigned with even several limbs missing. Those were often the weakest of the bunch, however. Another of the 'elder'-class reaverbots included the Oyazan-class, basically a reaverbot that controlled remote units to attack its targets.
The largest, however, was the Colossus-class. It was at least 20 stories tall and required many refractors to work at full strength. According to Teasel, their little Servbots had managed to put the only Colossus that had been known to exist (several others had been built, but only one had begun to activate since the Elder system activation sequence had begun) out of commission. The Colossus-class were too large to be fully activated, and none now could escape the confines of the ruins thanks to the layouts of them and the work of the purifier units that had fought the Elder system's activation. It was good that it had been destroyed- Yuna's little hand blaster, probably gave the biggest kick when it came to firepower, and she wasn't even the one going on the dig!
"Yes, that is correct. Shala-kun was the old name for those ruins. Thank you for telling me that the Colossus is gone now, it makes everything considerably easier." she replied, as the two Bonnes looked up at the marble-like opening to the ruins themselves. "Once inside the ruins, look to the west. There will be a wall, but according to my data, there should actually be a control panel about 2 meters beyond it." she told them now. There was a reason that Teasel had taken only a few things with him into the ruin... A pick-axe was one of those things. He also had one of Trigger's weapons, a buster cannon, that had been modified at the last minute by Roll for his use.
Yuna thought about Roll for a moment as she heard some loud clanking and ringing- the Bonnes had started work on the wall itself now. Roll was this Carbon's daughter- it was obvious, from what Barrel and Roll said, and the fact that the two looked very similar. But, when it came time... could Yuna leave this body and give Roll's mother back to her? No mother unit had taken a carbon's body for safe-keeping for such a long time before. Why had she not given Roll's mother back at the earliest possible opportunity?
There was no simple answer for her. How could she have stayed in this body for so many years? Her nano-machines that she controlled kept the carbon's body fit, kept it from aging. That was why the woman's body that the mother unit inhabited remained the same age as when she had found her. That was why all the diggers, all the explorers, that had come to the forbidden island had not aged at all- the same basic process had kept them alive and well. Matilda, on the other hand... she had been near death. The damage had been so extensive that it was unlikely that such basic procedure could have saved her.
So, the mother unit did what she had to do, in order to save the woman's life. Her consciousness transferred to Matilda's mind. Yuna's superior mental processes overtook Matilda's wounded mental processes, and the nanites that lived within Yuna's own body were shared with Matilda's. The entire procedure was not without its own discomforts, and even Yuna felt pain for perhaps the first time. But the bio-merge was complete after several hours, and the mother unit was in control of the carbon's body. And has been, ever since.
"Hey, lady! Do ya think that this 'ere powered buster could break through the wall? Seems kinda familiar... I think that blue boy used it to blast me once or twice. Whatcha say?" came Teasel's voice over the radio. Yuna couldn't help but to shake her head. Probability chance of using the buster cannon to break through the wall was at 60, almost 100 if he fired twice. But there were several problems with that, the most concerning one dealing with the fact that if he fired even once, there was an 87 chance of destroying the control panel that they needed to use!
"Do you want to dig down past the deepest part of the ruin, Teasel? Because if you wish to do it, you may, but our schedule must be kept. Chances are that if you use the Buster Cannon on the wall, you'll take out the control panel we will need to use so you can access the control room for this ruin." she informed him, and she heard a rather large clang, and then the sound of rocks and metal tumbling down onto the floor. She smiled a little- she hadn't heard the cannon go off, but obviously Bon must have crashed through the wall.
Then there was quite a bit of coughing from Teasel as she heard the now-familiar "ba... buuuu..." from the man's little brother. Now, he was unusual- why was their little brother capable of running a robotic suit, and yet could only speak in baby talk? Perhaps some carbons in this world just weren't worth the effort to try and understand- hopefully, Sera wouldn't realize that yet. She was still getting used to being around Betas, afterall. "Darn it, Bon, next time warn me before you decide to ram a wall like that!" Teasel yelled, and Yuna had to smile, barely restaining herself from laughing at the predicament that the older Bonne had been put into.
---
"Ya know, this would be a lot easier if Tron managed to make another Gustaff for me to pilot. As it is, you're the one with the armor and firepower, Bon. It's almost as if I'm just along for the ride." Teasel said to his little brother. He went from his normal standing position to being slouched over as he said this, and his long white hair just fell down alongside his face. But he wasn't one to be kept down for long- the eldest Bonne had a family to provide for, after all, and just because he was now as dusty as the desert that they had just walked out of was no reason for him to stay depressed. There was the control panel, right where Yuna said it should have been!
"Baba-babu! Bababu-buba!" Bon said, and Teasel nodded, grinning in reply. "That's right, for once we have some luck coming our way! Who knows, maybe this'll be as simple as that blonde lady says it will be." he replied. Stepping up to the control panel, he pushed the green button- it was always the green button that worked. Elder system, master system, or current system, it didn't matter. The green button always allowed the person who pressed it to do what needed to be done. "And, here we go!" he exclaimed. Teasel didn't wait for the spotter to say whether or not that was the right choice.
And for once, it was the right choice. Unlike his choice for things to sell in his store, unlike his choice to have borrowed money from the Loathes. The green button was always the same thing, and in this case, the two were enveloped by a bright light that immediately took them from where they had been standing and into some other room. This room... had very bad air inside of it. It was stale! Not fresh in the least, and Teasel had to put on an air filter as he looked about the room. Behind him was a large set of controls with a big screen behind it- something to watch either a lot of television on, or to control the destruction of the world, he considered, and then shrugged. "Hey, Yuna! We're here, so what's next?" he asked into the communicator.
It took a moment for the faint reply to be received. Obviously, they were pretty far underground, as Teasel had expected. He remembered using the giant Marlwolf to try and dig his way to the ruins underneath Kattelox Island- well, he digged and he digged, but he remembered getting nowhere near the bottom! "Go to the display, and type in what I tell you to, Teasel." her voice came in, somewhat subdued. At least she wasn't giving him an attitude anymore, he thought to himself, and Teasel grinned as he walked over to the control panel.
"Bon, keep an eye out. We don't want any reaverbots to crash our little party." he told his yougner brother, and the youngest Bon nodded before turning to face down the door that was in the back of the room. Yuna started talking again, and Teasel began typing on the panel. Whatever they were doing, it would take a while, and Bon started walking back and forth to keep himself entertained. Too bad that didn't last long- Bon wasn't the type to jsut sit idly by without reason, and just being here wasn't reason enough. Then he saw something flash, over in the corner.
"Ba... buuu?" he mumbled to himself. Bon walked over slowly, his oversized arms reaching almost to the floor as he came to what he saw. It was some sort of capsule with something in it that glowed softly, as if it was possibly a beacon of some sort. The light reminded Bon of his nightlight back in the Gesellschaft II, actually, and the Bonne smiled inside his suit as he picked it up carefully. He took it towards his brother, the rather large capsule just a bit shorter than his older brother was. Whatever was inside was shorter than Teasel, but was other than that, shaped like a human was. The capsule was large enough to be able to fit a human within.
"...Deactivate." Yuna said, and Teasel typed in the last command. The panel glowed and the display came to life- the elder system deactivation code had been set in place. The shield was down, rom this location at least, and Teasel let out a sigh as he watched the dematerialization of the third-level security barrier for the Main Gate. "That should do it, Teasel. Good job." she told him, and then the communication was cut out. The elder Bonne turned around to face Bon, and then jumped back in surprise, nearly landing on the control panel as he saw how close his brother was to him, and at the sight of what was in his arms.
"Wh... wha... what is that, Bon? What do you have there?" he asked, the eldest Bonne brother's heart slowly returning to its normal, steady rate. His voice had alternated in the normal way- from high to low octaves, of course. Bon slowly turned the capsule for Teasel to see, and gave his brother a smile. There was a person inside of the capsule! In fact, the person inside of the capsule had the same skin tone as Sera had, as Jiji and Gaga had. Strange... an ancient, here? "Ah.. Yuna? We're coming back now, and Bon found someone I think you should take a look at." Teasel said, and then both were gone from the room. The lights shut down again, and the room itself was now completely dark.
An hour later ---
"I have never seen this model before... but, I believe that this is a Servitor. Of sorts." Yuna said. The two Bonnes had brought the capsule with them back to the ship that they were using for the moment, and Bon was piloting them back towards the Flutter's position. Yuna stood over the capsule, her hand pressed against the port opening where it looked like a pair of cables or pipes may have once fit into the machine. "Very strange... this is a type of machine, but not a reaverbot, and not exactly something of the Master's System, either." she said aloud, more to herself than to Teasel actually.
"So... is he an enemy, or a threat of some kind, or not?" Teasel asked. He'd been watching and listening to Yuna's diagnostic, a running dialogue really. The boy inside the capsule actually looked kind of familiar- he couldn't place why, though. It was one of those things that he just couldn't put his finger on yet. Then he formed a fist with his right hand and lightly hit his left palm as he remembered who this kid looked like. A smile spread on the pirate's face- it was a kid that he and his family had met after the trouble on Kattelox, actually, but before the expedition to the Forbidden Island. "Funny, he looks like Rick, for some reason. Doesn't he, Bon?" he called out, and there was an affirmative 'Babu!' from his younger brother.
"This model looks like someone you have met before? How peculiar." Yuna remarked, glancing up to Teasel for a moment. Surely, it was some sort of coincidence. Her own memories and knowledge of the Elder System might be greater than any other unit's still in existence today, but they were still rather miniscule. "This is a hybrid... I am finally able to access some of the files that are in this unit's memory banks now. Give me just a moment, please." she said, and her eyes closed. Behind her eyelids flew binary code as she accessed the few files that were not heavily encrypted in the ancient languages of the world. Then her voice sounded, without feeling, as if she were just reading off things as they came to her mind.
"Caretaker Unit, class alpha, section 00001. No designation. Prototype unit of main system, creation date unknown. Data class is alpha. Time last active was nearly 2,000 years ago. Description of last activity: Self Defense. Description of first activity: unknown." Yuna said aloud. Teasel just sat back and watched as the blonde woman continued to speak, wondering just what she was trying to find out from whatever it was in the capsule. The... 'thing' looked a lot like one of their old friends, though to tell the truth, Rick had been more of a pain than anything else after their problem with Mega Man back on Kattelox. They had not been able to save the boy after Glyde had located their secret base- the boy had been badly hurt by the attack, while attempting to save Tron and their family from the maniacal blonde man with the obsession with birds.
He'd slipped into a coma since then, and to tell the truth, with all that had been going on as of late, none of the Bonne family had had the chance to check on the boy's condition in almost a year. He felt bad about it- he'd treated the boy badly for a long time, even after the kid had helped to reform their ships and fighting machines. But now wasn't the time. After this Elder system problem was dealt with, he'd take the family down to the hospital that they had taken the boy to and check on him. Who knows? Maybe he was awake and out of the coma by now.
"Whew... that's all. Not a whole lot of information on him. He's too badly damaged to be awakened." Yuna said, her eyes open and the emotions now evident in her voice once more. "A rather unusual unit... seems to have been a unit built before the individual classifications of a purifier and servitor. I wonder if he has a Fiiru mode as well, like Gaga?" she said, smiling a little. The blonde lady was getting a little close to the kid in the capsule, Teasel thought to himself, and he shook his head slowly. None of his concern, after all. With a sigh, he stood up and stretched slowly, giving a small yawn.
"Well, I'm gonna go and take a nap. I hope the others have had as easy a time getting to their control rooms as we had!" he said, and then the eldes Bonne walked to the back of the ship to settled down on his back. His eyes closed, and soon he was asleep. His characteristic snoring was softened and dulled by the sound of the engines nearby, thankfully. Yuna shook her head slowly. The others had the more difficult ruins to deal with- they had to deal with still active guardians. Yuna had landed this particular ruin to deal with as a result of the lack of firepower and versatility on this portion of the team. If that Colossus-class reaverbot had been reactivated, it would have been nearly impossible to have defeated it without Trigger and the Servitors to deal with it. How Tron's Servbots had managed it, she would need to find out. Perhaps there might be some sort of plan that could be made to deal with the Elder System guardians if there was a chance to analyze their battle plans.
Yuna considered the Caretaker unit again. Perhaps it would be beneficial to repair the unit? Indeed, it was likely a remnant of the Elder system, but perhaps it could be repaired and upgraded to follow the Master's System instead? It had worked on a few reaverbot models, most notably the Guardian series. She would need to discuss this with Sera. Perhaps Tron and Roll could repair it? It was possible, both were rather mechanically inclined, for humans. It would be a lengthy process, either way, but it could be done.
---
The Caretaker unit, class alpha, remained in stasis mode. It had been in this mode for thousands of years, and had no way to repair the damage that it had sustained when last it had been activated. It managed to defeat its opponents and keep the control system room from being infiltrated, but the alarm that had gone off in its system when the room had been accessed not too long ago had been unable to wake it. The damage had become extensive, and its abilities deteriorated due to the passage of time itself. Systems were beginning to fail. The mind of the unit realized, vaguely, that it had been accessed shortly afterwards, but could do nothing to prevent the access by the superior control of whatever unit had entered its memory files.
The Caretaker slept still, unable to move. Unable to see, hear, or notice much, save through direct physical means. Would it ever be activated again? There were things that the Caretaker needed to do... was programmed to live for. But no, the damage continued to spread, slowly but surely, throughout its systems. It was unlikely that even this stasis would keep it sustained for another century. it knew, but still it could not do anything but remain in this mode until roused from it by some superior unit's command.
And so, the softly pulsing light continued to glow from the jewel that adorned its chestplate. Wiring and exposed vital areas showed from all across the unit's body. Its back was in even worse shape, though none in the small ship could know. The caretaker, oblivious to all of the rest of the world save for what little data it could obtain from within the capsule, slept on, unknowing and uncaring as to the events that might destroy, or shape, the future of Terra.
---
Author's Note (MacrossGreen): I'm so sorry! I cannot apologize enough about the length of time that has gone by since the last time I updated this series! I've been extremely busy as of late, and though in the past few months I have been back, I have been working on other fics.
Tron: Yeah, like the ones dealing with Advance Wars, Fire Emblem... and even Pokemon! I thought you said you'd never write a fic on that game!
MacrossGreen: Shut UP, Tron. I needed to do something simple to get back into writing, and Pokemon was that. Then I did a series and two one-shots for Fire Emblem, and I've started a series for Advance Wars. I needed to play MML 2 again to get back into the swing of things for a MML fic. Back off! Or do I need to revoke your Trigger torturing rights for a few years, hm?
To the ones who have waited these past two years for an update, I apologize. To those joining this series already in progress, welcome to the world created by capcom and extended by Quickcheetah and myself! We don't own Mega Man Legends or anything along those lines- we're just borrowing the world, the characters, the items, and the dancing monkey for use in the fic. Deal with it. Please review!