Chapter 24 - Unexpected Allies

The flame from the small fire had all but died, and Claude had decided that now would be a good time as ever to start out for Dr. Faern's laboratory with the two prototype robots. Burn was still out there contemplating on who knows what, while Quick was a few feet away from him, sleeping like he had been doing an hour ago. Claude pushed himself to his feet and walked over to the slumped over bot's form.

"You got the same idea that I got, Master Claude." Claude turned to watch Burn come back around the corner and into the small alley.

"Watching for Mavericks?" Burn nodded, turning his head toward Quick, "Hurry and awaken him, Master Claude, we must get going.

Claude nodded and took Quick's left gauntlet into his hand, searching for the small button underneath it. He finally located it, and gave a smile as he pressed the button firmly. Quick's eyes flashed on, and then immediately flickered and went out. Burn stared in disbelief, as did Claude, who turned his head toward Burn.

"He's gone.."

"He's pushed himself too hard, Master Claude. We will take him with us to Dr. Faern, hopefully he will be able to fix him."

"Hopefully.."

Burn stepped over to where Claude and Quick are and deactivated the flames streaming from his fingers. He took hold of Quick's shoulders and hefted him up off the ground, carrying his limp form like it was a baby. Claude got to his feet and followed him out of the alley and in the direction of Faern's laboratory and house.

'I hope he doesn't kill me when he sees me.. I was never one of the good guys, anyway.. Doesn't fit my personality, but I guess that's going to change..'

Lizzy leapt through the doorway as Shift removed his blob-like form away from it. She landed on a Joe, one end of her double-ended beam axe cleaving into the Joe's back, the other end swinging forth and taking out a line of Maverick Birds coming in to drop a row of plasma down upon her.

Shift slid out through the door as a puddle of goo-like substance and then rose upward away from the ground, wrapping his entire entity about the much larger form of a D-10. He began to constrict his body down upon the hulking Reploid. The D-10's body began to give underneath the immense amount of pressure be put upon it from Shift, and it cracked and rippled. It snapped underneath the force and crumpled up within Shift's form. He absorbed the crushed material into himself, using the material and energy to repair and replenish his wasted energy.

Blues stood firmly in the doorway to the building where Faern and Mega Man were. His right arm was pointed ahead of him and out toward the street, his buster gleaming brightly every few seconds as he let out a half-charged blast of plasma into an oncoming Maverick. Those that got past Shift and Lizzy would not be getting past him. Though the only ones that ever did get past them were Mets and Joe's, because the two of them were busy with the stronger Maverick forces.

Shift morphed his right hand into a buster and then took off running. He aimed recklessly, strafing across the road at the Mavericks still heading toward them. His buster went off rapidly, peppering the front row of the horde of irregular Reploids, multiple ones exploding after a few shots ransacked their forms. He came to a stop and smirked as Lizzy landed next to him, a dark grin on her lips.

"I love my job, Shift." He only laughed.

Sebastian set down a pair of tools upon the table in front of him, a sheet was covering this Reploid. He turned about and walked over to his computer, and snatched up the grey phone setting next to the keyboard. He tapped in a phone number rather quickly and waited as it dialed the person. The person answered after the third ring.

"Faern, here."

"Hello Christopher." Faern took a moment before responding, "Hello Robert."

"I'm rather glad to hear your voice. I thought you might've been dead by now. Obviously, I'm misunderstanding your capability to survive against my Reploids."

"Well.. I do have help." Faern's voice was low and calm as he spoke.

"Yes, I heard. They damaged both of my strongest Reploids. It seems the Maverick Hunters from the past were just as strong then as they are now. This disappoints me, Faern."

"Why is that?"

"I wanted more of a challenge."

"Wha-" Faern began, but Sebastian interrupted him, "I'll make a deal with you, Faern. Since we are both well established scientists and Roboticists."

"What's the deal, Robert?"

"If you can survive the next wave of Mavericks, I'll stop my attacks for two months and let you work up a fighting chance. You may think you have one now, but you don't have as many Hunters as I do Mavericks. And I'm much quicker at producing stronger Reploids than you are, and you know it."

"..." Faern was silent for a few minutes, contemplating over this, but Robert was tired of waiting, "While you think that over. Tell me something Faern.. Where is Claude?"

"Claude?" Robert was getting annoyed, "Yes, Faern, Claude. Enzan's brother and my protege. He has to be there, because he isn't here. And I will gladly send more than enough Mavericks to run down your entire laboratory if you don't return him to me."

"I don't have him!"

"Don't lie to me, Faern! You're the only other person he would go to!"

"Well, he's not here!" Robert twisted the phone cord angrily, "Give me your answer, now Faern."

"You have a deal, Robert." Faern's voice was still calm, but it waved slightly.

"That's good, Faern. I wouldn't want to have to kill you. Oh wait.. Yes I would."

He hung the phone up with a slam, sighing heavily. He turned away from his computer and the phone and walked back over to the table with the sheet-covered Reploid. He threw the sheet off to reveal a Reploid with armor the color of crimson, which sparkled brilliantly in the fluorescent lighting. The helmet was topped with two 'horns', and the center of the helmet had a blue crystal resting there. Through a slot in the back slid through the Reploid's mane of golden hair. Robert smirked a little, tapping his finger lightly against the chest, where two rounded gems had been removed.

"You're going to do perfectly, Zero."

Mega Man rested against the steel walls of the corner where he had put himself when the fighting had started outside. He sighed heavily, pulling his knees up against his chest, staring blankly at the floor panels, wincing every time he had an explosion outside. He turned his head a bit and watched Blues in the doorway, his buster going off every few seconds, an explosion following seconds afterward.

'I always thought that Blues would have been the first one to quit fighting.. To stop before I did. He's much stronger than he used to be.. I don't even think that Dr. Light would recognize his son if he saw him today..'

He turned his head toward Faern, who had just gotten a phone call and was finishing it up, when he slammed it down into the receiver, grinding his teeth together. The doctor looked over at him and shook his head, sighing and reaching under the desk. He pulled out a pistol and flicked off the safety. He glanced back over at Mega Man and shrugged, "Just in case, you know.."

'No.. I don't know. I've never known. I wasn't born a fighter, I was made one. Voluntarily, heh.. I remember that day. Giving myself to the fight, battling Wily's Robot Masters, going through his fortress and eventually beating him.. Arresting him.. And then him getting free a few weeks or months later, and we repeat it all over again..'

Mega Man looked down at his right hand and then morphed it into the buster that he had always had. He set his left hand on top of the rounded surface, touching the power bar in the middle. He shook his head and changed it back to normal, but his eyes never left his right hand.

'Am I doing the right thing.. ?'

One of the larger Mets beeped loudly. All of the other Mets turned and stared at the one that had made a sound. He raised a small antennae-type object out of its head and began to transmit a message to the other eleven Mettaurs around him.

"I am going to go help. Who's with me?"

All of the Mets went crazy and began to beep and scramble to their feet, their helmets all tipped back so that they could actually walk and see as they went. The large one lead the way as they made their way toward the door, where one of the large Reploids was.

Mega Man watched as the group of a dozen Mets made their way to the door. He smirked a little, watching them waddle and bounce their way around Blues' feet and out the door to the outside. He shook his head slowly, setting his left hand to his forehead.

'Even the Mets, who stand no chance, are willing to fight.. Maybe I'm wrong and what I thought was right is really wrong.. Am I being selfish? No! I've fought enough! I've battled more robots than any of these Reploids put together! I've fought too long to do it again.. I'm not the 'hero' I once was..'

He pulled his hand away from his forehead and looked up, watching as the two Reploids and Blues came back into the lab. The girl Reploid had a few burn marks on her shoulders and legs, but she didn't seem to mind. The silver Reploid was not damaged at all, then again, he was made of goo of some sort. Blues was in perfect condition, he had kept the fort held whenever the other two let anything past. Mega Man pushed himself to his feet and then smiled to himself as all dozen of the Mets came waddling back into the laboratory.

"I have something to tell all of you."

Faern set the pistol down on top of his desk and turned back toward the four of them. He stuffed his hands into the front pockets of his lab coat and cleared his throat. He looked each one of them in the eyes in turn, before he decided to speak, and when he did, it was in a slow manner. He didn't want to get them too alarmed.

"This is rather important matter I'm going to tell you.. Don't get upset, or mad, or scared."

"Get to it already," Lizzy's voice was slightly menacing to the good doctor, he cleared his throat once more.

"Another wave of Mavericks is coming our way. If I live through it.. If.. Then Sebastian is going to stop attacking people for two months. Giving us enough time, so he thinks, to make a substantial enough force to be able to fight him on a full-scale level." Shift shuffled his feet uneasily, "It sounds too unorthodox for him, don't you think Faern? Are you sure he's the only one behind this?"

"I really have no idea.. But we mustn't lose this laboratory. This is the only computer, apart from his and the one in the Hunter HQ, that is capable of processing all of the data need for Reploid construction." Blues, who was looking over at the silent Mega Man, turned his head to Faern, "Then we know what we have to do.. We have to keep this place, and you, intact."

"We will succeed." Everyone turned to look at Mega Man, who had spoken.

"Are you going to help?" Mega Man bit his bottom lip and stared at the floor, "In anyway I can without having to fight."

Claude and Burn had been walking for about two hours when Claude finally spotted the back side of Faern's house, the back being where the laboratory was located. He motioned for Burn to walk in that direction, as he headed for the door. The large bot stood a few feet behind him as Claude knocked on the door. There was the shuffling of multiple feet behind the door before it finally opened, only wide enough for a face to come through.

"Hel-.. CLAUDE?"

"Hello doc.." Faern swung the door open and came out and stood in front of him, "What are you doing here?"

"I came to find Enzan, is he here?" Faern shook his head, "No, I'm sorry, but he isn't."

"No time for this."

Burn stepped forward from behind Claude and stood as much as he could next to him as was possible. Burn brought Quick down off of his shoulder and laid him down in front of Faern, staring down at the scientist with a blank stare, but his voice portrayed all the emotion.

"Can you please repair our friend?" Faern looked from Burn to the robot laid in front of him, "I can try. Claude, help me, if you wouldn't mind."

"Of course."

Burn hefted the smaller Quick up into his arms once more and he was lead into the laboratory. He laid Quick down upon a table, noticing all the others within the room. Claude was looking at the four others in the room as well, notching two of them down as Blues and Mega Man. He had all their information on file back on his computer at Sebastian's lab.

'I'll have to go get that sometime.'

Blues walked over to the other side of the table and wheeled the waist-height trolley around to set at the head of the table, where all three of them would be able to reach it to get necessary instruments. The three of them; Enzan, Claude, and Blues, all began grabbing a variety of tools, getting to work on Quick's repairs before the second wave of Mavericks rushed to attack them.

Lizzy spun a screwdriver in her hand as she set about tightening the screws and other parts on her baton. She hadn't completed the repairs before AX had told her to get moving and get here. She had to fix them now before she got into another fight, or she would have to go into the fight with only her buster. She glanced over at Shift, who was making random weapons with his hands, alternating back and forth between the two hands.

"Getting ready, Shift?"

"Just looking through my weapon files.."

"Mm.."

Mega Man was still standing on the other side of the room as he watched Lizzy and Shift. They were experienced and easily took care of themselves. Lizzy approached Faern and asked a question, but he wasn't paying attention to catch it. But he figured it out as Faern pointed toward three Stasis Pods in the corner, and both Lizzy and Shift headed for two of them.

'Resting up.. I should do the same, but I won't be fighting.. So what's the point? This isn't my world.. Mine was battling the same foe repeatedly, always knowing his tactics and always winning.. I'm not fit for this type of place, where the enemies come after you, instead of you going after them.. Someone get me out of here.. I miss you Dr. Light..'