Chapter 27 - Group Effort

Giro, Velocity, and Iylth all stepped from their pods simultaneously, immediately acting upon the situation. Iylth made sure to stick close to both Giro and Velocity, for they were more of the 'powerhouses' of the groups, while Iylth was usually a range-unit, and also because both Velocity and Giro had visors that let them see through the smoke filtering throughout the room. Giro's shield appeared within his hands suddenly, as one of Reaver's claws came hurtling through the smoke. The claws tore through the ethereal image of the shield and into its physical form, embedding into it a bit.

"Shit," Giro ground his teeth, holding the shield steady within his hands.

Iylth dove backward, rolling to his feet behind his pod, his hands running over the jutting surface of the bottom of the pod, searching from something, anything. His hands finally worked their way to about halfway up the bottom part of the pod and looped his fingers around something long, cold, and cylindrical.

Velocity stayed behind Giro, who was keeping the shield steady. Velocity's hand began to get an ominous glow about it, a soft hum emanating from the base of his palm, where the charger was. Energy began to swirl around his fingertips, creating a circular form of energy about his entire hand.

"You can't kill me." Velocity smirked darkly as his cannon reached max on its charge.

'I beg to differ.'

The small shuttle made its way quickly toward its destination, the thrusters increasing their energy output due to Duo's massive size. Duo's large hands gripped the tiny controls loosely, making sure not to crush them with his strength. He steered the shuttle toward the spectacular D-Port.

'Just as grandeur as it always has been..'

Centuries before 20XX, there was a civilization of robots that lived universes away from the one in which Mega Man would eventually be 'born' in. This universe was completely robot dominant, there were no humans anymore, they all had passed. The only thing they had left behind was a race of robots capable of doing everything that they had been able to do. This race was called the 'Sentinels.'

According to their history records, there was a singular problem in this universe that could never be corrected, no matter how hard anyone ever tried. This one problem was known only as Dark Energy. Dark Energy was capable of taking control of a robot completely and thoroughly and boosting their energy and power beyond the imagination.

The Sentinels had 'caught' some of the Dark Energy and nullified it, making an energy known as Light Energy, for it was capable of cancelling out Dark Energy, even overpowering it at times. Every robot made for combat purposes was outfitted with a core that used Light Energy, and a battle that continues on today was waged.

The Dark Energy was cunning and quick. It destroyed the Light energy based robots and continued on its conquest. Unfortunately for the robot race, the Dark Energy had created a tear in the universe and was beginning to traverse to different universes. They had to create a way of stopping this. The Sentinels formed the 'Multiverse Police.' A corporation of highly skilled Sentinels that traversed the Multiverses, removing the existence of the Dark Energy.

The Multiverse Police created a contraption called the D-Port. The D-Port's only function was to create ways for their shuttles to move between universes. The machines were highly unstable at times, and were sending agents to the wrong areas, but the errors have been corrected and the D-Ports are now stable, and work efficiently. Shipping out thousands of agents in a single day, if necessary.

Duo was created for the sole purpose of being an agent of the Multiverse Police. His first assignment was to travel to 20XX of Mega Man's time and remove the Dark Energy that had shown up. Despite being an excellent pilot, he crashed and was damaged. He was repaired by Dr. Light and became fast friends with Mega Man, who he fought alongside against Wily's Dark Energy infected Robot Masters.

Upon the completion of his mission, Duo inserted a special device into the wiring of Mega Man's gauntlet. It was there for whenever Mega Man might need some help. Duo then returned home, where he was questioned on his primitive, yet effective new arm. He refused to get it replaced, showing it as a souvenir of his first successful mission. And a memoir of his friendship with Mega Man and Dr. Light.

Duo tilted the sticks slowly, the shipping slowly swinging its body toward the massive D-Port, he inputted his authorization code and watched each number and letter pop up on to the screen before him, as he finished the code, the machine sank back into the console of the ship, and it ended with a soft, "Thank you."

The D-Port itself was a massive oval hovering in space. The outer rings spun in a slow rotation about the center of the construct. The rings just inside of the outer rings spun opposite of the outer. Between the rings electricity sparked, showing that the opposite rotation, though it looked meaningless from afar, was actually the real reason the D-Ports stayed open. Within the center of both sets of rings was a dark green swirling mass of nothingness. And that's exactly where Duo was heading.

Reaver jerked his arm backward, his claws releasing from Giro's shield, retracting his claws back to their normal position. He twisted his body around, 'cocking' his arm and letting it fly toward one of the other members of his little entourage, the claws streaking through the smoke toward Iylth's unprotected form.

"I will kill every last one of you!"

Iylth jerked back with all his strength, the cold steel fighting against him for only a moment before it snapped at both ends. He rolled backward and then up to his feet, all in one fluid motion. He flicked his right wrist, sending the blunt end of the pole straight into the oncoming set of claws that Reaver had let loose upon him. The pole made contact and sent the claws around the entire pod. Iylth watched as Reaver's arm seemed to disintegrate and reform on the other side, retracting.

"Welcome back, Poley!" He spun the pole within his grasp, thinning his lips, 'This is going to suck..'

Shori slipped his way through the thick smoke, he could see Reaver's silhouette through the grey. It was kinda hard to miss, he noted, since Reaver's hands were claws, they were extremely noticeable.

'Is he looking? Take the chance..'

Shori's katars slid free from their holsters within his grip, and he launched his body toward Reaver's silhouette. He came close enough to strike his fellow team-mate, and he went for the strike. His left katar tore through the smoke, but his body was jerked away at the last moment. Reaver had seen him. Shori's form slammed into the thick wall on the far side of the room, the claws tearing into his sides.

"Reaver!" Velocity's voice split the silence.

'Holy crap this hurts.. Ugh..'

Velocity steadied his arm as he watched the gauge on his gauntlet reach the max. He crouched low to the ground, aiming his hand carefully, the glow intensifying, before finally it seemed like something snapped within his hand. A blast erupted forth from the center of his palm, tearing through the smoke entirely, like the splitting of the Red Sea.

"Shit!" Reaver's voice croaked through the smoke.

The blast made contact with Reaver's entire left side, incinerating the nanites that formed his shoulder and arm, freeing Shori from his trap against the wall. Shori dove from his wall trap as the blast continued on, blowing a hole the size of almost double of Shori's body into the wall. Velocity grit his teeth, beginning the charge once more, his hand once again beginning to tinge with the sensation.

Duo's ship was almost immediately thrust forth into the D-Port, the small ship cascading into the green swirling mass of nothing. His sirens and alarms went off, screeching loudly in his ears. This had never happened before. He grabbed the sticks tightly and jerked them sharply to the right, away from the D-Port, but it already had a hold of his tiny shuttle, and it wasn't going to let go of him. The sirens continued to wail as he went spiraling into the spiral jade portal, vanishing within it.

Shori pushed himself to his feet, leaping backward toward the wall, kicking off of it and gliding through the air. His katars tensed at his sides as he dropped toward Reaver's melting figure. He swung both katars in a 'X' formation. Reaver twisted his form slightly, both katars catching on the horns of the helmet.

'What the hell? I never miss!'

Shori's gaze jerked away from Reaver's form, moving toward Velocity's hand, which was sparkling an ominous blue. He grit his teeth and slammed his knee forward into Reaver's face, the clap of metal resounding throughout the small room. Shori tilted his form forward, pushing over Reaver and leaping upward.

Velocity's cannon had completed its second charge much quicker than the first. He aimed more carefully than he had the first time and waited for Shori to leap away from the target. His hand vibrated for a second and then the blast erupted from his palm. Reaver's form twisted around to face the blast, striking him full on.

'Why didn't he dodge..'

Iylth crept out from behind the pod, spinning Poley still. Giro appeared at his side and led him through the smoke that was beginning to filter out of the room through the hole in the wall that Velocity had created. Velocity was already standing where Reaver had been, Shori approaching him.

"Did we win?" Shori retracted his katars as he spoke.

"Not a trace is left, Shori."

"My cannon is more effective than it used to be, heh."

"We should probably get going.. Find the local HQ and return to active duty." Iylth was always one for seriousness, usually.

"Iylth has been reunited with Poley. The world will not be coming to an end now!" Iylth swatted Velocity in the back of the head with the weapon, Velocity rubbed the back of his head lightly, "Ow."

"Let's go.."

Shori turned and made his way out of the room, away from the pods and back up to where the altar and pews were. Iylth and Giro quickly followed, leaving Velocity in the basement alone He turned around and around on the spot where Reaver had been when the blast had connected, or he thought it had connected.

'As powerful as it is.. Reaver could take it. We'll be seeing him again.' "See you later, Reaver."

And with a final wave, Velocity made his way out of the room, following the other three up the stairs and out of the church's basement. He rejoined them at the altar, helping Shori to replace his pod back into the flooring. As they finished the job, they turned and exited the holy place.

"Amen." Iylth was barely above a whisper.

The footsteps were no longer audible, the coast had finally become clear. Reaver slid his form out from between the rafters and dropped silently to the floor. He deactivated his cloaking and stood in the middle of the room. The smoke had all cleared out and he was standing in a bare room, the only thing ornamental was the four pods aligned across the far wall. He turned his gaze toward his left arm.

"Lucky shot, Velocity.."

The arm began to regrow as he spoke, the nanites built into his frame automatically repairing the damage. He had delayed their work so that the four of them wouldn't notice that he could repair all the damage they had done to him. He stretched out as the final repair was finished; it had only taken a minute or two.

"The Hunters become the hunted.. Overused, I'm sure.."

He made his way out of the basement of the church and stopped at the altar. He slammed his claws through the slender wood, sending the hallow pedestal across the room, splinters raining down upon the pews. The wooden construct struck the wall, then clattered loudly to the floor.

Duo's head cracked against the metal paneling on either side of his seat, he was getting a severe headache, and getting extremely nauseous. He kept his eyes open during the entire travel through the D-Port, which went by like seconds. He ripped through the either side, the ship still spiraling. He wrenched at the sticks, turning the ship out of its spiral and settling it straight. He breathed heavily, coughing a little bit.

"Space-sickness.. Ugh.."

He quickly spotted the outer ring of planets of the Milky Way galaxy. He shuttle quickly made its way past Pluto and it's singular moon. After a few seconds, he knew he had passed Neptune and Uranus' normal route around the sun, but he didn't see them.

'Must be on the other side..'

He steered the ship past the hulking structure of Saturn, twisting the sticks easily within his massive hands. He took another sharp turn, sliding past Jupiter's large form as well. He watched the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter emerge and he erected the shuttle's Firewall, the asteroids having little effect upon the ship. He exited the other side of the belt and made his way past the glowing red sphere of Mars.

"Good to be back, Blue Planet.."

Duo's ship closed in on Earth, the blueberry of the Milky Way Galaxy. He activated the atmospheric shielding of the shield and tilted the sticks back slightly, nosing the ship downward into the gravitational pull of the planet. The planet took hold, jerking the ship a little. The nose of the shuttle struck the atmosphere.

'Deja vu..'

The second the entire ship was taken into the atmosphere, Duo realized why he remembered this sensation before. It was the same as the last time he had come to Earth. And he knew just exactly how it was going to end.

"I'm going to crash!"

The landscape closed in quickly upon the shuttle's small form. Duo grit his teeth as he got closer and closer to the quickly approaching patch of green terrain beneath. He waited until seconds before impact and ripped a hole through the roof of the ship, throwing himself free of the crash. The shuttle struck earth, digging up a hole as large as a school bus, and it exploded once it had stopped.

Duo got to his feet and made sure that he wasn't missing anything important from his body. He walked over to the impact and scanned the damage of the ship from afar, thinking that something might be salvageable. He just shook his head.

"Looks like I'm screwed again.. Just great."