World Reset

Chapter 5 – Frozen Field

"Aaah!" Aile yelled as she fell into the hole below her feet.

She closed her eyes shut, not caring about the small frozen platform below her. She landed hard on the platform before she gathered the courage to reopen her eyes, seeing that she was standing on a frozen platform in the middle of a dark field. She slowly got up to her feet and stood carefully to avoid slipping on the slippery ground before pulling out her buster.

"As aware as you've always been, Aile?" A familiar voice was heard and Aile looked around with her buster in front of her.

"Thetis, is that you?" Aile asked, and the said person came out from the shadows, already transformed into his Model L form.

"It's been a while, hasn't it?" Thetis asked with a smile, but Aile refused to remove her buster away from him, "What's that? Aren't you going to shoot me with that thing?"

Aile replied with another smile, "Depends on the answer you're going to give to my questions," The expression on Aile's face turned into a serious one, "Are you and the other three Chosen Ones working for Thomas now?"

"Is that what you and the others want to know so badly?" Thetis let out a sigh, "We're not working for him. It's that simple."

"Is that true?" Aile kept pointing her buster as she looked at the Ice Mega Man in distrust, "Master Thomas has betrayed the Legion, and you along with Aeolus, Atlas, and Siarnaq have been missing for a year in a mission to investigate this research lab. Do you have any explanation on that?"

Thetis let out a chuckle, "Nothing gets past you, huh? Alright, I'll tell you since you've asked me without involving any direct violence," Thetis pulled out his staff and held it in his left hand as he looked at Aile with an evil smile, "We're working with Thomas, to create the ideal world."

"Ideal world?" Aile lowered her buster a little, "And if I have to guess, you're all planning to destroy the world before building a new one on its remains, aren't you?"

"Bingo!" Thetis spun his staff before moving it into his right hand, "But you're not going to stop it! We're going to make a clean world, a world free of sea pollution, with a death penalty for anyone who dares to pollute the sea! Care to join?"

"Sorry, but I think a death penalty for pollution is too much," Aile charged her buster before pointing it back at Thetis, "I like things clean, but a little pollution to the world isn't avoidable."

Aile released her charged shot at Thetis, who quickly dodged out of the way before he spun his staff and water started rising around them. Thetis activated his propellers and swam in the water, dodging the buster shots Aile had sent him easily. Thetis spun his staff, summoning three ice dragons from the frozen ground to swim towards Aile.

Aile pulled out her saber and slashed the ice dragon into small pieces of ice, only to have the ice pieces to be hurled at her. Aile took some damage from the unexpected ice pieces, before turning back to Thetis who was nowhere to seen anymore. Aile looked around with her charged buster in front of her, but Thetis was nowhere in sight.

A blur of blue color suddenly appeared in front of her before Thetis swung his staff down at her as he jumped down in front of her, but Aile blocked the attack with her buster. Aile kicked Thetis away from her before releasing her charged shot, only to be bounced off as Thetis spun his staff in front of him.

Two ice dragons suddenly appeared on Aile's left and right side, surprising the female Guardian, before they bit her hands. The ice dragons broke up into smaller ice pieces before they disappeared into the water, leaving the bite marks on Aile's arms to freeze a bit of Aile's arms. Aile tried holding her buster properly and aimed it at Thetis, but her hand was shuddering out of the cold from the ice on her arms.

"Cold, isn't it?" Thetis asked as he swam closer to Aile before putting his staff under her chin, "But that's how ice is. It's cold, but it's beautiful."

"B-But not… when i-it's used… f-for evil…" Aile pointed her buster at the ice on her other arm and released a charged shot, breaking the ice.

"Using your own weapon to destroy the ice…" Thetis saw as Aile had destroyed the ice on her other arm, freeing her from the cold ice, and let out a smile, "A clever move."

"Thanks," Aile replied before pointing her charged buster at Thetis, "But don't take compliments from enemies."

"It's fine," Thetis swam backwards and distanced himself from Aile before slamming his staff on the ground, breaking the frozen ground a little, "Because it'll be fun to see you dodge this!"

Aile gasped as many small ice dragons were formed on Thetis' staff before they all swam towards her. Aile pulled out her saber before releasing her charged shot to the ice dragons and destroyed some of them. More ice dragons swam towards her, but Aile swung her saber around and destroyed the dragons before they could even reach her.

"Impressive," Thetis smiled out of impression, "But let's see if you can handle this!"

Thetis pulled out his staff from the ground before a much bigger ice dragon came out from the small hole created by the staff. Aile put her saber away and released a charged shot at the ice dragon, but her shot bounced off the dragon's head, much to Aile's surprise. The dragon opened up its mouth wide and ate Aile's whole body, freezing her completely inside a tower of ice.

Thetis let out a smile before putting his feet back to the ground and deactivated his propellers. Thetis walked over to the ice tower with his staff in his right hand and was about to slam his staff down at the ice, but Aile had disappeared from inside the ice with a white light. Thetis saw the ice tower breaking before the water around him was drained away.

Thetis transformed back before he teleported out of the area.