Disclaimer; All characters in this chapter belong to Capcom, except Amethyst. He's mine. No touchie!
To those who may be confused; In my story, some parts of Ouroboros crashed into the land, albeit not far off from the sea where the majority of it fell. I think the whole thing was supposed to have crashed into the ocean in the game, but heck, explosions! Bits could have flown quite a ways before going down, right?
Anyways, on with the story!
Putting his hand to his head, Omega walked out from the hollow in the rubble, sitting down on the dirty, dug-up ground.
"Ouch... Of all the welcoming parties I've been to, that one took the cake."
He rubbed at a large fracture in his helmet, wincing as his fingers touched his bleeding skull underneath. A trickle of blood ran from under the helmet's gem, down the middle of his forehead, and across the right cheek until it dripped off his chin. The trickle soon died down as his auto-repair systems kicked in.
Omega looked at the rest of his armour, noting with some surprise that it was also fractured in numerous places. His forearm guards were shattered, about to fall off from the looks of it. It was a similar situation with his leg and chest guards. The only thing that wasn'tabout to fall off was the abdomen guard that he wore. People calling it "underwear" found themselves spontaneously dying. Not that there was anything he needed to cover up there apart from his joints; He was strictly a killing machine after all.
He sighed. It would take a long time for him to repair his gear.
Chink... Tinkle...Clatter...
Omega looked down at the fragments of his armour on the ground.
A very long time...
Suddenly, he saw them. Tracks. Not only that, they were fairly recent, appearing to amble around then run at a frenetic pace. The tracks were from four different people heading towards the same direction.
Four people... no armour... Omega began wondering whether or not a conflict would be a wise choice. He may be the God of Destruction, but he wasn't stupid. Besides, after having an airship dropped on him, he wasn't too keen on giving someone a reason to drop something else on him. Thinking quickly, he scattered the useless remains of his gear among the wreckage, hoping for it to be mistaken as just more debris. With that accomplished, he turned and began jogging in the opposite direction to the tracks.
A few hours later the moon was full and bright, lighting his way forwards. The devil reploid was at the edge of the forest, having passed through it surprisingly quickly. Less armour meant less weight to carry he supposed. Wind rustled the leaves of the great trees behind him as small birds and insects sang peaceful tunes. The occasional nocturnal mechaniloid glanced about from between the veil of arboreal verdance, all while the stars reflected silvery lights amongst the green shades. Omega was in awe at the vastness of the forest. Because of the ancient wars, forests had been unable to grow to the size of the one he had just traversed for a very long time.
Before him lay something more familiar; a dusty plain covered sparsely with grass meandering out from the nearby woods. In the light of the moon, he could see rolling hills and dunes of sand further in the distance. Hills and dunes that could provide cover. Omega kept jogging.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Meanwhile, the sun began to rise over the main city of Legion. It was 4 o'clock in the morning, and one of the two remaining leaders of the world, Master Mikhail, was about to pour some tea. He stopped when a knock sounded on his door. Grumbling about being interrupted, he shambled over and opened it. Standing outside was a tall, red haired man with a beard, sword and robe.
"Thomas? What brings you here so early in the morning?"
Thomas, Master Thomas to most, had a solemn look on his face.
"Mikhail, you'd better come and see this."
Mikhail, curious, followed the leader of the Sage Trinity as he led him through several halls and rooms, stopping just outside of one where visitors to the Legion were sent. Thomas pointed at a one-way window that showed the entirety of the room and its inhabitants. What Mikhail saw was both amazing and frightening.
Four fully merged Mega Men, along with the missing biometal, Model Z, were trembling in fear and muttering about haunted ships.
Mikhail sighed. This would be a long day...
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Dawn had broken, painting the sky as if it were a watercolour portrait of blueish gray hues. The sands and occasional brown grasses blew gently in the shifting air, miniature dust funnels dancing across the horizon in elegant twirls. All of this beauty was lost on Omega, who was having a small problem.
Apparently, the future had robotic parasites.
"Goddamn! Itchy little bastards! Get offa me!" roared the red demon as he furiously clawed at his body.
The parasites continued their assault, heedless of Omega as he tried to fight back against them. Without his armour, they ran freely over his skin and through his hair. But the more he scratched and bit at them, the more viciously they attacked. Unable to bear it any longer, he dropped and began flailing against the coarse sand. A small dust cloud sprang up as he rolled down a dune.
With a thump, he landed at the base of the sand pile. Shaking himself back and forth, he twisted, rolled, scratched, and threw dust over himself to get them off. Some of the ant-sized parasites fled, but most retained their irritating grips. He even resorted to jumping up and down, landing on whatever body part had the most parasites crawling over it.
"A naked reploid rolling around like a puppy? You don't see that every day."
Omega froze, his parasites forgotten. His legs were splayed in the air and his back was flat against the ground in a comical, startled pose.
"Beats me why you'd wanna do it in a desert, though."
Flipping onto his stomach he slowly got up, looking for the source of the voice. It was a man on top of the dune where Omega had first begun his "temper tantrum". He wore a purple long-sleeved jacket with matching pants and boots. There was a dark purple gem emblem in the center of his helmet, integrated into the white, visor-like goggles he wore to cover his eyes, which were currently glancing between Omega and his tracks if the movements of the man's head were any indication.
"I am not naked, and I am not rolling around like a puppy," growled Omega.
The man chuckled, "It sure looked like you were to me."
Omega's face reddened. His temper began rising, as did an itch. The parasites were back. Involuntarily, he began digging at his scalp with his fingers.
"You got a problem there, buddy?"
"No. Buzz off." He began scratching himself harder. After a couple of seconds, the agonizing irritation caused by the parasites forced him to drop to the sands again, flailing madly. The man watched, then began to laugh.
"If that's not a problem, I don't know what is! What's buggin' you, anyways?"
Omega gave him a venomous look, but decided to play along. For all he knew, it may be better to keep his identity a secret.
"Exactly that. Bugs." The man raised an eyebrow questioningly, then snapped his fingers in understanding.
"Oh! I get ya! Those insectoid robots that travel around here. But why would you go around, uh, half naked, when that security company warned everyone? When an experiment goes awry, people usually don't stick around to feel the effects."
Omega gave him a genuinely confused look, which he noticed.
"Didn't you get the message?" Omega responded by shaking his head.
The man gave a sympathetic shake of his head, "I thought it had been sent to everyone... The message was about how a security company's attempt at parasitic burglar deterrents failed. All the parasites got out, and me and some friends got the job to exterminate the ones in this area. But... The message should have gotten to every single person out here, even the raiders. Not only that, the company even got the news people to write a story on it..."
He took a few steps backwards, staring suspiciously at Omega. "You aren't some sort of dangerous hermit or maverick, right?" The man reached into a pocket, bringing out a communicator already primed.
Omega realized that he may have already walked himself straight into a situation capable of blowing the cover off of his innocent facade. Should he tell the truth, or lie through his teeth? He went with the latter.
"Yes, I'm a hermit, but I'm not dangerous." Or so you think...thought Omega, hoping the man would buy his tale.
The man relaxed. "That's okay, then. Sorry if I'm being a bit suspicious, but there's been some weird stuff goin' on lately. Giant snake ships, Masters of Legion going crazy... My name's Amethyst, by the way. Nice to meet you!" Amethyst smiled, offering his hand.
"Weird occurrences? You can say that again, Amethyst..." Omega agreed, but stared hesitantly at the hand, unsure of what his next action should be. His own hand half-raised, but in the end he dropped it and shuffled the issue aside with another question. "Hold on? I'm curious. Isn't Amethyst the name of a jewel? It seems strange to be called that."
Amethyst chuckled. "No stranger than any other. I'll elaborate more on it later, if you'd like. Anyways, what's your name?"
Uh oh. What should he say? Two centuries ago, his real name had struck fear into the hearts of even the bravest warriors. Telling his name now could prove disastrous. But what should his false name be? Struggling for an answer, his search was cut off before he could say anything.
"Don't you have a name?"
Omega looked at Amethyst. His answer was found for him!
"...No..." he faked. Amethyst looked at him with pity, and Omega was hard put not to strangle him for it.
"Poor guy, no wonder you're a hermit! Tell you what, you come with me and my friends and I'll help with those parasites. Not only that, we'll get you a good and proper name, too!" he grinned. Reaching into his pocket, he brought out a squirt bottle. "Now hold still. It won't hurt, but it'll get those bugs off."
Omega complied , staying still as Amethyst sprayed his shoulders. The liquid was greasy and smelly, but the insectoids whom Omega had almost forgotten about during his conversation, instantly scattered off their host and into the sands. The sheer bliss of their departure caused the "unnamed hermit" to let out a moan of relief.
"Aaaaaaaaaaahh... You don't know how good that feels..." For once, the crimson terror wasn't lying or distorting the truth.
"It's only temporary, mind you. Sorry about the smell, but that's one of the reasons it works so well," Amethyst smiled. "Now come on, we're going to be late."
Omega was perplexed, "Late for what?"
"For breakfast, silly! I was just finishing my rounds when I stumbled into you!" Amethyst beckoned with his hand, then began to trot off into the distance. Omega followed, beginning to wonder just what he had gotten himself into. The impassive sun burned the horizon as the two figures ran across the endless sands, heading towards a settlement on the horizon.
The God of Destruction had returned!