Disclaimer: All characters, except those in the "Gem Gang", belong to Capcom. The Gang is mine, however. Quite a revamp was done to make them stand out more as characters, since before they were pretty much introduced with little fanfare and admittedly little characterization. Hopefully I've fixed that!

It was noon. The sun shone brilliantly over Legion city, causing it to shine with an ethereal, pristine glow. Decorating the gray and white buildings were plants, billboards, signs, and other urban delights in a multitude of eye-catching colours. Below a large skyscraper in the city's center, various citizens went about their daily lives without a care in the world, happy and content. Inside the skyscraper was a different story.

Aile stared out through a large window, tapping her foot impatiently. Grey stood a few feet behind her, trying to soothe her foul mood. His attempts at consoling her were, however, futile.

"Look, I know you wanna see the biometals, but Legion has to see that they're okay first!" he preached.

The female Model ZX Mega Man whirled, "I've spent more time with those biometals than anyone else in this place has. I should be the one to judge their state!"

"Aile-!"

"Grey, I'm older than you and I know better than you, so don't even start with me!" she snapped.

Grey retracted from her, hurt by her words. He was on the verge of tears. Aile blinked out of her worried stupor, noticing the look on his face.

"Oh, Grey...!"

Unable to hold them back any longer, tears ran freely down the young reploid's face.

"You're not nice! I was just trying to help!"

"Grey, I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted-"

She put her hand on his shoulder, only to have it pushed off.

"Go away! Just go away!"

He turned his back to her. Aile's anger faded as Grey sobbed. She mentally berated herself for being so cruel to him. He'd only been "born" a few days ago, and still had a lot to learn. Aile grabbed his arm gently, turning him around to face her.

"I'm sorry, Grey... Come here." Her voice was noticeably lower and calmer. Holding him around his waist and shoulders, she gave him a motherly hug, which seemed to calm him down. Grey's sobs ceased, although his body still trembled occasionally as he held her back.

"I didn't mean to hurt you. Please believe me. I'm just so worried about the biometals... When I heard that the other Mega Men showed up along with Model Z, I was so happy. But then I heard how terrified they were. Even Model Z was trembling, and he usually isn't afraid of anything. I got so upset, and I took it out on you unfairly. I'm sorry Grey, I shouldn't have done that. Will you forgive me?"

Grey looked up at her. He had a smile on his face, although his eyes were still watery. "Okay, I'll forgive you... I didn't realize that you were so worried. I'm sorry if I was mean to you because of that."

It was Aile's turn to smile, "Thank you, Grey..."

They stayed in their embrace for a while, both of them tired and worn out from their recent ordeals. Grey slumped a little, then began asking a question out of nowhere. "Aile, will you be my mom?"

Aile leaned back and looked at him, startled, "Your mom? Why would you want me to be your mom?"

"Because I just killed Albert, and he was technically my dad, so... I need a foster parent. And you're nice, and smart, so I was hoping that you'd take care of me, and teach me stuff, and... Well, the usual parent things. But if you don't want to, then that's okay too..."

Aile thought about it. Ever since she'd become a Mega Man, her life's goal had been to eliminate all Model Ws. But with the Ouroboros destroyed, it was unlikely that there were any Model Ws left anywhere. Which meant that she had nothing left to do that she could think of apart from the normal Guardian routine. On the other hand, while Grey had the body of a 14 year old, he still had the mind of a 12 (or younger) year old. Someone had to take care of him... And he was an endearing kid, after all. She smirked.

"Sure, Grey, I'll be your mom..."

"YAY! Thanks mom!" His hug tightened, and he beamed at her. Aile blushed a bit, slightly embarrassed. But, she reasoned, the look on his face was worth it. And it certainly gave her something to do to pass the time...

Suddenly, Grey's smile faded, the sparkle in his eyes left. Aile was quickly concerned.

"Grey, what's wrong?"

"... I'm tired..." Grey yawned out. In less than a second he fell asleep in her arms.

Aile groaned. Apparently, Grey hadn't gone to sleep since he woke up. She looked around for a chair, a bench, anything to lie the boy down on.

No such luck would befall her. And so, Aile was left to stand and hold him, desperately looking for something, or someone, to help her with her 150-pound problem.

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

Omega walked behind Amethyst as they entered a large camp teeming with life. It was a permanent affair, with many multiple-storied buildings and hangers built together in a haphazard sprawl. As they walked through the area the blonde reploid received several strange looks, along with some pointing and giggling courtesy of a group of women. For the first time in his life Omega was blushing profusely, staring hard at the ground for something to take his mind off of the onlookers and his own profound lack of armour, or anything else to wear really. Thankfully, his humiliation was short-lived as they soon arrived at a dusty coloured apartment complex.

"Here we are, home sweet home." Omega looked up as Amethyst put a card key into the front door and stepped inside. They stepped into the lobby and the door closed behind him. When they headed towards the elevators the receptionist gave them both a suspicious look, but said nothing.

On the third floor, they headed towards the later rooms until they reach one labeled room 311. Right before they entered the apartment the door swung open.

"Amethyst! There you are! C'mon in already, the food's getting' cold!" A man with white hair and a white outfit leaned out from inside the door. He wore a pale headband with the same gem symbol as Amethyst's, only it was silver. He grabbed Amethyst by his arm, pulling him inside the room despite the poor man's startled squawks. The door slammed shut.

Omega stood staring dumbly at the room in front of him.

It was another minute before the door reopened. The same man in white leaned out again, looking Omega up and down.

"Who the heck're you? Do you know the password? Speak up!"

Omega was unsure how to answer. "Uh..."

Amethyst's voice rang out from inside the apartment. "Diamond, let him in already. He's a friend!"

Diamond's expression changed from a scowl to an idiotic grin, an infectiously cheerful personality immediately bubbling to the forefront, "A friend, eh? Well what are you waiting for, come on in!" He snatched Omega into the home, not giving the fighter any say in the matter.

Inside the apartment there was a large living room with a hallway attached. A big table was in the center of the room, currently with a place set for each of the eight chairs surrounding it. Half of them were occupied, one with Amethyst while another seated an intensely muscular, green haired and dark skinned male. His eyes were thin, appearing as if he were constantly squinting. The quiet brute wore green clothes and another headband, this time metallic with a green emblem to match his dark green motif.

The other two chairs were filled with a pair of young children, maybe six to eight years old at Omega's estimate, who seemed to be twins. One of them was a girl with pink hair; the other was a boy with light-blue hair. Their clothes matched their hair as seemed to be the theme with this group. But instead of headbands or bandannas, they each wore white-goggled flight helmets. The gem emblems on their helmets were a pale, mostly cream colour that seemed to shift between pinkish and bluish tones depending on the light.

Diamond, the apparent leader judging by his confident posture, slid out a chair and sat down. Amethyst seemed confused for some reason as he gazed curiously around the room, "Where are the others? They're usually here by now..."

The white haired leader responded casually, "No idea, I think Ruby's forcing them all on a diet again. Oh well, more for us!" He began taking some food from a set of platters in the middle of the table, heaping it onto a plate in front of him with great enthusiasm. The others followed suit, grabbing breakfast foods ranging from eggs to bacon and hashbrowns to toast. The two kids began muttering in unison.

"I dunno why they go-"

"On those stupid diets-"

"It's not like they need 'em-"

"Well, maybe Ruby does-"

"But that's no reason-"

"To starve yourself!"

Amethyst looked at Omega, who was blinking at the speech patterns of the twins. "You can come and sit down, you know. It's not like we're going to bite you or anything." He patted the seat beside him.

One of the twins piped up, "At least, we aren't. I don't know-

"-Anything about Emerald, though..."

The large green man looked up from his meal, grunted disapprovingly at the twins, then went back to eating.

"He doesn't talk much," Amethyst whispered as Omega sat down.

Silence reigned around the table as they ate, excluding Omega. Coughing nervously, he addressed the twins.

"So, what are your names...?"

They looked at him. "Well, we're both called Pearl. But everyone else just calls us Pink and Blue."

"I see..."

The quiet continued for a few more minutes, until Diamond spoke to Omega.

"You can have some, if you'd like." He motioned at the food on the table.

"No thanks. I'm not hungry..."

"Meh, your loss. More for me!" He went back to eating.

Omega looked at the plate in front of him. What Omega hadn't said is that he couldn't eat. He had been able to, once, but that was before Weil had gotten his hands on him and improved him. Sure, he had been made into the strongest being to ever exist, but... it riled Omega to know that something about him was imperfect, that there was something that he couldn't do.

The door to the apartment opened. As all in attendance looked a black blur raced into the room. Before any of them could react, the person had grabbed a piece of toast and was putting as much food on it that could fit.

"Opal? What's going on?"

Opal, the female who by now was stuffing her face with the food, swallowed. She turned to Diamond as her long black ponytail cracked behind her head like a whip.

"Ruby is what. I swear, if she tries forcing me into another one of her crazy diets again..." She left the sentence unfinished. Opal had on a skimpy black outfit that matched her long, haphazard hair. A dark bodysuit underneath her shorts and open-fronted jacket seemed to be the only thing really covering anything on the quirky, flighty woman as she dashed around the table to get at the best tidbits of food.

She finished another heap of toast and assorted breakfast goods, hastily turning to leave. But at the door she stopped. Turning around, she looked at Omega with her head tilting, "Hey, who's the new guy?"

Amethyst answered her calmly, "Just a friend. He doesn't have a name, actually."

Opal smirked as she adjusted a colourful scarf around her midriff, "Then we'll just have to fix that later. Heh, Ruby is gonna be sojealous when I tell her about him."

"Why's that?" asked Amethyst. Genuinely confused.

She winked, "Because he's cuter than she is!" Opal turned back around and left the apartment.

Omega stared down at the table, his face beet red as the rest of the gang laughed around him.

x-x-x-x-x

As the day progressed the group, who referred to themselves as the Gem Gang (rather unsurprising given the assorted headgear, really), showed Omega around the camp. It turned out the place was called Hunter's camp, which they explained was due to the fact that most of the people there were either treasure hunters or bounty hunters. Before they left the apartment though, they'd lent Omega some tan khaki pants and an old shirt to prevent any repeat incidents of the giggling girls, a fact the God of Destruction was thankful for. As they walked the feeling of cloth was unfamiliar, but in the end he forced himself to adjust when Amethyst kindly notified him about how much he was fidgeting.

The real reason for the exploration, it turned out, was to find and locate the remaining members of the group. It wasn't until mid afternoon arrived that three women, one of which was Opal, could be seen trudging towards them through a slight dust storm that had kicked up from the other side of the camp, one which had somehow managed to avoid both the waterfall and the small grove of trees he'd spotted earlier. Beside her one of the women, garbed in a fashionable red tunic and jacket, waved and shouted at the approaching males. The trio of ladies jogged over to them shortly thereafter.

A great deal of tittering and boisterous conversation followed, the topics ranging from the weather to the details of the parasite-destroying mission, of which Amethyst informed all that it was all but completed. At this point the final member of the Gem Gang, a rather shy looking woman in a blue medic's garb, softly asked about Omega's presence and from there the encounter spiraled into a grand retelling of how the currently distracted blonde reploid had been found in the middle of nowhere and summarily dragged back to base.

On his part Omega just ignored the majority of the conversation as he gazed about Hunter's camp, unsure of his next move. Preferably he'd like to go off on his own and figure out his course of action from there, but seeing as he was in a world he barely recognized he had to ponder the wisdom of running around without a clue. The last thing he wanted to do was something completely illegal without even realizing it. Not that he cared about illegal operations, but he'd at least like to know whether or not he should be hiding said operations beforehand.

Both Amethyst and Diamond seemed to note his hesitation at his surroundings. With a friendly smile the group's leader spoke up, "Yo, looking a little lost there! How about you speak up so we can hear your problem?"

Omega nearly jumped at the sudden address. "Well, just wondering about what I've been missing out, where to stay, you know..."

The red female nearby huffed imperiously, "Well honestly, I should think it would be obvious."

Omega spared her a frown in much the same manner the blue female, Sapphire if he'd heard right earlier, currently was. "Ruby..."

The devil reploid felt himself be patted on the back heartily, "Is that all? Really? Come on, did you think we'd let you into our house if we didn't plan on helping you out? You can stay with us until you get used to things around here, we'd be more than happy to help! Right gang?"

Various nods and sounds of approval echoed around the group, and with that the issue was settled without Omega getting much more of a say in the matter. Oh well, it's not like he couldn't play along for now.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, mostly the group seemed content to continue showing him all the details around camp, until at last the sun set and they all went back to the apartment. Well, the men did, anyways. The girls and and twins branched off and took the room across the hall. The males offered to let Omega sleep on either one of their beds or the couch, apologetic that they couldn't offer him anything better. He accepted the couch proposition, seeing as he had nowhere else to sleep and taking up someone else's bed didn't seem right to him. Everyone sated, they all went their separate ways into the realm of sleep.

And so, the night passed. Gentle snores came from Emerald's room, a breeze whispering past a slightly open window. Omega was quite pleased with the couch. After sleeping on a hard floor for the past two centuries, cushions of any sort were a luxury (even if he did have to contort a bit to fit).

Then morning came. As soon as dawn broke, Omega's instincts woke him. Nary a sound came from the other rooms as he got up, yawning and stretching. From outside the door, a gentle thud sounded.

Curious, Omega went over and investigated. Opening the door, he looked around to find the source. He couldn't see anyone in the dim glow of the hall lights, so instead the red reploid decided to look at the floor where the sound had come from. A small letter lay innocently on the ground. He picked it up and went inside.

Looking at the letter's envelope, he could see that it was from the apartment complex's management. He walked over and sat back down on the couch.

Omega was curious. What was the letter about? Would it hurt to check? He thought of the Gem Gang. All of them had been friendly and hospitable, never pushing for answers, never asking for something in return. Omega wanted to repay them, not because they were so cheery and helpful (although he did find that easier to deal with), but because he felt he owed them a favour. Omega had never liked being indebted to anyone, and wanted to repay the gang as soon as possible. It would stop them from nagging him about it later too, if they were those kind of people. Reading the letter without their permission wouldn't be great, but if they never found out...

Omega glanced around the apartment. No one was up. He opened the letter, reading its contents. When he was done, he wordlessly put it back into its envelope, then into his pocket. His face was sombre.

It was an eviction notice.