Disclaimer: I don't own anybody in this chapter. I may have different names for them, but they're still not mine!
For your reference, the neko virus is actually a nod to the one that appeared in the cartoon/anime. It was fun.
"Let me go!"
Still encased in the ceratanium net, Omega was being dragged to an unknown location by Atlas and Vent, both fully megamerged.
"Grrgh!" Atlas gritted her teeth, holding onto the entangled reploid with all her might.
The trio were heading down a long, gray corridor with numerous doors on either side. There were no windows or decorations, and only a few others in the hall. These people ducked into the reinforced doors as the group passed, and for good reason. Omega, still struggling wildly as they pulled him closer and closer, was making dents in the walls and long scratches on the floor. One only had to look at the trail of deep gouges and scrapes on the steel ground, as well as the walls, to see where they had come from.
"Aaaaiiiieeeeowwww!"
Vent grimacedat the piercing shriek, "Oh shut up and co-operate, it's not that bad!"
"All we're going to do is give you a medical examination, geeze! Frickin' calm down!" shouted Atlas.
"Eeeeeeeeaaaaaaaah!"
Unfortunately for them, Omega was already too far gone into his incoherence. The only reason they had gotten him so far into the Legion medical bay had been because he'd struggled himself into relative immobility within the confines of the net, but that situation still didn't allow him to calm down and think things through. Quite the opposite, he was beyond the point where he could even think straight. Omega howled in rage and terror as the door to their destination opened. Then he saw what was inside.
An operating table.
Just like the one Weil had used so long ago.
Omega froze
"See? We're not going to kill you, it isn't so bad," Vent consoled, mistaking the sudden lack of squirming for a moment of insight.
Omega scrunched his body protectively, bringing his hands in front of his chest and his feet to his buttocks. His tail, miraculously poking through the net, curled up to his face. His ears laid flat. His eyes widened.
That table...
Atlas grunted as she picked him up, the sight of a Mega Man picking up a full grown neko-ized man almost comical.
"Guh, you're a heavy bugger, aren't you? Come on, we're only going to take an X-ray to see what the virus has done to you."
A doctor smiled calmly at them as they entered. In the God of Destruction's eyes, the friendly smile twisted into a smirk, then an immoral sneer as the brown hair floated upwards, whitening. The whole face was slowly covered in an orange glow and the legs disappeared. Soon the gentle white doctor's robe darkened and burned into a sinister black, ridged with a burning red as a familiar cackle echoed throughout his mind.
"There you are, Omega! You've really done it this time, you stupid wretch."
The low lighting above the table barely illuminated the room, the corners hidden in shadows as the smell of blood and other fluids permeated through his nostrils.
"I order you to retrieve on simple little file, and then what? You damage it! You're lucky I was able to salvage the information I needed!"
It wasn't my fault, he thought, it had been damaged already when he got there.
"You even got yourself hurt in the process too. Can't you even pull off one mission right? Last time you let the scientist live, the time before that you were seen..."
It wasn't my fault. You told me not to be seen, you told me no shooting!
"Tch. I know I programmed you to be stupid, but even this level of failure is ridiculous. Oh well, get over here, I'd better repair you."
Please no. I can heal on my own!
"Come one, Schilt, bring that sedated fool over here."
Please no.
The bat mutos dragged the barely-conscious reploid over to the table, strapping him down. The sedative dart in his shoulder was cruelly ripped out.
"You may leave, Schilt."
The bat left.
Please no!
Omega couldn't speak because of the modifications, the most he could do was utter a desperate groan.
Weil tapped some sort of tool on Omega's head, thinking aloud to himself as he injected an anti-sedative into Omega's systems. He began repairing the damaged arm, slicing off mangled circuitry and installing new parts...
All without giving him a painkiller.
No.
Weil finally finished the grisly work, Omega attempting to keep his face emotionless but gritting his teeth behind his lips.
"Well, fortunately for you the repairs were minor. Hmm, I suppose, now that you're in here, it would be a good time to test some of your systems. Heaven knows, it seems that there's something wrong with you.
Oh no. Not that again...
"So..." Weil sneered, looking down at Omega. "You seems to be getting hurt a fair bit lately. Shall I test your nervous systems first? I think we should start..."
No.
"...with your damage recognition system. Sound fun?"
No!
"Yes, let's start with that. Oh, and Omega...?"
His hand strayed to a knob on the computer nearby, the one Omega was connected to. He slowly turned it to the '100 volt' mark.
"Don't fail me again."
He turned it on.
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
An unholy howl echoed through the corridors. The kindly doctor paled and jumped backwards as Omega suddenly convulsed. His tail smacked Vent across the eyes as he whirled around, temporarily blinding him. Omega's claws miraculously shredded through the net. He was out the door before Atlas even realized that all she was holding was an empty pile of ceratanium cords. The doctor, thinking quickly, hit an emergency announcement button.
"All personnel in the corridors evacuate immediately, we have a contagious patient on the loose in block D-22!"
The announcement echoed through the medical bay's PDA. People scrambled out of the way, some even locking themselves in containment chambers as a shrieking God of Destruction hurtled past.
"What an absolutely wonderful time to realize that he's phobic of operating tables." Atlas noted sarcastically.
Vent was rubbing his eyes as he replied with exasperation, "Or doctors. One of the two, if not both. Contact the Masters, they'll know what to do."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Seraph was wandering idly through the halls and rooms of Legion, investigating the surroundings in which he now resided. It was a peacful, if not bland place to be sure. He looked out a window at the colourful city, wondering whether or not he missed the constant green of cyber-space.
An attendant, who had been following him until a short while ago, caught up with him, a recently used communicator in her hand. "Sir, I'm sorry to cut your wandering short, but we have a situation. A patient in the contagious diseases department has just broken loose, and they're planning to trap him in the courtyard garden. He's going to be led through this room very soon, and we don't want you to be infected."
The chief of cyber police raised his eyebrow, but nodded and walked towards the exit. Just as he was getting there, though, shouting was heard. More attendants rushed in through the exit with shields and protective garments, blocking him and the way out behind them.
"Is he here already?!" the first attendant asked, somewhat fearfully.
A yowling answered her question. A silver blur dashed into the room, bouncing rather loudly off a wall. It turned, heading straight for Seraph. The attendants braced, and the blur was deflected. Another door opened across the hall, and the silver streak quickly headed for it.
Not quickly enough, however, for Seraph to miss seeing a flash of long hair and black skin. "Who was that?" he asked suddenly. Something about that blur had set him on edge, and he didn't like it one bit.
"I d-don't know the name, sir, but it's apparently someone who was infected by the neko virus. Apparently, he was phobic of operating tables and had run out of the room before they could do anything about it," replied his unnerved escort.
"I thought they'd gotten rid of that blasted virus ages ago..." another muttered.
Seraph slowly calmed himself down. Upon seeing the black skin and white hair, he'd made an immediate connection to Omega, but... Well, the guy was phobic! Omega certainly hadn't been afraid of anything. To think that one poor sod with a cat virus had made him think of the God of Destruction right away... he shook his head. He really needed to stop jumping to conclusions.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Omega's last strain of consciousness had recognized that face instantly.
Copy X? How the hell?! He thought, utterly confused.
Unfortunately, that last moment of confusion was what tipped the scales. Up until then, he'd at least been able to form a few small coherent thoughts, mostly just run, run, not there, run. However, with that last realization, that final blast to his sanity, all thoughts went out the window. He unconsciously resorted to the instinct of fear that this stage of the neko virus brought with it.
For once in his life, he panicked.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Eeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!"
Aeolus winced as the scream rebounded through his ears. Then he braced, blockading the hall away from the dashing blob of despair running through Legion. A calamitous crashing followed as one terrified mercenary crashed into the barrier. The Wind Mega Man sighed in relief as Omega went in the required direction, the blockade successful.
He turned on his communicator, "Aeolus here, he's heading west now. He should be in the garden in a short time. Has it been evacuated yet?"
"AFFIRMATIVE," was the curt response from Siarnaq.
"Once he enters, I want the area quarantined. He needs to calm down, so give him a half hour before attempting retrieval," stated Master Thomas regally.
"Hey guys," Ashe piped up, "doesn't it seem like he's going through the stages a little fast? It took me a week to get into the first full neko mode when I got sick, and he's already in fear mode. It won't last long, you know..."
"I'm more worried about what comes next," gulped Thetis, "oh wait, here he comes!"
A bumping sound and a yowl was heard over the communicator. "There! He's in!"
"INITIATING LOCKDOWN... LOCKDOWN SUCCESS. OBJECTIVE CAPTURED."
The Flame Mega Man chuffed, "Ah, good. Why are you so worried, Thetis? The next stage is feral mode, you know, the instinctual one? He's likely just to go hump a tree or chase something."
"Hump a wha-?" Grey asked.
"Nothing for you to concern yourself with, Grey," Aile answered stiffly. Atlas could almost feel the glare burning into her from the motherly Mega Man, despite Aile being nowhere nearby.
"It's not going to be as easy as you think, guys, he's got a really strong fighting instinct. I don't think-!" Thetis began nervously.
"Oh shut up, fool. Quite being so paranoid," snapped Aeolus.
"Alright, you know what to do. In half an hour, meet up at the east entrance and recapture him. In the meantime, I have a mission briefing to go to," Thomas said. Signing out of the conversation, he turned his attention back to the matters at hand. He was seated in the main throne room at Legion, Mikhail at his side. Before him stood the siblings, Pandora and Prometheus, fully illuminatedby the sunlight breaching through the grandoise windows nearby.
"I take it you heard some of that conversation?" Thomas inquired.
"Yeah. Sounds pretty intense," Prometheus smirked.
Thomas nodded, "I don't think it is as serious as Thetis seems to think it is, but precautions must be taken regardless. Because of this, I'm sure you can understand why we don't have anyone else left to investigate this new phenomenon."
"Hmm. Troublesome," Pandora murmured.
"Anyways, the mission," began Mikhail, "after investigating the crash site of the Ouroboros, we realized that parts were missing. Further searching revealed that a small part of Ouroboros, the head, crashed into a nearby mountain range. We hadn't been able to locate it earlier because of the thick forests surrounding the area. Although we've done some preliminary data-collection, more in-depth study is needed. We didn't want to accidentally sacrifice regular investigators or soldiers, because there may be small fragments of Model W left active. Any investigation in the area was done quickly, but personel are needed to stay on the site longer to gather more data. It's doubtful there were any Model Ws left alive, as no maverick energy signatures have been found, however...!"
Mikhail shifted and Thomas looked directly at the siblings, a stern look on his face, "There was some other energy detected. We have no idea what it is. It was a miracle we were able to detect it, actually. A scout at the site found a small crevasse leading into the earth, and on a whim pointed his sensor into it. Anywhere else, the sensors hadn't detected the energy, but directed into this miniscule crack in the ground, the man's sensor was off the charts with an unidentifiable energy," the large redhead seemed to muse on his words, pondering their meaning as he stated them to the twins.
Mikhail stood, "We need you two to investigate. We can't risk this being spread to the media, or anywhere else. We also need a Mega Man, just in case there is a surviving Model W weak enough to have escaped detection. If anything does pop up, we need you to clear it out so we can have investigators in there without the risk of them being attacked."
"We realize this is potentially dangerous," Thomas said, "but with the other Mega Men preoccupied, you're the only ones available. Your experience on various battlefields will be invaluable for this mission. In order for you to defend yourselves, we have made some concessions to our 'contract'. Here."
An attendant entered, bringing with him two familiar objects. A scythe and a staff were held in front of the siblings, who greedily snatched them up.
"Yes! Alright!" Prometheus exclaimed. Pandora smiled widely.
"Now, don't get too excited," Mikhail cautioned, "they're only recreations. The scythe can produce a blade, but no elemental attacks, and is not as strong as your real one, Prometheus. The staff cannot attack at all, but can still hover and produce barriers."
Prometheus was grinning enormously and Pandora was humming to herself as she sat on the floating staff. Then she looked over shylyand curiously, "Why?" she asked.
"Because you've proven yourselves worthy enough to at least be able to defend yourselves," Mikhail explained. "Now, hop to it! We need this mission done as soon as possible. The attendant will lead you to the transporters."
As Pandora and Prometheus left the room, a cyber elf whisked inconspicuously out the window from behind the throne, trailed down to the floor that the pair was headed to, and materialized in an empty room.
Seraph walked out, moved to the elevator and waited for the siblings to emerge. "How interesting. Perhaps I'll accompany them," he smirked. It might do for a good distraction, after all.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
In the garden, things were amiss. A terrible creature was loose.
A small gecko saw the creature, its instincts forcing it to stand still as a stone.
Those instincts saved its life. Another creature, a deer, ran instead. It didn't get very far.
Only when the beast was fully distracted did the gecko override its instincts and attempt its getaway.
Alas, the gecko had misjudged. The movement was seen, and another life taken.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
"Where the heck is he, anyways?" complained Atlas, kicking a tree.
Aeolus sighed as, for the umpteenth time, she started cursing, although at least it wasn't about their inability to find the crimson reploid this time. No, it was because the tree had been a little harder than she'd thought.
"DESIST VOCAL FUNCTIONS. VOCAL FUNCTIONS RISK REVEALING THE LOCATION OF UNIT ATLAS TO THE OBJECTIVE."
"And us, too!" grumbled Thetis, who was still looking around like the apocalypse itself could jump out at any time. Unknown to the rest of the Mega Men, he wasn't too far off. Of course, they just took him to be paranoid.
"Would you quit it, Thetis? You're really starting to annoy me!" Ashe growled. Thetis finally quieted down after the retort, but he muttered constantly about them when he thought they couldn't hear him (and sometimes when he knew they could).
Thick trees rose around them wherever they went as their shoes scraped against the idyllic cobblestone path. Flowers swayed ever-so-slightly in a gentle breeze that rustled deep green leaves, thick vines entwined along the ground and branches. Small amounts of light came down in shafts, dancing with dust motes where it could fit between the expansive canopy overhead. A stone path twisted and turned ahead of them, surrounded on either side by walls of varying height. And yet, for some reason, the leaves rustling and the chromatic flowers swaying were the only sounds except for the chatting of the Mega Men. A fact that was rather unnerving to the two who noticed it, Siarnaq and Thetis.
Of course, the rest were too busy snapping at each other to figure out why they were on edge.
"All right, that's it!" Aile shouted.
The others turned to look at her, startled.
"We're not finding anything in this noisy group, especially since we're all sticking to the path! This is feral mode, right? Hemight have climbed a tree or something, for all we know. We need to split up!"
"Grey and I could fly into the trees to look," Ashe noted immediately.
"Good try," Aile smiled, "but you could do that just as well with Aeolus. I've got Grey."
Ashe muttered darkly and shot Aeolus a few haughty looks, Aeolus looking rather put out at being treated like unwanted baggage. He megamerged and flew off, pouting (not that he would admit it).
"Oi, wait up!" Ashe called after him, transforming into Vulturon and making a rather ungainly takeoff in order to catch up.
"Split up? Oh come on, he's just a stupid cat, we can find him!" Atlas complained. "I hate jungles like this, you can't see ten feet in front of you! Why the heck would Legion have a jungle for a garden, anyways? It doesn't matter if it's kinda pretty, it's just a nuisance. Give me a nice battlefield any day, wide open and bright and..." her complaints faded into illegibility as she started to swear under her breath.
"You aren't scared of being unable to see your surroundings, are you?" Thetis smirked.
Atlas stuck out her tongue.
To the side, Vent sighed despairingly. Aile smiled knowingly, "You know what? You might as well come with me and Grey then Atlas, if it's so much trouble. We're going to stick to the main path. Anyways, Vent, you and Thetis can check around by the river we passed back a ways, and Siarnaq..."
Siarnaq, who had been rather discreetly crossing his fingers in hopes to avoid the irate Atlas, snapped to attention.
"Siarnaq, I'll let you go off on your own. You try and find him, but don't engage him yourself. The only reason that you're by yourself is because you're the best at stealth, not because I think you can fight him alone. You try that and it won't be our fault if you end up looking like a scratching post. Just find him and tell us where he is."
Siarnaq nodded with surprising enthusiasm, then megamerged. He disappeared shortly after.
Atlas herself was grumbling less loudly, but was still griping colourfully under her breath. Aile shook her head in exasperation, but led her trio further into the garden.
As they immersed themselves deeper and deeper into the shaded path, the oppressive silence finally hit them. The stone retaining walls on the sides of the path echoed their footsteps back at them. On top of the waist-high walls, the delicately shaped flowers did nothing to camouflage the fact that the ornately shaped bushes behind them easily hid the remainder of the forest floor from their view. Anything beyond the first few feet of the cultivated gardens was hidden from sight. Nary a bird flapped or chirped, and even the frogs and bugs, who normally were involved in a complicated chorus of chirps and ribbits, were dead silent... or just plain dead.
The breeze no longer stirred, the loss of its comforting touch turning the air thick. The scent of peat and rot slowly permeated the air.
Even Atlas was quiet by this point. They had reached a more secluded path, likely designed to be for the more romantically inclined. Seats were embedded in the walls, and there was more ivy wreathing down the stones than usual. Barely any light came through. Atlas slowed down, carefully noting ay potentially revealing details, letting Aile lead the group from a few meters further on. Grey stopped for a moment as the others went ahead, noticed a small drop of something... red? His childish curiosity immersed him in the details of the flower, so he didn't notice when Aile rounded the next corner and Atlas was almost out of sight.
The drop of red lay on a beautiful blue-violet lily, which was speckled with black dots in it center. The flower had curling leaves, and the stem drooped as if mourning the small carcass of a gecko,the lizard crused and torn to shreds underneath its leaves.
By the time the bushes rustled, it was too late.
Grey's cut-off scream cut through the forest.
x-x-x-x-x
Aile's heart clenched horribly when she heard the noise. Cold fear gripped her as she whirled, stunned.
"Grey!" she shrieked.
Atlas was faster than Aile, and was already megamerged and dashing back along the path. Because of that, she was the first to notice the white monster viciously shaking Grey by his neck. The thing was readjusting its fangs, ready to administer the final blow, when Atlas heartily tackled it off the gray-haired boy.
Aile dropped at Grey's side, patting his back as he gasped for air. Grey clasped the red, console-like implement on his chest, for once thanking Albert for his strange design. The thing had two deep, bloody grooves sliced in the front, but if it hadn't been there...
In the meantime, seeing that he was in no immediate danger, Aile had stood up defensively in front of Grey, also megamerged, and was currently trying to make sense of the rolling ball of red armor and silver fur a few meters away.
Atlas closed her eyes as, yet again, her foes made another attempt at gouging them out. She twisted herself into a position where she could finally grasp the combat knife she'd brought along with her, just in case. She slashed at something, receiving a satisfying yowl in response.
The creature retreated from her, arching its back and hissing as she scrambled to her feet.
It was then that the two women could note its features.
It was Omega, but horribly changed. His hair had melded slightly to his back, and was now raised like hackles all the way down to the tail curled defensively towards his assailants. His hands had spread into demonic claws, and his face was no longer recognizable. A velvet muzzle, covered in blood, was scrunched up in rage, showing off innumerable fangs and two canines which had elongated into tusk-like teeth, curving down from his top jaw like a sabertooth tiger's. Splotches of red stained his fur with wild abandon, like a demented painter had flung red paint around wildly. But it wasn't paint. White ears were flattened menacingly against the monster's head, and his underbelly and arms were absolutely covered in blood-splattered white fuzz. A deep cut on his neck dripped steadily.
There was nothing remotely human left in the beast's bristling figure. No kindness, no mercy, nothing. No trace of what made humans or reploids 'humane'. There was little left but pure killer instinct, death and destruction. Omega's eyes, which held nothing but bloodlust and malice, and were focused on Grey. The pure red, glowing orbs then turned to Aile and Atlas before he roared at them for cheating him of his prey. It was a deep and feral sound, striking them to the core.
"I think we found him..." Grey coughed despite his wounds.
Aile grimaced, "Other way around, there."
Atlas crouched reflexively, and the beast made its move. It pounced at Atlas, bringing her down with a hard smack to her head.
"Son of a bitch!" she yelled at him. Atlas put one arm in front of her neck, stopping the gnawing jaws and a claw just short of her neck, and grabbed his own with another. His other claw tried to scrape away her face, but she twisted him away.
A brutal kick to her gut nearly sent her flying, but she used the momentum to jerk him to the other side. Slightly disoriented, he swiped blindly with his plate-sized paws and kicked out again, badly bruising her hip.
She tried to punch the side of his jaw, but it was as he didn't even feel the crunch of his breaking bones. The monster twisted his stomach, smacking Atlas to the ground again. Before she could even react, he'd put himself on top of her, intent on pinning her and ripping out her throat.
Aile fired a shot at him. With Atlas in such close combat, she couldn't risk getting involved with weapons unless she had a clear shot. Still, for the beast to be able to match Atlas for pure, physical strength despite her being megamerged... she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to get close!
He roared in anger as the shot hit his side. Atlas used the opportunity to grab his arms to his side and thrown him to the ground. It was like a macabre hug, and the instant she let go she'd be shredded. His tail whipped madly and he struggled wildly with his arms and legs held to his sides. Atlas was quickly getting overwhelmed. In one last, desperate move, she removed her arm, adjusting the angle of her blade.
With a roar, Omega slashed her chest, his claws slicing through her armor. She winced, but it didn't stop her asshe roared in defiance.
She stabbed the honed knife into his chest, holding it steady even as it grated past his dense, strong ribs.
The monster screamed. Even megamerged, Atlas couldn't hold on as Omega thrashed, shrieking and flailing wildly. He jumped back, then turned quickly, only to hit his head with a sickening crunch against the stone wall behind him.
The broken, furiously bleeding body of Omega flopped limply to the ground with a thump.
Atlas crouched, staring down the unmoving body. When it didn't respond, she slowly crept towards it. Steeling herself, she kicked it, then jumped back in the next instant. Nothing happened.
Shaking off blood that had splattered onto her from the pool around Omega's body, Atlas let herself sigh in relief.
"Did... did you kill him?" Grey asked meekly, his eyes wide at the ghastly situation.
Atlas surveyed the body from a distance, then turned to face the two behind her. "I didn't have a choice. If... if it wasn't him, it would've been us."
Aile looked like she was about to object, then looked back at the two grooves on Grey's chest. Then she watched Atlas, who was breathing heavily, her own chest in about the same condition. "Well... we're going to have a hell of a time explaining this," Aile frowned.
Atlas looked at her favourite combat knife, now dull and chipped from slicing past the beast's ribs. "That was a hell of a lot harder than I thought it'd be. Just look at my knife! We should've listened to Thetis," she sighed. She hated to admit the teen twerp was right, but...
Aile nodded in agreement. Atlas turned, intending to pick up the body. Hey, someone was going to have to bring it back, and she didn't think any of the others would be able to handle it at the moment. Especially not Grey, the poor kid. She was only a few paces away when the bloody white pile of fur suddenly twisted itself upright. It growled, crouching, as if it was going to pounce.
Atlas stiffened, shocked, before reverting to a combat pose. Grey gasped in the background.
However, something was different this time. The red orbs almost seemed to be studying the group, instead of mindlessly picking off a victim. With a flick of his tail, the still bleeding Omega turned and ran, disappearing in the bushes.
Grey's voice quavered, "Did... didn't you kill him?"
Atlas watched Omega leave, then moved her vision to the crimson-soaked combat knife still in her white-knuckled grip.
"I got his heart...?"
x-x-x-x-x
Omega ran, his breathing ragged and his vision fuzzy.
"Damnit..." he uttered.
He headed for the sound of a river, desperately needing to clean himself of the sickening feeling of near-death. A good shock of cold water, that's what he needed. He ignored his cat-like body, simply running as fast as he could with all four limbs. However, when he finally saw the river he also saw Vent, megamerged and trying to catch up with Thetis.
"Oi, hold up!"
"Come on slowpoke!"
In clear sight of the pair, all it would take for him to be spotted was for him to brake and turn, causing enough of a ruckus to get the others to look his way. Instead he sped up into a blur despite his aching body, jumping across the river while using Vent as a stepping stone to get across.
The Mega Man went under, sputtering. Omega paid no heed, continuing to run ahead.
After Atlas had stabbed him, the forced recovery period afterward had knocked his sense back into him. Thank heavens it was only a thin knife, and not a ripping javelin like Oceatar's nose, or if would have taken much longer to heal. Even so, an injury to either of his hearts wasn't something to take lightly. He still had a murmur in hist heart where blood was leaking, and if he didn't find somewhere to stop and rest soon, the wound could re-open further. Hewas already having to run three-legged to put pressure on the wound.
Ahead was another wall, but it was much higher than the idealized, decorative walls in the garden. It was an actual wall, the one that boxed in the garden and had kept him contained a a beast. This time around, Omega could deal with it.
Using his incredible momentum, he jumped into a tree ahead of him, then onto the wall, and ran up it a few feet before his speed gave out. At that point he dug his claws in, scaling the smooth surface easily now that he could form a strategy. He continued on for some way, avoiding windows and highlighted areas, sticking in the shadow cast by the Legion building. He finally reached the roof, high above the surrounding city and the views of anyone trying to find him from the ground. He stretched out in a patch of sunlight, finally forcing himself to relax.
His head was on its side, his saber teeth forcing him to put it on a different angle. Omega pawed the teeth curiously. It was certainly a new sensation having those whopping great things in his mouth.
Blood from an unknown source coated the tips. He slid some of the blood between two of his claws.
Curious, he tried absorbing the DNA of the blood.
DNA information Acquired. EX Skill "Homing shot" obtained. EX Skill Homing shot allows lock-on and damage of up to eight different targets.
Omega snorted, making a mental note to try it out later. Whose DNA did he get though? Oh wait, maybe he got it from that little gray-haired shit. They boy did have a couple big slices outta his chest when he'd looked. Had he done that? Meh. Omega yawned, stretching out in the sun. He was exhausted, and felt relatively safe up on the gusty roof. Besides, the patch of sun he was in was so warm...
Omega's eyes drooped, Ke ke ke, that's what you got for getting me infected with... whatever this is, hethought to himself, remembering the startled looks on the Mega Men'sface before he'd run.
Lulled by exhaustion and sunlight, the red reploid fell asleep.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
The transport sequence ended. Three figures appeared in a large, damaged clearing surrounded by lush forest. Cracking his neck, Prometheus looked disdainfully at the expressionless face of Seraph beside him. Pandora had a slight frown on her features.
"Hmph. You'd better keep your word about keeping this mission quiet. The Masters weren't too happy when they found out that you'd been eavesdropping," he warned, swinging his new scythe experimentally.
"Hmph. Not a living soul will know about this expedition except us and the Masters," Copy X replied off-hand. He idly wondered whether or not cyber-elves would be considered living by Legion.
"Tch. We... don't need you here. We are... perfectly capable of handling ourselves," Pandora frowned.
Seraph smiled, "Of course, of course, I'm sure you are. I'm just curious though, that's all."
"Yeah, well, don't expect us to cover your ass if you get it stuck in the fire."
"Of course."
Prometheus growled, glaring at the ambassador of Neo Arcadia as absently dismissed them and walked forwards. Seraph put his hand on his hip, smiling smugly as he gestured towards the devastated landscape in front of them.
"Onward, then, to the crash site of Ouroboros!"