Chapter 4: Reverberation
"...Well, that blue runt might actually be a problem after all."
Vulcan was standing beside Folly, the latter who was grinning as she pets her strange feline-like 'shadow beast' mechaniloid, Inverse. The warehouse was looking emptier than before, now lacking machinery and the fellow Raiders not being present. With some of Vulcan's own troops being captured, it was crucial that they relocate before the enemy caught onto them.
"Mmhmmm~" Folly hummed mockingly.
The big man frowned and placed both his regular hand and his overly mechanical hand on his hips as he glared. "We already lost our Mega Man trump card, and our plan didn't go as well as I hoped. Some input would be nice, girl."
"Oh, I disagree~" Folly purred, looking up at the big man with her unnatural eyes. "The plan was very successful on my end. Even with our little behemoth in the hands of Sentry~"
"Yeah. On YOUR end." Vulcan growled. "At any rate, I think that blue Mega Man needs to go. The upside is that he's a newbie so we should take him out ASAP."
Folly began laughing quietly. She sat on the back of her pet mechaniloid and kicked her leg atop of her other in a relaxed manner with a cat-like grin on her face. "Our rising hero is a big part of why I changed the script~! He's not useful if he's dead~"
"Yeah?! And he's troublesome if he's NOT dead!" Vulcan shouted, earning a vicious meow from Inverse.
"If you were as good of a leader as you once were, then you would be able to account for the cutie Mega Man~" Folly teased with an equally teasing smirk. "I won't have you whining to me about such irregularities. If you want your plan to succeed so badly, then you work around the irregularity. BUT I won't have you killing him~"
"You sure it ain't because you're crushing on him?" Vulcan spat. "You're a teenager. Teenagers do crap like that, right?" Folly just smirked...with quiet annoyance building. "You heard my orders and I expect them to be followed without question. Honestly, I don't know why you want to take out the mayor so badly."
"I've got my reasons." Vulcan said simply before turning away with his coat flowing behind him like a cape. "Listen, we're moving to the new location your three stooges scouted out for us. They were supposed to give me the go-ahead to move in, but I haven't heard from them since before the attack. Where are they?"
The jester's eyelids fluttered as her smirk twisted. "Oh, they are on a road to redemption. They've failed to acquire the Model M, and while I am more than happy that it led to the birth of a new heroic Chosen One on this very island, the fact is they still failed. I have some theories that I'd like my little minions to prove to me. True or false, I will learn something."
"...So where are they at?" Vulcan asked again, furrowing his brows.
"They are going on errands for me. That's all." Folly said with a frustrated sigh. She then waved him away, huffing her chest. "Go away, already. I'll be at the new base soon enough."
Vulcan snorted and walked away without another word...out loud anyway. Once the big man had left, Folly smirked and looked down at Inverse who purred. Holding out her hand, a strange gemstone materialized, floating mysteriously above her palm. It was a glowing purple tear-shaped gemstone, radiating with energy.
The energy from this uncanny gemstone was pulsing like a heartbeat...
"Hee hee hee~ I just can't contain my excitement~" Folly cheered, hugging the gem to her chest with both of her hands with quite a bit of affection. "You've proven to be a valuable asset like I had hoped. I can hardly wait...Rokkuuu~"
At the Akihiro household, the family was having dinner at the dining room table. On their plates was macaroni & cheese, broccoli, maple glazed ham steak slices, and oven dinner rolls. A meal prepared by Cassandra and a meal Rokku greatly appreciated after this crazy day.
"Mmm~ Great mac & cheese as always, Mom~!" Rokku cheered, taking a big spoonful of mac & cheese into his mouth. Out of the three, Rokku had the biggest plate...even if 90% of the plate was filled with mac & cheese.
"Ditto on that." Joseph chuckled.
"It's a shame Aimer couldn't join us..." Cassandra said sadly, picking at her food.
"Well, with all that's happened, Aimer's a little busy..." Rokku replied.
Cassandra sighed. When she made the invitation earlier, Aimer did agree to the invitation on the condition that she wasn't busy. And like her son said, today was crazy and she has her work cut out.
"And soon you'll be pretty busy too, huh Mr. Guardian?" Joseph grinned.
"Yep!" Rokku replied taking another spoonful of his meal. "It's gonna be preeetty sweet~"
"Speaking of which..." Cassandra began. "I can't help but feel concerned about you being a Guardian now..."
"Huh?" Rokku gasped.
"Cassie, it hasn't even been a day." Joseph chuckled, eating some of his ham. "AND our kid's a Mega Man! Those creeps won't know what hit 'em!"
"I mean, now they might. I fought some Raiders. They might've been working with the people in charge..." Rokku noted. "Raiders are usually just illegal hunters. They were acting like mercenaries here."
"Whoa ho ho! Listen to you sounding all serious!" Joseph teased. "I guess you being a Chosen One raises the stakes for you, huh?!"
"Hehe... Stakes~" Cassandra stabbed her ham... They were eating ham steaks but despite Joseph's jokester attitude a lot of the time, she doubts he intentionally made that pun.
"I-It's just what Aimer theorized!" Rokku shyly explained. "I just so happened to agree with it... After all, those guys were apparently after Mayor Radman."
Joseph starts eating more of his food. "Oh yeah, heard about that. Our rad mayor's cancelled the parade completely because of all the crap that's been going on."
"Joseph." Cassandra glared at her husband for his use of 'crap'.
"Sorry! But seriously tho', the mayor's getting some flak for this." Joseph continued, stabbing his ham, and taking another bite. "He knew about that weird turtle mechaniloid that was found out in the fields and he definitely knew about the bank robbery just last night. I like Radman, but I have no idea what his thought process was when he kept this parade going."
Cassandra sighed. "The important thing is that he's working with the Guardians and Sentry to raise the security around the island and investigate the attacks..."
"Heh, with the security so high, the enemy's probably gonna lay low if they're smart." Joseph smirked.
"That's our hope." Rokku simpered. "I've been doing a lot of fighting lately. I could use a breather..."
"I'm glad you think so." Cassandra agreed with a content smile.
Rokku leaned his cheek on his free hand while he played with his food. "The Guardians are going to need me... But I found it a little daunting when the police wanted to see me and get info on me... Honestly, I'm surprised the Guardians kept my identity all hush-hush."
"Like a superhero, eh?" Joseph joked.
"Yeah. I'm a superhero, I guess, ha ha..." The young teen nervously laughed.
"My little Rocky, a superhero~" Cassandra teased further.
"...But for real, I think I could use some extra training... I was good enough for the Raiders, but I can be better..." Rokku turned to his father...whom had stuffed his face with the broccoli coated in delicious cheese sauce. "Hey Dad? Think you could help me out? I could use some extra help with...fist-to-fist stuff."
With a big swallow, Joseph laughed. "Ha Ha! For once you actually WANT to learn fist-to-fist?! Am I happy to hear that! Sure, I'll help you out. Let's say first thing in the morning if we don't have Mavericks messing up our schedule!"
"After breakfast though, please?" Rokku laughed nervously.
"Oh, for sure!"
Cassandra just smiled and shook her head. She obviously had her reservations about all of this, but her son was happy and thrilled... Just like when her father was still around.
"Now that I'm a Guardian, I have to get better than ever." Rokku stated. "Aimer and I can officially work together to take down those bad guys, so she's gonna need her partner to be super reliable!"
Joseph began laughing again, but his laughter was softer this time. "Heh. I wonder if that's why you're so active lately~"
"Whaddya mean?" Rokku queried, raising a... confused brow.
"You met her only two days after your birthday, big guy," Joseph grinned. "I wonder if you two are boyfriend and girlfriend~?"
Rokku's confused face was completely intact as his eyes switched from looking at his father to looking at his mother before going back to his father. "Well... Yeah. She's a girl and my friend... I saved her from those weird bots and she's been really helpful."
Joseph wanted to burst out laughing at his son's adorable naivety and his oh-so innocent responses. He truly had no idea. "Pfft! C'mon, are you serious?"
Cassandra then glared at her husband again. "Joseph. Stop it."
"What?" Joseph protested, raising his hands defensively at his wife's tone. "He IS 13 now."
Joseph and Cassandra started bickering with each other about...teenager stuff. Rokku, too confused to... really care about what they're even arguing about, resumes eating his food. The argument wasn't that serious anyway. Admittedly, his thoughts did drift off to Aimer, wondering how she was doing at the moment and thought about talking to her later if she was available...
Inside of Aimer's trailer lab, she was in her lab coat and wearing the goggles she normally had on her plate. Model Gu was currently 'offline' or 'asleep' for he was being worked on by the teenage prodigy. Just like with Model M, she had taken Model Gu's data into her computer. Unlike Model M, Gu wasn't in the best condition.
Model Gu was slightly bigger than Model M in terms of size. Much like Model M, the Biometal looked like a head. In this case, Model Gu was clad in yellow, red, and black colors, with the Biometal's most defining trait being the hardhat like object on top with a red jewel; just like Alphonse's megamerged form. Humorously, the defining trait of Guts Man, that being his big jaw, was still present even in Biometal form, but he could not move it himself. It was like...an action figure prop.
But Model Gu was damaged in various places, with various dents and cracks, and even his left blue 'eye' being completely dimmed while his right glowed brightly as normal. He was still very much operational, evident by his ability to megamerge, but he needed repairs.
That was Aimer's focus as she spoke with Rokku over the comm. systems. With their frequency numbers exchanged, they could talk to each other whenever they wanted provided some outside interference messed with their comms.
"So, how is Alphonse doing?" Rokku asked from the other line. While Aimer was working, Rokku was in his room at his desk with Model M 'sitting' on a stack of books right beside his partner. His parents were likely getting ready to go to sleep now that dinner was wrapped up, and the teen was going to follow suit after he was finished talking with his partner.
She and Rokku had talked quite a bit, having mostly been recounting all that's happened today including Mayor Radman's decision to cancel the parade and enlist the aid of the Guardians and Sentry to keep the peace on the island and investigate the source of the incursions. She was the primary person to get Rokku out of the scene when the cops wanted to know more about him since he announced he was a Guardian earlier. Rokku believed it was because he had a secret identity, and while that was mostly the case, it was also because the Guardians and Sentry wished to keep Mega Men like Rokku close given their experience handling them in the past.
"He's a little banged up, but he'll be fine." Aimer said. "Nothing the medics can't handle."
"...Did I overdo it?" He murmured with a pained tone.
"Huh? What're you-" It took Aimer a second to realize the meaning behind his question. She went from confused to reassuring quickly. "Oh! No, this isn't from you! Believe it or not, you didn't really hurt him too much. These are wounds he likely got from those Raiders."
"Oh yeah, what about those guys?" Rokku asked.
A groan came from Aimer. "They're as cooperative as you'd expect which is not at all. But with Alphonse, Model Gu, and those computer chips you gave me, I'm going to get something useful. It's just going to take some time before I finish looking over everything."
"Gotcha."
"We did learn something from Alphonse though." Aimer began. "His body has been illegally modified."
"Huh?"
"You know at a certain age, we go into a Legion facility and have our bodies changed because of that equality law?"
"Yuh-huuuh?"
"Well, people, mainly criminals, tend to modify their own bodies." Aimer explained. "They can make their bodies tougher, give them hidden weaponry, or even give themselves the Reploid data that makes them immortal... Immortal in the sense that they can live forever so long as they're not killed directly."
"Oh..."
"Yeah. This is obviously very illegal. But with Alphonse... He was modified against his will by some evil organization. And believe it or not, it's not the same as the one we're dealing with."
Rokku groaned in annoyance before he smacked his hand on his forehead. "That's just great..."
"His modifications aren't too drastic. His new body makes him pretty durable and stronger than most. Makes him a fitting match for Model Gu, actually." Aimer explained. "But the downside is that if we were to remove the modifications, he would likely...die."
"What kind of person does that to people...?" Model M asked with a tone of disgust and sorrow, but only Rokku could hear that question.
"We're going to keep him with us until he heals. He's at the Guardian Ground Base where Dwight and Candice are at." Aimer continued. "We'll move him to a Sentry location soon so we can check him out some more. On the plus side, he's more than willing to help us once he's A-OK, so we'll have another Mega Man on our side! I even talked with the Commander and he's thinking about sending in a senior Mega Man to help too!"
"Ha! Well, that's great to hear!" Rokku exclaimed. He wondered what this 'senior Mega Man' was like. Maybe he or she was super strong and wise...
"In the meantime, I'm working on Model Gu," Aimer spoke. "He's actually in worse shape than Alphonse. I'm thinking the poor guy's been around for years with zero touch ups. With some E-Crystals and effort from yours truly, he'll be good as new by tomorrow~"
"Okay, we...definitely had something to do with Model Gu's condition, huh?" Rokku whimpered.
"A little bit, yeah. But that was just inevitable." Aimer reassured him. "If a window's got cracks, then that means it's easier to break it. Model Gu is the window here, so he was bound to take more damage from you and the others. But he's fine like I said!"
"Right..."
Aimer decided to lighten up the mood a little. "Hey, I know I'm working on a lot, but I did take a peek at one of those computer chips you gave me."
Rokku tensed up, looking at Model M before asking, "...And what did you find out?"
"Something kind of big." Aimer explained, halting her work as she kicked her feet against the wall and pushed herself to her bed via the swivel chair she was on. She then grabbed her notepad and took off her goggles. "Most of what I got was corrupted. Don't blame yourself, it's something we expect. But what I found in the chip was data involving something called the "Nocturne Empire"."
Rokku raised a brow on his end. "The Nocturne Empire?"
"Yuh-huh. I miiight be overthinking it, but it sounds like they're the group responsible for those Hallow Jack bots. Those Raiders might be even working with them...or for them. Unfortunately, nobody at Sentry or the Guardian base has ever heard of this weird group."
Rokku scratched his head. Everything Aimer's been telling him so far was being relayed to Model M so that his Biometal companion was learning the revelations with him. "...So, this is an up-and-coming evil group we're...possibly dealing with?"
"That's what it sounds like." Aimer replied.
"That sounds all too familiar..." Model M noted in a sorrowful voice. In his life, he fought a war against a mad scientist. Countless robots thrown at him that he had to regrettably put down. It felt like the fighting would go on forever... But that was 500 years ago. "We need to be prepared for whatever this Nocturne Empire throws at us next..."
After Rokku relayed M's words to Aimer, she voiced her agreement, "Absolutely. That's why I took the liberty of asking the Commander to send over some of my postponed projects over so I can hurry up and finish them. I think one of them in particular will be especially helpful with some of the data I have on Model M!"
"Oooh?" Rokku cooed excitedly. "I can't wait to see what it is!"
"It's my secret until it's ready~" Aimer teased before dropping her notepad back on her bed and kicking herself back to her computer desk. "But trust me, I'm going to do my best!"
Rokku grinned and looked at Model M.
"So are we!"