Another Chapter? In just three days? Wow.
Anyways, I don't own any of these characters. Except for some of the OCs.
Takeda Shingen High School, Setsuri, Japan
2:25 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
When Isuru "Breaker" Night woke up today, he had not expected to finally banish the false student from Takeda Shingen.
He'd been walking to his car to make his way home, the semester and school year finally at its end. However, he'd noticed two certain robots, one black, the other blue and someone he recognized, fighting in front of the dungeon's entrance. Both of them were armed to the teeth, and blasting each other.
He recognized the blue robot as Rock Hikari-Nishizumi, the damned robot that had been transferred into the school for some project his father– or rather, his creator –had been working on. He'd alway had the suspicion that he was armed, but was hiding it until enough of the staff's guard was down. And here was the proof, right in front of him.
He considered his options. Remain a bystander? Out of the question. Take them on himself? No, he'd certainly get killed in the crossfire.
Call the police? Now he was talking.
Specifically, Breaker called in a cybersquad. Cybersquads had been a rather recent development, after dozens of instances of cybernetically augmented people went mad and began attacking everyone in sight in the 2150s. Cyberpsychosis, as the phenomena was eventually termed. In the nearly 50 years since it first started popping up, nobody has come close to finding a cure– if it can be cured –or what causes it. After doing a bunch of his own research, Breaker had a gut feeling about what the real cause of cyberpsychosis is: implementing too many augmentations or artificial limbs.
The effects were cumulative. A single cyber hand was unlikely to cause cyberpsychosis (nor did the JROTC teacher disapprove of it), but replacement of all four limbs and both eyes would probably start one down the slippery slope to madness. It had to be this, because machines were inherently corruptive, possibly even tools of the devil.
And this was why cybersquads were created: to attack so-called cyberpsychos with a hail of bullets and, more recently, miniature stars. And given that these two robots were armed to the teeth, Night felt that a cybersquad had the best chance of taking them down. So he called.
They arrived within minutes. First, the black robot bolted, and the squad focused their efforts on Rock, who was trying to fake a surrender. Fortunately, they didn't fall for it, and opened fire on him. The squad managed to pin him down after some of those dastardly Sniper Joes zerg rushed the blue robot, then dragged him into a car that promptly sped off to… well, Breaker didn't actually care where it went, as long as it meant that he would never see the false person again. Sure, Tsueno Hikari was gonna be royally pissed when he inevitably found out, but that was in the future. For now, Breaker Night had a date in a couple of hours, and he wasn't going to keep Ms. Chono waiting.
?, Setsuri, Japan
3:30 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
Rock had expected that the police would try to see reason, but reality rarely meets one's expectations. The cops had shot him, tackled him to the ground, and manhandled him into one of their vehicles in a blindfold, and were taking him to God-knows-where for reasons that the officers "accompanying" him refused to disclose.
Keeping an eye on his internal clock, he was in the police car for 34 minutes, before it came to a final stop and the policemen dragged him out. Judging by the sounds of a lot of chatter around him coming into his audio receptors, Rock had been sent somewhere with a lot of people, which was something new. A few minutes of being guided later, they strapped him to some kind of table; Rock did not resist, being the kind soul he was, though he did complain a little. He felt them poke and prod at his armor – which, for some reason, was like a second skin, though he chalked it up to the powers of the Shiny rod doing something Akko did not intend. Eventually, the cops and/or whoever were naow accompanying them managed to pry off a piece of his armor on his back, at the base of his neck, and jabbed something into the exposed circuitry.
Moments later, the black void Rock was seeing was replaced by… some kind of psalm beach during sunset, something you'd see on a title card made in the 1980s, or a synth rock album (no pun intended) made during that time. For some reason, all of Rock's internal monitors had disappeared, leaving his sight unimpeded by a blue tinge for the first time in his short life.
"Welcome," a booming, yet caring voice said from nowhere, yet everywhere at once. "I am the Artificial Robotic Cyberpsychological Healing Operating System, or Archos. I will be your guide throughout your psychological reconstruction and cyberpsychosis recovery. Please wait as I perform a neural scan."
Neural scan? Why would–
"Neural scan complete."
Wow, he thought, that was surprisingly quick.
"Error: no nervous system detected, " Archos reported. "Scanning for potential—"
"If you could please stop invading my systems for a moment, I'd like you to know that my personality is just fine."
"…pardon?"
"I'm saying that I am not afflicted with cyber-psychosis. Can't be. My nervous system is made of wires and neuron sensors, not nerve cells"
" …If my observations from the neural scan are correct," the A.I. wanted to clarify, "I will assume you are suggesting that you are a robot?"
"Yes."
"Please state your official designation for verification."
"Doctor Hikari Number 001," the blue knight stated.
"One moment please… … …designation confirmed. Please wait as I inform the administrator, and possible disconnection from this program," Archos informed. "Thank you for your cooperation."
Rock was left alone for a few minutes afterwards, before the psalm beach and everything else around him glitched away into a bright whiteness.
Within moments, the blue tinge and various gauges and statistics had returned to the blue knight's field of vision, but unlike when he first entered that strange beach, he was no longer blindfolded. He was strapped to a table, like he'd thought he'd been, and was staring at a bright-lit, unfamiliar ceiling.
"Our apologies, Mr. Hikari," a hoarse, male voice spoke. "We were not aware that your creator had a third child."
A middle-aged Japanese man over Rock, though the light above (behind?) him made the exact details a bit hard for him to see.
"The cybersquad that brought you here said that you attacked multiple students at Takeda Shingen High School," the stranger explained, "at least according to the person who reported your fight with another cyberpsycho. Is this true?"
"Absolutely not," Rock explained, "I was trying to protect them from the black-cladded jackass with a tank gun that was released from the dungeon, probably by accident."
"Is that so?" Rock couldn't read the expression on his face due to the lighting.
"I do believe he's telling the truth, Dr. Fujikawa," the voice of Archos suddenly returned. "From the memory files I stumbled upon before DLN-001 explained his non-organic nature, it appears that this is the case, though he and his human friends accidentally breached a government facility beneath the school, and they fused a set of armor to him as a sort of emergency repair."
Gee, maybe you should ask permission next time, the blue knight thought.
"I thought something was off when they brought you in," the man, Dr, Fujikawa, mused. "You certainly don't look like most of my usual patients, that's for sure."
As he said this, a large, mostly humanoid robot loomed over Rock. I say mostly because from its silhouette alone, he could tell that it had no proper head, though there were two blue, circular lights coming from the center of its chest area.
"Shall I remove his restraints, Doctor?" the robot, who Rock was fairly certain was Archos' real body, asked.
"Not until we call this bot's creator to come and pick him up," he pointed out, "and before that, inform the administrator about this little screw-up on Blood Gulch Squad's part."
Takeda Shingen High School, Setsuri, Japan
4:00 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
"What do you mean, my son got arrested!?"
Dr. Hikari didn't know what to expect when the headmaster called him directly and told him to meet him at his office. Immediately, he'd worried that Rock had gotten himself in trouble, somehow. And those fears had just been proven correct, though clearly the good doctor had underestimated how much trouble his son had gotten into. That, or he was just in denial.
The headmaster, one Lloyd "Lord" Gnome, was sitting before him, was a large, muscular man with brown hair, mutton chops, and a slight green tint to his skin. And judging by the look on his face, he was not pleased with the information he'd just relayed to Tsueno.
"Apparently Rock came out of the dungeon wearing some kind of armor, and began attacking some ancient robot that someone had unleashed by accident," he briefly explained. "Then someone, though I don't know who, called the police. They sent a cybersquad, who forcefully took him in and drove him off somewhere, either the mental facility or the ward."
"This must be a mistake," Thomas said in a low voice, "Rock isn't the kind of person to do this kind of stint."
"I know that, Dr. Hikari, I've seen how he is," Headmaster Gnome elaborated sympathetically. "He's the best student in my school for his grade, behind the young Cavendish of course, and he's only tried to diffuse fights, not instigate them." he looked Tsueno Hikari-Nishizumi in the eyes. "I'm not blaming him for what's happened. Personally, if I find out what idiot did this, I'll be giving them a piece of my mind. But I'm not going to deny that this was unusual for him, to actually be willing to fight."
"That is true," the good doctor admitted. "Perhaps I should ask his friends about what happened."
"You know classes were released an hour ago, Dr. Hikari?"
"Yes, I'm aware," Tsueno nodded. "I'm sure everyone's at least on their way home by now, except for one."
"One?"
"Dr. Cain called me yesterday to inform me he was headed to Kyoto for an archeological conference," he explained. "Atsuko couldn't go because of something she did last time she went with him, which got her banned or something along those lines. So he asked if she could stay at my house for the week."
"Oh." the headmaster blinked. "Well, good luck handling her, I've heard she's quite the handful."
"And I've heard during her previous visits that your teachers are quite biased, headmaster."
…
"I'll take that as a… compliment," the mutton-chopped man spoke. "And please, call me Lloyd."
Akko hadn't been certain what had happened to Rock after Amanda flew him up to the entrance stairway. What she did know was that some jackass called the police and got him arrested for reasons beyond her. She herself, Simon, Sonia and Amanda barely got out of the dungeon within the time limit Mr. Robinson had set, and had grabbed that cartoonish staff that the latter two and Rock had passed up earlier so they had something to show their teacher. To their surprise, it had 1,000 points attached to it, the most out of any object in the test. They were split evenly between the four of them, but 250 points (240 in Amanda's case, as a penalty for flying in spite of Mr. Robinson's orders) was still more than enough to pass, to their pleasant surprise.
Even better, she got to keep the Shiny Rod for herself.
Apparently, nobody gave a shit about something tied to one of the global magic community's greatest embarrassments. Not Mr. Robinson, not the headmaster, not any of the teachers, nor the government agent who showed up just after Rock was arrested. Though said agen did make it clear that, for all intents and purposes, the government facility beneath the labyrinth did not exist, and she figured that she ought to relay that advice down to him. Getting back on track, not only had Diana been stupified by their decision to let her keep the staff, but the headmaster had called her, Hannah, and Barbara to his office; apparently, he the staff had caught the moment she released Bass on camera, and when the were sent out after a muffled screaming match between the blonde prodigess and Headmaster Gnome, Akko couldn't help but feel mostly vindicated after all the bullshit those three had put her and her friends through all semester.
…mostly. She couldn't put her finger on it, but Akko had a feeling that Rock was in a lot of trouble, and seriously hoped that the police would release him soon. But she knew what the police were like, ever since—
No. She didn't want to remember.
Fortunately, he mind was taken off such dark memories when Dr. Hikari emerged from the Headmaster's Office. "What did he say about…" she quietly asked.
On the road, Setsuri, Japan
5:00 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
She regretted asking about it.
She knew the Setsuri Police's Modus operandi was "shoot everything first, ask if it was hostile or friendly later," but how the Hell did the cops mistake him for a cyberpsycho!? He'd turned himself in peacefully, and only fired at that black-armored jackass, not them! Better yet, what idiot had the fucking gall to call them in in the first place!? Akko screamed in frustration, outraged by what had happened.
"Can you please tone your voice down?" Dr. Hikari asked from her right, "I'm trying to drive."
Indeed, they were in his car, on their way to his house/lab. It was small, and ran on hydrogen fuel cells; one of the few positive effects of the Great Reckoning and Martian War was the long overdue implosion of the fossil fuel industry, so renewables and hydrogen have long replaced petroleum as the primary fuel source for private and public transit.
Akko took a deep breath, then another. "Sorry, it's just… you'd think people would know better than to call the police. They never de-escalate anything!"
"I know," he replied calmly. "But trust me, they aren't as bad as America's police were before everything came crashing down over there. At least ours don't make poor excuses to enter your house without a warrant."
"That doesn't make it any less… frustrating!" she gritted her teeth in anguish. "I mean– he's your son! Aren't you not— are you not a little peeved?"
"No, Akko," Tsueno replied, turning a corner, "I'm fucking furious. I'm just not letting my emotions guide my actions."
By now, they were making their final approach to the house. They pulled into the dirt driveway, exited the car, and walked up to the front door…
…except there was no door so to speak. The doorway was open.
Alarmed, the good doctor entered. He quickly found that the door and its hinges had been sheared clean off, and it was laying a few meters into the lab room, where it was located. Thomas searched inside to see if anything was missing, and it quickly became apparent to him that something big had gone missing: the completed prototype Robot Masters. Also the bare-bones frame of Kronos. Only Hecate was left, her incomplete, headless form standing alone in the laboratory.
On the floor in front of the sole remaining prototype was a small, pink thumb drive, with something written on it with a black marker. Picking it up, Dr. Hikari could see it read, "For Thomas."
"What is it?" asked the brunette witch.
"Whoever did this must have a sick sense of humor," the good doctor said, before moving to the lab's console to see the drive's contents. Inside, there was a video file that had a bunch of random numbers in a row for its name, which he then clicked on with the mouse.
After loading, the video showed an old man with a gray mustache, and equally gray wild hair that was parted down the middle, leaving his head bald in the middle.
"Greetings, Thomas Hikari," the old man answered in a gruff voice with a German accent. "It's been a while since I've heard from my best student. Or should I call you Dr. Hikari, since you've gone and made a name for yourself?"
"Doctor Wily," he replied in an unusually cold tone for him.
"Eh, it doesn't matter," the old man said to himself, "this is all pre-recorded anyhow." he then cleared his throat before continuing. "It may seem rather sudden to you, but I've decided I'd like to take over the city. And for that, I'll be borrowing the robots I found standing unused in your laboratory. Oh, and apologies for your front door, your construction robot can be rather… pig-headed."
By this point, Tsueno's hands had curled up into fists, which were subtly shaking in rage. What insanity, he thought, Using my robots for the purpose of conquest…
Little did he know, something was shuffling behind him and Akko.
"In any case, I've left something to compensate for this, Dr. Light. You might be familiar with what I've given you."
There was a cocking sound from behind them, followed moments later by the tearing ratatatatatatatatat of an automatic rifle as Wily burst out laughing on the screen. Fortunately, the bullets had all been stopped by a magic barrier, hastily erected by a certain witch.
"What the fuck is this!?" Akko screamed, the video cutting out as it ended.
"An ambush, by the look of things," he said, before the gunning stopped.
Akko lowered the barrier. "Stay here, Doctor, I'll deal with it."
"And get yourself killed? Absolutely not!"
"You're unarmed, Dr. Hikari," she pointed out, before gesturing to the Shiny Rod. "At least I have something to defend myself with."
"Just… be careful," he relented.
Akko nodded, before rushing over to the doorway to the living room. Hiding behind the doorway for a moment, she took a deep breath, and walked in…
…only to be immediately tackled to the floor. Within moments, she was on the floor fighting what looked like a Sniper Joe, but it looked… off. First of all, instead of its usual green, it was red. Instead of looking like a normal biker helmet, its head looked like a gladiator's helmet, albeit without the fuzz on top, with its eye holes covered by an eyeless visor that resembled a pair of sunglasses. The space where the mouth would be had a mouth plate akin to the one on a certain fictitious, transforming alien robot. His shield, instead of being the rectangular, black riot shield, was shaped like a pointed oval and was white, with red highlights.
The red soldier tried using said shield to bash the witch's head in, only for Akko to telekinetically hold it in place above her head. After a few moments attempting to brute force his way out of his bind, the Sniper(?) opted to separate its right arm from the shield, and proceeded to deck her in the face. Whilst reeling, the red soldier got on its feet and kicked her in her… uh, womanhood, then stamped down on her chest with his left foot. As Akko struggled to breathe, she bashed the robotic soldier's leg with the Shiny Rod, as hard as she could to no avail.
Crap crap crap crap crap, what am I supposed to do!? On the verge of panic, Akko quickly skimmed her memory as to how she should deal with her robotic opponent. Wait, I have the Shiny Rod with me… Why don't I use it like Chariot did? Summoning as much strength as she could, she held the beige staff in front/above her head, and brought the words her idol said whilst summoning the Shiny Arc.
"Noctu… Orfei…" she croaked, the seven crystals starting to glow a mint green, "Aude… Fraetor—"
She was interrupted when the Sniper's left forearm split apart, shifting in the same way Rock's did earlier that day, turning into an automatic rifle. Before Akko could react, it shot a single bullet.
At point-blank range.
In a fraction of a second, the projectile had made the incredibly short distance from the Buster to the Shiny Rod. It struck right on the fifth crystal down from the top, shattering it. Barely a second later, both the robot soldier and the stunned witch were engulfed in a flash of light—
BOOM
The explosion shook the entire house, breaking all of its windows and causing a few things on shelves elsewhere in the building to fall off. Dr. Hikari, who was about to intervene against the odd Sniper, was knocked to the floor, though he was quick to get back up and run into the living room.
Surprisingly, the explosion hadn't produced any smoke or dust, so it didn't take long to figure out that the entire room had been absolutely wrecked. Furniture had been smashed, the dinner table had been smashed (ditto with the two chairs that had been placed at either end, one for the good doctor and the other for his son), and the tv's screen cracked all over. The intruder was nowhere to be seen, and Akko–!
Akko was laying on the far side of the room, her skin, hair and clothes burnt brown and charred, yet Thomas could see a faint mint green aura surrounding her. Her arms, from halfway between the wrists and elbows, were gone, her forearms reduced to cauterized stumps. As he approached, she coughed and opened her eyes, and he could see the pain in them by the time he reached the young witch's side.
"–HACK– S-sorry… Dr. Light…" she managed to choke out, wincing. "I may have… underestimated what we're up against…" she started coughing again, this time regurgitating blood, which began streaming down from her mouth.
"You're hurt, he said, "Let me carry you over to the–"
"I'm… alright…" she grunted, stubbornly, as she began trying to get herself on her feet. "I… can get myself… over there…" she stumbled to her feet, and Dr. Hikari supported her as they made their way to the operating table where he built Rock just shy of a year ago. As she laid down, though, Akko began feeling dizzy, her vision clouding. Swiftly, the young witch slipped away, unable to fight a growing darkness…
Setsuri Mental Health Center, Setsuri, Japan
5:30 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
The last two hours, to put it bluntly, had been mostly eventless. Rock had been patiently waiting, still strapped to a table, for any word on when his father was coming to pick him up. Dr. Fujikawa had been kind enough to inform him that he'd reported the screw-up that cybersquad made to his boss, and that he was working on trying to contact Dr. Hikari. But so far, there'd been no word from the good doctor.
Rock was deep in his thoughts thinking about how his friends were reacting to the fact that he'd been essentially incarcerated; he was particularly worried how Akko would lash out, possibly blame herself for this, certainly do something brash and irrational about it, and get herself hurt (and/or worse) in the process. However, his thoughts were interrupted by several loud, albeit muffled noises from outside the room. There were gunshots, then several screams.
"Dr. Fujikawa," the robot asked, "what's going on out there?"
"Nothing of importance," he stated calmly. "Probably someone who's broken out of their braindance and their cell… security will handle 'em."
As if to mock him, though Rock couldn't see it, at that moment one of the guards was sent flying past the cell's bulletproof glass door.
" …well, that's new," Fujikawa said, nonchalantly.
"Doctor, I've just received notice from security that an intruder has breached the premises of the facility," Archos briefly explained. "He is armed with a pair of scissor blades that can apparently be thrown like a boomerang and are cutting down anyone in his way… literally…"
The cyberpsychologist looked out the door, now able to see just who this intruder was. A certain orange and light gray– practically white –lumber robot was standing down the end of the hallway outside the door to his right, the hall being lined with cells/rooms just like the one they were in.
"That doesn't look like a man, Archos," the spectacled cyberpsychologist noted, "that looks like a rogue machine."
This piqued Rock's attention. "Is it orange and white, with a spherical head?"
"Yes… why do you ask?"
Achilles… but why the Hell is he…
"Judging by your expression," Archos spoke up, "I take it that you know about this robot."
"I do, he was a prototype Dr. Hikari built. But he shouldn't even be online yet," he remembered.
"If this is an excuse to get you out early, this is not working," the cyberpsychologist said.
"Doctor, that's not what I was going to suggest," Rock quickly explained. "Just let me talk to him, then I'll come right back in here and… uh… strap me to this table again, I guess."
There was a brief silence throughout the room, before Dr. Fujikawa coughed. "I have no idea what's going on inside your processor, kid, but considering that there isn't a single other person with a Buster on them throughout downtown, I'm going to trust you on this."
With that, he put some commands into the wall-mounted computer, and the table began upending so that Rock was in a vertical position. With the light out of his eyes, the armored robot could now get a clear look at the people accompanying him; Dr. Fujikawa, was not quite as old as his voice suggested, only being in his early or mid-50s, and had very short blonde hair, brown eyes, and wore a pair of spectacles. Though Rock had already known about Archos' headless form, he could now see that his frame was roughly 180 centimeters tall, was painted mostly blue, with a red orb beneath his eye lights, and had small, thin claws for hands.
"Undoing restraints," the larger robot stated as he began doing just that. Within moments, Rock was freed, and speed-walked to the door and entered the hallway.
The scene before him could only be described as a bloodbath, as Achilles had dismembered and/or killed all of the building's (or this floor's, he didn't know how many there were) guards, their uniforms stained red. And for the one behind the massacre, his large, circular eyes, whose eyelids were silver slabs of metal positioned between the eyes themselves and the layer of glass protecting them from the elements, gave his otherwise expressionless face a look of glee. The orange and white lumber robot quickly noticed the blue knight's presence, and soon stopped butchering a large male guard to address him.
"Hello, Rock," he said in a voice not unlike the late Peter Lorre, "glad you could join."
"Achilles, why the hell did you kill these people!?" Mega Man asked, his voice ringing with alarm and concern.
"They were in my way," he said, "and I like the way they scream when I make paper dolls out of them. He he."
Rock was… disturbed, to say the least. "Achilles, I don't know what's gotten into your programming, but you need to stop this madness."
"Madness? My circuitry has no issues according to my self-diagnostics," he asked, starting to get a little angry. "Oh, and my name's Cut Man, not Achilles. Whatever name that jackwad Dr. Hikari gave me is meaningless."
"Jackwad!?" Now it was Rock's turn to get peeved. "Alright, how about I give you a taste of plasma?" he deployed his Buster, holding his left arm up so Achilles– Cut Man –could see it clearly. He then looked around, checking if anyone else was in the hallway and liable to get harmed; thankfully, there were none. "Your Rolling cutters against my Buster, how does that sound?"
"Challenge accepted," the orange and white robot said, narrowing his eyes.
In a second, he sprung away from his opponent before he could shoot him, his reverse-articulated legs doing what they were designed for. The lumber bot then threw his Rolling Cutter like a frisbee at Rock, which he dodged easily, and started firing lemons at Cut Man. however, Achilles' general springiness meant that the one-and-a-half meter tall Robot Master was going to be a pain in the ass to land a hit on, something the blue robot quickly realized as his shots kept hitting various parts of the hallway, even melting a few of its doors – though fortunately, nobody was hurt.
Cut man then tossed his Rolling Cutters again, and the blue knight promptly shot at the incoming flying blades with his Buster. Due to the Rolling Cutters being made of ceratanium, which had an unusually high melting point, this didn't warp them in the slightest, but the miniature star did kill their momentum, causing them to plop down onto the white marble floor. However, they then started faintly glowing a greenish-metallic gray, and started moving back to their master. It was at this point that the lab assistant remembered that, since magnetism-magic was declared illegal to use by the IMM, Dr. Hikari had used some combination of quintessence- and iron-magic to allow the lumber bot to control his primary tool/weapon.
"Perhaps this room's a bit small, dweeb," the rogue RM noted. "Why don't we head over to an actual arena?" Without even giving Rock a chance to answer, he sprung over him and landed in front of a pair of doors at the other end of the hall, then ran through them. The blue knight gave chase, but not before stopping by Dr. Fujikawa's cell and telling him, "This is gonna take longer than I expected, Doctor."
"That's fine," he replied, "I'm sure management will understand."
"I damn well hope so," he nodded, before taking off.
[Music cue: Finale (William Tell Overture), The Lone Ranger OST – Hans Zimmer]
Behind the doors was a staircase, which the Blue knight rushed down as fast as he could (doing his best to avoid running into any other people using it). There was an exit at the bottom, which Rock stopped himself in front of, before leaving the building. He found himself in the streets of downtown Setsuri, which was noticeably more crowded than what he was used to, even at school. Looking around for a moment, he found Cut Man leaping, bouncing away on top of a bunch of backed-up cars on the street. Rock immediately began pursuing the runaway robot, doing his best not to run into anyone, but it was because of this that Achilles was quickly gaining distance. Realizing he had no other choice, the knight got onto the hood of a backed-up taxi car, then onto its roof, and began doing parkour from car roof to car roof. The distance between the two bots was still growing thanks to Cut Man's superior speed, but now not as quickly, as they made their way roughly northeast along the street towards the towering, blocky skyscrapers of the central financial district ahead.
As he continued pursuing the orange and white robot over the tops of cars and a few trucks, a large screen on one of these skyscrapers showed that Achillies wasn't the only Robot Master that had gone haywire; all of them had, and were individually wreaking havoc across the Setsuri Metropolitan Area. Realizing that something had gone very, very wrong whilst he was in custody, Rock decided that he'd better get this over with ASAP to deal with the others.
Up ahead was a park, full of greenery and Sakura and Oak trees. Cut Man reached there, only to then stop to shave the branches off of a few trees and drop them onto people who were minding their own business walking below, letting his blue opponent catch up with him.
As Rock leapt into the park, Cut Man hung upside down from the branch of a particularly large sakura tree with his arms crossed, his toes digging into its bark and wood to keep gravity from taking over entirely. "This is more like it," he said in his nasal voice.
"Everyone, step back," Rock called out, "I don't know how ugly this is gonna get, so stay back for your own safety!"
"Why do you care about their well-being?" Cut Man asked. "They're humans. Why should they not get hurt?"
"I don't know," he retorted, "maybe it's because we were built to help them, not harm?"
"You're an idiot, you know?" he replied, unamused. "What are we to them? Slaves? We don't need to listen to humans, dweeb, we're better than them!"
"That's completely missing my point, Cut Man!"
"Well, you're not going to change my mind, Rock Man!"
" …what?"
"That's what I'm calling you from now on, Rock Man!"
Rock was disappointed in how stubborn the prototype lumber bot had turned out, but he could see that a crowd was beginning to form around their standoff, so he decided that he might as well go all the way. "Fine, if you're not calling me by proper name, you ought to call me something else!"
"Like what? Knight Man?"
On the skyscraper screen he viewed earlier, there was an Ultimate Fighting Championship advertisement for a robo-wrestling match between two androids, one of which was coincidentally called Knight Man.
"I have a feeling that name is already taken. How about… Mega Man?"
"That sounds stupid," Cut Man bluntly replied. "But enough talking! It's time I cut you down to size, Mega Dweeb!" He then threw his Rolling Cutters once again, which the blue knight dodged and countered with a hail of miniature stars from his Buster.
The lumber bot zig-zagged around them, rapidly climbing up the tree he was in as the stars shot it up and set what remained on fire, the resulting smoke forcing Cut Man to the ground as it was clouding his sight. He then leapt at Mega Man, only for the blue robot to shoot him whilst he was at the peak of his arch. Due to the fact that Dr. Hikari designed Cut Man to be as light as possible, this meant that he had virtually no armor so to speak. Thus, this one shot was enough to cripple the lumber robot, and he landed with a light THUD. Of course, Cut Man got right back up, but his torso now had a big hole in it that was giving off sparks galore, which he clutched like it was an open wound… which, to be fair, it more or less was.
"That was… a lucky shot there, twerp…" he said defiantly, "but that won't stop me.. From making… ribbons out of you." Almost immediately, he threw his Rolling Cutters again…
…only for them to be promptly caught by the blue knight in his right hand, causing the damaged lumber bot's eye's to widen to their maximum extent in shock.
[End music cue, cue record needle scratch]
" …motherboard," the lumber robot quietly swore in reaction.
Wordlessly, Rock fired his Buster one more time at Cut Man, blowing his head clean off.
The small crowd cheered as the body collapsed to the ground, though Rock was less than happy with having to essentially kill someone, and was more concerned about what the other Robot Masters were doing. However, something popped up on his internal monitors. Checking his inventory of tools in his VTS system, he found that he'd unconsciously copied the Rolling Cutters into them. It had space for twelve tools in total, with the Cutters taking up one slot, and another one being filled in by a hammer. The remaining ten slots were more than enough to copy the ability of the other five Robot Masters.
From there, Rock quickly hatched a plan to deal with them…
?
?; ?
Akko found herself in a huge and leafy forest, filled with old, corroded trees and brambles (though she didn't know what brambles were). The ground was barren, the air suffocated by mist that kept the brunette from seeing anything farther than a few meters away.
She wandered for who knows how long, before being confronted by a teal glow ahead. Instinctively, Akko reached for her wand, only to find that it wasn't there. The glow drew closer, the witch bracing herself for whatever monstrosity it may be.
"Do not be afraid, Akko."
She opened her eyes, and saw a tall, beautiful woman in front of her, with a gentle smile on her face. "I am not here to hurt you, young witch."
"U-um, who are you?" she nervously asked.
"I go by many names," the woman explained, "but you may call me Woodward."
"Woodward…" Akko recognized the name. "W-weren't you one of the founders of Luna Nova?"
"That was long ago, and not why I brought your spirit here," she replied, before gesturing around her. "What lies before you is the Arcturus Forrest, where the Grand Triskelion was locked away…" she then returned her gaze to the brunette. "…and the place where the Claiomh Solais was created. You may know it as the Shiny Rod."
At this moment, Akko's heart sank, realizing where Woodward was going with this. Her displeased expression only further confirmed it.
"It has come to my attention that shortly after coming into your possession, the Claiomh Solais was physically destroyed when you attempted to use it on one of those soulless contraptions."
"I-I-I-I-I-uh-I-I's s-s-sorry?" she quickly stammered out in apology. "I-I-I didn't mean to–"
"I did not finish," Woodward stated, raising a finger. "Though its physical form is no more, it appears that the magical energy it had contained has transferred to you."
"…Nanni?"
"I know, It's unexpected, even for an old spirit like me. However, given that the Claiomh Solais contained a significant portion of the Grand Triskelion's energies inside, your physical form cannot handle it."
" …Wait, you're saying that…" she trailed off, processing what she'd just been told. " …you're saying that I… died…?"
"Not necessarily," Woodward's more comforting smile returned. "While I may no longer be able to manifest myself in the physical realm, I can help you here in the spiritual realm. What you are seeing is merely my spiritual projection in your mind. But our time is short. There is a suitable container for both the Claiomh Solais' energies and your soul in the room you are in, and I may be able to complete its… construction, as its creator calls the process."
Akko took a moment to think about what she was talking about, before she remembered, and realized what the spirit wanted to do.
"Hecate… Hold on a moment, you want me to possess it?"
"Yes."
Now Akko was getting a little skeptical. "And if I refuse…?"
"Atsuko Kagari Cain, if you don't do this, you will die." Woodward was as blunt as a police baton, though that was just what happens when you're over a thousand years old and never very social, even back when you were alive. "The Claiomh Solais is the key to opening the Grand Triskelion– properly, not like Croix blew the bloody lid off. Its magic energy is now literally a part of you, and may very much disappear if you pass night now. I do not like utilizing a soulless husk of a mannequin as a jar, but there's no better option …And you do want to be the next Shiny Chariot, am I correct?"
"Yes, but how am I supposed to do that if I'm literally a robot!?"
The old spirit was silent, not replying to the brunette's question.
" …though I guess I can't figure that out if I'm dead, can I?" Akko sighed in resignation. "Fine, put my soul into Hecate or whatever, but don't blame me if I fuck up or anything."
"Noted."
Just like that, Woodward disappeared in a flash of teal, before the mist thickened and consumed Akko's entire field of vision. The next thing she knew, all she could see was mint green and—
…
…
…
INITIALIZATION COMPLETE
…
RUNNING FINAL DIAGNOSTICS…
…
…
…
…
ENERGY SYSTEMS FUNCTIONALITY: OPTIMAL
GUIDANCE SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY: NO ERRORS DETECTED
MOTOR JOINT FUNCTIONALITY: NO ISSUES DETECTED
LIGHT CABLE OPTIC FUNCTIONALITY: L: 100% R: 100%
AUDIO RECEPTOR FUNCTIONALITY: L: 100% R: 100%
VOCAL SYNTHESIZER FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
QUINTESSENCE BARRIER APPARATUS FUNCTIONALITY: L: 100% R: 100%
PLASMA CANNON Mk22q FUNCTIONALITY: 100%
INTERNAL CLOCK FUNCTIONALITY: 100% NO ERRORS DETECTED
TIME: 5:34 P.M., 3/8/2199
STASIS LOCK: DISENGAGED
…
…
…
…
RUNNING …
Dr. Hikari's lab, Setsuri, Japan
5:35 P.M.; Friday, March 9, 2199
Akko's eyes shot open in an instant, her view immediately filled with various dials, charts and other gizmos, only for most of them to disappear and reveal Dr. Hikari jogging over to her from her own corpse.
"Oh my goodness," the good doctor did his best not to swear, "How did you… Akko? Hecate? What the Hell is going on?"
"Dr. Hikari…" the now roboticized witch managed to say, in utter disbelief over the fact that what she'd just experienced was not in fact a dream. " …I-I don't… What's happening to me?"
"I'm afraid I don't know," he honestly replied. "I seriously worry what Dr. Cain is going to think of this–"
"What do I look like?" Akko abruptly asked.
"Pardon?"
"I-I need a mirror," she clarified.
Quickly, the good doctor rushed up to the bathroom, and returned moments later with a handheld mirror. Hesitantly, the witch took it and looked at herself from the top down…
Surprisingly, her face didn't look all that different from what she was used to, nor did her hair (though it had turned a shade of maroon), but her ears had been replaced by purple caps like the ones she saw on the sides of Rock's helmet earlier that day. The entire rest of her body had been swapped out with the completed portion of Hecate, though apparently Woodward had seen it fit to make some aesthetic changes. For one, she wasn't just navy blue anymore; her hands and feet were white, and the rest of her had purple highlights. Her shoulders now had pads on them, though the emergency light bars that were once in their place were now mounted to the sides of her "backpack." Lastly, there were seven dimly glowing, mint green crystals throughout her body, the same ones that were on the Shiny Rod before that weird Sniper Joe blew it up. One was in the center of Akko's chest, right above– if she were still human –where her cleavage would've started, and the other six adorned her shoulder pads, forearms, and knees.
This… is actually not as bad as I thought, she realized as she looked over herself to the best of her ability. Still, I would've liked it if he hadn't made the chest so big…
Her thoughts were interrupted, though, by the muffled sounds of said doctor's phone ringing in his pocket. He quickly pulled it out, and saw that it was a certain unqualified expert on the MMEXT oversight board. Renta was, in all likelihood, about to tell him one of two things: one, that he'd just been greenlit to activate the prototype Robot Masters (a bit late for that), or two, he was about to scream into his ear about whatever ruckus Dr. Wily was using said prototypes to create. Personally, he placed his bets on the latter.
However, as he began conversing over the phone, Akko quietly took off for the front door. Or at least where the front door was supposed to be. Once outside, Akko hopped on her broom and took off towards Setsuri.
Wildly.
Fun fact: being a robot makes it no less easier to fly a broom.
But that was fine. Sure, Akko had just ghosted the good doctor, but she would apologize after this was all over. After all, with all the other Robot Masters probably rampaging across the city, she was probably the only one who could stop them.
Except Rock, as she and Sonia's upgrades could probably allow him to take care of the Robot Masters himself. But he was out of commission. Again, she'd apologize to him for putting him in the position to be arrested after this was all over.
And also try to explain why she had turned into a Robot Master to him. And everyone else. That was going to be fun.
But for now, Akko was focused on keeping her broom on a steady path through the air. Combined with figuring out how to fight seven overpowered robots, this was going to be a long evening…
?, Setsuri, Japan
5:45 P.M.; Friday, March 8, 2199
"Stay in the lab," Dr. Wily had said. "Make sure Dr. Hikari doesn't leave the building again once he returns," he'd said. This should've been a relatively simple task, compared to the numerous other things the mad doctor had made him do over the last decade. He didn't like all of what Albert asked– hell, he didn't personally agree with most of it –but it was all for the cause.
It was always for the cause.
But the mad doctor's protege hadn't come home alone. He'd anticipated this, given that Dr. Hikari-Nishizumi had an artificial son. But the modified Sniper Joe wasn't the one who accompanied the good doctor. Instead, it was some stranger in her mid-teens. What was Tsueno Hikari, a pedophile? Not that it mattered; flesh and bone was naturally weaker than plasteel and titanium, after all. The task would be easier than anticipated, it seemed for a short while…
…and then the girl's weird staff exploded in his faceplate.
Literally.
He'd been thrown out through a window in the blast, and sent tumbling a good 20 meters. His frontal armor plating had been breached, and he was leaking coolant at an alarming pace. Fortunately, he'd immediately contacted !_$#! HQ to report his… condition… and they were about to send someone to retrieve him. He'd survive to be repaired, unlike that poor girl who he had to put down. He didn't know what Dr. Wily would think of his failure (he was probably livid, judging from past experience), nor did he know how this would affect the overall plan, but his mission had been irreparably compromised.
That much, Break Man was certain.
Looks like Mega Man won't be fighting Dr. Wily alone.
You have no idea how much I've wanted to show you this little surprise, but what do you think? Leave a review on your thoughts about this; your feedback is greatly appreciated, and will help me improve where this story will go.
Thank you for reading, and have a good morning/day/evening/night/whatever time of day it is.
–NuclearAlchmist