Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 28 - Tom and Blade Join the Parade

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When we last left our heroes, a Reaverbot encounter left Adam Powers out of sorts – and out of his head, as he'd come to be possessed by the self-professed "spirit" of his sword.

The spirit's name? "MegaMan Blade."

Meanwhile, up above on the surface, Celeste has been wandering around the area for a bit, and has had a most curious amount of luck finding refractors and shards in out-of-the-way places.

"Who are you?" Nytetrayn said to the stranger they now faced. The way he said it was more like a demand than a request. An unusually focused look sat upon his face as he eyed what was once Adam Powers.

Janine, meanwhile, stared at the possessed Digger with fascination.

"My name is MegaMan Blade. I was an advanced Purifier model MegaMan military robot."

"Purifier...?" Nytetrayn said.

"I was designed to seek out and destroy errant units which posed a threat to The System, or to our human masters."

Nytetrayn raised an eyebrow at this. "What have you done with Adam? And are you a friend? Or an enemy?"

Janine laid a hand on Nyte's arm. "Relax, I don't think he's going to hurt him... or us."

Nyte glanced at Janine with that, but kept his focus on Blade.

"I mean you no harm," Blade said.

Nytetrayn looked at Janine, and whispered, ""Do you know just what a 'MegaMan' is, anyway?"

Janine nodded.

"I was one of the first MegaMan models to utilize a techno-organic body, much like that of the Bureaucratic Unit standing over there," Blade said, as he pointed at Janine. "If I'm not mistaken, she is designated 'Janine', a high-level Bureaucratic Unit."

Janine snorted. "Well, I was..."

"I was created with my brother, MegaMan Bullet, shortly before the East rebellion," Blade explained. "This sword was designed for use in that war. However, due to its construction, when I was destroyed in battle by East, my consciousness remained trapped inside. I have no information on why this happened."

Janine frowned.

"I was able to take control of this body..." Blade said, before he turned to another nearby passageway and pointed with his sword. "...it appears we have company."

Nyte and Janine turned to where Blade was pointing. Fenix scratched his butt and yawned.

"Come out," Blade said. "We mean you no harm!"

"All right, and I mean you none," the young interloper said, as he stepped out into the open with his hands up. He looked to be a young man, maybe even a little younger than Nyte, but a little taller. He sported two-tone green Digger armor with yellow highlights, and spiky pink hair which practically exploded from underneath the front and back of his headpiece, which covered one eye with a red lens. A brown cloak covered the armor.

As he took in the sight before him, his eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "Holy crap! A Bureaucratic Unit, and... and... what is that?" he said as he pointed.

"We just call him 'Fenix,'" Nyte said. Fenix choked on something. Janine sat there, confused.

"Um..." the newcomer said with a grin.. "Hi?"

"Is this man a friend of yours?" Blade asked the others.

Fenix put his rocket-propelled grenade launcher away. "Never seen the bum before."

"Uh, no," said the new guy. "I, erm, picked up your signals, and figured Reaverbots + people = bad."

"So who are you?" asked Nyte.

With a theatrical bow and a grin, the stranger said, "Tom. Tom Morrow."

"Tomorrow?" Nyte said. "Why not today?"

"Aaaand you?" Tom asked.

Fenix chuckled at Nyte's remark. "Call me 'Fenix'."

"My name is 'Nytetrayn'."

"Name's Janine," she said with a wave.

"Greetings, Janine," Tom said with another bow. "Wow. An actual Bureaucratic Unit..."

"How would you know about those?" Nyte asked.

"Well, I do a lot of live streaming, and they do get a lot of attention..." Janine said.

"Not those," Nyte said. "Everyone knows about those. I meant Bureaucratic Units."

Janine crossed her arms and hmphed.

"Oh," Tom said, nervously. "Er, my dad liked to study Reaverbot and Ancient stuff a lot."

Tom turned his attention back to MegaMan Blade. "You read... weird," he said, as he tapped a device which covered his left eye with a red lens. "Either my scanner broke, or that... sword, there, is releasing a Reaverbot frequency... through you, slightly...?"

"Yup," said Fenix. "That's what it's doin', awright."

"Well," Blade continued. "As I was saying, I was able to take control of this body when the one you call 'Adam Powers' fell unconscious. I was able to take control because it appears that over 50 percent of this body is cybernetic, and as such, it is close to techno-organic in nature now. But don't worry. When I return the body to him, he will not remember any of this, nor will he be affected in any way."

"That's good to know," Janine said.

Tom raised an eyebrow. "Possession? Weird..."

"What happened to you?" Nyte asked.

"My consciousness will return to the sword, from whence it came."

Nyte pondered whether they should tell Adam of this when he came to. He looked at the two newcomers to the group, then turned to Fenix and Janine. "So, what next? Adam was kind of our canary in the coal mine, here."

"I think you mean 'guide dog,' Nyte," said Janine.

"This place is familiar to me," Blade said. "I've been here before. And Janine seems somehow familiar to me, although I cannot remember why. This place is a file backup for all Bureaucratic Units, but it may have access to the Purifier Unit library. I will travel with you and attempt to guide you, as I wish to know what happened after my unfortunate demise."

"Blade... I think... I remember you..." Janine said, as she tapped her chin in deep thought. "Blade and Bullet... yes, I knew you. We were friends... I think." She sighed and shrugged.

"We were," Blade said with a smile.

"Guess Sherman didn't restore my memory as completely as I thought he did."

"If it helps... we know what happened to your brother," Fenix said. Nyte's eyes widened for a moment, and Janine clapped her hands over her mouth.

"Oh, really? Mister, er..."

"Fenix. My name is Fenix."

"Yes. Fenix. You really know what happened to him?"

"And we heard your brother's final words in the dungeon where we fought East. Bullet perished bravely in the act of sealing that monster away."

Nyte nodded in agreement with Fenix. "Yes, that is absolutely what happened."

"East is gone? And by my own brother's hand?" Blade said, sounding emotional. "Can it really be true?"

"Er, your brother did seal East away, yes," said Nytetrayn.

"But?"

"...but?" Nyte repeated, then looked at his backside. "Mine's okay. Yours?"

"We did let him out," Fenix continued, "but then we killed him. So it's all good, I guess."

Nyte slapped his forehead.

"Smooooth," said Tom.

"I was really hoping to avoid bringing that up," Nyte said to Fenix.

"YOU LET HIM OUT?!"

"...and that's why."

"We didn't know he was there!" said Fenix, who then pointed at Janine. "She didn't know he was there!"

"Hey! I had amnesia!"

"...I surmised as much," Blade said. "She is still missing some memory files, if she could not remember me."

Janine nodded.

"East, however, is not easy to destroy. His techno-organic body may wither away, but his bones and his brain were constructed to be nearly indestructible. He was sealed in the demonic netherworld he gained his unholy powers from."

Janine smiled wickedly. "He no longer exists in this reality."

"Well then, I commend you for doing the impossible."

"In any case," Nyte said, "if no one remembers anything here, how about we jet to Level 6 and get some answers?"

"Works for me," said Fenix.

"For starters, would someone mind telling me just what in the blue hell a 'MegaMan' is, anyway?"

"It was a designation for certain units which operated on behalf of the System," Slash said.

Nytetrayn listened intently. "I see..."

"Some were specially designed for military applications, most notably hunting down and destroying aberrant machines," added Janine. "Others functioned as Bureaucratic Units, like myself. They kill bugs in the system, and were the type most favored by the creators."

"Bugs?" Nyte asked.

"Anything that didn't work right was a target."

"But what counts as a bug? It sounds like they're leveling that label on you, after all."

"Depends. Purifiers hunted rogue robots, Bureaucrats kept the human population in check, techno-organics were versatile, Annihilators hunted rogue hunters..."

"Machines who decided to turn on their creators were generally first marked for destruction," Blade said. "Then those who were malfunctioning, and were beyond repair."

Nytetrayn looked deep in thought.

Blade broke Nyte's train of thought when he said, "Perhaps we should move on, though. It is not safe for us to stay in one place for too long here if the Reaverbots here have been corrupted and are malfunctioning."

"Right," said Nyte, as he put his thoughts aside for now. "Let's get going."

"Aight," said Tom. "I guess I should be leaving you all alone then."

Fenix glanced at him. "Why leave? It's not fun to wander a ruin alone."

Tom grinned. "I always find ruins uplifting. But sure, I'll stay around. By offering me to stay, you waive any right to injure me should I cause pain with my attitude."

"Nice one, Fenix," said Nyte. "What do you do for an encore? Invite Dracula into our apartment for tea and cookies?"

Blade led the way further on into the ruins, with Janine sticking closely by him as the others followed. Soon, they reached a door at the far end of the room, and through it was a four-way intersection. "This leads to the elevator," he said as he pointed to the left door. "The other rooms contain Reaverbots and some items stored here."

" Cool, items," said Nytetrayn. "Let's get those, first."

"Items are always good," agreed Fenix.

As the group approached one of the rooms, Tom held one arm out of his cloak, revealing a twin-barreled Buster, which he held out into the room full of Reaverbots. He fired, unleashing a scattered barrage of energy shots that struckmany of the Reaverbots, though it didn't finish any of them off.

"And now, the Reaverbots are pissed," Tom said, making a ch-chik sound with his weapon. "So, we have fun."

"I like this guy," said Fenix, as he raised his Gatling Arm and got in on the action.

"Works for me," added Nyte, as he let loose some shots from his Nyte-Buster.

Tom continued firing, while Janine nonchalantly tossed some blade-shaped energy beams into the mix. Blade contributed by swinging his massive sword rapidly, sending waves of energy from it. Between the five, the Reaverbots were soon cleared out, leaving two treasure chests behind.

With a grin, Tom asked, "Does the newbie go first?"

"Dunno, do you?" asked Nyte.

"Yes. Yes, he does," Tom said, as he zipped over to one of the chests. He opened it, and inside was a black ball. "Huh?" he said, as he picked the item up. He extended it out enough for the others to get a good look. "Any idea?" he asked.

They could see as the timer ticked down from three to two and on down.

"HIT THE DIRT!!!" Nyte yelled, and everyone else got clear as Tom himself got a good look. His eyes widened. "CRAPPY HE–"

Once the smoke cleared from the bomb's explosion, Tom coughed. "Ow."

"So, Tomorrow," said Nytetrayn, "having a blast down here?"

"Oh, you ass," Tom said, as he tried to kick Nyte in the head, but just ended up falling over on his face. "I happen to enjoy most ruins," he said, as he picked himself up and dusted himself off, while Fenix chuckled.

"We seem to attract psychotic ruins," Janine noted.

"I noticed," said Nyte.

"Ugh. I've seen a few whacked out ruins," Tom said, as he approached the second chest, only to find Blade was already there, pulling out what appeared to be an odd-looking part. "Damn," he said to himself.

Blade handed the part to Nytetrayn. "I have no need of this beam generator, but the one you call Adam might. Please hold on to it for him."

"Sure thing," Nyte said, as he stowed the part in his backpack.

"Thank you."

As the group moved towards the other treasure room Blade had indicated, Janine sidled up beside Tom. "Hi!" she said cheerfully.

"Uh...hi?" he replied, nervously.

In the other room, there were no Reaverbots. Just a chest containing 4,000 Zenny. "Woo-ha!" Nyte shouted, as he took advantage of Tom being distracted and pocketed the money.

"...he has all the luck," Tom lamented. Meanwhile, Nyte thought to himself that this is probably the first time anyone with Jan on them has said that he had all the luck.

"You're cute," Janine said.

"Uh.. thanks?"

Fenix cackled, then elbowed Blade. "Was she always like that?"

"Not that I remember..."

Smiling lasciviously, Janine led the way to their next objective, while the others followed, and Tom retracted his blade. He rubbed the back of his neck as he stared after Jan, and thought to himself, "...damn." Then he leaned over towards Fenix, and whispered, "Uh... is she available?"

"Only if you're interested in a threesome."

"...marvelous."

The last door led to a large room. At the opposite end sat a large Reaverbot with a canine-like appearance, but with three heads. It stood up as the Diggers entered, several times larger than any of them, and growled as they approached.

The voice they'd heard before rang throughout the room once again. "Allow me to introduce you to 'Cerberus.' Cerberus, destroy the intruders!"

"Allow me to introduce you to 'G. Buster,'" Nytetrayn said, as his Gatling-Buster formed up on his left arm. "G. Buster, shoot the doggie!" And with that, he opened fire.

Fenix pulled out his grenade launcher and cut loose, whereas Janine shot at the dog's feet with energy blasts.

"Whoo! Back to work!" Tom said as he fired some blasts at the giant Reaverbot, though they had little more effect than to make one of the mechanical hound's heads growl at him.

The giant Cerberus was unphased by the other attacks, and had seemingly set its sights on Fenix, as it lunged at the masked Digger. Fenix screamed like a girl and ran.

Tom threw off his cloak, revealing more of his armor as certain portions of it seemed to open up. Reaching down, he pulled out two long Buster rifles. "Bad dog, no biscuit!" he shouted before firing a pair of energy beams at the oncoming canine. It knocked the beast back prone with a yelp, but the Cerberus otherwise seemed relatively undamaged from the attacks.

"Crappy Hell," Tom said, as he tried to scan for any weak points. "Only two more shots with these."

His pursuer diverted, Fenix turned and drew his twin beam sabers. "Alrighty, let's get busy!"

MegaMan Blade ran up to the dog while it was still stunned, and slashed at its exposed underside, while Fenix attacked its faces. Tom charged his twin blasters and dashed towards the Reaverbot, yelling all the way.

The dog yelped again from the attacks, and got back to its feet. It swatted Blade away, then roared thunderously at Tom with enough force to push everyone back against the wall.

Meanwhile, Nytetrayn has been studying the Reaverbot, until "...I've got an idea." After finding some small amount of cover, he brought out his backpack and swapped out his Gatling Buster for his Grenade Launcher. Once it was equipped, he stepped back out into the heat of things.

"HERE, BOY!!!" he shouted. "CATCH THE BALL!!!"

With that, he fired off a grenade towards the Cerberus's heads, with the middle one catching it. A moment later, the middle head's eyes bugged out before it exploded.

"Heh," Nyte chuckled to himself. "New dog, old trick."

Janine tried a different tactic, sneaking around behind the dog and shooting at its nether regions. This elicited another yelp, and Nyte fired another grenade into its opened mouth.

At the same time, Tom dashed to one side, and leaped towards the dog's other remaining maw. The beast snapped at Tom and caught him in mid-air, gnashing down with its teeth and tearing into the Digger's armor. The other head roared another thunderous roar, which sent Nyte's grenade back at the other Diggers.

"Uh-oh," he said, before he kicked it back at the Reaverbot. Unfortunately, the fuse burned up and it exploded before it could reach its intended destination.

Tom, smirking through the pain, quipped, "Want a bone?" as he shoved both barrels of his Buster into the dog's mouth through the side, down its throat into its body and core. "Say goodnight, Gracie!" And with that, another head exploded, sending Tom flying backwards into the opposite wall.

"I'm okay!" he said in a warble. "The steel broke my fall!"

While Janine lit things up on the last remaining head of the Cerberus, Blade said, "I've had enough of this." With those words, he ran forward and leaped high into the air, then peppered the final head with energy blades. One struck the Reaverbot in the eye, causing the head to explode and the entire body to fall over on its side.

"Daisy, Daisy..." Tom sang as he got up, holding his head.

"That was fun," Nyte said, as he put his Grenade Launcher away. "I wonder if this thing was housebroken?"

"Well done," echoed the now all-too familiar voice. "And to answer your question: No, he was not."

"You hate pets," Fenix told Nytetrayn. "Remember poor Plissken?"

"Who can forget?" replied the younger Digger.

"Fenix," Janine said, "Plissken slithered all over everything that moved."

"...but he was so CUTE!" Fenix said, tearfully.

At the other end of the room, a door opened to reveal an elevator.

"Anyway, let's get moving," Nyte said. "This place is boring me already."

"Sure, one sec," said Tom, as he kept hacking away at the belly of the broken beast with his blade, but to no avail.

"I'll help," Blade said as he walked over while drawing his namesake. With one quick jab, he stabbed right through its gut, and slashed it lengthwise before reaching in and pulling out a modestly-sized refractor for Tom, handing it over to the newcomer.

"Alright," said Nytetrayn, "now we can find the computer roo–OW!"

Nyte didn't finish before Fenix smacked him across the back of the head. "None of that, now. But yeah, let's go."

After everyone had finished getting on the elevator, Nyte said, "Next stop: Bedrooms, dinette sets, housewares, gardening, and lingerie!"

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