Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 66 - The Avion Adventure: SunFlame and Steel Square Off Again

Steel woke up next to Janine. For the next half-hour, he just laid there, pressed against her as her hair fell over him and her warmth spread to him. He felt completely at peace.

Until he glanced over at the clock. It was later than it should have been for his arranged meeting with SunFlame, who was no doubt pacing around at the training facility, wondering where his Terran punching bag was.

Steel finally managed to wrench himself free from Janine's orbit – a feat he found greater than surpassing death itself. He then quickly threw on some clothes, paused for a moment before deciding to skip the shower to save time, and booked it to the gym.

"Sorry I'm late," he told the golden Mechadrake upon his arrival. As SunFlame looked Steel over, he could see that the look of rage which once seemed to have permanent residency on the Digger's face had now seemingly been evicted, with a sense of ease now acting as its new tenant. There were still some traces of the dark circles which had been forming beneath his eyes, but even those were receding.

SunFlame just shrugged in response. He and Steel seemed to be getting along better as time went on. He had also abandoned wearing his armor for these sessions in favor of some looser-fitting training clothes – tailored to his large, draconic frame, of course.

Just as the two were about to start their shift at the hamburger factory, a pair of familiar faces entered. Adam Powers, Steel's fellow Digger, and Katrina, SunFlame's Avion comrade-in-arms, walked by. Clad in full armor, the two appeared to be looking for something when they spotted the current occupants.

"Hey, guys," said Adam, as Steel looked on inquisitively.

"Hey," SunFlame replied. "What brings you guys by?"

"Oh, you know. Looking for a place to spar."

"Well, you came to the right place, then."

"We were also thinking of hitting some ruins after that," Adam added. "Still training, Steel?"

"Of course. This time, I'll just have to learn to put my anger aside."

SunFlame smirked. "Sounds like someone set you straight."

"Couple of 'em, actually. But one in particular."

Katrina spoke up. "I"m glad that Sophie's advice finally managed to sink in."

Adam's demeanor remained unchanged. "What are you going to do after you get your revenge?"

"Me?" Steel asked.

"Unless there's anyone else here hellbent on vengeance."

"The hope is to live a normal life... with the occasional bit of Digging, of course," Steel told him, before he turned his attention back to SunFlame. "I've probably held you up long enough. Want to get started?"

"Sure. Just don't let whatever you're after take control," the towering gold Mechadrake told him "You can lose a lot that way... trust me, I know."

"Yeah," Steel said. "I almost lost something more important than..." He stopped himself and chuckled. "Never mind," he concluded, before taking up a fighting stance.

SunFlame nodded in understanding, as he took up a stance of his own.

"Want to lead off?" asked the Digger.

SunFlame answered by dashing in with a leaping kick aimed at Steel's chest. Steel ducked the attack, rolled to the side and came back up as SunFlame landed and went for a leg sweep.

As they did this, Adam and Katrina ventured to a different part of the room and prepared themselves for some sparring of their own, albeit with their weapons. Adam brought out the large, rune-covered sword bearing the soul of his mindlinked partner, MegaMan Blade, while Katrina took a pair of feather blades from her wings.

Steel avoided the leg sweep by jumping up and throwing a drop kick at SunFlame's side, but the reptilian Reploid grabbed the human's feet by wrapping his arm around them as they made contact. Once his grip was secure, SunFlame began to spin around really quickly before letting Steel fly.

"Ah, cr–"

Even at only two words, Steel didn't get to finish his sentence before smashing into the wall. After a moment, he began to peel away from the surface like a pancake, but somehow managed to land on his feet.

"Ouch," Adam said, as he took note of the exchange from their side of the gym. "Say, didn't you do that in your sparring match with him?"

"Something along those lines," Katrina replied, as she glanced over at the adjacent match. "You'd think he'd have learned."

Steel's respite was brief, as SunFlame was quickly upon him, ready to reintroduce him to that spot in the wall. Steel dropped to his knees and went for another leg sweep, and this one successfully caught SunFlame by surprise, though he managed to use his wings to help keep himself upright long enough to grab Steel's head and deliver a light headbutt, which still hurt like hell.

"Gaaaaaaaaah-that'snotfairidon'thavewings" Steel stammered out as he winced in pain from the head-on collision.

Steel responded with a punch at SunFlame's face, decking him right in the snout. The Mechadrake issued his own retort by biting the Digger's arm, and Steel retaliated in kind.

"OW!" SunFlame cried out, replying "Why, you..." before bonking Steel over the head with his free hand.

"OUCH!" Steel yelped, then slapped SunFlame in the snout.

SunFlame wrapped his tail around Steel's leg, then swung him overhead and down into the ground again.

"OOF! OW! DAMMIT!" the Digger grunted and cursed, before delivering a kick to SunFlame's tail. SunFlame pulled back his tail for a moment after it had been kicked, and let it go again to smack Steel in the face.

Steel took the hit as his face became bloody on one side, and he looked annoyed as the two stared each other down. Neither made a move for several moments. Steel looked like he was about to do or say something, but kept stopping himself, until finally...

"OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUWWWWWAAAAAAAAAOOOOUUUUCCCCHHHH!!!"

"Aaah, c'mon," said SunFlame. "It didn't hurt that bad."

"Look at my face!" Steel said, as he wiped a hand down it and flicked some of the blood at the Mechadrake like one would with water-soaked hands.

SunFlame had a taste. "So you got a little color. What, your nano-insurance doesn't cover cosmetics?"

Steel paused to take in that remark, before leaping onto SunFlame and blinding him with dripping blood. SunFlame rolled with it and threw Steel back at that same spot in the wall again, then tried to get the blood out of his eyes.

"Crap! It's clotting in my optics!"

Not wasting the opportunity, Steel bounded back off the wall this time and bumrushed SunFlame while he was off-guard. "HAH!" he shouted. "BLEEDING JACKASS ATTACK!"

"Huh? Wha?" the blinded Mechadrake said as he turned, inadvertently bringing the thick of his tail right into the rushing Digger's face.

"GWAH!" Steel yelped, as he went flying through the air. He landed on Katrina while she was in mid-attack in her own match with Adam. She grunted from the impact, her feather blades' flames extinguished upon being knocked from her grasp. "Sorry," the embarrassed human told her.

Meanwhile, SunFlame finally managed to get the stuff out of his eyes. As he looked over at where the others were gathered, with Steel still atop Katrina, he said "Hey, I didn't know we were doing a mixed match. So what've we got, Avions vs. Terrans?" He excitedly punctuated the question with a sadistic smirk as he cracked his knuckles.

"Would you mind getting off of me?" Katrina asked, with some mild irritation in her voice. She could have removed him herself, but she figured the nicer thing to do would be to let him walk away under his own power.

"SORRYSORRYSORRY!!!" Steel stammered out as he quickly pulled away from her, blushing.

"...thank you," she said, while Adam looked on, trying not to crack up laughing.

As Katrina got to her feet and picked up her weapons, SunFlame took a guess at what was going on and grumbled in disappointment.

As Steel walked back over to SunFlame, he asked his sparring partner "Somethin' wrong?"

"Guess we aren't takin' up teams?"

"Eh, sorry," Steel said.

SunFlame sighed and said "Oh well."

Then he sucker punched Steel in the gut, adding "'S alright."

Steel looked like his eyes were about to pop out of his head as he doubled over, all while making a sound that could only be best described as "uuuuuurk".

"That wasn't very nice," Katrina chided, as she prepared to resume her own match.

"Yeah, but what are y'gonna do?" the gold Mechadrake replied.

Seconds later, a fiendishly smiling Steel leaped up and kicked SunFlame in the head, which he didn't seem to mind all that much, grinning as he was after taking the blow.

As Steel landed, SunFlame stepped on his foot to hold it in place while he pushed the Digger over backwards with a yelp. Steel rolled back to his feet, then walked over to SunFlame and faced him, chin-to-chest.

"YOU, SIR, ARE A BULLY."

SunFlame smirked, then repeated the move, this time keeping his foot on Steel's enough to impair his movement, much to the Digger's surprise.

With his long neck, SunFlame bent down to look Steel in the face. "Call it what you want, but do you really expect this thing you're going to be fighting to not pull any tricks on ya'?"

"Tough, but fair," Steel admitted, just before he stuck his finger up SunFlame's nose – hard. "Damn," he said, as the sensation of what he was doing reached his brain. "Whattya got in here?"

"What's in yours?" SunFlame replied in a nasally voice. "This is a bit unpleasant, just so you know. But probably not as much as it'll be for you."

"Ewwww," Steel griped, as he retracted his finger and wiped it off. "Disgusting. Haven't you heard of tissues?"

"So I have allergy issues. Sue me."

"Get off my foot already."

As SunFlame does so, Steel continues. "Sue you? What, they still do that here, too?"

"You mean they still do that back there? I was just using an old expression. People stopped being sue-happy here when we took care of our lawyer problem."

"No lawyers? Damn, this place is like Heaven."

Meanwhile, Katrina and Adam's match seemed to be slowing in pace, when he tried to deflect one of her blows. However, he was off-balance, which allowed her to send the large blade through the air, the flat of it smacking SunFlame in the back of the head.

"Ow! Hey, what the...?!"

Katrina winced and offered an embarrassed apology as she put away her feather blades. SunFlame took the sword and chucked it into the ground in front of Adam.

"No problem," SunFlame replied, albeit with a hint of irritation in his voice. Adam smirked as he pulled the blade free and returned it to its resting place on his back.

"Maybe we should trade partners for a while, or something?" Steel suggested.

"No thanks," Adam said. "I've got no desire to fight a Mechadrake."

SunFlame shrugged. "I dunno, didn't you guys say you were goin' somewhere?"

"Yeah, we were going to go look into some of those ruins we heard about around here."

"Huh, yeah," Steel said, as he thought back to the battle with the giant golem that had revealed to him his regenerative abilities. "I had been meaning to get back to those."

"Mind if I come with?" SunFlame asked. "I've been a little curious, ever since you guys got back from the last one."

"Sure," said Adam. "The more, the merrier."

"Be glad to have ya' along," said Steel.

"Cool," SunFlame said. "So, when do we leave?"

"We came ready," Adam said, "but Steel probably needs to go get his gear."

"What, you guys carry around everything you need offhand?" Steel asked, surprised.

"'Be prepared for anything', I always say."

"I'm pretty much always equipped," Katrina added.

"What can I say?" asked Steel. "Humans weren't born with everything you guys come equipped with. I do well just to make it through a day's training with him," he added, gesturing with his thumb at SunFlame.

"Hey, it's not like I was born with these limbs," Adam retorted.

"Actually, now that you mention it, I don't know a whole lot about you at all, other than the fact you like to spend way too much time looking like you want to jump me lately."

"Yeah? Well, did you ever think of asking?"

"Did you? You obviously have some problem with me, so instead of flashing mean looks to me, why don't you just say what's on your mind?"

"Oh, for..." Adam muttered as he briefly facepalmed. "Those weren't mean looks, Steel, I've been worried about this... this obsession of yours. I've seen what that kind of thing can do to a guy."

"Adam..." Katrina said, hoping to calm him down before things got too heated. Of course, with Steel...

"So, what? I'm supposed to just forget that monster is wandering around somewhere out there on Terra, possibly killing others?! I may be the only person in the world who knows about it, so of course I have to go deal with it!"

"I'm not saying you shouldn't do that, I'm saying you need to think further than that. You think just because you succeed in getting your revenge, everything will be hunky-dory? If so, then you're just deluding yourself."

"Consequences? I'm aware of the consequences. The nightmares I've had every night since that machine brought back the memories have more than reminded me of what's ahead. And yeah, maybe I am deluding myself, because I have to believe that I'll see this through and still have something afterwards!"

After an intense moment of staring at each other, Steel broke the silence. "...I'll meet you at the ruins in an hour." With that, he turned to leave.

SunFlame seemed inclined to say something, but also unsure of what. Katrina seemed similarly perplexed, but finally put a hand on Adam's shoulder.

"It's okay, I'm fine," Adam told her, as he stared after Steel. "I just can't sit and watch as a friend destroys himself, or turns into some kind of monster. How do I make him see?"

"Sometimes, you've gotta see for yourself," SunFlame said, reflecting back on his more vengeful youth.

Katrina nodded, but Adam didn't look convinced.

"Sometimes, revenge is the only way to put yourself at ease," SunFlame said. "And sometimes, it's the best way to lose everything. Let's just hope it becomes the former for him."

"Then I guess all I can do is keep an eye on him, if he's not going to listen."

"If that's what you've gotta do."

Setting his jaw, Adam replied, "It's what I have to do."

With that, the three prepare to head out to the ruins.

Steel made his way back to the hotel room he was once again sharing with Janine, fuming the whole way. He could feel he was on that line again: On one side of him was the hatred, the sickening misery and despair from his past eating at him, trying to pull him into this well of darkness. On the other was his desire for a happy life, the inner need to put all of that anger aside, and most importantly, Janine.

Along the way, he stopped at the fountain he and Janine liked to sit at since arriving on Avion, and stared up at the mid-afternoon sun, then down into the pool at his own reflection. There, he could see the anger swelling under his own eyes, causing him to turn away.

He wondered inwardly, "How can I win a battle against myself like this?"

Soon, he continued back up to the room to get his stuff. He was happy to find Janine was still there, resting peacefully, unaware that he was even up.

"So innocent, so pure," he thought of the sight of her. "How could I ever think of doing something that'd hurt her more? I should be damned ashamed."

He sighed, gathered up his equipment, and with a soft kiss, he left his sleeping love once more, and headed off for the ruins.

Steel arrived at the rendezvous point, where Adam, Katrina, and a now armored-up SunFlame were waiting. He was now clad in his full black armor, which bore scars from many of his previous digs. At least he had managed to replace the shin guard with the hole in it.

Adam looked his fellow Digger up and down. "What happened to your armor?"

"Eh, I haven't had the money to replace it lately, so I'm stuck with it for now. The cannon is still solid, at least," Steel said, as he patted the Buster on his right arm.

"Once we get back to Terra," Adam told him, "we're getting you some new armor."

Steel chuckled. "Not even sure I need it these days. Still, old habits and such."

"Sure," Adam said. "Well, let's do it. I want to see what the ruins are like around here."

With that, the group made their way to their destination outside of the city.