Legends of the Halcyon Era

Episode 72 - Noh Way Out: Adam and Katrina's Encounter

Aboard the Sky Shark, the renovated Reaverbot copilot known as Alpha-Red looked at the ship's scanners, and noticed that something was amiss.

"Sir," Alpha said to the ship's owner/captain, Adam Powers. "It appears that something has crashed in the forest to the north. Should we investigate?"

"Hmm. Yeah, let's go have a look," Adam said to his red and chrome copilot. "Maybe someone could use our brand of help."

As they concentrated on changing course, no one noticed when a humanoid creature slithered out from the battered hull of the crashed ship and scuttled away.

"Hey now, that ship looks familiar," Adam said, as he pulled his own into a stationary hover above it and used his flight legs to descend to the wreckage before going in and looking for any survivors. Katrina, meanwhile, waited on board the Sky Shark with Alpha-Red.

Adam ventured towards the cockpit in search of a pilot or anyone else. "Hello?" he called out. "If you're dead, don't answer!"

As he reached the cockpit of the vehicle, he found a body slumped over the controls, unconscious.

"Steel!"

Adam rushed up and checked on him. "Hey, Steel! Wake up!" he shouted. He could see swelling on Steel's head from a fierce blow, and while the skin was already healing its bruises thanks to his regenerative abilities, it remained caked with damp blood. If that wasn't enough, several shards of shattered glass from what had been the forward-facing window were jabbed into his stomach.

After determining it was safe enough to move him, Adam took Steel from the fallen vessel and back up into the Sky Shark, and rushed him to one of the beds aboard the ship.

"Steel?!" Katrina exclaimed when she saw who Adam had brought aboard.

"He's not answering," Adam said.

"What happened?"

"Your guess is as good as mine. Either something caused him to crash, and that knocked him out, or... something knocked him out, and caused him to crash. In any case, I think he needs a doctor, healing factor or no."

An alarm started to go off, and Alpha-Red radioed Adam. "Sir, there appears to be an intruder on the ship."

"Intruder? Where?"

"The intruder boarded through the east-wing hatch, but we lost the signal due to extreme interference soon after."

"Great. I bet whoever it is attacked Steel, and is here to finish the job. Must be a Monday. Katrina, mind staying here while I go check it out?"

"Of course," she told him, as she activated her camo unit before sitting down on the bed while he left, the door closing itself behind him. Now she looked not unlike herself, but a lot more human and a lot less Phoeline, decked out in a black t-shirt and blue jeans rather than battle armor. After all, if there was an intruder, they couldn't be allowed to know her true origins.

Steel groaned and shifted slightly on the bed, moaning "Jan..." before passing back into silence.

Out in the hallway, Adam drew the massive sword he always kept with him, housing within it the spirit of MegaMan Blade, and ventured off in the direction of the breach.

When he arrived, he found it curious that there were no signs of entry, and the only sounds were those of the ship's systems. As he looked around, he switched his sunglasses to infrared mode, hoping to suss out the intruder's whereabouts.

There was nothing to be found in the immediate vicinity. But then there came a clatter, a hallway down to the south. Adam dashed towards it, but found nothing but more silence.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." Adam said in a sing-song voice as he continued to look around. There was still nothing, as he continued his search in vain.

Suddenly, a pair of hands grabbed him by the head with a firm, strong grip, then hurled him across the hallway with a yelp, his sword falling away from him.

As Adam slammed into the wall, he could hear the clatter of metal on metal as the source of the disturbance dropped from its hiding place up on the ceiling. As he regained his bearings, he saw a single lens shimmer red in the illumination of the ship's light fixtures, mounted atop a humanoid form.

It rose from an awkward stance, like some sort of four-legged spider, or a Cannam Reaverbot. All the while, the red lens did not waver, as it flickered with a glare that was almost hypnotic.

"You Reaverbots are getting bolder," Adam said as he drew his customized Buster Shot pistol, and trained it on his attacker. "You have three seconds to get the hell off my ship before I reduce you to scrap," he said. "One..."

"Two..."

"Three!" Adam shouted, as he opened fire.

The machine leaped up and clung to the ceiling again with its four-fingered metallic claws, the shot missing it entirely, before it dropped back down and soullessly glared at Adam.

Adam kept up the assault, but as the machine dodged with inhuman grace, its body twisting at the waist and balancing on one leg, each shot passed by without harming it. Instead, the blasts hit the floor and walls around the machine, leaving dents and scorch marks where they made impact.

"Hey!" he shouted. "Do you have any idea how much it's going to be to get those out?!"

The machine seemed to care little for Adam's repair bill woes, as it immediately shifted to an offensive mode, and leaped upon Adam in an instant with its clawed arms and identical legs held downward.

Adam rolled to the side and opened fire again at point-blank range, only for the machine to twist in impossible fashion midair. Using its foremost claw, it latched on to Adam's wrist and used the Digger's own movement to pull itself out of his line of fire by a mere inch. Then it planted two of its hand-like feet around Adam's waist and used him as leverage to push itself up until it stared down upon him with its red lens.

With his free hand, Adam reached towards the machine's eye before letting loose with a blast from the welding laser equipped in his finger, which he used for small touch-ups and repairs on the Sky Shark's hull. In the instant it took to go off, however, the machine was able to react as the firing mechanism went into action, releasing Adam's other arm and pushing backwards off of the Digger as it leaped clear of the burst.

Before Adam could recover, the machine was upon him once again, its closed hands now moving around in a fashion akin to a drunken fighting style. Using his own mechanical appendages, Adam grabbed each hand and swung it into the wall with enough force to leave a large dent. He then brought his Buster Shot to bear and opened fire at close range.

The machine rebounded off the wall, leaving clawed dents in its wake. It sprang over the shots to land on the other side of Adam, and extended a hand to reveal a red lens in its palm, not unlike the one on its "head".

As it discharged a large burst of red energy, Adam was able duck and roll to the side, only barely avoiding the shot himself, and returned fire. The machine leapt over the incoming rounds and clung to the side of the wall before crawling towards the hot rodding Digger, leaping between the opposite walls while firing at him.

The machine halted its advance on the ceiling a safe distance away to steady its volley of fire, as Adam was unable to return fire so long as he was concentrating on not being hit himself. Katrina, who'd left her post at Steel's bedside to investigate the commotion, fortunately had no such issue as she released a stream of her concentrated Fire Beam from her hands at the machine from behind.

Less fortunate was the blow that snapped across the back of her head just as she unleashed her flame, scattering it about as she staggered forward before whipping around to see what hit her.

Another machine identical to the one that was attacking Adam dropped from the ceiling before her, and immediately extended its right hand to reveal a red lens that opened fire with a wide beam of energy.

Katrina whirled to the side with the grace of a dancer, dodging the shot as she brought her own palm to bear at the mechanoid, letting loose with a burst of flame as she did so, but it bent over backward with the skill of a gymnast. It took hold of the ground with its upper body and snapped its lower extremities upward in an effort to catch Katrina beneath her chin.

She dropped to her back to avoid the blow, then kipped back up to her feet and let loose another burst of flame at its torso. It responded by planting its hands and performing a quick handstand to flip and twist its body, but the incognito Avion rushed in and punched at its torso, sending it flying back with great force before it adopted a low stance on all fours.

Meanwhile, Adam was still dodging the shots from his opponent as he tried to reach his sword. The machine made no move to stop him from doing so, only continuing to fire at regular intervals.

Adam quickly reached one wall and stepped up onto it, and used his jump jets to push off in the direction of the sword, which he grabbed as he rolled into a landing. The blade lit up as he took possession of it, and used it to deflect a few more blasts.

The machine's camera-like head extended to analyze the blade. While the edge was glowing, the runes adorning the flat were not.

The machine then proceeded to use the clawed hands at the end of each of its four appendages to flip along the ceiling towards Adam, and got close enough to engage with the Digger using two of its free hands while hanging from above.

Adam parried its attacks as best as he could, hoping the glowing edge of his blade would finally do some damage to his assailant in the process. Though the machine did indeed take some scorching and sparking blows, it remained undeterred, seemingly deciding upon a new tactic as it dropped from the ceiling.

As energy now flared from the sword like a flame, the shades-sporting Digger attempted to stab at the machine as it dropped, but to his surprise, it snapped its hands together around the flats of the blade, and balanced itself on the sword. Adam quickly responded by turning the sword as he swung it – and the machine – into the wall.

The effort appeared to be for naught, however, as it arose unharmed. "You've gotta be kidding me," the Digger said, right before one of the clawed hands lashed out and gripped his skull, then started to squeeze...

Nearby, Katrina let loose with more flames at her opponent in the hopes of cornering it. The machine reared back onto its back legs, balancing in a manner that seemed impossible as its body continued to lurch forward. It brought its own hands forward and fired off its own beams of energy that met Katrina's fire, locking two in a beam struggle.

"Oh, it is on, now," Katrina said with a fierce, sharp-toothed smile. She was actually starting to enjoy this as she amped up the intensity, while the machine tried to match.

The machine's effort was effective, but only briefly, as the air around them began to ripple from the heat and its once-solid form began to give way to a new state of matter and its lenses began to spark.

"You know what they say about playing with fire," Katrina taunted, before letting loose a final burst of flame that engulfed the machine, scorching and melting the wall behind it. When she stopped, all that was left before her were the charred remains of the machine's endoskeleton. A second later, it collapsed to the floor in a heap of slag.

"Adam!" Katrina shouted, as she rushed to his aid after seeing her machine go down to her satisfaction. She blasted the other machine with a burst of concentrated flame, while the Digger swung his sword wildly in the hopes of dislodging the intruder from it. It continued to hold him by the head, the limb telescoping as needed to maintain its grip, as the mounting pressure caused his shades to bend, and eventually snap.

Her attack failed to hit its mark, however, as the machine produced an energy field behind it to disrupt her effort as it continued to apply crushing force. She pounded on the forcefield at first, before using her full force to deliver more deliberate blows in the hopes of one well-placed shot getting through.

As Adam grew weaker, he managed one last desperate ploy: He raised his foot to the machine's torso and activated its jet, sending the machine flying backward as Katrina narrowly avoided its sudden flight. It had seemingly been too caught up in keeping its grip on his sword and his head while also producing its shield to account for one more variable being thrown into the mix. With a thud, it hit the wall, and fell to the floor.

Likewise, Adam fell back against the nearest wall, and to the floor as he lost consciousness.

Before the machine could get up, Katrina was upon it, and with her overlapping hands facing Adam's assailant, she let loose with another burst of her concentrated Fire Beam, reducing it to yet more molten slag. All the while, the lens remained fixated on Adam until the heat left it little more than a puddle on the floor.

As soon as she was certain the threat was eliminated, she hurried to Adam's aid, and carried him up to the room she'd left to check on things, and placed his body there on the bed next to Steel.

Once that was done, she hurriedly pressed the button on the ship's intercom unit. "Alpha! We have two down, and we need medical aid ASAP! Get us to the nearest hospital, or whatever you have around here, pronto!"

"Yes, Miss Katrina!" came the reply from Alpha-Red, as the ship began to move out of its hover state across the island. Katrina remained at Steel and Adam's side, until...

"Oh my," said Alpha-Red as they passed over the mountain range, before contacting Katrina once again. "Miss Katrina, I believe your presence is needed on the bridge."

Katrina hurried to the bridge. "What now?" she asked, before finding the answer to her question staring them right in the face.

Between them and the town was a massive, inky black vessel, like a column turned on its side with pointed tips at either end. Alpha-Red tried to hail the ship, but the return signal which played aloud over the speakers was but a series of hollow, echoing moans, almost other-worldly in nature, dotted with what Katrina thought were traces of binary embedded within. Whatever it was, it was unnerving to hear for both the Reploid and the Reaverbot alike.

"And Adam never got to show me the defenses on this thing," Katrina lamented. "Alpha, can you get around it?"

As Alpha made the attempt to veer around, the other ship kept pace as it turned alongside the Sky Shark. Before they know it, a bombardment of energy beams begin to impact the ship.

"Okay, scratch that!" Katrina said.

"Miss Katrina!" Alpha said, as he attempted evasive maneuvers. "Please go to Adam's workshop. There, you should find a place to access the turret for the megaparticle cannons!"

"Right!" she said. "While I do that, take us back north! We can't risk a firefight over the town, never mind a ship or two crashing down on top of everyone!"

"Yes, madam!"

"Madam" wasn't an honorific Katrina was used to, or even sure she preferred, but she figured it was a discussion best left for later as she bolted for the door to the bridge. Fortunately, Adam had shown her where his workshop was, and given a moment or two, she was sure she could figure out the rest. The question was whether their assailant would give them that moment.

As she entered the turret, the sides of the Sky Shark's forward-facing chrome "saw" blade separated out forward from the flame-decorated shining black chassis of the ship, then opened up to reveal an equally brilliant large cannon, which telescoped further outward. The mobility of the weapon was limited, but with Alpha's help, she was able to line up a shot and immediately pressed the red button to open fire.

A large beam of energy with a diameter nearly matching, if not exceeding that of the Sky Shark itself, fired off like a battering ram towards the other ship. But as the beam of energy closed in on its mark, it was dispersed by a field around the black vessel that became visible upon impact. As the wave of energy dissipated, the shield became invisible once again.

"Oh shit," Katrina said. "What are we going to do now?"

Before she could get her answer, the opposing ship turned upward, looking like a huge, vertical cigar. Its liquidy-black surface melted outwards as part of the ship seemed to reform into a cold, emotionless face. Its eyes appeared hollow, and its lips, while full, lacked expression. As the face seemed to press through the goo, almost as though trying to pierce it, the color white began to show across its features until a ship-length noh mask adorned the side of the ship facing them.

Its mouth opened slowly, as Katrina reached the bridge again.

"What in Cain's... evasive maneu–!"

Katrina's thought was cut short, as a concentrated blast of power the likes of which she'd never seen erupted forth from the ship's massive maw, a brilliant rainbow of colors that betrayed their monochrome source.

In one fell shot, the beam tore through the Sky Shark, obliterating more than 20 percent of the ship, including its core. Alpha's quick work to take them away wasn't enough to avoid the shot, but as reactors failed and the ship began to lose altitude, it was just enough to take them clear of the top of the mountain as the ground rushed up to meet them, the Reaverbot doing his narrow best to keep them from running head-on into the floor of the forest below.

"Ugh," Katrina said, as she gained her bearings. "You okay over there, Alpha?"

"Affirmative, Miss Katrina. I am, as you might say, vertically challenged, but otherwise unharmed."

As she helped the Reaverbot right himself, she said "Remind me to tell Adam to give you a raise."

"Most appreciated, Miss Katrina."

"And the other ship?" she asked, as Alpha checked the ship's instruments.

"Gone, it would appear."

"Good," she said. "Adam's going to flip when– Adam!" She once again bolted off the bridge and went to the room where she'd left Adam and Steel. Though they'd been tossed from where they'd been laying, neither seemed the worse for wear.

Meanwhile, Alpha-Red attempted to hail their friends using the long-range communicator and a backup generator.