"Alright." Matt saluted with two fingers. "See ya then."

The search wasn't very eventful. Beyond their own pieces of Omega Essence, the group couldn't really detect any other bits of Essence lingering within Neo Arcadia. Not even Ileyna's extended range found anything.

"It has to be here somewhere," Helena said, when they had all gathered back together. "Otherwise we wouldn't have been dropped off in Neo Arcadia, right?"

Matt rubbed his chin. "We hope. Maybe it's in the surrounding area?"

"Its possible that its in other Innerpeace regions," one Guardian said. She brushed some hair over her shoulder. "If its not, there's gonna be trouble. If its in the Outlands and a Maverick gets a hold of it..."

"Then we'll just bust up the Maverick and have Ileyna extract it," R.D. said with a shrug as a group of Galleon units on patrol marched by, not even reacting to Matt's conflicting outfit or the Guardians' possession of weaponry. "Possibly even better if its these Outlands, there won't be other people around to get hurt by it."

"You'd still have a problem with getting to it," a male Guardian said to R.D.. "Even with the Pseudoroids all destroyed, Mavericks are plentiful and we can't rely on Serpent's forces for defense any longer."

As they continued to talk, Ileyna was looking about the particular area they were in, examining the strange buildings without threat of getting attacked by the Galleons. She was reading an advertisement billboard mounted into a wall when it struck.

Her hair flared outwards with a bright blue color as a chime went off; her head snapped into the direction of the forest and the Outlands beyond. Everyone heard it and looked to the girl. "I can feel it!"

"You can!?" R.D. said, running over to her. "Where's it at?"

She ran to the open doors of the Trans-Server room, causing them to follow. She pointed in the direction of the forest, and then towards the ground. It confused R.D., who only knew that it was where the forest was. "Its underground!"

Instantly, every Guardian there went pale. "Crap, it can't be there!"

"What? What do you mean?" R.D. said, turning to them.

"That's where Area M is!" the female Guardian who armed Helena said, looking at him with terrified eyes. "Area M's buried under the plateau past the forest!"

It all fell into place, and the others went pale too. Area M, where Model W's Core lied. The Omega Essence, where Vent and Aile was.

"Oh, shit!"

"This is a slight problem," Matt said.

"SLIGHT problem?!" Hugo snapped. "That thing underground could be loaded with Omega Essence! We need to move, NOW!"

"Then let's go!" Matt said, reaching into his coat for the folded Firebird. "What're we sitting around talkin' Chinese history for?"

Helena grabbed Matt's arm. "Matt, you can't pull that out, remember?"

"Damn it, let's just get into some kind of vehicle and go!" Hugo said, waddling back toward the trucks.

Edited by The Helldragon on December 13, 2008 at 19:12:23.

"Even if you went, you can't get in!" one of the Guardians said.

"What do you mean?" Ileyna said, looking at them with worry evident in her eyes.

"Area M's only accessible to the Chosen Ones, remember?" he said. "You need the Biometals and their passwords to get in!"

"Damn, you're right," R.D. said. "Vent and Aile are already inside, and so's Serpent, likely. No way of opening the door."

"We need to tell Prairie about this," a female Guardian said. "She'll probably have a plan."

"Fine. Back to the Guardian Base," R.D. said, motioning for them as he entered the Trans-Server room and activated the console.

"Look, if push comes to shove, I can just blow a fuckin' hole in whatever door's in my way," Matt said when they rematerialized back at base.

"Prairie!" Helena shouted down the hall, gripping the edge of the doorway. "We need some help!"

"You wanna keep it down?" Matt said. "People are probably trying to work here."

She must've spent some time working on the frown she threw at him, it was sharp. "I'll shout if I want to."

"Both of you shut up," Hugo said, walking past them both. "This isn't the time."

As they entered the command center, they found Prairie hard at work, monitoring the situation within Area M as it was occurring. As the door opened with Helena's shout, she turned around in her seat looking at them.

"What's the problem?" she asked sternly as they came in.

"I found the Omega Essence," Ileyna said anxiously. Prairie thought she would've looked more excited, seeing how downtrodden she looked whenever she couldn't detect the Essence. There must be some reason for her anxiety, Prairie mused.

Her thoughts were confirmed when R.D. spoke. "She detected it underground, and your personnel said its within Area M."

The Reploid woman looked stricken. "Near Model W!?"

R.D. nodded. "Without the Biometals, we can't get in to get it," he said. "Do you have any idea what we can do to get in otherwise?"

"No. The entrance was sealed specifically to prevent anyone but the Chosen Ones from entering it. You'd either have to dig your way in or find someone with Biometals, and as far as we know, Vent, Aile, and Serpent have all of them."

"What about blowing up the door?" R.D. asked. "Me and Matt can do that."

"That won't work. The materials used to construct the entryway are materials that absorb and dissipate energy."

R.D. grit his teeth in frustration, his fist clenching as Prairie continued, saying, "Right now, Vent and Aile are engaged in combat with Pandora. We can contact them once they defeat her."

"So what're we supposed to do?" Helena asked. "Just stand here and hope everything goes well?"

"For now, yes," Prairie said. "I can understand your frustration, but we're powerless at the moment."

R.D. nodded, reluctantly. "Fine then," he said. "We'll go get our things ready so that when we can get in, we can extract the Essence."

Prairie nodded, then turned back to her work. R.D. turned and strode out of the room, headed for the rooms where they had changed into their uniforms so he could get his Phase Blades and his satchel.

Back in their spare room, Helena had taken up the open closet to change in. "I don't know how they can stand it," she said to Ileyna. "They've gone through a lot of situations like this before...how are they even able to cope?" She flattened her bare back against the wall, staring into the relative darkness. "Will we be able to?" she asked, more to herself.

"I don't know," Ileyna said, slipping the sleeves of her bolero on over her sundress. "I only met them a couple days ago."

Once she got the bolero fitted, she got her pendant off the nightstand near the bunk bed and put it back around her neck.

"Now, where's my hat at?" she asked to herself, looking around for it.

As R.D. pulled his black shirt over his head and over his gray shirt, he looked down at Hugo while speaking to both him and Matt, who was changing in the closet again. "Did either of you find Vent's Model X form a little familiar?" he asked. "It did to me."

He reached for his glove and slipped it onto his hand. As he did, he caught note of his left hand; and the changed symbol on it. The symbol itself had altered slightly without him having realized it--it was just a bit different, but he could tell the difference. Shrugging, he strapped his glove onto his right hand. "He looked like our old friend X. You know, the guy based on Dr. Light's Mega Man X?"

Now dressed in her normal clothes, Helena exited the closet and spotted Ileyna's hat. Peeling off her gloves, she picked up the hat and handed it to the girl. "Here you go. I have no idea why they even bother to wear gloves. It makes just as much sense as the bodysuit."

She clasped her hands together and paused for a moment, rubbing them gently until raising her palms to her face and studying them. She even bought them real close to her eyes.

...scales?

***

"I've been thinking about that too," Hugo said. "And if what I think is true, then this is the distant future of the time period I come from."

"Seriously?" Matt called. "That major, huh?"

"Yeah. X must've survived all of these years and then got himself turned into a Model. But that doesn't explain the others."

"Thanks!" Ileyna said happily, accepting the beret from her and placing it on her head. Almost immediately, it slipped, and the girl pushed it back into place. This time, it stayed.

"What're you looking at?" she asked, looking up at Helena as she examined her hand.

===

"If its the future of your world, I'd say we're about five hundred years into the future then," R.D. said. "Prairie said our clothes were out of style for nearly five centuries, and they had our clothing when we were there."

Once fully dressed, R.D. slipped his satchel over his shoulder, back into its usual place. After doing so, he looked at the beam rifle he had been given, considering it for a moment. After a moment, he shrugged and picked it up, opened up the satchel and slipped it in. Might as well have a long-range weapon that didn't rely on Lumiya or the Essence.

"Feel that," she said, holding her hand for Ileyna to take. "Tell me if it feels rough."

***

"They're just mad they don't have my style," Matt remarked, walking out of the closet and adjusting his jacket.

Gingerly, Ileyna took the older girl's hand with her own, brushing her fingers over it and feeling the change in them, growing a bit worried. "Yeah, they're a bit rough," she said, looking up at her. "You're changing again?"

===

R.D. refrained from commenting on Matt's statement, deciding instead to just shake his head. "Well, let's get going. We need to be ready for when we can get inside Area M."

"It's been slow," Helena said, pressing down on her palm with her thumb. "First it was my teeth and now this." She groaned in frustration and pulled her hair back. "I don't even know what's going on with me anymore..." Another groan, a quick stare at the ceiling. "Well, let's go meet the others. Don't tell them about this, okay?"

"Okay," Ileyna said, giving a concerned, troubled look to Helena. "If you're sure."

As she stepped out of the room, she saw R.D., Hugo, and Matt already waiting for them. However, as she did, she let out a yelp as the feeling of the Omega Essence disappeared.

"What's wrong?" R.D. asked, not realizing.

"Its disappeared again!" she said, looking frustrated. "I can't feel the Essence anymore!"

"What?" Matt snapped. "Where did it go?!"

"Don't yell at her!" Helena said.

"Sorry, sorry," Matt said, raising his hands. "I'm just...I'm a bit shocked, okay?"

"Model W must've been moved," Hugo said. "Damn it! We need to meet up with Vent and Aile, quick."

"Even if it was moved, she should still be able to feel it," R.D. said. "I think--"

Any further words he might have said were cut off as klaxons went off throughout the entirety of the Guardian Base. Suddenly, Guardians were rushing through the halls, gathering weapons and supplies. To R.D., it seemed like there was a battle beginning.

They rushed to the bridge, where Prairie and the three bridge crewmembers were moving about furiously, issuing commands as something big was going on.

"Prairie, what's going on?" R.D. said as the door opened. "What the hell happened?"

Turning in her seat, she addressed them, standing up. "The Slither, Inc. fleet is on the move. Pandora was able to distract Vent and Aile long enough for Serpent to extract the Model W Core from Area M, and now Serpent doesn't need to stay hidden," she explained, her voice filled with untold amounts of fury. "They've begun a full-scale assault on Neo Arcadia, starting at Area O and progressing further in."

R.D. was appalled at the news. His face screwed up in anger. "That bastard!"

Just then, Ileyna's hair flared blue once more, alerting everyone in the room. "The Essence! I feel it again!" she cried out in surprise. "No, wait... there's two pieces! I can feel two pieces and they're in the same area!"

"Fleuve!" Prairie shouted over the intercom, turning towards her station on the bridge.

The intercom crackled. "Already on it!" the scientist said. "We caught the reading when it appeared! Both signals are in Area O!"

"Right on!" Matt threw out his arm, summoning his armor. "Let's rock and roll!" He bolted for the Trans-Server.

"Tell Vent and Aile that we're on our way to Area O," R.D. said to Prairie. "We'll help them stop the outbreak and get the Omega Essence in the process."

She nodded to him. "Good luck, all of you."

They ran to the Trans-Server room, where they found other Guardians, using it to get to various locations in Neo Arcadia so they could fight and evacuate the citizens. They asked which location they should go to reach Area O quickest, and were thus assigned to the Area D Trans-Server.

As they began to leave with the other Guardians, R.D. looked down at Ileyna. "You ready for this?" he asked, knowing this was going to be quite scary for the girl.

"Yeah," she said, looking up at him. She was afraid, but she looked ready for what was going to happen.

"Just stay close to us and you'll be alright," R.D. said, stepping onto the Trans-Server. He activated it. "Meet you guys city-side."

Light flashed and he was gone.

===

As they appeared in the Trans-Server, R.D. saw as Vent and Aile entered.

"R.D.!" Vent exclaimed, seeing him. "Prairie told us you were coming. What's going on?"

"Ileyna found the Omega Essence--two pieces of it. Both of them are in that warzone out there, and we need to find it," R.D. said as the Dragon King Armor began to appear on his form.

"Good luck, then," replied the Model X chosen one, "Its a nightmare out there. Hope you guys can take care of yourselves."

===

The city had been transformed into a cacophony of sound and light and chaos. The night sky was lit red from the fires below it, as Slither, Inc. airships flew over them, carpet-bombing the city down below. Gunfire and screams filled the city streets as Guardians evacuated people and fought against rampaging Mavericks.

"Oh, these assholes are going down!" R.D. shouted as he took in the scene from the upraised highway that was Area O.

The two Mega Men's intercoms chimed as Prairie contacted them. "Vent, Aile! You made it to Area O. The Maverick army is drawing closer to the residential district with every passing second. We need to stop them and avoid as many Guardian casualties as possible. Find the Maverick leading them and take it out!"

Edited by RisingDragon on December 13, 2008 at 20:41:35.

"Right," Aile said quietly, tapping her comm again to end the call.

"My God," Matt said, and he took in the whole horrible splendor. "This is insane."

Hugo chambered his pickaxe. "Let's get to work."

"Right." Matt clenched his armored fist. "Stay behind us, Helena. This could get crazy."

"Okay," she said.

"Let's go!" Vent said, charging forward using Model X's dash thrusters. He took off into the fray, leading the charge with a pair of plasma blasts erupting from the barrel of his X-Buster at a flying Galleon unit that swept in on a jetpack unit. The mechaniloid erupted into a fiery explosion.

Ileyna did her best to keep near R.D., Matt, and Hugo as they tore through dozens of flying pod-like mechaniloids, Galleons, and mounted cannon weaponry, flinching with every shot of a gun or flash of a sword. She wanted to run away in fear, run screaming, but she fought the urge to, knowing she was needed and that she had to find the Omega Essence, which beckoned her, off in the distance. Soon, she found herself being scooped up by one of the older people to make it across the gaps in the street, only for her to point out that another Slither, Inc. airship was hovering dangerously close to the bridge, only for it to launch snake-like boarding platforms, forcing the group to destroy them before they could continue.

"Dammit!" R.D. swore, arming his back-mounted cannons. Locking onto the tubing connecting the fifth platform to the airship, he charged up and fired, tearing through it with twin streams of red-and-azure plasma fire. As the bridging began to collapse into the streets down below, the boarding platform tore free of the highway and plummeted, even as a Galleon flew out of its burning entryway, firing its buster cannon at R.D. as the shoulder cannons swung back over into their standby mode.

Matt threw up his arm, burning with power. "Time for an old favorite! Disco Inferno!"

He launched a huge fireball straight into the heated sky. It caught on the air, swirling about in a loop as bolts of flame shot from its mass at targets about them. "Let's keep moving!" he said, looking back to Helena. "How we doin' back here?"

"I don't want to be here," Helena said, and she dug her nails into the arm Matt offered. "I don't want to be here."

"You don't need to be, we can just-"

"I HAVE to stay," Helena said. "I'm not going to be a coward."

Never wise to stick around during a war, Matt thought, but remained silent.

"Come on!" Aile said, and advanced, sword flashing.

As the raining bolts of fire tore through the targets, they smashed into the entryway of the sixth boarding platform and detonating it, sending shrapnel high into the air. Finally, the airship began to take off, leaving them be.

"Ileyna, where's the Essence now?" R.D. asked, pulling out the beam machinegun and slipping the strap around his arm.

"Hasn't moved," she said after a moment. She looked at them. "It's still this way, but its still a ways off."

R.D. nodded and opened the door into the next area. The street was curving around here, moving in between war-ravaged buildings. They fought their way through, even as Galleons equipped with flamethrowers burst out of the windows and shot streams of fire down at them, forcing R.D. to dive inside one of the buildings to distract them enough for the others to pass. Once he escaped, much of his armor had melted, and the rest had large splotches of char and ash on them.

They passed a smaller building containing a Trans-Server within, which Vent and Aile stopped within for a moment to use to recharge. As they did, R.D noted that the streets ahead were torn apart, leaving deep gaps in places while other chunks of the street were raised up into small cliffs. What was worse was that the building next to it was also crawling with those flamethrower-equipped mechaniloids.

"There's just no end to these things!" he said, as he rushed forward, using the beam machinegun to gun the Galleons out of the windows.

A heavy shot from Hugo destroyed a flamethrowing Mechaniloid. "At least they're easy to kill!" Laser Option swooped in, punching holes in other robots with clean shots, followed up with a burst from Disco Inferno.

R.D. swapped the beam machinegun from one arm to the other, activating the arm cannon in his right gauntlet. Using them together, he covered the group as they progressed through the destroyed street corridor, sniping the Galleons as the others dealt with the fire-spewing turrets and mechaniloids. Soon they got through, reaching another room, where they dealt with yet another large Maverick, a pod-like machine that extended half a dozen large tentacles to defeat them.

But between R.D., Matt, Vent, Aile, and Hugo, it never stood a chance, and was quickly destroyed, allowing them to progress to the next area. Beneath the street, and all around them, the city burned, a torrent of flame consuming everything in its path as it slowly began to creep up a nearby skyscraper. R.D. leaned up against the railing, gripping his arm. He was hurt and he was tired, and the heat was making him dizzy. It was like they were traversing through Hell on Earth. How could Serpent do this to his own people?

He shook his head and pressed on, readying his weapons to blast through the remaining mechaniloids. They made their way over rising street wreckage, trashing the few mechaniloids that they encountered, and came upon a large, overturned truck. As they did, things began happening simultaneously.

Ileyna's hair flared blue with a chime, causing her to release a startled cry, even as twin beams of light darted from the sky into the street, expanding to reveal a pair of armored figures.



Everyone skid to a halt as the newcomers appeared, their faces wearing expressions of surprise.

"They have the Essence!" Ileyna said, pointing at them.

"I should've known you two would be behind this, Prometheus and Pandora!" Vent shouted, aiming his X-Buster at them.

The man in purple and gray armor, the one with the skull-like helmet, sneered at the Model X chosen one. "Well, we've finally drawn the curtain and have arrived at our final act! You two and Serpent, the three holders of the power fighting each other to the end! Yes... It was just as Model W had foreseen," Prometheus spat at the two Mega Men. "We are all the same. Lives brought together by some cursed fate that hangs over our heads."

"We're nothing like you!" Aile spat.

"On the contrary..." the one called Pandora said, her speech slow, reserved. "You are the same... A Mega Man...holder of the power...controller of Biometal..."

"Lady, I don't know who you and Pointy Head over there think you are," Matt said, stepping foward, "but take it from me-just because you've been handed a bunch of power doesn't mean you should be using it to ruin people's lives."

Edited by The Helldragon on December 15, 2008 at 20:31:30.

"You've just been using Serpent, haven't you!?" Vent snarled at Prometheus. He laughed, however, at the boy.

"Did you really think Serpent had the willpower to control Model W!? He is just a simple pawn!" Prometheus sneered. "Serpent has done well for us. Just digging up Model W was enough for him to serve his purpose. Too bad Model W is too much for his weak will to handle and he'll end up losing more and more of his soul as time passes."

He held his hand up above him, and light appeared and thinned into a single metal rod. Spinning it around as he brought it to his side, Prometheus activated the weapon, causing a wicked scythe blade of light to burst from one end.

"So let's get this show on the road!" he laughed. "We'll keep you and your friends occupied while you wait, Mega Man... Models X and Z!"

Aile brought her sword in front of her. "Come on!"

"Go on ahead, Aile!" Matt said.

She glanced at Matt-real quick, just a moment, then back to their two enemies. "What?"

Matt brandished his arm. "We'll take care of these guys. It's a win-win situation. You get to go ahead and stop Serpent, and we get to extract the Omega Essence from these assholes. Everybody gets what they want."

"What about us?" Helena asked.

"Just stay back and we'll make sure nothin' happens," Matt said. "Hugo! You ready?"

The Mettaur chuckled. "Yeah. I'm not done having fun yet."

R.D. yelled and blasted forward, drawing his two Phase Blades at once, as his dash thrusters propelled him at Prometheus. Grinning, the scythe-wielding villain hopped forward and slashed downwards with his weapon, and inexplicably a towering wave of energy rushed out from the weapon, shredding apart the street before it smashed into R.D., halting his advance. Not content to leave it at that, Prometheus flew through the wave, his scythe spinning like a rotor, and slashed through the central crystal on R.D.'s breastplate.

R.D. cried out as he was flung back by the force of the attack, striking hard into the ground. Vent took aim and fired his charged X-Buster at Prometheus, but two quick swings of his scythe easily deflected the attacks. "We can't, we don't even know where he and Model W are!" Vent shouted back at Matt. "We're not running! I'm not running, I'm not letting Giro's murderers get away from me!"