"Vent!" Aile shouted, grabbing him by the shoulder. "What's more important-avenging Giro's death, or saving the lives of everyone on this planet?"

With a big wave of his arm, Matt launched a volley of icicles at Pandora, only to be met by her own blast of ice from the tip of her staff.

"Grappler Option!" Capturing her staff, Hugo shot himself up to Pandora's level and slashed with his blade while he was airborne, but she merely knocked him back down with a swing. Before Aile could leap in, Matt had already caught the Mettaur.

"There's no need for that!" Prometheus bellowed as he plummeted it down at the two Mega Men. Vent shoved his sister out of the way and pushed off in the opposite direction in the same motion, and the scythe cleaved through the street while blasting red-black flames through the air around them. R.D. had to roll out of the way before one of the flames torched him.

Prometheus stood up to his full height, grinning maniacally at Aile. "You really think we're going to let you stop the awakening of Model W? Get real!"

"Back off!" Aile leapt at Prometheus, slashing down toward his neck.

Suddenly, an arc of lightning struck Aile across the chest, sending her down. Pandora hovered toward the fallen swordswoman.

"Leave them alone!" Helena shouted.

"You heard the lady!" Matt said. With a burst of reserved lightning, he charged at Prometheus with Hugo in tow. "No means no!"

As Matt charged in at Prometheus, he simply laughed and disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing some distance behind the boy. "Too easy!" His scythe flashed downwards, launching an immense wave of power at him across the ground, then rushed after it as his scythe spun rapidly in front and above him.

Spinning himself on his back before kicking his legs forward to propel himself up onto his feet, R.D. locked onto Pandora. "Vent, cover me!" he shouted as he began running at the witch-like Mega Man.

"Right!" he said, taking him before barraging the woman with blasts from his X-Buster. Dozens of yellow plasma bullets scored through the air at Pandora, and R.D. quickly covered the distance, swinging upwards with a flaming sword.

"Ryuuenjin!"

The shockwave tore into Matt, and he was thrown back, accidentally releasing Hugo.

"Matt!" the Mettaur shouted, tumbling.

Uncrossing his arms, Matt glanced up to see Prometheus close in, and his hands shout out to catch the scythe before it could get intimate with his body. "You know it's not nice to play with these things!" he said, trying to wrench the weapon away.

Pandora darted and weaved to avoid Vent's shots, but R.D.'s sudden attack startled her, and she narrowly escaped. In a flash, her armor shifted to a deep yellow tint, and her staff launched worms of lightning that crawled at R.D. and Vent.

"What the--aagghh!"

R.D. cried out as the lightning smashed into him and threw him down onto the hot street. Vent did his best to avoid the blasts, but there were too many, and he was thrown down across from R.D.. Looking up at Pandora, alight in the sinister glow of the raging fires in the city around them, R.D. could see what made the power of Model W so fearsome.

Prometheus smirked as Matt caught his weapon and actually forced him to stop mid-flight. "Not bad," he sneered. "But children like you aren't needed in a fight between Mega Men!"

He threw the former Core host off of his weapon and leaped into the air, gathering power into him before flinging his limbs out, the hair-like blue plates attached to the back of his helmet fanning out behind him. Purple-black skulls of flame flew out from behind him, grinning maliciously at Matt and Hugo before opening their mouths and spewing blasts of flame at the two of them.

Ileyna watched on in fear as Prometheus and Pandora, wielding the power of Biometal and Omega Essence together, began to dominate the battlefield.

Edited by RisingDragon on December 16, 2008 at 13:55:47.

Hugo ducked under his helmet, the flames splashing over him with great force.

"Gahhhh!" Bolts of flame pummeled Matt, framing him in a personal inferno, sending him spiralling back down to the ruined highway.

Helena screamed. It sank into a deep timbre. She fell to the ground, her body convulsing, wracked with pain.

"Matt!" Aile shouted. She heard Helena's scream, looked back. No time to check! She bolted for Prometheus, slashed high and low in connected arcs.

Pandora switched colors again to white-blue. She raised her staff, created a rounded ice sculpture, like a snowman. It dropped, bouncing toward R.D. and Vent with crushing power that cracked the street.

Prometheus fell to the ground on his feet, slashing with the scythe at the same time to parry Aile's first strike, then slashed it in the opposite direction to parry the second. "My turn," he sneered at the girl.

Flames erupted into a pair towering pillars around him, spiraling outward in a sweeping circle to burn both Aile and Matt as it expanded.

As the glass-like sound of the incoming sculpture pounded their way towards them, R.D. looked up.

"Shit!"

He and Vent both jumped up and dove out of the way as it came pounding towards them. "Vent, take care of Pandora!" R.D. ordered as he gathered flames into his hand.

"Right!" Vent acknowledged, charging energy into the X-Buster and letting fly with a pair of plasma bursts at the witch-like Mega Man. He charged forward as he fired, following up with a barrage of plasma bullets.

R.D. let fly with a torrent of flame from his hands as the ice sculpture bounced back towards them, meaning to melt it. Much to his surprise and horror, the energies of the Omega Essence powering the attack negated his flames with ease, rendering it useless, and the sculpture smashed into him and knocked him away.

"Tornado Tower!" Pushing himself up, Matt lashed, summoning a swirling pillar of wind to crash into one of the fire pillars, and the two struggled for elemental dominance.

Leaping back, Aile swerved to the right, bounding over large chunks to rubble to circle away from the pillar. Now she shot at Prometheus, blade extended in a powerful thrust attack.

Vent's charged blasts crashed into Pandora, and she was flung back a distance before she regained control. A jolt of lightning drove through the energy bullets at the Model X user.

Helena's back bulged underneath her shirt. "Can't...Ileyna! Go on!" She shooed the younger girl away with a clawed hand, panting.

Spotting Helena's transformation, Ileyna backed away slowly from the young woman, before finally turning and running back towards the piled rubble to get out of the way.

Vent cried out as the lightning smashed into him, electrocuting him greatly before flinging him back against the fallen truck, which he smashed against and bounced off, falling roughly onto his front. Slowly, his Mega Man form reverted, his power drained. He struggled to rise.

Prometheus smirked as Aile charged in, and warped away, appearing in the space between her and Matt. With a cry, Prometheus chambered his fists back as the five hair-like plates turned gold and stabbed into the street and began blazing with purple-black energy. Immediately, spear-like blades burst out of the ground in a line from either side of him, exploding with that dark energy, as they tore towards the former Core Host and the Chosen one of Model Z.

"Ahhhhh!" They were juggled by the blades-though Matt and Aile were able to block the main brunt of the attack, it was still powerful enough to send them down for the count, causing Aile to revert back to her normal form.

Hugo stood back up in full.

"...no way," he whispered, as he saw all of the unconcious bodies, with their two attackers glimmering against the inferno.

"Hahahahaha!" Prometheus began to laugh. "This is the legendary power of Models X and Z together!? That was pathetic! You two are still NOTHING compared to Model W!"

His face pressed against the hot asphalt of the street, Vent could see as his sister was defeated by Prometheus' attack, her body crashing to the ground, and the red sparkles of light that showed Model Z separating from her, just as Model X had separated from him.

No way, he thought, reaching out to her. Model Z seemed to stare at him. We couldn't beat them even with the others' help?

"I couldn't protect them... even Aile," he gasped painfully. "I need the power to protect them..."

"Vent." Model X was there, speaking to him in low tones. "This is your last chance. If you combine the power of the two Biometal fragments, you may be able to win this fight. I can't be certain whether or not you'll be able to bear the strain when our powers are combined."

"Its your decision. You alone must make it," he heard Model Z say. "Do you have the will to fight? Do you have what it takes to continue where that brave man and these strange youngsters have left off?"

Vent reached out, his hand trembling. "Model X... Model Z..." he whispered. "Power... I need your power!"

His expression hardened as he made his decision. "I need to protect the people... All of them!"

Light blazed within Model Z's crystal, as text appeared. The light swirled around it, and around him. Prometheus and Pandora ceased their actions and watched, sour looks on their faces.

"Give me the strength to fight for those I care about!"

Model Z was with him in a flash, fit into his hand. Light consumed his form in an instant, and Prometheus grit his teeth in anticipation as power exploded from the Model X Chosen one and blasted the rubble away from him.

Bathed in the light and the power, Vent hovered up into the air, his hair lashing about and his eyes closed, as data poured out in streams from Models X and Z in both of his hands. R.D. and the others were coming too, only for them to be blinded as the light overwhelmed them.

Slowly, a figure was emerging in the light, covered in armor. Slowly, Vent opened his eyes as lines of light traced around in the crystal in his helmet's forehead. He clenched his muscles, and six blades of armor-like hair burst out from the back of his head, and his eyes and helmet crystal began to glow a bright blue-green color. A weapon appeared in his hands, a shining blade of light exploding out from the end of it as he swung it, dispersing the light.



"Vent... our strength..." Model X said in his mind.

"... is yours!" Model Z completed.

Pandora hovered down to Prometheus's level, watching. "Model X...Model Z...together..."

In the midst of her pain, Helena tried to focus on the spectacle of Model X and Model Z's combined strength.

Prometheus sneered at what Pandora said. "Or should we just say Model ZX now? Well, boy, looks like you still have some fight left."

Slowly, Vent lifted the ZX-Saber up and aimed the tip at the two Mega Men. "Shut up. We're ending this right here and now, Prometheus and Pandora," he said coldly. "I will protect everyone, from you and Model W."

"We'll just see about that!" Prometheus roared, slashing forward with his scythe and producing another gigantic wave across the street. Calmly, Vent leaped up into the air, soaring over the blast while bringing his blade up overhead, energy charging into it. He dropped down right in front of the surprised Prometheus, and the ZX-Saber flashed down and smashed into the asphalt, blasting it apart as energy exploded up out of the blade.

"Aggh!" Prometheus cried out as the blast knocked him backwards. "What the heck was that!?"

"That...was the tables turning around on you," Matt said, lifting himself, clenching his shoulder.

"Matt!" Hugo shouted.

"I hope you're ready," Matt said. He brought up his fist, clenching it. "Because now I'm pissed off."

Pandora raised her staff and fired a burst of ice at Matt.

"Dragon DRIVE!"

A jagged field of blue energy exploded around Matt, shattering the attack. As it grew in power, the world seemed to stumble, the aura reshaping itself into a rough draconic outline, with wings, claws, and horns.

"You ready to MAKE SOME NOISE?!" Matt shouted.

R.D. slowly stood up, his legs spread apart and his right arm hanging limply in front of him, one eye closed from the bruising around it. He was smirking. Prismatic light was shining around him. "We'll show you what real power looks like!" he yelled as rubble disappeared into bursts of microscopic matter.

Rainbow light spiraled into his back, forming three red spikes along his right side. Swinging his right arm up in front of him, he closed his hand into a fist, one finger after another, hearing the satisfying sound of his glove stretching. Two parallel lines of light traveled down the length of his arm and split it into three, only for bands golden light to smash them back together, red and orange armor materializing around it as his split hand merged back together before a claw formed over it. His hair flew up wildly.

"Shell Bullet!"

Prometheus stared at the rising warriors and frowned. "Oh, I've had enough of this," he snarled, spinning his scythe around to his side. "You're all going to become sacrifices for Model W!"

He charged forward, lunging as he swung another gigantic wave of energy at them, the blasts splitting off into three waves that went after Matt, R.D., and Vent respectively. Vent leaped up over his wave as R.D. smashed his armored fist into the ground, a shockwave propelling him up into the air.

The blade disappearing from the ZX-Saber, Vent transformed his sword into a gun as the hilt rotated and the light in its center turned red. Energy gathered into its barrel and erupted into a large wave of plasma, which Prometheus smashed away from himself using his blade.

"Shocking First Bullet!"

R.D. curled his airborne body into itself, rearing his Shell Bullet back. The lowest spike disintegrated and released a jet of emerald flame, propelling him through the air in a spin at Pandora, his fist leading the way.

Matt burst through the shockwave, launching at Prometheus with the power of Dragon Drive. With a roar, he smashed his hand into Prometheus's face, tearing his head through the highway as they dashed. He finished by chucking Prometheus back toward the others, with a far greater punch than before.

Shell Bullet smashed into Pandora's staff, as she strained to hold her defense. Finally it gave and she flew back, distracted for a moment, then firing bursts of lightning at R.D. again.

Prometheus bellowed in pain as his body was shoved through the asphalt and chucked forward through the air. Before he could hit anything, he flipped himself around and skid to a halt on the street, growling in rage as he gripped his weapon. Disappearing with a warp, he teleported to over Matt and fell like a lightning bolt, slashing a flame-empowered scythe at him, sending burning fireballs all over the place with the attack before warping back to where he had been standing.

R.D. brought the Shell Bullet up for defense as the lightning bolt streaked in, and as a cloud of dirt rolled up over him due to the blast, only for the crimson figure of Vent to burst out of it in a dash, swinging his ZX-Saber up to his side. He leaped in the air and tucked his body in while slashing, practically forming a buzzsaw headed straight at Pandora.

===

"Oof."

As the battle raged on, Ileyna took it upon herself to get the comatose Aile out of the way. Luckily the woman was close to the truck, which she had gone around to stay away from the transforming Helena. Then she slipped Aile's arm over her shoulders, and did her best to drag her away from the fight. It wouldn't due for her to get caught up in the crazy attacks the others were throwing around.

I wish I was stronger, though, she thought as she struggled to move her.

"Tornado Buster!"

A spiralling blast of wind tore through the flame, carrying it right back at Prometheus.

Pandora gasped, and quickly spun her staff. Where her staff had been, her body vanished, until only the staff was remaining in the air. It vanished as well, reforming a short distance away from Vent's attack, and returning Pandora to reality.

Until a beam of fire smashed into her, sending her plummeting with a loud scream, and Helena bounded into the battle, jaws slathering.

***

"Wake up, Aile," Hugo's voice spoke from the other side.

The Mettaur nudged her with his pickaxe, until she groaned. "Mmmmm...what's going on?" Her eyes opened fully. "Hugo!" She craned her neck back. "Ileyna! What's-"

"Come on, let's go," Hugo said. "Things are getting crazy."

Aile's eyes glazed over the chaotic, explosive battle, and she stood of her own power. "Come on!" She ran toward a large shielding of road.

The cloud of dust was blasted away as a green flame burst out of it, propelling R.D. out of it in a pivot. As he chambered his fist in, the armor on the sides split and issued out a pair of spikes before he rushed in and swung out his fist at Pandora once more.

"Annihilating Second Bullet!!"

Even as he shouted, a blast of plasma with twin spiraling fireballs rocketed over his head past him as Vent's charged blast streaked at Pandora to confuse her up a bit.

Warping once more, Prometheus hovered in the air as he threw his limbs out. Once more, four flaming purple skulls issued out from his back, this time spitting violent streams of purple-black fire at Matt and Vent.

"I don't think so!" Matt shouted. He smashed his fists together, igniting fire, and punched twice, once with both arm, each fist launcing an arcing fireball to intercept the skulls. "Double Crossfire!"

Struck by the Annhilating Second Bullet, pummelled by Vent's charged blast, Pandora smashed into the road. She tried to rise with her staff, only to see Helena tearing after her. A reflexive blast of ice repelled the dragon, long enough for Pandora to float back up.

The cone structures on the sides of her helmet split away from her. One charged with electricity, the other with frost, and both shot bursts of their respective element at Helena and R.D.. She backed away for a moment to let the independent units do some of the work.

R.D. swung his fist out at the first blast of ice coming from the weapon, then brought the Shell Bullet up to defend, forced to abandon attacking Pandora and duck and dodge around the various blasts. Finally, as an opening in the crossfire presented itself, his fist smashed into the ground and propelled him upwards. As he rose into the air, he curled himself up and chambered his right arm back.

As the flaming skulls and fireballs struck each other, they exploded violently, blossoming into a brilliant fire flower over the street. Quite suddenly, Prometheus flew out of it, his scythe at his side, and he attacked. Vent was suddenly there, parrying the attack and stopping his advance. Grinning, the Mega Man threw the ZX-Saber off of him and sent another energy wave at Vent, throwing him back, then completed his charge, spinning the scythe as he tore through the air at Matt.

"What did I tell you-" here Matt grabbed Prometheus' scythe mid-slash with his armored hand- "about using these dangerous things?"

The big gem implanted on the back of the gauntlet suddenly shimmered a bright white, and it grew in strength. "What the hell?!" There was a burst, and both were flung back.

Pandora saw R.D. flying in for an attack and she backed off, firing an especially large bolt of ice at him.

"Exterminating Last Bullet!!!"

The final bullet piece disintegrated into prismatic light behind R.D.'s back, issuing out another jet of emerald flame. The attack propelled him down at Pandora, spinning him around and and allowing him to use the momentum to shove the ice bolt away from him as he went past. As R.D. neared in, the hum of the incoming attack seemed to get louder, and his fist swung out to strike.

As Prometheus was thrown back by the feedback of Matt's armored hand, he dug his armored feet into the asphalt and skid to a stop, smirking as he readied his weapon. Before he could attack, however, Vent was suddenly there, dashing forward. The ZX-Saber flashed out, striking from left to right, then right to left, before he brought up overhead and slashed down. The three slashes struck true, causing Prometheus to growl with pain, but Vent wasn't finished. Changing his grip on the weapon, Vent's blade flashed upwards as he jumped, causing the weapon to knock Prometheus back as a blade wave of energy erupted from the slash and propelled him backwards.

"Agghhh!"

Exterminating Last Bullet hit home, rocking Pandora to the core. She screamed as the titanic blow sent her plummeting toward the other end of the highway.

"Blazing Reaver!"

A spinning disc of flame shot out at Prometheus. It was soon followed up by a renewed assualt from Matt. Unexpectedly, the armor over his arm had changed, mimicking design elements from Prometheus' armor, and in his hand, he brandished a wicked scythe of his own. "Why don't you say hello to my new little friend?!"

Prometheus' scythe cleaved through the flames with an energy wave, dispelling them before they could burn him, and he quickly blocked Matt's incoming slashes. That didn't stop his surprise though when he saw that Matt had copied some of his power somehow. "Don't tell me you're a Mega Man too," he snarled as twin pillars of flame erupted around him and swirled about in a widening circle, "You aren't fit for the Game of Destiny!"

R.D. smirked with satisfaction as the tectonic shockwave from the Shell Bullet sent Pandora hurtling into the street, and he fell to the ground, smashing his armored fist into it to break his fall. He stood up to his full height afterwards, his claw-like gauntlet stretched out, though now he was out of ammo for his weapon.

"Not exactly!" Matt said, leaping back. "I used to have the ability to create special arms with different powers-guess I've still got it after all this time!" He landed, and outlandishly flexed his arm. "This is my Variable Arm! Actually, scratch that-in honor of the power source that keeps me tickin', I'm calling it the Genesis Arm!"

"Face it, Prometheus, its over," Vent said, landing next to Matt with the ZX-Saber already being configured into the ZX-Buster. "We're bringing an end to the Game of Destiny."

"Not yet," Prometheus sneered, readying his beam scythe. "You're not the one who gets to decide when the game ends, Mega Man... Model ZX."

Lifting the scythe into the air, it crackled with energy as its blade nearly doubled in size and strength. It flashed down as Vent fired his charge shot, but it was nothing compared to the prismatic energy wave that erupted across the ground at him from the attack as Prometheus brought out all he could from the Omega Essence.

Roaring, Matt swooped in, spinning his scythe, which had generated a field of energy. He smashed barrier against shockwave, and struggled to hold it off. "Now!" he shouted at Vent.

Vent flew over the clashing shockwave attack like a crimson blur, bringing the charged ZX-Saber up overhead. Landing in front of the surprised Prometheus, it flashed down and exploded against the hot street, exploding up and outwards at Prometheus. Three times his sword flashed out, striking against his armor, before Vent leaped upwards with a rising slash, launching a blade beam forward into Prometheus.

The attack slammed Prometheus backwards, across the street towards Pandora. Vent jumped into the air and took aim as the blade beam began to dissipate, charging up with the ZX-Buster and letting fly with a wave of plasma. It struck soundly, smashing Prometheus into the ground next to his cohort.

"Ileyna! Now!" R.D. cried, seeing it happen.

The girl in question closed her eyes as the power took hold, her body coming alight in a blue aura, wings of light stretching out from her back. She took to the air and crossed the distance rapidly, hollow sounds playing as she flew. The two Mega Men were beginning to stand as she arrived.

"Recro!"

Lifting her left hand into the air, Ileyna began to chant as she accessed her Purification powers.

"Singulus... restituo... animus... substantia!"

Light wavered in the air as her powers went into effect, energy being drawn out of Prometheus and Pandora as she pointed her hand down at them, extracting the Omega Essence. The energy gathered into two points in front of her before flashing into glowing blue shards, which she took and hovered upwards out of reach before the two could attack.

With the Omega Essence taken from the two of them, everyone present knew that the battle had come to an end. And surprisingly, Prometheus only smirked at them, standing up and shrugging it off.

Vent aimed his sword at them, looking at them coldly. "Just who are you if you're not in league with Serpent?" he demanded of the two of them.