//------------------------------// // 2- Settling In // Story: MegaMane // by Flutters Is Shy //------------------------------// "What seems to be the problem?" Not my finest opener, I will admit. You try thinking up better on such short notice. My awkward opener didn't seem to stop a certain purple tinged unicorn (So I was before Magical Mystery Cure. That's good to know.) from closing the distance and engaging in conversation. "Aren't you Rarity's friend, Rock Light? Did you happen to see a pony wearing strange armor come this way? He's extremely dangerous, he has some sort of energy canon on his foreleg, and he attacked my brother!" Well. Rock Light. Rock I assume from the original name of Rockman(changed to Megaman on localization outside of Japan), and Light from Doctor Light, Megaman's creator. Quite clever for such a sporadic fellow like Discord. "Can't say I have, honestly. Do you happen to have a better description, say, a coat color or cutiemark?" I was stalling for time, but they obviously didn't recognize me as the 'one who attacked her brother'. So maybe I could figure out the extent of what they knew. She took a second to think on my question, "No, he was wearing some sort of flexible grey armor that covered up his cutie mark, and his helmet had a visor which covered most of his face." "His coat was the same color as your friend here Twily. I got a good look while I was fighting him." Armor stated, stepping forward. I had a brief moment of panic, but the fact that he wasn't outright accusing me was a good sign. Seems being a handicapped gimp turned out in my favor. "I hope that doesn't make me a suspect, captain?" I said sarcastically, showing a slight grin at his sudden red faced expression. "He doesn't deal with a lot of handicapped individuals, does he?" I whisper shouted past a raised forelimb to the rest of the guards. I managed to get a few choked giggles. It was always a fun time seeing people fall over themselves trying not to say or do something that would be insensitive to a cripple. The only thing better is putting a big mouthed friend in the middle of a bunch of black guys. They immediately go quiet, and act all polite. "No, no sir. While this individual is an earth pony like yourself, with your coat color, he had...all of his legs..." He trailed off, his voice growing quiet at the end. I decided to test the waters, see what type of technology was available in Equestria. "Couldn't I possibly have some sort of...magical prosthetic limb? To make it look like I had all my legs and move around as such?" I waited a few seconds, and was rewarded by a round of laughter. "If there really was such a medical breakthrough, wouldn't you already be using it?" asked Twilight, the tension she had worn as she first ran around the corner visibly gone. "Oh, you never know, I could be gallivanting around as some sort of wannabe superhero, and this could just be my mild mannered secret identity," I teased, waggling my eyebrows at the nameless pony that had yet to be introduced. I managed to get another round of restrained laughter. "Right, and I'm an alicorn, " Twilight joked right beck. If only you knew Twilight, if I was right about the time frame, then this was some time right after they got Discord to reform, so this was only a few episodes before she gets her wings. "Well try to stay safe. Just inform a guard if you see anything, allright Rock?" Twilight asked, sweeping past me with the rest of the group. Well that was something. At least Discord hadn't been cruel enough to flop me down in the middle of this with false charges. That being said, I really had no idea what to do. Maybe I should explore? With some inspection, It seems I had some bits in a pocket, so maybe I could get something to eat. I walked through the town, greeting those I came across. Most were background ponies I'd seen on the show, but a couple were recognizable. Cheerilee and Applejack, specifically. All that I greeted referred to me as 'Rock', or 'Mister Light'. So it seems I was well known, in some capacity. Apparently I worked at the post office, so maybe I was a mailman? I found myself back at the market square, buying a couple apples from...Carrot Top. I kid. Of course it was Applejack selling apples. Apparently I was a repeat customer, because she gave me a discount. It was slightly disconcerting to know Discord had basically brainwashed the entirety of Ponyville into believing a lie. It was once I was finished with my second apple that I became aware of someone trying to get my attention. Not somepony, but someone. "Ashe? C'mon Ashe, I'm stuck in here, lemme out!" It was a petulant, slightly female voice. I immediately recognized it from the second ZX game, this was definitely biometal Model A. ~-----------------------~ "So... this guy Discord, he decided to have a laugh and send you and me here?" "Yes." I explained to the hovering chunk of metal encapsulating the consciousness known as Model A. Originally made by Master Albert, she lost her memory and became good, eventually working with Ashe(or Grey, depending on which character you chose at the beginning of the game,) to stop an evil maniac using another type of biometal, biometal model W. Well that's the bare-bones explanation anyway. Seeing as I'm pretty sure all the other fimfic stories are of real people now, I can assume this is being read by someone or something. Just go read up on it on wikipedia or something, you peeping tom. "And...we aren't tracking him down and punching him in the face, why?" "Because he can literally reshape reality as he see's fit. Punching and shooting him isn't going to work. We'll have to play his game till he gets bored, allright?" It was the best solution I could come up with. Not like I could force him to send me back. And to top it off, now I had to look after this temperamental little floating hunk of metal as well. "...fine. But I wanna smack him upside the head, at least once. Okay?" "You have my blessing. Give him one from me as well, would you?" I snarked, grabbing her out of the air and stuffing her back in my wheelchair pocket thingy. She gave a couple protests, but I didn't know if people...ponies around here 'knew' about her like they did about me. Might prove disastrous if they didn't. "Look, we don't want to start a panic, so just try to stay quiet, I have to assume I have a place or something so you can float about to your leisure once we get 'home'." Regardless of my wondering, my wandering turned up nothing. This town was confusing to get around, and I had no idea where my supposed abode might be. I found solace in the appearance of a pegasus flying overhead. And promptly crashing into a wall, to slide down with a curiously cartoonish sound effect. You know who I'm talking about, our very own resident Derpy Hooves. Or Ditzy Doo. Whatever you wanna call her. "Hey, you all right?" I asked, rolling up and reaching down to help her up. After she picked up her hat(it had gotten knocked off in the crash) she gave me a wide, goofy grin. "Heya Rock, didn't see you there!" It was kinda weird to be called by a name that wasn't mine, but when in Rome, I guess. "I'm sure the wall just got in the way. Hey, I know this is a bit weird," I swear I heard Model A say something about that being me in general from the confines of the wheelchair pocket, "Do you know where I live? I ran into Discord earlier, and I think he might have done something memory related. I have no idea where I live." Sounded safe enough to me, and I technically didn't lie. He did do something memory based. Just not to me. "That jerk. Just because he's now Fluttershy's friend, we're all supposed to put up with him? It isn't fair. All he does is prank ponies. Just the other day, he made a giant muffin appear on my front lawn, but when I tried to eat it it disappeared!" So she was muffin obsessed in this version of this world? I wonder what other characters had their own little traits as designed by internet nerds. It was cute, though. "Come on, I got one more delivery and I'm done for the day, it's right near where you live," she suppressed a giggle, and continued, "I was also wondering if you might be able to cover me for tomorrow? I gotta pick up something for Dinky in Cloudsdale, but I spaced and forgot to ask for tomorrow off..." "Sure, I don't see why not." Actually, seeing as I had no idea where anyone lived, so I wouldn't be able to accurately deliver anything, I could see a lot of reasons why not. "Thank you Rock!" and with this she led me to my 'home'. I apparently had my own house, right in the middle of a row of houses. It looked ridiculous from the outside, just as much as the rest of them. I had freaking hay as a roof, for goodness sakes. Turns out the package Derpy/Ditzy ( I never did ask, and she never supplied it) had to deliver was to me. Hence her badly suppressed laughter. We said our goodbyes, and I rolled myself inside 'my' home. Opening my package, I was greeted to a sack full of gold, and a badly flickering old movie hologram of Discord. "So, you made it home? Good, good, kinda forgot to tell you about that." "Gee, really?" I muttered. "Yes really, now pay attention. I'm not going to just give this to you on a silver platter, where would the fun of that be? Anyway. There's a bunch of weird things that have popped in ever since I brought over our adorable little friend here," he paused as Model A zipped back and forth, trying to smack into the little hologram version of Discord. He even did slo mo Matrix dodges. "So you have that to contend with. My bad. Sorry about that. Wish I could help with that, but I wouldn't want to step on your hooves. So yeah, that's that out of the way. Good luck Rockman Kenobi, you are their only hope!" With that, he flickered and vanished again, as quickly as he came. "What a jerk, can you believe that guy?" spouted the hovering wad of metal, having given up on her current attempt to smack some sense into our favorite being of chaos. "He probably meant that mavericks or other biometals from my world ended up here. Why doesn't he just zap us back, if he's so powerful, whys he gotta put all these innocent people in danger?" I shrugged my shoulders, unhooking myself from my wheelchair thingy and reclining on 'my' couch. It was pretty comfy. "Some people are just bored. Some of those people are super powered gods. Not much one can do." I leaned my head back, and closed my eyes. "Hey! Are you just gonna go to sleep? There's bad guys out there that need beating!" Model A belted out, zipping about my head. "Look, I got turned into a pony and shot across to another dimension. On the tail end of working a double-shift. And here, it's only... 4, according to the clock on the wall. If it's accurate. So I'm tired. Would you honestly begrudge me a nap, seeing as I don't even know where to start looking for these aforementioned 'bad guys'? I don't even know how to fight, we'll have to put in some major practice megamerging off where no one can see us," I reasoned, closing my eyes again. "Goodness gracious, this is going to be a long trip, isn't it?" she forlornly asked the rafters above our heads. ~--------------------------------------------------------------~ "She what?!!?" shouted the reedy looking pony behind the desk. "She...asked me to cover for-" "I heard what you said the first time, Light, it was a rhetorical question," She responded, settling back into her chair and resting her head on her hooves. "You do know she is a pegasus, right?" "Ummm...yes?" I replied, shuffling on my hooves. I had managed to find the post office when I got up, even managed to change into the uniform with nary a problem. Well, the uniform didn't have pant's, so I just supplied my own, and hoped I wouldn't get asked to take them off. "Wouldn't that mean that we give her a slightly different schedule and route, based on her innate abilities?" Oh. I could see where this was going. Apparently she had a more difficult delivery route, and because I was just a helpless cripple, I couldn't possibly be expected to be able to contribute as much. "Sir, could I just give it a shot?" "Light, I won't lie, this is going to be almost impossible for a pony of your...talents. But if you feel up to trying to bail Ditzy out of a pay cut for this latest stunt, you're welcome to. AFTER you finish your own route, got it?" She gave me a slight grin, the sardonic type you give someone when you think you know more than they do. I might not have a clue as to what I was supposed to do. I might not have half a clue exactly what all Ditzy did. But I sure wasn't going to give this wrinkled old bird the satisfaction of seeing me fail. O.D.D. Oppositional Defiance Disorder, you mean old crone. I was gonna hit this out of the park! "Yes sir." "And stop calling me sir. You've never called me that before, and I really don't like the sound of it. If you must call me something besides Mrs. Parcel, then just call me ma'am. Sir just sounds weird." I nodded, and backed out the door to her office. Having everyone remember stuff about me was dangerous, if this interaction was anything to go by. Sooner or later I was going to say or do something that to them was totally out of character, and then I'd get accused of being a changeling or something. Make no mistake, I had no intention of hiding the entire time I was here. That NEVER worked. Discord said I was already good friends with one of the elements, and based on his comments that was either Rarity or Fluttershy. Most likely Rarity, but Fluttershy had shown some minor talent at sewing...ness. I couldn't really gauge the quality of the clothes all that well, so it could- Wait, what was I thinking? Discord may have simply hinted at it, but Twilight all but screamed it in my face! I looked up, and noticed the door I had stopped in front of. It seems I had managed to hitch myself up to a little delivery cart/wagon/thing and find my way to a house with the same address as was on the package I had first picked up. Huh. To test a theory, I picked up a completely different package out of my cart, and almost immediately I felt my attention gravitate to the left. Picking up another resulted in a sort of magnetic pull to an entirely different direction. So...Either the post service had some reaaaaaaaally good GPS, or Discord had actually managed to come through for me once again. Surprise, surprise. Well that was a load off my back, I didn't have to know where everyone lived, I could just follow the invisible pull. This was going to be a snap. Besides the having to walk everywhere thing, but that was kinda unavoidable. After having dropped off two more packages, I returned to my previous line of thought, confident in my level of autopilot. So, Rarity was my 'good friend'. How good, though? Did we go to the spa, just hang out, was I simply a friend in the sense that I bought clothes from her, or was it much more serious in that I was actually in a relationship or something? I kinda wish I had pestered Discord for an owners manual, or at the very least a cliffsnotes dossier of my 'history'. So. Step one, after work find Rarity, give her the same line I gave Ditzy about Discord, and just explain that I don't really remember all that much about her. Hope that doesn't make her too sad, maybe even get her to talk to Fluttershy about getting Discord to play nicer with the ponvill...ians. Ponyvillites? Dang, how DID they refer to themselves? Doesn't matter. Step two. Figure out where White Tail Woods is, and go there to practice megamerging with Model A. Wouldn't want to accidentally find myself in the Everfree, and have to actually fight right off the bat. Baby steps. Step three. ???? Step four. ???? Step five. Profit! Okay, so I skipped a few steps with a crappy meme. But I really had no idea how to fight, and I was probably going to have to learn, REALLY quick. Megaman games may have the happy go lucky (and frankly awesome) soundtracks, but it never truly hid the fact that Megaman was going around, killing people. He was fighting, to the death, with hundreds of flying baddies and finally a big bad boss every single stage. If every other lohav fimfic I've ever read has taught me anything, it's that shit is going to go down, whether you want it to or not. I didn't want to kill anyone. But I didn't want to die, either. Fishing around in my cart, I realized something. I had delivered all the packages that had been assigned to me. It wasn't even noon yet, that couldn't have taken me more than an hour of walking back and forth! Man, my background Discord memory self must have played up on the cripple thing a LOT if this was all they were giving me on a daily basis. Or maybe he was just really slow. Disregarding fictional memories of nonexistent people, I trotted back to the office, and made my way to the warden. And no, that isn't some sort of subtle in joke or something, that was what the name tag on the front of his jacket vest thing read. The Warden I don't know whether to laugh at this, or be terrified by it. He was the one that had shown me the cart to take earlier, so I had to assume he was like the manager or something, kept people from taking the wrong packages or something. Something odd I hadn't noticed before, there were at least 20 different ponies milling about in here, all wearing similar uniforms to myself. Yet I hadn't seen a single one of them on 'my route'. Just seemed a little odd to me. "Hey, Warden, I'm done with my route, I'm now supposed to take over Ditzys?" His eyes glared out over the clipboard he had been reading, a big bushy eyebrow creeping upward in an incredulous expression. "You're done? Already?" he grated out in a guttural tone. "Did I give you a half load today?" he turned his attention back to his clipboard, and flipped through a couple pages. "No, Stamped Parcel had you marked for a double load today...Well I don't see anything left in your cart, so unless I get complaints I guess you're done. I've marked Doo's load over there, the locker with her cutiemark magnet. If you need help loading up, just get somepony to help you with it. And Light?" he asked, giving me a critical look. "Um, yes?" "...you aren't eligible for a raise until you've been working here for two months. So if this is an attempt to make yourself look better for evaluation, just don't. Wouldn't want you to build up a reputation and then not be able to deliver." With this, he returned his attention once more to his clipboard, and walked away. I found the locker, and loaded up. Unlike my previously pre loaded cart, I experienced disorientation with each thing I picked up, each one wanting me to go in a specific direction. Once I was done, I was left with a load nearly twice as big as my previous one. This might actually take me a while. So what did that say about Ditzy's performance? I guess she was really good, to get saddled with such a large load. It took me longer than it had previously, the different packages leading me across town and back due to how unorganized I had thrown all the packages in my cart. I had no one to blame but myself. All the while, Model A kept on griping and mumbling when she thought I wouldn't be able to hear her. Mostly about how cramped her little pocket was. But soon enough, when the sun had passed it's highest point and started coming back down again, I was done. I returned the cart (much to a flabbergasted Warden's amazement), and headed out to the east of town. I hadn't been ambling around completely on autopilot, I had asked around a bit, too. I found out where White Tail Woods was, so I wanted to go there, get some practice in, before returning to town and trying to piece my current status with Rarity together. When I was certain I had gone far enough into the woods, I unzipped Model A's pocket (a bit mean, but she thwacked me in the noggin so I wanted to get even.) and let her out. "Uggghhh! Finally! Feels like I've been stuck in that dark pocket for the entire day!" she crooned, zipping about wildly. "And not cool, zipping it closed. you do that again and I'm not talking to you, forever." "Sorry. But you almost got us found out. You can't just come out whenever you want, Whatever Discord did before we got here has Twilight, one of the lands leading bearers of a powerful magical energy source known as the elements of Harmony hot on our trail with vengeance in her heart. I may be exaggerating, but I'd rather get settled before we get outed." "...how do you know so much about this place? Have you been here before?" she asked, coming to a stop a few inches in front of my face. "No. In the simplest answer, This world, Equestria, is fictional in my world. As is yours, which is how I know of you, Ashe and Grey." "Grey who?" she asked, tilting her body slightly to the side. Well the was interesting. In the game, depending on who you picked, they would both find it on the train, while the train was being attacked.And then the other character would never appear in the game. Did that mean that Grey literally didn't exist in this version of Model A's world, or that he was still stuck in his cryogenic tube thing, waiting to be woken up? Hopefully it was just the first one. "Never mind. If you don't know Grey, he might not exist in your world." "...You say some really weird things sometimes... whatever. Are we going to do this or what? Hurry up and yell out 'Megamerge', as loud as you can!" she exclaimed, floating slightly above me. "I know how to do it, I just hope it'll work..." I muttered, squaring my three legs, before bringing my right foreleg upward to reach for Model A. "Megamerge!" ~--------------------------------------------------------------------~ "That'll be -NFGH- two bits." Pinkie Pie said to the young colt across the counter, simply smiling at his confusion as to her mid-sentence outburst. The colt took his bag of sweetbread after plonking two bits on the counter, and walked out of SugarCube Corner, slightly confused but looking forward to his sweet treat. "Pinkie?...Dear? Are you feeling alright?" a slightly concerned Mr. Cake ventured, restocking a shelf behind the counter. " What? Oh, sorry mister Cake. I've just been having a REALLY weird feeling all day. Its like I want..." she lowered her voice, leaning in close before whispering, "-to throw a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party." Mr Cake was understandably confused, how exactly was this an 'odd' feeling for Pinkie Pie, -Party Pony Extraordinaire- to be feeling? "The thing is, I've already thrown him a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party! I set it up myself, I surprised him real good, and he even had lots of fun! You remember him, right?"she asked, looking to Mr. Cake with hopeful eyes. "Pinkie, I'm sorry, but you're going to have to be a bit more specific..." "Oh! Right! Rock Light, he got here about a month and a half ago, he only has three legs...well, I guess he does have all four legs but one of them doesn't go far down enough to get a hoof, anyway! I made him a candy wheelchair, and he actually went home with it, and then he got an ant infestation and Fluttershy had to get them to give up on making a nest in his house? Remember him?" "Oh, Mr. Light, yeah, he was just in here the other day, you just missed him-" "I know! and it 'feels' like I missed giving him a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party too! But I know I didn't! And my Pinkie Sense says I did! So it just keeps prodding at me and prodding at me and it WONT STOP!" She exclaimed, holding Mr. Cakes shoulders and shouting the end of her sentence dramatically before turning back to the counter. "That's a cranberry muffin? That'll be one bit, thank you very much have a wonderful day!" she chirped, before returning her attention to an unwilling Mr. Cake. "I just don't know what to do!" Mr. Cake thought long and hard. Pinkie Pie had always been eccentric, but this was the first he ever heard of her feeling the need to throw a welcome party twice for the same pony. "Have you thought about just throwing him another party, just to see if the feeling goes away?" Pinkie Pie gave him an over the top abashed look, "Why Mistah Cake! You wound me so! To abuse the sanctity of a party? How could you!" she turned once more back to the counter, and took the money for the purchase of an ironically pink pie. "All joking aside, that doesn't sound like that bad of an idea, I could just call it... a 'How ya doing since you got to Ponyville!' And then I could invite all the other ponies who have moved her over the past year, and it could be a super duper big party! Mr. Cake, you're brilliant I have to go can I go early today?" "Sure thing Pinkie, but only if you take a double shift tomorrow, you know it's going to be busy once everypony gets wind of you planning a party." "Will do C.K. Dizzle!" Pinkie Pie chirped, shedding her apron and leaping over the counter in one fluid movement. She had a PARTY to plan! ~----------------------------------------------------------~ White Tail Woods is supposed to be relatively safe, with a subdued wildlife that DOESN'T want to kill you. Supposed to. Someone forgot to tell the Woods that. "Just shoot them!" Model A shouted, her voice coming from...somewhere. I wasn't really sure where. "I already shot one of them, it just grew back!" I shouted back at the irate biometal. Megamerging itself had gone off with only a slight hitch. I was transformed predictably into a ponified version of the blue bomber. That in itself was the problem. Model A should have given me a completely different loadout, but I ended up looking like megaman Model X from the start of the first ZX game. Would've been cool to have two arm guns. Oh well. It was after that that I managed to somehow piss off a group of vine blob things. And by somehow, I mean I shot a tree, and then they started chasing us. Shooting one right in the middle of it's mass didn't seem to do anything, other than pissing it off more. I guess it didn't really grow back, it just didn't do anything right off the bat. "Then shoot it again!" she yelled back at me. "Fine! Come get some, you piss poor excuse for a ficus!" I yelled, spinning around on my back hooves(the megamerge gave me back my legs, I was going to have a hard time willingly turning back) and firing my arm...leg at the foremost vine creature. It didn't do anything, so I unloaded about 4 more shots into it in a panic, realizing I overspun and was probably going down. It exploded, causing the other four to back off and regroup, giving me time to pry myself off the ground and look at what the hell I had just shot. It was a machine of some sort, with several tentacles coming out of it's main body and wrapping around to protect itself. I don't know why I was so surprised, obviously I was going to be fighting machines of some sort eventually. With a low chittering sound, the other four vinebots clicked back and forth at each other, before turning tail and 'slithering' away at a fairly high speed. "After them!" barked Model A. "What? I almost got killed by ONE of them, and you want me to follow them back into a trap?" "They're getting away, we have to figure out where they came from so we can come up with a plan! Otherwise, we'll just be wandering around out here trying to find them again next time and we'll be in the same situation!" "Why is that a bad thing?" "Do you want someone else getting jumped by those plant things? If not quit whining and get to it! We fight so others won't have to!" She spouted. "Guh, fine. But for the record," I started, chasing the faint sounds of rustling branches, "I think this is a terrible idea." "Oh come on, you already destroyed one of them, how hard could it be doing the same thing to a few more?" "That's another thing, how come the gun is so weak? Usual case is, you shoot something, it dies. how come this thing takes five shots to kill one thing?" Model A gave a low huff, "I don't know, I'm not usually this weak, but your friend Discord changed the megamerge, this is supposed to be much stronger..." I cleared a trees and came out onto a clearing. I almost wasn't aware of this, seeing as a massive wall of green took up my immediate vision. It curved off to the right and left, and disappeared far over head, farther than I could make out. "Is this a freaking plant tower? How the hell did we not notice this from town? We haven't gone that far in..." We DEFINITELY should have been able to see this massive thing before we entered the forest. There was no way this thing was physically possible. "Shhh! Look there!" Model A hissed, not pointing at anything due to how we were merged. "Turn your head, no, to the left, there! Back a little, there! There's an opening!" I stood there in shocked silence for a few seconds. "You want me to go inside that thing?" "Duh! How else are we going to put a stop to it?" "Should we even? We don't know if this isn't just some eccentric plant mages house..." I weakly supplied. "Right, and I suppose these harmless plant mages have mavericks running about with all the plant themed doombots. This is something fishy, we need to get to the bottom of it!" "We already technically are at the bottom of it. Does that mean I can go now?" "You know what I mean! Go on, get in there, blast some stuff up!" I grumbled a bit, then resolved myself to my fate. Fine. "If we see a hentai tentacle monster machine, I tell you now, I am going to be running like hell from it. No If's And's or But's." ~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~ Zantedeschia couldn't believe how well things were going. It had all seemed so far fetched when he came upon this wood the week previous, so undefined. Until he had found the precious, and the precious had accepted him as it's bearer, everything was dull, and colorless. Zantedeschia couldn't believe he actually considered what he had been doing before living. How could he have been so blind? He had actually been traveling to go visit one of his relatives, a mare named Zecora who lived in a far off town called Ponyville. How foolish. He, Zantedeschia, lord and master of all plants, stooping to relying on social ties with familial members? How ridiculous! He would grow his hybrids of machine and plant, and slowly but surely he would show them all. All the ponies of this world that dared to misuse or abuse the land, all those that tried to destroy the beauty of the wild, he would punish them all. Every last one. Memories of a foal flitting about a meadow, recklessly crushing grass and flower underhoof filled his mind. How could he have been so foolish? He watched her destroy the land around her, and he just stood there and marveled at how happy she was! He should have crushed her head like she crushed the plants underneath her careless hooves, and let her body become food for that which she destroyed. Soon, soon he would have it ready. Then they would all suffer at the cusp of that which they ignored, the might of the plant would be shown! It was at this point an annoyance decided to visit upon him. Zantedeschia, in the first days before he had truly begun to see the full wisdom of the precious, had had the stupidity to have the tower built with stairs. A lingering fondness for the weakness he had left behind, he supposed. Unneeded with his current form, of course. And utilized by the arrogance interlopers that now stood before him. "Dude, haven't you heard of this wonderful thing called Elevators?" "Megaman, that guy has a chunk of Model W stuck in his neck, you gotta destroy it!" He couldn't see the bearer of the female voice, but it originated from the same position as the blue shelled one before him. Model W? Could they possibly be talking about the precious? And they had the nerve to think they could destroy it? Fools. With but a thought, vines lashed out from the floor, and threw the annoyance out an open window. Zantedeschia turned back to his work. Nothing could destroy the precious. Nothing would postpone his almighty vengeance. In the end, all an annoyance was, was simply that. ~----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------~ "Are we alive?" Model A asked, as I hyperventilated from my suspended position. That zebra asshole had flicked his tail, and suddenly I was falling out of the top of a million foot tower. I didn't have a lot of options, so I had tried the only thing I hadn't so far. I shot downward, ahead of our descent, all the while shouting 'Shining Bubble'. It actually worked. It formed a pink bubble around us, and when we initially hit the ground, we bounced and flew into a tree. Somehow. So there I was, my leg caught in a tree branch, my armor having shifted from yellow blue to white blue, but I was alive. "Give me a minute, I'll tell you then." "Oh, good. Well that didn't work. How are you supposed to destroy that chunk of Model W if the tower itself just throws us out?" she mused. I was sore. I was upside down, hanging from a tree. But I let out a small grin as an idea came to mind. "Simple. The megaman way didn't work. It's time to do it the human way." "The human way? What way is that?" she asked. I gave my biggest grin yet, as I loosed my leg from the branch and fell to the ground in a low crouch. "We cheat."