//------------------------------// // 5- New Additions from a Travelling DM // Story: MegaMane // by Flutters Is Shy //------------------------------// "What is that?" Model A asked, hovering tentatively above my head. "What is what?" I asked, unsure as to what she was referring to. "That!" she exclaimed, jutting her metallic body towards the floor behind me, before returning to hide behind my head. I turned to look at what was freaking her out so much. To my surprise, there wasn't anything. No wait, that wasn't quite right. There was something, just nothing that should be freaking Model A out like it was. "It's just dice, Model A. Calm down, it's just a normal piece of plastic.." "It wasn't there a second ago! There was a shimmer, and it just fell out of the air!" she protested. I picked it up, balancing it on the flat of my hoof. This is for anyone who needs help or just wants a friend. Summon the Dungeon Master of Equestria if you’re ever in need. The voice echoed around the room, causing Model A to shift around wildly, looking for the voice. "Interesting," I uttered, reaching up with a hoof to snag Model A out of the air. "Do you know what this means?" She twitched about in my grasp, before shifting her face to look directly at me. "Your house...is haunted. We're going to have to look for a new place," she snarked at me. "I'm not even going to dignify that with a response. What this means, is that I was not the only one Discord decided to pick up off of Earth, if my guess is right. Maybe. Going off the 'Dungeon Master' title. That's something local to my area. If we can band together, we might be able to stand a better chance," I explained. "Well? What are you waiting for?" Model A asked, breaking free from my grip and floating overhead. I held the die up, and said, "Dungeon Master! I, the Megaman of Equestria-" "Don't you mean Megamane?" Model A teased playfully. "Oh hush you." I paused, trying to get my train of thought back. "I, Megamane, er, Megaman," I stumbled over the wording, shooting a dirty look at Model A, "-call upon you! Nothing going on really, just wanted to talk. If you wouldn't mind." I heard a voice from nowhere say, “Okay then, just roll the die.” "Don't!" Model A pleaded, "What if it's a trick? Discord could just be screwing with us again! Won't you feel foolish when you just up and INVITE him into the house? He should stay outside! In the doghouse or something!" I gave her an incredulous look, before tossing the die to roll across the floor. "I'm pretty sure he doesn't need our permission to come inside, Discord isn't exactly a vampire, you know." In a flash of light, a humanoid figure appeared in the middle of the room. He was tall, his head bumping the ceiling at 6'2". The skin on his face was pale, unnaturally so, almost to the point of being translucent. He wore a brown cloak that went to about his waist and had a metal collar around it. Besides that, he wore a shirt made mostly of leather and some cloth, as well as some cloth pants, leather boots, and leather fingerless gauntlets. He had a bandolier on him that had a few pouches on it, as well as a bunch of vials with different liquids in them and a dagger. A large sword was strapped to the bandolier. He had silvery hair, and ears peaked like an elf. Looking into the rescesses of his hood, I noticed that his left eye was white, while his right eye was a dark green hue. He just stood there in the middle of the room, standing imposingly tall. Almost radiating an aura of intimidation... until he stood up straight and bonked his head on the ceiling. His first expression was that of slightly veiled pain, followed swiftly by minor confusion. “Uh, hi,” he said as he eyed me warily. “I’m looking for the guy that summoned me. Goes by Megaman, or I guess Megamane, I don’t know which.” So... Discord had changed me into a pony, but let this guy look like a freaking elf? Where's the fairness there? He should at the very least be a gryphon or a diamond dog or something. Did this world have elves normally? If so, why couldn't I have been one? A Megaman elf could have worked... although that does kinda sound like a fanfiction version of Legolas. “Hi,” I said hesitantly, trying to figure out a way to introduce myself without coming off as a douche. “Are you...okay." I stopped, an idea at the forefront of my mind. What if this guy wasn't even from earth? I was actually assuming quite a lot based solely on his name, now that I thought about it. "Trivia test. Star Wars or Star Trek?” “What?” Model A asked wildly, circling around my head in frustration. “The hell?” he exclaimed,giving me a sour look. “Are you nuts? That’s a nerds worst nightmare for a question! There have been wars about that freaking question! Flame wars!” “Okay, okay, calm down,” I said calmly, scratching at my chin. “I was only trying to figure out if you were from earth without randomly cluing some weird … ‘Dungeon Master’ into a world of over six billion people without magic.” “I’ve seen beings like him before, he looks kinda like the people from where I’m from!” Model A stated excitably. She stopped circling my head, hovering in place with her 'face' pointed towards him. “He’s a humanoid, this is what ‘I’ normally look like as well,” I told her, gesturing to the 'Dungeon Master'. Model A flew closer to inspect him, almost less than an inch from his face. After a few seconds, she floated lazily away. I assume she found out all that she had been trying to find out about him, seeing as she was barely paying any attention to him. “Weird...I really can’t see you with fingers,” she tutted. “Oh shut up A,” I retorted, my irritation peaking in my voice. What did she know? Hands are awesome. Much better than stupid hooves. “Um, what?” the 'DM' asked. “What the hell are you two talking about? I only came here because I was summoned. The guy said he wanted to talk, so do you know where he is or not?” “Uh,” I started, holding up a hoof. Was he really this dense? “I’m the one that called you. I found your dice, and just wanted to say hi. Not every day you get flung across reality into a tv show, right?” “Yeah,” he said. “So wait, you called me? And you were flung here?....” “I got jumped in my apartment a couple nights ago," I explained. "I was just surfing the web, and suddenly, Discord. Scary as hell, and he just plopped me down here. Along with the current...casing,” I gestured to my ponified self, and then to Model A, “Model A here seems to be from the actual Megaman ZX games universe, at the very least she seems to be very convincing.” “Of course I’m convincing, I’m not going to just up and lie about my home, am I?” Model A chirped, fluttering around the ceiling. “Speaking of, Discord brought you here too, right? You wanna smack him in the face just as much as we do, right?” she asked, eagerness biting into her voice. “U-uh,” he stammered, “No. Um, I got transferred to Equestria through different means. I got sent here by some guy who calls himself The Merchant." Ooh, I could almost feel the capital letters in that. What kind of snob names himself 'the merchant' though? "I still don’t know why he sent me, but what I do know is that he did it after I bought something from him. Other than that, I’ve been here ever since. On the subject of Discord, my Discord is actually a nice guy. Got imprisoned recently, and I’m trying to figure out how to get him out.” “Hmph,” Model A snorted, losing interest in the conversation. “Don’t mind her...she just has people she needs to get back to." I explained, "So, Discord. ‘Your' Discord. You’re telling me there's more than one running around this crazy world?” I took a moment to consider my own words. “Actually, that makes a lot of sense.” A lot. Personification of Chaos, why would I ever just assume he was bound to one body, singular? “Yeah, pretty much,” he said, stifling a cough, “I’m kinda wondering something… actually, a couple things. First of them, how are you a pony?” “Short answer, Discord." I expressed, gesturing with a hoof to accentuate my words, "Long answer, Discord is a jackass.” “I am not a donkey!” I heard coming from the open fireplace. Well that's not creepy in the slightest or anything. “Oh, now you’re listening in on my calls? Weak, man!” I called out, before turning back to my visiter. “Sorry. Introductions. My name is David Everson, But the name everyone around here knows me by -due to Discords meddling- is Rock Light. And then the papers are calling me Megamane, so thats yet another name,” I ended bitterly. “Heh,” he chuckled. “That’s honestly kinda funny. Now, here’s the other question. Do your ponies know about other Displaced yet? Or about the existence of humans?” As far as I knew, they had no idea whatsoever. Everyone would have been panicking if they even had so much as an inkling. “I don’t think so. Discord did some huge memory thing on the entire town of Ponyville, everyone here thinks they already know me. And I have had yet to see any evidence of humans, or even heard anyone talk about them.” “Ah, okay then,” he said. “Now, surprise final question before I do anything else. Do you know anything about changelings?” Before I could answer, he... changed for lack of a better word. Where once stood before me was an elf, now stood what looked like an unicorn. Almost as big as I wagered Celestia was compared to myself, but something about it was... off. It was unnerving to see a 'normal' human looming over me, but it was far by far weirder to see a pony do so as well. “...On...ly what I know from the show," I stuttered. "Were you turned into a humanoid changeling? Cause frankly that's freaking awesome.” If I had that ability I'd never have to deal with Rarity ever again. “Pretty much, yeah,” he said, “But I’m not a changeling from MLP, I’m more like a changeling from the Eberon books for D&D." Yeah, I had no idea what the source material was. He might as well be trying to recite 'The inner workings of a combustion engine', for all the information that got across. "What you saw earlier was a base form. Thing is, I’m not sure why my clothes change with me, they’re honestly supposed to stay the same. I also shouldn’t really be able to change sizes, or go from biped to quadruped. Oh well, it helps with any disguises that I can make.” “Dang, wish I had rolled that, that's much more helpful than what I got…” I looked up at Model A, “Not that I think I could do better than you, you are hands down awesome!” “Hmph,” she replied. “Wait, roll?” he asked. “Wait a second, you’re one of those power lottery guys! I heard about you guys! Not much though. That’s honestly pretty cool if you ask me.” Heard about? How in blazes could he have heard about...'us'. Seemed odd to me. “Wait, so how many of us did Discord strand here?" I asked, an ill spike invading my inflection. "How have we not run into each other, it seems to me that if there were a bunch of guys with super powers running around pony-land, the ponies would be freaking out, right?” “I know what you mean,” he started, “But here’s the deal. Apparently we’re all in different universes, ya know, multiverse theory. And I can’t really tell you how many Discord stranded, ‘cause I don’t know. I do know that there’s a lot of us that got stranded by the merchant, though. Still don’t know how many.” “Oh.” I said, trying to wrap my head around that. But wait a minute, that would mean- “Ooooooooooooh. That makes sense. So you ‘aren't’ from this Equestria?” “Nope,” he said, “Any other questions?” “Wanna help me search for biometal? I can see you’re packing,” I pointed at a sword slung from his waist, “So you probably have some combat experience, right?” “Yeah,” he elaborated, “In fact, I beat Tirek quite recently. Although, I think that was just me getting lucky and having a little bit of help, myself.” “Tirek...the big red guy from the end of the series?” I asked. If he was talking about who I was thinking about, then I hit the freaking jackpot! “Yep,” he replied. “My world was done with it, but apparently things are still going on. Like, we all think someone freed him. And I think it’s pretty evident someone did. Ya know how he was about twice as big as Celestia when he went up against Twi?” “Yeah?” As far as I remembered, anyway. “Well,” he started. “He was about three times the size of Celestia when I started fighting him. The last time I checked, that only happened after he absorbed all the magic from the normal ponies, Discord, and the alicorn magic. So yeah.” “Daaaaaaaaaaaamn," I let out, "That must have been awesome! All I got from Discord is a new body and a wheelchair instead of my prosthetic. Although the more I think about it, a prosthetic wouldn’t really work on a ponies back legs…” “Yeah, I see what you mean,” he agreed. “I do have a new question, though. If you’re called Megamane, then why aren’t you like a pony Megaman?” Now that was a question I could get behind. time for me to strut my stuff! I walked to the side, looking out my curtained windows. Drawing them up tighter together, I raised a hoof towards Model A and spoke in a normal, room volume, “Megamerge.” Standard (by now) transformation sequence, and once the lights died down he had a look of minor amazement stamped across his face. I know, it probably looked awesome as hell from the outside of all the spinning, blinding lights. “That is why I’m the Megaman of Equestria-” I started, as Model A cut me off. “Megamane~” Model A trilled, her voice echoing from my helmet. Apparently she had figured out an external speaker function or something? “Oh shut it," I chastised, "Henshin.” “Ow. My eyes,” he complained. “So, why do you stick like this? Why not just stay as Megaman, or Megamane, or whatever.” “Twilights on a warpath,” I started, “Apparently I didn’t wake up immediately when Discord brought me here, decided to take me out for a test drive. Ended up destroying part of town, and attacking her brother. Now she’s attached that to the ‘grey armor pony’ and thinks that ‘Megamane’,” I took a second to glare up at Model A, who was barely containing her laughter. Cheeky little chunk of scrap. “Knows something about that. They’re apparently dissimilar enough to not be recognized as each other, but still, every time Twilight sees me its just another step closer to whichever episode it was that she tried to figure out Pinkie Sense. I have no intention of being looked at like a science subject.” I would sooner carve off my own flesh with a rusty spoon. “Ah, okay then,” he said. “So, you said something about finding some metal or something earlier? You wanna do that and then maybe we can mess around a little?” I looked up at Model A, and gave her a quizzical glance. “Nope, nothing doing, I don’t read anything in the area,” she claimed, her voice tinged with disappointment. “Oh well, its not like I would have wanted to brazenly start running around Ponyville with a humanoid battling some sort of pottery biometal or something.” I quipped. Maybe I'd come across a basket enemy. Beware my woven strands that allow me to hold stuff! Like picnics! All beware the picnic holder! “Alright then,” he said, “Let’s get to it.” We made our way to a deli of some sort, just a generic outdoor 'restaurant' that probably had cheap food. I'm only guessing though, the price variant for things seems to spike wildly from item to item. I decided to graciously pay for his meal, it wouldn't be very polite if I made the guy come all the way over to another dimension, and not buy him a bite to eat. “So, I didn’t really ask earlier,” he started, "But what does this biometal stuff look like?” “Like me!” Model A called out, her voice muffled from the inside of my wheelchair pockets. “Yeah,” I confirmed, “Kinda like her. Chunks of metal, but different configuration, different designs. Easy enough to spot a floating chunk of metal, but apparently there aren’t any in the area. Although I guess that's a good thing, means we don’t have to deal with fragments of Model W for a while,” I said, sipping from a straw out of the cup in front of me. I ordered tea, a blend called Zebrican. Whatever the heck that was, but it had a sharp taste to it, almost spicy. “Okay then,” he said, sipping on some pony version of soda. It honestly smelled kinda weird, but even weirder was the fact that I could smell it from across the table. Maybe it was normal for ponies? “So, if there isn’t any here, why are we hanging out here? Shouldn’t we be looking around for some of it? I mean, I kinda remember the games, that stuff isn’t the best to just leave around.” Oh gee, really? “Its not like I can just up and go,” I explained, gesturing to my wheelchair, “I have no idea if the megamerge has a time limit yet. I don’t want to get all the way out in the jungle, halfway out to butt@*%& nowhere and have the only thing going for me to suddenly switch off. And I technically have a job here, I can’t just not show up one day, that would make people start looking for me.” “Ah, I see,” he said, “Luckily for you, I can teleport. Although… There are limitations. Can you pinpoint one of the pieces?” “Honestly, no. Model A’s signal range is actually pretty large, but she hasn’t picked up anything from here to Canterlot. And a fair ways into the Everfree forest. The thing is, with the last two they were basically just chilling right outside of Ponyville, one of them in a giant invisible plant tower, the other at the bottom of an abandoned well.” “Okay,” he said, “Any idea why it chose those places? Any at all? And another thing, does that signal reach into the Pony Sisters Castle?” “Yeah, and beyond it," I confirmed. It was only this morning I had conferred with Model A, checking against a map of the area, helping us match up landmarks and figuring out her range. "I don’t know why they chose those places exactly, but the first one was plant oriented, and the other one was water related.” I let out a short coarse laugh at the pleasant memory of winning without even having to hit it with a single buster shot, “I poured cement mix down the well and filled it up." "So, it's after something," he supplied, "Obviously it has a plan. Did you notice how they kind of follow a theme so far? I mean, plants and water. Plants depend on water. Now, I'm not sure if that's part of the theme, but if it's not, I have another idea. You know the robot masters?" "Yeah, that is a Megaman staple, after all," I replied. It wasn't like this was anything new. "Well," he started, "I'm pretty sure that the pieces are trying to act like the robot masters. I'm not completely sure, I'm just pretty sure. So, if my hunch is right, we need to look for something related to a robot master, like an area or an element or an object. The only one I can think of is Flame Man and his location. The equivalent here, would be Saddle Arabia. So, I guess we could look there, like I could try and teleport us." A voice broke out of the crowd, hailing me from afar. Or at least as much me as- "Rock! Rock Light!" called my unsuspecting stalker. "You know what, I'm down for that," I stated, groaning into my salad. Anything to get away from her for at least a while. "Rock! Its good to see you up and about, I thought about dropping by later with a bowl of hay noodle soup~." She said, in a tone I have to assume she thought was seductive. "Er...thanks, I guess. Rarity, this is my friend, Lone Traveler," I pointed to 'DM' with an outstretched hoof. "An...er...old...friend?" she asked, her gaze drifting sadly between us. Yet another thing to distance us in her mind. Hopefully she wouldn't take it as a challenge. "Uh, yeah...sorry. He just drifted into town, and we figured we'd shoot the breeze, try to catch up. He just recently came from Saddle Arabia, and was telling me about the landmarks." "Thats... thats wonderful," Rarity said, obviously unhappy but her tone and voice betraying nothing of her inner feelings. "Well...I guess I'll just leave you to it... I wouldn't want to... intrude..." Rarity swiftly walked away, rubbing at one of her eyes. "She gonna be okay?" 'DM' asked. "Also, I'm sorry I didn't give you my name earlier, I'm Dox." "Huh, good to meet you, Dox," I said, munching at a stray piece of lettuce from his salad. I can't believe we actually went this long without my getting his name. Did I just space on it? "As for Rarity...Well remember about how I told you how Discord made it so everyone remembers me as Rock Light?" I asked him, my voice dipping down to a conspiratory whisper. "Well it turns out with Rarity he... complicated it a bit. She thinks we're...involved," I choked out with a sheepish cough. "According to everyone I've asked, apparently I 'moved here' to be closer to her. Turns out she thinks we're engaged." I munched forlornly on the salad I had ordered, a small tomato falling to the ground in my carelessness. "Don't get me wrong, I'm all for getting a girlfriend for literally no effort, but I definitely don't know her well enough to even consider being her fiance. I am definitely gonna throttle Discord the next time I see him," I said, shooting him an apologetic glance, "my version, not yours." "Dude, don't worry about it," he said, "You can just get to know her all over again." Ha. Very funny Dox. Maybe, but maybe I wanted to get to know one of the other ponies. What if I had a hidden crush on... er... Cloudkicker! Yeah! What about her? Should I deny her my magnificent presence all to sate the needs of major McPurple hair? "And how could we do that?" he asked, directing his attention to a pair of dice he had pulled out. "Well I assume that if we found him," I started, assuming he was talking about Discord, "We couldn't really do anything anyways. He is Discord, after all. It's not like he would just let us have a free hit or anything." "And why not?" he said, ignoring me completely. "And if I were to grab him?" he continued, "Alright then," he said and then placed a hoof on my shoulder. "Uhhhh," I let out, looking at the hoof he had placed on my shoulder like it might bite me, "Freezer dono, yamite?" he asked in a childish tone, referencing a certain abridged series. "Oh, shut up and listen," he snapped. Hello David. Can you hear me? This is god. You're in heaven. "You are not god DM," Dox whispered softly. You can't let me have ANY fun, can you? I looked at the dice in his other hoof, and gave them a sharp jab. "Is there...someone inside your dice? Bummer, at least with Model A she can move around when she wants to..." "I think it'd be better to explain by showing you," he said impatiently, "It'll just have to wait until after the food." At this, I heartily dug into I salad, finishing it in under a minute. He also tucked into his, but not as...freely as I had mine. "Okay," he said after I had given a few bits to the waiter pony. "Let's get somewhere where we won't be seen." "Back to my house, I wager would be the best place," I said, "That way we could just lock the doors. I even have a basement we could use, no windows to peep in through." "That's perfect," Dox assured me. He then turned to the waiter pony. "Do you mind if I teleport in here?" "Sure," he said. "No skin of my bones." "Thank you, sir," Dox said before placing a hoof on my shoulder once more. We both then faded into shadow. We reappeared in my house, in the exact same room Dox had initially appeared in. "So, we're here now," he said, "Where's the basement?" "Over here," I stated, pointing at a closed door. I opened it, revealing a staircase that went down to the basement. With that, I flipped open my pocket satchel, and pulled out Model A. "Megamerge," I stated briefly. "What?" I asked, gesturing down the stairs, "Did you think I was going to try going down stairs in that freaking wheelchair thing? Its already hell enough, what with the four legs headfirst thing I have to do..." "No, no," Dox said. "It makes sense." We made it down the stairs quite easily. The second Dox and I reached the bottom, however, he grabbed me before we disappeared. We reappeared in an empty void, floating in front what I assumed was the voice from befores astral projection. "Hello, gentlemen," it said. "Hey big guy," Dox said, waving at it. "Uhhhh....hello?" I said, trying to swim around the void with paddling hooves. What I wouldn't give for a pair of booster rockets. "David, this is the Dungeon Master," Dox stated confidently. "Dungeon Master, you know who this is." "Yes." "Now, before you say anything about my token being false advertising," Dox cut me off before I could voice my criticism, "I did not know this guy existed when I made it. Plus, he is kinda still me. I mean, the body I'm in is based off of a homebrew rule that I made up, and is directly connected to him. We share the same soul, apparently....." "Wait, so is it like a split consciousness thing or something?" I asked. If it was, that seemed like it could be damned confusing. "Or is it like you're the same person, but part of you is the player character while the other part is the overseeing game master or something? Avatars, how does they work." "Well, basically," Dox started. "I'm here, but he's my soul. I'm just a version of him that can enter the physical realm. Dungeon Masters can't leave their realm or else the entirety of reality will be destroyed." "So I can create or select a body to be a vessel of sorts to carry out what I couldn't do in the physical realm. Such as interacting directly with 'players'. I could do this to them, but it must be in the void. The void isn't part of reality, and I'm still not here, but I can show a common representation of me here. Oh, and let's not forget what happens when I lend Dox some power." "Yeah," Dox agreed, "Last time, I redirected a blast of energy that was about eighteen feet tall, just by holding out both my arms. It was intense as hell. Although, that did wear off, and I have pretty much no idea how to do that normally. In fact, I'm pretty sure I can't." "He can't," the DM whispered to me. "I honestly took over his body so he could do that." "Huh, still sounds impressive. So, what are we doing here? I mean, I don't want to be rude seeing as apparently this is the only way you can talk to me normally, and I understand how annoying it is to be left out of the loop while two other people just talk around me, but I thought we were heading to Saddle Arabia," I said. I felt it was a perfectly reasonable concern, it wasn't like I actually knew what was going on. "I've been pinpointing a good location to send you two to since that genius can only teleport to places that he's familiar with, and not places he's never been to." "Hey!" Dox yelped. "In fact, I'm sending you in..... Now." And with that, we were no longer in the void. We reappeared in a dessert. It was night around the area we were in, but that makes sense, considering Saddle Arabia was probably on the other side of the world. Off in the distance, there was a town that had a few lights on in the buildings. If it weren't for the lights, neither of us would have noticed it. "Well, we're here," Dox said. "Can you get Model A to scan now?" "Scan mode, activate!" I called out. After several seconds of apparently nothing happening I asked, "Please? Model A, Hellooooo?" "A please is all I wanted," Model A chirped. "It wouldn't hurt you to appreciate me a bit more." "Fine, fine, I'm sorry. Will you please activate Scan mode? Or whatever it's called?" ""Already did, and I'm reading a Model W signal...and a Model P signal, in that direction!" she jerked my head off to the left, causing me to almost fall over. "Alright, let's get moving then," Dox said, looking out towards the sands. I felt him roll something on my back, and he let out a happy laugh. "Hey, you said it was coming out that way, right?" he asked, pointing off into the distance. "Is it any bit muffled? 'Cause I see a pyramid." "I just know that the signal's coming from that direction, I can't tell if it's in it or beyond it. But there does appear to be a sloping surface in the path, mainly made of sandstone," Model A replied. "Alright," Dox said. "Man, I love perception checks.... Hey, I see a guy! No, wait, he ran inside the pyramid. Odd." "I can't even see the pyramid," I stated, straining to see what the hell they were talking about. "It's in this direction, right?" "Yeah," Dox said. "Let's get moving, we only have so long before it's noticed that Rock Light is missing. My best guess is that we have about three hours minimum, five at best." "Ehn," I replied, "I can do whatever I want till morning, if I end up missing from work the post office will end up worrying. Plus I'll end up missing a days pay..." We continued on, and in about five minutes I was finally able to see the Pyramid. About ten minutes after that, we were finally at the very front, a suspiciously visible opening right on the front. "So I didn't just see it," Dox said suspiciously. "Someone did enter the pyramid. But who?" "Well, going off of the obvious element styling, I'm gonna guess sandman. Or Pyramid man. Or Egypt man. Something like that. And seeing as this is cartoon world logic, look out for booby traps. We're bound to run across a trapdoor, maybe an Indiana Jones rock..." All things considered, we really should try to be prepared for anything. "Alright then," Dox said. "In other words, this is gonna suck." "Sharp rocks at the bottom?" I asked, shooting Dox a comedic grin. "Most likely," Dox replied. I looked into the dark recesses of the pyramid, then flashed him another wide grin. "Bring it on." And with that, I took a step into the ruin. Seeing that I wasn't immediately dead from rocks raining down on my head, I continued till I was completely inside the doorway. To combat my cautiousness,Dox did something stupid. "Oh come on man," he said. "Ya gotta just run in! Like this..... LEEEEROOOOOY JEEEEEEEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIINS!" And with that, he just ran in..... Blindly ran in..... me trailing behind like a jilted puppy. About three seconds later, a trap set off and we had to run even faster. Turns out someone decided to rip off the Indiana Jones rocks. Lucas should sue somebody. What I didn't suspect -and really, how could I have ever predicted this?- is that it went inside the pyramid with us. I stumbled over a dart trap, forcing us to leap in awkward formations to avoid the firing paths. It didn't seem to stop the giant boulder of copyright breakingness, which kept rolling after us without even slowing from the cramped corridor. We turned a corner, and the boulder crashed to a halt. Dox turned to me to say something undoubtably inspirational regarding our escape, but a grinding of rock pre-empted his victory gloating. "Oh you have got to be kidding me," I muttered, pointing up at the ceiling, almost right above us. The CEILING was sliding open, and it looked like...yeah, it was another boulder. "RUN!" I yelled out, breaking into a gallop. As we ran, we came upon the end of the hallway and.... "Oh, COME ON!" Dox roared out, "The doors are closing now?! This! IS! BULLSHIT!" "Gushing Geyser!" I called out, knowing that Shining Bubble would probably burst just like a bubble if it got pinned between a giant boulder and a wall. I wasn't able to pay specific attention to it in the split second it activated, but the white accents on my armor became a deep blue as a cannon of water sprayed out of my mouth. It almost knocked me to the floor, as well as knocking the stone doors off their hinges. We continued to run, a slight discomfort coming from my gut as we dove inside the doorframe just as the boulder slammed to a halt behind us. "And who," called a voice from the inky blackness, as torches lining the walls burst to light, "Are you? Disturbing our home, disrupting our sleep, leaving WATER all over the ground?!!?" "Hate to tell you dude," I said with a groan, holding my stomach. With my free hoof I wiped a trickle of bile from the corner of my mouth. "That ain't one hundred percent water. I doubt its even thirty..." I'd have to figure out how to negate that, if possible. I hated the thought that I had gotten a power that gimped me mid battle. "Silence!" The voice yelled, revealing the speaker. It was...I am not even joking. It was a Pharaoh pony. Funky hat and everything. He was sitting upright -in a position that seemed like it would be quite uncomfortable- in a gigantic royal throne, all accents of gold and jewels poking from every orifice. In one leg, he held a wand of some sort. Attached off the left side of his face, a grotesque configuration of wires and metal were visible. "There's the chunk of Model W!" Model A called out. "SILENCE!!!" he yelled once more, the very sound pushing us back a step. "Retainer, what is the meaning of this?" he asked, once more in his normal voice. "My master, please forgive me..." sniveled a dry sounding voice off to the side. A camel of all things ambled out of the shadows, covered in a black body stocking, as well as red and white armor plates. A giant x of a blade covered his back, I think it could still be called a shuriken... "I activated the traps, but they bypassed them, please don't punish me..." "You jackass!" Dox screamed as he unsheathed his sword and took a vial out of his bandolier. "You're gonna get your ass kicked!" He rushed the Pharo pony, only to get smacked in the face and knocked to the ground. It took me a couple seconds to realize the camel was quite literally sitting on top of Dox, pinning his sword to the ground with a knife directly attached to the armor on his leg. I had to do something. I tensed my legs, imagining myself coiling them to collect power for a tremendous leap. I unleashed the built up tension, cannonballing me forward. I did a half forward flip, 'landing' sideways on his face. I pushed off with all my strength, flinging him backwards with a grunt. This in turn actually propelled me backwards, so I tried to do a backflip. Surprisingly, I managed to do it effortlessly, regardless of the fact that I had never so much as done a backflip in my life. "I got Pinky," I called out, landing on all fours, "You get the Brain!" "Hit Stream!" Dox yelled, swinging his sword and sending out a wave of energy towards his opponent. I focused all of my attention on my own opponent, who before I could blink slung the giant blade off of his back at me. I was barely able to dodge, and it sunk almost halfway into the sandstone floor where I had stood literally less than a second before. I leapt forward, slamming an armor clad hoof directly into his midsection. He shrugged it off, grabbing me and throwing me against the wall. The stone cracked from the impact, before I slid to the ground. "Get your head in the game!" Model A called out, "You have a megabuster, shoot him with it!" Pretty sound advice. I whipped the megabuster up and drew a bead on him. I let loose a flurry of yellow tinged projectiles, each of them dancing tantalizingly close to him. He dodged with inhuman ease, flinging a few small kunai as retaliation. They each bounced off of my armor, but one got scarily close to my face. I couldn't hit him with the way he was bouncing around, making me feel inept to a degree. He managed to hit me, with freaking knives, for goodness sakes. And I couldn't even hit him ONCE with a freaking energy canon? No fair! I kept shooting, wondering what I was doing wrong. I was leading the shot, I was waiting till breathing out for each shot, and I never let him out of my sight. So why, couldn't, I, hit, HIM?! He rushed me, thrusting forward with his hoofblades. With the barest thought, I somehow managed to activate Shining Bubble without saying it out loud. He bounced off, looking mildly surprised. A hatch opened in his hump, and he pulled out an unfolding giant ass shuriken. He then threw it at me. Thankfully, that bounced off too, to which he let out a dissatisfied grunt. I wasn't about to give him more chances to attack me, so I did something reckless. I shut off the bubble, and let out a shot at his hooves. A cloud of dust sprang up, obscuring his view. I charged forward, leaping in the air. I caught his shoulders with my front hooves, flipping over him and using my momentum to fling him bodily into the wall. While he was stunned, I wrapped my legs around his waist, and jumped straight up into the air. "Suplex!" We reached the height of the ceiling, and he tried to shrug me off. I tightened my grip, and pressed off the ceiling with a powerful kick. "Of the-!" I tried to add as much spin as I could, shouting all the way down. "Lotus!!!" I called out, our bodies jarring to a halt as his body collided with the floor. My grip failed, his impact softening my own to the point where I only felt dazed. I got back up shakily, walking back to downed camel. He let out a groan, and started to rise. "No. No you don't. No. You! Don't!" I yelled, rushing forward and grabbing one of his legs. "You!" I started to spin on my back hooves, his own body adding to the fulcrum. "Stay!" My grip started to slip, the prolonged activity taxing my reserves. "DOWN!" With that I let go, and he rocketed through the air. The camel collided with the throne, neatly snapping it in half, nearly missing Dox and an apparently 'de-Model W'ed' pony. A bright light surrounded the prone form, coalescing into a tiny chunk of purple, red and white metal. It clattered to the floor, inert. I went trotting up to Dox and slapped the chunk of Model W out of Dox's hand, letting it clang to the floor in a jumble of metal and wires. Was he stupid? He saw what it did to the pony, did he honestly think him holding it would have a different result? "Trust me, you really don't want to be holding that so close to bare skin," I said, holding my megabuster up and pointing it at the chunk of evil metal. My leg unfolded with a familiar whirring of clicking machinery, transforming it into its wide barreled canon form. With several blasts of warm, yellow tinged energy that roared out the end of my leg like laser blasts the chunk of Model W was no more than dust. I then grabbed up the purple chunk of Model P, balancing it on top of my head. "Hey Camel guy, you allright?" I called out. "Mmmmmmmmnnnnnn," a dry voice moaned from the rubble. "He'll be fine," muttered the Pharaoh turned regular pony, "His hump is harder than his head." "Oh shut your face, Shahid," the camel mumbled, dragging himself from the rubble. "Make me, Malik," the pony replied. "Both of you shut the hell up," I snapped, tired of their inane back and forth. Did they just forget we were fighting for our lives only minutes ago? "Unless it escaped your attention, both of you were very recently the victims of a device which basically brainwashed you. We saved you. Show your damned respect." Both of them were cowed, and gave each of us a a slight bow. "You have my thanks, I am El Presidente of the Republic of Oasis, and this," the camel waved a limb at the pony as he continued to brush the dust from his coat, "Is my close friend, Shahid. He acts as the main dignitary between us and Saddle Arrabia. If it weren't for you two...Oh my Faust..." he whipped his head between Dox and I, shock filtering across his face. "We were going to destroy the main Oasis!" "No problem, El Presidente," Dox said. "Just doing our job. Let's get outa here Megamane." Just as I tried to correct me him with the choice word of 'Megaman', we teleported back to my house in a poof of shadow stuff. We reappeared in my living room, with Dox hitting his head on the ceiling, again. "No! No its MegaMAN, not Megamane! God damnit, they can't hear me anymore, can they?" I complained, carefully placing the purple chunk of Model P down on a workbench. "At least we managed to find another Biometal. Henshin!" With that I returned to his handicapped form, instantly missing my full mobility. You try going from being able to jump around like a mexican jumping bean to having heavy wheels ATTACHED to your legs. Transforming back allowed Model A to fly about over my head freely, which she did quite gleefully. "Can you scan it? It isn't going to go mental and attack someone else if we just let it roam free?" "No, Model P was just being controlled by the fragment of Model W," she explained, bathing Model P in a beam of pinkish light. "Once he recharges sufficiently, he should be back to normal." "Hey, what was with that?" Dox asked. "They were just possessed by the freaking metal? And why is it called biometal? What would happen if I touch the 'Model P' as you call it?" "Absolutely nothing," Model A snapped harshly, flashing a pinkish light over him. "For starters, you're incompatible. A megamerge would not be successful with you. Second, Model P has been temporarily drained of energy. Until he reboots he will be little more than a block of biometal. Third, from what I remember Model P is a bit antisocial. He'll probably try to fly away from you, making it so you can't touch him," she explained. "So he'll just recover naturally?" I asked. Maybe once he was all better he'd be able to boost Model A's abilities. "Yeah. Maybe prop him up in a window," she suggested, "We do run off solar power, after all." "Okay, that sounds like a plan," Dox declared, grabbing Model P. He set Model P down in a window before noticing a bit of metal dust on his hand. "Uh, guys? What's this stuff?" "Biometal dust," Model A replied, flying close and blasting his hand with heat from her face. Jumping away and shaking his hand while dancing a merry little jig, Dox unsheathed his sword and pointed it at the pint sized joy. "What? Better safe than sorry. Don't be such a baby, I only burned off the outermost epidermal layer, it's not like you've never been sunburned, have you?" she trilled happily. "Just watch it next time," Dox said, sheathing his sword. "So, it's been..... about three hours since we left. Wanna go mess with some ponies?" "If you can do that 'teleport back here' at any point in time, I thought you'd never ask. I say I'd rather fancy another bit of food, just one course of salad never quite fills me up." I raised his hoof towards the fluttering Model A, "Megamerge!" "Again? You're going to wear me out if you keep this up..." Model A chastised. "Oh hush, I just figured I'd put on something snazzy," I retorted. I then turned to Dox, "Do you think you can just teleport us to the cafe again?" "Sure thing," he said, grabbing my shoulder before teleporting us. We reappeared in the cafe. Dox looked a bit winded, it seems a bit of food would do him some good. "Whew," Dox whined, "So much teleporting in one day. Plus that huge one. I'm tired. I really need a drink now. Hey waiter! Can I get some coffee with cream and a ton of sugar? Oh, and a salad for my friend." The waiter just stood there slack jawed, not sure what to say. "C'mon sah!" I called out in a ridiculous English accent, deepening my voice to further disguise it past the minor alterations megamerging seemed to have on it for some reason. "We just popped o'er tah Saddle Arabia, saved El Presidente of the Republic of Oasis. We need drinks to sate our dry, sandy tongues," I turned to the rest of the cafe, trying to think fast of a verbal continuation to make it so less ponies kept staring at us. "Looks like everyone could use a refresh. Drinks on me!" I called out, sending the waiter off with a scuttle in his step. Saying I was going to pay for everyone's meals wasn't that smart of a thing to do, but I should have enough bits. If they took me up on it. "Perfect way to grab attention, while simultaneously diverting it," I assured Dox. "Great job," Dox said. "But if you listen closely, you can hear him exit through the back door and start screaming for the guards." Yeah, I did hear that. Probably better than Dox did, with my freakishly large pony ears coupled with the megamerge's enhanced tech. He called Dox a 'deformed minotaur'. And then he proceeded to assure the guard that 'blood was flowing from his broken mouth, and he was wearing the hide of a pony!' Pretty dark for a 'normal' pony waiter. A few seconds later a guard popped in. Literally popped in, like teleportation. Few seconds after the first guy, another guy pops in, then another, then another. In the end, it ended up to be about ten guards and a curious Twilight flanked by an angry Shining Armor. "Dude," Dox said peevishly. "How many ponies are after your metal butt?" Right after he said that, they tried to rush us. Instead of that, Dox teleported us outside. And thus, the chase began. Well, chase as much as a relaxing walk could be. "You can do that at any time, right?" I asked, refusing to run but continuing along at a measured pace. "Just keep walking, all peaceful like, and get ready to teleport us to the Everfree when I say 'Doctor Who'. Don't give me that look, that's a classic reference, it will NEVER die." "I may be able to teleport us whenever," Dox started, "But I can't teleport both of us constantly. I'm used to teleporting myself, and even then, I don't teleport too far. Plus, my teleportation is based on Shadow Walking, so it's easier in shady areas. We're out in the broad daylight. We're honestly lucky that I was able to teleport us away from Saddle Arabia." "Hey! Hey, stop!" came a voice from behind us. I didn't quicken my pace any, the quickest way to determine if someone is guilty is if they act guilty. I did however alter our course though, directing Dox and myself into the overhanging shadow from the buildings we were passing. "Wait a minute!" called Twilight from behind us. As if I was actually going to stop because she asked me to. "Sorry my dear," I called back in my impeccably English, low voice again. "But seeing as you chased us away from a snack and a drink that I was fully well going to pay for, I really don't have any patience for you. Add to that the fact that I am busy entertaining a guest from out of town," I gestured to Dox, "I must ask that you leave us alone." "You will stop in the name of Equestria," Shining Armor demanded, coming up alongside us and giving me the stink eye. He was more than likely inspecting me for details to link me to the 'gray armored pony'. Ordinarily I would have let this slide. Not now though. I was tired, I was sore. I was freaking hungry. Beware my wrathful tongue, Shining Armor. "Seeing as I am a sovereign dignitary from outside of Equestria, no, I will not," I claimed, thinking quickly. If I could put myself above him, he might back off, if even temporarily. "And if a lowly captain of the guard such as yourself demands as such again," I stopped, trying to stare down the irate unicorn as best I could. "I will personally bring my concerns to Celestia herself that her subjects are throwing their weight around, acting in an EXTREMELY inharmonious manner. Even somepony as high a rank as you can be demoted if they make a big enough mistake," I threatened. "We don't mean any disrespect," Twilight claimed, waving off the guards who retreated to a safe distance. I noticed they still stayed close enough so that if they needed to jump us, they could. I really hope I knew what I was doing. I really didn't, but I'm sure we could take on a group of freaking guards... even if my body was starting to feel like I had been running around all day without stopping. "You...you're the one the papers are calling Megamane?" Twilight asked. "A translation error from the original language, but I suppose it rolls off the tongue better," I spouted, never breaking from my immaculate accent. "You may call me Megamane if you please. I am third in line for the throne of Prairie, and my friend here is Master of the keep of Lankmar," I said, trying desperately to remember what I could of D&D. I then took a second to glare at Shining Armor, "And if you even think of insulting my friend by daring to refer to him as a 'deformed minotaur' like the impolite waiter, I will be forced to defend his honor. Even if I have to make a fool out of myself to do so," I said proudly. "Shining," Twilight hissed, "Back off!" With a harumph, Shining Armor retreated to walk with his guards. "So...my eternal apologies, but I have some questions, if you could possibly find the time to answer them..." Twilight pressed. Dox looked like he was about to go tell her to stand by her brother and leave us alone, so I cut him off. "Ask them if you may. I may or may not see fit to answer them," I answered, falling into the role of 'snooty royal'. "Well...okay then, what are you doing in Equestria? You set a large area of the forest on fire-" "I disabled an array that was being set up by a fugitive from my country. The fugitive was last seen in this area-" "If there's a refugee criminal, that would have been -" interrupted Shining Armor. I quickly interrupted his interrupt, making it a double interrupt. I wonder if I could make it into a quadruple interrupt? "Tell me, Captain. Are you the highest authority of your land?" When Shining Armor did not reply, I decided to let out a low bark of a laugh. "This is need to know information, and obviously Captain," I fixed him with a triumphant grin, "Those above you decided you didn't need to know. Go along, back to your squad," with this I shooed him away, watching until he was back with the rest of the guards. "I disabled a piece of technology which had attacked one of your citizens," I claimed, stopping under the shade of a tree. Dox leaned back on it, letting out a pleased sigh. Upon seeing that the guards decided this to be an opportune moment to group around I let out an angry shout. "Oy! You lot! Back, all of you, at least to there!" I pointed at a house, at least thirty feet away. "If I wanted you crowding us, I would have asked as much. Back, I say!" They sheepishly complied, acting like a bunch of children who had been caught with their hands in a cookie jar. "Ah, much better. As I was saying, I also filled an old well in the Everfree with cement mix, to trap another shard of the mad stallions delusion." I know I was eventually going to be called out on my bullshit, but I was on a roll. "The female zebra knows of where I speak. If you lot want to do anything useful," I directed to the group trying to eavesdrop on us from beyond the shade of the tree. "I'd suggest looking into that." "Um," Twilight started, clamming up when I glared at her from beneath my helmets visor. "Mad...Stallions delusion?" "As I was saying, bearer of Magic," I stated, causing Twilight to gasp in surprise at my familiarity of her, "A fugitive from my country escaped to this area, he is mad, and goes by the title of 'Albert'. His technology...well you've seen and heard the proof of it, talked to the Zebra from the tower, I wager." "Yes...I have," Twilight started. "This...mad stallion...he wouldn't happen to wear an armor similar to yours...but gray?" I couldn't really think of a response to that, so I instead closed my eyes and let myself enjoy the breeze. "Um...Megamane...sir?" "I know not what garb the fugitive wears," I finally settled on, "I only know him to be in the area. If you would not mind, I would now like to enjoy my friends company, not yours." "I...I...I..." she stuttered, trying to get words to form properly. "I tire of this," I said turning to Dox with a smile on my lips, "My good friend, as the good old Doctor, Who would say, I believe it is time for us to be away." "Later," Dox said cheekily, giving a two finger salute before teleporting us off in a poof of shadow stuff. We reappeared in the basement. I was about to throw a hissy fit over his choice of destination before he cut me off. "You're lucky my teleportation isn't easily tracked," he said. "Shadow magic is really hard to track, due to the fact that it leaves virtually zero magic residue." The initial feeling of panic was swept away, and I let out a low sigh. "I guess that fixes my initial complaint of 'why didn't you teleport to the forest?' For a second there I almost had a fit. Henshin! Sorry we couldn't have had more fun, but now Twilight and her brother are going to be on the war path, searching high and low for us." "Lucky me, I have another universe to go back to," Dox said. Lucky bastard, I wish I had an entirely different world I could retreat to. "Don't worry though, if you need me, you can just call me. You do still have the die, right?" "Right here in my bag," I said, patting at my wheelchair bag. "I'll be sure to call you if I get in a jam, but I do have a bit of a question. How did you make it? I assume magic, but do you think you can make me one as well?" "Well, I learned from someone else," Dox said sheepishly. "Basically, you take an item and say an oath that you believe in. Or at least, that's what I got from the guy. Man, I hope Wade's doing well." That name sounded familiar. Did I know a Wade? I didn't think so, but the name stuck around longer than it should have. Bet the guy was a jerk. "Wade?" I asked. "I assume yet another poor fellow who was kidnapped by Discord or...who did you say got you again?" I asked, momentarily forgetting what he had said previously. "The merchant," Dox confirmed. "He's kind of a dick. Don't get him confused with Avarice, though. Both are merchants of the same type, but Avarice is nicer." "Merchant. Got it," I replied with a huff. "So I just wish really hard?" I went over to a cabinet and opened a drawer, pulling out my sack of bits as I had earlier. I gave Dox a sheepish grin, "One of the only things Discord left me with. A sack of unending gold coins. Man, I would have killed for something like this back on earth...hey, you want any of this? It'll just be refilled in the morning..." He didn't give me an answer, so I reached into the sack and took a handful of the coins, holding them in my two front hooves. I closed my eyes, trying to find whatever combination of concentration was required to pull this off. I felt... something deep inside, pulsing, struggling, fighting to be released. I opened my eyes, staring at the golden coins before me. I shoved my presence into them, and I felt words leap to my lips unbidden. "I am Megamane. If ever you fight against the forces of evil, when ever you may need a guarding light to light your path, call upon me." I took a couple seconds to let that sink in before adding in at the end, "Also, I happen to have the form of a pony. If a question of how discrete one may be is ever a question, fear not." The gold coins glowed in my hooves, slowly transforming into a metallic blue X, small enough to fit snugly over the back of someones hand. I peered at my newest acquisition, staring in awe as Model A flew overhead and scanned it with her pinkish light. "You turned gold...into biometal?" she asked, confusion seeping into her voice. "Quick, wish for a portal back home, for all the other biometal to be here, wish for ANYTHING!!!" I was startled out of my reverie by her outburst, and turned my attention back to the metal x in my hooves. After a few seconds of nothing happening, I gave up and shot her an apologetic grin. "Sorry Model A, guess it's a one time thing. So Dox," I asked, holding up the x, "What do I do with it now?" "I take it," he replied, grabbing it from my hooves. "And that's it. I have a copy of it, and since I travel through the void to leave, it should automatically be sent out when I go. Also, why the x? Does it do anything?" "Not that I know of?" I said, looking at it in his hand. It looked... wrong. It needed... It needed to be in a different placement. "For some reason though...the way it looks in your palm looks...wrong. Can I?" I took it from his palm, flipping his hand over with my other hoof. I fiddled with the x, placing it on the back of his hand. Nothing seemed to happen. It was still incomplete, I just had to...- "That looks...right? Almost like its a button, for cosplay or something..." I looked further at it for a couple seconds, before pressing it down. It clicked into the flesh like it was a button actually ON his skin. A flash of light momentarily blinded me, and when my sight returned it seemed the thing had turned into a...blue...canon thing. It made his hand look like Megaman's. Big surprise there, right? "The hell?" I exclaimed, poking at his new armored appendage. "Is it permanent? If it is, I am sooo sorry..." I explored the surface of the megabuster, until I pressed the x in where it lay exactly where it had been on his hand. Another flash of light proceeded the metal x returning to normal. "Or it could do that. Cool, I guess." I shifted my hand to get a better look at it, and it fell off onto the floor. Guess it wasn't permanently fused to the back of his hand. Oh well, I guess. "Dude," he said, picking it back up and clicking it on again. "That's cool. Hold up, there's a power meter.... and it's empty. This thing is solar powered, I assume?" I guess? The rest of them apparently were, so I guess another chunk of biometal might as well follow the curve. "Anyways, I can't just leave you with my crappy token when you got something cool. Hmmmm...." -he pulled up the his dice in his free hand- "Hey, DM." "Anything you can think of to do to make something cool for David here?" he asked, once more talking to himself like a loon. "Okay then," he continued on, oblivious. "Hey, Model A. Mind if you come over here for a second?" "If you scratch my paint job, it's coming out of your hide," she quipped, floating close enough for him to grab. "Alright," he said to Model A. When he brought up left left hand with the die in it, they started glowing brightly. When his hand was right next to Model A, the dice floated out of his hand and started floating around her. "Whats with the light show?" she asked, spinning in place to track the dice. "If this hurts, I'm gonna make you feel it and more, just warning you," she muttered. The dice that were spinning around her began spinning faster and faster, so fast that it became hard for even Model A to keep track of. They kept spinning until they were nothing but blurs of light. Just then, they stopped glowing before a flash of light appeared in the area they once were. The dice then fell to the ground, done with their mission, leaving a mystified Model A just floating there. When she started looking around however, she, and everyone else in the room, noticed that there was now a new biometal that looked like a black and brown version of Model A floating along with her. Although, it looked like a small cubic piece was missing from it, as it just floated there lifelessly. Dox's dice started glowing visibly. He picked them up and presumably listened to what the big guy had to say. "Okay," he said, again presumably to the DM. He then looked over at me. "Hey, can I see my token real quick?" "Sure," I dug into my wheelchair satchel, and pulled out my token copy of the dice. Dox took the die from my hand and put it in the place on the biometal where it looked like something was missing. It was a perfect fit. Just as it became snug, the biometal reacted, coming to life. The eyes lit up and the little being started floating around freely. "WOO!" it stated. "What a rush!" -it looked around before finally setting its... eyes? It directed its full attention on me- "Oh! You must be Megaman! Or should I call you Megamane? Heh. I am Model DM and a direct contact to Dox over there." I stared at it in a daze for a few seconds, before giving the... biometal a nod. "Uh...hi. Welcome... to life, I guess..." I turned my attention to Dox, drilling him with a questioning glance, "Do you do that often, just create new life forms out of nothing? Wait... does that make you its father... or its mother?" Wait... does that make you its father... or its mother?" "Well, I don't," Dox stated confidently, "But the big guy does. And I guess it'd make me the father.... Meaning Model A is the mother." "Mommy!" cried out the newest chunk of biometal to clutter up my house, buzzing around Dox's head. "Mommy mommy mommy!" Its voice shifted and changed, until it sounded quite similar to Dox's own. "Well, he sure is excitable,"I stated dryly. "I am not his mother," Model A griped. "You're not mommy, Dox is mommy!" Model DM belted out. "Damn it," Dox complained. "Kid, I am not your mommy. If anyone is your mommy it's the astral being known as the Dungeon Master. And no, that's not me." "Don't worry mommy," Model DM spouted, fluttering in front of Dox's face, "I know you aren't going to be staying long, daddy filled me with information when I was born. I know you're going to go back to your world, and I have to stay here. I know that...You'll still visit though, won't you?" "Of course I'll visit," Dox assured him. "But can you stop calling me mommy?! I ain't your mother! I didn't give you life, I just helped the process! Seriously, if anything, the DM's the mother!" "Okay then," Dox continued, "Well, I need to get back. to my world. But, I can't really do that myself. Summoning rules and all that. No, I need you to do something." "Fire away, kinda wish you'd told me before we went on adventures and all that," I chastised, "What if something had happened to me, would you have just been stuck here or something?" "Well, I mean, sometimes portals just open," Dox said. "But it's not always certain. Anyways, I need you to say, 'Dox, our contract is complete'. And if you need me again... Oh wait." "If you need him again," Model DM started. "You can either Megamerge with me, or Double Megamerge with me. I should be compatible with at least Model A, I'm not sure about the others though. Model X, definitely, but again, not sure about the others." "Okay," he said. "You can do that if you need me." "Good to know," I stated, "Don't be a stranger Dox. If you can come over on your own, don't just wait on an invitation from me." I gave him a wide smile. "Dox, Dungeon Master penultimate. Our contract is complete."