Metempsychotic

Full Recovery

Aile had never thought much on her opinions of these Pseudoroids before now, standing before some weird looking jellyfish-type one. He didn't seem as old as he looked, she decided, but that didn't make him any less of a nuisance.

"Are you the great Mega Man that keeps trying to interfere with our plans?" he snorted at her. "I suppose it's asking too much to expect someone so young to understand what we're trying to do."

"Wanna bet?" Aile challenged with a smirk. The Psuedoroid looked down on her with immense disdain.

"You should respect your elders and listen to us old folk!" he then patronized. "There are many lessons to be learned when the young sit back and do as they're told!"

"You're asking for respect when you're going around hiding the truth from people?" Aile then pointed out, getting rather tired of the Pseudoroid in particular. She never liked being looked down on- Vent was one thing, this guy was another. Aile gave a small snort just thinking about it. "Yeah, you're a great role model," she even retorted. The Pseudoroid seemed to match a bit of her humor and let out a chuckle of his own.

"Sometimes ignorance is bliss little one!" he declared. "I am the Model L Pseudoroid, Leganchor. It looks like I'll have to teach you some respect."

"Right..." Aile mumbled to herself as she rearranged Model F's firepower output. The Pseudoroid activated its side turbines in an attempt to suck her inside, but Aile was quick and just barely got out of the way- precisely aiming her buster rounds at Leganchor's middle. The Pseudoroid could not move, making Aile's job much easier, and she finished him up in no time.

"Why..." the Pseudoroid bemoaned as his body started to fail. "Why do you fight so hard? Why do you risk your life for those fools? Wisdom is wasted... on the young..."

Aile turned away for a moment as the Pseudoroid combusted, leaving behind the rest of Model L's data and the disk that contained the rest of information Vent found earlier. Model L's data floated over to them as soon as Aile switched over- there was a momentary surge through the Biometal, then a comforted sound by Model L to confirm everything was back online properly.

'How could anyone give my power to someone like that!?' the Biometal then huffed indignantly to no one in particular. To Aile, she said, 'I'm sorry sweetie, it'll take some time to recover the password. I'll make sure it's available before you have to take on Model W.'

"No worries." the girl smiled before retrieving the data disk. She looked over the disk carefully, checking for any scratches or damage that might have corrupted the data inside. The disk was perfectly in tact. Safely tucking it away, Aile made her way to the transerver to go back to Guardian HQ.

Once she arrived, the girl made a stiff beeline to the computer room, where Fleuve was waiting.

"Hello there Aile." Fleuve greeted with a small smile. "What brings you here?"

"I have the information Prairie sent me to get." the girl replied, holding out the data disk. "I thought that we could retrieve the data here."

"Oh! Yes, we can do that." the small Reploid agreed with a nod of his head. "Let's call the Commander too, she may want to see the data as well."

. . .

Prairie arrived in the computer room shortly after Fleuve called her.

"Alright." the commander ordered. "Sort through the data. Let's see what secrets that disk is hiding, and if it contains Sis's whereabouts."

"Yes Commander." Fleuve agreed as he started up the data. On the screen, the message started to play;

Our recon unit was wiped out by one of our own; Serpent. Some of us have also come into contact with the fragment, so I don't understand the reason why Serpent was the only one affected. Thinking back, he was always the one most interested in the Model W fragment. Maybe... maybe one thing was different: he was a Maverick raid survivor. His passion for research must have been linked to his fear. Model W must have been able to manipulate his emotions... I've never heard of a Maverick that powerful. When he vanished, Serpent erased the research data and took the Biometal with him. Unfortunately, we now know that Model W has the power to create an enemy much more terrifying than the Mavericks. However, that still leaves the question of what Model W is after... I only hope that our sacrifice bought the commander enough time to escape. I don't have much longer. I pray that this data doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

For several moments after the data ended, everyone went silent. It was Prairie who spoke up, in a soft whisper,

"They... sacrificed themselves to make sure she got away..." The commander looked away for a moment as her mind reeled. "She might even be..."

Fleuve walked over the Prairie and gave her a reassuring pat. "Serpent knew what the peoples' reaction would be if they knew the truth." he said to her, sternly. "We'll find her some day, after seeing this data I'm almost positive of it. But for now, Commander, we have other things on our plate."

Prairie looked up at Fleuve and offered a smile. "You're right." she agreed, straightening herself up a little. "We have bigger things at stake than worrying about Sis- I know she can take care of herself if she needed to."

"That'a girl." the smaller Reploid grinned. Both of them then turned to Aile.

"One Biometal left, Aile." Prairie instructed. "Your mission details have already been added to the transerver. Go knock them dead."

. . .

Vent had tried to sleep, but every moment was filled with a horrifying nightmare that seemed more like a memory. Or maybe it was the other way around? Eventually, he drudged himself out of his room and went to find Sho. He found him in Girouette's bedroom, much to Vent's dulled out anger. For a moment, Sho didn't seem to notice Vent's presence until he looked up. Immediately, Sho started to explain himself,

"Boss's computer has most of the business stuff on it. I keep meaning to transfer it to a different interface so I don't have to keep intruding on his stuff... Staying in here makes me think of things I really don't want to- you know?"

Vent absently nodded his head, although he did not.

"So," Sho then started, pushing himself away from the desk a bit, "You gonna start working here again, or will you leave to where ever you disappeared to?"

"I have to go back." Vent informed his friend, a bit darker than what he had intended.

"When?"

"Soon."

"Alright then..." Sho muttered under his breath as he started to get up. "I've gotta go check on everyone else to make sure they're doing their share. If you leave before the work day's over, come track me down and let me know you're leaving. Alright?"

Vent gave a small nod before Sho carefully scooted past him to get to the main warehouse. From there, the boy stood at the door of his caretaker's bedroom for some time before finally deciding to come in. He sat himself down at the desk and stared at the computer monitor. Sho had left it on, apparently. Even though Vent knew that nothing of real importance would be on it, he started to go through the computer's contents regardless.