Legends of the Halcyon Era: The Girl With No Name

Happy 35th Anniversary of Mega Man, everyone!

Things have been building towards this day here for a while now, a lot of it behind the scenes. For starters, a new look for the site! It’s not just pretty, but functional, too — a lot of stuff in the old version was broken, and it was a holdover between the old site from before that version and now. Images that were broken before from the site transition should be working now, as well as old comments. We’re still hammering out a few things, but if you notice something that isn’t working right, email us at the.mega.man.network (at) gmail-dot-com with the details, maybe some screencaps, if you can (but don’t use the contact form at the bottom yet… still working on that). Once this is in order, it will finally be on to some new(-ish?) projects that I think some of you will be excited about.

Second, tonight is the big kick-off for “Nadia & David’s Mega Man Mayhem”! This will be our live streaming series where we plan to take about 90 minutes per episode to play through as much of each Mega Man game as we can, in sequential timeline order, starting with the very first one — Mega Man, via the Mega Man Legacy Collection! When we finish that, on to Mega Man 2, and so forth. Join us tonight at 6pm EST on twitch.tv/nyteworks, where we’ll chat about 35 years of Mega Man, and have us a good ol’ time!

And finally, there is this: The latest episode of “Legends of the Halcyon Era,” which has a special meaning to me, and which I’ve worked hard over the last few months to make sure would be ready for today. Give it a read, and then be sure to read past the end for some special notes about it and why I wanted it to be ready for this day!

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era

The Girl With No Name

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

Almost a day had passed since the group went to visit “Kade” – rather, Fenix’s mother. Fenix himself returned later that night, into the wee hours of the morning, and the rest of the day was largely spent eating hospital food and finding ways to pass the time.

Nytetrayn laid in his hospital bed, reading a magazine about Digging. The Air Pirate, Xenos Geist, was doodling out blueprints, seeing as his charge, Radi, was currently snoozing fitfully under a bed. Fenix sat in bed, polishing one of his guns, while Janine laid in her bed across from him, watching with rapt attention.

Fenix stopped polishing his gun. “I am bored out of my skull,” he said.

“Indeed,” agreed Nytetrayn. “When the hell can we get out of here, anyway?”

“WAHAA!” Xenos cried out. “The Do-deca-pede is finished!”

“The what?” asked Nytetrayn, as a metallic thunk rang out from beneath Radi’s chosen bed. She had sat up, and may have knocked herself out.

“My new armor,” Xenos replied with a huge grin. “What was that sound?”

Xenos looked under Radi’s bed, to find the girl laid out and snoring.

“Fascinating,” said Fenix. “Is it okay?”

“I don’t know how it’s doing, but Radi looks okay,” Xenos said as he began straightening up.

Fenix smirked, while Nyte gave a light chuckle.

It was then that Doctor Kohn walked briskly into the room, looking intently at his clipboard. So much so, that he seemed completely unaware that he was wearing no pants. Just hideous boxers which revealed abominably hairy legs.

Xenos froze as he caught sight of the doctor’s state of dress, and began to regret everything. Nyte did a double-take, and buried his face back in his magazine, muttering something about this definitely not being one of your better hospitals.

“Um, Doc?” Janine began to ask.

“Hmmm?”

“…nothing,” she said, as she stared in a terror-like state.

“Drafty in here, isn’t it?” Kohn said, as he looked up from his clipboard to see everyone’s various methods of coping. “Are you all okay?”

Radi peeked out from under the bed, and disintegrated back into the darkness beneath.

“F…. orget something, Doc?” Xenos asked.

“Hmm?” the doctor replied, looking around. “No… I don’t think so.”

From underneath one of the beds, Radi’s voice rang out. “PaaaannntttSSSSSSSS, YOU MORON.”

“…thank you, Radi,” said Fenix, while Janine trembled.

“Doctor Kohn blinked and looked down. “Oh.”

“‘Oh,’ he says,” Nyte remarked.

“Silly me, I’ll be right back,” said the doctor, as he excused himself.

Janine appeared to have turned to stone, the only discernible motion being her left eyelid, which sporadically twitched.

“Ugliest… boxers… ever…” Xenos said.

“To say nothing of the legs, uy,” said Nytetrayn.

“…and my mom sees this pervert,” Fenix added. “I may have to kill him.”

Xenos pulled Radi from under the bed, and stood up. She flopped over bonelessly. “I’ll find some way to destroy that memory from our minds,” said the Pirate.

“No, no… sometimes it’s good to know fear,” said Nytetrayn, who pondered for a moment before adding, “though now that I think about it, this may be a good exception to that little rule.”

Doctor Kohn returned a moment later, now with pants fully equipped. “Now, then! Janine, your tests are in, and it looks like your arm has almost made a complete recovery. There’s still some odd discoloration. I have no idea how you got a tan under those bandages, but you should be just fine in a few days, maybe a week or so.”

“May I ask you, Doctor, did you even have a single thought about the child here?” asked Xenos.

Kohn turned to Xenos. “Child?”

Xenos held up Radi, who was completely noodley. “How could you not be aware? Lord knows she’s loud enough.”

Doctor Kohn gave a long stare, completely mystified, before saying, “She was never signed in… she’s not a patient here.”

Nytetrayn raised an eyebrow at this. “…so why has she been plaguing us for this past week?”

“I figured,” said Xenos. “But she must have blown up something, or sat down to drink beer with you guys, or something.”

“Nope,” said the doctor. “Never seen her before in my life.”

“That’s oddly fitting,” said Fenix.

“Yes,” agreed Xenos.

“Ggggahh,” said Radi.

“Uh, if I may interject…” Janine said, as she raised her hand. “Doc, are you saying what I think you were saying?”

The doctor blinked, before saying, “…that you’re free to go?”

“YES!” Janine leaped out of her bed and immediately ripped off her hospital gown, replacing it with her usual attire. “Let’s get the hell out of here!”

The rest of the group were surprised, but not long enough to keep them from getting ready themselves.

“…I’m glad you all enjoyed your stay…” said the doctor.

“Trust me, doc,” said a smiling Nytetrayn. “It’s been real, it’s been fun, but it damn sure hasn’t been real fun.”

Nodding, Doctor Kohn replied, “I understand. Just don’t piss off Georgette on the way out. Bye, folks.” Nyte chuckled, while the doctor waved and left.

Nyte got his backpack on, while Fenix placed his cloak around his shoulders with a flourish, and slid his helmet on. Radi noodle-flopped onto the floor and skittered out, propelling herself with only her toes, while Xenos looked on, speechless.

“You okay, Xenos?” asked Fenix.

“Yeah, what’s up?” Nytetrayn wondered.

“That man is frightening, you know,” Xenos replied, still watching Radi, “and… how does she do that?”

Fenix nodded. “Life is surreal, my friend.”

“I’d rather not think about any of it,” Nyte said.

“That’s what I usually do,” added Janine.

“Ah well,” Xenos said as he rolled up and stashed his blueprint. “Let’s go.”

“Yes, far away from the scary man with the argyle boxers,” said Janine.

“Sounds good to me!” Nyte said, as he led the group out into the hallway and past the front desk, where Nurse Georgette still dwelled, snoring loudly. Outside, the sun had started to set. Inside, Radi was crawling up and down the walls, using only her toes, when Janine picked her up by the scruff of her neck, and wrapped her up in a maternal hug.

“Very hilly, this place,” said the girl, prompting Janine to blush scarlet as she stoically set the girl down.

“So!” Janine said. “Are you coming with us, or are you headed for parts unknown?”

Nyte quietly said to himself, “Gawd, don’t invite her along…”

Radi cocked her head to the side, as if she didn’t understand a word of what Jan just said.

Janine sighed and nodded. “Yeah, I figured as much.” She patted her on the head, before telling her, “See you later, Kiddo.” She then headed outside with the others, frowning.

Xenos paused, as Radi scampered past on all fours, looked around, then shrugged as he walked out.

Nyte and Fenix looked on, speechless, until Nytetrayn asked, “So, back to the ship, then?”

Then Radi adhered herself to Nyte’s leg with her teeth.

“AAAH!!!” Nyte screamed, as he tried to shake the girl off, to no avail. “Getitoffgetitoffgetitoff…!!!”

Nyte hopped around on one foot, shaking the other leg and turning in circles. “No! No! Back! Back! Down! Down! Down! Mine! Mine! Mine!”

Around her teeth, Radi exclaimed, “Wheeee!”

The others laughed – at least, until Nyte switched to Buster mode. Xenos stopped cackling, shouted “WHOA-AH!”, and grabbed her away before Nyte fired a shot.

“AAAAAAAH MY FOOOOT!!!!”

Janine smacked Nytetrayn upside the head as he blew on his smoking foot. “You jerk! She’s just a little kid!”

“Hey! It was set on low power…” Nyte said as he slumped, defeated. In the meantime, Radi took a seat on Nyte’s shoulder, smiling and unscathed.

Nyte just patted Radi on the head, and said, “Please don’t latch on to me…”

“Previews, trailers, and more!” Radi said with a huge grin. “Call today!”

Xenos glanced at Fenix. “And you get mad at ME?”

“I do? For what?”

“For shooting at people.”

“Particularly small harmless children,” Radi chimed in.

Fenix shrugged.

“Anyways, where were we?” Nyte asked.

“Getting away from here before the freak in the argyle shorts comes after me,” Janine answered.

“Hm,” Xenos said, looking to Radi. “So you’re staying here, Kiddo?”

“I think she’s more likely to follow us if we ignore her,” said Fenix.

“Seems about right,” Nyte said.

“Probably,” admitted the Pirate. “But I like people to tell me.”

“I go,” Radi said, as she pointed to some random point on the horizon without looking.

“…really.”

“Eee,” she replied, with a huge grin.

“I think she does like you, Nyte,” Janine said. Nyte looked less than thrilled at the prospect, much to Fenix’s amusement.

“Now get down from there, you little monkey,” said Xenos. “I don’t think Nyte’s comfortable.”

Radi puffed down, and looked about aimlessly as Xenos messed with her hair. Nyte looked a little more relieved, now that he didn’t have a little girl sitting on his shoulders. At least, until Fenix messed with his hair. Nyte looked unamused, at least until he sprayed glass cleaner on Fenix’s visor and wiped it down, prompting the older Digger to stop as Janine looked on and chuckled.

“So, onwards and upwards?” asked Nyte.

“Where do you go?” Radi inquired.

“We’re going… to my airship to go… somewhere,” answered Xenos.

“That works. Onward!” said Nytetrayn, as he started towards the ship again, with Fenix and Janine following.

As Radi waved, Xenos bent down and whispered to her, “Can’t guarantee those three’ll still be flying with me…”

“WHY’RE YOU WHISPERING!?” Radi yelled, making Xenos fall over.

“Because,” he said.

The other three turned around, and Nyte said, “…the hell?”

Pouting, Janine said, “You’d abandon us? All alone, without any vehicle of our own? Trapped on an island with the hairy guy in argyle boxers!?”

Xenos hopped to his feet, and shouted back, “Weeee’lllll taaallllk abouuuuuttt iiiiiiiiiiit~!”

“Yeah, and my mom?” Fenix added, shaking his fist at the retreating Air Pirate. “You cold-hearted monster!”

After a moment, Nytetrayn had another realization. “Waitaminute… our stuff is on that ship!”

Janine’s eyes widened. “My god! my clothes!”

“Funny,” Radi said with a gleeful look on her face.

Fenix debated on whether to shoot the Pirate as Nytetrayn got ready to dash after him, when a female voice called out from behind them. “Wait…!”

Nytetrayn skidded to a quick halt, nearly falling over forward in the process. As he and the others turned to find the source of the voice, a young woman was trying to catch up to the group. When she stopped, a bit out of breath, the others could see she was on the shorter side, only about five feet or so, with long, brown hair. She was dressed in a hodgepodge of clothing: a baggy pale blue t-shirt, what looked like some sort of old, red workout shorts, and a mismatched pair of tennis shoes – one teal, the other pink.

“Um… can we help you?” Nytetrayn asked.

“Wow, Nyte’s just attracting all the babes today,” Fenix said, causing Janine to smirk and give him a noogie.

“Quiet, you,” Nyte told him, before turning back to the girl.

Puffing for breath, she replied, “If you’re… who I think you are… then I think you already did…”

“…zuh?” Nyte said, confused, as he looked to the others, who shrugged innocently, and back to this girl he’d never seen before.

“Um, ok… Do I know you…?”

“Um… I don’t think you do,” the girl said, as she finally caught her breath, “but back at the hospital, they said you’re the one responsible for helping save my life.”

Then it hit Nytetrayn. This must be…

“Ooh, knight in black shiny armor,” Fenix teased, before Nyte could finish his thought.

Janine elbowed Nyte in the ribs. “You dog, you!”

Nytetrayn was starting to get a little red in the face at the attention. “Um… wasn’t anything,” he told the girl, trying to downplay the whole incident.

“Oh… um, are you sure?” she asked.

Nytetrayn looked back to Fenix and Janine, remembering the refractor, and back to the girl. “Just… um… doing a good deed, is all. So, um, I don’t think I caught your name… mine is Nytetrayn,” he said, putting his hand out to shake. “What’s yours?”

As the girl slowly went to shake, she replied, “Actually… I don’t know. I… don’t remember much of anything, really.”

“Aww, poor thing,” said a suddenly very concerned Janine. “You’ve got amnesia?”

The girl just nodded in response.

“Oh!” Janine said, as she pulled the girl into a hug.

“That’s what they tell me–OOF!!!”

“You poor dear, I know just what you’re going through,” Janine said, as she stroked the girl’s hair comfortingly. “At least I remembered my name…”

Wide-eyed, the girl didn’t know quite how to respond, caught in Janine’s ample “grip.” Janine finally let her go, and stood back, still with that sorrowful look in her eyes.

“So, how did Nyte help you?” Janine asked. “I didn’t know he was a doctor…”

One could almost hear the sound of glass shattering as Nyte’s eyes shot wide open.

“Yeah… how DID you save her life, Nyte?” asked Fenix.

“Well,” the girl said, “they said he was the one who donated the refractor they used to cure my condition…”

“…oh crap,” Nytetrayn said in a quiet tone. Feni’s eyes widened. Janine gawked with her mouth wide open. Nytetrayn started to sweat. This could get ugly.

“…you… gave them… our refractor… the refractor we risked life, limb, and sanity for, in the backyard of SATAN!?” Fenix said, as his eyes glowed a baleful red.

Nytetrayn gulped, which was unusual for him, as he started to sweat and nodded slowly.

Janine was opening and closing her mouth, apparently caught in a quandary.

From Xenos’ ship, cursing could be heard.

“The refractor that I got two concussions for? The refractor that Jan got her skin ripped off for? THAT refractor!?”

The girl watched in stunned silence as Nytetrayn nodded as he winced. She then gave him a quick hug from the side in appreciation. “Thank you,” she said. “It sounds like you all went through a lot for that refractor…”

Fenix fell to his knees on the ground, sobbing.

“I’m glad it went for a good cause, I guess,” said Janine, who also broke down sobbing after a moment.

Nytetrayn was just a stewpot of emotions. Mostly embarrassment, fear, nervousness, and maybe a little bit happy that the girl was alright now, too.

“Well,” the girl said in a bit of a nervous manner, “I just wanted to say thank you, before you left…”

Nytetrayn was reluctant to say “no problem”, given his friends’ current reactions. “Er… right… yeah… glad… to do it…”

While Janine beat her first on the ground in a melodramatic manner and cursed cruel fate, Fenix abruptly straightened back up. “Just for that, I’m telling your next girlfriend about your smut collection.”

Nytetrayn had a surprised, bewildered look on his face, while the girl was speechless.

“…which I might have just accomplished, but we’ll see,” Fenix added. Both Nytetrayn and the girl didn’t know how to react to that.

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to see if I can’t get us a ride,” Fenix said as he walked off towards Xenos’ ship, chuckling softly to himself.

“Dude, that’s YOUR porn collection,” Nyte said. “And you found it dumpster-diving, no less! ‘Practice for when we go into the ruins!’ you said!”

Janine suddenly recovered, and asked, “Then why is it hidden under your bed?”

After a moment of confusion and then realization, Nyte fired a low-powered Buster shot after Fenix, which would have hit him right in the butt were it not for a last-minute sidestep as he gave Nyte the finger. “…pack-rat-fink bastard… I TOLD him not to hide those there…”

Turning back to the girl, who was still trying to take all this in, Nyte asked, “Um… so, where do you go from here?”

“…um… actually… I don’t know. I don’t really… have any place to go. There don’t seem to be any records of any kind on me that they could find…”

Nytetrayn muttered to himself for a moment. “Crap… can’t just leave her here… that would suck, if I brought her out of a coma, just to leave her with nowhere to go…”

“They’ll kill me… I know it…”

Looking back at the girl, Nyte asked, “…why don’t you come with us?”

That was a normal, rational suggestion, right? Then why were the girl and Janine both staring silently at him like he had two heads? Nyte winced again, leaving one eye open this time.

“Um, sure, ok…” the girl said.

“Ok, um… great!”

Janine smirked. “Well, this is cool. Now I’m not the only one you’ll all be staring at.”

Ignoring Jan, Nyte told the girl, “…just one thing. I think we’re going to have to make up some ground if we want to have a place to go.”

“C’mon, we better move!” he said, as he started off for the ship. After a brief pause, the girl followed, and Janine did as well.

Meanwhile, the Air Pirate Xenos Geist sat inside his living room as Fenix arrived, knocking on the main hatch with his mechanical arm. Hard. It opened, and the Digger headed inside, and passed through the living room as he went when he noticed Xenos there.

“H’lo,” said the Pirate.

“Howdy,” said the Digger, who drawled the word, while his eyes glittered with some dark emotion. “I’m just going to grab our things… won’t be half a moment.”

“I missed what you were saying before,” Xenos started to say, when Nytetrayn burst in the door.

“Man, that’s cold, Xenos. What’s up?”

“Misunderstanding. I’m not abandoning you guys here.”

“Do we dare ask, then?” Nyte said, as the girl caught up, huffing a bit.

“I wanted to talk to you guys here about it,” Xenos said. “I just figured it’d be somewhat good for Radi to know.”

“O-kaaaaay…” Nyte said. Janine walked up beside Nyte and the girl, and looked over the room with a neutral expression. Meanwhile, Fenix was still watching Xenos, and his eyes still glittered. All three awaited an explanation.

“After the whole Devil’s Yard thing… I began to wonder if I’m really cut out for digging.”

“I think you did well,” Nyte said, before he noticed the girl’s shortness of breath. Turning his attention to her, he asked, “Are you alright…?”

Between taking some breaths, she replied, “…yeah… just… give me a second…”

Xenos started to answer, when he took notice of the girl. “It’s not for — who’s this?”

“You should sit down,” Nyte said, as he helped her to a chair.

“…thanks… they said I should get better before too long… my body just needs to adapt…”

Acknowledging Xenos, Nyte said, “Um, this? This is… uh… the new girl!”

The girl seemingly didn’t know how to respond to that.

“…that… really isn’t going to do, is it?”

“Nyte’s main squeeze,” said Fenix. “Let’s get to the part where I leave.”

“Does she have a name?” Xenos asked.

“No… not really,” she replied.

“You should have a name…” Nyte said, as he started to think to himself again. “Let’s see… what to name her… Susie? Sal? Britney? Christina? Roll? Sal? Mayl? Cammy? Claire? Celeste?”

Nyte paused for a moment at that last name. “How about ‘Celeste’?” he asked .

Janine said, “I was going to suggest ‘Janine the Second’, but that’s a pretty name.”

After having a moment to take it in, the girl said, “…that sounds good.”

“Alrighty then!” Nytetrayn said. “Celeste it is!” After taking a moment to consider her current outfit, Nyte added, “…while we’re at it, maybe we should get you some new clothes…?”

“For God’s sake,” said Fenix, “let’s not give her anything from Jan’s wardrobe. She’d probably die from embarrassment.”

Nytetrayn nodded in agreement, and Janine was just about to argue the point, but then shrugged and nodded herself. It was true.

Xenos coughed. “Definitely. Physics and all. Anyway…”

Celeste just sort of blushed nervously.

Moving along, Nyte said, “I don’t think the others have introduced themselves. The guy in the welding hat is Fenix, the exhibitionist is Janine, and Sir Long-Johns the 18th over there is…”

“I am Xenos Maximillian Amadeus Wolfgang Stein Geist the Sixth.”

Fenix developed an eye twitch, while Jan just stood there looking less than flattered. Xenos just waved.

A bit nervously and with some embarrassment, Celeste told everyone, “pleased to meet you all.”

Fenix waved idly, while Janine gave her a quick hug. “Oof!” was all Celeste could say as the Ancient squeezed the breath right out of her, a surprised expression on her face.

At that point, something tugged on the leg of Celeste’s shorts. She looked down, and saw a little bipedal robot – one of Xenos’ Helpbots – bearing a number “3” on its head. “Hello miss, would you like a tour?” it asked.

“What the…?”

“Don’t worry about the bizarre Playmobil people,” Fenix said. “They’re harmless.”

“It’s sorta cute…” she said.

“Thank you, Miss,” #3 said, a pleased expression spread across its face.

“Okay, I guess I can take the tour,” Celeste said with a smile.

Janine smirked, noting Celeste’s seemingly increased level of comfort.

“Follow me, miss,” #3 said, as it continued to smile and led her along, gesturing to rooms the others couldn’t see as they walked by. “This is the reading room… there’s the library… Oooh! And here’s the washing machine-beast!”

Xenos sprang upright in his chair at the mention of the washing machine-beast. Celeste looked perplexed by that part of the tour, but the little robot kept on guiding, and she continued to follow without incident, as Xenos slumped back down in his chair, relieved.

Fenix muffled a chuckle at the Pirate’s alarmedness, but Nyte started to wonder if he should go, too, for Celeste’s protection.

Celeste asked the little Helpbot what it meant by “washing machine-beast,” and it took her to pet a monster the likes of which she had – probably – never seen. She remained cautious, as if unsure of what to expect after what she’d seen so far.

“He eats chairs!” #3 said with a proud smile. Celeste raised an eyebrow at this.

Nyte tapped his foot, nervously. This couldn’t end well, could it?

“She’ll be fine if she’s careful, Xenos said. “#3! Don’t get the new guest killed! Okay?”

Celeste was a bit more afraid now, as she looked on with a mix of wariness and fear.

“Okayyyy!” said #3. “I’m sorry to say that you can’t pet it,” it said with a frown. “Sorry~!”

“…um… it’s ok,” she said, with a bit of nervous relief.

Back in the living room, Nyte turned back to Xenos. “Now, what were we saying…?”

“I’m not sure digging’s for me.”

Nyte took this in, then told him, “Trust me, that experience was FAR from the norm. From now on, no journeys inspired by tales on the back of cocktail napkins.”

“Yes, definitely,” Fenix agreed.

“Cocktail napkins bad,” Janine added.

“Hmm, yeah,” Xenos said. “But you know… I don’t like going underground.”

“Maybe you could spot for us?” Nyte suggested.

“He doesn’t want to do it, Nyte,” said Fenix. “It’s understandable, I couldn’t adapt to his lifestyle. I don’t hold it against him, certainly.”

“Thanks, Fenix,” said the Pirate.

Nyte sighed. “Easy come, easy go,” he said, as he lamented the loss of the new lifestyle to which he had happily, and quickly, become accustomed to. “I wonder if our old apartment is taken…”

“I’ll try to find something less, err, dishonest… but I can’t promise it’ll be quick,” Xenos said. “It’s born and bred into me, piracy is.”

Fenix nodded, his eyes seeming a little less demonic now. “I know the feeling.”

As they spoke, Nyte guessed his dream of leading a Helpbot army from his mech was totally screwed now.

“Maybe it’s time I settle a few scores… and I’m sorry, Nyte, but pirating gear just simply wasn’t meant for digging.”

Nyte nodded, while Janine looked sad, but said nothing. Then the younger Digger asked, “Think you can swing us back by our place?”

“That was the plan.”

“Cool,” said Nyte. “Guess we should start readying our things…”

“I’m sorry guys… it wasn’t going to work out anyway.”

Fenix nodded. “It’s alright… you have your own demons. I wish you luck.”

“And by the way, if you ever find Creed, just give me a call.”

“Sure thing.”

Fenix nodded again to himself, then left the room. “”I’m just going to get my stuff from the room and make sure Celeste is still alive.”

Nyte followed. He never really had time to settle in, so packing wasn’t much of an effort for him. He quickly put his stuff with the mech, and ventured off in search of Celeste.

Janine remained where she was for a long moment, then walked over to Xenos, kissed him hard on the lips, and then walked out.

When Nyte and Fenix found Celeste, she was in a large room, where Helpbots with tape-measure were surrounding her and taking measurements.

“…the hell?” said the younger Digger.

“Little pervs,” added the older Digger.

“Um, what are you guys doing?”

“Measuring her for her new wardrobe,” said the Helpbot marked with a “14,” as it smiled proudly.

“Janine seemed happy with her results,” added the one marked “15”.

“That’s true, she was,” said Fenix.

Nyte nodded, and said to himself, “Well, I guess that’ll save us money when we get back to town…”

A Helpbot marked “16” spoke up over the others with a fake “artistic” accent, as it looked over Celeste. “Hmm, hmm, now what do I see her in? Hmmm… Let’s see…. Yes! Like Miss Janine!”

Celeste didn’t say anything aloud, but her expression made it clear that she wasn’t really comfortable with that idea. In fact, she almost looked ready to freak out.

“Um… I dunno about that, guys…” said Nytetrayn.

“That’d be lovely!” said #12.

“Yes! Maybe some lace along here,” said #13 as it gestured, “to accent her form…”

Celeste looked to Nyte and Fenix, as if to say, “help”.

“Bare midriff, definitely,” said #10, while #34 stumbled out with a bundle of netting.

“Um…. I don’t think that quite suits her,” said Fenix.

“Ohh, shush,” said #16.

Fenix looked at Nyte. “Did it just try to ‘shush’ me?!”

Ignoring Fenix for the moment, Nyte said, “Yeah… we’ll handle things, guys… thanks for playing, yadda-yadda-yadda.”

The Helpbots were not deterred. “She’ll love it!” shouted #13, while #34 said, “Mph’ll phee!”

“Um, I really don’t know, guys,” said Celeste, who looked like she was quickly developing a new fondness for the scraps she’d been given.

“Come on, give it a try,” said #10, with a pleasant smile.

As she tried inching back away from the Helpbots, Celeste looked like she didn’t know what to do; as though she didn’t want to hurt the little guys’ feelings, but didn’t really want to dress like Janine, either..

“What would miss suggest?” added #16.

“Oh… um… I dunno…” Celeste said, as if she didn’t expect to have a say in the matter at this point.

“Methinks Celeste would have an aneurism if she was seen in public in some of Jan’s ensembles,” said Fenix, adding “…not to mention Nyte would die from blood loss.”

“Shut up, Fenix,” Nyte said. The older Digger chuckled softly.

“16, maybe you should like her decide,” said #10.

“Ah! But she will hide her flower-like beauty!”

Nyte looked at his wrist. “Oops, look at the time! Come on, Celeste, it’s time for your medication!” Quickly, he led her away from the increasingly less-intelligible #16 and the other Helpbots, while she just looked confused at the part about her medication.

On their way out of the room, #3 apologized for his cohorts. “Please forgive them. 16 is convinced he’s a foreign artist.”

Nyte gestured for #3 to come over into the hallway, then told Celeste, “Maybe you should go back to the living room, I’ll catch up.” Apparently grateful to be out of there, she nodded and went on ahead. Nyte then turned his attention back to #3.

“Can you guys just whip up something practical, conservative? Stylish, still, but not too showy or anything?”

“You mean lock them up in a closet? Sounds good,” #3 said with a pleased smile.

“…whatever it takes…”

The Helpbot vanished with a giggle, and Nyte looked at Fenix, who just shrugged. Nyte nodded, and the two headed back to the living room themselves.

Some time later, #3 came back for Celeste, and she soon walked back into the living room in her new outfit. Now she wore a white t-shirt with a blue vest, blue shorts with rolled cuffs, and some blue and white sneakers.

Fenix raised an eyebrow underneath his mask, but said nothing. Janine smiled, and said, “Hi, Celeste! You look nice!”

“Thanks,” Celeste said, blushing a little at the attention.

Nyte breathed a sigh of relief that the Helpbots didn’t go nuts, but he felt a bit nervous commenting on her outfit, so he just sort of nodded in agreement with the others.

#5 then trotted in. “Hello~!” it said with a big smile across its face.

After the others greeted the Helpbot, it continued smiling and said, “#6 wanted me to inform you that we shall be landing soon.”

“Cool,” said Nyte. “Nifty,” added Fenix. Janine’s smile faltered a little, but she nodded to the Helpbot happily.

“…something wrong, Janine?” asked Nyte.

“No… nothing.”

Xenos stumbled out of another room in his bathrobe and slippers. “What? We can’t be landing already!”

Janine glanced at Xenos, her smile disappearing completely as a questioning look entered her eyes. Nyte just shrugged and leaned back against the wall, while Celeste looked a little uneasy.

Xenos charged up the stairs to the bridge, and shouted, “NUMBER SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIX!!!!!”

“…that would be a lot funnier if it had been number two,” Fenix said.

Nyte chuckled in response, then glanced out the window. Everything seemed okay. Everything, but for the fact they didn’t appear to be anywhere near the shore.

“We gotta get us a ship someday,” he said.

“Yeah,” Fenix agreed, when realization struck him, Nytetrayn, and Janine at the same time.

“NUMBER SIX?!” the three shouted, all at once.

Along with Celeste, they turned to see Xenos come back down, fully clad in armor.

“If we survive this, I am going to dismantle #6,” Xenos said.

“Do we want to know?” asked Fenix.

“What did he do?” asked Celeste.

“Well–” Xenos started to explain, when the whole group suddenly found themselves plastered against the wall.

“I knew I didn’t want to know,” Fenix managed to say.

“It was nice knowing you guys!” said the Pirate.

“That does not fill me with confidence… What the hell is going on?!” Nyte shouted.

“We don’t want to know!” Fenix yelled, as he clung grimly to the wall.

“I do! I want to know how I died, dammit!”

“Our fall has accelerated!” said Xenos.

“Our fall?!” asked Nyte. “What the hell do you mean, ‘our fall’?!”

Celeste held on for dear life.

“#6 apparently thought it would be a good idea to try landing on some rocks by the beach…”

Nytetrayn asked, deadpan: “…landing, or crashing?”

“Crashing, at this point.”

Nyte turned his attention to Xenos. “Which way to the control room?”

“Don’t bother. #6’s managed to wreck all the equipment. I sent a team of Helpbots out onto the wings to try and fix our descent…”

“This is why I prefer not to travel by airship,” said Fenix.

“You never had a problem with it before!” Nyte said.

“Call it a ‘change of preference,’” Fenix said. “I’ve learned a lot about myself recently, and that’s the latest thing.”

“Airship travel’s usually good,” said Xenos, “but #6 keeps stealing the controls.”

“How long before we hit?” Nyte asked.

“I can’t die now,” said Fenix. “I never had a chance to play catch with my father!”

Xenos started to say, “We should hit in abou–” when he registered what Fenix had just said, and was stunned into silence.

“Before I died, just ONCE, I wanted to play a nice, normal game of catch with my dad, but NO…”

“…I won’t comment on that right now,” said Nytetrayn.

Sobbing, Fenix yelled, “I LOVE YOU, DADDY!!!”

Janine was awakened by the sheer wrongness of that.

“He’s snapped,” said Xenos.

“Later,” said Nyte. “How long?”

As he checked his watch, Xenos said, “We’ve got about–”

They were all then thrown about by a series of impacts on the hull of the ship; several gleeful squeals could be heard all around.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH,” screamed Xenos.

“IF WE LIVE, ALL OF THOSE HELPBOTS ARE GOING TO DIE!” Janine chimed in.

“CRAP!” yelled Nytetrayn.

Celeste shrieked.

“I just wanted to play catch…”

As the ship tore through the ground, its passengers were thrown about like dolls before being knocked unconscious.

To be continued…

—–

–

I’m not a huge believer in coincidences. Still, sometimes you can’t help but appreciate how things just happen to work out.

When I began this year, I had no intention of writing this story. But things began to happen in just such a way that I can’t help but wonder if maybe there was some sort of reason behind it all that I’m not privy to.

Early on in the year, my wife insisted that we watch Cowboy Bebop together. I wasn’t resistant to the idea — it’s just something that never quite came to pass up to this point, thanks in part to it not airing in Canada when it was hitting it big in the States. But with my borrowing the sign-off catchphrase of one Kenny “Omega Man X” Omega to sign off our own video game streams on Twitch, Nadia became particularly insistent that I see where he must have gotten it from. And with its run on Netflix soon coming to an end, it was as perfect a time as any.

I was instantly hooked. Not just due to the show’s own charms, but because as I watched, I was reminded in some ways of this old Mega Man Legends RPG that some friends and I took part in back in the early aughts — something that was not lost on other participants, but it was on me, for the aforementioned reasons. Finally watching the show, it all came together. And I started to become nostalgic.

I dug up some of the old logs, and started reading. And as I read, I realized that we had some pretty good stuff going here, maybe better than I had remembered, especially as things progressed (we’re still in the really early goings of the fic version, though I consider this episode a turning point). There were also things still to come that I’d had in mind for quite some time, some since before we stopped playing for whatever reasons (life, mostly), and some from after. Things I wanted to see happen, or be resolved, one way or another.

What’s more, it helped me rediscover my love of Mega Man. As I said in the foreword of the first chapter, I never stopped loving Mega Man, but I’d reached a point where I was perhaps taking it for granted. Today’s “Mega Man Mayhem” stream was meant to be the start of an ongoing journey to rediscover what it was I loved about Mega Man through replaying the games, but it turns out that in rediscovering this RPG, I managed to beat myself to it. And it’s not just Legends, either, but the totality of Mega Man. My love for all things Blue Bomber feels reinvigorated to a level I haven’t felt in years, and I hope some of that comes through in this story, and maybe rubs off on some people in the process.

Anyway, as I began planning all this, I discovered something interesting: 2021 marked the 20th anniversary of when we first began doing the RPG (we’d done others before and after, but none had quite the legs of Legends). So, starting this just missed the mark for that milestone — and to be honest, I thought this was the 20th anniversary until writing this (thanks in part to the date on the file), but apparently the very first session actually took place the prior year.

But I digress; there was another moment of significance that was coming up, and it was perhaps even more remarkable to me.

The character we meet in this episode, Celeste, is a special one to me. So much so, her art was the first I had commissioned when I set out on this endeavor. Getting to her introduction has been my first major goal since I started adapting these old sessions and writing this story. I hope in time, you’ll see why. To me, even though we already had a cast of numerous characters thus far, she felt like the missing piece.

What’s remarkable about this, though, is when she was introduced. Though the session began just before midnight, she wouldn’t make her first appearance until the early morning of December 17th, 2002.

Not only the anniversary of Mega Man, but the 15th anniversary of Mega Man.

This was not planned on my part at all; it just happened that way. But upon noticing it recently, it became my goal — my mission — to introduce her to the world on her 20th anniversary, which is also the 35th anniversary of Mega Man. It only seemed right.

That’s why I drove myself to write *checks* 83,967 words in less than five months, many of those being the epic Devil’s Yard Journey back in October. I knew I had to take drastic measures then if I was going to make the anniversary date. I was only going to get one shot at a milestone like this. I had to make it count.

Thank goodness it was the month of Halloween, so it was at least appropriately themed.

Now, at long last… here we are. The importance of the preceding episodes cannot be diminished, especially with regards to what lies ahead, but with Celeste now part of the crew… this is where things really begin for me. In a way, this is where the story I loved really starts.

And I hope you’ll enjoy the ride. Trust me, as good as things have been, they only get better from here.

Thanks for reading, Happy 35th Anniversary, and…

–

Legends of the Halcyon Era is a work of fan fiction set in the world of Mega Man Legends. It is largely adapted from a series of freeform RPG sessions, combining ideas from several contributors, and further fleshed out here in a prose format.

David Oxford, also known as LBD “Nytetrayn,” is a lifelong Mega Man fan who, along with his wife Nadia, has co-written the Mega Man Robot Master Field Guide and Mega Man X Maverick Hunter’s Field Guide from UDON Entertainment, and runs The Mega Man Network (themmnetwork dot com). You can also find him on Twitter @LBD_Nytetrayn and @themmnetwork, and on Twitch and YouTube under the name “Nyteworks.”

You can also find Legends of the Halcyon Era as it updates at Archive of Our Own.

Thanks for reading!