Legends of the Halcyon Era – Business as Unusual

—–

Legends of the Halcyon Era

Business as Unusual

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

Following the previous adventure on Archie Island and the close call with Fenix’s father’s airship, the Nemesis, a new day dawned on the island of Monroe.

Nytetrayn remained asleep on the living room sofa, while Fenix was likewise snoozing in his bedroom. Celeste was also in bed, enjoying a blissful slumber in Nyte’s room, though that would not be the case for very long.

Awake and in the kitchen, Janine was making coffee when suddenly, she had a wicked idea.

Sneaking past the sleeping Digger on the sofa, Janine silently floated over to his room, and gently opened the door for a peek inside. Seeing Celeste snoozing peacefully, she slowly and quietly made her way over and laid down next to her. She smiled, and gently stroked the younger woman’s cheek. “Wakey-wakey…”

Celeste slowly opened one eye, to see Janine stroking her hair.

“You were an animal last night!”

One could practically hear the sound of glass shattering as both of her eyes suddenly popped wide open..

Upon hearing the scream coming from his room, Nyte opened the door in an effort to find out who was murdering who, or what was going on. By this point, Janine had rolled off the bed, and was dying laughing as she floated in mid-air.

After a loud thump on the door, Fenix stumbled out of his bedroom and into the living room in nothing but his helmet and his boxer shorts, aiming his Gatling Arm every which way. “WHO IS IT? WHAT’S GOING ON? WHICH ONE DO I SHOOT?!”

“Easy, it’s just Janine playing a dumb prank,” said Nyte. “I think…”

“O-kay…” the masked Digger said, as he finally lowered his weapon.

“…what is going on here?”

Janine tried to sit up straight and get her breathing under control, but was still caught between giggling and hyperventilating. She managed to get out, “Y-you should have seen the look on her face!” before she collapsed into another fit of laughter.

Meanwhile, Celeste was face-down on the bed, her hands over her head, and unsure of what was going on.

As Fenix went back into his room, muttering something about fetching a paddle, Nytetrayn asked her, “Jan, what did you do?

“I said good morning!”

From his bedroom, Fenix shouted, “IN THE NUDE?!”

“What else did you say?” Nyte asked. “And why come in here to say it?”

“Because the way her eyes doubled in size when I thanked her for last night was absolutely priceless!” she said, beaming. With that, she hopped to her feet, and pranced out the door.

After a good eye-roll, Nyte asked, “Cel, are you alright?”

“Just give me a minute…” came the muffled reply.

Fenix poked his head in. “She’s got a point, that is kind of funny…”

Nyte just shot him an admonishing look.

“…but mean! Very, very mean! Jan, you should be ashamed of yourself!” With that, Fenix went to follow-up with Janine.

Nyte just shook his head. “Maybe we should set down some new rules…”

Celeste finally got up, still wearing the same clothes she had on when they’d gotten home last night. They went into the kitchen, where Nyte made her some coffee and sat across from her at the little table that was mounted to the wall.

“’…animal,’ she said,” Celeste said quietly, to no one in particular.

As they enjoyed their morning brew, Fenix’s voice could be heard from behind his closed door. “And she’s still weak from that coma! She probably has a weak heart! What would you have done if she’d had a heart attack!? Nyte can’t date her if she’s dead! Not without a lot of awkward questions, anyway.”

Nytetrayn and Celeste stared awkwardly down at their cups.

“I know CPR! I would have given her mouth to mouth! Speaking of which…”

“NO!”

“Um, so,” Celeste said, apparently eager to change the subject. “Anyway, what’s wrong with Adam?”

“There’s a spirit in his sword which communicates with him mentally, and can take over his body, it seems. Except the other brain is in his sword, instead of in his head or his…”

“…got it,” she said. She took another sip of her coffee, while Nytetrayn added some more Kool-Aid to his.

***

Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the town of Monroe, Adam Powers had been hard at work on the Sky Shark since early in the morning. Among his tasks was making a list of all the spare parts he would need to complete repairs. As he did this, Alpha-Red scuttled around and performed seemingly random tasks.

“Oy,” said Adam. “I hope I have enough money to cover all of this. … Shut up, you. … Jeez. … Well, maybe I can sell some of this stuff…”

Adam took a moment to step back and consider everything.

“Hmmm… Fenix seemed like he knew something about that ship. I don’t think it was a coincidence, either. I think I’ll pay him a little visit…”

With that, he set out for the others’ apartment, wearing his armor, jacket, and shades as usual. He also brought the sword with him, strapped to his back.

Once he arrived, he knocked on the door.

***

Fenix emerged from his room and stepped into the kitchen, his right eye twitching. “I’m sorry, Celeste. I should have kept a better eye on her. That girl’s dangerous when she’s bored.”

“It’s… it’s okay,” she said.

A knock sounded at the door.

“Hey Jan,” Nyte called out, “why don’t you get that?”

Janine answered the door in her kimono, and greeted their guest. “Hey, Adam! Come in! Yell at me! It seems to be the theme of the morning!” Janine said, with a big smile that did well to partially mask her sarcasm.

“Umm, hi, thanks,” Adam said, as he stepped in.

Fenix went to get his coffee, stopped, and then turned around. “You didn’t have sex last night, did you? I mean, you had a few hours after I went to sleep…”

Celeste was struck speechless for a moment, then said, “…I don’t remember it. Jan seemed to imply it, though. But I was pretty much out of it until a little while ago…” She didn’t look thrilled by the question.

Fenix raised an eyebrow. “I doubt it, if you don’t remember it,” he said, before slurping some coffee up through a straw. “She’s not the type to drug you or anything… and you were still wearing clothes.”

Celeste just nodded in agreement.

Janine landed on Fenix’s shoulders from above. “I did not drug and have my way with her!”

“Fenix, this cannot go unpunished,” Nyte said. “I think you should do the right thing and NOT spank her.”

“I just scared her! I’m mischievous, not evil!” Janine tearfully protested.

“I agree,” said Fenix, when Adam burst out laughing for no apparent reason. “…what’s so funny?”

“Ummm… Blade was just telling me about something with Janine…”

Nyte stared for a moment. “Do tell…”

Janine smirked.

“Ummm… not now. I need to talk to you, Fenix.”

“Uh, sure? Why?”

“Well, you seemed to know quite a bit about the ship that attacked us… I wanna know how you knew so much about it.”

“Well, it’s sort of a long, complicated… oh, who am I kidding? Creed is my father.”

Meanwhile, Nytetrayn pulled out a Digging magazine, and began flipping through its pages for leads on a good ruin to visit. “This time, we pick one that’s nice and small and hopefully not running amok with MegaMen or gross deities or Reaverbot Qu– well, actually, hers was a kinda small one…”

“…but you like me, right?” asked Jan, as she began to look a little misty-eyed. “…right?”

“Sure, we do,” said Nyte. “I just don’t think we need two of you.”

“Yes, I concur,” said Adam. “We all like Janine.”

“I’m sure Fenix could enjoy two of me,” Janine said with a sweet smile, as she batted her eyelashes at him.

Fenix’s eyes nearly popped out of his helmet, as he said, “Jan, two of you would kill me.”

“Anyways,” Adam said, “if Creed is your father, does that mean you were in his gang at one point?”

“Dear sweet merciful god NO,” Fenix replied. “The bastard had his way with my mother and left her to die! I only met him a few years ago, when I hunted the son of a bitch down.”

“Ah… that explains that, then. Thanks for clearing that up.” Adam paused, then added, “Well, at least then you wouldn’t have to share her with Magnus, says Blade.”

“Hello, what’s this?” said Nytetrayn, still looking at his magazine. “Looks like another nice, small ruin to hit, just an island over.” As he bookmarked it, Nyte said, “That’ll be our next target. In the meantime, Cel? Go grab your backpack, and let’s go cash in our refractors.” As Cel went to get her pack, Nyte turned to the others. “You guys want to come, or should I take yours in for you?”

“I’ll go,” said Fenix.

“ I’ll go too. Oh, shut up,” said Adam.

“I’ll pass,” said Janine. “I think Cel drooled on me…”

“No, I didn’t!” argued an frowning Celeste.

Janine smiled sweetly as she patted Cel on the head, and went into the bathroom.

“I wish I’d gotten that on tape,” said Fenix.

“…gotten what?” asked Nyte.

“Cel drooling on Janine.”

“You’re sick, you know that?”

After a pause, Adam added, “We concur.”

“What? No! Not like that!” said Fenix. “Ahhh, screw you, let me put a shirt on,” he added, as he did just that.

“What,” Nyte said, “does Jan not satisfy your needs anymore?”

“I apparently don’t satisfy hers, if she’s sneaking into Cel’s room.”

“I think Jan and Cel should have the same rules we do.”

“What rules?”

“Like the way we don’t go into the other’s room while said person is asleep.”

“…we don’t?”

At that moment, a knock came at the door, and Nyte went to answer it. A familiar-looking trash can sat before him, holding what appeared to be a briefcase. “Hello, Mr. Nytetrayn. I brought this for Adam,” it said, as he held up the briefcase for Nyte to take.

“Kay. Thanks, Alfred. Er, you wanna come in?”

“Hey, that’s got all my refractors in it!” said Adam, as Nyte tossed the case to him. “Thanks, Alpha-Red!”

“No, thank you,” said Alpha-Red. “I will return to the ship now. Good day, Mr. Nytetrayn.”

“Sure,” Nyte said. “Seeya, Alfred.”

With that, the trash can pulled its arms back in, and turned around to clank off.

“Now, then,” said Nytetrayn. “Fenix… WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN DOING IN MY ROOM WHILE I’VE BEEN SLEEPING?!?”

“I haven’t been in your room while you’ve been sleeping!” Fenix said. “While Cel’s sleeping, on the other hand, it’s fair game…”

“You sure seemed to imply it a moment ag—” Nyte’s expression suddenly turned murderous, while Celeste and Adam stared on, speechless.

“I joke!” Fenix said.

Nytetrayn sighed. “You are a joke.”

“I dunno, Blade,” Adam said to himself. “I don’t know.”

“What’s he saying?” asked Nytetrayn.

“Nevermind.”

“Okay, you two need to learn to keep to yourselves when conversing. This is getting annoying.”

“I’m working on it. Still getting used to this, you know.”

“Alright,” Nyte said, hands up to show he wasn’t going to press the issue further.

Fenix walked up to Cel while Nyte and Adam talked and wrapped an arm around her. As she looked up at him with a questioning look on her face, he said, “I just want you to know I am not sneaking into your room at night. Nor do I have any plans to, nor would I even if I was sexually attracted to you…”

“Um, okay…” she replied, not exactly sure how to take any of that. Especially the part about not being attracted. “I’m… not attractive?” she said, lowering her eyes.

Adam mumbled something that sounded like, “Cut it out.”

“Of course you are,” Fenix said. “You’re drop-dead gorgeous, but you’re also extremely nervous, and the idea of having sex with you brings to mind you scared shitless, and that’s a huge turn-off for me.”

“Uh… er… oh.”

Nyte looked over at Fenix. “Drop it, already, ‘kay?”

“Yeah. So, next time Jan hits on you, just kick her in the groin.” With that and a pat on the head, Fenix walked off.

The others looked on, until Nyte broke the awkward silence. “Okay… I guess Fenix would have more knowledge about what affects Jan’s groin than anyone else he–”

“Blade says that won’t deter her very much.”

“…or not.”

Adam said, “I don’t even want to know how you know this, my disembodied friend.”

To be continued…

—–

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.

Character designs by LBD “Nytetrayn” and Victor Campan. Character art by Victor Campan. Logos by Tabby Ramsey. Arrangement by LBD “Nytetrayn”.

Thanks for reading!