Legends of the Halcyon Era – Nytetrayn and Celeste’s Encounter

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Legends of the Halcyon Era

Noh Way Out: Nytetrayn and Celeste’s Encounter

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

Previously, in Legends of the Halcyon Era…

After going on a journey of discovery and personal growth to another world that the Diggers from Terra could never have imagined, they finally returned home with new allies, new insights, and new secrets.

Unfortunately, the joy of the moment was short-lived, as they discovered the town of Monroe was under attack from an old enemy. Delving deep underground, the Diggers and the Dragon Knights from Avion teamed up to put a stop to Trevor Creed’s plans to raise a nigh-unstoppable force from the distant past to use for his own selfish ambitions.

After the Knights departed, the Diggers went their separate ways for the time being, with some of them planning to see Fenix off again that night. But unbeknownst to the others, Black Steel would be attacked by an unseen assailant in his own ship, and Adam Powers and Katrina would soon follow from more of the same, ultimately bringing the Sky Shark down in the forest north of town.

As evening fell on the town of Monroe, located on the island which shared its name, things were beginning to return to normal. The citizens and visitors who had fled when the air pirate, Trevor Creed, attacked earlier that day had slowly begun to return from their hiding places and make their way back to their homes and places of business, eager to resume their day.

Nytetrayn and Celeste, who had quickly grown tired of hanging out in their apartment as Fenix and MegaMan Magnus tried to upstage one-another in a contest of joint dislocation, decided that maybe getting some fresh air would be preferable. As would most anything else.

They looked about the town as they strolled through, and even offered help for anyone who appeared as though they might be in need of it, though they had no takers.

“I’m going to miss this place,” Celeste said, a little sadly, as she looked about the town and its people, full of various shops and sights she’d grown quite accustomed to after coming here.

“Hey, no worries,” Nytetrayn told her. “We have an airship of our own now! We can come back and visit whenever we want!”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” she said.

Eventually, they made their way through to the other side of the township, and decided to circle back along the outskirts as the sun began to descend in the sky.

“It’s starting to get late,” Nyte noted. “We should probably go see if Dumb and Dumber are ready for dinner yet.”

As they circled along the path past the last group of buildings, the pair stopped in their tracks. Standing before them was some sort of mechanical being, almost humanlike in shape, but less so in the details. Besides the metallic frame, it had clawed four-fingered hands on its arms, and instead of feet, its legs ended with more of the same. Atop its shoulders was a “head” that looked like nothing so much as some sort of telescopic camera with a shining red lens that seemed to be observing them intently.

“Uh-oh,” Nytetrayn said, as the machine remained still as it continued staring at them.

“It looks like a… like some kind of Reaverbot?” Celeste said worriedly, as she tried to remain calm.

“Yeah, but not any kind I recognize. And they don’t normally tend to venture above ground, but it’s not unheard of,” he replied, careful not to make any sudden moves. “Just move around it… slowly. Keep a wide arc…”

Celeste did as he instructed, and they moved around the Reaverbot, Nyte keeping himself between her and it.

Once the pair made their way around it from what they hoped was a safe distance back to the path, they went back on their way, although keeping an eye on the strange robot.

Unfortunately for them, the robot was now following them, not missing a step. Then it stopped, and raised one of its armlike appendages towards them, revealing the embedded red lens in its palm, just like the one mounted in its “head”.

Whispering to Celeste, Nytetrayn said “Be ready to get out of the way if it makes a move.” She nodded quietly.

A thin beam of red light raced outward from the palm-mounted lens, narrowly passing through the space between Nytetrayn and Celeste’s faces, the heat apparent as the laser rushed by.

“Go!” Nytetrayn shouted, as Celeste did as instructed and got away quickly.

“Dragon Storm, Armor Form!”

As the words left his mouth, Nytetrayn’s Digger armor formed around him in an instant, and as soon as his Nyte Buster arm cannon finished forming around his outstretched arm, he wasted no time firing a shot at the crystal-like lens, shattering it before the machine could get off another shot with it. He kept his Buster raised and at the ready.

Celeste turned to watch some distance away, out of range of the fight. At least, that was what she hoped.

Fortunately, she seemed to be of no concern to the mechanoid that was now engaging her boyfriend. It dropped down to all fours, awkwardly inverting its joints in the process, before leaping forward to attack Nytetrayn with its outstretched clawed hands.

The Digger leaped at the same time and met it in mid-air, landing on its topside and running down and off its other end, being sure to put a little extra force on the last step to push it at the ground before he landed, turning to face his attacker. The machine flipped upwards, and was now balancing itself on its upper arms; it was performing a handstand, and yet was still able to assume a fighting stance similar to if it had remained right-side up.

“Nice trick, but can you dance like that?” Nytetrayn said, as he opened fire at its hand-feet.

The machine’s lower body, now on top, began to spin like an awkward helicopter before springing up and off the ground, dodging Nytetrayn’s blasts. As it leaped through the air, it inverted itself again so that its spinning “legs” would now come down on Nyte like a spinning propeller.

Nyte quickly activated his flash-shield, which provided him with a protective barrier around him for only the fraction of a second it could last, as the energy consumption could be too much for his systems. But it was just enough time to counter the blades, which sent him bouncing back for a short distance, rather than being chopped up. The resulting impact similarly saw the machine bounce off of the Digger, and it landed in a spider-like stance a short distance away.

“Sorry, no Nyte fries today!” the Digger said as he came up on one knee and opened fire at the thing’s head. Unfortunately, the machine was able to leap back up just as quickly as it flipped out of the way of the blast.

The two stared at each other. Nytetrayn kept an eye on the machine, waiting for the right moment, looking for the right weakness, while the machine continued to observe every motion he made.

Nytetrayn smirked and used his Emergency Acceleration System to dash in at the machine, leading with a shot from his Nyte Buster. The machine quickly jumped to avoid it – just as Nytetrayn predicted it would, as he jumped out of his dash to meet it in the air, converting his arm cannon to Nyte Saber mode and following through with a slashing strike.

Unfortunately, the machine was still able to raise a shield about its frontside to block the attack and hold it at bay. Nyte then used his saber arm to provide enough opposing force to the shield to effectively bounce himself upwards, where he converted back to Buster mode and opened fire at it from above as they descended. The mechanoid still managed to generate a second shield above to hold back the second attack as it twisted itself in mid-air, catching itself just in time to land with an inhuman sort of grace on the ground.

“Hmph. Show-off,” Nyte said. “Well, let’s see how you like this!”

Nyte turned himself into a diving position in mid-air, and activated his Emergency Acceleration System, which rocketed him toward the ground like a missile. He torpedoed right down at the enemy, which managed to leap back as Nyte shot downward.

Nyte’s impact kicked up a fair bit of dirt and dust, and as soon as the machine realized that its target had missed, it leapt forward with both hands in an effort to catch Nytetrayn around his neck.

As the battle raged on, Celeste continued to watch from her place near some rocks, bushes, and tall grass over on the sidelines. As much as she wanted to focus on the matter at hand, something kept nagging at her consciousness, tugging at her attention, almost drawing her from the fight. She looked around. She knew that feeling. It was one she had only felt once since leaving Terra several moons ago.

“A refractor…”

She decided to follow her intuition, and dug around in the nearby bushes until she caught the glint of something in the light of the setting sun. “There it is,” she said, as she pulled out a decently-sized refractor shard, about the length of a pencil or a modest flashlight. It was probably worth a modest amount of Zenny.

Her distraction now out of the way, she turned her attention back to the battle, just as Nyte made impact with the ground. As the dust began to clear, it became apparent that the machine had reached just a little too high, as Nytetrayn was standing waist-deep in the crater he’d just made. Before it could react, Nytetrayn the Opportunist released a blast from his Buster right into the machine’s… groin?

Not expecting this, the machine took the blow to its codpiece with enough force to lift it off its feet and deposit it in the dirt several feet away.

“GET ‘IM, NYTE!” Celeste cheered from her vantage point.

“Working on it!” he shouted back.

The machine flopped its way back up, as it moved in its unsettling and unnatural way; rigid, yet as if it had no bones to speak of. Nytetrayn opened fire on it again as it got up, but it cartwheeled out of range as it began spinning around the field of battle. Nytetrayn kept a bead on it and was waiting for the right moment to try another round, when it suddenly performed a leap from a handstand and somersaulted through the air at the Digger like a small wrecking ball.

Nyte wasn’t expecting that, and let out a loud “OOF!” as it rammed into him at speed. The machine bounced off its falling target, and landed with grace on the grass. Nytetrayn got to his feet and dusted himself off.

“Nice move, knucklehead. But is that all you’ve got?”

The machine remained silent.

“You’re no fun to talk to, you know that? At least Fenix curses when I make fun of him.”

Nytetrayn followed his remark by dashing at the machine and opening fire, just as he did before. His opponent sidestepped the shot and counterattacked by launching its arms at him, extending them to ridiculous lengths in the process, its fists aiming for Nyte’s face and stomach.

Seeing the fists coming, Nyte grabbed them before they made contact with their desired targets, and keeping a firm hold on them, decided to have a little fun. Keeping the arms in his grasp, he turned and used the arms to swing the machine high over his head and into the ground on the opposite side. Instead of crashing to the ground, it managed to reorient itself and land on its handlike feet.

Nyte let go of the hands and smiled. “Really going to have to work for this one, aren’t I?”

Breaking its silence, a very electronic voice rang out from the machine: “Optimal status of target not achieved.”

“Huh?” Nytetrayn said. “So you can tal–”

Before the Digger could finish the thought, a pair of powerful blasts struck Nytetrayn in the back, sending him down face-first with a grunt, some smoke rising from where he was hit.

“NYTE!!” Celeste called out, as she looked to where the blasts had come from.

As if from out of nowhere, a second machine, identical to the first, approached Nytetrayn as it lowered its arms.

Nyte cleared the cobwebs as he got to his feet. “Oh, so one wasn’t enough, huh?”

As he fired at the newcomer, it raised a shield to deflect the blast while the first machine used its remaining lens to shoot at Nyte again while he’s distracted. Hearing the sound of the blast going off, Nyte used his flash-shield to deflect the shot, then dashed off to one side in order to get both of his assailants into view at once.

Nytetrayn fired at both machines, who each blocked the attempt with a raised shield.

“Crap,” he said as they advanced on him slowly. “Alright, new plan…”

Nyte dashed at the first machine and grabbed it by the arm, then flung it at its partner, who reached out and caught the improvised projectile as soon as it was in range. Using the momentum built up from the toss, it swiveled at the waist and threw its companion back at Nytetrayn.

“Oh yeah?!” Nyte shouted, as he grabbed the flying machine in mid-air and spun on his heels to return the lob, only now he followed it up with a few shots from his Nyte Buster. The second machine caught its compatriot and threw it up into the air and out of the way of the blasts, electing to take the brunt of the blows itself and end up knocked off its feet. It wasn’t the intended effect, but Nyte figured he’d take it.

While Celeste kept cheering Nyte on from a safe distance, the first machine flew through the air in a spherical somersault much like it had earlier, coming down on the Digger from above. Nyte caught it on the way down, though it pushed his heels back enough to dig up a bit of dirt, and he sent it back once again, only for the other machine to again insist upon the action.

“Okay, this is getting boring,” Nyte said.

As the machine returned for the umpteenth time, Nyte readied a kick that sent the metallic sphere skyward, then took the opportunity to dash at the second machine with his Nyte Saber armed and ready to deliver a series of slashes.

The machine met Nyte’s attacks by using its own shield-infused arms like sabers, going move for move to foil the Digger’s efforts.

As this went on, the robot that had been sent skyward unfolded in the air and aimed its remaining palm lens down at Nytetrayn, letting forth a number of shots that posed no threat to its companion, but many to their opponent. One such blast struck Nytetrayn in the back, sending him falling forward towards the combatant he’d been engaged with, who brought its hands together and delivered a double axe handle strike to Nyte’s head, sending him face-first into the dirt.

Celeste froze, not sure what to do. “C’mon, Nyte…”

Nytetrayn tried to get back to his feet, still reeling and feeling woozy from that last hit. But as the once-airborne machine touched down, it started to press its advantage by firing on the Digger without any sign of mercy, blasting him back down again. Nyte made another effort to get up, only to be smashed back down by the second robot.

While Nyte’s armor was thankfully able to absorb most of the damage, it wouldn’t be able to hold up forever. Instead of trying to get up, he rolled to the side and was able to get up to one knee, panting.

Celeste continued to watch on, worried. Without her own armor there, or any of her weapons, she felt helpless. But even with those, she knew she probably wouldn’t have been able to make any difference here, which made her feel even worse. Useless. She knew she had to do something, but what?

As she clenched her fist in frustration, she remembered the refractor she’d found earlier. She didn’t know what difference it could make. Improvised explosive? Something else Nyte would be better at thinking up?

Whatever the case, it was all she had. Her expression changed from worried to determined, and with resolve, did the only thing she could think of in the moment.

“NYTE! CATCH!!”

She threw the refractor through the air over the field of battle, and her aim proved to be true as Nytetrayn reached up to snatch the elongated crystal-like prism out of the air.

“What do I do with this?! I don’t think they’re interested in being bought off…”

Nytetrayn looks at the two machines, who have now stopped and stand silently, making no motions but to observe the Digger and his new acquisition.

“Well? What are you two tin-cans waiting for?”

As one machine extended both of its hands out to reveal its palm lasers and the other did the same with its one remaining laser, Nytetrayn braced himself, ready to activate his flash-shield again. He knew it would only be good for one or two of the shots at best, so he’d need to try to use his Emergency Acceleration System to hopefully dash clear as well.

But then the refractor Celeste had thrown at him began to glow in his hand, almost as though it was responding to his needs.

“…what the–?”

Before Nytetrayn could finish the thought, the machines opened fire in steady, alternating bursts.

Nytetrayn brought up his shield, only now it stayed up for more than an instant, and deflected the succession of blasts.

“Well, alright!”

Nytetrayn maintained the shield, and dashed even faster than before straight into the first machine. It tried to generate a shield of its own to fend Nyte off, but the Digger kept at it, and drove his shield full-bore into the mechanical menace’s until it burned out. Finally breaking through, Nytetrayn didn’t stop, and ultimately smashed the machine in two.

With one down, Nytetrayn turned his attention towards the other machine, and with the refractor’s energy still flowing through him, let loose an intense blast of energy right at his foe.

“Optimal output of target sampled,” the machine said in the same electronic voice as its contemporary. “Termination imminent.”

Those were its last words before the large burst of firepower overwhelmed it, consuming the machine as it burst into sparks.

“Hah!” shouted Nytetrayn. “That’ll teach ya’!”

With the other machine now destroyed, Celeste ran up to Nytetrayn and grabbed him in a hug as the machines’ parts mysteriously dissipated.

“Nyte! You did it!”

“Yeah!” Nyte said, as he reciprocated. “Piece of cake.” He then added “Thanks for the help back there,” with a smile.

As Nyte held up the refractor, he wondered aloud “I wonder how much this thing would be worth now.” But as he and Celeste looked at it, they saw that it no longer held the brilliant luster it had before. Instead, it now looked more like a dirty, grey piece of glass, shortly before it began to dissolve like ash.

“Crap,” he said.

“Oh no…”

“Figures. With every bit of good news… anyway, we should get back. Fenix and the others are probably wondering where we are.”

Nytetrayn took one last look at his fallen foes, who’d now vanished away. “I wonder where they came from…” he mused, but his thoughts were interrupted as a familiar crack like thunder came from somewhere in town.

“That doesn’t sound good,” Celeste said.

“Agreed. Let’s go!” Nyte said, and they took off.

To be continued…

Next time: “Noh Way Out – Janine, Fenix, and MegaMan Magnus’s Encounter”

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New to Legends of the Halcyon Era? Looking to catch up, or just re-familiarize yourself? Then check out the Character Profiles page!

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, Bluesky @LBDNytetrayn, and @themmnetwork on both, 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, and on Mega Man Legends Station!

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

Thanks for reading!