Legends of the Halcyon Era: The Devil’s Yard Journey – Part 10

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Legends of the Halcyon Era

The Devil’s Yard Journey

Part 10

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

The Diggers watched as white steam rose from the ice in huge, thick clouds, obscuring it from view.

“You chose for us to investigate the cursed dungeon where nobody was able to go,” Xenos said.

When the steam cleared away, the ice was no longer there. Leaning against the back of the chamber was a tall, metallic skeleton.

“See?” said Fenix. “A skeleton. You wimps are scared of a stupid skeleton?”

Suddenly, the skull’s hollow eye sockets came to life with the glow of a green light.

“Fhghd,” was all Xenos could get out.

A chorus of screams erupted from the corridor which led to the room, and a large cloud of bats burst through the door. They shrieked and squeaked as they converged upon the skeleton, and obscured it from view. A moment later, and the green glow obscured the bats as the sickening sound of flesh being torn asunder and bone crushed into powder filled the room.

As Janine trembled, Nytetrayn just put his refractor down by the wall and turned to Fenix. “You’re an idiot, you know that?”

“You must have been sleeping through the rest of this place, you doink,” added Xenos.

“I’m too young to die,” Fenix said.

When the light cleared, the skeleton and bats were gone, replaced by the figure of a tall man with a dark skin complexion and subtle red eye color, very similar to Janine’s, though his hair was a much paler shade of seafoam; it was practically white. He wore fine garments of black cloth, with trousers and a waistcoat over a gray shirt, and a buttoned-up long jacket over that, with gray gloves reaching out from underneath the cuffed sleeves. Silver armor with maroon runes was present at the waist and shoulders, incorporated in a way that may have looked unusual, but not out of place for his attire.

The figure stepped slowly out of his containment chamber, and his cold gaze swept over the room.

“Uh, hi?” said Xenos.

“Well, hello…” said the figure in a voice which seemed cold and calculating, yet almost aristocratic, as he looked the Diggers over with a slight smile.

“Um, hiya,” said Nytetrayn.

“And just who might you be?” the stranger asked with amusement in his voice.

“Well, I might be Michael Jackson,” Nyte said as he did a short Moonwalk, “but I ain’t.”

Janine gave Nyte a sidelong glance before she returned to staring open-mouthed at the stranger.

“Um… you can call me Fenix.”

“Xenos Geist: pirate, thief and lowdown scoundrel extraordinaire,” he said as he gave a bow.

“Nytetrayn. Digger.”

The stranger raised an eyebrow as he looked at the one member of the group who had yet to respond. “Janine… is that you? After all this time?”

Janine backed away fearfully. “I… I don’t know you.”

The stranger’s eyes widened. “I see… you’ve had your memory erased. Poor thing…”

As he stepped closer to the visibly terrified girl, he raised a hand toward her forehead and said, “It’s alright. I will restore that which was lost to you.”

Nyte was about to protest, but before he could, the stranger placed his hand on her head, resulting in a piercing scream from Janine as bolts of green energy crackled all over her body before she fell to the floor, unconscious.

“Hey!!!” Nyte said, aiming his Buster at the mysterious figure. “Back off, man!”

“You bastard!” Fenix shouted.

“Guys, wait… wait!” said Xenos.

Fenix already loosed a few rounds from his Gatling Arm at the stranger, who casually blocked the attack with a circular shield of green energy.

“Ominous guy sealed away, takes four refractors to do it,” said Xenos. “Do. Not. Piss. Off. Mmmkay?”

“Calm yourselves,” said the figure. “I have merely restored the girl’s memory files. The process was a painful one, but she will thank me for it later.”

“That… still wasn’t very nice,” said Fenix.

“You could’ve at least given her some sort of choice in the matter,” added Nytetrayn.

“Perhaps not,” the stranger said with a shrug. “But I care little one way or another. If I am to restore my rule over this planet, then I must reawaken those who would be my allies, correct?”

“Um… not necessarily?” said Nyte.

“Fenix, really… the next time you have a bright idea… keep it to yourself,” said Xenos. “So we can avoid all this reviving the scourge of the earth stuff.”

“You seem to disagree,” said the stranger, as his calm demeanor gave way to a wide, maniacal grin. “Very well, I shall put it bluntly: Join me. Become part of my new world order. Or die.”

“Gee,” said Fenix. “What a choice.”

“Pass,” said Nyte.

Xenos looked thoughtful, then asked, “What exactly does your world order entail?”

“I intend to find the others that were sealed away, my followers, and then we shall liberate this planet from the human scum that fester upon it.”

“Come again?”

“Hey,” said Nyte with an unamused look on his face.

“Um, we’re human,” Fenix pointed out. “Well, mostly.”

With a chuckle, the stranger said, “Shall I tell you the story? very well, I need some time to properly wake up.” He stretched and yawned.

“Sure,” said Xenos, sitting down to listen. “Tell us the whoooooole story.”

“Why not?” said Nyte. “How many stories would this make today?”

“This one is fairly short,” said the mysterious figure, as he started to walk around, addressing the group without looking at them. “Many years ago, your ancestors created the perfect race. Reaverbots made of synthetic flesh over cold metal bone, powerful beyond anything else they had ever devised, yet compact and, in many cases, extremely aesthetically pleasing.”

He prodded Janine’s still form with his foot. “She is an excellent example.”

Xenos quietly pulled out his pistol, and feigned checking it over and polishing it.

“In any case, some of us rose to positions of political power, and having developed a taste for it, we realized how far we had advanced beyond our progenitors. It soon became obvious to me that it was my duty to save the humans from themselves.”

Xenos tried to subtly take aim, only for the figure to subtly fire a pair of eye beams that hit the wall above the Pirate’s head. “Don’t interrupt!”

“Gchk,” Xenos yelped, then whispered, “damn.”

“My compatriots and I attempted to make world conquest a reality, but the humans, and their pet Reaverbots… not to mention those damn Purifier models… fought back. I was defeated here, deep in the bowels of this seemingly insignificant outpost… but I did not perish.”

“Did you ever stop to wonder why this place is called ‘The Devil’s Yard’?”

“I thought it was because of the piss-poor landscaping and the rabid wildlife,” said Nyte.

“Hm, yes. Well, you see, thousands of years ago, before even my kind walked the planet, it is said that the Devil himself fell from the heavens, and when he landed, it was on this very spot. The impact was so strong that it literally ripped open a hole into another world, another dimension, another… space. A space where the dead walk again, and the impossible becomes possible… at least, for those with the will to control it.” The figure clenched his fist as he spoke those last few words, green energy crackling around it.

“My will was strong, and so my power was absolute. I tore through the barriers of space and time through nothing more than my sheer will, seeking to harness the power that could resurrect my dream.”

“Great!” said Nytetrayn, as he hoped in some small way that might help placate the madman. Meanwhile, Xenos was trying to run over how exactly they might be able to get through this without dying.

“The result, of course, you’ve seen,” the figure said.

“We have?” asked Nyte.

“Tell me, did you enjoy my house of horrors?”

“No!” said Fenix.

“Not really. Got a little old,” said Xenos. “The fat whale was a nice touch.”

“I didn’t enjoy the zombies, the evil fish men, the unnamable bib, or whatever the hell they called it, Cthulhu tried to make out with Janine, and for God’s sake, it wasn’t my fault!”

The stranger looked on with an unsettled look on his face as Fenix panted after all of that.

“Well, it was the best I could do on short notice, you understand. I was in the act of reassembling my body at the time, and I figured, ‘Well, who doesn’t love the classics?’”

“Oh, sure, that makes it all better,” Fenix grumbled.

“Okay,” said Nyte. “So you know Janine, you’re some sort of undead overlord from the past who has basically let loose Satan’s minions to wipe out humankind…”

“Basically,” said the figure.

“With all of that in mind, I have but one question.”

“Shoot.”

“Who are you?”

The stranger stared for a moment, not really expecting that. As he folded his arms, he said, “My name is Sherman East, but you can call me ‘The Reanimator’.”

“What? That’s it?” said Xenos. “Sherman East? Not Voldemort, or Kagato, or Galgarion, or Moriel, or something?”

“It’s… different… than one would expect,” said Nyte.

“Or maybe Sarknilhyjo,” Xenos continued.

East’s eyes narrowed and glowed with green energy. “You have a problem with it?”

“Um, not really, no,” said Nyte.

“Actually, I’m glad,” said Xenos. “I was getting tired of all those strange names. But isn’t it kind of… I dunno, derivative?”

“Consider it a spirited homage. Much as I admire the works of Lovecraft, I felt that calling myself ‘Herbert West’ might be a little too on-the-nose.”

“And ‘The Reanimator’ isn’t?”

“Now look here, you little–” East said, before recomposing himself. As he tugged on both sides of his jacket’s collar, he said, “Ahem. If you can come up with a synonym that sounds anywhere near as good, I’ll consider it. Go ahead. I’ll wait.”

“Well,” said Xenos, “there’s… um.” He paused for a moment to think. “You could be ‘The Revivifier’?” he said, meekly.

“I think not,” East replied.

“Renovator?”

“Hard pass.”

“How about–”

“Enough.”

“Okay, okay,” said Xenos. “Just… give us time to discuss it?” Sherman folded his arms and stood there as Xenos called a group huddle with Fenix and Nytetrayn. “So… let’s review. Sherman East… normal name… super evil and deadly… can’t hurt him.”

“Well, Jan was the same way when we first fought her,” said Fenix. “Energy field and all that. We just have to heap on the damage and overload it.”

“I can hear you, you know.”

Xenos straightened and faced Sherman meekly. “Erm, well… ah…”

Nyte glanced over at Janine, who was twitching slightly, but remained on the floor. As he did so, he ran several ideas of how to proceed through his head.

“So,” said East. “You guys want to do this the easy way, or the hard way? I don’t have much of a preference, myself.”

“What’s the easy way?” asked Nyte.

“Do we shake hands, promise not to eradicate each other’s species, and live on happily ever after?” Xenos asked.

“The easy way is you give up and become my soldiers.”

“And the hard?” asked Nyte.

“The hard way is, I kill you and use your skulls as planters for my ferns or something.”

“Gee, tough choice,” said Fenix.

“I don’t suppose there’s anything in between?” asked Nyte.

“You can run away. But then, you’ll deal with me eventually. I am going to take over the whole planet, after all.”

“Hmm, okay.” Nyte said, still thinking.

“He makes a good point,” said Fenix.

“Let’s see,” said Nytetrayn. “I’m curious. Surely there’s something out there that would be able to stand in your way, right? They usually don’t let guys like you run around for too long without coming up with something to do about it.”

“The only thing capable of stopping me in my time was a Purifier unit. But according to what I read in Jan’s memory, there are none left.”

“So what’s so special about these so-called ‘Purity’ units anyway?”

As Nyte kept East preoccupied with his line of questioning, Xenos looked over Jan’s unconscious form and went over inventory with Fenix.

“A Purifier unit is designed for battle. They exist to destroy, the only robots that rival my kind in terms of combat skill.”

“So what happened to them?”

“I have no idea… Apparently they perished with the rest of my world.”

“Then how can you be sure they’re all gone?”

“I’m not sure. But if I can’t defeat a Purifier unit, I don’t deserve to rule the world.”

“Maybe they’re in hiding… taking casual roles and jobs in society, waiting for the likes of you and your ilk to attempt to rise to power again. A secret network dedicated to stomping out such… cases.” Nyte smiled as he finished.

Meanwhile, Xenos glanced at Fenix and quietly mouthed guardedly, “He’s bluffing, isn’t he?”

Fenix shrugged.

East unfolded his arms and held out his hands, green fire burning in his palms as green energy crackled around him. “Let them come.”

“Maybe you could defeat one,” Nyte continued, but what about several? What if, let’s say, they’ve regrouped and increased their number?

Sherman’s smile grew sinister. “Just say it, boy.”

Nyte’s expression changed from a smile to a mock-inquisitive look.

“I don’t believe you or your friends are any kind of Reaverbot, aside from Janine… and she’s no threat to me.”

“Just how long have you been locked away, anyhow?”

“I haven’t a clue. You kind of lose track of time when you’re a frozen skeleton, you know?”

“Hmm, I didn’t think you’d have much to do, other than counting the seconds… and the minutes, the days, the months, the years, the–”

“I’ve had an entire dungeon to observe, my boy.

“Yeah, we know, we’ve been through it.”

“Cthulhu’s day-to-day habits are mind-boggling.”

Nyte yawned, then said, “Right, I know, I’m sure.”

Sherman raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing? Are you trying to enrage me?”

Nyte looked at Fenix and asked, “How long did it take us to clear this place out?”

“Um, we thought it’d been, what, a week, right?”

“Yeah.. that sounds about right,” said Xenos.

“Wow, a week,” Nyte continued. “I’ll bet that wouldn’t get old after a few centuries, right? Anyway, I’ll bet you have no idea what sort of stuff has happened in the outside world… how things have advanced, how ready the Purifiers might be for you…”

“Nyte…” Xenos said.

“Are you really sure that’s a risk you’re ready for?”

“Nyte!”

Nyte turned to Xenos. “Yes?”

“I… don’t think he really cares.”

“He should.”

Sherman East clapped. “Give the boy a big cigar…”

Nyte looked at Xenos, confused. “You don’t smoke, do you?”

“Not usually. Might be worth a try.”

“A man deserves a last cigarette.”

“I thought cigars differed from cigarettes?” Nyte said.

“They do,” said Xenos. “Cigars are longer and thicker, cigarettes are kind of small. A cigarette is, as the name implies, a miniature cigar.”

“They do have something in common,” East said as his eyes flashed. “They both kill you. And that’s something I have in common with them.”

“Meh,” said Nytetrayn. “Lots of stuff kills. What else do you have in common?”

“Hmmm, probably just the killing part.”

Nyte sniffed. “That, and stinking up the joint.”

East chuckled. “Keep talking, it’ll give me an excuse to torture you before you die. “Of course, I’ll probably just torture you anyway…”

“Which means we may as well have fun!” said Xenos.

“I mean, you COULD swear fealty to me still,” said East. “That sounds like fun.

“Fealty?” asked Nyte.

“I am new to this time period, and you could be useful. But, to be honest, I really just want to torture you.”

“Okay, so we can agree to disagree on that part.”

“I suppose. So! Can I torture you now?”

“Hmm, let me think about that,” said Nyte. After a moment of seeming contemplation, he said, “No.”

“Awww, why not?”

“I hear it tends to be painful,” said Fenix.

“That, and it’s entirely too soon,” Xenos added.

“And we just aren’t masochists,” said Nyte.

“Well it’s no fun if you enjoy it,” said East.

“Cry me a river,” said Nyte.

“Actually,” said Xenos, “I’ve heard that it can be quite fun when they enjoy it”

Nyte just looked at Xenos.

“You need to sit down and talk with a dominatrix for a few hours. Makes you damn scared of sex for the rest of the evening, but you hear alot of interesting things.”

“Must… claw out… eyes…. cannot… penetrate…. helmet…!” said Fenix.

“I don’t want to know the story behind that,” said East. “I really don’t.”

“Nobody does,” Xenos said with a huge grin.

Nyte glanced at Janine again. She moaned softly, then suddenly sat up, holding her forehead. Nyte subtly breathed a sigh of relief.

“Well hello sleepyhead,” said East. “Did you have nice dreams?”

“Janine!” Xenos shouted, suddenly serious.

Nyte went to check on her, but stopped short as she looked at East and her eyes abruptly narrowed into blood-red slits as she shouted, “You!”

“I see you remember me,” East said.

Janine leaped to her feet, but stumbled backwards, Nyte just catching her under the arms before she hit the floor again. “Oh man,” she said. “Did someone get the number of that jackass…?”

“Are you okay, Janine?” asked Xenos.

“No!” she said, rubbing her temples.

“Um, are you going to be okay?” asked Nyte.

“Yeah, sure, I’ll be fine just as soon as I get over this headache…”

As Sherman smirked, Nyte looked at him and said, “Jerk.”

“What tipped you off? When I started talking about how I wanted to torture you?”

“Oh, I pretty much knew it all along,” Nyte said, as he helped Janine back to her feet. “I just felt compelled to say it now.”

East smiled maliciously as the Diggers rallied around Janine.

“Did you get your memory back?” Fenix asked.

Janine shook her head gently, trying to clear it. “Yeah… yeah, I did.”

East’s smile grew wider, even somewhat psychotic.

Janine frowned hugely at East. “We have to kill him.”

“Gee,” said Fenix, “that should be fun.”

“Yeah,” Nytetrayn said, “I think we all drew that conclusion whilst you were sleeping.”

“Cool.”

“It was pretty obvious,” added Xenos. “Well, here we go.”

Sherman East spread his arms, his eyes blazing as an aura of toxic green energy rose around him. The room around them trembled slightly in rhythm with his thrumming aura.

“Oh yes,” said Fenix, as he pulled out his grenade launcher and racked a round into the chamber. “We’ll have ourselves a time.”

“Come on,” said East, chuckling as each Digger took aim with their weapon of choice. “All together now!”

Nytetrayn opened up with his Gatling Buster, Fenix fired a grenade, Janine unleashed a blast of flaming energy, and Xenos let off a big blast from his beam launcher, nearly falling over in the process.

East disappeared into the cloud of smoke and energy. Minutes later, it parted to reveal his hair was a little singed, but he was otherwise unharmed.

“Nuuuuuts,” said Fenix.

“Dang,” Nyte added flatly.

“Is that it?” asked East. “Very well, then. My turn!”

East held out his hand and from it poured forth a massive blaze of burning green energy. Xenos and Fenix dove out of the way, while Nyte leaped up and away to get clear of it. Janine held out her hands and formed a circular shield, effectively blocking the attack.

“Heh,” she said. “It looks flashy… but when it comes down to it, you’re not really all that tough are you?”

East smiled wider, if that was even possible. “You know, it’s interesting… in terms of raw firepower, you are similar to me… But I have much… tighter… control!”

Janine grit her teeth, as the blast forced her to slide back a few inches.

“So while it looks the same… I can fluctuate the actual strength of the blast… so that one minute, it’s like a gentle rain… and the next… it hits like a tsunami!”

East intensified his blast, and Janine cried out as she was hurled backwards into the monitor at one end of the room, shattering it.

As Sherman concentrated on the beam, Xenos fired another shot. East let out a roar as the blast struck him in the shoulder. Nyte joined in as well with some Buster fire. East looked down at his burned and bleeding arm, and raised another shield to protect him from further attacks. As the Diggers looked on, they could see his flesh return to its normal color as the wound closed up, leaving his jacket ruined, but his shoulder intact.

After East’s shield went up, Nyte went to check on Janine, but was rewarded for his efforts with East turning the shield into an energy wave that slammed Nyte into a wall, embedding him in it.

“Oh, come on,” shouted Xenos. “You’ve got to be faking it!”

“I’ve got an idea,” said Fenix. “You ever shot a refractor crystal?”

“…sounds like fun!” said the Pirate.

Fenix grabbed one of the conveniently nearby refractors they had removed earlier, and sent it skidding across the floor towards Sherman, whose eyes opened wide in alarm.

“Oh, you’ve got to be joking…!”

“Well,” said Xenos. “There’s two things in life more important than money.”

“And those would be?”

“First, sex and love and all that junk. Second, and most importantly, my own ass!”

As the refractor came to a halt just in front of East, Xenos let a blast loose from his launcher right at the crystal.

“Oh shit!” East said as he formed a sphere of green energy around himself just seconds before being engulfed in the ensuing massive explosion.

As the smoke and dust slowly cleared, East’s clothing was revealed to be in tatters, his flesh scorched and burned, and his eyes twin points of blazing green against a charred face that had been twisted in pure rage.

“Um… that didn’t go quite as well as I’d hoped it would,” said Fenix.

Janine got back to her feet, holding her head and wincing in pain, while a dazed Nytetrayn peeled himself from the wall and asked, “Ugh, wha happun?”

“I threw a refractor at him, and Xenos blew it up,” Fenix said.

“That… wasn’t… very… nice!” shouted East.

After a moment of quietly taking everything in, Nyte added, “Or cost-effective. But screw it,” and made his way to another refractor.

East put on a huge frown as he stormed over to Janine and grabbed her by the arm, hoisting her to her feet.

“Ow! What the hell?!”

“You probably didn’t get to see me use this power… it’s a favorite of mine. Watch.”

With that, Janine screamed out in pain as East pulled his hand away, ripping the skin off her arm. The bloodied strip of flesh was absorbed into his hands, and as he did so, his wounds began to heal once again.

“…the hell?!” shouted Nyte. “Sonofa…”

“Oh shit,” said Fenix. “What are we gonna do now?”

East cackled as he turned away from the shuddering and sobbing woman, and his face returned to its normal color. “With another source of techno-organic flesh, I can regenerate rather easily. You might have been able to defeat me without her, but since I can refuel…”

With another of the refractors in hand, Nyte looked to Fenix, who shook his head and gestured at Janine, who was immediately behind the crazed Reaverbot.

Janine rolled to the side, well away from East, and shouted to the others, “Your weapons… the ones you found in the ruin… they can hurt him!”

A dark smile crept over Nyte’s face as he pulled out his laser rifle, while Fenix unholstered his Plasma Caster and loaded it with the ancient round he had found earlier, and Xenos grabbed a couple of Bio Grenades.

East snarled like an animal and charged at Nytetrayn, and the energy around his hands blazed like claws. His attack was stopped short, however, as Nyte fired and Xenos threw his grenade, hitting him at the same time. He let out a scream as his flesh was melted by the weapons.

“Losing flesh doesn’t feel so good, does it?” Nyte said, before letting off another blast.

East staggered backwards, and hissed balefully as the laser drilled a hole in his chest.

Xenos then attempted to risk changing the setting on his beam launcher to use it as a beam-charged grenade launcher. The alterations made, he let another Bio Grenade fly.

East’s eyes widened as the energy-charged grenade hit him dead on, and a bestial scream filled the chamber. He now looked far worse for wear as his silvery metallic bones peered out from behind putrefying, charred flesh.

“That did it!” shouted Fenix.

“Oh yeah!” echoed Nyte.

“One more time?” asked Xenos, checking for another Bio Grenade.

But as before, a sickly green energy glowed forth from where his eyes would be.

“Fools,” said East, or so it seemed. “Sherman East may be mortal, but the spirit he called forth from the depths of Cyberspace… is undying! Now witness… The Reanimator!”

East turned, and a beam of green light lanced out from his hand and struck one of the remaining refractors, shattering it. A beam of multicolored energy streamed forth from where the crystal had been and flowed into him.

“Shit!” shouted Janine.

East fell back and sank to one knee as his eyes blazed with sickly green menace and strange rectangular patterns of light began to encircle him. The wounded flesh dripped like black ichor to the floor, while his flesh turned various shades of sickly gray. As he continued to undergo this horrible transformation, his face became thin and skull-like, and his hands became long and spidery, tipped with ivory claws. From his back and shoulder burst forth several pairs of hideous, bony, bat-like wings, whose mismatched size only added to the appearance of a cadaver that had been horribly resurrected.

“They ain’t gettin’ any prettier,” said Nyte.

Cackling with a harsh, multi-toned voice, The Reanimator said, “I’m prettier than you’ll be, by the time I’m done with you!”

“Oh, just shut up already!” Nyte said, hurling his refractor at The Reanimator like a javelin. The Reanimator roared in primevil rage as the refractor impaled him and stuck him into the opposite wall.

“Come on, everyone!” shouted Nyte. “All at once!”

The Reanimator screamed as the poisons etched ever further into his flesh.

Nyte fired at the refractor with his laser, while Fenix sent a mass blast of bluish-white energy from his Plasma Caster its way, Xenos opened fire with his launcher, and Janine formed a sphere of energy in her hand and hurled it.

The Reanimator was obscured by an explosion which covered half the room, filling it with flames and falling debris. A piercing scream almost eclipsed the sound of the blast.

“There we go,” said Xenos. “When the smoke clears, he’ll be alive, but man, that felt good!”

A massive sucking sound began to fill the chamber, as the smoke and dust cleared to reveal a whirling vortex of black light that first sucked up the rubble near it, and began to spread outward with each passing second. From within the vortex, The Reanimator’s screams of agony could be heard.

“Goodness,” said Janine. “It seems we tore a hole in the fabric of reality.”

“Oh, well that happens all the time, doesn’t it?” Nyte said. “At least, from the way you make it sound.”

“May I suggest we run?” asked Fenix.

“Running is good,” said Janine.

“Running is very good,” added Nyte.

“Then don’t just stand there,” said Janine. “Let’s go!”

With that, Janine took off, cradling her injured arm in her other hand, with Xenos and Fenix following as fast as they could. Nyte started to follow, but hesitated for a moment before he grabbed the last refractor and hoisted it up before running after his friends.

As the Diggers ran for their lives, the vortex continued to grow. In the hallway beyond the doors to the chamber, where time had once seemed frozen, things were starting to move as hexagons were starting to be sucked into the void beyond. Static occasionally broke up the sight, with strange, unknown images flashing by, but there was no time to study them now.

When the group reached the grand hall, they noticed with some relief that the door that had once blocked their path back to the elevator was no longer there.

“The door formerly blocking the path to the elevator is gone!” Janine shouted!

“Yeah, I noticed!” Nyte shot back.

“Thanks for sharing!” added Xenos.

Fenis couldn’t help but laugh as he ran for it.

“What about the mech?” asked Nyte.

“Just get what you need and forget it, that thing’s busted!” said Xenos.

Nyte grabbed what he could of the Zenny, while Fenix took Yog’s giant sword. They then ran for the elevator, where Janine and Xenos, who kept most of his Zenny in his armor, were waiting and hurriedly gesturing for the other two to get on quickly.

Once they were on board, the elevator whisked them up to the surface, where they would be promptly deposited onto the ground in the middle of a fine day. The elevator sank back into the ground, soon followed by the entrance crumbling to dust, leaving nothing behind but a large depression in the soil. From deep underground, a final, muffled groan could be heard, and then all was still.

Nytetrayn was the first to break the moment of silence. “It’s finally over…”

Janine collapsed backwards onto the ground, a euphoric smile on her face.

“Janine?” asked Nyte. “Are you okay?”

“I am fantastic!”

Nyte gave her a bewildered look. “Um, what about… your arm?”

“Well, yeah, my arm hurt like a bitch,” she said. “But aside from that, it’s all good.”

“Now Fenix,” Xenos said, “one more time… if you ever… ever… ever­ have an idea again… please forget about i–”

“I can’t believe you guys wanted to go down there!” the masked Digger said. “Next time, no evil dungeons! Okay?”

Nyte just gave Fenix a look.

“I don’t trust you,” said Xenos.

“Don’t trust me?” Fenix said as he smiled innocently behind his mask. “Whyever not?”

The others turned their attention back to Janine. “So, what do you remember?” asked Xenos.

“Yeah, anything new?” Nyte asked.

“A… a lot,” said Janine. “It’s kind of overwhelming.”

“Take it easy,” said Nyte. “I think we should look at getting to a hospital.”

“You’ll be glad to know I was pretty much the same in my former life, too, Fenix.”

“Awesome.”

“And yes,” said Janine, “a hospital is good. My arm is without skin.”

Nytetrayn popped some stiff joints.

“Oh my god,” Janine said. “I just remembered he used to have some kind of sick torture fetish! And it was – Ew! Ew! Ew! I feel so violated,” she said with a disappointed look.

Nyte helped her to her feet. “Come on, let’s get to the ship. Uh, anyone remember where we parked?”

“Yes,” said Fenix. “I think my multiple concussions and other various injuries could use treatment. I’d recommend a hospital, but you guys would probably accuse it of being an evil demon hospital and freak out on me.”

“Only if it was the one where you were born,” said Nyte.

“I think I broke a bit of something,” said Xenos, while Fenix quickly clammed up.

“Let’s just get to the nearest one,” Nyte said, helping Janine along.

“Sounds good,” said Xenos. “Later, we can transfer to Fenix’s cult hospital. To the shit!” he said, as he pointed dramatically. Everyone else cracked up on the spot at the Air Pirate’s slip of the tongue.

“Oh, man, that hurts,” said Nyte as he laughed. Fenix held his ribs as he chuckled.

They continued until they reached the shit – er, ship – and Nyte knocked on its door.

A small, familiar voice sang out, “Just a minute!”

Another similar voice shouted, “Ahh! It’s getting bigger!”

The first voice said, “Hit it with the spoon!”

Xenos did not look amused. Nyte told him, “I think I’ll let you handle this.”

“Hmmm,” said Janine, as she looked at her skinned arm. “You know, it can’t be healthy to lose this much blood.”

“Nope,” Fenix said. “Probably not.”

A third voice rang out from inside the ship. “The sock! The sock!”

“I don’t want to know,” said Fenix.

“I don’t even want to think about it,” added Nyte.

“It’s touching me!” shouted the first voice, just before a Helpbot burst out of the window.

“Going to do anything?” Nyte asked Xenos, who had been stupefied this entire time, and was now looking at the poor thing.

“What the hell is happening?” he finally asked.

“It’s the washing machine, sir!” cried the Helpbot.

“Thank goodness,” said Xenos. “Excuse me a sec…”

“Right,” said Nytetrayn.

Xenos entered the ship, and various cursing and commotion followed. “Oh god! No! Aah! Keep it back, keep it back!” he said, amongst various banging and clanging noises.

Nyte looked at Janine and Fenix and said, “Y’know, about that hospital thing… I’m starting to seriously consider hitchhiking as an option.”

“Yeah,” said Fenix. “Despite your lack of faith in my opinions, there really is a very nice hospice on an island a few miles away from here.”

Xenos burst back through the door, leaning against it as if to keep it shut. He panted heavily, and looked quite the worse for wear. “Okay… This is slightly more complicated than I thought… It’ll be just another second,” he said, before vanishing back inside the ship to more heavy beating and clanging sounds.

“I’d offer to help,” said Janine, “but, skin removed from arm.”

“Take that! And that! Aah! Come back here!” shouted the Pirate.

“I’d offer, but I don’t even want to know,” said Nytetrayn.

“Hey-ey-ey! Put that down! Whoah!”

Nyte and Jan looked at Fenix. “Oh,” he said, “um, yeah, I want to help, too, but… uh, this pesky hangnail… yeah, that’s it.”

“We’ve almost got it! Alright, one… two.. aah!”

“It’s got my leg, Sir~!” shouted the second Helpbot. “What’s it doing now?” asked the third, which was followed by girlish screaming, along with more banging and clanging.

Figuring this was going nowhere soon, Nyte sat down. Janine leaned against him and took a nap.

“At least we managed one refractor,” Nyte said.

“Yah,” Fenix agreed, as he watched the sun set.

Soon, Xenos finally burst back out of the ship. “There… it should be safe.”

“‘Should be’?” asked Fenix.

“Unless?” added Nyte.

“Well! Let’s go in,” Xenos said as he headed back inside, followed by one more really loud “bang.”

“Wait, what’s–” Nyte started to ask. “Whatever,” he sighed as he went in, followed by a wary Fenix, who was carrying Janine.

“Wow, such a mess,” said the masked Digger, as he took in all the pans, various trash, and suds covering it all. “What kind of washing machine do you have, Xenos?”

“A Reaverbot that suds at the mouth?” Nyte suggested.

“I don’t know how it happened,” said Xenos, “but that was no washing machine… at least I don’t think it was. On the bright side, the clothes are clean.”

Nyte held up a shirt with a big hole in the middle as he said that. He noticed that it was clean, however.

“I’m going to go rest right now,” Xenos said. “Fenix, you give the Helpbots directions.”

“What? Why me?”

“Sheesh,” said Nyte. “You’d think he’d have learned by now.”

“I’ll let him pick the hospital. We’re even if it’s good,” the Pirate told Nytetrayn before he vanished into a hall full of suds.

“…fair enough.”

“Works for me,” said Fenix, as he pulled a map up on the navigation viewscreen. “Helpbots, take us to those coordinates. There is a hospice there that is our destination.”

With that, Nyte headed for his room and collapsed on the bed until they arrived, while Janine was happy to collapse just about anywhere.

To be continued…

—–

I hope you’ve enjoyed this month-long Halloween celebration in Legends of the Halcyon Era. The Devil’s Yard Journey may be over, but we’re just getting started! As you can tell by the end of this chapter, things have started to resume some sense of what passes for normalcy here, and there are still a lot of fun and exciting stories ahead that I can’t wait to tell, so I hope you’ll join me in the near future as the larger story unfolds.

For now, I think I need to take a small break from the fic writing, and get some other content up around here. See you soon!

—

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!