Legends of the Halcyon Era: Black Steel Whipped

In the “here’s something different” department, here’s a story I had virtually nothing to do with initially, bar being a spectator.

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Legends of the Halcyon Era

Black Steel Whipped

by

David Oxford/LBD “Nytetrayn”

*****

Early the next morning, Black Steel was sitting atop the jagged mountain edges which overlooked the eastern portion of Monroe Island. He had no idea of how he actually arrived on the island in the first place before his sanity seemingly returned from out of nowhere.

He winced, wishing he’d remained insane. Reality would be much easier to deal with if he was still out of his mind.

His thoughts were interrupted by the sound of nearby explosions. Alarmed, he bounded to his feet, only for another almost useless piece of his worn armor to fall clattering to the ground.

“Sonofa…” he said, looking down at the pathetic protective piece. “This better still work, at least,” he added, as he patted the gauntlet on his arm, which switched to Buster mode with a dull whir.

As he began looking for the source of the disturbance, Janine came tearing by, being chased by a giant, mechanical centipede Reaverbot. Steel’s eyes widened, in both surprise and disgust.

“Back!” she yelled. “Back, vile creature of the darkness! You can’t have my ice cream bar!!!”

After a moment of stunned silence, Steel sighed. “I guess I should help her. She did let me live, after all.”

Janine started trading fire with the Reaverbot, though neither of them seemed to be landing any shots.

Steel darted forward suddenly and leapt off of a jutting rock formation, propelling himself above the centipede, where he then unloaded a volley of fire over the creature’s spined segments.

Janine let out an enraged sound that was like a cross between a scream and a squeak, as the centipede grabbed her skirt with its mandibles, and ripped it up before it whirled to deal with this new threat.

Steel got a good look at the results of the skirt tearing, and found his concentration somewhat lacking. He then promptly hit the nearby cliff wall.

Taking advantage of the distraction, she used a large blade of energy to shear off the Reaverbot’s head. “What NOW, biznatch?!”

Steel flopped to the ground, but recovered at the last second so he wouldn’t appear totally useless. He flipped, and landed on one knee.

Janine took note of him, and floated over. “Well, hi there! Thanks for the help!” she said with a big, pleasant smile.

“You, uh… attract that kind of company regularly?”

“This would be the first time for a giant centipede.”

“Your dress seems to have suffered in this battle,” Steel said, as he tried to avoid looking.

“Hmm? Ah, yes, that bites quite a bit…”

Janine rubbed her chin thoughtfully at her conundrum, while Steel kept his eyes fixed firmly on the ever-so pretty orange rock that sat before him.

“Well, if you’re okay now I guess I’ll be on my way,” he said nervously.

“Oh? What are you doing way up here?”

“Admiring the view, I guess.”

Steel’s eyes shot wide open as soon as he realized what he’d just said. Janine snickered.

“WAIT, I didn’t mean…! That is to say…”

“‘S okay, I’m used to Freudian slips.”

Steel’s face reddened severely.

“Nyte makes ’em on a regular basis.”

“Nyte,” he asked. “Guy with the hat and the black armor?”

“Just the other day, Celeste was cooing at some little dogs on TV, and Nyte says out of the blue ‘I like puppies.’ He was probably trying to suck up to Cel, but he was looking right at me,” she chuckled darkly.

Steel opened his mouth, but words failed to come out for a moment.

“Well… ya know… he’s just a guy and all…”

“I know! I find it funny, personally.”

“At least you take it with good humor…”

“Well, I can hardly fault them for recognizing beauty when they see it, can I?” she said, cheerfully.

“…maybe I should just shut up.”

“No, no, you’re doing fine sweetie,” she said, as she patted him on the head.

Steel smiled. “You know… you remind me of someone.”

“Oh?”

“Uh… of course, I only like to think of her as fully clothed, so I guess this isn’t an appropriate time…”

Janine chuckled, while Steel tried not to look as a nice gust of wind lifted her tattered skirt.

“You’re cute when you try to be virtuous, you know that?”

Steel blushed again. “Uh… is there a place where you can… change?”

“Nearby? Nope. Hmmm, how to get into town without getting arrested…?”

“I could go on your behalf…”

“That would be incredibly sweet of you, but I couldn’t possibly ask you to go to the trouble…”

“You don’t have to ask… least I can do, after you didn’t kill me, and all,” Steel said with a smile.

“Ah, well, that’s just common courtesy!”

“Then allow me to show courtesy in kind.”

“Well…. um, thanks, I guess!” she said, before she gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“Uh… I really don’t know alot about ladies clothing though. What, um… size are you?” he asked, as he turned red as a beet.

Janine told Steel what her size was, and he decided he would try to find a replacement for her current garments that were of a similar style and color. He ventured forth into the town of Monroe down below, and awkwardly made his way through the women’s section of a local clothing outlet, and made haste once he realized he’d accidentally taken a wrong turn into the lingerie section.

Once Steel found what he was looking for, he made the purchases and fled swiftly from the giggling of the counter girls. After arriving back outside, he felt a draft… and realized that the reason for the laughter and gawking might actually be the result of his half-armored, half-revealed body. He decided to remedy this and get himself something to wear while he was at it, and settled on some black vinyl attire.

Just over an hour had passed since he had gone into town, and he returned to the cliffs with his hastily-made purchases. He glittered in the sunlight in his new getup, and once he found Janine, offered her the bag of silky clothing he purchased for her with a smile.

Janine grinned as she saw him, but decided not to comment on his new look.

“Thank you kind sir, I am in your debt,” she said happily, before pulling off her remaining clothing and changing right before him.

Steel’s eyes grew to the size of saucers. “W-warn me next time, will ya…?”

Janine glanced at Steel. “What’s wrong?”

“You don’t just… I mean you can’t just… undress in front of others like that…”

Janine cocked her head to the side. “Why not?”

“Because it’s… it’s just not right! Shameful, and all…”

“Shameful? Really… What is this ‘shame’ you speak of?”

“…you really don’t know?” Steel cleared his throat, as he tried to figure out how to put this. “Well, it’s just… the recognition of… of…”

“Of…?”

“I’m not sure how to explain this. I’ve always just assumed EVERYONE knew shame,” he said, wearing an expression that suggested his entire worldview had just been rocked.

“Well…I guess, I sort of know what you mean, but… Why would I be ashamed of my body? I mean, hell, just LOOK at it!”

“Gah! That’s… the problem, you see,” he said as he fumbled about for an explanation. “The body is meant to be covered… showing it to everyone is… bad manners…”

“Well, I don’t show it to everyone…” She put her finger to her chin in thought for a moment. “If you don’t want to see it, then you can tell me, I guess… Though it’s not like there’s a whole lot of it you haven’t seen.”

“Uh yeah… well then…” Steel said, as his face reddened again. “I had best get going… gotta find… things.”

“I guess I just don’t understand why you’re so nervous about it, is it a religious issue?”

“Religion?” Steel said. “No… I don’t really know why it’s important to me. Just the way I was raised, I suppose…”

“Ahhh, your upbringing. That makes sense, I guess.”

Black Steel stopped and looked at her in the sunlight. “You look so much like her…”

Janine’s eyes softened. “Old girlfriend?”

“No…” he said forlornly. “My… mother.”

Janine’s eyes widened. “Oh, wow, no wonder you don’t want to see me naked!”

“Yes, I suppose that does have some bearing… severely… Fortunately that never came up with her.”

“Sorry,” Janine said, looking genuinely embarrassed.

Steel looked away, out to the ocean. “Don’t misunderstand me, it’s not your appearance. It’s… something in your eyes. The way the world looks about you. Mother always had this… essence… as if the world lived to nourish her, to bow in service to her kindness. That same kind of essence surrounds you. That’s what I’m trying to say… if that makes any sense at all.”

“Though, how you can see so much kindness in someone like me is beyond my faculties…”

Steel smiled to himself. He thought to speak, but then thought better of it. Instead, he turned to watch the lapping waves of the ocean, the endless eternity of blue he’d seen so many times throughout his journeys. Never had it looked so beautiful.

More was the pity when the view was ruined by the ledge he stood upon deciding to collapse at that very moment.

“Steel!” Janine called out, as she zipped over to try to stop him from plummeting to his doom.

A few feet below, Steel sat upside down on another ledge. “Don’t worry,” he said. “My head broke my fall.”

“Oh, you poor thing…” she cooed. “Do you need a band-aid?”

“No thanks,” Steel said through gritted teeth. “But, uh… don’t happen to have a spare neck, do ya’?”

“Hmm, sorry, no…”

“Pity that…”

“Need a hand?” she asked, as she reached out.

“Sure,” he said, as he accepted it and she helped him back up to the higher ledge.

“Sorry,” he said, as he dusted himself off. “I seem to have a habit of screwing up nice moments.”

“S’okay,” she reassured him as she smiled. “Trying to be serious makes me itch.”

“You always try to be so modest?”

“Modest…?”

“Maybe not the best of words… but you seem to want to hide the side of yourself that makes you who you are. The beautiful side that doesn’t want to see others hurt. That doesn’t know how to handle being confronted with its own angelic vision.”

Janine turned bright red. “N-n-now you’re just trying to flirt with me!”

“Er… no… I mean… that’s not what I was intending,” Steel said, as he began to turn equally red.

Janine smirked. “It’s not that I don’t like it, mind…”

Steel was unsure how to go on, and instead opted to be dazzled by the reflections of the light on his pants. “Whoa,” he thought to himself. “Glitter.”

Janine raised an eyebrow, as she sensed that she was being pointedly ignored. She weighed the potential risks and rewards of stuffing Steel’s head into her cleavage.

Steel concluded his study of the spiraling colors of vinyl clothing, and raised his eyes to look at the sun, now at high noon.

Janine pulled Steel into a huge hug, and plopped him face first into the valley. “You’re so sweet!” she said happily.

“Mmmmmmmppppphhhhhhh!!!!!!!!” was all Steel could say in return.

“Eee! It tickles!”

Steel worked his way out enough to breathe, and Janine released him. Eyes wide, he began to tip over the edge and plummet once again, but Janine caught him by the waistband of his pants, which only wound up putting undue pressure on Steel’s nether regions..

“Are you okay?” she asked.

“Next time,” he said in a pained, high-pitched voice, “just let me fall, please.”

“…okay,” she said, before she let go.

“Someday, I’ll learn to just let well enough alone…” Steel said as he fell, before going splat below.

“Are you okay!?” Janine asked, panic written across her face.

“That seems to be the question of the day,” Steel replied, dazed.

“Do you need an ambulance?”

Steel pulled himself up from the flat ledge he’d landed on, and quickly cracked his neck to the side. “Wow… I think that just realigned three of my discs!”

“Cool… I… guess…”

Steel cracked his way back up the cliff, and upon arriving back where Janine was, reset his body. He sounded like a bowl of rice krispies, while Janine just looked on, somewhat horrified.

“Sorry,” he said.

“Doesn’t that hurt?”

“Oh yes,” he said happily. “Like the fires of hell!”

“You’re remarkably cheerful,” Janine said with a perturbed expression.

“Nothing so refreshing as resetting every bone in my body!”

“…are you on crack?”

Steel paused. “I should hope not.”

“Okay, then…”

“I’m simply concealing the urge to scream with overwhelming happiness! Now, if you’ll excuse me a moment?”

“Sure…”

Steel casually disappeared around the corner. Seconds later, the ground quaked and birds took flight from their perches, as the land around was treated to a lovely string of profanity.

Steel reemerged, and scratched his head haplessly.

“Would you like me to help you with that? I know a little about massage,” Janine offered.

“No, no, everything should be in its rightful place at this point,” he said in a tense yet reassuring manner.

“Okay…”

“Heh, told ya’ I can’t have a moment of peace…”

Janine rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, I can see that,” she said cheerfully.

Steel resumed his seat on the ledge, only this time he looked warily at the cliff face below. Janine sat down next to him, as he resisted the almost overwhelming urge to shake his fist at the lower ledges where the crater from his earlier impact laid.

“Before I fell though… that was nice…”

Janine smiled. “Would you like me to do it again?”

Steel turned cherry-colored once more, but answered this time as he laid his head on her shoulder. “I think this is safer.”

Janine smiled, and put her arm around him. “Okay.”

Steel put his arms around her waist, and held tightly to her as they looked out over the horizon. They sighed happily together.

Time became nothing more than a blur, until some time later, when Janine asked Steel if he had a watch.

“Oh, sure,” he said, as he took a look. “It’s almost 2pm.”

Janine sat straight up, eyes wide. “Holy shit! I’m late!” she shouted, before rocketing skyward with a burst of speed. “I gotta shag ass! The guys are gonna kill me!”

A moment later, Steel fell back down to the ground with a splat. “Guess I’ll be seeing you,” he said as he sat up, holding his head and watching her zoom back to the town down below.

Then the ledge gave way again, and he tumbled down once more.

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!