The Business of War

Orchestrated By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)

Predecessor

By Makenshi

This takes place directly after "Kill Now, For Elysium Awaits".



"Alright, what say we get out of this dump?" Saturn said.

Quint nodded, and after limping over to the navigation controls of the Marauder the ship roared to life as it prepared to takeoff. "Where to?"

Then, Vulcan suddenly bolted up. His eyes darted frantically around the room as if he had just lost something.

"Where's Shiken?"

There was only a dreadful silence. "Now that you mention it, I haven't seen the guy at all since we started our attack," Jade said.

Vulcan tried contacting Makenshi through his communicator. When all he heard was static, his cigar dropped to the floor. The Jersey Devil started to panic, and he trudged over to the Marauder's exit. "Open the door! I have to find him!"

"Stop!" BrightBabe caught Vulcan just in time as he collapsed from fatigue. "You're too damaged to move!"

"To hell with that!" Vulcan roared. "He's gotta be out there!"

"Calm down, when was the last time you saw him?" Saturn inquired.

"We were in the lake when the guy got whisked away by a sea monster or sumthin'," Diveman muttered to answer his question.

"Do not worry, we will go look for him," Riff stated, and the hatch opened as the Fatal Five dashed out. A couple RPD units followed.

--------------------

Captain Spiegel explored the shadow that had once been the RPD HQ. He had to search for survivors, but there was no luck. Until he came across a familiar female doctor in a lab coat, huddled with her face hidden. "Natalie! Thank God you're alive!" But when he approached her he heard sobs.

Doctor Beeson looked up at Spiegel, her eyes swollen from crying. She must have taken refuge somewhere during the entire battle, and only now she had come out to witness the devastation that had occurred, the Captain thought. But something was worrying him.

"Natalie.... Let's go. Everything's going to be okay...." Spiegel reassured. But the doctor only shook her head. "Nick... Lieutenant Vatnick is...." and she buried her face once more and wept uncontrollably, pointing in front of her. The Watcher turned to see what she was gesturing at and almost immediately turned away. He had taken only a glimpse of the unsettling sight on top of the debris. At that moment he understood.

"Come on, we have to get to safety," the Captain said gently as he helped the doctor up.

"The RPD was finally shaping up.... And now look at what's happened to it," Beeson sniffled.

"I know... But-"

"I don't think I can take this anymore... I'm a doctor, and I can do everything in power to aid the injured... But what about those who die in an instant? Why can't a aid everyone? Why is it that people I care about die in front of my eyes and I can't do anything about it? We've made so many advances in medical technology, but we can't do anything to prevent things like this?"

"Human lives are so very fragile. It's a miracle that we even have the ability to save lives. One person can only do so much..." Spiegel said. "You loved, him didn't you?"

Beeson nodded. "I never got the chance to tell him..."

Spiegel's communicator beeped. "Captain Spiegel, right?" came an unfamiliar voice.

"Yeah.... Who is this?" Spiegel replied.

"That doesn't matter right now! You used to be Shiken Max's watcher, right? Do you have any means of finding his location right now?"

The Captain felt uneasy. "Ah, well, I think I still have him bugged..." He took out a device on his utility belt and looked at the screen. His heart almost stopped when he saw nothing show up. "N-Nothing's coming up...." he said softly, then he urgently demanded, "What's going on?"

The connection was cut. Captain Spiegel looked at Beeson, who had overheard everything. She had stopped crying, but now her face had went pale.

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Waveman chuckled quietly to himself as he reeled in his catch. It was the first time he had seen him in his armor, but there was no doubt in his mind that this was his phony that he had in his grasp. The fools that were with Makenshi: Diveman and Starman had abandoned him. Morons. Did they not expect that after being spotted they could still just walk into the fortress? No, something will be waiting for each of them the moment they stepped foot in. Meanwhile, he got to have his impostor, all to himself. And at last, he arrived in a different area of the lake, a place where he could play with his new catch in privacy.

The Kraken was a fine vessel, modified especially for Waveman to operate on the inside. The floor of the lake began to tremble and split as the rest of the giant fortress guardian emerged, bearing countless spiked tentacles. Makenshi looked down, and though his helmet hid it Waveman could sense the fear in his eyes. His cackle echoed, distorted throughout the water as the tentacles lurched upward and reached for its prey.

Makenshi was a surprisingly nimble swimmer in his armor, and his spear moved quickly as well, as if it were moving through air. The former Android broke free from Waveman's grip and batted away the tentacles, then proceeded to float up towards the surface. By now the Kraken had completely pushed its gargantuan body out of its hiding place and drifted in pursuit. Makenshi escaped to the surface on a pillar of water while the tentacles followed, emerging and flailing about like the tips of a flame. It was raining, and Makenshi leaped from his water pillar and took control of the raindrops, making them fall with enough speed to pierce the exposed tentacles like shotgun pellets. Waveman felt the Kraken shudder with each hit, but the attack was useless. The futility of his impostor's struggling was so delicious.

The tentacles unleashed a volley of spikes directly at Makenshi, who barely deflected them, then grabbed on to a tentacle. Waveman tried to shake him off but the bastard was now sliding down the convulsing tentacle with little trouble until he arrived at the root. With a swing of his spear the tentacle was completely severed. Waveman was surprised yet unconcerned. After all, his fake would be dead before he could chop off every single tentacle. The Kraken slapped Makenshi off of it with such force that he was sent back into the water in a split second with a giant splash. More spikes were fired, and Waveman giggled in glee as some of them pierced his doppleganger. He could hear him cry out in pain, and watched with amusement as he tore out every spike. Now he was once more trying to get back to the surface, but he would get no such chance. The Kraken reached out and seized him, then began to constrict him. He was squirming like an insect as his armor began to crack. And still the tentacles compressed, waiting for its catch to ultimately crumble in its hold.

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The world was fading. Makenshi thought he was being carried somewhere, but the pain was demanding far too much attention. Although he didn't need to breathe while in his armor, his human habits still caused him to gasp for air as the tentacles continued to constrict him. He had to do something, or else it would be all over. But it was hard to concentrate. With all this pain....

Then, finally, a surge of water going through the tiny cracks between Makenshi and the tentacles forced open enough space for Makenshi to escape. He swam as fast as he could, with reaching land the only thing on his mind. That was the only way he could get an edge in this fight. Finally, he dove out of the water and landed on the tiled floor.

Wait, tiled floor? But weren't they outside moments ago? Makenshi took in his new surroundings. It appeared to be an abandoned underground lab, with an enormous pool where the Kraken was dead center of the room. Waveman must have had a reason to drag him here, but right now he had to focus. Now that he was out of the water, his options were more open, and he could concentrate. First, he summoned up the water in front of him and soon the Kraken was barraged by a storm of water javelins. Waveman responded by unleashing his own projectiles, and Makenshi strafed to the side, aware that his attack wasn't working.

Then he got an idea. Taking Iormungandr, he fired it at the ceiling. The spear head dug in, and the retracting chain pulled Makenshi all the way up so that he was hanging directly above the Kraken. From there he could clearly see it from the top. There were eight tentacles total, and in the center was a dome, presumably the monstrosity's head. The Kraken raised itself above the surface to reach for Makenshi, which was just what he wanted. He lifted his legs up to push himself off the ceiling, and as he fell he slammed his spear down into the Kraken's head. Though the attack barely punctured the Kraken's armor, he wasn't finished yet. He smirked as he saw that Waveman was fruitlessly trying to reach him with his tentacles, but by some overlook in design it didn't seem to be able to reach that far back, and the spikes were facing away from it, which meant Makenshi was free to do whatever the hell he wanted. Still, he had to act quickly before Wave realized what he was doing.

A flash of light. His armor was gone, along with his spear. But in its place he held his pistols. Making sure he had put in the right cartridges, he ran around the circumference of the Kraken's head, firing his ice bullets at the roots of the exposed tentacles. He kept running around and shooting until a small yet sufficient segment of each tentacle was encased in ice. Then, with the push of a button on his watch, Makenshi was back in his armor. Eight blobs of water rose into the air and formed large fists that hovered directly above the frozen parts of each tentacle. With a wave of his hand he brought them down with as much force as he could focus. Not all of them did the trick, but he saw a grand total of four tentacles ripped off from that move.

The Kraken suddenly sank back into the pool, throwing Makenshi off and putting him within reach of its tendrils. Once more Makenshi swam for land, but a digit managed to seize his ankle and though he did manage to break free, he felt a sharp pain as the joints dislocated. Nevertheless he made it to the surface once more, though he had to limp now. Waveman was moving towards him. The spikes were practically being emptied all at once, and since he was forced to move slower he looked like a pincushion by the time he had gotten out of the way. Things weren't looking good at all, and he didn't think he could pull off his trick again. There had to be another weak point that he could nail...

That's when he saw it. It may have been pure luck that he had noticed it, but the bottom of the Kraken's oval-shaped body looked peculiar. It appeared to be its mouth. And he realized he could very well use his trick again, but to do something else, and he had to be extremely fast.

First his armor disappeared again along with the spikes that were sticking out of it. All the pain had disappeared due to his human body not having been damaged yet, and though he preferred to stay like this he had to act quickly, switching his cartridges and then transforming back. Ignoring the spikes that were still sticking out of his armor he fired Iormungandr and latched on to the ceiling again. Waveman anticipated this, and the Kraken turned with its ugly maw facing up at him so that it was in a position to fire its spikes at him.

The spear was replaced with his guns as he switched back to human form, and he unloaded as many volt bullets into the Kraken's mouth. He could hear Waveman snarl in pain as the Kraken convulsed. Makenshi splashed into the water right in front of the behemoth, but he could see that he had internally damaged it enough. As the Kraken began to smoke, Makenshi took the opportunity to get out of the water, transform into his armor, and finally pull out the spikes sticking out of him. Once he was done, though, he could see an all-too-familiar figure slither out of the Kraken.

As he gazed into Waveman's bloodthirty grin, he knew the battle had only just begun.

"I'm so happy to see you again!" Waveman chimed.

Makenshi smirked behind his mask. "As am I. I've been waiting a long time for this. After all, there can only be one Shiken Max."

The aquatic demon chuckled. "Glad to see we're on the same page here! Know that you shall be the one who will die today, my phony!"

At this, Makenshi only laughed. It was a laugh so hard that even Waveman found it disturbing. "Me.... A phony? And what makes you think you're the real one? Remember, I've had two lives. The first was as Shiken Max, the deranged scientist who built WMDs and killed many. Then there is Makenshi, also known as Waveman of the old Ascendant Androids, who had a much more functional moral compass. However, Shiken Max and Makenshi are the same person. Are you saying that these two personas were somehow able to split into two completely different people?"

"That appears to be the case. And know that I am the genius mass murderer Shiken Max! The original!" Waveman replied.

"Wrong. The original Shiken Max never acted like you. And I can tell that you were no genius like he was. You see, the real Shiken Max, the insane scientist..... Doesn't exist anymore."

Now things were starting to get confusing for Waveman. "What are you babbling about?"

"You were given life by Cutman, right? I'm pretty sure he simply fabricated your personality, then injected into your mind all of my residual memories that was left in that armor of yours. And so, you claim that these memories belong to you when really they do not. You're just Waveman, a lapdog of General Cutman, and nothing more. So who's the fake now?"

Waveman was seething in fury now. As confusing as all of this was, he was still able to take in all of the main points of Makenshi's explanation. Him, a fake? Impossible! He was Shiken Max! And this person right in front of him, Makenshi, had robbed him of his original body!

Right?

"Kyeh!" the SA officer snarled. "Enough of this nonsense! All that matters is that you will die! Then we'll see who is fake!"

The pool began to stir as Waveman started to absorb a great number of it into his own body mass. As he grew in size the water rapidly swirled around him like a cyclone, with his now pointless armor pieces spinning around with the current. Yet still his red eyes remained fixed upon a giant serpent's head, except the monster had a gaping shark's jaw that spelled oblivion to anything it swallowed. The swirling water separated and turned into claws or demon heads, poised and ready to rend anything in sight. And a trident, the largest one he had ever seen, rose from the depths and formed the tail of the great beast.

Makenshi didn't falter a bit. He readied his spear, and began to make offensive structures of his own with the water. They wouldn't deal any damage, but they could at least negate his opponent's attacks.

Waveman started his assault, and Makenshi responded.

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The search for Makenshi yielded no results. The lake had been completely drained, but there was absolutely no trace of the former Android. The search team came back and gave their report. Vulcan had told Quint to contact Captain Spiegel of the RPD, but the former Watcher revealed that Makenshi's tracker wasn't giving off any signal. Vulcan was about to request the entire fortress by searched, but before he opened his mouth his communicator beeped. He was receiving a transmission.

"Jack..."

It was Makenshi's voice! Vulcan felt relief, and yet something was wrong. Makenshi only called him by his first name when there was something serious going on.

"Maks! Where the hell are you?" Vulcan asked urgently.

But Makenshi ignored him.

"Jack..... This is a recording. Just to let you know. I've also sent this to the old base, so if Crys and Nick happen to be there they'll get it too.

What? A recording? Why was he being sent this?

"As I'm recording this we're about to lead our attack on Elysium. For the course of this war I've made it through fine and dandy, but this time.... I feel uncertainty. And, as you can see, this gut feeling I have was right.

"Guys, the reason you're listening to this... Is because I'm dead."

Vulcan felt like he had been stabbed in the heart. "Makenshi... You can stop fucking around now... This isn't funny..." By now everyone on the ship was staring at him, unaware of what he was hearing. But they were getting the basic gist of what was going on.

"Crys, let me just say you did a wonderful job building a base for my armor. I didn't expect any more from you. And we all know that even though the armors gave us great power and turned us into robots, once we died as a robot, we died as a human as well.

"All these years, I could have had a backup of my mind. I could have turned myself into a robot completely. But I chose not to do either. And that is a choice that I have no regrets over. I've grown weary, even though I've only been in this world for 32-some years. I'm still a human, and nothing more. So many times I've cheated death, but now... I think I can finally rest.

"I'm sorry if I didn't fulfill the promises I made. I never was good at that. But please, if they're still alive, destroy them. But most of all, I want you to make sure that he is dead, and remains dead. He may in a way be the only living thing left of me in this world, but that's exactly why I want that abomination erased. No matter what. That.... Is my final request.

"And now, on to another topic. Sorry to bore you with such a long speech, but, I think it's time that you guys finally knew the truth. To know everything about me. It all started many years ago..."

The voice went on to narrate his entire life, from the beginning to the end. Every crime that he had committed, every sin he had acted with, every dark secret that he had hidden for so long was included. Vulcan just listened. Right now, it was the least he could do.

"...And you know the rest of the story," Makenshi's voice finished. There was a short pause. "........Well, I guess it's time for me to say goodbye. Jack, it was great fighting alongside you. We've been through a lot, and it was thanks to you that I'm still here. If you hadn't beaten sense into me when I had completely lost it back then, I don't know what would have happened.

"Crys, we've had some fun times," the recording went on. "Like when you snuck me some liquor all those times, even though I was 'underage.' And you are a brilliant scientist, one that has done much good. Please remember that.

"Nick, my other drinking buddy. You've always been there to lighten up the mood. I wish I could have hung out with you more, you were a pretty cool guy.

"And, if there's a chance that they come back, goodbye to everyone else I have shared memories with on this team: Johnny, Pat, Tommy, Brandon, and Matt. It's been fun. You've done so much to shape who I am... Or was... When I was given a second chance at life. And for that I thank you. But now.... I think she's waiting for me.

"Farewell."

--------------------

The whole pool shifted abnormally is two unnatural forces fought for control of it. Tidal waves collided into eachother while dragons formed from the water dueled eachother. Walls were conjured to block a shower of javelins, and demon-shaped tentacles lashed out like a whip, only to crash into the ground and disappear. The whole thing looked like a deadly magic show, and the battle between the two manipulators of water raged on with no clear indication of a winner.

Finally, Makenshi cried out in pain as a deep gash tore into a shoulder. Waveman's attacks were without stop, leaving him with little opportunity's to get any attack in. All his armor was useful for was defending. If only he had had the time to create a completely new set of guns compatible with his armor. Then things would be much easier.

Waveman lashed out with his trident tail, smashing a gaping hole in the wall where Makenshi had been a split second ago. Finally, Makenshi was able to switch to his pistols and fired acid rounds upon the water demon's glowing red eyes.

Waveman hissed and recoiled, trying to purge the acid from his body. But even as he did a quarter of his optical nanobots were destroyed. "You filthy swine!" he cursed, and with another flick of his tail Makenshi was batted across the room.

Unfortunately, Makenshi had still been in his human form at that moment and upon landing he heard and felt several ribs breaking. You've been through much worse, he assured himself, and got back up, firing more acid rounds. However, Waveman was prepared this time and blocked the bullets with his tail. The acid was eating parts of the metal trident off, but ultimately it did little damage. Makenshi knew then that Waveman's makeshift shield had to go.

Transforming back into his armor, he dashed around Waveman, who responded with another swing of his trident tail. Anticipating this, Makenshi first fired Iormungandr so that it was in chain whip mode and swung it down, wrapping around Waveman's trident. Makenshi flew off his feet as he swung along with the trident, but he swiftly conjured a portion of water formed into a guillotine blade that managed to slice off the head of the trident. With the weapon much lighter now Makenshi could pull the staff out of Waveman's body with a tug. Finally, he jumped back on to land. Now he could focus on taking out the beast's sight. After that things would be much-

A legion of demon heads and tentacles assaulted all at once. The sheer force of the impact caused Makenshi to smash right through the wall and into another room. It was completely empty, with pale white, curved walls, and a large peculiar device on the ceiling. Waveman followed inside in the guise of an enormous sea serpent, but his eyes were sunken into his head to protect them. The snake's head struck with the speed of a bullet, barely giving Makenshi the enough time to roll out of the way. Waveman then morphed, floating high above them room so that he was like a dome, surrounding Makenshi in all directions. Then, what seemed like bullets shot out everywhere all at once, all aimed at Makenshi, who rapidly parried each one with his spear. Iormungandr became a blur as it deflected the bullets, but even then it couldn't take on each and every one of them. Makenshi felt like he was becoming swiss cheese, and then when he was the most offguard the dome fell to the ground in an attempt to crush him. Makenshi canceled out of his transformation in the nick of time and fired bullets closest to where Waveman's eyes were. The terror of the sea stopped, obviously in a panic as he attempted once more to isolate the acid. But Makenshi reloaded one of his pistols with a Volt cartridge, and with those bullets Waveman was distracted by the shock that he couldn't do it fast enough and his eyes became even smaller.

In a rage, the SA officer reformed into his normal self and dove down, attacking the vulnerable Makenshi with everything at his disposable. The human had no opportunity to get back into his armor and put up a short fight before a claw impaled him by the stomach. Makenshi gasped and blood spurted out of his mouth. His vision was blurry, the world was turning into darkness. He groggily pulled himself away from Waveman before transforming into his armor to avoid his wound from becoming fatal. But even then Waveman struck immediately, stabbing Makenshi's heart and pinning him to the wall. The SA officer looked up at the device that was on the ceiling and turned back to Makenshi with a devilish grin. He began to laugh that dark and cold laugh that was so alien from his normal cackling.

"Kyeheheheh.... At first I didn't really want to go through with this, but now I've changed my mind..." Waveman said in a hushed but excited voice.

"W-What?" Makenshi said, who was struggling to speak.

"Right now we're in an old, abandoned part of the fortress. Thankfully because of that I got to have this place to myself. Remember when you regained your memories of your past life, and we were one? After that we wielded such great power... And I realized that in order to become stronger..." Waveman's face drew closer to Makenshi's. "I need you." And then the demon's voice became more and more manic. "The place where we're standing is surrounded by a nifty machine I modified. I call it a particle synthesizer."

Makenshi recoiled in horror as he realized what Waveman was planning to do. "No... You're beyond crazy... It's not going to work..."

"Oh, but you never know until you try!" Waveman cackled. He reached a tendril across the room, piercing a sealed door and punching in buttons on a control board on the other side. Shortly afterwards the entire room began to hum and vibrate.

"Come, Makenshi!" Waveman cried, now at the very peak of his insanity. "Let us become one again!"

Makenshi's mind raced as his time began to run out. Already he was feeling light-headed, losing the sensation in his body as the hum grew louder and louder. Through the hole in the wall he had been smashed through objects were sucked inside, including the water from their previous arena and the metal tiles on the walls and floor, along with other stray objects. And then, he saw all of these things beginning to decompose into smaller particles. Waveman started to disappear as well, and soon Makenshi felt himself being deconstructed. Yet he was still alive and aware, though now his senses were becoming distorted. It was a nightmare to behold, but the most chilling of all was that he heard Waveman laughing, but the voice was echoing in his own mind. Was the synthesizer actually working?! Was his mind about to be bonded with the mind of this monster?!

He felt as if he was in a free fall. Makenshi couldn't hear the humming anymore. He couldn't hear anything except Waveman's accursed laughter. Then, all of a sudden he began to see atoms everywhere, whirling around. The speed at which they moved was so dizzying he wanted them to stop.

And they did.

Puzzled at what just happened, he wondered why his sight was like this. Makenshi could even see the electrons floating around the nucleus, such that he was able to identify each type of atom. Oxygen, hyrdrogen, sulfur, nitrogen, iron, fluorine... They were everywhere.

Waveman was still laughing triumphantly in his head. Makenshi had underestimated his foe. Somehow, the lunatic must know how synthesize with him while isolating everything else. Already, he could feel them merging together as the demon invaded his mind. No, this wasn't supposed to happen. He was supposed to destroy this guy, not be absorbed into him! His mind raced, desperately looking for a way out, but all he could see were atoms.

And then it clicked. Fluorine! Hydrogen! There were so many atoms of these elements everywhere! Fluorine was notorious for being the most reactive chemical on the period table, especially when combined with hydrogen gas. If only he could somehow...

But he could. Somehow, his powers had heightened beyond physical capabilities so that he could freely manipulate the atoms with a mere thought. The atoms were becoming smaller and he realized the synthesis machine was almost done. In a hurry he completely surrounded himself with fluorine and hydrogen atoms combined together. Even after that he still looked for any element combinations he could add to his timebomb.

Waveman was completely oblivious to what Makenshi had been doing, still laughing until the very end.

"Farewell..."

The particle synthesis machine had already finished its job, and the world turned back to normal.

But when that happened, a chain of explosions caused a mild tremor in the fortress, but because of the ongoing battle not a soul paid heed to it.

--------------------

Despite technology's extreme advances, it was still impossible to transfer the mind of a dying human into an entirely mechanical body. The departing patient could not truly escape death, and any claims otherwise were likely a ruse. They would always live on, but they were doomed to mortal conclusion. It always haunted Vulcan to know that he was, in a figurative sense, nothing more than a phantom.

"...it pained him to see you die, and because of that... I think he sees you as the most human of all his creations. I mean, we're all blurring the line, but you were the first of us to ever exist as a friend before his own invention. To him, your freedom as a human being matters the most..."

Vulcan stood, arms crossed with his head held low. Drill's conclusions sometimes had insight, but this one was probably the most accurate he had heard from the pointy-headed geek.

Diveman, rather than scowling as he usually did in such positions, simply muttered a few curses before offering his own advice, "Ya homos better not start cryin'. I'm in no mood right now, so just call in the cavalry, damn it!"

Makenshi sat next to Megaman, examining his pistols. He was in his human form, as the removal of the Shutdown Code finally allowed him to be. After a while Vulcan walked up and sat down as well. "It's going to start soon," he said.

The gunslinger nodded, loading a green cartridge into a gun. "It's going to end soon," he added, and without changing his tone he said, "After this whole thing is over, I'm going to be put on trial for the killing of five men."

Vulcan winced, at a loss for words. But he kept the conversation going. "You never explained to me how you survived, you know."

Makenshi took a deep breath. "It was a long, difficult journey, but in the end I found my real body and came back."

"Your real body, huh. That's the complete opposite of what I went through."

As the two former Androids continued to talk, Rock got up and walked over to talk to the Cossack's Comrades. Makenshi stared at the blue robot. Megaman..... The example of a perfect hero. Megaman's purpose was only to fight for the greater good, and he was untainted by the darkness of the real world, of adulthood. One could say that his youth made him naive, but that may not be true. After all, Megaman was able to decide for himself that which was right and that which was wrong, and that's what made him mature. And yet, even in maturity he could still retain his innocence.

And that is what Makenshi envied about him.

"Hey," Vulcan said, getting his attention. "You also never fully explained why you were hiding your identity from me at the start of this war."

Makenshi blinked, then chuckled. "Oh, that. That was just a safety precaution. I was planning on running away once I had gotten my armor."

Vulcan raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"Yeah, but the thing is, you never know what the Crorq would do. That crazy robot is always trying to find an excuse to exercise the power he had. He could have accused you of helping me make my getaway. But if you didn't even know who I was? It was plausible to pull off an act, being that you've only seen my old body. It didn't matter if you saw through it, as long as you didn't open your mouth, Crorq would have absolutely zero chance of incriminating you."

Vulcan only shook his head. "You think of everything, don't you? And that plan didn't seem that effective anyway. But enough of that. Another thing I want to know is how you got your armor to work with a watch. I thought only Crys knew how to do that?"

Makenshi paused, looking at the custom blue watch on his wrist. "Yeah..... I met with her along with Nick. You know, they're waiting for us. They're waiting for us..."

"We're.... We're going to rebuild the team.... The four us," Vulcan swore with renewed determination.

Makenshi looked up the mountain. Somewhere up there, Waveman lurked. He gripped his revolvers tightly, knowing that he would need them in the fight against him, as well as the powers of his armor.

"Yeah... The four of us..."

END

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