¶ MEGAMAN¶

CHAPTER SIX: Settlement.

+++++

|C.C.P.D|

“Is Central city safe? Has Central city gotten a new hero to put an end to the prevailing crisis at the hands of the Meteor humans? Is he also a Meteor human?

These are the few, out of the many questions pondered by Central city citizens after the unusual incident that took place some hours ago. Sean, Ryan and Luke Watson, or as they like they call themselves – the SRL brothers, were intercepted and beaten to a state of unconsciousness by an unknown man. He was dressed in a long cloak and hood that concealed his identity.

Also, he saved the cops just at the nick of time. They were all shaken up a bit due to shock. After speaking with Chief Kayla, she assured that they'll be fine and it was normal for anyone to react like that. Even though she lost some good men, it wasn't going to deter their stand against stopping crimes and protecting the lives of the citizens...”, the male reporter kept debriefing as the officers watched him on a Tv screen hung up on a pillar in the station.

“Shaken up a bit? We were totally fine!”, Marc retorted with his hand rubbing his chin.

“Speak for yourself. 'Shaken up' ia an understatement. We almost killed each other!”, Flynn wailed as he stood beside Marc. He was obviously scared to the core.

Why wouldn't he be? They were at the point of murdering each other if not for the intervention of the cloaked man.

“Yeah whatever”, Marc twitched his eye brows. “They should have been more subtle. We are now considered weak and incompetent, thanks to the media”

“Isn't that a bit far strectched?”, a familia voice rang into their ears from behind.

They turned to see Nathan and Pedro walk up to them.

“You guys should count yourselves lucky”, Pedro praised.

He and Nathan barely escaped death and they still had to wear bandages. While Marc and Flynn came back unscathed. Lucky indeed.

Marc folded his arm, “Yeah, i guess”

“And...we owe you both an apology for how we acted earlier...”, Flynn said while he stared at his shoes.

Marc just shrugged.

“Right, Marc?”, Flynn nudged him in the shoulder after noticing his non repentant attitude.

“Yeah, we're sorry”, Marc smiled shortly. The words felt forced out of his mouth. Such pride.

“Nah. We would have done the same”, Pedro scoffed.

Nathan smiled, “Yeah, we're good”, he shrugged afterwards.

Silence then hung amongst them.

Flynn was about to clear it off when a slim female officer walked amidst them with a trolley made of aluminum. It had several plastic trays arranged on it; each tray conveying a big belly burger and latte.

“Hey guys”, she greeted with her light, sweet voice.

“Officer Alice! You look stunning, as usual”, Flynn flattered her as he scanned her from top to bottom.

She had a long black hair. Her uniform clinged tightly to her body, bringing out her curves and protrusions. Moreso, he's had his eyes on her ever since and was always flirting with her when he had the chance.

“Hey...Flynn”, she bluntly replied with cold eyes. As you might have guessed, her answer was always no.

“What's with the food trays? Is someone retiring?”, Pedro couldn't help but ask.

“Oh...”, her smile returned, “...they're from Chief Kayla”

“Chief Kayla!?!”, the four officers were dumbfounded.

Chief Kayla was always strict, disciplinary and straight forward. Once she makes a point, she'll stand on it till eternity. She seldom smiled. Now, she's distributing food packs after a close encounter with death? Probably they heard Alice wrong or something was definitely off.

Their reaction and funny face expressions made Alice giggle. “Yeah, that's how everyone has been reacting. Even i was shocked until she told me her reason”

“Which is?”, Marc raised a brow.

“She felt she's been pushing us too hard and felt guilty for the the death of their officers”, she explained as she passed them a tray each.

“Why? She had no hand in killing them. And she couldn't do anything to stop it”, Nathan was puzzled.

“Yes. But it saddened her that they never got to see the good side of her and how much they were loved before going on an eternal haitus. And also to celebrate the lives of those that survived”, she completed still beaming with smiles.

“So, basically, she's happy and mourning at the same time?”, Flynn laid out.

“Yeah, basically”, she clasped the handle of the trolley. “Gotta run and finish the delivery”, she pushed and it rolled in her direction, “Catch you guys later”, were her words before she met another group of officers.

“Bye”, Flynn foolishly waved. His eyes were akin to someone who was hungry and couldn't get anything to eat.

“Nice, isn't it?”, Pedro raised the tray he held to his eye level.

“Hmph”, Nathan shrugged.

Marc sighed before taking a seat by his desk. The others joined in; Flynn by his side, while Nathan and Pedro opposite them.

“So about this 'Cloakman' of ours”, Flynn started the conversation with an air quote.

“Cloakman? That's his name?”, Nathan quizzed. It sounded ridiculous in his ears.

“Yeah. That's what Ryan called him and if you look at it logically, it makes sense. He basically wears a cloak to conceal his identity. Cloak plus no identity and he's a man. Boom! Cloakman!!”, Flynn explained as he tore the nylon wrap on his tray.

“It's more like a metaphor”, he added before taking a bite from the burger, which he found delicious and comforting. He softly moaned.

“He has a point”, Marc seconded as he sipped his coffee.

“When did you get so smart?”, Pedro teased.

“Very funny, Mister Mexico”, Flynn responded sarcastically. But it was nothing compared to Nathan's Lordship over it.

“I guess....Cloakman must be a strong, skilled telepath of some sort to have resisted Luke's will”, Nathan started, “And man he's strong. And what was that he did to Ryan? Flame absorption?”, he unwrapped his tray.

“More like heat abosorption”, Marc objected, “If you had observed closely, you'd see that Ryan was left with smoke over him. If Cloakman had only absorbed his flames, then he could have flared up again. Rather, Cloakman sucked heat out of him, temporarily nullifying the spark or fuel he needed to make fire”, he corrected and took in the last bite of his burger before slurping his coffee to aid digestion.

“Well, that makes sense”, Pedro said nonchalantly with food in his mouth.

Nathan felt a timber of anger flare up inside of him. He shot a stern gaze at the rather proud Marc, who also has his eyes on him.

Both of them had been the best of the best since they joined C.C.P.D, always rivaling each other at who was the smartest, bravest and more skilled. Though they were friends, their ego always gave birth to competition.

“Here we go again”, Flynn rolled his eyes as he saw them glaring at each other.

“CAN I HAVE EVERYONE'S ATTENTION PLEASE?”, Chief Kayla's voice blared through the speakers, snapping Marc and Nathan to reality.

The chief was standing in front of the translucent entrance door, backing it. After a minute or two, eveyone had rallied round her.

“Oof...”, she gave a long sigh.

“I know i haven't been that much of a leader but rather someone who gives orders without caring about the sling backs or how y'all felt. I want you to know that I didn't do it out of hatred but out of the love and devotion i have towards you guys, the force and the citizens”, she paused. She chuckled after remembering something, “I know my kind of love can most a times be coarse, like my Papa used to say”

The officers gave a short laugh. Some laughed because of her definition of love while others did because she called her dad, papa; Flynn was among the latter group.

“I'll try my best to change and ease how i interact with everyone”, she continued.

‘Could this be really happening?’

‘Maybe this depression really got to her’

‘She must have taken something toxic’, were the few out of the many thoughts that flashed across the officers minds.

She raised her voice all of a sudden, pointing a finger at them, “Don't think I'd be all smiles and allow any lazy or deteriorating behavior in my station!”

“Yes Chief!”, they chorused.

Her expression eased a bit, “I just want what's best for us and Central city, and I hope y'all will help me achieve it!”?

“Yes Chief!!!”

+

|The woods|

About two kilometres into the not-so-dense woods, stood a house made completely out of logs. Its roof was made of logs too, with palm trees overlaid on them. Though its structure looked almost archaic, it was firm to its foundations.

Inside, where seemed to be the living room, were Evex and Ralph, seated around a homemade dining table – made of wood as well. 

They were eaiting mac and cheese for dinner. Ralph wondered how an alien could prepare earthly food. Though, Evex had told him of his ability to assimilate things fast. Meaning he had gone through various recipe books and videos. But, Ralph still had doubts that it was possible.

They had just finished listening to the radio; C.C.P.D had officially named the unknown hero as Cloakman.

Evex scoffed, “Cloakman, huh? But isn't that too plain?”

“I like it!”, Ralph yelled wiggling his little feet. “ i heard he stopped some poweful bad guys with just his hands and a sword. He's so cool!”, he coughed afterwards.

“Easy there”, Evex smiled. “I told you not to talk while eating, remember?”

Ralph drank water, then exhaled, “Sorry. Heroes always gets me excited. I wanna be a hero someday”

Ralph's charisma made Evex remember his son and wife, who were murdered by Kanvatron's fleet. He felt pain and anger for a brief moment but Ralph's smile drove it away. He then vowed in his heart to protect Ralph with his life and train him to use his powers efficiently.

He chuckled and patted Ralph's hair, “With what you now wield, you'll become the greatest hero of all time”

+++++

+++++

+++++

+++++

+++++