[Exemplary] Family of Steel - Carved from the Blighted Oak

[Proto Man]

Proto Man let out a grunt and pulled himself up to his feet in time to watch a writhing Mireya hoisted up off the ground. Slinging his buster arm up, the red robot let out a stream of automatic fire in an attempt to bring the monster’s attention back to him. His gambit worked, but not before Wood Man whipped the helpless nightelf into a nearby tree. Its next lashing attack tore up the ground where Proto Man stood before a last-moment dive. The robot hit the dirt hard and continued the stream of energy pellets as Snake Man rose from bushes at the other end of the clearing. With his teeth bared, the serpent crept from the shrubs before lunging on the back of the darkspawn.

An impressive leap landed Snake Man on the back of what had once been Wood Man. The serpent, using the fanged hood around his head, latched onto the darkspawn’s neck before wrapping his arms and legs around it. Despite Proto Man’s constant assault, the creature re-intertwined its right arm tendrils and used the limb like a massive whip against its other assailant. Snake Man maintained his grip for only a few lashes before he finally let go and crashed to the ground with a weak yelp.

The red android let the Proto Buster swing down as his color palate swapped over to orange and gray, and the barrel of his weapon started to glow with dull flames. All the Robot Masters had inherent weaknesses in their design. In the event that one ever went rogue, it was designed to be susceptible to one of its brother’s powers. When all the Robot Masters were reprogrammed, Rock had been able to use that flaw to take them out one at a time in the easiest order possible.

As he stared up at the snarling darkspawn, Proto Man hoped beyond hope that it retained Wood Man’s inherent weakness to Heat Man. Lifting the barrel of his hand cannon, the red android clenched his teeth and fired just as the behemoth moved to attack him. The spout of flames that gushed forth engulfed Wood Man’s body and parts of his overly long appendages. At first, it appeared as if there would be zero effect, but just as that terrible thought rolled through Proto Man’s synthetic head, the darkspawn stumbled, screamed, crashed back into the surrounding forest.

Turning his head, the preteen machine watched in horror as the still-burning monster scrambled up to its knees, smashing aside entire trees in its desperate gamble to rise to its feet. Proto Man didn’t hesitate to release another blast of flames on the wounded monster.

With another rage-laced roar, the darkspawn tried to lift one of its legs up, but before it could stand, the burning limb broke off. Momentum brought it back down the blanket of flames that had once been a forest floor. As Proto Man watched on, the monster’s right arm thudded down a few yards in front of him, and despite being red-hot, the tendrils managed enough of a grip of let the darkspawn drag itself within five yards of the other android before crumbling into fiery ash.

Proto Man stood silently as the creature brought its head up to meet the android’s gaze. For a brief moment, the darkspawn’s rage seemed to vanish. Its eyes were green once again, and right before it slumped into death, Proto Man thought he saw a faint smile spread across its twisted, mutated features. But then it was gone—its body swallowed by the torrent of flames that was now rapidly consuming everything around it.

“We have to go!” Mireya shouted as she hooked an arm around the preteen robot’s elbow. Before he let himself get dragged away, Proto Man grabbed Wood Man’s severed leg from near the edge of the rapidly expanding flames.

A few yards away, a clearly dazed and wounded Snake Man had pulled himself up off the ground and stumbled over to reach his two partners. When he saw the forest firing behind them, his eyes went \
wide and he waved at them to follow him the tree line.

In a panicked silence, the trio ran as fast as they could toward the coordinates that marked the gate. When they final reached the small clearing that housed the giant, vine-coated gateway to the Nexus, they allowed themselves a chance to catch their breaths (literally for Mireya and figuratively for her two mechanized companions). Proto Man took the moment to drop to his knees and glance at the slightly scorched limb held in his hands. That final look from the darkspawn was still engrained in his mind.

I did the right thing… I made a promise. Even so, the robot’s faux humanity made left him with a bitter taste in his mouth. As he continued to ponder the thought, the appendage flashed white and erupted outward into a collection of glowing spheres. The orbs spun in an orbit around what had once been Wood Man’s leg before vanishing into Proto Man’s chest.

The robot looked down as his bodysuit turned off-white and his plates became a dark shade of green. A familiar popup appeared on his internal display as he rose to his feet and started toward the gate, flanked by his two traveling partners.

‘-L- Get Equipped with Leaf Shield!