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

[Proto Man]

The damage he’d sustained in the struggle with Cell Delta had severely damaged several of Proto Man’s systems.  Chief among the inoperable functions and applications was the mapping and GPS program.  Those injuries, plus the various surface abrasions and a dead hand, meant that the android quickly became lost as he tried to navigate through the soot-stained landscape.  To make the situation more difficult, his right hip joint had been fractured in the battle, which reduced his mobility to a glorified limp.  

Even so, Proto Man pressed on, feeling somewhat comforted in the notion that he wouldn’t have to hunt down fifteen rogue Robot Masters.   Was it possible that they’d all be like Heat Man?  At the thought of the dead machine, the preteen looked down at the Proto Buster, which still stood primed and ready to immolate anything that tried to stall his retreat.  

Every now and again, a volcano would erupt and flood the entire area in darkness and ash.  Each time, Proto Man fought an urge to go investigate the after-effects and make notes about the environment inside and outside of the volcano.  Although he’d never been so interested in volcanos before, the preteen android fought the urges and didn’t bother to overthink them as he continued to head in what he thought was south.

Given the fact that his clock and wifi were also malfunctioning, Proto Man had no idea how long he half-walked, half-shambled across the Ashen Plains.  By the time he saw the gate on the horizon, most of his body was caked over with dirt and soot.  Lifting his functioning hand to his eyes, Proto Man lifted his sunglasses up from his eyes long enough to verify that he wasn’t seeing a distortion.

It’s a gate… but it doesn’t look the same.  Shrugging off the urge to analysis the inter-verse gateway, the prototype Robot Master slowly walked the rest of the way over to the doorway and slipped through.

On the other side, Proto Man found himself standing in a clearing atop a small hill.  All in front of him, the hill slopped down and was swallowed by a dense jungle.  From the foreboding silence of the Ashen Plains, the preteen now found himself assailed by a cacophony of noise, ranging from screeching bugs and cawing birds to the roar of a nearby river.

“This… this isn’t where I started,” Proto Man muttered as he looked up into the sky.  The black and gray clouds were gone, and in their place, the sky was a pleasant shade of blue.  “Oh well,” the android added as he began to limp down the hill into the jungle.

From a few yards away, a synthetic creature watched the prototype.  The metal snake had a vastly oversized head with big red eyes that glowed faintly as it observed the other machine.