Chapter 6: Crashed
"Great." said Cain. "Get out of here then."
"I'm sorry?" Mega Man asked.
"Oh, that came out wrong." Cain said. "I mean I give you my blessing to use it if you wish. We can handle ourselves here. We lost the X control chip but I'm sure Zero can handle it. It's a drastic situation but we're winning. I don't want to keep you from your goal."
"Well, thanks doc." Mega Man said, standing up.
"Be warned," Cain added. "I had a colleague of mine more versed in this kind of thing take a look at the portal before I first activated it. The matter it used to make a resonance with a particular dimension was corrupted. I suspect if you are still using your own matter, it is even more corrupted by now."
"Does that mean it won't lead me home?" Mega Man asked.
"Not necessarily," Cain added. "It's just every time you use it, the chances will lower. The matter will become more corrupted with the material from the dimensions you enter."
"Is this corruption why I'm losing my memory?" Mega Man asked.
"One again," Cain reminded, "I am an archaeologist. I have no earthly idea. Sounds like a good enough idea to me, though."
"So I guess this is goodbye then," Mega Man said. "Tell Zero it was nice to meet him, and sorry I lost the X chip. Thanks for saving me."
"Hold your horses, Mega Man," Cain rebuked. "Look at yourself. You're an errant plasma bolt away from blowing up." Mega Man remembered his energy gauge.
"Oh yeah…" Mega Man said a little embarrassed.
"Come on, I know how to fill your energy reserves, your weapon energy too." Mega Man went over to a standard energy refill capsule.
"This is great. With weapon energy I should be able to refill what I took from X. I don't suppose you have any E or W tanks?"
"What?' Cain asked. "That's absurd. Those are a complete waste of energy, non renewable." They kind of were a huge waste of energy, but had saved his life many times in the past. Mega Man didn't want to argue the point, however.
"Ok," said the blue robot, "guess it is time for me to take my leave." Dr. Cain waved, and then as if completely uninterested began picking up some debris in the lab. Mega Man turned black and white and fired a portal onto the wall. He stepped through. A moment later the portal closed.
Mega Man found himself on what seemed to be some kind of highway. It was obscenely wide and stretched on farther than his eye could see. He was at one edge of the highway, and noticed that it was floating in the sky, miles above what looked like a city. It was hard to tell at this distance. In any event it was much further down than he could safely jump. This was obviously not his home dimension. Mega Man prepared to fire another portal, but his weapon energy was already gone. "Only one shot?" Mega Man thought. He would have to get more energy to fire it again. With no frame of reference, Mega Man began wandering down the highway. After a few moments he saw several figures in the distance approaching. Before he could begin to try and make out what they were, they were already nearly upon him. Mega Man's eyes widened and he instinctually slid. Something crashed into the railing right where Mega Man was standing, sailing just over his head and down towards the city below. Mega Man then jumped, noticing several more vehicles pass by, one directly under him. It was over, or so Mega Man thought, as a second later a huge burst of sound erupted, nearly deafening him. It would have deafened any human. The sonic boom actually did non trivial damage.
Mega Man began running at top speed, in the same direction he was traveling. It was not long at all, maybe only two minutes or so, before he saw another vehicle approaching from the distance. The vehicle was blue with a cockpit much like a jet. Mega Man braced himself for the sonic boom when the vehicle slowed and stopped next to him. The cockpit opened. "Get in, now!" A man shouted. He was wearing a blue uniform with a red helmet/sunglasses combination. Mega Man didn't hesitate and jumped in as fast as he could. The cockpit closed. Whatever the vehicle was, it was a one seater, so it was pretty uncomfortable for mega man to cram himself behind the seat. The car rocketed forward.
"You have no idea what kind of insane shortcut I had to take to get here this far ahead" he said. Mega Man saw a billboard in the distance as the car accelerated. "Mute City" it said. "How the hell did you get yourself onto an F-zero track?" the man asked. Before Mega Man could answer, the vehicle they were in was being bombarded on both sides by attacks. Cars were passing rapidly, ramming them at each opportunity. "Damn it1" said the man. "I knew this was gonna cost me the lead."
Mega Man finally spoke. "I'm sorry, I didn't expect to wind up on a race track!" he shouted. The man concentrated on driving. "I'm guessing you won't be able to catch up with my extra weight."
"Don't count me out, kid," the man replied. "I'm Captain Falcon." The car took a sudden burst of speed forward. The ride was getting less and less smooth.
"Mega Man." he replied. "It's nice to meet you, I'm sorry about this." Captain Falcon continued to focus on his driving. Mega Man spotted an energy gauge on the car and noticed it was extremely low. Looking up, he saw the car catching up to another one in front of them. It looked like some kind of pink hover vehicle with dual cockpits. Falcon came up on their left and suddenly veered hard into them. The other car began to be rocked with explosions. The energy gauge in the car went up a little. Mega Man was shocked. "Did you just kill those guys?"
"They have escape pods," Falcon replied. In a few seconds the car had already rammed through three more competitors and gained more energy. Falcon activated the turbo boost again. Mega Man noted that the energy gauge went down from this. Suddenly the car swerved over some pink, glowing ground. The energy gauge went noticeably back up. More importantly to Mega Man, his weapon energy went up a little.
"Wait, can you go back there?" Mega Man asked as they drove off of the pink ground.
"Are you insane?" Falcon asked. "That will cost me this entire tournament." Falcon was visibly frustrated. Mega Man could see a slew of cars out in front, and they were not gaining any ground, even with turbo boosts. "Hold onto your butt," Falcon said. "I'm gonna try a shortcut. I barely made it last time, so with your weight, we'll probably crash and burn into the city."
"Then don't do it!" Mega Man chided. "It's just a race!"
"You have no idea" Falcon replied. A sharp turn was ahead, almost ninety degrees. Beyond the turn was a ramp a small gap. To get across one would have to make a precise turn and speed back up to hit the ramp fast enough. Mega Man saw several of the lead cars do it easily. Falcon began accelerating.
"You can't make that turn at this speed!" Mega Man shouted. "We'll go right off the edge and never even hit the ramp!" Falcon didn't listen, and accelerated as much as he could. The energy gauge for the vehicle was at zero with one last boost. Falcon reached out with his arm and pushed a lever. Control jets fired from the left side of the car, sending it to the right, but maintaining its forward orientation. It was enough to hit the ramp, but Captain Falcon wasn't even headed towards the pit, he was headed off the track entirely, still having not turned at all. The car looked like it would be heading right to the earth many miles below. Falcon's car proved to be exceedingly aerodynamic however, and Mega Man saw more track coming up in the distance. Captain Falcon was trying to skip an entire section of track!
The car just had too much weight and not enough speed. Mega Man could see that it would barely miss if he was calculating correctly. He concentrated for a moment that felt like a year. Mega Man turned solid blue, the same blue as the car, and activated whatever it was he had just absorbed. A magnetic force erupted beneath the robot, pushing the car up just a little more. It made the jump. Mega Man had absorbed the hover systems of the car. The Blue Falcon, as the car happened to be named, landed back on track having skipped a significant portion. They were headed right towards the finish line, out in front. It suddenly stopped hovering and landed on the ground, skidding with a horrible noise. Mega Man neglected that by absorbing the hover systems, he had absorbed the hover systems. He fired it again, bouncing the car and allowing it to continue forward for a couple of seconds before it crashed to the ground and continued skidding again, still at super high speeds. The car began to be rocked with explosions.
"We've got to eject!" Mega Man shouted.
"No way!" Falcon objected. "We're nearly there!" The Blue Falcon skidded closer and closer, slower and slower towards the line. Mega Man dare not use the hover weapon for fear of exacerbating the explosions. Four cars suddenly passed Falcon: a green ovular one, a streamlined design with pink flames, a yellow car that looked a bit like some kind of space taxi, and out in front a solid black, heavy looking car. The Falcon skidded to a halt mere meters in front of the finish line as the explosions began to rock the interior. Falcon lowered his head and reached for the eject key. Suddenly the car was hit from behind by a nearly identical, but red vehicle. It caused the Falcon to cross the finish line just before Captain Falcon hit eject.
Falcons frown turned to a smile. "Blood Falcon, you idiot," he continued to smile. "You just ensured I can still win this thing!" The cockpit, along with Mega Man and Captain Falcon flew upwards, with "5th Place" flashing on the display screen. "I have enough points to continue," he smiled again.
"That's great," Mega Man said, as the cockpit began to float gently towards the city with a safety parachute. "Now do you think you could get me over that pink ground?"
Falcon looked back over his shoulder. "Only place to find that stuff is on an F-zero track. Only way to get on an F-zero track is to race a car."
"Umm," Mega Man began.
"So I figure you owe me one for saving your life and taking fifth place back there," Falcon interrupted. "Wanna help me defeat Black Shadow?"