Special Delivery, part 2
A/N: Ah, if I really want to, I can make a comic for this chapter some other day.
Will
I really hate it when I say things like that. It just begs karma to make me eat my words.
A few days later, while I was running my service, Avatar called up to me, "We've got another delivery request! There's something for you to pick up in a warehouse by the docks."
"Something, huh? Does it say what?"
"No."
"Well, let's see what they want."
My cart rattling along behind me, I followed Avatar's instructions. The warehouse she finally got me to stop in front of looked like it hadn't been used in years.
"Avatar? Send off an email to Doctor Hikari and Lan. On second thought, go there yourself and tell them that there's going to be a Dimensional Area in a few seconds."
"Will, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Positive. I kind of feel I have to."
I heard her sigh. "Okay…"
I tossed my PET into my cart and wheeled in.
The inside was slightly better kept than the outside was. Dust covered the floor, and holes let light in through the ceiling. Support beams were wobbly, and catwalks looked dangerously weak.
The doors worked fine, though; they slammed shut behind me, nearly taking the back panel off my cart!
"Watch it!" I snapped to nobody in particular.
Then my PET started ringing.
"Oh, good grief," I started fussing at my harness, unstrapping myself so that I could wheel around to the other side of the cart and get my PET out of the back.
It was Dark Megaman. "You have kept your crest from me for a long time. I'm impressed."
I rolled my eyes. "Flattery won't get me to give you the thing."
"I didn't think it would. By the way, how have you kept it from me all this time, anyway?"
"I'm left-handed." If he was smart, he'd know that the crests appeared on the right hand.
"Ah, I see."
How are we having a civilized conversation, anyway?
Then his picture disappeared and a Dimensional Area went up around the warehouse!
As he appeared, I holstered my PET and remarked, "How did I know you were going to do that?"
Mega Buster came out, and he swung it to bear. "Let me put matters this way: you give me your crest, and I let you live."
I shoved my cart towards him and took off rolling. "Not your token to bargain with!"
The next few minutes were filled with mass destruction and general chaos. He blew up my cart, and started shooting at where I used to be. I was too fast for him to hit! I was so glad I kept training with Lan and Megaman!
Avatar
I surfed through the net as quickly as I could. "Gotta find Megaman, gotta find Megaman," I repeated over and over to myself.
Finally, I arrived on the server. Megaman was talking with Doctor Hikari, and Protoman and Searchman were with him! "Guys, we have a problem, or we will in another few seconds."
"Just a minute, Avatar," Doctor Hikari started tapping some keys outside my view, "I'm getting an alert on something."
"Don't tell me, let me guess: a Dimensional Area."
Lan leaned into the picture again. "Yeah! How'd you know?"
"Because Will's inside it. Will…and Dark Megaman."
"What?" I'd never heard Raika or Chaud sound so agitated.
"If we hurry, we should be able to get there in time to save her."
Will
I actually ended up kicking Dark Megaman once! That was insane!
Ten minutes of dodging – I checked my watch – and my energy was starting to flag. I couldn't let it get to me, though: my survival depended on it. I caught a support pole and started spinning around it as fast as possible. Every glance I got at Dark Megaman showed he was trying to figure out which way I was going to launch. Finally, he fired at the same time I let go and went rolling backwards. His shot went past the pole on the opposite side from where I let go! That was the first time that he'd missed and it wasn't something I'd done!
I yelled, waving my arms out for balance, "Missed me, missed me, now you gotta kiss me!"
Suddenly, a point of light shot through my head, bringing with it a memory:
I was rollerblading down a street, with a PET cord tied about my neck and talking with Avatar. "Okay, what's the most outrageous thing I could possibly want to do?"
"Hmm…" Avatar's voice answered me. "Make out with a Net Navi!"
And right along with my laughter and hers, Megaman asked, "You're not serious, Avatar!"
I blinked. Dark Megaman looked about as stunned as I felt. Then a slow smile spread over his face, and he started laughing as he put away his Mega Buster.
Two things occurred to me at the same time. One, that Dark Megaman, being, well, Megaman, remembered that day probably in way better detail than I did; and two…
I just gave him a straightline!
My second wind came, and I started rolling away from that area as fast as I possibly could.
Dark Megaman called after me, "I'll give you a head start!"
That sarcasm has a point; where can I go? I can't leave the Dimensional Area!
"Shouldn'ta given him that straightline, shouldn'ta given him that straightline…" After muttering that twice through, I gave it up and saved my breath for running.
My legs and lungs were burning, and every stroke of my wheels was beginning to wobble. There was no way I could keep up that pace for long.
I charged up a ladder to get onto a catwalk and started speedrolling across that. Looking over to my right for whatever reason, I saw a truck pull up outside the Dimensional Area through a hole in the roof, and Lan and Chaud were getting out! I was going to make it!
Then I looked where I was going again.
Dark Megaman suddenly appeared on the catwalk in front of me! I yelped and slammed on the brakes.
That was more punishment than the catwalk could take; the floor gave under my wheels!
I think I screamed. I'm not sure. But I figured I could hit the ground rolling and still escape for a little longer. My wheels touched the ground…
…And exploded like miniature bombs.
Worse than that, I think I somehow had one foot slightly upraised, because my left foot twisted while my gravity was orienting to solid ground. With a yell of pain, I fell to the ground amid pink plastic shards.
Then I found that my life could get worse. Once I was flat on the ground, I couldn't move: I just didn't have the energy. I couldn't run anymore. My body felt numb, and I was so tired I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.
I heard a thump near me, and some snapping in proper footstep-time. That would be Dark Megaman walking through what's left of my wheels to get to me.
"You played well, Will." Then he slipped one hand under my head and picked up my right wrist with his other hand. "But you've lost."
He set my hand flat against the symbol on his chest, pinned it there with his hand, and kissed me.
I don't know, maybe by then I'd resigned myself to what was happening. That kiss…it was like being kissed by a live power cord, only it didn't hurt. Well…that didn't hurt. My hand hurt. My head really hurt. I tried to scream, but Dark Megaman wouldn't give me the chance to.
…Can I really call it blacking out when my eyes were closed to begin with?
Raika
Avatar caught hold of Lan's wrist, as well as Chaud's, and her braid wrapped itself around my wrist. "Stay close, boys: now that I can see where I'm going, I'm going to Rush-jump us inside!"
That was a singular experience; we were briefly inside the net, and then inside the Dimensional Area! She let us go, and we ran inside the warehouse.
Only to stop dead in our tracks. The warehouse was a complete wreck, and Dark Megaman was just laying Will back down on the floor in the middle of some pink shrapnel. Her rollerblades were broken – that must have been the source of that oddly-colored shrapnel – and she looked unconscious!
He smiled at her with a look on his face that was almost kind. Then he looked up at us. "Too slow, Avatar."
That was all he said. Then he left.
The Dimensional Area went down, and I ran past Avatar to get to Will. She wasn't moving, and made no attempt to react as I pulled her into my arms. She, honestly, looked dead with her face so pale – almost paler than the time she was in the hospital.
Avatar leaned over my shoulder. "Is she…she couldn't be…she can't be!"
Her words only echoed my tears.
A/N 2: ...I don't think I'll tell you readers how Will is. Read on!