Chapter 13: A Clash in the Clouds
"So how's this choice looking, Rock?" Dr. Light's voice asked through Mega Man's radio
"Well, let's just say my new toy might come in handy."
He had just teleported onto a large platform that was somehow suspended in the sky. Stretching far ahead of him was a series of similar platforms and other things he couldn't quite make out. He experimentally looked over the edge and recoiled when he saw that some of the clouds were actually below him. He took a few steps back and tried to figure out what he should do. He remembered he was on with Dr. Light when the scientist spoke into his ear.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I am in the sky. I looked down and saw clouds."
"Well…I suppose that was always a possibility with a robot called Air Man. What exactly are you standing on?"
"It's some kind of…platform…sort of like the helicarriers in comic books."
"I had heard of some experimental technology that was in development. It was going to be used for weather monitoring and things like that."
"It sounds like Dr. Wily had other plans for this tech."
"Oh well. Go do your thing and I'll be ready to do mine."
"What's your thing, Dr. Light?"
"Why putting you back together at the end of the day, of course."
"Har de har har. I'll try to contain the rest of my laughter while I go to work."
"See you later, Rock."
Mega Man signed off and walked to the edge of the platform. He hadn't noticed up until now that the platforms were slowly moving back and forth. One of them came close to his and he took a running leap. He landed on the platform and ran across it. He made progress across a few more platforms before a strange robot suddenly popped out of the ground in front of him. In appearance it was a little like a large but squat blue ape with a fan in its belly. This fan instantly began to blow and Mega Man was thrown backwards off of the platform.
He managed to grab the edge and crawl back up. He was more prepared for the wind this time and was able to brace himself. He aimed his buster and began firing. It was slow progress since he also had to hang onto the edge. He managed to roll to the side and the robot turned to face him. Mega Man decided to change tact and threw a Metal Blade. The wind robot was instantly felled.
"Wow! I should have gone after Metal Man first."
Mega Man took a few steps and was suddenly blown forward off of his feet. He glanced back and saw another ape like robot behind him. He turned and fired another Metal Blade. It ripped right through the whirling fan and destroyed the robot.
"Yep, I love this weapon."
After making sure there weren't going to be anymore enemies, he walked to the edge of the platform and found that the way forward was a bit different. The platforms in front of him were more like giant heads with strange horns around the edges that rose up and down. Right as Mega Man was getting ready to time a jump, when the large head began to spawn smaller ones out of its sides. A small group of these flying nuisances quickly began to swarm around Mega Man and attempted to knock him off of the edge. Fortunately, they were easy to destroy and he soon had an opening to jump. He landed on the edge and just had time to take a step forward before the spikes came back up. He noticed that the next platform was another strange head and it was already spewing its own hoard of miniatures.
"Ok so I just need to patient…ow, what was that?"
He had been so focused on the known obstacles that he'd failed to notice the robotic birds beginning to gather from above. One had dropped an egg directly onto his shoulder where it had hatched and released several tiny but fierce birds. Mega Man threw up a Leaf Shield but he was now trapped. He couldn't stand there forever but even firing his buster would destroy the shield. The enemies were regrouping with more joining the ranks and his spike edged floor wasn't very large.
"Ok this game is getting ridiculous. It's time to use a cheat code; activate Item 2!"
As the leaves dispersed, a red surfboard formed in the air. Mega Man jumped onto the board as the rockets on the back ignited. He quickly left his cloud of adversaries behind and was shooting across the sky. He soared past more birds, giant heads, and even some robots on clouds that tried to hit with blades shaped like lightning bolts. Mega Man laughed at the top of his voice as he shot right past all of these obstacles.
"Best support item ever! The magnet beam has nothing on this!"
He was so lost in his joy that he almost forgot to look where he was going. His eyes grew wide as a wall loomed before him. Just as he was about to hit it, the board's energy supply ran out and it was teleported back home. Mega Man dropped onto a ledge and rolled right into the wall. As he gathered his wits, Mega Man became aware that he was at the edge of one of the original flat platforms with a large Wily Gate in front of him.
"Really, a gate here?" He stood and touched it with his hand. It opened and Mega Man found that the platform beyond the gate was one of many. It was like a series of small islands floating in tight formation at different levels. Standing on his island was a large robot with a body made of blue armor. He had no head but instead a pair of menacing eyes set above a large fan built into his chest. The robot chuckled in a deep voice.
"I thought you wouldn't make or that at least you'd have more trouble than that. That's a rather nice toy you've got there."
"Air Man I presume?"
"Indeed. I am Air Man the Undefeated."
What if you do get defeated? Do you start calling yourself 'Air Man the Not So Undefeated but Never Mind?' "
Air Man chucked again and said "I guess I'll never find out; especially not because of you. This will be your last battle Mega Man…assuming you can last long enough to have a battle."
The fan in his torso began to spin at an incredible rate. Mega Man actually left the ground as he was thrown backwards by the wind. He almost freaked out as he looked down and saw all the way to the ground. Fortunately, he was blown far enough to land on another platform. He quickly regained his balance while enduring Air Man's booming laughter.
"I haven't even started yet, shrimp. At least try to make this worth my time."
Mega Man didn't respond but rather he took aim and fired a round of plasma shots. His jaw dropped when his energy projectiles where blocked by a wall of tornadoes. A second later he realized that they were moving towards him and he was buffeted left and right by the small but powerful funnels. When the storm finally calmed down, Mega Man was lying near the edge of his platform. He crawled to his knees and heard Air Man laughing again.
"That's my favorite trick. It's called the Air Shooter."
"Leaf Shield, Metal Blade, Air Shooter…you guys are strong but not very creative."
"Oh shut up!"
He generated another wall of tornadoes and Mega Man hit the deck. Lying flat allowed the worst of it to pass safely over him and he instantly popped up and fired a Metal Blade. Air Man was momentarily shocked by Mega Man's successful gambit and the blade struck. Again Mega Man felt his jaw drop as the deadly missile simply bounced off of Air Man's strong body without leaving so much as a scratch.
"Yeah, that happened in sparing matches with Metal Man too. I told you I can't be beaten."
"We'll see about that." He fired a round of regular plasma shots but Air Man was on the move. With a speed and agility at odds with his bulky body, Air Man leapt across his platform and over on to Mega Man's. Mega Man tried to quickly stand up but was quickly swept off of his feet. He grunted as his back struck the underside of one the upper platforms hard. He would have had a very long time to wave goodbye if he hadn't quickly generated an Item 1 directly beneath himself.
As the round surface ascended, Mega Man clambered off of it onto the platform he'd just become acquainted with. He aimed downwards towards his opponent and tried an Atomic Fire. Air Man generated another Air Shooter and the shield of solid wind snuffed out the fire ball. Mega Man ran to another part of the platform in order to avoid the incoming whirlwinds while letting the fire charge up in his buster. Air Man fired another round of tornadoes but Mega Man was already using another Item 1 as a stepping stone to another platform. Air Man leapt up to join Mega Man and the hero released the built up attack into his enemy's face point blank.
Air Man didn't have time to defend himself and he screamed in rage and shock as the large fireball washed over him. Mega Man groaned when he saw how little damage it did while his enemy chuckled.
"I will admit that hurt a bit but it looks like you just played your trump card." He grabbed Mega Man by the throat and lifted him into the air. Mega Man struggled but Air Man was stronger. "I'll just have to make sure that you don't play it again." He turned on the spot and hurled Mega Man down to a platform below.
He landed hard and rolled across the floor. He stopped face up and was able to see Air Man already leaping down to join him. Mega Man started to stand up but again was buffeted around by a cloud of cyclones. This time he ended up thrown high into the air and soon on his way back down. Air Man didn't let him hit the floor but rather punched him across the platform. Mega Man rolled over the edge and it was only his quick reflexes that allowed him to make a grab at the edge.
Mega Man knew he had just one trick left to try; a trick crazy enough to work. He could hear Air Man coming and so he summoned another Item 1 beneath himself and dropped. He instantly hopped aboard an Item 2 and coasted under the platform before jumping up behind Air Man. He charged as fast as his battered legs would carry him and fired a Leaf Shield with his buster aimed right at Air Man's torso fan.
A good number of the leaves jammed the blades right before another Air Shooter was whipped up. The powerful fan fought against the blockage but only managed to drive the deepest leaves in even deeper. The fine edged foliage ripped through the internal mechanisms and Air Man was rocked by the ensuing explosions.
"OUCH!" He staggered about with his midsection still smoking and sparking. "No, this can't happen."
"It looks like it is happening. It also looks like you're a touch more vulnerable now."
Mega Man wasted no time in firing a shot into the damaged fan. Air Man screamed and dropped to one knee. Air Man raised his own buster and fired an Air Shooter out of it. Mega Man braced himself as the tornadoes formed but was relieved to subsequently discover that they'd lost much of the punch of the previous attacks. He stood his ground as the wind died down and tried to take aim for another shot. Air Man however was already on the move; his preferred attack was beginning to fail him he was now charging at Mega Man aiming to use his large body as a weapon.
Mega Man didn't have enough time to dodge and took the full force of the tackle with a shout of pain. He was knocked to the ground and just managed to shift to the side as Air Man punched at him. His fist came down within inches of Mega Man's head and the two robots were now staring into each other's eyes. Acting on instinct more than conscious thought, Mega Man thrust his buster right up against the fan and generated another Leaf Shield. The close range caused the leaves not to wrap around Mega Man as they normally would but instead to rip through Air Man.
The large robot master convulsed wildly as the damage was wrought inside his armored body. He jerked one way and Mega Man rolled the other before climbing to his feet. He dropped back to his knees barely able to stand but Air Man was obviously in worse condition. He lay on his back surrounded by his own parts and his fan totally out of commission. He raised his buster but then it dropped again. He was nearly out of power and couldn't even spare any for a last attack.
"Impossible" the battered warrior said "I can't be beaten."
"Nobody is truly invincible but it was a good fight."
"Is that supposed to be pity?! I don't need it from the likes of you! I'm Air Man. I was going to be Lord of the Skies when Dr. Wily took over. I…I…"
"You're going to finish yourself off if you don't calm down." The warning came too late and Air Man shuddered before lying perfectly still. His eyes had gone blank and the sparks began to become less frequent. Mega Man simply shook his head as he touched the dead robot and absorbed his weapon data as Air Man fully shut down. "You were good. Really good in fact; I just got lucky."
He staggered to his wobbly feet and turned away to radio for a teleport home. He paused when he heard a noise behind him. He turned around again just in time to see the final stage of a teleport and Air Man's body was gone. Mega Man wondered who could have teleported in and then back out with Air Man's remains so quickly but literally face palmed as he saw the obvious answer. A boomerang was impaled in the ground at Mega Man's feet with a note attached.
He retrieved the note and read its short message: "Nice work with Mr. Undefeatable. Keep it up and you'll actually be worth my time."