The Mii Fighter Chronicles

Chapter Twenty-Eight: The Regret

Villager and Jazz reformed in a large dark room lined with mirrors. The glitch Reset appeared behind them, holding on to the ropes binding them.

SJo," the glitch said. "JazAZz, VillageZr. It's bHeen toEo lonLPg."

"Do we know you?" Jazz said, sitting up and turning to face her captor.

"No, I sIuppose yoT'u wouldn't. NSot at the mMoment anyway. But I kEnow you." The glitch stretched out his white pixelated hand and caressed Jazz's face. "I kGAnow you RRfar toEo welTTl."

He stood and walked to a table in the center of the room where a small black gaming console sat. He pressed a button on the corner, switching it on. "Do yoI'u recogniMze this, JazSz? You ORand I were bRoth rather fond oYf it."

"That's the Sega Master System, right?"

Reset's pixellized face contorted into a smile. The air in front of the console shimmered, a bright glowing portal opening before it. "Ah, yes," he said. "BeIfore this came aZZround, the NES practYically monopolized gDaming consoleIs. Sega threw thDeir hat into thTHe ring and thIe Console WarSs began."

The glitch stepped around behind his captives and pulled them up by their ropes. "YoNu two once lOeft me for dead. NDow, let me rONeturn the favor'T."

He placed his hands on their backs and pushed them toward the portal. Villager pushed back, trying to get away, but Reset spread out his pixels across Villager, taking control of his legs and driving him onward.

He pushed them right up to the edge of the portal, wind whipping at their hair as the vortex spun rapidly. "I hope yJou remembeAr a little game Zcalled FantasZy Zone."

With one last push, he threw Villager and Jazz into the portal. Jazz spun around at the last minute, breaking her hand free from her restraints and grabbing Reset's arm as she disappeared into the void. Her actions took Reset by surprise and he failed to fight back before getting sucked into the portal himself.


Rock and Erin stood side by side as the lift carried them further and further up into the sky. Rock stared out at the puffy white clouds that surrounded them. His eyes were wet and hollow, his face a complete blank.

"Are you alright?" Erin asked.

Rock nodded, not looking at her, then a few seconds later shaking his head vigorously. "No," he said. Angrily, he raised his arm and let off a volley of energy balls into empty space. "Why did he have to do that? Why did he have to go and make more?"

"Doctor Wily?" Erin asked.

Rock nodded.

"What happened? Before, with your brothers?"

Rock closed his eyes and looked down. "I killed them. All of them. Cut Man. Guts Man. Ice Man . . . Elec Man. They were my brothers, and I killed them."

The blue robot sank to his knees, clutching the edges of the lift. Tears leaked from his eyes and ran down his cheeks.

Erin crouched beside him. She held out her hand to touch him but thought better of it. "You had to, didn't you? They would have done serious damage to the world if you hadn't stopped them."

"They wouldn't have done anything if Doctor Wily hadn't tampered with them!" Rock shouted, turning on Erin, his face red. "Doctor Light and I tried to fix them! We tried to turn them back to normal! But Doctor Wily's work had damaged them too much! The only thing we could do was to . . . was to . . . to put them down."

The color drained from Rock's face as his breath came short and ragged. He stared at Erin for a couple seconds before turning away.

"And now he's gone and built more!" Rock cursed Doctor Wily under his breath, pounding his fist into the steel platform beneath him.

Rock steadied himself and stood. He held out the tiny amiibo of himself. "Some hero I am," he spat. "A murderer is more like it."

He handed the amiibo off to Erin. Erin took the tiny figure and stared at it. She tried to find words to say, but she came up with nothing. She stood next to her hero, listening to him tear himself down, and she couldn't do anything about it.

"I'm sorry," she managed.

The lift came to a stop, opening onto a long stretch of floating platforms hanging miles above the earth.

Rock looked out over the level and wiped his face. "Come on," he said, priming his gun arm. "Let's do this."

Rock jumped across to the next platform, dashing forward with his gun raised. Erin followed after, racing to keep up as Rock barreled his way through the level. Every time an enemy drone approached, he fired off a couple of shots and sent it plummeting through the clouds. They came to a stretch of platforms slowly moving in circles. Rock barely hesitated, jumping from one to another every time their revolutions brought the platforms close enough together. Erin mimicked his actions, following him whenever the platforms came back around to her.

Finally, the pair reached another security door. Rock stopped and waited for Erin to catch up. "You know what's beyond here, right?" Erin said.

Rock nodded.

"We will have to fight it," she said. "Are you going to be okay?"

Rock charged his weapon again. "Let's get this over with." He pressed his hand against the panel beside the door. The door slid open onto another narrow hallway. Rock and Erin hurried down the corridor and opened the next door into a large square room.

Rock and Erin dropped down into the room and stood shoulder to shoulder, their guns at the ready. "Where is it?" Rock said.

Cartoony explosions detonated in the middle of the room. From the smoke, stepped a short man in a green tunic carrying a sword and a shield. The man had blonde hair and giant catlike eyes.

"Toon Link," Erin said.

The amiibo launched its attack immediately, pulling a bright yellow boomerang from within his tunic and throwing it at them. Rock and Erin stepped around the projectile and charged their foe. Both fired off a set of energy orbs. Toon Link blocked Rock's with his shield, but Erin's struck him in the shoulder and knocked him back. The amiibo fought back by striking out with his sword, but Rock deflected it with his metal arm guard.

Toon Link stepped back toward the wall, slashing at his opponents as they blocked his attacks. He reached into the gear on his back and produced a small blue bomb, lit it, and threw it at Erin.

The bomb blew up in her face, throwing her back a little. At least we don't have moving floors this time, she thought to herself. Rock slammed his shoulder into the amiibo and rammed him up against the wall, grabbing his shield and tearing it from his arm. He raised his arm cannon and held it to the amiibo's head. The gun started to glow with blue energy.

Nothing happened. Rock didn't fire. He held the gun to Toon Link's head, staring into those large blank cat eyes.

"Come on," Erin said. "You've got to do it."

"I—I can't . . . ," he said.

Taking advantage of Rock's hesitation, Toon Link stabbed the robot in the torso. The wound wasn't deep but it did some damage. Rock staggered back in surprise, staring at his opponent. Toon Link grinned and rushed Rock, knocking him to the ground. He raised his sword over the robot's head for a final blow.

Erin fired a set of five missiles right into the amiibo's chest, launching it off the ground and into the wall behind him. The amiibo slid to the ground, its head hanging limply, its torso smoking. Its outer shell pixellized, draining off of its host and forming into another tiny amiibo figure at its feet. In Toon Link's place lay a robot with a giant industrial fan for a chest, the fan itself in smolders.