The Mii Fighter Chronicles

Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Team

Erin groaned. She lay on her back on a small steel platform sticking out of a pouring waterfall. The gunshot wounds in her shoulder, stomach, and leg burned, screaming at her. A part of her felt like the pain had lessened a bit, but she had probably just gotten used to it. The spray from the falls beside her washed over her, granting her brief moments of relief, mingled with flaring twinges of pain.

Metal clanging sounded nearby as Rock came back into view, hopping nimbly across a series of platforms to get back to Erin. Finally, he stopped beside Erin and crouched. He held out an E-canister. "Here," he said, raising her head up. "I know you don't have a socket to plug it into or anything, but if you're part of the game, it's got to work somehow, right?"

Erin took the canister in her shaking hands and clutched it tightly. She trembled, holding the device to her chest. After a couple of seconds, the canister started to dissolved into pixels of light that spread over Erin's whole body. She gasped a sigh of relief as the pain magically lifted from each of her wounds. Color returned to her face, and even the burnt holes in her orange top knitted back together. Erin sat up, feeling better than ever.

"I have got to stop getting injured all the time," she said, wiping the sweat off her forehead.

"Don't worry about it," Rock said, sitting down beside her. "Injuries are a part of combat. I can't tell you how many times I got hit in my first game. You'll learn when you gain more experience."

Erin smiled. "Thanks for saving me," she said.

Rock gave her a thumbs up. "I owed you one, didn't I?" he said.

Erin looked up at the waterfall above them, raining down thousands of liters of water all around them. She studied Rock, his face full of renewed determination.

"Why did you come back," she said. "I thought you couldn't handle fighting your fellow Robot Masters anymore."

Rock met her eyes, a look of firm strength mingled with a touch of melancholy within them. "Well," he said, "If I don't, who will? What kind of hero am I if I'm constantly passing off my duty to somebody else?"

Erin looked down. "Oh."

Rock put his hand on her shoulder. "Thank you," he said, "for being willing to take the burden from me. But . . . this is my duty." He pressed a button on the console on his arm, bringing up the images of the slain Robot Masters he had fought in the past. "I owe it to my father, my sister, and to them."

Rock flipped through the images on his arm, stopping on his brother Elec. "I imagine," he said, "if I were in their position, if I was being forced to harm and destroy against my will, I think I would want someone to do the same for me if there were no other options."

He closed the panel and looked back at Erin. "So if that is to be my destiny," he said. "Then who am I to sit back and let you have all the fun?"

Erin gave him a small smile and touched him gently on the arm. "Are you sure?" she asked.

Rock smiled. "One hundred percent."

"Well then," Erin said, getting to her feet and rubbing her side. She held out a hand to Rock. "Shall we continue? There's only a couple more levels left."

Rock looked up at her, studying her face. Her red hair was plastered around her face and neck by the spray coming off the falls, but her dark eyes shone with courage. Rock reached out and grasped her hand, allowing her to pull him to his feet.

"Let's do this," he said.

Together, the two ran forward through the level, crossing platform after platform as the falls roared around them. Occasionally, an enemy passed by, and one or the other took it out. Soon they came to a drop into the water beneath them, and the pair plunged headfirst, swimming through a maze of water. To Erin's surprise, she didn't seem to have a hard time breathing and found that she and Rock could navigate the underwater passageways without having to worry about air.

Water-based robots swam all around them. Erin and Rock watched each other's backs as they swam, taking out enemies who came up from behind or below. Finally, they reached another waterfall section, leading to an underwater security door.

Erin and Rock stopped, staring down at the security door. Erin glanced over at Rock. "You ready?"

Rock nodded. He looked over at her. "Together?" he asked.

"Together," she said. She grasped his hand for a moment. The pair stepped forward and plunged back into the water. Rock pressed his hand to the security panel, and they passed through to the second door.

Once inside the boss room, the boss didn't hesitate to make himself known. A massive overweight penguin slammed to the floor, a giant wooden hammer clutched in his hands. The penguin bounced his belly and laughed at them, pounding the shaft of the hammer against the floor.

"King Dedede," Erin said.

The penguin crouched and launched himself high into the air. "Move," Erin said. She and Rock ran to opposing sides of the room. The huge penguin slammed into the ground where they'd been standing, denting the floor. The bird looked around, spying where his targets had gone. He decided Rock was the target he wanted most and turned away from Erin, raising his hammer to bring it down on Rock's head.

Erin and Rock locked eyes.

"Now," Erin said.

The two heroes fired off a volley of laser fire into the corpulent king from two sides. In this case, the king's large size and slow movements worked against him, making him a sitting duck for their power. After only a few minutes, the battle was over. King Dedede melted into pixels, leaving behind a green robot in a scuba mask and a small plastic King Dedede figure.

Erin and Rock stood together over the fallen Robot Master. Rock studied his newfound brother's face with a mixture of sorrow and anger. He bent down and picked up the Amiibo, holding it up for Erin to see. "Come on," he said. "Only one more left, right?"

"No, no, no!" Doctor Wily shouted, watching the screen as Rock and Erin defeated King Dedede. "They're destroying all of my robots!" He turned on Reboot, who stood behind him. "You said you would help me destroy that little blue brat. Now I only have one left!"

"Calm yourself, doctor," Reboot said calmly. "Everything is going according to plan."

"Calm myself?" Wily blustered. "How can I be calm? I should have finished that eighth robot instead of listening to you. At least use those other four toys of yours to even up the odds."

Reboot shook her head. "How little you understand, doctor. Do not worry yourself so much. Why don't you go boot up that little alien suit of yours that you're so excited about? Give them a little more of a challenge while I go and get things ready."

Doctor Wily crossed his arms. "So what, I'm your Robot Master now?"

"Do you want to defeat him or not?"

"And just what are these 'things' you're going to be getting ready?"

"You'll see," Reboot said. She turned her hazy pixel eyes to the screen as Rock and Erin left the boss room. "Or at the very least, they will see."