Stinging in the Rain
"The yard!" Roll exclaimed "My flowers!"
"What's happening?" Mega Man asked in horror
"It's some sort of acid rain" Dr. Light answered in equal parts fascination and fear.
"What about the people?" Mega Man asked in alarm "Is this going to damage them?"
"Most likely it will."
"I saw Bobby and Joe earlier! They were out in the open!"
"Hopefully they will take shelter and quickly" Dr. Light replied, "Right now we all need to remain calm and deal with this."
"How can Rock fight rain?" Roll asked
"By beating up the bad robot that's surely behind it" Auto declared "That Cossack guy said his robots were already at work, so this had gotta be one of them!"
"I agree" Dr. Light replied, "We now have to find the robot in question. Come to the computer room and we'll see what we can figure out."
In short order the family was gathering around the sophisticated bank of screens, one of which was indicating an incoming message.
"It's from a Robot Master in the field" Dr. Light explained "One of ours" he added as he answered the call. The screen displayed a large yellow and white accented robot who looked like he could be Guts Man's cousin.
"Thank goodness you answered" the robot said in a deep, worried voice "Things are going crazy here."
"What do you mean Concrete Man?"
"My crew and I were working on the city dam just like we were programmed to, but all sorts of odd robots showed up including this green frog-bot."
"Does this frog robot seem to be Robot Master class?" Mega Man asked as he leaned over Dr. Light to better address Concrete Man.
"I guess so. He did say that the city was his now and there would be trouble unless we all surrendered. Before I could do anything, the slippery dude hopped away. I was trying to stop his crew from doing any more damage to the dam when the rain started."
"I'm on my way" Mega Man said
"Be careful" Roll pleaded as she gave her brother a good luck hug.
"I always am."
"Of course, we'll be here to support you, so don't hesitate to ask for help" Dr. Light said. "Are you ready?"
"Of course, I am, let's go!"
Mega Man quickly materialized in the open space on top of the dam. On one side, he observed a large reservoir while on the other side he observed a wide river flowing directly into his beloved city. Mega Man's eye was quickly drawn away from these breathtaking views to a robot a little way off from him. The robot was how Concrete Man described him; his squat, green body looked a little like a frog standing on its hind legs. The face consisted only of a pair of eyes and a large yellow grill that extended down to his waist. Noticing Mega Man's arrival, the robot turned to face him.
"Ah hello Mega Man" the robot said in a slightly high-pitched croak "Don't you just love the view up here? So much natural beauty."
"If you like it so much, stop destroying it with this acid rain!"
"How else could I let the city council that I mean business? It also served as a nice calling card for you Mega Man."
"Well I'm here so you can stop now."
"Don't get your servos in a twist, the rain will stop soon enough…unless I don't want it to." The robot did a hula dance and a rocket flew out of his back. It burst apart as the clouds grew thicker and it rained even harder.
"Stop it!" Mega Man said as he raised his buster
"That's not how the game goes, you have to catch me first." Mega Man was about to fire when a flock of mechanical blew birds surrounded him. He stumbled back in shock as the robot master hopped away. "I'm Toad Man, by the way. See you inside."
Toad Man vanished through a hole in the concrete path and Mega Man gave chase. The annoying birds, both large ones and agile mini versions, did their best to slow him down. Their attacks were rather weak but were starting to take a cumulative effect. He also noticed in some dismay that his armored body was beginning to show wear from the corrosive rain.
"Bye bye birdies" he said as he fired a charged shot, causing the flock to scatter. He then made a break for the hole, sinking into a slide as the flock regrouped and swooped at him. Pausing only to fire another shot to scatter the birds again, he leaped into the hole and landed on a large pipe.
"Wow" Mega Man muttered as his eyes adjusted to the dim light and revealed pipes of all sizes running all over the place. "It looks like a plumber would be more appropriate here than a robot."
He hopped onto a lower pipe and almost lost his balance. He hadn't noticed cracks in metal which were causing water to flow all over the already slippery surface. "This can't be good. I don't even want to think about what would happen if this place fell apart."
Mega Man cried out as he felt something strike him in the back. He fell forward and had to cling to the pipe to keep from falling. Glancing over his shoulder he spied a robot like a red Met. It was now running at him, but Mega Man was able to kick it over the edge of the pipe. Mega Man then carefully rolled over the edge and landed on a lower pipe. He stabilized himself by holding an upright pipe, perpendicular to the one he was standing on. He glanced up to see more little red robots floating down on umbrellas sticking out of their heads.
"So that's what hit me" Mega Man remarked as one of the robots landed and hurled its umbrella at him. Mega Man fired at it, but its thick body showed little damage. Mega Man fired a few more times as it ran at him and finally pierced the armor. He hopped to the next pipe to place some distance between himself the falling robots.
Mega Man took aim but hesitated. It would be awful if he caused additional damage to the pipes, so he decided to flee instead. He spied a catwalk down below and quickly made his (somewhat clumsy due to the flowing water) way down and finally landed on the metal path. He dashed forward and stepped on a large metal rat that had suddenly popped up from the underside of the catwalk. He stepped back and it took the opportunity leap onto his chest. Mega Man landed flat on his back and tried to wrestle the rodent off him.
"Oh great, the Mary Poppins squad has joined the party" Mega Man remarked as the umbrella bots began to land near him.
Gathering his strength, he rolled backwards while simultaneously hurling the rat bot. It smashed into the umbrella bots and toppled them like bowling pins. Mega Man climbed to his feet and ran down the path before his foes could pull themselves back together.
After traversing maze-like paths through the dam and battling more rats and umbrella bots, he came to a huge space filled with machinery and earsplitting levels of sound. As Mega Man crossed this space, he discovered that much of the machinery had been damaged. Little yellow hard hats were crawling all over making repairs.
"It's kind of odd to see Mets that aren't attacking me in some way" Mega Man mused as he continued his journey. He also found some pipes and machines were crudely patched with drying concrete.
"Concrete Man, are you in here?" he shouted over the thrum of the dams inner workings.
"Yeah, I'm over here" came the booming reply "Could use some help actually."
Mega Man ran towards the voice and quickly discovered Concrete Man attempting to battle a huge snail robot making its way around the room. Occasionally, the snail would stop and launch a bomb out of its back. Another large machine was struck by the explosive and Concrete Man immediately began making quick repairs.
"Curse this thing! If it keeps this up, it could cause the entire dam to fall apart in the end."
"That may be the point" Mega Man answered "Toad Man is trying to force the city to surrender to his rule. I guess this thing his helping him lay the groundwork for his threat."
"Well now that you're here, Toady can say goodbye to that plan."
"Indeed" Mega Man said as he fired upon the snail. His smile slipped as he watched the plasma bounce harmlessly off. "Ok so you've got a thick shell. Let's try it from the front."
Mega Man ran around the snail while it released another bomb. Mega Man shot and detonated it semi-harmlessly in midair and then fired upon the snail. The result was the same as before and now his smile was completely erased.
"That's one tough snail" Concrete Man commented
Mega Man dodged another bomb while firing in the search for a weak point. He finally found it; the entire snail flinched as a plasma shot struck its eyes. It instantly turned away and blocked Mega Man from following with another bomb. Mega Man recovered and dashed to get in front of the beast. It paused to lob a couple more bombs that Mega Man again detonated in midair. The snail's eyes grew wide as it tried to move but found that it couldn't.
"Thanks for distracting it for me" Concrete Man said. He was rapidly making his way around the massive body, pouring fast trying concrete from his "buster." The snail was now sealed to the floor and a sitting duck for Mega Man.
"And I thank you for making this so much easier." Mega Man released a series of charged shots and the snail's entire head exploded. "We make a pretty good team."
"I guess we do. You're the real hero though, I just helped where I could."
"I wish more people did that. Now I have a toad to catch."
"If it helps, the main control room is in that direction" Concrete Man said as he pointed the way "Toad Man would likely be interested in that place. I'll stay here and continue repairs on the dam. That's my function after all."
"Ok" Mega Man said. They fist bumped and Mega Man continued through the machine room. Soon his footsteps began to splash, and he realized that the entire area was flooded. The water continued to grow deeper as he waded through and he was soon in up to his waist.
"This certainly can't be good. I hope…ouch!" He recoiled in pain as a robotic fish with strong jaws latched onto his leg. "This is definitely not good."
A plasma shot destroyed the fish, but he felt more clustering around him. He waded as quickly as he could through the rising water, occasionally having to blast a fish out of his way or dodge one as it leaped at his face. "At times like this it would be nice if I could swim" Mega Man said as he continued his frantic journey.
Finally, he reached a metal staircase and happily left the fish behind. He reached another series of catwalks, one of which ended at a large metal door. It opened as he approached, and he entered the control room Concrete Man had spoken of.
"Hi" Toad Man said. He was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the large control console. "I was watching you" he indicated the screens beyond the console "I guess I should have seen your team up with Concrete Man coming. He may have to be added to the list."
"What list is that?" was Mega Man's sarcastic reply
"That's not your concern as I'm afraid I have to destroy you now."
Toad Man stood up and began to dance. Mega Man watched in horror as the same rocket from before was launched. The resulting clouds formed very quickly in the confined space and the concentrated rain made Mega Man scream in pain.
"My Rain Flush is meant to spread over a wide area" Toad Man commented "It's rather nasty in this form, isn't it?"
Mega Man pointed a shaking finger at the heavily smoking control panel. "You might not want to do that again if you want to continue with your plans."
"Destroying you is a higher priority anyway." He started dancing again but Mega Man had already fired. The plasma ball struck a Toad Man squarely in the torso and his dance was stopped. He quickly hopped towards Mega Man who rolled to the side. Recovering quickly, he again fired on Toad Man. Once again, the rain dance was halted, and the enemy robot winced in pain.
"Our data didn't say the Mega Buster had quite that much punch."
"I've had an upgrade" Mega Man replied as he released a fully charged shot. Toad Man screamed as his now dented body was knocked off balance. He righted himself and hopped out of Mega Man's line of fire. He prepared to do another rain dance but had to dodge more plasma.
"Dang it" Toad Man said as he continued to hop around to evade attack "I know I'm not the toughest robot ever, but this is ridiculous."
"It's not like I take any pleasure in this. Robots like you force my hand."
Toad Man paused as if to consider Mega Man's words and this was his fatal error. A fully charged buster shot tore through his weakened body and Toad Man crumpled.
Mega Man walked over to Toad Man and downloaded the data on Rain Flush. Mega Man turned around to see an orange robot with a large light bulb on its head.
"Nice work. That upgraded buster is nothing to sneeze at. You could be a bigger problem than anticipated and we can't have that, now can we? Flash Stopper!"