Episode 24: Showdown at Red Gulch
The rest of May and most of June was spent cleaning up the damage Dr. Wily had caused with the Moon. During this time, Dr. Wily's Robot Masters and Proto Man had staged a string of heists and raids against military bases across the country. This resulted in a few small fights—but all were quickly resolved and nothing indicative a larger scheme afoot. Dr. Wily seemed content with the impression the existing aftermath of his last scheme had left….for now.
Because they were so busy, Mega Man and Roll celebrated their second birthday quietly at home in the laboratory with Dr. Light.
The celebration did not contain many gifts, as few people knew their activation date. Roll and Mega Man didn't mind this, for they knew if their activation date had been made public, they would be flooded with gifts from fans and admirers that they didn't need.
As a surprise for them, Dr. Light had remodeled the living room where they played video games with the latest virtual reality systems. Dr. Umlauf had pulled strings to give them backstage access as plainclothes civilians to a few of Acme Network's most popular late night talk shows. Brain Bot had sent them pairs of astronomer goggles he had invented.
But there was one unexpected gift. When getting the paper that morning, Mega Man had noticed a small package, wrapped in canvas and tied in neon paracord, left on their front steps. It had no note, no one knew how it got there—yet Mega Man and Roll had their suspicions and decided to open it in private in Roll's workshop.
Their suspicions were confirmed as two items rolled out of the canvas onto a workbench: A ponytail cuff embellished with a bass pick that had belonged to Bitcheyes Morgan of Nightmare Fuel (Roll's favorite metal band who were currently on tour overseas within R.I.P.'s jurisdiction), and a souvenir pencil sharpener from the Lincoln Memorial.
Roll promptly threw the ponytail cuff into a trash can. "Ugh, you know he stole these!" she snarled. "If he really wanted to make our birthday special, he could turn himself and Wily in—or just leave us alone forever!"
Mega Man only looked broodingly down at the cheap plastic pencil sharpener. They had seen little of Proto Man after the invasion on the laboratory, save for distance glimpses of him waving or smiling before fleeing the scene of a crime. These gifts were characteristic of his gall to sneak into the most guarded places to steal a trivial trinket no one would miss and then sneak up to the laboratory to deliver them.
Later, when Roll wasn't looking, he fished the ponytail cuff out of the trash, checked both presents over until he was sure there was nothing suspicious about them, then placed both in the drawer of his nightstand.
It was the last week of June when things were finally getting back in order. Mega Man and Roll were playing through a new level of their cooperative video game (a stealth mission through a secret Antarctic base overrun by mutant cyborg pirates) when they heard a beeping noise coming from the laboratory.
Pausing the game, they hurried to the laboratory, fearing the Emergency Satellite Scanner had picked up a distress call. Yet it was only an incoming video call Dr. Light's supercomputer. Relieved, Mega Man accepted the call.
A scientist with a white lab coat, bald crown, and bushy gray hair and mustache appeared on one of the overhead screens.
Both Mega Man and Roll gave an involuntary cry of alarm before quickly checking themselves.
"I'm sorry, but you look a lot like Dr. Wily," Mega Man told the scientist with chagrin while Roll stifled a snicker.
The scientist looked down at them with a distant expression, blinking in a sort of misty, absentminded way. "Hmm? Oh, you must mean my cousin, Albert. I'm Professor Alphonse Werner. I work with the Discovery branch at Citadel Research and Innovative Technologies. Oh bother, I must have dialed the laboratory instead of the office. Is Dr. Light around?"
"Wait…did you just say you're Wily's cousin?" demanded Roll, not letting the subject change from this extraordinary declaration.
"Yes, that's right," Professor Werner replied (using the same clueless tone of someone saying 'Why yes, my refrigerator is running. Why do you ask?'), "Though I never saw much of Albert, even before he became a criminal mad scientist. His parents were always sending him off while we were growing up."
Mega Man and Roll could't help but gawk up at the man claiming to be related to Dr. Wily. Where Dr. Wily's blue eyes had the intensity of a hawk, Professor Werner's were mellow and seemed turned inward to the depth of his own thoughts. His skin had the tan of someone who spent hours out in the field, his face square with a prominent forehead and weak chin, and his hair fell lank and styleless as though he never paid attention to the reflection he saw in the mirror each morning.
"Do you build robots too?" Roll pressed, clearly eager to draw as much interesting information as possible about Professor Werner despite Mega Man discreetly nudging her with his elbow.
"No, robots have never interested me as a field of study, begging your pardon," Professor responded with a very polite nod. "I much prefer the study of rocks and minerals. Now if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to speak to Dr. Light. I have some exciting news about an unusual geologic specimen that had recently come to our attention."
Mega Man and Roll raised there brows at each other before going off to fetch Dr. Light from his study, wondering what could possibly be exciting news about rocks, of all things.
Overall Professor Werner didn't appear to have the same wild energy of a mad scientist bent on unleashing ethically dubious experiments, but that of a modest academic who liked writing reports backed by meticulous research. It was hard to suspect him for ambitions to conquer anything more than the non-fiction section of a library.
"He's like, Bizarro Wily, I guess," Roll muttered privately to Mega Man, smirking.
"And he works at Dr. Cossack's company," mused Mega Man.
They found out later that Professor Werner had called to discuss a meteoroid recently detected in Earth's outer orbit. Professor Werner had hoped to partner with Dr. Light and utilize Galaxy Man's observational skills as the meteoroid drew steadily nearer to the Earth's atmosphere—something which Dr. Light was only too eager to agree to.
Only a few things were known about about the meteoroid—first that it was over a million years old, second that it was thought to have been traveling through the Solar System ever since its formation, thirdly that it emitted a mysterious radiation, and lastly that it was heading straight toward Earth.
"But it's really no cause for alarm," Professor Werner reassured them mildly. "For the meteoroid is quite small—about the size of a sack of potatoes, which is to say too small to cause major damage."
Even Mega Man and Roll became interested in watching the meteoroid's trajectory through the imagery Galaxy Man had sent them—after all, it wasn't every day that you got to track a meteoroid!
Finally, after days of observation with long teleconferences between Dr. Light and Professor Werner in his laboratory in California, the meteoroid closed in on the Earth's gravitation field. Mega Man, Roll, and Dr. Light clustered around the computer, watching grainy imagery as the large rock entered the atmosphere, a bright crescent blazing before it and a long white tail began to trail behind it.
"Are you tracking this, Dr. Light?" Professor Werner's voice came from the computer speakers. He was currently situated at Citadel's Observatory in the Sierra Nevada mountains.
"Yes indeed—I've never seen such radiation readings!" remarked Dr. Light, whose eyes were locked on a grid of green screens flashing graphs and charts. "There is no material on Earth like it."
"Impact will be in the American desert," responded Professor Werner, who was intent on his own set of charts and data. "No population centers are in danger."
"Thank heavens for that!" remarked Dr. Light, who had planned to ask Galaxy Man to intercede if the meteoroid posed a danger. "I'll meet you and your team there!"
The teleconference ended, and Dr. Light stood up from his stool.
"Alright, a meteorite hunt!" Roll cheered as Dr. Light stretched his back with a grimace, for he had inadvertently stooped over a keyboard for hours. "Now this is going to be way cool!"
"Hey Doc," Mega Man asked tentatively as they headed toward the garage to board the hoverjet. "These radiation readings…they're nothing like what happened with Lotos, are they?"
Dr. Light shook his head. "A much different kind, much safer according to Citadel's research, though much about the meteor is still unknown to anything we've ever encountered, so we will need to be cautious, just in case."
Still delirious with the massive destruction caused by the Moon and in no hurry to launch a new scheme, Dr. Wily had become enthralled by the same meteoroid that had captivated Dr. Light and Professor Werner for the past month. Ever since its initially discovery, he excitedly reported the unique properties the meteoroid was exhibiting to an indifferent Proto Man.
To Proto Man, a rock was still a rock whether it was in space or not. Spending day after day looking at nearly identical pictures of the same rock against a black background was excruciating. The recent spree of crimes, chosen at random, had been organized by Proto Man out of boredom rather than any true world conquest tactics driven by Dr. Wily. It was a welcome change of pace when the meteoroid began falling toward Earth.
Dr. Wily stood in front of a large boxy machine the size of an armoire. Lines of indicator lights, buttons, and vents covered the machine, while rows of thick cables connected it to a computer broadcasting readings from the satellite receiver on top of Skull Fortress's tallest tower.
He gave a rippling peal of laughter. "My new long range spectrum analyzer tells me something about the meteor no one else on earth knows—" Dr. Wily pounded the side of the machine with his fist which gave a dull groan, "—Where it is going to land!"
"We've checked out the coordinates of impact, Doc!" said Proto Man, drawing a black cross on a large digital map of the United States with a squeaky erasable maker.
Many of the Robot Masters had been listening into Dr. Wily's plans for the meteorite. Guts Man (who knew he'd inevitably be called to action) had been following the conversation with a bemused expression, the brim of his helmet set low over his small blue eyes.
"Duh…what's the difference between a meteor, meteoroid, and meteorite again?" he asked Proto Man in a hushed voice.
"A meteoroid is a rock floating through outer space, it becomes a meteor when it enters the atmosphere of a planet and gets a visible tail. If it survives the free fall and hits ground, then it becomes a meteorite," Proto Man rattled off carelessly.
"Oh," Guts Man responded dully, clearly dubious of these nomenclature distinctions. "…And what's the difference between an asteroid and a comet?"
Dr. Wily interrupted Guts Man off impatiently. "The extraordinary energy in this meteor will make my robots invincible! Nothing can stop me! Uwahahaha!"
Elec Man was cross and skeptical about Dr. Wily's plans for the meteor.
"'Extraordinary energy'?" he hissed to Proto Man as he was preparing to leave, casting Dr. Wily a swift, disdainful look out of the corner of his eye. "Isn't this exactly like what caused the Lotos fiasco?"
"Nah. Unlike Lotos, this thing is just a rock and doesn't think for itself, and Wily said it's a completely different radiation, much safer."
Elec Man wrinkled his nose. "And you trust his judgement?"
Proto Man shrugged. "Why not? He understands this stuff better than I do."
"…Only because your apathy and need for thrills always trumps your common sense."
Proto Man shrugged again in agreement, unabashed. "A lot of scientists at Citadel have eyes on this meteor too, so it only makes sense we get to it first so Wily can put it to good use. By the way, while we're not expecting too much resistance from scientists, I'll want you and a few other Robot Masters on standby—" Proto Man smirked, "—Just in case things get interesting."
The town of Red Gulch was small and remote, located in between gigantic mesas, and almost an hour's drive off the nearest major highway. It was similar in many ways to Sea Gulch, only it attracted a modest stream of vacationing suburban families with its brightly painted false-front architecture and manufactured old west atmosphere—visitors could go for stage coach rides, take pictures in cardboard cutouts of cowboys, or eat barbecue with refried beans at the swing-door saloon.
It was a blisteringly hot July day, with tourists packed upon the wooden sidewalks under the shady awnings of buildings. Despite the heat, Red Gulch had been the exact same tourist destination for nearly fifty years, and carried on one of its daily traditions—a gun fight in the middle of the hard packed dirt street.
William "Yeehaw Billy" Red, Mayor of Red Gulch, stood out in the scorching sun, wearing his customary ten-gallon hat, bolo tie with a sunflower clasp over a frilly button down, drop arrow yoke jacket, silver longhorn belt buckle, and cowboy boots embroidered with flowers. He had an aggressive face like a vulture, with coal black eyes, a long nose and chin, and russet hair tied in a tufty ponytail at the base of his scalp.
"And now folks, the town of Red Gulch is proud to bring you a real wild west showdown!" he announced emphatically into a microphone as two stunt actors with stunt guns squared off against each other in the street, sweat sliding down their faces.
Tourists eating churros looked on, lazily taking photos with the cameras strapped around their neck while their children played gameboys or stared off into space, completely bored.
"Keep your eyes on the action, folks! It's going to get hot and heavy!" Mayor Red shouted again to the largely tepid crowd as the stunt actors edged closer to each other, visibly fighting heat stroke.
Yet no one was paying attention to the gunfight anymore, for a crackling noise filled the air, like oil on a griddle. Everyone was looking around in confusion, trying to find a source.
"Look!" shouted a man wearing socks with his sandals, pointing upward.
It was as if a second sun with a long straight tail was streaking across the sky. Someone screamed. It was going to crash on Earth!
The fireball hit the horizon, disappearing from view and sending up a large mushroom of smoke. It was accompanied by a tremor that rattled pebbles on the street while buffeting the tourists with a sudden dusty wind that carried off their bucket hats into the surrounding mesas.
Panicking, the tourists fled into the air-conditioned gift shops, where they clustered around the windows, watching the sky in tense silence.
When nothing else happened—the large plume of smoke to the north beginning to drift off into the sky into a grayish cloud—they edged cautiously back into the streets of Red Gulch, murmuring softly to each other, the gun show long forgotten.
"I think a meteor just fell out of the sky!" whispered a small girl excitedly.
"Maybe we're being attacked by aliens!" her brother whispered back.
"Cool!"
"What in tarnation was it?" hissed Mayor Red to the sheriff, gnashing his teeth. He had run Red Gulch just the same as his father before him and his grandfather before him, and had never seen such an uppity occurrence. It would certainly disrupt how things were done around here. News crews would drop in, then scientists with their newfangled computers, maybe even robots. "Get the deputy."
Following the meteor's readings from its onboard spectrum analyzer, a light blue transport helicopter accompanied by a smaller observation helicopter soared above the striking sienna plateaus with their flat tops and chiseled escarpments, black rivers twisting like ink squiggles below. It carried a crew of Citadel astronomers and geologists, all eager for the excavation.
"Will Cossack be joining us?" asked Professor Potak, who was seated in the same row as Professor Werner.
"He said he's going to try," responded Professor Werner, squinting out the window.
Professor Potak harumphed. "I've heard that one before, the bastard. Whatever side projects he's got going on has him burning the candle at both ends. All those long office hours—some sunshine and fresh air would be good for him."
"Yes, well at least he has Brain Bot to help him out at Citadel now," Professor Werner responded somewhat absentmindedly, for he had spotted a crater the size of an outdoor pool about a mile away from Red Gulch. A narrow cloud still issued from it like a short, miniature volcano. "There it is! The impact crater. It's landed near an abandoned mine."
The transport helicopter lowered to the desert ground, scattering tumble weeds.
From the Skullker, Dr. Wily and Proto Man looked down at the Citadel helicopters sitting in the large canyon below, their whirring propellers like white discs next to the large basin of the meteor crater.
"Huh! Looks like we got some claim jumpers, Doc."
"Not for long we don't!"
The Citadel scientists disembarked from the helicopters in precautionary hazmat suits. The heat from impact craters could produce noxious fumes—though the radiation appeared completely harmless to organic life.
It looked as though the meteor had shattered on impact. Planning to collect samples to take back to Citadel laboratories for further research, the scientists tromped toward the cusp of the crater, their hearts beating excitedly.
Professor Werner lead the procession. "Let's start looking for meteor fragments, then we can—"
He cut off, for a shark-shaped shadow had fallen over them as a whirring noise filled their ears. They halted, looking upward.
"Oh no!"
The Skullker dropped from the sky, hovering only five feet from the ground, its giant rotor kicking up sand that sprayed the domed helmets of the scientist's hazmat suits. With sun gleaming off its convex windows, it rotated sharply to face the two helicopters and fired two lasers, which exploded into bright fireballs with billowing black smoke. Then it landed with a heavy bump, the back hatch opening as Dr. Wily, Cut Man, Guts Man, Snake Man, Drill Man, and Proto Man filed out.
"You were planning on staying awhile, yeess?" taunted Dr. Wily, eyeing up the small group of Citadel scientists as though they were comically insignificant to him, like children on a field trip.
"I should have known you'd show up, Albert!" seethed Professor Werner, the thick gloves of his hazmat suit creaking as the pointed at Dr. Wily.
Dr. Wily sneered at his cousin. "Why should I wait for an invitation?"
On queue, the Robot Masters rushed forward, surrounding the scientists.
"Should we blast them now?" Guts Man asked eagerly as he towered over Professor Werner, perhaps misinterpreting the strangely dressed humans as armored robots.
Dr. Wily gave an aggrieved sigh. "Remind me to run a diagnostic on you, Guts Man."
"These boys in white are going to help us dig for meteorite fragments," elaborated Proto Man, pointing at the huddled group of scientists.
Professor Werner broke out into a cold sweat as the Robot Masters closed in.
An open top jeep carrying Mega Man, Dr. Light, Roll, and Rush sped across the rolling desert plains.
Mega Man drove (he and Roll had rock-paper-scissors over who got to drive), letting Dr. Light sit in the passenger seat while Roll sat with Rush in the back seat. Hoping to avoid unnecessary attention, they had left the hover jet behind at the nearest city.
Roll's long pony tail whipped behind them as they drove between the rocky mesas. The rocky terrain was uneven, and as best Mega Man could drive in haste, the ride was still bumpy like a sea-doo skimming across waves.
"This is Dr. Light to Professor Werner…come in, please, over!" Dr. Light spoke into a walkie talkie for the tenth time.
The left side of the jeep rolled unexpectedly over a jagged rock, causing it to jostle uncomfortably. Dr. Light gave a muffled choke as he was bounced on his seat, his seat belt catching across his stomach as he clutched the top of the windshield for support.
Giving up, Dr. Light let his hand holding the walkie talkie fall to his lap. "I don't understand why they don't respond!" he said anxiously to Mega Man and Roll.
"Maybe there's radio interference from that meteor," Roll answered optimistically, pulling herself through the gap in the front seats to look between Dr. Light and Mega Man's faces.
"…Or maybe they've run into problems," Mega Man chimed in, voicing what they were all really thinking, for he wouldn't be driving so roughly if it hadn't become urgent.
The smoke rising from the impact crater had faded into a thin, barely visible wisp.
While under strict supervision from the Robot Masters, the Citadel scientists used radiation detectors to pinpoint the fragments buried in the sand the same way treasure hunters used metal detectors at the beach.
"Hey Doc, you know I've always been supportive of your mad science experiments," Proto Man muttered in an undertone to Dr. Wily as they stood in the cool shadow of the Skullker, overseeing the search. "But if this is the kinda meteorite that mutates things into weird shit—"
"You need to stop listening to Elec Man," muttered Dr. Wily dismissively, knowing full well where Proto Man's train of thought had originated. "This meteorite has no such properties! That snobby android doesn't know everything—his idea of crime is corruption and blackmail, he simply has no imagination for anything bigger!"
"Dr. Wily! We found one!" Cut Man called excitedly from atop a shallow dune where Professor Florentine had been digging with a shovel.
"Well, go pick it up," Dr. Wily ordered Cut Man gruffly.
Looking nervous, Cut Man gingerly picked up the pebble-sized fragment while the rest watched curiously from a safe distance. At first, the meteorite fragment looked like a dusty bit of green bottle glass, its edges blunt, but as Cut Man held it up, light shown through in a pleasant leaf green hue, revealing shimmering veins like ribbons of trapped sunbeams. Then, inexplicably, the fragment seemed to leap from Cut Man's fingers to his chest, resting nearby his power core.
Cut Man gave a cry of surprise.
Dr. Wily, shielding his eyes from the harsh sun with his hand, gazed intently at Cut Man.
"The meteorite's…magnetic?" questioned Drill Man.
"It wasn't attracted to my shovel…" said Professor Florentine doubtfully.
Cut Man anxiously attempted to pluck the meteorite fragment off his titanium skin, but the shard seemed to skitter playfully away from his fingers, like a green ladybug. Then he stopped trying to brush it off. A wave of energy coursed through his circuits—comforting and pleasant, like a gentle rain shower on a summer night, warmth spreading from his fingers to the toes of his titanium boots.
"Whoa…I feel—" Cut Man hesitated, searching for the right word to describe what he was experiencing.
"Different?" Dr. Wily supplied, his face breaking out into a wicked grin.
But Cut Man shook his head. "No, not different…powerful."
The clicking of a rusty wind pump mingled with ragtime from an out of tune player piano through the streets of Red Gulch, encompassing the saloon with batwing doors, a one room school house with a brass bell, the brightly colored carriages, the stunt actors in outlaw costumes clustered around rain barrels, the wood stocks in the town square, the outhouses, the telegraph wires, the wooden water tower—
"Whoa…" muttered Roll, taking it all in as they climbed out of the jeep. They had parked next to a large corral-style wooden entrance with a painted sign reading Red Gulch in bright red stenciled letters.
"I didn't know places like this existed," Mega Man muttered back as Rush bounded over to sniff the oxen of a large-wheeled wagon.
The entire town appeared to be some sort of themed tourist trap. Ahead of them stood a throng of visitors who had been mingling in a loose crowd, whispering excitedly.
"Look, it's Mega Man!" cried one human, spotting them.
Heads instantly swiveled toward them with ooooos of excitement and clicking of cameras.
"Sorry folks, we're on duty!" Mega Man called apologetically as he, Roll, Dr. Light edged hastily back.
A sharp, bossy voice broke over the crowd. "Stand back folks, the town of Red Gulch will be back to its normal operations lickety-split, so don't you be a goin' nowhere or you'll miss out on a hog killin' time!"
Two humans pushed through the gaggle, marching purposefully across the dirt street toward Mega Man, Roll, and Dr. Light. As they stopped before them, the first human (who wore a ten-gallon hat and a bolo-tie with sunflower clasp, metal spurs tinkling on his boots) gave them a sweeping, annoyed look before hooking his fingers in the belt loops of his jeans and throwing his chest out.
"I am Mayor William Red of Red Gulch, but most folks call me 'Yeehaw Billy' after when I was a rodeo star," the mayor introduced pompously. "Just lettin' you know that no robots are needed here. Our sheriff has the whole situation under control, isn't that right, Sheriff Cotton?"
He gestured to the sheriff, a short round man with a walrus mustache and mole-like eyes behind octagonal glasses. He wore a tall peaked cowboy hat and vest of bright bluebird blue.
"Aw shoot, the sheriff title is only honorary. Deputy here is our real security here at Red Gulch," replied the sheriff in a squeaky voice, oblivious to the warning look Mayor Red had given him as he gestured to his deputy officer, who had trailed quietly behind and was standing somewhat apart from the two men.
The deputy was dressed in shades of dusty bison brown that seemed to make him fade into the background, from the leather vest over his light tan work shirt to his cowboy hat, leather gun holster, and plain cowboy boots. His hair, long sideburns, and eyes were a similar brown, though he wore a paisley bandana in bright navy blue tied around his neck. A golden five-pointed sheriff star inscribed 'Deputy Sheriff, Town of Red Gulch' was pinned to his vest, polished until it gleamed like a precious stone.
"You're an android!" said Roll, looking carefully at the deputy officer's face.
The deputy gave a small start, but smiled shyly at them.
"What makes you think Deputy here is an android?" asked Mayor Red with a snap to his voice like a whip crack.
"Oh, is he an undercover cop? It's alright, androids like us can always tell other androids apart from humans," responded Roll airily.
For a brief moment, Mayor Red shot Roll a dirty look, but he quickly hid it as he clapped a hand on Deputy's back.
"We wanted an immersive experience for guests, so no robo-officers for Red Gulch, no-sir-ree. Folks don't like coming 'round here and seeing robots, disturbs the pastoral atmosphere, ya see. But we still needed something in case criminal robots like those Bad Bots break in, so that's why he looks the way he does," he added in a whisper, holding a hand up to his mouth conspiratorially as he gave a meaningful glance to the tourists.
Despite this claim, the tourists had formed a queue with eyes on Mega Man, as if hoping he'd soon be handing out autographs.
"Paid a lot for him, and worth every penny," Mayor Red continued, adjusting his hat and stepping in front of the queue to block it from view. "He's a crack shot. Red Gulch has never needed no other security here." Though his voice was friendly, Mayor Red's eyes were icy as looked directly at Mega Man, clearly still determined on getting him to leave as soon as possible. "Have a shooting contest with 'im, then you'll see."
"No, I couldn't, not against Mega Man," spoke up Deputy in a mumble, looking mortified.
"Go on, Boy. Show 'im how good you are," prodded Mayor Red, reaching for Deputy's elbow and pulling him forward.
"We're looking for a group of scientists who were chasing the meteor that fell recently," Mega Man interrupted quickly, sparing Deputy from participating on the humiliating order. "Have then been through here? We're worried they might be in trouble."
"Haven't seen the likes of them in Red Gulch, but that meteor fell over yonder," spoke up the Sheriff Cotton, pointing a stubby finger to the north east. "Near the ol' mine I reck'n'."
"We can always send Deputy to check on it. Wouldn't see why you'd need to trouble your own robots over it," put in Mayor Red aggressively, bearing down on Dr. Light.
Dr. Light stood his ground. "Why don't we discuss this privately," he said kindly, taking Mayor Red and Sheriff Cotton to the shade of the sheriff's office and leaving Mega Man, Roll, and the deputy alone.
"I'll show you the way towards the mine," Deputy offered with a tip of his cowboy hat.
They began walking down the dusty street, leaving behind the crowd of disappointed tourists. Deputy cast them a sweeping look out of the corner of his eyes, his gaze lingering slightly on Mega Man, before looking away again. He seemed starstruck.
"Officer 'Deputy,' right?" Mega Man asked, breaking up the silence.
"You can just call me Deputy, it's what Mayor Red named me," Deputy responded with a helpless shrug.
"Sorry if this is out of line, but does Mayor Red not like robots?" Mega Man asked keenly.
"He doesn't like anything modern," Deputy responded in a low tone. "Red Gulch's town ordinances ban the selling or publicly display any sort of technology, from computers to robots—'cept of course what's provided for the convenience of the tourists—and no motor-vehicles can be driven within town limits."
Roll was completely flummoxed by these restrictions. "But that's crazy! People can't be expected to live like it's the 1800s!"
Deputy nodded in defeat. "It's always been that way. Luckily I've never actually had to enforce the ordinances, else I'd feel like a big hypocrite. I've never even met other robots," he added with another shy glance at them. "Mayor Red has forbidden me from letting anyone but Sheriff Cotton know I'm not human. I take my energy cans and do any repair work in private."
Both Mega Man and Roll frowned at this. They had never heard of a robot ordered to act human nearly one-hundred percent of the time. That sort of life sounded a bit grim, even for an android.
But Deputy hadn't noticed their concerned expressions. His face brightened wistfully as he looked up toward the clear blue sky.
"But maybe the meteorite will change everything! Tourists will still come out to see a real impact crater, even if it's not as big as the Barringer Crater in Arizona…and if Mayor Red lifts the technology ban, we could even build an observatory. We have the perfect spot for one, high altitude and no light pollution from surrounding cities. Then maybe I wouldn't have to dress up like this—"
He cut himself off quickly, looking back to the ground and seeming embarrassed.
Mega Man and Roll glanced curiously at the android dressed in western period costume talking excitedly about space.
"Not a fan of Red Gulch, huh Deputy?" Roll asked shrewdly.
Deputy glanced up her, then at the hanging wooden signs of the gift shops, which creaked slightly in the feeble desert breeze. "It's a bit corny here," he admitted, scratching self-consciously at one of his sideburns. "I like the west. It's real pretty, especially at night with all the stars. I don't mind being a deputy officer, though there's not a lot of action in a town like this, not compared to what you do against Wily. And the sheriff's real kind and all—" his face fell a little, "—Even though he'd probably prefer I was human…"
Mega Man and Roll cast furtive, sidewise looks at each other. Both were beginning to feel sorry for Deputy.
They had reached the north western entrance of the city, which opened up to a scenic dirt path leading into the rock mesas, an occasional park bench along the way.
"You do have an important job, Officer," Mega Man said encouragingly, turning to Deputy. "We think something bad has happened at the impact crater, and there's a lot of people here who might be in danger. If you can tell any of them to leave Red Gulch and go home, that'd be appreciated."
Deputy hesitated. "Mayor Red won't like that…"
"It's for their safety. I'm sure Dr. Light will talk Mayor Red and the sheriff around to seeing that."
Deputy looked a bit uncertain yet slightly more cheerful. He gave them a quick salute before turning back toward Red Gulch.
"Can you believe he's never seen another robot?" Roll whispered as they started down the path.
"I know robots are rarer in rural settings not adjacent to any farms or ranches, but seems like the mayor takes this 'no technology' stance to an extreme," Mega Man whispered back.
"More likely the mayor's worried robots like Deputy will outshine his cheap 'Old West' stuff," huffed Roll. "You saw the look he gave us when the tourists began taking pictures of us!"
"Poor Deputy. He didn't seem very happy here."
Roll gave a small shutter. "No kidding. Imagine being the only robot for miles trapped out here with nothing but cheesey cowboy actors doing the exact same thing year after year!"
After harvesting the meteorite fragments near the surface of the impact crater, the Citadel scientists were herded into the abandoned mine system than ran below to dig for fragments that had been hurried deep within the rock.
Though all of the Citadel scientists of the Discovery branch were accustomed to field work, they were not accustomed to any sort of heavy labor. Now within the cool confines of the mine and under the harsh lighting of flood lights, they had cast off their heavy hazmat suits to work while casting dirty looks at their robot captors, who undoubtably would be much more efficient in the meteorite fragment excavation.
However, the hardest jobs were quickly taken over by the Robot Masters. By now, each had their own meteorite fragment attached to their chest. To Snake Man, it had felt like stepping into warm sunshine on a bright spring day, to Guts Man like coasting along on the crest of a wave, and to Drill Man like a stone rolling down a hill. The feeling was incredible, as though they had become invincible—
—And as far as they knew, they were. Cut Man and Snake Man could now easily lift as much as Guts Man, and Guts Man had become strong enough to move the sheets of rock forming the roof of the mine as easily as if it were the lid of a cardboard box. Working together, they we easily able to clear and reshape the mine.
Proto Man was the last to claim a meteorite fragment. As it rested on the titanium skin just above his power core, he felt the sustained exhilaration of a leaf floating on a fresh breeze, energy tingling through his hair beneath his helmet like static electricity…
Nearby Proto Man, Professor Werner prized a glittering fragment the size of a button from rock using a steel pick.
"Take it to Dr. Wily," Proto Man instructed him.
With head bowed and the small fragment held tightly in his fist, Professor Werner trudged along the mine tracks to the workbench Dr. Wily was stooped over. A battonton was laying on its back on the workbench, its red ripstop wings flopped on either side of it, its protuberant eyes crossed as it watched Dr. Wily working within the postage stamp-sized panel on its forehead.
Dr. Wily gave a dramatic sigh as Professor Werner approached, reaching out a white bony hand. "Let's have it!"
When Professor Werner had gloomily dropped the fragment into his palm, Dr. Wily held it up to the light, then set it on the battonton's exposed circuits.
"Hehehe! This meteor has made my robots and their weapons super charged! Nothing can touch them! Nothing can stop them!"
"Albert, you are a sick man!" Professor Werner seethed, stamping his foot.
The battonton suddenly shot up from the table. Squeaking excitedly, it turned several summersaults in midair before pelting like a speeding cannon ball down the mine tunnel, Professor Werner hastily scrambling aside to let it through.
"Oh really?" Dr. Wily sneered at Professor Werner. "Can a sick man do this?" He let out a clear, maniacal laugh that echoed through the mine in a hellishly musical way.
Professor Werner was unimpressed. "But your robots!" he moaned. "You can't just subject living beings to an unknown power source like this! It's unsafe without thorough study!"
Dr. Wily just leered at him. "Fah! All of my computer simulated tests showed the meteorite to be completely harmless! Besides, what would you know? You don't even have your doctorate!"
"Yes, but—"
"And that Brain Bot who lives at Citadel now, you've surely heard of him, you hypocrite! What he has for a power source is far more unpredictable and dangerous than this!"
"Yes, but—"
"You don't know the first thing about robots, you've never even built a common drone!"
"Yes, but—"
"Meanwhile I have have built warmechs terrifying enough to bring nations to their knees!"
"Yes, but—"
Dr. Wily leaned in close to his cousin. "Stick to digging meteor fragments and let the real scientist make the discoveries!" he hissed in a deadly whisper.
Professor Werner, totally defeated, shuffled away back down the mine tunnel where Guts Man had been waiting for him like a prison warden.
Toward the back of the mine tunnel, Drill Man was in the middle of creating new tunnels for the scientists to probe with their radiation detectors. His drills sliced so easily though the hard stone that he often had to wait for battontons to help clear away debris and dust (somehow, the dust never seemed to get stuck in his eyes or settle on his armor, but instead was repelled away from his body).
At one of these intervals Drill Man paused, glancing around the tunnel with bewildered eyes beneath his cone-shaped head.
"Something wrong, Drill Man?" Proto Man called, noticing the lapse in the thunderous drilling.
Drill Man's head was still swiveling around with a somewhat dazed expression. "I dunno, Boss…I have this weird feeling we're being watched."
Proto Man scanned the mine. There were lots of tunnels branching off the one they stood in, their entrances yawning like dark voids where the light of the floodlights didn't reach. There were no signs of security cameras. He shrugged. "Maybe the mine's haunted by dead gold prospectors."
Drill Man gave a tittering laugh, but returned to work with a slightly unnerved expression, the feeling of being watched increasing by the minute.
Meanwhile, Cut Man had also paused in his work, his large ping ball eyes blinking hard as he stared down a tunnel, for he kept seeing faint patches of green light flickering across his vision. Cut Man closed his eyes and shook his head frantically. When he opened them again, the green light was gone, but it had almost looked like—well, it had looked like something.
Hoping his vision circuits had just experienced a brief technical glitch, Cut Man returned to bossing around the scientists, but he too was felt inexplicably uneasy.
All was eerily still when Mega Man and Roll reached the impact crater, which looked like a gigantic crown sitting in the sand.
They could see the entrance of the abandoned mine at the base of steep mesa, its opening held up by old crooked timbers overgrown with grassy weeds. A rusty track stretched out of the tunnel, splitting into a fork that dead ended in rotten buffers next to a steep gorge. There was no sign of Professor Werner or the other scientists—the Skullker, however, sat in plain sight between the impact crater and the mine.
"It figures he'd be here!" Mega Man hissed to Roll.
They crept cautiously closer, scanning the area around the impact crater. There were two small smoldering heaps—what remained of the Citadel helicopters—and the tracks of many feet meandering around small dig sites in the sand before heading toward the entrance of the mine.
"Wily has taken the scientists down into that old mine!" Mega Man surmised. He grinned at Roll. "Let's give Wily a little surprise…"
They heard a noise coming out of the tunnel and ducked quickly behind a decrepit and boarded up shed.
An old rickety minecart loaded in rubble was hovering several feet above tracks at top speed. It stopped next to one of the buffers, tilted sideways to dump its contents down the gorge, then fell to the tracks with a metallic crash as a small black blur streaked out from underneath it and back into the mine, squeaking energetically.
"Was that a battonton?" Roll whispered in amazement.
"That's what I saw too!" Mega Man repeated in equal disbelief. "But I've never seen one carry anything that heavy?"
"Or fly that fast!"
After checking to make sure the coast was clear, Mega Man and Roll left their hiding spot to climb into the swinging minecart trough, which was large enough for them both to crouch down inside.
Butting the back of the minecart with his head, Rush gave it a push down the tracks for them.
"Good boy, Rush!" Mega Man whispered, peering out at Rush before ducking down again.
The grooved wheels squeaked a bit and the trough shook in a teeth-rattling way. They crossed under the timber archway of the entrance, darkness falling over them. Ahead, they could hear the unmistakable noises of digging, the tunnel beginning to brighten with a blazing light as bright as the sun outside.
As the minecart lost speed, Mega Man and Roll squinted cautiously over the lip of the minecart trough. The scientists were huddled under the stark flood lighting of the mine, a flock of white labcoats scrapping and picking at the ground while Cut Man, Guts Man, Snake Man, and Drill Man formed a loose circle around them.
Minds racing, Mega Man and Roll began silently strategizing ways to rescue Professor Werner and his colleagues when a voice startled them.
"C'mon out and play, little brother."
Proto Man smirked down from the shadows of rocky outcrop, his blaster pointed at them. Alerted to their presence, the Robot Masters glanced over from the scientists to Mega Man and Roll.
Mega Man rose slowly to his feet. "Look, I don't want to hurt you, Proto Man," he called up in a stern voice, keeping a concerned eye still on the scientists, who had stopped digging and were watching with wide eyes.
"Well I do," interjected Roll, shooting Mega Man a withering look before scowling up at Proto Man.
"Hurt me? Oooh those days are long gone!" replied Proto Man smoothly. "You're no longer in my league!"
"Oh yeah?" retorted Mega Man.
Both he and Roll fired up at Proto Man at the same time—Proto Man was asking for it, after all.
For a second, it seemed like a green forcefield briefly shimmered around Proto Man, barely visible—then Mega Man's golden plasma blast exploded against his red armor in a flash that lit up the mine, and Roll's circular saw (which should have chopped off Proto Man's blaster arm) bounced off and clattered to the mine floor where it spun noisily in place like a giant coin.
Proto Man was completely unharmed, even his scarf had been unruffled. "I hate to say 'I told you so', but…"
Proto Man fired at the tracks beneath the minecart. The sudden explosion of plasma lurched the minecart upward, expelling Mega Man and Roll roughly to the ground like rocks thrown out of a bucket.
"…I told you so," Proto Man finished smugly.
"W-what happened?" Mega Man gasped, dazed. It had looked like a low powered, warning shot—yet it had totaled the steel mine cart and wiped out two-thirds of their energy meters.
The Robot Masters surrounded them.
Guts Man's shadow fell over Mega Man, his large yellow hands balling into fists just above Mega Man's helmet. "Let's draw straws to see who gets to blast the blue dweeb! Hahahha!"
"Let's all blast him!" joined in Cut Man, a Rolling Cutter glinting from his blaster.
Mega Man and Roll hastily climbed to their feet and gained distance from the Robot Masters. Cut Man let them run for a moment, then sent his Rolling Cutter chasing after them. Mega Man returned fire, striking the Rolling Cutter, but the Rolling Cutter sliced through the plasma with the same brief shimmer of green they had seen on Proto Man.
After witnessing this, Mega Man and Roll promptly hit the deck. The Rolling Cutter whizzed over their heads and cleaved through a protruding rock face as easily as a katana through cheese, sheering off a large section and triggering a small avalanche.
"Whoa, Cut Man's blades are really super charged!" Mega Man called to Roll as they shielded themselves from falling rocks.
"Yeah, and if we're not careful, those idiots will bring down the place!" retorted Roll.
Proto Man seemed to have realized this danger at the same time Roll had. "Stand back!" he snapped warningly to the Robot Masters, holding up a hand. "He's mine!"
"Never!" Mega Man shouted, firing stubbornly at Proto Man.
Two battontons dropped from where they had been hanging on the ceiling, flying through the plasma blast as easily as easily as if it was a spray of water. They charged Mega Man and Roll, knocking them backward into another minecart a second pair of battontons had placed on the tracks.
The force Mega Man and Roll hit the minecart blasted them back so fast it was like being in a rollercoaster without a safer harness. The wheels let out an earsplitting scream as orange sparks fanned out on each side of the minecart. Roll attempted to throw a brake, but the handle broke off in her hands. The next thing they knew, they were back out in the sunlight and heat of the desert, crashing through the rotten buffer at the end of the line, and tumbling pellmell into the rocky gorge.
Both Mega Man and Roll lay sprawled at the bottom for a moment. Mega Man winced as he moved his blaster arm, which was sparking. He could tell Dr. Light was going to need to take a look at it.
They heard titanium footsteps as Proto Man approached the edge of the cliff. "You can't beat me, Mega…so why not join me?" he called down in a low voice.
Mega Man thought back to the birthday present Proto Man had given him and steeled himself up. "In your dreams!"
A growl echoed from above. A second later, Rush leaped at Proto Man, teeth bared, but Proto Man caught him by the muzzle and tossed him easily into the gorge. Then he targeted the cliffside above Mega Man and fired.
With a plume of orange dust and a crack like a gunshot, rocks began crashing down. Roll hastily pulled Mega Man by his undamaged arm over to safety.
Meanwhile, Proto Man had turned his back on them and walked away from the cliff's edge. "Let's get back to work…the battontons will take care of my nearly departed brother," they heard him tell the Robot Masters in a lazy, carrying voice. Cut Man and Guts Man laughed rancorously at this, their voices fading away toward the mine.
In the form of a flying-V, a group of battontons descended upon Mega Man and Roll, shooting bolts of lighting that scorched the cracked ground in wide black circles. Mega Man, Roll, and Rushl had no choice but to flee further into the gorge.
When they had sprinted for nearly a minute with the battontons steadily gaining, Mega Man spun on the spot. "Run! I'll try to hold them off!" he told Roll bravely, for he was the most damaged. He fired his blaster, but it only hissed and smoked.
"No way!" responded Roll, who had also stopped and had planted her feet firmly into the sand. She drew a high powered fan from her utility arm, and, powering it on, created a vortex that sent dust spewing down gorge and uprooted small cacti.
But once again a green shimmer briefly surround the battontons, who were completely unaffected by the vortex. They began strafing, pulling at Roll's ponytail and knocking Mega Man down. Rush was alternating between growling and whimpering, his tail between his legs as the battontons flew around them like black debris in a tornado.
"I just don't understand how Wily's bots got so powerful!" muttered Mega Man though gritted teeth.
"Yeah, and these battontons are going to tear us apart!" Roll complained, blowing a tuft of her hair out of her face.
Mega Man and Roll were huddled close together, back-to-back, contemplating the irony of defeat by Dr. Wily's weakest of minions, when a bolt of ultraviolet energy hit one of the battontons. The battonton smashed into a wall of a gorge with a sickening crunch, its wings fluttering weakly.
The rest of the battontons gave terrified squeaks, flying around in mad panic and crashing into one another. When another ultraviolet blast streaked through the air between them, the battontons scattered like startled sparrows, zooming out of the gorge and back toward the mine.
Mega Man and Roll blinked at the sudden retreat, Roll dropping her utility arm to her side. Then they turned to look at the origin of the ultraviolet energy that had saved them.
Standing ahead of them at a bend in the gorge, blaster drawn, was a bomber robot in green armor.
To be continued…
