Chapter 14: The Mad Doctor Is In
"Well, well well! If it isn't Mega Man! It seemed like only yesterday when we last met!"
Everybody stood dumbfounded as Dr. Albert Wily, the sworn archenemy of Mega Man, stood in the hallway holding the Orion Crystal in his hand. Alive, well, and unusually the same as he was almost 100 years ago. Scorch and Royaltie ran to join their brother and Zero as X had said to Dr. Wily:
"Dr. Wily??!! But.......but it can't be!"
Looking uncertain, Zero had said, "My father..........alive???"
Scorch had butted in and exclaimed, "It's not possible! You died 100 years ago!"
Dr. Wily had raised his finger at the group of Reploids and had coyly said, "Ahah! You merely THOUGHT I was dead! But thanks to the power of this majestic crystal, time has passed while I remain youthful and vigorous!"
"And completely insane in the membrane.", muttered Buzzsaw to himself.
The doctor had turned his attention to the green Reploid and said with a smirk, "Hmhmhm! Charming and witty to the last, Buzzsaw!"
Everyone was suddenly surprised at what Wily had said. He knew Buzzsaw's name?!
"Wha-How do you know my name?! I never even met you!", exclaimed Buzzsaw.
Dr. Wily had coyly replied, "You know, your creator did such a good job of making you out of Metal Man's shell! Too bad that none of his personality had survived the conversion.
Auroran Flash had waved her arms and said out loud, "Alright, wait a minute! What's going on here!"
Wily had raised his head and said, "It seems many questions need to be answered before I destroy you all! Well, if I must......" He then turned his attention away from the group of robots and had looked down the poorly lit hallway. He began to reminisce to himself as he spoke his mind:
"As I said, it seemed like only yesterday. This hallway was once part of my greatest stronghold, Skull Castle. Even though these walls have become weak with age and rust, I still sense that these corridors have never changed. It all started, one hundred years ago, when my most powerful creations, the StarDroids, fell at the hands of Mega Man. Even though I eluded capture yet again, I was at a loss for resources. My Robot Masters, my servants, were all destroyed and could not be rebuilt. All I had left was this crystal, which I thought at the time only dispensed Evil Energy, and two of my most powerful robot servants, Bass and Dark Man. Even though they would gladly give their lives to protect me and destroy Mega Man, a robot warrior is a terrible thing to waste. So, using the information they both stole from Dr. Light, I had them both converted into Reploids, with powers beyond anything the world has ever known. I first converted Bass into Zero, and had augmented his strength with Treble, giving him great prowess and agility. I knew Zero would be my greatest creation, since he was equal to Mega Man in power, and he was stronger, faster, and more powerful than Bass would ever hope to be! I had also taken the liberty of creating a computer virus using the brain scans of all of my Robot Masters and the Evil Energy from the crystal, and I programmed it into Zero's forehead crystal. This virus was unlike any other, since no anti-virus program would destroy it except for the one that I created, and it gave Zero the power to cause Reploids to rebel against their masters and bring the human race to his knees!"
As Wily spoke of this revelation, Zero had suddenly flashed back to the fight with Sigma in the abandoned bunker. To the scene where Zero had a badly damaged Sigma at his mercy, and he clutched his head in pain when the "W" appeared on his forehead. Sigma had taken this chance and had punched Zero in his forehead crystal with his one arm, knocking the Crimson One out cold. Snapping back into reality, Zero had thought to himself, So......that's how Sigma got the virus. I was responsible for all this, even though Sigma became the monster by himself. He then turned his attention back to Wily's speech.
"After I placed Zero in his capsule and sealed him in the underground bunker, I had then converted Dark Man into Dark Phantom, and knowing that the Evil Energy would become of use in the future, I had used an ion ray to split the crystal into two pieces and had placed one crystal fragment in Dark Phantom's body. I had decided to keep the other fragment for close study, and I had programmed Dark Phantom to awaken in case Zero had failed, and to find him and help him carry out his directive. After placing Dark Phantom in the bunker and sealing the door safely, I suddenly heard noises coming from outside of my castle. The Army, RoboPolice, National Guard, they were everywhere, coming after me! I ran down to this very basement and to my auxilary lab where I closed the door and hoped they would never find me! I actually wished I would not be touched by the authorities, and I felt the end was near for me! When suddenly.........the Sub-Crystal I held in my hand glowed bright, and like a vaccum trapping dust, I was sucked in, imprisoned within the Sub-Crystal, which remained untouched for over 100 years."
"So that's what happened!", said Royaltie. "It's no wonder why we never found Wily after the raid!"
Wily snapped at Roll, shouting, "Don't interrupt!" He then continued his story:
"Although I was a prisoner within a crystalline world, there WAS a dividend! The Crystal allowed me to see time pass by in the whole 100 years I was sealed away. Mega Man X coming out of Dr. Light's capsule, the outbreak of the Mavericks and the rise of Sigma, the creation of Auroran Flash and Buzzsaw, I have seen everything! I had planned and bided my time for the day someone would come, reunite the Crystal, and take my place inside! And he DID come!" Upon saying this, as Dr. Wily held the Crystal in his hands, the smoky, dark image of a face appeared in the Crystal, and his eyes glowed bright as he looked over at the Hunters.
It was Sigma.
Buzzsaw screamed, "SIGMA'S ALIVE???!!!"
Wily smiled in glee and said, "Heh heh heh! I told you nothing could destroy MY computer virus!" He then casually walked towards his "son", Zero.
"It is so good to see you again, Zero.", said Wily. "Even though you allied yourself with my worst enemy, you were everything I hoped you to be when you were your old self. Killing those weak Hunters, destroying that Headquarters, taking great advantage over......"
"Shut up!", yelled Zero. "I never want to think about that again, ever! I HATED being evil! I HATED being my old self! X is my best friend!"
"STOP!", bellowed Wily in anger, "I don't want to hear you this weak!"
"It is not weak TO VALUE JUSTICE!!", interrupted Zero. "You might have thought I was all-powerful and strong when you made me into a Reploid, but you never realized that I was released from your control and given a free will! A CHOICE!!"
Glaring at Zero and looking very steamed, Wily replied calmly, "Then I will give you a choice NOW! I will give you one last chance to join me by my side once more as my son, my heir, my GENERAL! We can take over this world easily and make all humans and Reploids bow before us! What is your decision, Zero?! Your weak friends.......or your only family?!"
Zero vehemently turned away from Dr. Wily and had thought about what he said. What would he choose? His friends or his father? After a moment of thinking, all of his friends looked on as he turned back to Wily with a look of pure determination and had said, proud, strong, and true:
"My friends ARE my family! You, however, are nothing but a senile, rotten old FART!!"
Everyone smiled and cheered at Zero's declaration, while Wily clenched his teeth in frustration. He stormed towards a depression in the wall as he yelled, "BETRAYER!! You shall DIE along with them!!" He then pushed the red button and before anyone could react, a trap door opened below the group of seven and they all fell into a deep, black hole. Wily had cackled maniacally at the Hunters' misfortune, but soon stopped when he saw Duo, covered in a bright, blue aura, flying out from the hole and hovering overhead. He yelled out, "WILY! You will not get away with this!"
As the trap door closed, Wily smiled madly and said back to the energized robot, "Hmhmhmhm! Oh yes I will! I WILL!!" He then held up the Orion Crystal towards Duo and had hit him with a thick beam of purple energy, causing him to groan in pain and fall to the ground. With purple flames coarsing through his body, Duo laid there motionless and powerless.
As he passed Duo, Wily said to him, "Maybe that will teach you not to mess with a MAD SCIENTIST! MWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
As Wily walked towards the small mainframe in the auxilary lab, a voice, barely audible, had emanated from the Orion Crystal held in the mad doctor's hand. Sigma's voice.
"WIIIIIIIIIIIIILYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!"
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The six Hunters screamed as they fell down the large hole. They finally fell into a large arena littered with piles of rather large, mechanical looking boulders, and they hit the ground with a thud. Everyone had groaned in unison as they all tried to get up. Scorch had sarcastically said to his friends, "Well! That was a real screwed-up reunion!"
X had ignored his brother's remark and said to everybody, "Is everybody OK??"
They all nodded their heads in confirmation, except for Auroran Flash, who was rubbing her injured leg that had been damaged by Wire Sponge earlier. She yelled, "OOOOOHHH! My leg HURTS! OW!!"
X and Buzzsaw ran to tend to Aurie. Buzz said to X, "The fall must have triggered the pain in her injury! She needs a painkiller and a new bandage, X." X nodded in agreement and said to Aurie, "Don't worry Aurie. We'll get out of here and get you some help!"
Her face twisted in displeasure, Aurie replied, "Ohhhhhhhh! I hope it's soon! It really hurts!"
Suddenly, a voice boomed out in the arena's loudspeaker. It was Dr. Wily.
"MWAH HAHAHA! I would've destroyed you just now with the power of the Crystal, but I will not rob one of my most favorite creations of that pleasure, since he had been waiting as long as I to deal with betrayers like you! Rock Monster, ATTAAAAACK!"
"The Rock Monster?!" said X and Scorch in unison. Suddenly, a small alcove opened up on a nearby wall and had released a large, mechanical eye. The eye had hovered over the group of heroes and had emitted sparks of energy from the two antennae on its sides. Suddenly, as if possessed by some unseen force, the mechanical rocks in the room had begun to move and fly towards the eye. The rocks had pieced together to form a giant's body as if pieceing together a puzzle, and soon the ancient, yet powerful, Rock Monster had fully formed and towered over the Maverick Hunters. It uttered a low pitched roar as it looked down at our heroes.
"Whoa! How do we stop a thing like that?!", exclaimed Buzzsaw.
X turned to the green Reploid and said, "We'll know how to handle it! Go and protect Aurie!" Buzzsaw nodded and replied, "I will protect her with my life!". X smiled at Buzz's dedication, and had turned to face the giant, only to get a faceful of rock thrown by the Rock Monster and get knocked to the ground.
Royaltie exclaimed, "X!! Are you alright?!" As Mega Man X tried to regain his composure, he yelled to his comrades, "The EYE! Aim for the eye!"
Having avoided another rock attack, Scorch and Royaltie had taken careful aim and fired at the Rock Monster's eye. The shots, however, bounced right off as it closed its eye. As Scorch and Royaltie looked on in disbelief as their attempt had failed, the Rock Monster roared as it opened its eye and it fired a large burst of plasma at the two siblings, which hit the floor next to them and knocked them back a few feet.
With a look of determination, Zero yelled, "I got him!" and had ran towards the Monster with Beam Sabre drawn. He sliced the lower half of its leg, causing some of the mechanical rock sections to fall off. The Monster, however, didn't reel back in pain. It let out a roar and several more mechanical rocks came from out of nowhere. One of them had taken Zero by surprise and had hit him in the head as it passed by and helped heal the gash that was left by Zero's Beam Sabre. Zero fell to the floor and had clutched his head in pain.
"ZERO! I'm coming!", yelled X. He fired several blasts at the Rock Monster's eye as he ran to aid his friend. The Monster, of course, had closed his eye to shield itself from the plasma blasts, and it retaliated with its own blast, which Mega Man avoided. He came to Zero and had helped him off the ground, and they both managed to run away before the Rock Monster could stomp the Hunters with his enormous foot.
As the giant slowly stomped its way towards the hapless group, Buzzsaw looked on at the Monster and had exclaimed, "I have to do something!". He then turned back to Aurie as she said, "Go on ahead and help them, Buzz! I'll be fine! I can take care of myself!" She then tried to get up, only to sit back down, groaning in pain and rubbing her sore leg. Buzzsaw had turned away for a second and had began to think about some things. He thought back to the time when Aurie saved his life, and to the time he fought that simulated War Mech in the Training Arena the day before.
Snapping back to reality, he turned back to Aurie with a look of pure determination and said to her, "You protected me once, Aurie! Now it is time I honor my promise and return the favor!"
Aurie wore a look of happiness at Buzz, but it soon turned to a look of fear as she pointed and screamed, "*SHRIEK*!!! BUZZ LOOK OUT BEHIND YOU!!!" Buzz had whirled around to see the Rock Monster looming ominously close towards their position. Everyone screamed, "LOOK OUT BUZZ!!!", but he didn't run. The Monster had once again fired its plasma laser at Buzz, only for it to be nullified and destroyed by the barrage of Buzz's Enchanted Blades. He then unsheathed his sapphire-green Beam Sabre and ran towards the monster while uttering a shrill battle cry. He jumped greatly to avoid the Rock Monster's punch, and had flown towards the Monster's eye and had landed right on the Monster's face. Before it could fire, Buzz had quickly taken his Beam Sabre and drove it right into the giant's eye, cutting right through the armor and into the center. It roared in absolute pain as Buzz slashed it several times successfully, destroying the eye completely, and as Buzz dismounted the doomed giant, the Rock Monster completely fell apart. Boulder after boulder had fallen to the ground and had crumbled to dust upon impact.
The Rock Monster was no more.
Holding his Beam Sabre victoriously in the air, Buzzsaw yelled out, "HA HAAA!! Another giant toppled by the mighty hand of Buzzzzzzzsaaaaaaaawwwww the RIGHTEOUS!!!" Everyone smiled and cheered at Buzz's victory, while X and Zero simply smirked and laughed as Zero said, "Like I keep saying, that guy is soooooo full of himself!"
Sheathing his Beam Sabre once more, Buzzsaw had noticed a large beat-up box with a red cross on its face, which had been revealed by the destruction of the Rock Monster and said, "Hey! Here's a First-Aid kit! How convienient. I'll fix you up in a jiffy, Aurie!"
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Watching the entire battle unfold from his auxilary lab, Dr. Wily slammed his foot in anger and had yelled out "BLAST! My Rock Monster lost......AGAIN! Well, that's it! No more Rock Monsters EVER! And while I'm on the subject, no more Metalls with party favors either!"
As Wily continued to rant about his failure, the Orion Crystal that rested on the table near Wily began to glow bright purple. The clouded face of Sigma had appeared inside the Crystal, and Wily had turned his attention to it as Sigma said to him, in an otherworldly tone:
"Dr. Wily! At long last we meet!"
"Sigma?", said Wily.
"Listen to me, Wily!", said Sigma, "We both have the same goal, the same ambition, the same ENEMIES! Mega Man X, Zero, and his friends will never stop fighting until we die, or until THEY die! Destiny has indeed brought us here together, and I believe we should unite with the power of the Crystal to make our reign unstoppable!"
"What do you mean "unite" with the Crystal?", queried Wily.
Sigma replied, "You've seen how just one Sub-Crystal works for the holder. For you, me, and Dark Phantom, it does more than just charge a robot or Reploid with Evil Energy. It grants wishes, uses magic, increases your power a thousand fold. Just think about it! Me with my strength and power, you with your robotic ingenuity! Together we can no longer be defeated again!"
Wily still looked uncertain as he said, "Why would you be this willing to ally yourself with me?"
Sigma replied, "Because it was you that had made me who I am today! It was your virus that made me immortal! Believe me, I owe you greatly! This Crystal can grant you immortality too! We can even be rulers of this universe! But you must decide NOW!"
After hearing what Sigma had said, Wily had turned his back and had thought about it for a minute. As he thought, Duo had began to recover from his paralyzing ordeal with Dr. Wily earlier.
Finally, Wily turned to face Sigma in the Crystal and had said with a twisted smile, "I have the design of the most deadliest robot ever created in my head! Are you seeing what I am thinking?"
Sigma replied gleefully, "YES! This Battle Body is PERFECT!!"
Wily then yelled with mad glee, "ALRIGHT THEN! LET'S DO IT!!" With that, Wily had then grabbed the Crystal and spectrums of light began to emanate from the Crystal in a spectacular light show. As he was bathed in a bright light, Wily along with Sigma could be heard laughing insanely as their twisted wishes became reality:
"HE HE HE HE HE HE HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
"MWAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"
As this was happening, Duo had concentrated all of his power and had finally dissapated the flames of paralyzing energy from his body. He then shielded his eyes from the blinding light and had yelled, "OH NO! MY WORST FEAR!!" Acting quickly, Duo had punched the floor below him, opening the trap door below him, and had flew down the hole as Wily and Sigma continued their "unification".
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"There you go, Aurie! Good as new!" said Buzzsaw as he finished patching up Aurie's leg wound. Aurie stood up and walked around with no apparent trouble. X, Zero, Scorch, and Royaltie were all within earshot as they hear Aurie and Buzz say:
"Thank you, Buzz! You truly are a Righteous guy!"
"And you truly are a Mega Goddess!"
As they watched Buzz bowing and Aurie giggling, Zero whispered to X, "I wonder why we didn't bring a camera?"
X replied, "A camera? Heck, we should've brought a movie crew." They all chuckled at that remark.
All the laughter had stopped when suddenly, the entire castle began to shake violently. Everyone wore panic-stricken looks on their faces when X yelled, "What's going on?!"
At that moment, Duo had crashed through the ceiling in the arena in the form of blue energy. He turned back to normal and had said as he hovered in the air, "We have to get out of here NOW!! This castle is going to break apart soon!! HURRY!!!" X had nodded in agreement and had said to the other Hunters, "I think we better do what he says! LET'S BOLT!!". With that, the six Hunters and Duo had teleported right out of the arena before it collapsed, and out of Skull Castle.
Appearing on a small plateau a few miles away, Mega Man X and all of his friends watched in shock as Skull Castle, the former home of Dr. Wily, had become rocked with explosions and crumbled to the ground. Everyone had mixed emotions as they watched it fall:
"That kind of thing sure takes me back!", said Scorch.
"Duo! What happened? Did Wily commit suicide?" asked X.
"I wish he did. Look!" Duo had pointed towards where Skull Castle crumbled and suddenly, a beam of spectral light had shot out of the ruins and had touched the night sky, causing very large storm clouds to billow over the desert as if by some kind of an omen. Everyone looked in extreme shock as the beam became wider and a strange, gigantic creature had arisen from the beam of light. It became visible to everyone as Buzzsaw yelled, "What the @#!$%# is THAT THING??!!"
The giant robot was cobalt blue and muscular. Covering its entire body was what looked like bones, making it look like a giant skeleton. Its arms wore menacing-looking, spike-lined gauntlets, and its legs were roughly the length of a building. Its head looked like Sigma's skull, and it had glowing, blood-red eyes. It let out an unholy yell as lightning flashed in the darkened sky, feeling almost as if the Devil himself had appeared on Earth.
Looking very concerned, Aurie said, "Whoa! Now that's one scary-looking giant!"
Royaltie turned to Duo and asked, "Duo! Who is that?! What's happening??!!"
Duo kept looking at the giant robot as he replied:
"Our worst nightmares................UNIFIED!!"
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