Chapter 12: I Am The Doc Man
"Hello, Dr. Wily." Cedric Froid greeted the robotocist. Wily rose to shake his hand.
"Hello, Ced. What've you been up to?"
"Oh, this and that." Froid said, still smiling. "How's Rock doing?"
"Quite well. He's on the moon right now, fighting the Gemini models." Dr. Light told him. "Once he's done there, all that remains is finding out the source of all this."
"Oh, that's no problem at all." Dr. Froid said, smiling even wider. "I know who it is."
"YOU DO!" Both doctors cried, thunderstruck. "Who is it!"
"I'd be happy to tell you." Cedric put down the clipboard he was holding. "But first, I need you to do me a favor, Al." Dr. Wily frowned.
"A favor? Ced, have you lost your mind! What could I do that's more important than knowing who's behind the Rebellion?" Froid raised his arm.
"DIE." And before the awestruck eyes of the doctors, a plasma bullet fired off from his arm, straight at Wily's chest. As it whistled through the air, it seemed for a moment as if time was standing still for Albert Wily... until a chair flew in front of him, taking the bullet. Froid hissed and turned in the direction the chair had come from just in time to be smashed over the head by the other chair, courtesy of Roll. Dr. Light stared at his grim-faced daughter.
"ROLL! What are you doing! The first law! You can't hurt him!"
"The first law only forbids me from harming humans." Roll growled, picking up another chair and throwing it as well. "Which the bad doctor there is certainly NOT. What's wrong? Do you know him?" These questions were directed at Wily, whose face had gone white as he frantically backed against the wall, pointing at Froid.
"YOU... no, impossible! Mega Man killed you!"
"WHO IS HE!" Roll screamed at him, but before she could get a response, Froid lunged and blasted her several times, screaming.
"BITCH! You'll die too, right after my father!" He turned back to the doctors, chuckling. "I suppose there's no point in keeping this up anymore..." Slowly, Dr. Cedric Froid wavered and disappeared, revealed as a hologram, and the true creature was revealed. Standing as tall as a human, the robot was top-heavy, his huge upper body held up by a narrow waist and spindly legs, with huge feet. One hand was humanoid, while the other was a permanent buster. A pair of thick cables rose from his back, and he was painted in yellow and black with blood-red trim. The bald head was most frightening; his mouth was stretched in a permanently frozen, insane grin that not even the "Joker" of DC Comics from the late 20th century could have matched. And the eyes; the eyes danced around, never fixing on one thing, with the bright red pupils burning like little flames. The robot who had posed as Dr. Cedric Froid raised his arm cannon again.
"Now then, let's try this again, shall we? Ahem. Oh, that's no problem. I know who it is." He waited expectantly for several seconds, with the silence broken only by Roll's moans. "Come on, it's your line!" The doctors said nothing. "Oh, come on, don't be such poor sports! I'm going to kill you anyways, so you might as well have a little fun before you die. Die... die... diediediedie-Wait, wait, no! Not again!" He raised his other hand, palm forward. "Can you hold on-a FLYING STRAWBERRY-second please? I need to deal-HAY WRECK SPECIAL-with this before it gets out of-CHICKEN TOFU-hand. Thanks." The obviously completely insane robot walked over to the nearest wall and calmly smashed his head completely through it with an explosion of wood. When he pulled it out, it seemed he was in control. "That's better. Now, are you going to say your line, or... oh. Oh, I get it." He laughed maniacally. "You're stalling! You're hoping Mega Man will come back if you hold me off long enough! Well, I'm afraid you're mistaken; I calculated it, and even if Mega Man defeats Gemini Man, there's no way he can do it and get back here for at least an hour! Maybe if he had help, but alone, he's got no chance. So just give it up and accept that you're dead." The doctors stayed silent. "Still not willing to do it? Fine, then. I'll do it all myself." He flickered for a moment, and another Dr. Light was standing there.
"Ahem. YOU DO! Who is it!" He changed back to his true form.
"I'd be happy to tell you. But first, I need a favor from you, Al." Another flicker, and he was Dr. Wily. "A favor? Ced, have you lost your mind! What could I do that's more important than finding out who's behind the rebellion?" He changed back to his normal form and pointed his arm cannon at Wily once more, his eyes alight with a dreadful glee.
"DI-ARGH!" He suddenly pitched forward, falling flat on his face as little Eddie slammed into his thin legs. Before he could get up, Eddie darted around to the front of him and using the launcher program Roll had made, fired a watermelon straight into the mad robot's face. It would have been funny had the situation not been so drastic. His vision was blinded momentarily by the fruit; seeing this, Dr. Light grabbed the still-panicking Dr. Wily and ran out of the room with him. Furious, the hologram robot backhanded Eddie into a wall and wiped the fruit goo out of his eyes, getting back up.
"You little worm!" Kicking the suitcase-bot for good measure, he stalked upstairs looking for the doctors. The first room he checked was the laboratory, an initial scan revealed nothing, but that closet in the back...
"Father, where aaaarrreee you?" As he opened the closet, he heard a sound behind him. The sound of somebody teleporting in. Slowly, the holographic robot turned to see Mega Man staring.
"What the hell is going-" Mega Man's yell cut off as suddenly as if he had been choked the moment his eyes met the psycho's. "YOU." They stared at each other for several seconds before the intruder howled and dashed for Dr. Wily's laptop, which he had seen out of the corner of his eye. Grabbing it, he confirmed what he had seen on it with a glance, then turned back to his hated foe, giving a mocking wave.
"Run run run as fast as you can! You can't catch me, 'cause I'm the DOC MAN!" He teleported away with a peal of insane laughter, leaving Mega Man to stare after him, unmoving.
"His name is Doc Man." Dr. Wily slowly told them. The Lights were in the lab; the doctors sat at the table, while Roll repaired Eddie. Rock paced back and forth, unable to be still for more than a moment, as Wily continured. "He was the greatest child of my insanity... a robot created to be more than a Robot Master, like Rock, Roll... and Blues. He fought with Rock after the Second Ring of my first Skull Fortress..."
"I remember that very well." Rock picked up. "He used a hologram generator to look exactly like me... at first, I feared him. But when I realized it was just a hologram, a trick... I... I went berserk." He buried his face in his hands. "I tore that copy of me limb from limb... and when he begged me to end his life, I could not, under what I thought at that time to be pity. In reality... I doomed him to torture."
"Doc Man contacted me soon afterwards." Wily began speaking again. "He requested aid... in my madness, I denied him and abandoned him. That was the last I saw of Doc Man... I had assumed he had perished with the Fortress." He sighed. "...Recently, the UN excavated the remains of my Skull Fortresses. Underneath the first was a secret, underground room not even I had knew of, with signs of use by at least one robot. I kept this a secret from you all, not wanting to tell you of it until I knew what it meant... but it seems I was in error. Doc Man must have hid there and repaired himself."
"All right, Doc." Roll spoke up. "Now, explain his current mental status. I believe even while you were insane, you put in a Law forbidding any of your robots to harm you. Quite obviously, this is no longer in effect for Doc Man." Wily steepled his hands.
"This is just a conjecture, but... it's possible that, in my insanity, I did not bind the Law as thoroughly to his core as I should have. If so, an incredibly intense mental trauma... say, being brutally beaten near-death and abandoned by your father... would shatter the Law. However, this would damage his mind incredibly; insanity, growing steadily worse as his brain deteriorated further over time. An obsession with a single idea, willing to sacrifice anything for that..."
"Revenge." Rock raised his head. "Revenge against you and me. That's all this bloody Rebellion has been for... all those deaths, just for a personal grudge against two people! He's insane, all right..."
"In that condition, he would be planning this all the years after his defeat..." Dr. Light mused. "With that holographic generator of his, he could be anybody in the world..." He frowned and looked at his daughter. "Roll. How did you know what he was?" The robot girl turned off the welding torch and got up. When she turned around, her face was grim.
"I have some... bad... news. Donald Richolds is dead." The doctors gasped, and Rock stared. Roll continued talking without pause, choking out the words nonstop as if she would not be able to continue if she stopped for even a moment. "As Doc Man came in, an e-mail came. It was from Cedric Froid's account. Curious as to why he didn't just tell us personally, I opened it. It was an audio file." She walked over to the computer and pressed a few keys. As the Lights listened, Donald Richolds' voice came from the speakers. He sounded hopeless... like a man who knows he will die soon.
"To the Lights... Rock, Roll, Tom and Al... I pray that this reaches you in time. This is Donald Richolds. I'm at Dr. Cedric Froid's manor. And by the time this reaches you... I will be dead. Murdered. I only have a few moments to send this off... my life is forfeit no matter what I do. Thus, I shall use my last time to save others. Recently, I thought something was up with Dr. Froid, so I snuck inside, looking for a secret. It was eerie... the house seemed deserted. Until I reached the basement. Down there, I found a closet. Inside... were the slaughtered bodies of the Froids. They looked to have been dead for at least a month. The Froid we knew was a robot masquerading as him, and operationg out of Froid's house. He is the mastermind of the Third Robot Rebellion. This robot is bloodthirsty and horribly insane... and he knows I am here. He will kill me soon. I beg of you, forgive what I have done... and Rock, I ask as my final request that you avenge me, and all the others who have died from this madman's work! I beg of you, do not let my death be in vain! You must destroy him! Destroy the Doc Ma-"
"There you are!" An insane screech was heard.
"Damn! He's found me! Send, send!" The frantic clicking of a mouse... a horrible scream filled with unimaginable pain... and then, silence. The Lights bowed their heads in an act of respect for the dead politician. Wily was first to raise his head.
"I must concur with Don... Doc Man must be destroyed. He cannot be allowed to live. Rock..."
"I know." The robot nodded. "I will track him down and end his insanity at last. You two, get Gamma up and running in case something like this happens again." The doctors nodded sadly and stood to leave. "Wait." They paused. Rock slowly walked over to Wily, and his eyes held no hatred or disgust or battle... but apology. "Wi-no. ...Albert. Uncle Al, I'm sorry I thought you were behind the Rebellion. Can you forgive me?" Wily looked at him for a long moment, then embraced him.
"Yes... my nephew." Roll sniffed; for a moment, she almost forgot that robots can't cry as she watched the final vestiges of the hatred disintegrate, and the two were finally, fully reunited. Neither Rock nor Wily moved for many moments; then, as one, they pulled apart and looked into each others' eyes.
"Rock." The old doctor said, tears running down his face. "Please... Doc Man is the last remnant of my insanity left on this earth. My poor, damned, insane son... your cousin. Lay him to rest, Rock. End his suffering."
"I will. I swear it." Rock promised and moved away. Rush jumped to his side, ever-faithful. "Roll, did you trace his teleport?"
"Just a moment longer..." Roll turned back to the computer screen. "Got it. Apparently, his strong point isn't originality... he's gone to where you just came from. The dark side of Earth's moon, where the white Energen Crystal mine is located."
"Right." Rock phased into his armor. "One last check... okay. I've got three E-Tanks, and seven Master Weapons... well, seven and a half if you count the Top Spin. I'm good to go."
"One more thing." Wily suddenly said, as if just realizing it now. "Rock, you said he nabbed my laptop once he saw what was on the screen?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, I have bad news." Wily shook his head. "That laptop held the data on the eight Robot Masters I built for the Second Robot Rebellion. Doc Man's an emulation robot, as you recall."
"You mean..." Rock drew in his breath. Wily nodded grimly.
"With that information and the changes he's gone through, it's very likely that he'll be able to copy them right down to their weaknesses. Be prepared."
"I will." Rock sighed. "I've fought them all before... there's no way I'm losing again. Doc Man... is going down." In a streak of blue and red, the hero and his dog were gone in pursuit of the madman who had butchered hundreds for failed attempts at the lives of two. Back to the dark side of the moon.
"What happened here..." Mega Man murmured grimly. On his first trip, the path ahead had been a beautiful plain of shining crystal, broken only occasionally by a pit. Now, though, the trail of Doc Man's passage was painfully evident. The crystal plain was pitted, shattered and broken in a destructive display of rage, and there were deadly pits filled with impaling shards everywhere. The one-eyed Nirons still patrolled overhead, but they had been modified; now, the flames they dropped burned blue-hot. As he journeyed across, Mega Man carefully blew them out of the sky while watching his feet for little robotic bugs that sped at him astonoshingly fast. Try how he might, a few of the Nirons hit him, and by the time he had made it across to the other side, he was down to 70 health. For a moment, he contemplated entering the complex the proper way this time; but then something caught his eye, and he turned to see a bright neon "THIS WAY" sign pointing down into the waterway entrance Break Man had shown him.
"How ostentatious." Mega sighed, jumping down and dodging a head-bombing Potton. "Looks like he wants me to come to him..." Back in the strangely glowing caverns, he continued on, but shortly found his path blocked rather familiarly. "More Pole eggs." He sighed, changing to the Needle Cannon. "Well, then, I suppose I'd better... wait. Something's not right here." Doc Man was insane, but he wasn't stupid. He never tried the exact same trick twice, as evidenced by up above. Frowining, he turned back to the Mega Buster and began clearing a path carefully. Before long, though, the trap was revealed; a hidden spikebed. If he had just charged ahead blasting like before... Mega shuddered, then smiled. Now that he knew about the trap, he could avoid it. Turning to the Needle Cannon, he cleared a path that left the bottom layer of eggs intact, then simply walked across them and took a ladder down.
"More? Sheez..." More eggs barred the path. He cleared them away, but there didn't seem to be any trap. At least, until he got to the end and found the wall too high to jump. Or so it seemed. "This is what dogs are for." He whistled for Rush and used his Coil to hurdle the wall. Another barricade of eggs later and he found himself facing the metal shutter that always heralded a Robot Master's lair.
"This wasn't here before." Mega Man growled. "He's in there." Calmly, he checked his energy meter. The Poles had dropped enough energy pellets to fill him back up, and except for the Needle Cannon (80) all his weapons were full. He entered.
"So you came..." Doc Man said, his back to Mega Man as he walked in. "For a moment I was afraid you wouldn't. And that would be a shame, wouldn't it?"
"Yes, it would." Mega growled. "Now, prepare yourself."
"Oh, so violent!" The madbot sneered. "Why are you so nasty all of a sudden? It's been so long since we've seen each other! We need to catch up! How's your father? Still keeping up? And your sister? As spunky as ever?"
"Dammit, stop acting like we're old friends!" Mega yelled. "We're enemies, you depraved lunatic!"
"YOU THINK I DON'T KNOW THAT!" Doc Man spun furiously. "After all I've done... all I've sacrificed simply to get at you... everything, all of it, was for YOU, Mega Man! The Rebellion, the deaths of the Froids, all of it! My hatred for you and Wily has filled my life for years, you little fool! And you think I don't know that we're enemies!" Doc Man would have been frothing at the mouth were he human. "Well, then, we shall fight! And you shall die, for while you fight alone, I am aided by the spirits of your past!" He raised his arms skyward in supplication. "Come forth, spirit of light! One who freezes all in time, that none can escape from, trapped for all eternity! Come forth... Flash Man!" Slowly, above Doc Man, a wavy discrepancy appeared, and formed into a grim-faced, blue-armored robot that was very familiar to Mega Man. Flash Man. It's only Doc Man's holograms, the blue robot had to remind himself. It's not really Flash Man's ghost. It's just another trick. Slowly, the hazy Flash Man descended and merged with Doc Man, who laughed insanely. "And now, revenge at last! DIE, MEGA MAN!" Howling, he charged forward. Diving to the side, Mega Man switched to the Hard Knuckle and fired. Laughing, Doc Man emitted a flash of light, and both Mega and the Knuckle froze. Doc Man contemptuously blew it away before attacking Mega, knocking him out of it. He tried the Magnet Missile, but it was just as ineffective. So much for resembling the form he takes... those explosions would've felled the original Flash Man. Maybe the Needle Cannon... it certainly helped me get here, and it's the fastest weapon I have! Tumbling away from an attempted stomping that surely would have proven fatal, the hero switched to the Needle Cannon and blasted out a salvo that completely engulfed Doc Man. Screaming, he froze time again and returned fire, but the moment a single shot hit Mega it snapped him out of it and he retaliated with far more damage in the needle barrages.
"You've discovered this form's weakness, but if you think you've beaten me you're sadly mistaken!" Doc Man froze Mega one more time, but this time instead of attacking he ran for the exit door, draining an E-Tank. "This round is yours, but the next will be your last!" Laughing insanely, he was gone.
"Might as well make the rounds..." Break Man sighed. Slowly, the red robot rose from his stasis capsule and walked out, into the halls of the dark, dismal fortress he called home. As he wandered, he found his thoughts meandering to the subject of Mega Man. "It's so strange... he's nothing at all like I was told..." Break Man mused. "He's a fighter, yes, but he's not merciless... and I could see it in his eyes... he did it all because he had to, not because he wanted to..." He frowned, not liking what that led to. "Could it be that I was not told the truth?" Break Man was not a trusting robot, but the possibility that everything he had been told about... well, everything... was a lie, an attempt to fool him into doing the wrong thing... well, that wasn't exactly a very welcome possibility. Far more plausible that his suspicions were just overanalyzing foolishness, and that his orders were correct. But whenever he went towards that line of thinking, Break Man always couldn't help but remember the blue robot's attitude towards him... wariness, yes, but alliance, comradeship... and even friendliness, at some times. Those emotions definately did not fit the glitching killer Break Man had been told Mega Man was.
"Did he really want to be friends with me...?" Break Man wondered. "Impossible. We're enemies; he always knew that..."
But did he care? A little voice asked. Break Man scowled. It was possible that the blue robot thought of him as a friend, even though they were enemies. And was that emotion so one-sided? Break Man HAD let Mega Man take the green and white energy crystals without a fight; he had even HELPED him get them.
"I must be malfunctioning." Break Man chuckled. But he finally had to admit to himself; he liked the blue robot. However, that threw all that he knew... all he had been told about the situation, about the... Robot Rebellion... into doubt. And doubt was very bad. Break Man was not a robot who liked dealing with uncertainty.
"Break Man. Robot designated second-in-command. What is your purpose here?" The complex mechanical system that guarded the Third Ring asked. With a slight jump of surprise, Break Man realized he had wandered all the way down there without even realizing it. Shaking his head to clear his mind, he ran through several responses in his mind before selecting one.
"Just passing through, HR-3." The red eye on the central part flickered.
"Acknowledged. There are no intruder reports as of now." Break Man waved nonchalantly as he turned.
"That's nice, HR-3. You carry on." The system's eye flickered again, and Break Man snickered as he left. Had HR-3 possessed the capability for emotion, it would probably be irritated. As he walked back to the control center, he continued pondering the Mega Man problem. However, as soon as he got in, the red robot noticed an incoming call on the phone. He immediately picked it up.
"Joe's Funeral Parlor!" He snickered.
"Cut that out." The voice on the other end of the line snapped. "This is important."
"I didn't know it was you!" Break Man complained. "It could have been some telemarketer or prankster calling a random number! Now then, what's so important?"
"All right..." Mega Man grumbled as he jumped a high wall with Rush's help. "Where'd the big psychopath go..." A small robot bug dropped from a hole in the ceiling. Mega blasted it and grabbed the small energy capsule it left behind, then glanced up to the hole. Another dropped, and he killed it as well, taking the Weapons Energy from it. "Convenient." A few minutes later he had completely refilled the energy and weapons losses from so far. A little bit onward led him back to the water. Once again, he took the Rush Marine. However, this time Break Man wasn't there to knock out the bombing Pottons overhead.
"I HATE those things!" Mega yelled after the third one exploded in his face. Eventually, though, the water shallowed enough for him to go on on foot. Hopping out of Rush, he slid under a barricade. Three more Pottons were waiting in an ambush, but he managed to dodge two of them. Destroying all three, he climbed up the ladder. Instead of seeing the Control Center, though, he found a long room filled with narrow ledges and tons more of those robotic bugs. Climbing up to the top level, he slowly made his way across, refilling his energy from the bugs on the way. The path led downward, to a small room with a spiked floor and thin ledges with, yep, more bugs.
"This guy's got bugs on the brain..." Mega muttered, blasting them and going down one more level... and back into the water. Another metal shutter was there. "Doc Man... and I bet I can guess who he's impersonating." He switched to the Spark Shock and walked in.
"There you are!" Doc Man greeted him. "I was afraid you had gotten lost!"
"No such luck." Mega Man told him. The villain began laughing.
"Luck! Oh, you little blue fool, I wanted you to come! You're the reason my life has been hell for the past years!"
"Shut it." Mega snapped. "I did what I had to do to save the world."
"Oh, so that's how you play it..." Doc Man said, suddenly grim. "The ends justify the means, eh? Save the world no matter what the price? If you followed that law you'd have killed my father! No, wait, he's human! But I'm not, no, I'm just a robot! And you couldn't even kill me properly! You should have known I would do this if I lived, yet you spared me out of cruelty because you thought I was too crippled to be any threat!"
"No..." Mega looked at him. "No. I spared you out of pity, not cruelty... I couldn't kill-"
"LIES!" Doc Man shrieked, his face distorted by the water. "Damnable lies now that you regret your act! You try to hide it, eh? Well, don't fool yourself! It was your cruelty that caused the Third Robot Rebellion, bastard! It's all YOUR fault! Now, I shall finally have my long-deserved vengeance!" He raised his arms skyward again. "Come forth, spirit of water! The all-encompassing flow, dragging our foe down, down, into dark watery death! Come forth... Bubble Man!" Once more, a wavering spirit appeared and sank down into Doc Man's body; a green and white scubasuit-clad robot with a snorkel. Bubble Man. Cackling, Doc Man fired off a pair of bouncing bubbles. Deceptively harmless-looking, yes, but Mega knew they were actually Bubble Lead, a miraculous substance that was nearly weightless in water but incredibly heavy on land. And that would do a great deal of damage to his systems if it got into them.
"Hope you remember your science, Doccy!" Mega taunted as he fired. "Remember, water conducts electricity!" The Spark Shots struck home. Howling, Doc Man jumped forward and shot off some harpoons. Mega jumped them, still firing Spark Shots. At the last moment, he suddenly remembered Bubble Man's trick, and looked up. "SHIT!" He fired a Shot up to propel himself downwards barely before impacting the spiked ceiling. "I see you really do go to any lengths to get your emulation correct, Doc!" He slid under Doc Man as he came back down and under the bouncing Bubble Lead. The insane robot just laughed and shot off two more bubbles. Mega stood his ground shooting more Spark Shots until they were close, then slid under. Unfortunately, Doc Man chose that moment to fire more harpoons, and they knocked him back into the Bubble Lead.
"Crap!" Mega cursed; with the gunk on him, he'd have a hard time jumping high. Which meant it was down to an endurance contest. Spark Shots and harpoons flew... and Doc Man screamed, falling back. Coughing up a blob of liquid, he cursed as he drained an E-Tank.
"DAMN you, you blue bastard! You beat me again, but the chase isn't over by any means! Catch me if you can, and meet your death!" Laughing again, he teleported away. Mega immediately tried tracing the trail, and quickly found an answer; he had gone to Las Vegas.
"Gotta follow him... but I need to get this Bubble Lead off me first." Having to clean up gave Doc Man a damnable lead, but there was no avoiding it; had he gone on land covered in Bubble Lead, the weight would crush him. Several minutes of cleaning later, he warped away as well in pursuit.
"Same old Las Vegas mine." Mega Man sighed. He was promptly bashed over the head by a falling robot. "Same old Peterchy." Wasting it, he climbed up the ladder, then smirked as he saw a robot bug climbing down towards him. "This looks like a good chance to try out my new weapon." His colors turned a wintery blue and white, and his arm cannon fired off a Gemini Beam. The laser rebounded off the narrow shaft many times on its way up, making a zigzag pattern. The bug didn't stand a chance; what's more, it dropped an energy capsule that replenished the loss from the Peterchy. "I think I like this thing." Mega murmured as he climbed out onto the next floor. "THIS is different..." The floor was once again filled with large spikepits, and round, quickly-turning wheels were the only way across. To make things worse, the electricity-shooting Elecns were still there. It would be highly dangerous to attempt that trek.
"Fortunately, I have other options." Mega realized with a smirk. "Rush!" The robotic canine jumped down and looked at his master before transforming into a jetboard. Mega jumped on and calmly flew across. On the other side, he dismissed Rush and climbed the ladder waiting there. The small room up above was a simple trap; a spiked floor and three spinning wheels forming a dangerous path to the hanging ladder. Mega shrugged. "Can't always rely on Rush." With three quick jumps, he grabbed onto the bottom rung of the ladder... and with a startled oath, fell. He barely managed to maneuver onto the last wheel again.
"Greasing the bottom rung... fighting dirty." The hero growled before jumping again, this time maneuvering for the next rung up. Fortunately, it was not greased as well. Clambering up, he found himself facing off against a Giant Springer. It fell to his buster before launching a single missile. Behind it was a narrow pipe that he could only slide through. Mega frowned. "I don't like this." Nevertheless, he slid through. And was immediately confronted by another Giant Springer. Before he could move, it launched its top portion forward and slammed him back against the wall. Angrily, he destroyed it, then slid through the next pipe. Steel shutters greeted him. "Doc Man. Well, here goes nothing..." He entered.
"Still following me, eh?" Doc Man snickered. "Good, good... it is exactly as I hoped! This chase will continue until one of us is dead! Your bloodthirsty desire for vengeance drives you on in your pursuit of me, just as mine forces me to wait for you each time... we are a pair of demons, feuding amonst ourselves, and mortals pay the price!"
"Shut up!" Mega yelled. "I'm not like you... I'm no demon! The deaths were your fault, not mine!"
"Still not ready to accept the truth..." Doc Man sighed. "Very well! Die in ignorance! Come forth, spirit of machinery! The unfightable, mechanical onslaught, grinding up inexorably anything in its path! Come forth... Metal Man!" The wavy distortion appeared once again, and formed into a robot of purple and orange, with a buzzsaw on his forehead. The hologram of Metal Man descended into Doc Man's body. The two opponents stood, glaring at each other, neither moving for several seconds.
"Well?" Doc Man growled. "Aren't you going to attack?"
"You forget, I fought all these Robot Masters before!" Mega informed his enemy. "I know all their quirks. With Metal Man, you can't move until I do!"
"Damn you!" Doc Man howled. The blue robot ignored him, deep in thought about which weapon to use.
If the circuit is complete, Metal Man's weakness was the Quick Boomerang. What's the closest thing I have to that? The Needle Cannon. Changing colors, he fired off a barrage... which did little damage. Laughing, Doc Man jumped up and began slinging an onslaught of Metal Blades at the hero.
"Fool! I never have the same weakness twice!"
Duh... should have known that, stupid. Mega mentally berated himself as he attempted to dodge as many of the Blades as possible. Avoiding them all was impossible; there were just too many. I need to take him out quick before he hurts me too much! Think, Mega. If old weaknesses don't work, use logic. What kills Metal... Mega slowly let his face shift into an evil grin. "Magnets." He turned on the Magnet Missile and began firing them off as fast as possible. The missiles were drawn to the Metal Blades as each emerged from Doc Man's arm cannon. Basically, explosions and metal shrapnel right in his face. After several detonations, Doc Man jumped back to the door behind him.
"Damn your hide! Come after me, if you dare!" Pulling out another E-Tank, he drained the canister and ran for it, firing one last salvo behind him as he went and laughing once again.
"Oh no, you don't...' Mega growled, dodging the Metal Blades and following in hot pursuit.
"We would like to offer all of you, each and every one, our profound thanks for your assistance on the Gamma project." Dr. Light was speaking to all the workers at the warehouse, with Dr. Wily standing next to him. "The final stage shall be completed by myself and Dr. Wily. Please, as you leave, collect your tickets to the ceremony in which Gamma shall be activated, free of charge!" A collective cheer arose from the workers as they made for the exit. Once all of them had left, Dr. Light locked the doors, then turned to his partner. "Well, let's get to work on that core!"
Several hours passed, as the doctors constructed the complex generator that relied partially upon the microfusion technology that ran the Robot Masters, but also integrated the new Energen Crystals.
"Right." Dr. Wily grunted, raising the protective goggles he was wearing. "This sector's ready for the red crystals. How are you coming along, Tom?"
"Almost done here." Light informed him over the noise generated by his acetylene welding torch. "I'll be ready for the green crystals in just a second, so bring them over as well, please."
"All right." The robotocist got up and walked over to the large safe that the Energen Crystals were kept in. Opening it, he removed the two desired packages, then closed the safe back up and brought them over before unwrapping them. "Amazing..." He sighed, looking at the glittering gems. "Such fragile beauty, yet it creates such destructive power..."
"But neccessary power." Light reminded his partner, shutting off the torch. "Gamma was constructed to be a peace-keeper, not a war-bringer. It will be for defensive purposes only."
"Yes..." Wily sighed. "I know what Gamma is for. It's just that the power it shall have... I can't help but wonder if we're going too far, crossing limits that man was never meant to break. Like nuclear weapons... Gamma will have just as much power as those bombs of armageddon, and more. Can such might really be trusted to the controls of any human being? Even ourselves? The risk is so great..." He sighed again. "But I know that Gamma will be built. And that it is needed... for stopping insane and evil robots. Like... like my wayward robotic son. Doc Man." He slumped forward. "He can't be blamed for what he is... I was the one who made him that way. In my insanity, I committed many crimes... but I think the worst was the poisoning of Doc Man's entire life. He never even had a chance for normal existence, Tom. He was doomed from the day he first opened his eyes."
"Hey, don't get depressed." Dr. Light clapped his friend on the back. "Doc Man is what he is, and that can't be changed now. You're no longer to blame for your insanity; it's gone, never to return again. You're cured. As for Doc Man... Rock's going to put him to rest, and he'll never again be a threat to anybody... including himself. Nothing more can be done for him. At least he shall no longer have to struggle through the agony of a cursed existence."
"I suppose you're right..." Dr. Wily nodded. "No use getting sunk in self-loathing now. What's done is done, and the past is the past. For now, Gamma is what we need to concentrate on. The UN's deadline is approaching fast... we've got to get this thing finished."
"That's the spirit!" Dr. Light chuckled. "Now, let's get these crystals installed!" The doctors took up their crystals and resumed their work in silence; the only witness, the silent, headless Gamma that filled nearly the entire warehouse and covered most of the rest in its shadow.
"A large energy capsule..." Mega grinned and grabbed it off the ground. "Excellent. That takes me back up to 75 health. Now, where'd he go..." He spotted a small pipe that had been broken when something too large had forced its way through. "Bingo." He slid through.
"FOOL! Enjoy your death, Mega Man!" Doc Man's voice came howling from below. Mega had emerged over a long fall, and the walls were back with spikes! Yelling, he frantically twisted and turned to avoid them. Down at the bottom of the shaft, Doc Man watched, giggling. There's no way he can avoid all of them... he's a goner. Wait, he's turning yellow and grey... WHAT THE-
"Let's hope it works..." Mega mumbled, and activated the Top Spin. Spinning madly, he spiraled quickly down the shaft without a single spike hitting him. Hissing, Doc Man ran down the hall. A few seconds later, Mega landed and switched back to his buster before following. "Get back here!"
"Too fast for you?" Doc Man cackled. "Well then, let me make your progress even slower!" A storm of Nuttons whizzed in from behind, attached to waiting Boltons, and moved in on Mega. By the time he had shot them all down, the evil robot had vanished ahead. Growling, he jumped past a few Electric Gabyools to the final section of the plant; the trash-cubing sector. Although some more pits had been added, all in all it wasn't much more of a challenge to bypass and enter Spark Man's old HQ.
"Caught up to me, eh?" Doc Man snickered. "Well, it's time for Round 4!"
"How many times will you do this?" Mega asked him. "You know you can't keep this up forever; those E-Tanks only restore your energy, they don't heal wounds..."
"I WILL battle forever!" The villain howled. "Until you are dust, I shall continue battling for all eternity! You cannot escape me, Mega Man! Sooner or later, I WILL triumph! Come forth, spirit of speed! Unseeable, undodgable, killing before the targets even know they're dead! Come forth... Quick Man!"
SHIT. Mega thought as the hologram of the slim red-and-yellow robot descended, smiling mockingly. Quick Man was bad enough even when I had the Time Stopper... why, oh why did I give that up? Aw man, here he comes! Doc Man launched himself across the room towards Mega at a blindingly fast speed. The blue robot slid under, but Doc Man jumped into the air, throwing several Quick Boomerangs. Too caught up with avoiding the insane robot's stomps, Mega was unable to dodge all of them, and took a few hits. Blast... he's too darned jumpy for me to get a good shot. What do I have that can strike an active opponent... the Gemini Beam! Grinning, he changed to the weapon.
"What's that?" Doc Man growled. "I've never observed you use that weapon..."
"Try and find out!" Mega shot out the laser, which rebounded around the room in a pattern that not even Doc Man with all his speed could dodge. Angrily, he threw out more Quick Boomerangs and tried to stomp his foe again, but Mega slid away from him and fired another Beam. The true danger is his weight... as long as I can avoid him, I've got a chance. That's not to say the Boomerangs were harmless; as a matter of fact, before long the situation had degenerated into a simple endurance contest. In the end, though, the Gemini Beams proved more powerful than the Quick Boomerangs, and Doc Man fell. Screaming curses, he drained a fourth E-Tank and shakily got to his feet.
"Y- You haven't won y-yet, M-Mega M-Man! See if you can catch me!" Once more, he was gone in a teleport. Mega sighed and looked at his energy meter. His eyes grew wide.
"Crap, I was down to 10! That was closer than I thought..." He pulled out an E-Tank of his own. "I only have one more of these left. But Doc Man's taken four... he's gotta be slowing by now. They'll fail him soon... and I can finally put an end to this." Discarding the empty E-Tank, he traced the teleport to the New Guinea mine, and teleported away in pursuit.
And the chase continued...
