Chapter 15: Third Skull's The Charm
"Polyphemus liked smashing things. It made a loud sound, and when he was done smashing, he had fun counting the pieces of his target. Dr. Wily had named him after the greatest of the cyclops because he was Dr. Wily's greatest creation. At least, that was what Dr. Wily had told him." Rockman, The Robot War by Maelgrim
In the past, two Skull Fortresses had been used as the headquarters for Dr. Wily's Robot Rebellions. The first, in the Himalayan Mountains, had been the greatest, the most powerful and nightmarish. From that stronghold, Dr. Wily commanded the six stolen Lighttech Robot Masters, seizing critical points the world over in an attempt to conquer the planet. And from there, Wily and his armies of robots had slaughtered hundreds of people in a bloodbath that still stained the mountains this day. The second Skull Fortress, while less horrible than the first, was still a terror. Built in the Swiss Alps, it was Wily's headquarters during the Second Robot Rebellion, in which Wily had struck back with eight Robot Masters of his own design.
"And now, the third..." Dr. Wily mused from the top of his castle, looking over the sand-swept desert of Death Valley. The first two had both been in the mountains, highly inaccessible, but the third Fortress was almost the opposite, in the flat, unrising desert. "I guess I just got tired of the scenery." The mad doctor snickered. The main body of Skull Fortress III contained the first two rings of defense, as well as all the power supplies in side tanks and towers. From the second ring, the looming tower of the third and fourth rings looped upward, offering only one way through, guarded by his robots. And at the top, a teleporter led to the top of the fortress where he stood now, with a single hidden elevator leading down into the underground lab where Gamma now rested. This Fortress had actually been built during the Second Robot Rebellion; lack of foresight was not a weakness of Wily's, and in both Rebellions he had made sure to have another fortress to fall back on. The only hard part was when he created a wonderful, deadly new Fortress Guardian; he hated having to choose between keeping it and seeing its bloody power right away, or storing it away in case of emergencies. Still, the Second Rebellion had given him Guardians to spare; he had used four different Guardians in that Fortress, and still kept the powerful KG-5, ME-MO and HR-3 for his Third Fortress. That was fortunate, as it turned out, with Gamma, he had had little time to work on such matters.
"Aside from my little surprise, that is..." Wily laughed. "Or maybe BIG surprise is better. Oh, to see the look on Mega Man's face when he sees who's come back for another fight." Together, those four Guardians had a very good chance of ending the little blue demon's life. Plus, just to be on the safe side, he had picked up one of each of Sennet's Robot Masters as well. And if even those failed, there was always his latest Wilymachine.
"This is it... this time, I can't lose!" The mad doctor gloated to himself. "For once, I don't even need to kill him... all I have to do is hold him off until Gamma is completed! And then... the planet shall tremble in my grasp!" Wily frowned; the only missing piece in his plan was that dratted red robot. Where had he gone, and what was he doing? He had done well, distracting and stalling Mega Man while his master had claimed Gamma, but as soon as he was repaired, he had disappeared.
"Perhaps his loyalty is not so certain..." Wily said slowly. "He assured me that his seeming friendship with Mega Man was simply subterfuge, setting him up for the final duel while still furthering my goals... but can I trust his word on that? He IS still a robot, like any other, and he has his own free will... like Mega Man, and Roll, and..." The mad doctor scowled. "Doc Man..." THAT had been the final nail in the coffin for Dr. Wily. His own son had turned against him, tried to murder HIM, his creator! Proof that no Robot Master could be allowed to exist. His own greatest creation had turned on him, and had been destroyed for his crimes. The fact that it was Mega Man who had killed the insane robot did not register on Wily's scarred brain; he simply saw it as divine evidence that Robot Masters were a threat to humanity, and needed to be eliminated. And the only way to do THAT... was to conquer the world, and rule it by dictatorship, since the fools who were in charge now could not see the threat. Images, words and sounds twisted and turned through Dr. Wily's mind. Yes, that had been the goal he had started with... but now, years later, his brain further warped by continued teleporter usage, those goals melted away like dust on the wind, and Wily only knew that he had to rule the world. It had been very difficult for him to pretend that he was his old self again; his old, foolish self, not seeing the dangers of robotics. But it had been neccessary. And thus, Wily had done it.
"What was I thinking about?" The old doctor frowned. "Oh yes, him... that red renegade, and his potential treachery... Well, no matter! If he betrays me, then he shall perish at Gamma's fists, just like all others who oppose me!"Wily laughed. He laughed and laughed and laughed, until all of Death Valley echoed with his peals of insane humor.
And in the darkest levels of the fortress, Gamma waited.
***
"Okay, Rock. You're all fixed up now." Dr. Light told his son as he and Dr. Corbun set down their tools. Nearby, Roll and Mr. X were finishing up getting Rush ready. In a corner of the lab, Vinkus was huddled, muttering to himself. Mega Man sat up, face stony; he hadn't spoken a word since coming upstairs.
"Internal Operations Energy... 100%." Dr. Corbun read off a scanner. "Magnet Missile Energy, 100%. Shadow Blade Energy, 100%. Spark... aw, hell with it; All Weapons Energy, 100%. You're good to go, Rock."
"Mega Man." The blue robot corrected him shortly. Dr. Corbun raised an eyebrow.
"Eh?"
"Rock is a pacifist, and Dr. Light's lab assistant. Mega Man is the hero who stops all the Robot Rebellions." Mega explained without looking at him. "I cannot be Rock now. I must be Mega Man." He glanced at Vinkus. "What's with him?"
"He wanted to look at Gamma's blueprints again." Dr. Light told him. "We probably shouldn't have let him, but we did. Ever since, he's been like that, saying 'We're all gonna die' over and over."
"Aah." Mega nodded. "Yeah, I figured he'd probably be something like that."
"And he might be right, you know." Roll looked up. "Before, Rock's attacks weren't completely neccessary; there were always drastic measures, even if he failed. If Rock loses on this run, though... if he dies... that's it. Wily wins. Game over. We really screwed up this time, dad."
"The girl's right." Corbun growled glumly. "I've taken a look at those designs too, and while my reaction wasn't quite as strong as Vinkus', it came close. If you built that thing exactly right..."
"We did." Dr. Light sadly assured him.
"Then no force on earth will be able to stop it once completed." Corbun lowered his head. "Lord, Tom... if Wily finishes Gamma, he can conquer the world in less than a year! That armor can take anything short of a nuclear explosion without a scratch, and with that teleporter, he can dodge any nuke! It's completely unstoppable! What were you THINKING?!" The british doctor raged suddenly, grabbing Dr. Light by the front of his labcoat. "What the hell were you thinking when you designed this thing? I'm all for robotics, but THIS kind of power... you've given mankind the ability to destroy the world once again, Tom." He sunk back in a chair. "You're the next Einstein... and you've created the next Atomic Bomb."
"I know..." Dr. Light looked for a moment as if he were actually going to cry. "It's my fault... I trusted him, and I thought we could stop the Rebellions with this... I see now that Gamma should never have existed in the first place. Evil fought with evil can never end in good... and I have unleashed an evil greater than the world has ever known. I am become death... the destroyer of worlds."
"Enough." Mega said icily. "It's not just you, dad. He fooled all of us. The whole time, ever since he was released, he was manipulating us. You never would have made Gamma on your own... he encouraged you on and steered your thought away from the negatives. And he spent the rest of his time trying to win Roll and me over..." The blue robot's fists shook with rage.
"Rush is at 100% energy... he's good to go." Mr. X announced. The red robotic dog hopped down from the table and ran to Mega's side, not barking or making any noise. He was affected by the dark mood as much as any of them. Even little Eddie stood quietly near the door, motionless.
'Then I'd better be off." Mega told his family and friends. "Wily won't be able to complete the head as fast as he would if dad was still helping him. That's our only advantage, but I'm still on tight time. Two hours at the fastest. If I don't stop him by then... there's a pretty good chance you'll all be living in Wilytropolis before the snow flies."
"So you'll stop him again..." Roll muttered. "Throw him back in jail?"
"I don't know."
"..." Everybody in the room stared at Mega Man after that pronouncement. Finally, Vinkus spoke, face completely white.
"What... did you say?' The politician whispered, disbelieving.
"I said I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" Roll asked him.
"I mean just that... I don't know." Mega refused to look at them. "All of it, sis. The whole thing was complete fakery. All that pretending to be sane again... the working for the benefit of society... the reconciliation with... his family... with us... it was fake. He was just using us to get his newest death machine built... even the Rebellion was just an annoyance to him. He was only cheering for me because I was bringing him those damned Energen Crystals." Mega was speaking through gritted teeth now. "My killing Doc Man was just removal of a rival to him. He didn't care how many people died, or how many WILL die at Gamma's hands. He's just a monster, a heartless beast, and he'll never change. He's forever damned, and we were the fools who trusted the devil. He's probably laughing his insane ass off right now thinking of how gullible we were."
"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."
"It was all faked..." Mega repeated, his eyes closed. "All of it... all fake... damn him..."
"But... then, won't he WANT you to come to him?" Mr. X asked hesitantly. "So he can... can..."
"Can kill me? Yes, I suppose that is what he wants." Mega clenched his fists. "He wanted me to survive the Rebellion... so that he could kill me with Gamma. And he's had that succeed so far. But I've taken down his Skull Fortresses twice before... this time will be no different."
"And what will you do once you've reached him?" Corbun pressed. "The First Law states you cannot harm a human being. And despite his madness, Wily is still be definition human."
"I know." Rock agreed. "I can't hurt him... but I HAVE to stop him. This can't go on. If we let him, he'll just keep going and going, killing and destroying endlessly. I have to stop that... no matter what..." He frowned in anger again. "And then I think I'll find Break Man and kick him off a cliff somewhere. That guy is REALLY irritating me, especially now that I'm pretty sure that stupid duel of his was meant to delay me. If he's a Wilybot, I'm going to strangle him with that stupid scarf of his. But for now... Wily comes first. I'm off... wish me luck. This time I WILL need it. I'll see you again soon, I hope..." He teleported away with Rush in streaks of blue and red, off to the final battle once more, with the foe he had thought was a friend and his father's greatest invention. Dr. Albert Wily... and Gamma, the ultimate fighting machine.
***
Death Valley was one of the most deadly deserts in the world. Aside from the intense heat at day and equally intense cold at night, there were sandstorms, scorpions, rattlesnakes, and many other dangers. However, none of those even came close to comparing to Death Valley's newest threat; the gigantic Skull Fortress III, fronted as always by the massive titanium skull shield. From about half a mile away, on a high dune, a red-and-grey robot stood gazing out at the fortress with his single eye, arms crossed and yellow scarf blowing in the wind.
Looks like the US Army hasn't had time to organize an attack yet; Break Man thought to himself. Which is a good thing; they'd just get themselves killed. The robotic armies in there are just too much, too strong... I should know. I helped with them. Like the last two times, numbers just simply can't topple this thing. No, it's all down to one... or two... robots. He heard the familiar sound of somebody teleporting in behind him, and whistled his tune.
"Break Man." Mega Man muttered as he walked over. For several moments, neither of them spoke; they just remained there, side-by-side, looking at Skull Fortress. "It's even more of an eyesore than the first two." Mega finally grunted. "Of course, it's also not way up high in the mountains, so I suppose he has to lose a few ostentation points there. What are you doing here, anyways?"
"What are YOU doing here?" Break Man countered. "Sightseeing? I really wouldn't recommend this as a vacation spot. The climate is horrible, and the staff... well, let's just say they're homicidal, shall we? Not a five-star resort by any means."
"Do you have to joke about everything?" The blue robot looked at his rival sourly.
"It keeps me from going crazy." Break Man sighed and pointed at Skull Fortress. "But enough joking. What are your plans concerning that?"
"I'm going to destroy that thing." Mega said firmly. "And then... I'll deal with Wily."
"You're going to charge in there, arm cannon blazing?" Break Man shook his head. "Won't work. Most of the Fortress's interior defenses are concentrated on the main path, and believe me, there's a LOT of them. Too many. Frankly, you'd be committing suicide. You'd never even make it through the First Ring."
"Well, what do YOU suggest, then?" Mega snapped. Break Man pointed to the ground on the right side of the Fortress.
"Over there. See those tanks and towers? They control the power for Skull Fortress, and they connect to the Second Ring of this fortress, up on the upper portion of that skull-surmounted main body. You remember how we got into Gemini Man's complex? The waterway. Well, you can do so again. There's an opening down there. The bad news is, Wily's a lot smarter then Gemini Man was. That waterway is always running, and going in there would get you swept away to some grinders he set up in the pipe. The only time it stops is for ten minutes every day, for cleaner robots to get rid of any large debris that fell in."
"So much for your plan." Mega growled. Break Man held up his index finger reprovingly.
"I didn't tell you the good news yet. The good news is I know the schedule for when it stops. And as a matter of fact, it's scheduled to stop exactly fifteen minutes from now. If you're there at that time, you can drop in there and work your way up the pipe instead of down it. If you're fast enough, you should be able to get into the Fortress itself within ten minutes, skipping the First Ring entirely."
"All right." Mega nodded. "I'll do it that way, then. Are you coming along?"
"Nope. I'll be going in the front way." Break Man told him. "The main attack is yours, but I can do a pretty good distraction. I'll raise hell in the First Ring and divert as much security as I can so you can get by easier, since you won't be setting foot in there." Mega frowned.
"But you said-"
"I said it'd be suicide for YOU." Break Man reminded him. "But I have certain... advantages that you don't. Just trust me, okay? I'm on your side, that last fight notwithstanding. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry about that. There wasn't anything I could do... and I had to see certain things for myself, with my own eye. That won't happen again, I assure you. I'm a good guy now."
"Whatever." Mega rolled his eyes. "I'll trust you, seeing as I don't have much choice and you are a pretty decent guy. But when we're done, I don't want you running off again. You're going to tell me everything; who you are, what you want, and all that. No more mysteries. I'd pin you to the ground until you blabbed right now if we didn't have more important things to worry about."
"Don't worry." Break Man assured him. "I told you I'd reveal everything when this was all over. And as you can see... it's not over yet. The waterway will be stopping in thirteen minutes now. Let's go." It took them five minutes to get to Skull Fortress. As they neared it, Mega saw the many robot guards around.
"Now what?"
"This is where I come in." Break Man explained. "They won't attack me. I'll go in there. You move around to as close to the right side as you can get without the guards seeing you, then watch the front door. As soon as you see it explode, start counting to sixty, and run towards the waterway opening once the guards around it are gone. As soon as you get to sixty, jump in; you won't have any time to waste." Break Man started to walk away, then stopped and turned. "One more thing. There WILL be some robots in there; Wily's paranoid, so he always has his cleaning robot accompanied by guards. Particularly, at the end where the water pipe connects to the Second Ring, he's set up a nasty new Fortress Guardian just in case. Be careful of it." He moved away again, then turned back. "One more thing." He hit Mega Man on the head with his index and middle finger. "That was for beating the crap out of me." He walked forward. Mega stared after him for a moment, then sighed.
"He never changes..." Muttering to himself, the blue robot walked around the patrolled perimeter until he was near the right side, and waited. A few minutes later, without any sort of warning, the front door was engulfed in a massive explosion. Almost all of the guards immediately moved towards it, and Mega ran towards the Fortress, climbing over the steel bunkers and easily destroying the few guards that remained. "Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen..." Reaching the fortress, he looked around for any kind of opening in the ground. None were visible. "Crap. Thirty-two, thirty-three..." A gleam of metal caught his eye, and he saw a corner of a metal plate that had been covered in sand. Brushing it off, he lifted the plate. "Forty-four, forty-five... eh?" Something else was buried in the sand. Digging it up, Mega discovered it was an E-Tank, which he quickly pocketed. "Fifty-eight, fifty-nine, sixty! Here goes nothing!" Closing his eyes, the hero jumped in, half expecting that he'd be a few seconds too early, and be caught in the tides. He heard the rushing of water, and felt himself slide into its wet embrace. Damn, this is it. I'm dead! His feet touched the floor. Huh? He opened his eyes to find himself standing in the pipe. The rushing water was behind him; he had missed it by seconds, and was standing under still water that had been left behind. "Geez, he's got good timing..."
***
"Greetings, Break Man. Robot designated as second-in-command. What is your purpose here?" The guard robot at the front asked mechanically. Break Man moved on without stopping.
"Mega Man is here. Be ready for attack."
"Undestood." The guard robot beeped. "Orders confirmed. We shall be on extra-sensitive watch, and patrol the front entrance."
"Good, good." The red robot entered the Skull Fortress and closed the door behind him, then turned to a computer screen. Once in the Fortress's systems, he commanded a squad of Walking Bombs to come down to the room. While waiting, he brought up the schedule for the waterway cleaning. "Ah, good. I was right." Counting in his head, he watched the squad come in, then switched his weapons to the Hard Knuckle and went into the next room, still counting. At three hundred, he fired a single shot back at the squad and ran like hell. The explosion rattled the entire fortress. Laughing silently, he moved over to a wall and pushed in a part of it, revealng a secret intercomm. Before using it, he judiciously tampered with the wires.
"Doc! It's me!"
"What's going on, B----?" Dr. Wily's startled answer was partially static, thanks to Break Man's modifications. "What wa----- explosion?"
"It's Mega Man! He's attacking! Wiped out the entire lobby!" Break Man responded, knowing the damage to the connection went both ways. He fiddled with the witing some more, smirking in spite of the situation.
"Me---an?! Damn! Gamm-------nished yet!" The Doctor yelled staticly. "And the con-----on's bad too!"
"You got that right! I can barely understand you!" Break Man smiled.
"Well, don't ju-----and there, do something! But don-----the guards off their posts! Use onl------es in the First Ri--!"
"Sorry, can't hear you!" Break Man responded, jiggling the wires some more. "Connection's getting worse! You just finish up on Gamma; I'll call down robots from the Second and Third Rings to help! We'll squish him GOOD, boss! Don't you worry one minute!"
"No, B----! Wait----!" The transmission died as Break Man ripped the wiring completely out of the wall. "There we go. Now, then." Accessing another computer, he began changing the patrol functions of the robot guards. "He'll be too busy trying to finish up that monstrosity to correct these... heh heh heh. He'll be absolutely infuriated, of course, but those 'technical difficulties' will make him think it was just a brainless accident on my part. He'll never suspect what I'm really up to. Let's just hope Mega Man's up to what robots remain..." He worked in silence for several minutes after that, until a good two thirds of the guards had all been commanded to come down to the main path through the First Ring. The patrols of the other third had been hardwired into them and couldn't be changed. Break Man nodded, pleased with himself, as he looked around the guard reports a little more. "That's the best I can do on diverting security... the rest will have to be dealt with the old-fashioned way. Hmm, wait, what's this?" He frowned, looking at more information as he scrolled down the screen. "A new Fortress Guardian for the Second Ring? Replacing that huge cannon, is he...? What is..." His eye widened. "Oh. Oooh. Oh crap. Oh CRAP. All right, change of plans. I've got to tell him about this..." He jumped out of his chair and took off down the halls of the Fortress.
***
"Rush!" Mega Man called his faithful dog, who teleported in and changed into Marine mode. Hopping into the seat, the hero took off through the water, blasting small penguin bombs in his way. A few minutes later, the pipe turned vertical, up out of the water. Patting Rush on the head, Mega jumped out of the water and climbed the waiting ladder up the waterway. After a few minutes, he noticed a section of the wall seemed to be different than the others; it was bright green, and seemed to be made of a much sturdier metal.
"This bears looking into." Switching to the Hard Knuckle, he fired off an explosive shot that destroyed the green section, revealing a hidden passageway. "I know I'm on a tight time limit... but I gotta check this out." The room seemed to have nothing in it at first; however, closer inspection showed Mega a second tough green wall above the way he had come in. Destroying it netted him another E-Tank, which he took before resuming his journey up the water pipe. At the end of the vertical section, the hero climbed up on top of the ladder and was promptly smashed in the chest by a heavy shotput, courtesy of the Hammer Joe on the other side of the bed of spikes nearby. Mega looked for a means of getting across, and saw some hanging platforms overhead with low passageways at their far ends. Jumping up, he slid through and landed right in front of the Hammer Joe.
"Hi." Mega snarled. The surprised robot's eye widened for a moment before he sliced it in half with his Shadow Blade and walked forward. Two more Hammer Joes were beyond the first, and they posed no problem. The fourth, however, was on top of a very high wall; too high for him to jump, and in a position that made hitting it with his arm cannon impossible from below. He could use Rush to get up, of course, but it would just knock him back down right away. "I need to take it out before getting up there..." Mega thought. "What weapon could do that?" His mind wandered back to the last duel with Break Man, and he smiled as he activated the Gemini Beam, firing it at a low wall that faced the Joe. The laser hit the wall and rebounded, going diagonally upward towards the foe. And over its head. Mega groaned. Then the laser hit the ceiling and changed again, hitting the wall behind the Joe, and turning straight into its back. Grinning, Mega jumped onto the wall with Rush's aid and continued up as the pipe went vertical again. He found a solid floor of spikes awaiting him. "Dammit." A familiar, hated hum preceded the arrival of the "disappearing blocks" that Wily had used every time, and that Doc Man had copied for use in the french Mine. This time, though, the formation was fairly easy, and Mega made it across with little difficulty. One more ladder up and he found himself facing a metal shutter. "The end of the water pipe..." A ledge above held a pair of large weapons energy capsules that he used to refill his Hard Knuckle and Gemini Beam. "There... now all I have to do is get rid of this Guardian and get out before..."
"Warning. One minute until waterway reactivates. All guard robots, exit waterway immediately." The alarm blared. Mega's face paled.
"Crud! One minute?! I gotta move!" Jumping off the ledge, he ran through the shutter to the familiar small hall before another shutter. As he ran across, though, he suddenly fell through a hole in the middle of the floor that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere. "ARGH!" The blue hero landed in an enclosed room full of water. The walls and floor were all covered with high-powered water jets. A hum from above drew his eyes to a robot that hovered over the water's surface. It was basically spherical with a single green eye. It hung from a thick wire that stretched across the room's top, and the bottom of the machine was a large hole with a pair of claws.
"Fortress Guardian KG-5 activating." The machine said mechanically.
"This must be that fortress guardian Break Man was talking about..." Mega glared. "Get out of my way!" The blue hero fired his arm cannon, and the plasma bullets just bounced off. "Damn... it's made out of plasma-deflective metals!" Search Snake's no good; won't be able to hit it easily. Same with the Hard Knuckle; it's slow enough already, and the water would make it like lead. Mega tried the Gemini Beam, but it was just as ineffective. As he changed to the Needle Cannon, something emerged from the hole in the bottom, coming through the claws. It was a mechanical sea turtle. Looks like it deploys those things to do its fighting for it... but I can't waste time fighting them! Unfortunately, the Needle Cannon was also ineffective against the machine. Cursing violently, Mega dodged the turtle's attempt to slam into him and turned to the Magnet Missile. However, instead of moving towards the machine, the missile shifted its course to hit the turtle.
"OY! Try again!" Mega yelled, firing another... which also went for the turtle. Talking to your missiles. I wonder if that's a sign of panic. Probably. He fired a third, and like the others, it hit the turtle, destroying it. As Mega gave up and switched his weapon to the Spark Shot, he noticed something; the machine at the top had violently lurched to the side, as if it had somehow been hurt. A moment later, it recovered and launched another turtle.
"Wait a second..." Mega realized. That thing hasn't displayed any sort of attack by itself... it's just launching those turtles. Doesn't seem intelligent, either... and there wouldn't be much room in there for anything except its buddies. On a hunch, he fired a Spark Shot. The electric blast froze the turtle, stunning it, and Mega was able to destroy it with his arm cannon. The dispenser lurched again, eye flashing. It's a decoy! The machine's not the Fortress Guardian... the turtles are! It's just for deploying them; that's why it's so thickly armored! The dispenser takes damage whenever they're destroyed, and when it runs out of turtles... boom. Mega grinned as a third emerged.
"I feel like turtle soup, suddenly... WHOA!" One of the water jets had suddenly sprung into action, launching him upwards and smack into the dispenser. The blue hero's head made a nasty thump as it smashed into the turtle maker. "Oog... I'll have to be careful." As he dropped, he evaded another jet from the side, and stunned the swimming turtle with a Spark Shock before wasting it. The machine began shaking violently as it put a fourth turtle into the water. As he prepared to deal with it in the same way, Mega was caught by surprise when a water jet hit him in the back, pushing him forward into the fast-moving turtle. The collision was equivalent to being hit by a motorcycle at 75 MPH. As Mega fell back, the turtle suddenly discarded its armored shell, revealing a skeletal frame. However, this also doubled its speed. Mega tried to peg it with a Spark Shot, but the turtle dodged easily and rammed him. Desperate, the hero switched to the only weapon left (aside from the Top Spin, which didn't really count). The Shadow Blade. He threw the ninja star, praying that it would hit... and the turtle swerved right into it. The thin, skeletal frame was no match for the deadly blade, and it fell apart in pieces. The dispenser machine groaned and sagged on its wire, and the green eye flickered.
"Phew... how much time do I have left?" Mega wondered.
"Warning. Ten seconds until waterway reopens." A speaker in the upper corner of the room announced. Mega turned white.
"Ten seconds... I'll never make it!" He looked up at the machine as a fifth turtle began to emerge. "How many are left? If this is the last one... but I'll only have time for one hit!" The Shadow Blade had destroyed the previous one instantly, but it had dropped its armor, and Mega couldn't wait for this one to do the same. If the Shadow Blade didn't fatally pierce the shell of the turtle robot... he was dead. The turtle emerged, and Mega sent off a prayer as he formed the Blade and threw. The ninja star whistled through the water, barely missing a water jet that could have been fatal, and impacted with the turtle. It did not emerge from the other side. Mega groaned.
With a horrendous creak, the two halves of the turtle parted; at the exact same time, the dispenser exploded, its remains falling off the wire into the water.
"YES!"
"Five seconds until waterway reopens."
"No..." Mega groaned again. He called in Rush and launched himself off the spring in the dog's back, bursting out of the water.
"Four..."
"Rush, get outta here!" Mega yelled as he grabbed the edge of the above pipe. Rush barked once and complied.
"Three..."
"Come on..." Mega hauled himself up and ran towards the metal shutter in front of him.
"Two..."
The shutter parted and Mega ran through. A ladder in front of him led up through a hole in the top of the pipe. He clambered up desperately.
"One..."
Mega reached the top of the ladder and launched himself out.
"Waterway reactivated." The rush of water from just below him blocked off all other sound. Mega shuddered; involuntarily, he suffered a mental image of a small, blue body being smashed to bits by the roaring tide.
"WAY too close..."
***
"Hey, Joe." Break Man called as he ran past a Sniper Joe, who was standing in the middle of a hall in the First Ring. "How ya doing?' The robot didn't respond. "Okay. See ya!" The red robot continued down the hall, greeting each of the silent guards as he ran by. "Hey, Harry. Nice haircut. B.K., my man! I like the new paint job! Wazzup, Pete? Keep an eye out for intruders, you hear?" Break Man snickered, thinking of what Mega Man would say if he saw this.
"Why are you talking to low-intelligence automations? They can't talk back; all you're doing is confusing them and wasting time!"
"That blue boy's too serious." Break Man told himself as he continued on. "Doesn't he know how to have fun with his work? I'll admit his profession isn't the most entertaining, but still. That's no reason to be all gloom and doom. Oops, I'd better shut up before some security thing hears me..." He paused outside a metal shutter. "Ah, the end of the First Ring... I wonder if-"
"Waterway reactivated." The message was announced on every speaker in the Fortress. Break Man nodded.
"Well, that's that then... either he's in the Second Ring, or he's dead. Until I know which, though, I'd better keep moving..." He entered the battle chamber, where the giant Fortress Guardian rested, waiting for an intruder; a huge, purple moth robot. Break Man waved to it as he passed.
"Hey, Mothman. How's it hanging?" He began to walk away without waiting for a response.
"YOU ABSOLUTE, TOTAL IMBECILE!!!" The Guardian shrieked.
"YAAAAAAHH!!!" Break Man jumped as if he had been bitten on the rear. As he landed, he turned to stare at the supposedly incapable-of-speech Guardian. "What the HELL?!"
"MEGA MAN NEVER CAME THROUGH THE FIRST RING, DOLT!" The Guardian raged. "HE SNUCK IN THROUGH THE WATERWAY!" Break Man blinked in sudden comprehension.
"Doc? Is that you?"
"Of course it's me!" The speaker on the moth snapped. "Who else would it be?!"
"Doc Man, James Walken, Darwin Vinkus, Elvis..."
"Shut up!" Wily yelled. "Somehow, Mega got into the waterway during the cleaning stoppage! How did he know when to do it?!" Break Man thought fast.
"That explosion at the front was just a ruse... or was it?" He said slowly. "It was intended to make us think he would be coming through the First Ring... but... hold on a moment." He moved over to a wall and pressed the panel that revealed the hidden access computer.
"What are you doing?" Wily asked impatiently as the red robot opened up Skull Fortress's systems.
"Checking a hunch... AHA!" Break Man jumped up. "The system was hacked into just a few minutes before the cleaning stoppage! Mega Man must have sneaked in and hacked the system to discover the time, then set that explosion!"
"Damn!" Wily cursed. "We've underestimated him again!"
"The waterway's reactivated now, though." Break Man reassured the doctor. "He might have been still down there... did he make it out?"
"Hold on, I'll check..." The moth was silent for a moment before erupting angrily again. "Yes, he did! He crawled out less than a second before it turned back on! Just a second more, and he would have finally been gone! Argh!"
"Well, he's still got the Second, Third and Fourth Rings to get through, Doc." Break Man reminded him.
"The Rings that you redirected most of the security from to the First Ring, you mean?" Dr. Wily said scathingly. "The First Ring, which he never even came through? FOOL!" Break Man hung his head.
"Aw, crap... I'm sorry, Doc. I screwed up big time."
"Obviously."
"It ain't over yet, though..." Break Man looked back up. "I can still catch him. And when I do, I'll make him wish he'd never been created."
"And how, may I ask, do you plan to do that?" Wily said, sounding amused. "He's beaten you every time you've fought before! What makes you think it'll be any different this time?"
"Superior tactics, Doc." Break Man smiled confidently. "You forget, there's somebody else wanting to fight him in the Second Ring. Your little surprise returning fighter. I won't attack Mega head on... I'll wait until he goes up against Big P, then ambush him. Both of us have lost to Mega before, but together? That blue twerp won't stand a chance."
"You have a point..." Wily admitted grudgingly. "Very well. Carry out your plan. And whatever you do, do not allow him to get past! Gamma is our top priority!"
"All right." Break Man nodded. "Speaking of which, how close are you to being done?"
"It's almost ready; most of the head's completed. It should only be half an hour to forty-five minutes or so. If you can't kill him, at least keep him away until then!"
"Gotcha." Break Man saulted. "I won't let you down!" The moth didn't respond; Dr. Wily had returned to his work. Break Man turned his back on it and ran on into the Second Ring.
Half a hour to forty-five minutes... that's not good. And neither is Big P... I've got to catch up to Mega Man before he gets to the end of the Ring.
***
"Freakin' breakin' platforms..." Mega Man muttered as he climbed a ladder up a vertical shaft in the Second Ring of Skull Fortress. He had just spent a few minutes being entertained by a series of platforms that broke in two the moment he stepped on them, then rejoined as soon as they had dumped him off. Eventually, though, he had made it and climbed upward, picking up a couple large Weapons Energy pods that refueled his Shadow Blade and Magnet Missile. Coming to the top of the ladder, the blue hero climbed up to find the only way forward was a low passageway that he would have to slide into. He shrugged and did so, realizing too late that the tunnel was floored with the beartrap-like Wanaans he had dodged in Chile. Fortunately, he was too fast, and emerged on the other side without a bite. Unfortunately, what lay ahead of him promised that that wouldn't last.
"Shit..." Mega muttered. If he had had any lingering doubts about Wily's sanity, they were banished; the path ahead of him could only be produced by an insane mind. The floor of the hall was covered in spikes; the only way across was leapfrogging across Wanaan grates. And to add the final touch of lunacy, giant hive-bomber Have Sue Bees were also flying around, waiting to drop their cargo of Chibee drones. Mega looked for another way across. There were none, not even the Rush Jet; too close-quartered to maneuver well. With a reluctant sigh, Mega changed his weapon to the Needle Cannon.
"Well, if he's going to make this so much like Hard Man's mine... I might as well use Hard Man's style of fighting! YAAAAA!" Bellowing, Mega charged forward, blowing a Have Sue Bee out of the sky before it even saw him. Landing on a Wanaan, the hero jumped forward onto another instantly, and then to another. A Have Sue Bee dropped its hive, releasing five Chibees; Mega destroyed them all with a salvo in midjump, then killed the bomber. The slight distraction caused him to stumble a bit and remain on the next Wanaan longer than he should; as the jaws came up, though, Mega pointed the Needle Cannon downward and fired between the grating, obliterating the trap. Not even pausing for a moment, he jumped forward across a pair of Wanaans straight at another Have Sue Bee, which he stomped and leaped onto good land at last. As an afterthought, he turned and killed the Chibee payload from his stepping-stone. It was only several silent moments later that he realized what he had just done.
"...That was kinda fun, actually." Mega admitted as he picked up a large weapons energy pod to refill the Needle Cannon. "There's a kind of direct charm to just charging ahead full blast, isn't there... I'd better not tell Break Man, though. That kind of Rambo approach goes against everything he stands for. Now, what's next... oh." The final stretch of the second ring was straight spikes; no way across whatsoever. Mega just smiled; it was also wide open, with very little in the way. "In the last two Rebellions, this would have defeated me... but I didn't have Rush then." The loyal dog teleported in and went into jet mode. Mega hopped on his back and they took off. There were more Have Sue Bees, of course, but they were no match for Mega's arm cannon and Rush's maneuvering. They even managed to pick up two E-Tanks. Before long, they reached the far side, where another metal shutter was waiting for them. Mega dismissed Rush, then walked in.
"Huh..." The dark, square room was completely empty. There was nothing in there except the door to the Third Ring, on the far side. "This is wierd. But... have I seen it before?" He suddenly realized what was happening in a flash, and dove to the side just in time to save his life. A stone cube as big as his head whistled by, missing his cranium by mere inches. It was not alone, though; immediately after it, more followed, departing from where they were wedged up against the wall Mega had come in through. The blue robot jumped, slid and dodged.
"No way... no way..." He muttered. "This is impossible..." As the last block slid into place, Mega turned and faced what they had become; a fifteen-foot high yellow giant, composed of metal and stone. Its single, prominent eye glared at the hero. "I destroyed you!"
"...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."
"Wily..." Mega growled in comprehension. "Another one of your tricks! That wasn't a UN excavation... you did it to get THIS!" Polyphemus, the Yellow Devil, just blinked, releasing a plasma bullet. Mega jumped and responded in kind, nailing his foe right in the eye, which he knew was its sole weak point. The rest was completely unattackable; he had to hit its core. After several moments of trading shots, the Yellow Devil groaned and shifted back into the blocks of stone before flying across the room again in the familiar old pattern. Mega dodged most of them; however, near the end, he slid under a block and rose again just before another smashed him in the chest, knocking the hero back down. Mega jumped back to his feet just as the cyclops resumed its plasma assault, and switched his weapons.
"Let's see if you still have your old weakness!" The orange-and-white robot yelled as he fired a Spark Shot at his foe. The first time they had fought, Mega's Elec Beam had spelled the Yellow Devil's downfall. Now, the Spark Shot flew straight and true... and dissipated harmlessly against the giant's eye. Mega cursed; apparently, Wily had made sure it was insulated this time. Returning to his arm cannon, Mega was able to get only one shot in before the Yellow Devil dissolved once more. This time, though, it took Mega by surprise; instead of using the same attack, the blocks formed into long strings that bounced towards him like rubber balls. The startled hero slid under the first and second, but the third string caught him, smashing into his back multiple times. Screaming, he rolled to the side and avoided the last two lines. The giant reformed again nearby, and Mega remembered with horror why he had to stay away from it. He flung himself forward as the Yellow Devil's massive fists smashed into the ground where Mega had been a moment before.
"Have to keep out of range..." The hero reminded himself. Then he screamed as several plasma bullets slammed into his back. Draining an E-Tank, Mega got up, then looked at the door in surprise as it opened, and he heard a familiar whistle.
"Mega Man!" Break Man sneered. "This time you're dead! You can't beat both of us!"
"WHAT?" Mega Man yelled.
"Play along." The red robot whispered. "Wily's watching us, so we gotta pretend to be fighting. I can't blow my cover. Whoops, incoming!" Mega whirled around; while he had been talking, the Yellow Devil had split apart again. Now, it came at him in a third pattern; the blocks started whirling around the room in a chaotic vortex. "Mwa ha ha! You can't dodge this, Mega Man! Prepare to die!"
"I don't think so..." Mega Man smiled as he turned to his rival. Break Man frowned.
"What are you-"His words broke off in a grunt as Mega tackled his legs, sending the red robot falling on top of the hero. A moment later, the swarm of blocks moved over them; the large shield on Break Man's back defended them both. As the Yellow Devil reformed, Mega threw Break Man off and stood back up.
"Nice one..." The red robot muttered, also rising as he turned dark blue and grey. "You think you're funny, pitting us against each other? Have a knuckle sandwich!" Break Man fired a Hard Knuckle straight at Mega's head. He dodged, and the explosive continued on... straight into the Yellow Devil's eye. The concussion cracked the stone around it, and the monster screamed. Mega smiled.
"So that's its weakness..."
"D'GOH!" Break Man yelled loudly. Mega snickered and changed to the Hard Knuckle himself, firing several at his giant foe's eye. Desperate, the Yellow Devil tried bouncing across the room again, but Mega simply jumped off the startled Break Man's head to clear them. Break Man himself just stood still; the path of the bouncing took the stones over him when the giant reformed, Mega was ready with more Hard Knuckles. The Yellow Devil screamed again, chunks of rock being blown off. The giant fragmented again, and at first it looked like he was launching into his oldest attack pattern. Mega jumped, slid and dodged... and heard Break Man laugh. He began to turn, and a rock smashed him in the side. They weren't forming on the other side; they were arcing back around like boomerangs! Another chunk flew at Mega's head, and the blue robot ducked to avoid it before throwing himself to the side out of another's path. When the last rock reattached, the eye opened again... to behold its last sight. Mega Man, firing one last Hard Knuckle straight into the crystal eye, point-blank. The Yellow Devil's scream of pain died down into a low sigh as the eye exploded and the monster slid apart into pieces of rock.
"Now, for the other one of the cyclops brothers!" Mega quipped as he turned to Break Man, who choked.
"What?"
"I said..."
"Yeah. Just, nevermind. YARGH!" Without warning, the red robot tackled Mega, knocking him to the floor. They rolled around for several minutes, beating each other with their fists.
"Listen." Break Man whispered. "In a moment, I'm going to jump up. When I do, I want you to fire at my head. Don't ask questions, just do it! Understand?"
"Yeah..." Mega muttered.
"Good." The red robot leaped away, and Mega rose. The moment Break Man landed, Mega shot a Hard Knuckle at his opponent's head. Break Man dodged as easily as Mega had avoided the first one to hit the Yellow Devil. The projectile smashed into the far wall... and there was an electrical explosion, leaving a smoking hole with wiring protruding.
"Holographically cloaked security camera." Break Man explained, dusting himself off. "We can talk freely now; with both it and Big P out, Wily's got no way to know what goes on in this room." His face turned serious. "You don't have much time left, buddy. Wily's going to finish that thing in half an hour, tops."
"Crap." Mega Man agreed. "How much further do I have to go?"
"Two rings. Although the fourth one's mainly just a gauntlet of Sennet Robot Masters."
"I know the routine." Mega said grimly. "After that?"
"After that, you go to the roof. Wily's got a big war machine up there to pilot in a last-ditch effort in case he hasn't got Gamma ready. If you get out there and don't find him waiting for you, then you'll probably just want to jump off or something."
"Gotcha." Mega nodded. "What will you do?"
"I've still got to play Wily's flunky." Break Man reminded him. "Here's how we'll do it. You go ahead, and I'll wait here for ten minutes before following. When Wily asks what happened, I'll tell him you managed to trap me under Big P's remains and ran off."
"Sounds good to me." Mega nodded. "I'll be off."
"Very well. Good luck." As the blue robot turned to leave, hs rival clasped his shoulder. "And Rock..."
"Yes?" Mega looked at him.
"Whatever you do... don't die." Mega grinned.
"Don't worry. I'm not done kicking you around yet."
***
"..." Roll glanced at the clock for what seemed like the billionth time since Rock had left. It had been an hour and a half ago. The female robot forced her eyes away from it and instead began looking at all the others who were sitting around. They were all still in the Light household, downstairs. Mr. X and Dr. Corbun were sitting at the table, playing cards; nearby, Dr. Light as mixing his guests up some iced tea. Vinkus was sitting in an armchair in front of the television, flipping through channels with a glazed, brain-dead look on his face; he had gone into that state right after Rock had left, and refused to come out.
"Is it always like this?" Dr. Corbun asked suddenly. Roll jumped.
"What?"
"Whenever he goes off to a Skull Fortress." The british doctor explained. "Does this happen every time? This depressing gloom?"
"It did both times in the past." Roll sighed. "It just seems to fall on you... a melancholy gloom that we can't shake. I don't really know why it happens, but it does."
"It's really not that hard to understand, Roll." Dr. Light said as he turned away from the counter with a glass in each hand. "We know that out there, Rock is risking his life in the final battle; not against some Robot Master, but against a very intelligent yet insane human. Albert. These are the most dangerous, most deadly moments of the Rebellions... and we sit here, unable to do anything at all except wait." He gave the drinks to Mr. X and Dr. Corbun, then returned for the other two. "We can't do anything at all, can't help him in the least, while he's saving the whole world. We're useless. If that's not depressing, I don't know what is. I suspect the only reason we didn't fall under it while he was battling Doc Man was because we had Gamma to work on, to distract us. And now Gamma has become the greatest threat of all the Rebellions." He offered a glass to Vinkus, who took it without changing expression, and took a sip of his own. "Heck, I'd be scared if we weren't depressed."
"So that's it, then?" Dr. Corbun growled. "We just sit around and mope and feel sorry for ourselves, and Rock's nearly getting killed, and we can't do squat about it?"
"That's the gist of it." Roll nodded.
"Damn it, Roll, there's got to be something!" Corbun jumped to his feet angrily. "We CAN'T just sit around here and do nothing!"
"Then what would you suggest we do?" Roll snapped, her own temper starting to rise. "Send in forces? They'd get slaughtered. Bombings? It's too well-protected, and we'd stand a chance of hitting Rock too. Plus, Gamma's probably deep underground. A nuclear strike? Not only would it kill Rock, it'd take too long to set up. Wily and Gamma would be gone by then. Face it, Doc. We're not needed any more." Dr. Corbun sank back into his chair resignedly.
"...Yes, I suppose you're right. It's just... damn it all, Roll..."
"Yeah, I know." She smiled, looking tired. "The only thing that keeps me from getting just as angry as you is experience. It doesn't get any easier, but it's familiar, at least."
"Let us pray that myself and Trent do not become familiar with the feeling." Mr. X said as he showed his cards. "Four aces." Corbun cursed and paid up.
"Oh, I think we can be pretty confident that you won't." Roll muttered. "If Rock wins, they're never letting Wily out of jail again; this was his last chance. If Rock loses, we'll all be dead pretty soon. Either way, you won't go through 'Skull Fortress Depression' again."
"That's a nice, optimistic way of looking at it." Dr. Corbun commented as he shuffled the deck. Roll shrugged.
"It keeps me from being too disappointed if things don't turn out well."
"It also makes you a very grumpy person to live with." Dr. Light chimed in.
"You stay out of this."
"How exactly did you acquire a pessimistic outlook?" Mr. X asked curiously. "It's not the sort of thing I'd expect from a robot."
"Blame it on my gender." Roll said flippantly. "Actually, I probably got it from Wily before he went nuts. Rock tended to take after dad more, though. The other six had their personalities predesigned." She frowned in thought and turned to Dr. Light. "What about Blues?"
"Blues?" Dr. Light blinked. "Blues... wasn't really an optimist or a cynic. He was a realist, I guess is the best way to put it. He tried to see things exactly as they were without attaching opinions to them... of course, I can't be sure about that since he never really talked that much."
"Bit of a loner, eh?" Corbun asked. "Well, some people are like that... it stands to reason that some robots would be too."
"And then there was Doc Man..." Dr. Light shook his head. "I don't think he really counts, though. In his insanity, he didn't really have any sense of the future or possibilities outside of what he felt was his righteous revenge... he just saw it happening, with no chance about it."
"That's not a good way of thinking." Mr. X said disapprovingly.
"Wait, hold on." Roll frowned. "If that was true, he wouldn't have any sort of backup plan. He wouldn't be able to conceive the need for one, that his schemes would fail. Quite obviously, he DID." Dr. Corbun nodded.
"She's got a point."
"I suppose you're right." Dr Light thought for a moment. "Maybe a more accurate assessment would be that he used complete logic... or what he saw as logic, anyways... in his thinking. He made back-up plans in case he failed. That way, if his trap worked, then he won, but if it didn't, he had another. Accepting both possibilities."
"That sounds about right, yes." Mr. X agreed.
"Are you sure you're not giving him too much credit?" Roll frowned. "He was insane, remember... could he really think that clearly?"
"Oh, yes." Dr. Corbun growled. "Don't forget, he hijacked every Robot Master we had at Sennet. He was insane, but he was still very intelligent, and very dangerous. He probably got that from Wily... remember, he spent his early life as that madman's second-in-command at the first Skull Fortress. Not exactly an ideal childhood."
"Yeah, that's gotta be it." The female robot nodded. Suddenly, Vinkus made a sort of choking noise. "Huh? What is it?"
"Look..." The politician croaked, pointing at the television. The others immediately ran over and looked. Mr. X went white. Dr. Corbun groaned dismally. Dr. Light covered his face. Roll gasped and sat down on a couch. None of them moved their vision away from the television screen. On it was horribly familiar symbol. A giant W over a white ring, with the "Dr." in the upper-left corner.
The emblem of Dr. Wily.
***
"Up the tower I go..." Mega muttered as he got off the ladder that had been right outside the Yellow Devil's room. He was standing underneath a protruding ledge; above, he heard something firing plasma shots. Judging by the rate of fire, it was a New Shotman. Mega looked upward and calculated a few angles, then fired a Gemini Beam. The laser bounced off the wall and up, straight into the annoying guard, which was fried on the spot. With a little help from Rush, Mega got onto the ledge and slid through a pipe to another ladder. While climbing, he discovered another set of explodable walls, each yielding large weapons energy pods. At the top of the climb, he found an even greater prize; another E-Tank. After that, however, things took a definite turn for the worse. Apparently, not satisfied with mimicing Hard Man's defenses, Wily had brought in the hologram machines and Walking Bombs from Mt. Vesuvius.
"Too bad for him, my Magnet Missiles work as well as ever." Mega chuckled as he blew away a Hologran. At the end of the hall, a large pit awaited. Without a moment of hesitation, Mega jumped in. It was only as he was falling that he realized the stupidity of that action. Fortunately, there wasn't a bed of spikes waiting for him; just a Hammer Joe halfway down that he simply avoided, and a grumpy-looking giant Bikki stomper, sporting Break Man's paint job like all its brethren. "That guy needs to get a life..." Mega muttered as he destroyed it, slid through the pipe behind it... and met the business end of another. Swearing, Mega blew it to shreds with some Hard Knuckles, but the damage was done, and he was forced to use another E-Tank. Needless to say, he was in a thoroughly foul mood as he climbed up the ladder that went further skyward. Which explains why his reaction upon seeing the next room caused him to use words that his father would have severely frowned upon. To describe the room as an alley of hell wouldn't be too far off. Spikes on the floor. Spikes on the walls. And the only way up were several chained-together platforms that emerged from one wall, flew across the room, then entered the opposite.
"OY..." Mega slapped his face. The platforms were moving too fast for him to use Rush; he'd easily be knocked off to his death. "Looks like I'm just gonna have to tough it out..." Still muttering cuss words under his breath, the hero jumped onto the first chain, then leaped onto the second. He left it right before it disappeared into the spiked wall and landed on a platform of the topmost chain just as it was emerging. From there, he climbed the ladder.. into another, nearly identical room. Mega managed it in the same way, and finally emerged in front of a metal shutter.
"Another Fortress Guardian..." Mega muttered. "First Doc Man returns, then the Yellow Devil... if those friggin' Bubble Machines are in there, I'm gonna burst a circuit." He walked in. It was a three-story room; in the center of each floor was a teleporter. "I have a bad feeling about this..." Then, the Fortress Guardian appeared. It wasn't the Bubble Machines. It was worse. On each teleporter... appeared a Mega Man. All three glared down at the real hero; their eyes were blank and lifeless. Mega stumbled back. "Oh, lord... you're gonna pay for this, Wily." The copies didn't respond for a moment; then, as one, they lifted their arm cannons and fired. Snarling, Mega jumped to the side and returned fire at the lowest... and his bullets went right through it. "More holograms... but how is it firing then? Figure it out later..." He tried hitting another, with no greater effect. However, their shots did not do the same thing. Cursing, he shot the last one, and his shot finally affected it, making the imposter stumble back. "Yes! I'll just go after... D'OH!" They had teleported, changing position, then fired again. He dodged two of the shots, but the third hit his arm. "My buster won't cut it... maybe a seeking weapon." He turned to the Magnet Missile. That proved to be completely ineffective; the projectiles seemed not able to tell the difference between the real target and the holograms, and in the process he took several more hits. He angrily used an E-Tank, then whipped out the Search Snakes.
"Let's see if you guys are as good at search-and-destroy as you're supposed to!" The hero yelled, flinging one at each of the enemies. Two just went through, but the third Snake latched onto something inside its target. "AHA!" Mega triumphantly released a swarm of snakes upon his now-located foe. Beeping frantically, it teleported with its holograms, but Mega simply found the vulnerable one again the same way and continued the barrage. Finally, with one last bleep, all three enemy Mega Men shimmered and disappeared, revealing a floating weapons pod and two tiny hovering guns.
"The weapons pod was controlling the remote guns..." Mega realized. "Without computers in themselves, they could be made small enough that my shots all missed, and armored heavily." He shrugged. "But it's all just scrap now... on to the Fourth Ring." The blue hero climbed through the hatch in the ceiling, praying that he wouldn't be too late.
And in the darkest levels of the Fortress, Gamma slept.
