Chapter 5: Bones Away

"All right, you idiots. Listen up, and listen good, or I'll disembowel you myself. Weapons come in many forms. This plasma cannon of mine is a physical one. I far prefer a more subtle weapon... terror. Fear. It lurks in the hearts of all men and robots, and when somebody like me gains control of it, it becomes a far more effective weapon than any physical attack." -Advanced Robot Master Doc Man, addressing his generals during the Third Robot Rebellion

"Ah, the start of a new day." Skull Man mused to himself as he sat on the roof of his new castle in Transylvania, watching the sunrise. "The calm, peaceful darkness of night fades away to be replaced by the hectic, noisy day. I despise it. So inefficient... such foolish creatures these humans are." He sighed and jumped off the roof onto a balcony. "All good things, must pass, I guess... at least that is what my experience tells me. Back to the mission, as the humans awaken..." The Robot Master walked into the castle, smiling despite himself at the decor. Floors, walls and ceiling were all carved to resemble white bone; the previous owner of the castle, centuries ago, had had excellent taste. Entering his control chamber, Skull Man sat down at the large computer and pressed a button.

"Yes, master?" A gaunt form approached him from behind almost instantly. "12-KIL #013 reporting."

"Let's see... what should I schedule to terrorize the humans down there today..." Skull Man thought about it. "Start things off by dumping some boiling tar over the sides of the castle... the west side, I think. Don't want to be downwind of it, and there shouldn't be any humans near that side. Keep that going for a couple hours... then you 12-KILs go out and mingle with the populace. Wear cloaks so they don't know what you are until the last moment. How's our stock of ancient human bones?"

"Still plenty left in the dungeon, master."

"Good. At noon, I want a full catapult load of them launched into that little town to the south. Have the Batontons and Iworms released out into the countryside again, with instructions to lurk in the trees and caves. Ambush unsuspecting humans... heh heh heh." He paused in further thought. "That should do it for all the daylight hours... when night falls again, then we can really get going. Until then, though, you know what to do." The underling robot saluted.

"Yes, master! It shall be done!" It disappeared back into the shadows, and Skull Man leaned back in his chair. He far preferred the approach he was taking to the humans around here over that of his brother Robot Masters. Instead of keeping them hostage, imprisoned in the castle, Skull Man and his robots simply made sure the people were kept in as much a state of constant fear as possible. Far more efficient that way; none of the muss and fuss that would have been involved with taking care of the humans inside the castle. Behind the metal skullmask that covered his face, Skull Man raised an eyebrow as he saw a communication coming in for him.

"Checking source... hm... it's probably Dr. Cossack. Yes, that's it alright... I wonder what he wants. Hopefully it's not a change in orders... my current ones are working fine. Oh well, if it is, it is." He accepted the link and saluted. "Greetings, doctor. May I inquire as to the meaning of this call?"

"Dust Man is dead, Skull Man." Dr. Cossack replied sharply. The Russian Doctor was looking a bit shaken; his glasses were askew and his lab coat rumpled. Obviously, he was not a happy man at this moment. Skull Man frowned imperceptibly.

"Hmph... well, forgive me for saying this, doctor, but this is not a complete surprise. Dust Man was not the strongest warrior among us by a long shot. Mega Man, on the other hand, is known to be very powerful-"

"It's more than that, Skull Man." Cossack interrupted his creation. "Mega Man didn't just defeat Dust Man. He FLATTENED him. Almost completely one-sided. The battle can't have lasted five minutes, and I doubt Mega Man was ever in any real danger at all."

"Oh, come on now, doctor." The bony robot scoffed. "I must affirm that you are exaggerating at least some; humans tend to do that in these cases. Dust Man was not pathetic, after all; he was a very well-designed robot master, like all of us. You built us very well."

"Skull Man!" Dr. Cossack slammed his fists down in frustration. "Please! If you would stop your self-adulation for a second and just LISTEN...!"

"Very well, doctor." Skull Man nodded. "Point taken. I'm all ears." Dr. Cossack took a few deep breaths to steady himself, then continued.

"Good. Now, then. I am fully aware of Dust Man's ability. That is WHY the ease with which Mega Man defeated him is so worrisome. It should have been much more of a fight than that judging by Mega Man's fighting ability as seen in the first three Rebellions... but that's not what happened."

"Wait. Wait." Skull Man's eyes slowly widened. "Doctor, do you mean there has been a significant increase in his power?"

"Exactly." Dr. Cossack nodded grimly. "Apparently, Dr. Light thinks along the same lines as myself. He has incorporated the same weapons-charging system into Mega Man's plasma arm cannon that I used for Pharoah Man. Blasts that powerful were too much for Dust Man to stand up to."

"That is a definate problem..." Skull Man admitted. "Do you have a reading on how powerful Mega Man's charged shots are compared to Pharoah Man's?"

"Judging by what I can tell, they seem to be at about equal strength." The Russian robotocist answered. "Why do you ask?"

"Equal strength... good. If that is correct, than my Skull Barrier should be able to block the charged shots effectively enough." Skull Man smiled slightly. "Even so... I shall have to be on my guard when he comes for me. Carelessness would be fatal. How soon do you think that will be?"

"I don't know... I have no idea how he will choose which of the seven remaining locations to attack next. For all I know, he's flipping coins to decide, or rolling dice, or something along those lines. However, if I were you, then I would hope that he not choose you to attack next... and consider yourself fortunate that he does not know of your weakness."

"Do not worry about that, doctor. When it comes time for us to fight, whether it be soon or later, I will be the one doing all the intimidation."

"I hope you are right, Skull Man. If he does choose you... make me proud, and do what needs to be done. Dr. Cossack out." The communication closed, and Skull Man sat there for a few moments in thought before rising from his seat and walked off into the dark corridors of the castle.

"Is that boiling tar ready yet?"

"Aaah, the start of a brand new day." Roll announced as she walked down the stairs. "Bright, sunny, absolutely chock-full of promise for the future. Well, if it wasn't raining. And if there wasn't a Robot Rebellion going on. And if my older brother hadn't run off to who-knows-where. And if the TV was working. And-"

"That's quite enough, Roll." Dr. Light reprimended her from over the half-gallon coffee cup he always broke out during a Rebellion or something equally disastrous. "Sarcasm should be used in moderation, remember." Roll's obviously fake extra-exuberant grin faded into a more wry smile.

"Yeah... that was taking it a bit far, wasn't it? Sorry, dad."

"It's all right." The doctor shrugged, looking out the window. "I must admit, I do have to agree with you about the weather; this is winter, and yet here we are with pouring rain instead of more snow. That's actually probably a good thing, since if we got any more snow I'd have to leave the house through the chimney, but it doesn't help the gloominess factor one bit."

"Exactly." Roll sighed. "For a moment there, it was just the last straw, you know? The Rebellion drops on us out of nowhere, when we thought everything about those was gone forever... Blues takes off like that again without so much as a forwarding address-if he turns up in a bar or something, I'm going to use that scarf of his as an oil rag-the television goes out last night, and then I wake up and find this. Carumba. Just all got to me for a second."

"Maybe you should try some of this." Dr. Light took another sip from the oversized coffee mug.

"No, I don't think so." Roll shook her head, still smiling. "You must need more of that stuff... I'm a robot, remember? Even as advanced as me and those two lunks are, we don't have anything even remotely resembling working taste buds, let alone a digestive system. All I'd do is short out my voice, most likely. Refrain from commenting unless you'd like to find an unpleasant surprise in your caffiene tomorrow."

"I wouldn't dream of it." Dr. Light laughed.

"Good." The robot girl frowned. "Is that much of the stuff really healthy for you, though? I know caffiene's not nearly as bad as some of the other substances humans use, like nicotine, but it can still be addictive. Half a gallon seems a little too much like tempting fate to me."

"That's why I only use this mug when I'm feeling particularly stressed." Dr. Light countered. "Roll, I'm fine. Would you prefer I drank alcohol instead? Although that really wouldn't do much for helping me wake up in the mornings... more like the opposite, actually."

"Okay, okay. Point made." Roll threw up her hands in surrender. "Just watch yourself, okay?"

"I've been watching my health for decades before you were created. And I'm relatively sure that I haven't forgotten how." Dr. Light glanced up the stairs. "Should we wake Rock out of stasis?"

"Naah, let him sleep a few minutes more." Roll shook her head again. "He's going to need it for the next place... he didn't admit it, but I think that fight with Dust Man took more out of him than anybody would have realized. Which one do you think he's going to be heading after next?"

"My guess would be Skull Man... the one in the Transylvanian castle." Dr. Light replied after a few moments of thought.

"Would you care to place a little wager on that, perhaps?" Roll challenged. The doctor's eyes narrowed.

"Maybe... which one is your choice?"

"Pharoah Man, in Egypt." Roll answered promptly.

"You're on!" Dr. Light cackled. "As for the stakes... if I win, you have to make me coffee every morning for a month!" Roll winced, then smiled.

"All right... but if I win, you have to... clean out and organize the lab!" This time it was Dr. Light who winced, but he gamely held his ground and stuck out his hand.

"Done! Shake on it, then." They did, and a moment later, footsteps were heard upstairs.

"Yawn... morning, dad. Sis." Rock greeted them as he walked down the stairs. "Where's-oh yeah, nevermind."

"Forgot Blues was gone for a second?" Roll asked. He grunted affirmatively. "He'll be back eventually. Unless he gets his head blown off by doing something stupid, but come on, how likely is that?"

"He insulted a Pinhead model while already badly wounded one time in the Third." Rock informed her. "Blues doing something stupid is probably a given sooner or later. What you should have said is 'by doing something stupid that he can't get out of.' That would have worked better." His sister rolled her eyes.

"Whatever. Are you going to stand around here all day making smart comments, or are you going to get moving and take out another one of that creep Cossack's crazy creations?"

"Why, Roll! If I didn't know better, I'd say you wanted me to go out and get killed or something!" The robot boy laughed to show he was joking as he phased into his armor. "Nice wording there, by the way."

"I rather liked it." Roll sidestepped the crack. "So, which one of 'em are you going to go after this time?"

"Well, at first it was a bit of a toss-up..." Mega turned to face another room in the house, not seeing the excited look on his father and sister's faces as they waited for his answer. "I couldn't decide between Toad Man and Drill Man..." Both their faces fell. "But then I thought some more, and I decided on Skull Man." Dr. Light grinned and snickered, why Roll muttered a dutch curse. This turned his attention back to them. "Huh? What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing." Dr. Light put his coffee cup in the sink. "Is Rush all ready to go?" The robotic dog barked to answer the question as he leaped down the stairs four at a time. Mega nodded.

"I'd say so. Shame those Energen Crystals wore out... is there any way to reactivate the Rush Marine and Rush Jet, do you suppose?" In the Third Robot Rebellion, Rush had used powerful Energen Crystals to power transformations into a jetboard and a minisub. Without them, though, he could only use the large spring built into his back. Dr. Light sighed.

"If we had another of the black and green Energen crystals, sure... but even if we ordered them now, it's probably be a month before they arrived. There's a slim chance Cossack'll have 'em stashed around... probably not, but you should keep your eyes peeled just in case."

"I'll do that, then." Mega scratched the robotic dog's head. "Well, I'll be off, then. See you all when I come back with Skull Man's head. Maybe it's a good thing Blues is gone... if I know him he wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to make a Hamlet joke. Well, until then!"

Unlike Japan's currently stormy skies, Transylvania was bright and sunny; blue skies, with puffy white clouds clustered around the high mountaintops seen in the distance. The effect was unfortunately offset rather badly by the gruesome design of the drawbridge, which Mega Man was quick to note as he arrived on the scene.

"Ugh... can't say I approve of this place's decor." He frowned. "Shame... otherwise this would be a great place to relax, especially with this weather." The drawbridge leading into the castle was designed to resemble a huge, unusually long rib cage of white bone, as was the portcullis above. Mega shook his head. "Focus, focus. The people around here probably aren't watching the sky right now, and neither should you until everything's taken care of." Moving ahead into the castle, he was confronted by a familair-looking squat green cannon. "Where have I seen these before... ah!" He ducked as it fired a rather colorful red cannonball that bounced around like a crazed rubber superball. A charged shot destroyed both it and the cannon. "Aha! Sennet's Houdai cannons... I remember these from Needle Man's stage! Seems like Cossack's upgraded their ammunition, though... I'll have to watch out for that." As he passed the wreckage, Mega saw "Super Ball Machine Jr." was stamped on what remained of the artillery's side. He raised an eyebrow.

"That's an odd change of name if I've ever seen one... perhaps Cossack's got a bit of a Top-Man-ish sense of humor." Several more cannons and a few spinning spiked enemies later, Mega finally entered the castle proper. The rough-hewn walls were constructed of an odd purplish stone. "Wonder if that color's natural... probably not. It's better than the bone, though, I'll give 'em that." He sighed as he saw a set of thighbones carved into the wall. "Figures. Who owned this castle, anyways? Dracula's brother-in-law, Baron Von Boney? Cripes." Climbing a ladder, he found himself face to face with a humanoid robot in a cloak. "All right, you. Take that off so I can see you. Is that you, Skull Man?"

"Negatory." A mechanical monotone responded as the robot cast off its cloak, revealing... nothing but a skeletal framework of a humanoid robot with one eye. Mega's eyes widened.

"What the hell? Wait a second..." He frowned; what little armor was on the frame was green. "Those fragments... and one eye... hold the phone! You look like one of Lighttech's 12-KIFs!" The 12-KIF, or "Sniper Joe" models, were one of Lighttech's most popular worker-class robots. The downside was that they were also efficient fighters when reprogrammed by Wily. Cossack had apparently had a similar idea, but had stripped the robots down. Silent now, the Skeleton Joe raised its arm and chucked a metal bone at the blue hero. Dodging it, Mega shot it once, and it collapsed into a pile. He shrugged. "Well, that was easy. What was Cossack thinking..." Shrugging, he walked around it to the ladder behind. And was promptly hit in the back. Growling, he spun to see the Skeleton Joe reassembled and attacking! "What the-?" He shot it again, and it collapsed again, but this time Mega waited to see what would happen. A moment later, the pieces rose and resumed attack. "That's why he skeletized them... so they could pull that trick! Would've been too hard to do with all that armor and stuff on 'em... but it must sacrifice defense!" A single charged shot incinerated the Skeleton Joe, and Mega climbed up to the next floor. It led out onto a covered balcony, where black spheres hung from the roof. Mega recognized them instantly.

"Battontons. Looks like Cossack's really keen on stealing our stuff... can't he stick to his own company's robots?" Battontons, also known as Bubble Bats, were flying robots. Despite their slightly intimidating appearance, their only real asset was the plasma-deflective shield they used while hanging. Once they came down and attacked, their slow speed made them sitting ducks. Mega took them out one by one as he walked around, actually humming a little tune as he went. On the other side of the balcony, the blue hero climbed to the next floor and found a rather nice surprise waiting for him.

"Beep!"

"Hey, Eddie! Glad to see you here!" He glanced over at a fossilized dinosaur carved into the purple rock wall, with jaw rivets. "What do you think of this place?" The little suitcase robot rolled his eyes.

"Beep beep..." Mega laughed.

"Yeah, I'm not too fond of it myself. Whaddaya got for me today?" Eddie flipped his top and ejected a shiny blue canister with an "E" on it. "WHOA! Where'd you find this?" E-Tanks were portable reacharges for a robot's internal operations energy. By opening the can and downing the contents, Mega would completely restore all his energy at any time. The only downside to the E-Tanks was their scarcity; they were very expensive to produce. Even with all the money he made from Lighttech, Dr. Light wasn't able to keep them lying around the house for Robot Rebellions. Shrugging, Mega pocketed it. "Well, I don't know where you got it, but thanks, Ed! This'll definately come in handy somewhere along the line!"
"Beep!" Smiling, Eddie teleported away, and Mega continued his journey up to the next floor. The ladder led to a short, dead-end balcony, but continued upward. Mega jumped off.

"Let's see what's over here before I take the high road..." It turned out to be a group of the same Shield Attackers that Mega had fought in Los Angeles, patrolling around another valuable E-Tank. Getting to it cost Mega a quarter of his energy, but it was well worth it. Returning to the ladder, the blue hero climbed further up and continued around another winding balcony, fighting off odd skull-shaped snipers and boneworms that dropped down from holes in the ceiling. The biggest problem with the balcony was neither of these, actually; it was that several pieces of it had broken away, leaving gaping holes that Mega had to hurdle. It was a good fifty-foot drop at least if he fell in, and not even Robot Masters could survive that. Jumping off the end of the balcony, Mega landed back in the castle, Turning, he saw that there was a second balcony underneath the first one that he could get to. At the end, another E-Tank beckoned; however, this balcony had even more and wider gaps than the one above. Mega shook his head.

"Not EVEN if there were three of them. That's gotta be a trap... it's not worth the risk. Man, I wish Rush still had his Jet function... then I'd be able to get that easily. Ah well, no use complaining... better press on." Unfortunately, Mega was so distracted by his muttering that he didn't notice the boneworm dropping until it was already on his head. "YARGH! Gerroff!" Flailing around, Mega blasted it to smithereens, singing his own face in the process. "Frackit." Muttering more loudly now, the blue hero descended the ladder ahead of him, hoping above all else that he was almost to the end of this castle... for some reason, he REALLY wanted to hurt the skeletal Robot Master who was the master of the place...

Cold... dark and damp and cold. Everything around the girl was cold and empty, devoid of light, of life. There was nothing alive... except the girl herself. Everything else was dead and dark.

There was no way of telling how long the girl had been here, in the prison cell. She knew where she was, that was something, at least. The girl kept telling herself that as the days dragged on. If nothing else, she at least knew where she was being kept, in this prison cell deep beneath the fortress. Many prisoners didn't even have that luxury.. at least, from what she knew of other prisoners. But people kept in bleak prison cells like this one were supposed to be fully grown, strong men and women, not small, pitiful girls with no hopes of escape... at least that was the way all the stories went. It was to her own sorrow that the girl realized this was no story... this was agonizingly real.

The girl looked down at her wrist and realized with some surprise that it was perfectly smooth and unbroken, with only a faint pale line of scar tissue remaining. The wound that had been there previously had been her only method of assuring herself that time was actually passing, that she wasn't stranded in an unending limbo. It had been caused when she was first taken, when the brutal robots had ripped her wristwatch off so roughly that it had gashed open her skin. The orange one had bandaged it later, rather clumsily with his lack of hands; as he had explained to her, if the wound had been left open, it might have been infected, and she was no good to them dead. In agony, however... well. That was another story altogether, it seemed. Slowly, the wound had healed; when she had been able to remove the bandage without more blood coming forth, the girl gauged that two weeks had passed from her limited knowledge of healing factors. Now that it was completely healed, she guessed it had been at least a month since she was brought here.

"Maybe I should be thankful that they didn't take my clothes too..." The girl sighed, watching her breath create a small cloud of fog. If they had done that, she wouldn't have been able to survive this long; even with her fur-lined red coat, the cell was still bitingly cold. She had long ago given up on trying to keep track of the time by the variance in temperature signifying day and night; it was too slight for any sane person to be able to distinguish. All she could do now was wait... wait and sleep, for that was the only thing she could do that would break the monotony, aside from when the robots came to visit...

Clank. The girl froze as she heard the noise of something metallic hitting stone, followed by low, muttered cursing; the voice was so quiet that the girl wasn't able to identify which one of the robots it was. Every so often, the robots would bring her food and water, enough for her to survive. It was always the same; two plain wooden bowls and a plate. One of the bowls had a thick, tasteless gruel while the other had water. The plate carried an unidentifiable meat that she had never tasted before this nightmare... moose, perhaps, or yak? The girl didn't know. Of more importance to her was which robot it was that would be bringing her her sustenance this time. She prayed that it would be the funny one, with the yellow paint job; that one at least had a less mechanical personality than the rest, and he loved showing off; she could usually persuade him to stay for a short time after delivering the food. Anything to break the monotony, after all, and so the girl pretended to be wildly entertained and laughed as if the yellow robot was a comedy genius. If she had been at home and watching him on a television, the girl admitted, she might even have actually enjoyed watching him. Or perhaps it would be the orange one with no hands that had bandaged her wound from the watch; he seemed to have at least a shred of empathy, and talked to her as if she were an equal, unlike the others.

"Slop time, human." The robot snickered as he rounded the corner, and the girl's heart sank. It was the red one, the most brutal of her tormentors. Aside from the yellow and orange ones, most of the robots ignored her, simply delivering the food and leaving. The bulky blue one and the red one here, however... they were nasty and cruel, often seeking out extra ways to torture her before delivering the food. She couldn't even turn away and ignore them; if she did, they would simply depart without giving her the much-needed sustenance. And so, each time she had to endure their insults and cruelties, trying above all else not to cry, not to give them what they wanted so much. "Are you hungry, human? Thirsty, perhaps?"

"Yes, I am." The girl agreed calmly. "Very much so, as usual. If you would, please..."

"Getting a little ahead of ourselves now, aren't we?" The red robot dropped the tray on the floor outside of her cell. "You sound awfully calm and controlled for somebody who's so hungry and thirsty. Why, if I didn't know better, I might think that you weren't being sincere about it, that you were faking it. I don't know that much about you humans, after all... could you, perhaps, be playing a gag on us?" His eyes narrowed. "Food and water are very scarce around here, after all..."

"That's not true!" The girl protested without thinking. "Food, perhaps, but water's as easy as going outside and bringing in some snow!" As soon as her mouth had closed, the girl realized she had made a mistake. The red robot glared at her.

"You should think more about what you say, princess. Maybe to you, a human with a warm fur coat and mittens and boots and hat, yes, going outside and collecting snow would be easy. But we robots are not so fortunate as to have all those nice warm things. Still... perhaps you are right. Maybe water is easy to get around here." Shrugging nonchalantly, he kicked the water bowl over. "Oops. There goes your water. Oh well, since water's so easy to get around here, you won't have any problems finding more. The next meal will be along in exactly twelve hours, by the way... we robots are very punctual about things like this." He opened the door of the cell and pushed the tray through with his foot, then stopped and smirked at her. "I'll tell you what. Why don't you try and get your water bowl anyways? If you can, I'll go out and refill it for you. All you have to do is get past me... that can't be too hard, can it? Heh heh heh..." The girl forced herself to remain calm, not to yell at the bully-bot.

"You realize that if you hurt me in any way yourself, the doctor will melt you down and use you to make Metools."

"You've got a point. Oh well." The red robot closed the door again. "Enjoy your meat and gruel... and try not to think about what's in it." He began to walk away. The girl sighed and turned away, shivering. The lack of water was nothing next to the cold.

"Jerk... robots don't need heat anyways. How would he know about it... if I could just get a little heat..."

"What's that? Heat?" The red robot turned around, face wide-eyed and innocent. "Is there something wrong with the temperature?" The girl bit her lip, then sighed. The blunder had already been made; there was no helping it.

"Yes... this cell isn't heated. It's very cold..."

"Oh, you're not going to need heat." He smirked again. "You humans are a wonderful source of the stuff." With that, he walked away, laughing. The girl shivered, then turned back to her food. Eating it with her hands (there were no utensils), she sighed and flopped onto her hard bunk, deciding that she might as well get some sleep. There was nothing else to do... although she knew her dreams wouldn't be good ones.

"I will admit that this is a beautiful sunset..." Mega conceded, standing in front of the bridge to the tower where Skull Man was undoubtably waiting. Rush barked in agreement as Mega jumped off the spring in his back to clear a very wide gap (fortunately, this bridge was not roofed, so the blue hero didn't hit his head as he would have on the balconies). As a last-ditch effort, a gang of Skeleton Joe guards blockaded the bridge. Dispatching them, Mega picked up the cluster of small energy pods they left behind, then walked through the metal shutter on the other side of the bridge.

"I've been waiting for you, Mega Man." The robot master at the other end of the room greeted him calmly. A black cloak covered his body, but above it was a skull-mask covering a humanlike face. This was definately Skull Man. "I do wish you had taken a little bit longer to get here, though... just half an hour more, and it would have been nighttime. Much more appropriate for our battle, in my humble opinion."

"You're the kind of robot who likes to lurk in the darkness, then?" Mega asked calmly. Skull Man closed his eyes and laughed.

"That's correct, my ocean-hued friend. Darkness adds an advantage for me, especially when facing an opponent who's human... or close to it, at least."

"I assume by that, you meant me." Mega raised an eyebrow.

"Correct once again. There are some disadvantages to being too advanced, you know... one of those is your range of emotions. Admit it, Mega Man... you know what fear is. It walks beside you, wherever you go... no matter how brave you are, there's always some lingering terror... that you'll fail, and die, and end up looking... like me." The white robot cast off his cloak. Underneath it, his body was covered with an accurate representation of the human skeleton; ribs across the chest, a seperation in the lower arm... he probably even had toebones plated on his boots. Mega's eye, however, realized the bones were made of durable alloys. They'd be tough to break.

"All show." He yawned dramatically. "Look, bub. I've already been victim to worse mind games by more sadistic twits than you could ever imagine. So, basically, that's not going to work on me. Why don't we just get down to the fighting... that is, if you know how to fight besides with your voice?" Skull Man smirked, not in the least offended by the hero's taunt.

"Very well. The moment I am shut down, all operations in the castle will also cease, so don't worry about that. To battle, then!" Snarling, he leaped into the air towards Mega, who easily slid away and fired a charged shot. Skull Man snorted and began firing... plasma shots of his own!

"What the-?" Mega yelped as he dodged.

"Heh... I've got a plasma buster too! No charging, I'll admit... but then again, that's not my primary weapon!"

"So, show me what it is!" Mega fired off another charged shot. As it raced towards his opponent, Skull Man grinned.

"My pleasure!" Suddenly, he was covered in a swirling forcefield! The plasma shot dissipated harmlessly against it. "Take a look at this! Nothing you can do will penetrate my Skull Barrier!" Mega stepped back for a moment before regaining control.

"No biggie. Why aren't you moving?" Skull Man frowned.

"That's my business."

"I'll tell you why. It's because you can't and still keep it up." Mega leaned against a wall. "So, I'll just wait for you to drop that and resume the fight...OOF!" Without warning, Skull Man had suddenly charged forward, losing the barrier but catching Mega Man in a forward tackle! The hero went flying across the room, and grunted again as Skull Man jumped onto him.

"Underestimating your opponent! A fatal weakness!" Skull Man prepared to activate the shield again and shred his defenseless adversary... but Mega had other plans. A clod of scrap flew upward. "What the-ARGH!" Landing on Skull Man's head, it fragmented violently, the pieces lodging themselves between the bones and knocking him off. Mega rose, armor a dull grey and white.

"Agreed. No more playing, then... let's finish this." Skull Man snarled and fired his arm cannon, but another Dust Crusher knocked him on his rear. Trying to rise, the skeletal robot discovered that he could not; the gunk had gummed him up too much.

"Dammit!" Desperate, he brought up the Skull Barrier. Mega shook his head at this last tactic.

"Enough, Skull Man. You've lost; you can't even move now. All you're doing is prolonging this... and you know it. Now who's afraid?" Skull Man's eyes narrowed... and the barrier dropped.

"Not me... I know not fear. I am not sophisticated enough, unlike you. Finish it now... do it cleanly with your buster. The Dust Crusher will be too slow a death..." Mega nodded once, then fired a charged shot point-blank into his defeated enemy's face. Immediately, all the lights shut off. The blue hero laid a hand on Skull Man's head, and his armor shifted color, becoming a much lighter frost-blue all over.

"Everything's shut down... this place is done for. There's nothing more for me here." Without another word, he warped out, leaving Skull Man's corpse alone in the darkness once more.