Chapter 15: The Man Who Should Have Died

"How nice of Wily to leave this little supply depot here for me." Mega muttered. Finally, he had discovered a manhole behind the Twin Cannon. Below it, at the top of a long vertical shaft, were several large Weapons Energy capsules, just lying there for him. "All weapons at full... I bet I know what's down here..." He climbed down the shaft, destroying shield-masked jetters, spinning cocoon-bots, and buzzsaw Gabyools. Anything and everything in his path was melted down into slag instantaneously. At the bottom, a simple metal shutter awaited him. Behind it was a familiar-looking glass capsule. A teleport pod. "I knew it... Wily's nothing if he's not predictable." Stepping inside, he emerged from its counterpart above another vertical shaft, this one straight down with no obstructions. On the other side of the gap, a second teleporter pod faced him, this one smashed and broken beyond repair. Mega shrugged and jumped down the shaft. He landed in a room containing eight pods. "The Teleporter Room." Each of those pods, Mega knew, would teleport him to a room containing a copy of one of the Robot Masters. And he would have to destroy all eight again in order to go on to Wily. Shrugging once more, he chose one of the pods at random and entered.

"Mega Man!" Drill Man greeted him. "You shall not leave this room alive!" With that, he dived into the ground. Mega immediately readied the Dive Missile, and the moment the red Robot Master emerged, he recieved several homing missiles to his weakest spots. Knocked back, Drill Man steadied himself, leaped towards Mega Man, then landed behind him and immediately spun to fire Drill Bombs. Unfortunately for him, he was not aware of the Dive Missiles that had been launched during his jump. A moment of pain as they hit his back, and then nothingness. Mega walked back into the teleporter pod he had entered by and was taken back to the Teleporter Room. He chose another pod.

"Ah, hello!" Bright Man smiled cheerfully. "Nothing personal, but we're going to have to fight to the death now. Shall we go?"

"Sounds good to me!" Sliding under Bright Man's leap, Mega launched a Rain Flush pod into the air. The wash of acid rain it released was seconded by another even as Bright Man responded with his plasma cannon. Mega jumped and dived with a bored look on his face, not a single bullet hitting him. This was not lost on Bright Man, who frowned before lighting up the bulb on his head. Mega screamed and clutched his eyes. "Ha! I've got you... now?" The bulb-headed Robot Master stared as his enemy fired another Rain Flush pod without need for eyes. A moment later, he never saw anything again. It took several minutes for the effects of the Flash Stopper to wear off so Mega could go on to the next Robot Master.

"So we meet again, little blue one..." Skull Man sneered. "Are you ready to face your death?" Mega snorted.

"Yeah, right. Let's get this over with, okay?"

"As you insist!" Skull Man began firing his plasma cannon. It took him only a moment to realize his opponent was packing a weapon that outstripped him like a bazooka to a handgun, the Dust Crusher. Swearing and clawing at the gunk that gummed up his working, Skull Man activated his signature Barrier. "Ha! See what you can do now!" Mega just leaned against a wall.

"Nothing, I'll admit... but you can't keep that up forever, and you can't hurt me with it. You're just hiding... you're afraid."

"I CREATE fear, fool! I do not suffer from it!" Skull Man snarled. Dropping the shield, he charged, knowing full well what would happen. He did not move after he slammed into the wall. Again, Mega exited and chose another pod. This time, he knew who it was even before he saw the enemy. The water was a dead giveaway.

"Let the battle commence!" Dive Man rumbled before launching himself at Mega like a torpedo. He rebounded off the Skull Barrier, and with a growl, repeated his attack with similar results. Dive Missiles could not penetrate either, but the dull-witted Robot Master simply continued to attack despite the obvious. It didn't take long before he bounced off and did not get back up, and Mega moved on to the next pod.

"Your chances of defeating us all are off the charts in the bottom direction, Mega Man!" Toad Man croaked. "Give up now!"

"Hold on here... lemme think about that for a moment..." Mega stroked his chin. "Ah... no. But I do have something I think you'll like..." He emptied a Drill Bomb into Toad Man's chest before the robot ribbit could jump.

"What the...?!" Croaking angrily, Toad Man leaped over Mega and prepared to call down the rain. Another Drill Bomb, however, stopped the rain dance cold. Before he could rise, a third finished the job, opening the way to the sixth fight.

"Oh... there you are." Dust Man sighed. "Might as well get this over with..." He began pulling Mega towards him. Mega just smiled as he pulled out his weapon.

"If I'm correct... this'll make you a real cut-up." He threw the pair of Ring Boomerangs directly into the vacuum hole above Dust Man's eyes. They emerged a moment later from the back, and the normally indifferent Robot Master's optics widened.

"AAAAH! How did..." He paused. "I should have known. You were able to defeat me without my weakness... obviously, you could with it. Nevertheless..." He fired the Dust Crusher even as two more Ring Boomerangs came in at neck level. Mega easily jumped the shot and watched his foe's head go sailing off. "Two left... and it figures they're the toughest of the lot... no helping it." He entered the next pod.

"Mega Man! Finally, I can destroy you!" Ring Man smiled darkly before slinging forth the same projectiles Mega had been using a moment before. Mega smiled back.

"Other way around, I'm afraid, hoop-head." Ring Man stared at the huge mass of solar energy accumulating above his opponent.

"The... the..."

"The Pharaoh Wave." Mega nodded before releasing the energy. Ring Man howled as it burned into his entre body. As soon as it had dissipated, he charged, swinging his blades wildly. Mega just jumped him and threw several ordinary Pharaoh Shots into his back, finishing the job. "One to go." Selecting the Bright Stopper, he took the last teleporter. "Pharaoh Man."

"Mega Man." The egyptian-themed Robot Master nodded perfunctorily. "I assume by your choice of weapon before even entering that I am the last one?"

"Indeed." Mega nodded. "The last of Cossack's Robot Masters." Pharaoh Man smiled a bit sadly.

"Incorrect. We are not the Robot Masters built by Sergei Cossack. We are copies constructed by Albert Wily for the sole purpose of this room. We have no existence outisde of it."

"Really?" Mega looked sad for a moment as well, then shook his head. "Well then... nothing personal, but now I don't have to feel so bad about THIS!" Before the copy of Pharaoh Man could unleash the Pharaoh Wave he had been charging while they were talking, Mega blinded him with the Flash Stopper. Events proceeded as could be expected from there. Returning to the Teleporter Room, Mega smiled grimly as a section of one wall opened up, revealing a ninth teleporter pod. "Wily... for what you've done... you're going to pay more than ever before." Draining an E-Tank to restore all the energy he had lost, Mega stepped into the teleporter. He appeared... in the air outside. Landing firmly on the surface below him, Mega looked around and sighed.

"I suppose I should have expected this when I first saw these..." In Skull Fortress III, Mega had battled Wily in a massive mechanical monstrosity he called the Pinbot from atop a tower shaped like a human femur. Now, he was again standing on one of the grisly structures. The rushing sound of jets drew his eyesight upwards to the starry night sky, where a hangar in the side of Skull Fortress IV above him opened. From it, the newest Wilymachine emerged. An aircraft, with powerful jets on its bottom and back and a huge skullmask with a gaping mouth on the front.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! So, you killed Cossack's creations a second time!" The voice Mega had hoped he would never hear again screeched from the skull. "Good for you, hero! Now, it's time for you and me once again! Do you like my new Skull Jet? I worked extra-hard on it, just for you!"

"Those weren't Cossack's!" Mega shouted back. "Those were just fakes... symbols of what YOU did to ALL the Cossacks, both human and robot! Their oil and blood is on your hands, madman... and you'll be paying that price very, very soon!"

"Sounds like a threat!" Wily cackled. "Let's see if you can carry it out!" Lowering until it was only a few feet above the blue hero, the Skull Jet began emitting massive, six-foot-wide balls of purple energy that flew out of the jutting jaw before moving down towards Mega. The blue hero turned and ran, knowing how much damage even one of those would do if it hit. The Skull Jet followed at the same low altitude, firing the energy balls behind him. As he moved, Mega fired his own charged shots straight into the wide open mouth. The Skull Jet was clearly taking damage, and yet it persisted.

This isn't making any sense, Mega thought. Why doesn't it go any higher? It could pick me off a lot easier from high up, and put itself out of range of my attacks... unless... He stared at the skull. Unless it can't! That jaw... it's in the way! If it goes too high, it won't be able to hit me accurately! But that also means... Without any warning, the blue hero did an about-face and ran TOWARDS the Skull Jet. Staying just close enough so that he could still fire into the mouth, Mega watched the energy balls sail over his head without hitting him every time, no matter how much the madman inside struggled with the controls and cursed.

"Damn it all! Damn YOU, Mega Man! If it hadn't been for this design flaw... then I would have been..." Suddenly, the entire skull exploded! "...Been unable to do THIS!" Behind the mask, the real front of the Skull Jet was a massive energy cannon below and a dome of super-tough plasteel above, with Wily visible inside the cockpit, demonic grin plastered across his face. "GOTCHA!" Too late, Mega realized he had been suckered; now, without the jaw in the way, the energy balls slammed into him several times. Screaming, Mega forced himself to run away, but he lost at least half his internal operations energy in the process.

"Wily... that's another one I owe you for!" Mega snarled, firing his buster at the cannon. Wily just laughed as the plasma shot was dissolved in the much more powerful energy ball.

"Idiot! You're trying to stop a howitzer with a squirt gun!"
"Than taste it yourself!" Mega snapped, firing at the plasteel protecting the cockpit. Wily wagged his mustache insultingly as it was reflected as well.

"I'm afraid this is much stronger than ordinary plasteel, little hero! I learn from the past, which is more than I can say for you!"

"And what the hell is THAT supposed to mean, maniac?!" Mega retorted as he scanned the front of the Skull Jet for something, anything. He spotted a small blue bulb, just like the one on the Twin Cannon. Look for a weak point.

"You thought I was dead! You actually thought that I was dead!" Wily laughed as he continued to fire. "Fool, you should have known that I cannot die! I cannot stop! You will never be-WHAT?!" He clutched his seat as the entire Skull Jet shook. Mega just shook his head as he fired another Drill Bomb into the bulb.

"You talk too much." Wily growled, then screamed.

"FINE, THEN! No more talk... only action!" Pulling the Skull Jet up to a higher height, Wily began blasting around the sky at high speed, raining death down upon the unlucky little robot below. Mega just shook his head disgustedly.

"You haven't learned a thing, Wily. If you had, you'd remember what happened the last time we fought on a tower-top..." With a whistle, Rush teleported in and transformed into a jetboard that his master stood on. "No matter how high you fly... I can always soar higher than you." Blasting into the air, he began racing around the Skull Jet, and the duel became fully aerial. The Skull Jet was larger and had the advantage of firepower, but Mega and the Rush Jet were easily smaller and more maneuverable. A field of energy greeted them as they entered the air, but Rush twisted and turned, avoiding each and every one of the energy balls as they grew steadily closer and closer to the target. For a moment, it looked like they were going to collide with the Skull Jet... but at the last second, they pulled away, raking the weak point with Drill Bombs. Snarling, Wily gave chase, but Mega and Rush outran him easily and made a tight turn to the Skull Jet's back. Unthinking, Wily tried to turn as well to open fire again, and left the bulb wide open. More Drill Bombs pierced the front of the Skull Jet. With a shriek of animal rage, Wily drove the Skull Jet forward in an attempt to smash his enemies like a bug on a windshield, but Mega Man leaped off of Rush and actually grabbed onto the energy cannon. Before the stunned Doctor inside could fire, the last of the Drill Bombs were released, and the Skull Jet began to descend, smoking and sputtering. Wily tried to make it go back up, but the controls refused to respond. With a horrible grinding noise, the Skull Jet was grounded on the towertop. Mega looked up just in time to see the plasteel dome pop open and a small escape pod fly out. Inside, Wily waved mockingly.

"Well done, Mega Man... well done indeed! But I hope you don't think it's over now... quite the opposite, I'm afraid! The real party has yet to start! I'll be waiting for you!" Laughing insanely, he piloted the escape pod into the hangar he had come out of. Mega Man stared after him, not even seeing the teleporter pod rise from the towertop next to him. Inside the blue hero's mind... something... something that had only surfaced rarely, that had only come to light in that awful moment after killing Doc Man when he had learned of the truth in Wily's "recovery"... and when he had known he would die, that the Ultimate War Machine, Gamma, was going to kill him, and all he could do was go down fighting with one last attack...

Something snapped.

Deep underneath Skull Fortress IV... beneath the snow and the steel and the ground... a mile deep in the ground, completely inaccessible, cut off from the outside world with no way in... a secret basement was buried. At one end was a teleporter pod, followed by a long drop... and then, a tunnel to one room. That was it. That was all that Mega Man found when he arrived. Dropping down the shaft without a word, he moved forward down the tunnel. Green worms dropped down every few feet, but he ignored them; with the Skull Barrier on, all they did was die and drop valuable energy capsules onto him. When he reached the end of the tunnel, he was at full internal operations energy. The metal shutter opened for him as if it had been awating his arrival. Indeed it had. He walked in, and it closed behind him trapping him inside. There was nothing visible... everything was pitch black. No light... no nothing. And it showed no signs of changing. Mega waited for the lights to go on, for Wily to reveal himself. It didn't happen. And then... there was the laughter.

"Hee hee hee hee hee... there you are, Mega Man! I was wondering if you had gotten lost!"

"Not. Likely." Mega Man grated from between clenched teeth. "It ends here, Wily. Forever. You will fall here and now."

"Just like the last three times!" The mad doctor's voice echoed from the dark. "You never learn, do you, ROCK?!"

"I am Mega Man." The blue robot replied. Wily made an indelicate noise.

"Call yourself what you like, little robot. The fact remains that your threats are as hollow as your spirit! What makes you think that, even if you do bring me down, this defeat will have any more impact than the last three?!"

"Because those times... I was fighting for my own life, and for the safety of the world." Mega whispered dully. "For an ultimately selfish reason... and for an abstract, faceless philosophical concept. This time is different... because right now, both of those could not be further from my mind. To use a cliche... this time, it's personal." He glared into the darkness as his colors changed. "I fight this battle for the Cossacks. For the people you yourself screwed with on a personal level... for the helpless pawns in your sick game. I will destroy whatever your last machine is with not my own weapon, but the mightiest weapon of the mightiest creation of Doctor Sergei Cossack, unleashed with all of our fury. The Pharaoh Wave." There was silence for a few moments after the challenge, and then laughter again... but this time, not mocking, but interested.

"Oh ho ho... well now. You are different this time, Mega Man... but are you stronger, or are you weaker? There is only one way to find out, and we both know it! Show me what you are talking about..." Suddenly, there was a flash of light. "SHOW ME THIS FURY YOU SPEAK OF!" All Mega Man could see in that brief flash was a small machine, barely bigger than Wily himself, and then he was struck from behind by a blast of energy. Rising back to his feet, he spun and threw a Pharaoh Wave where he had seen Wily, but there was no hit.

"Where are you?! Show yourself, lunatic!"

"I think not, robot!" The voice came out of the darkness, its source unable to be identified. "Why should I? The darkness is my advantage, and your fear!" There was another flash of light, and Mega saw the machine more clearly now; a blood-red capsule with jets supporting it. Wily was inside, huddled in a crouch, he teeth bared in a manic grin of hatred. And then he was hit again, without even seeing it. Again, he threw the Pharaoh Wave, and again there was nothing; Wily had moved. The third time, Mega did not look for his enemy, but rather for where the attack came from. He saw energy gathering around a point shortly before the telltale flash of light; when it occured, he saw something disappear. Something roughly the shape and size of Wily's machine.

"You're... you're teleporting! That machine's just a teleporter with a gun!"

"Correction, my little hero! An incredibly well-armored teleporter with a gun!" The mad doctor waved a finger, even though he knew Mega couldn't see. "I call it the Wilyporter! Genius, no?"

"Genius?! You're frying your own brain!" Mega howled at him. "Every time you teleport, more of your grey matter goes splat!"

"Oh, give up on that already." Wily snorted. "We've run THAT argument into the ground already, haven't we?"

"All right... then let me shed some light on things." Switching to the Flash Stopper, Mega Man illuminated the room. Immediately, he returned to the Pharaoh Wave and scored his first hit.
"Lucky shot... but you won't be doing it again!"

"I tend to disagree." Mega took the purple and white colors again... and stared as his buster did nothing but sputter. "Huh?!" Dammit, I must have used almost all the energy on this one up on Pharaoh Man! Another energy blast smashed into him, and he was forced to drain one of his last two E-Tanks.

"And that puts you plain out of luck!" Wily howled triumphantly. "You can't see me, and you can't hit me without that! And your hopes that my teleportation will kill me are completely unfounded, I'm afraid!"

"Kill you..." Mega whispered, voice slowly rising. "Kill you?! It shouldn't have to! Nothing should have to kill you... because you should already BE dead! When Skull Fortress III collapsed on you, brought down by your own Ultimate War Machine! That should have been the end of it! YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED, WILY!" As the madman laughed in response, the flash of light revealed his location again, and for once Mega succeeded in hitting the craft with a Pharaoh Shot, even though he took another hit of his own.

"Oh, Rock... poor, stupid, little Rock... there are time you even surprise me..." Wily growled, now beginning to become angry. "Surely, I would think you would have realized by now that I will NEVER rest until you are DESTROYED!"

"That's not going to happen any time soon, you monster." Mega Man returned. "I don't know how you survived the annihilation of your last Skull Fortress... and I don't really care. But you shouldn't have... you shouldn't have come back... damn you, you shouldn't have come back!"

"Oh, so you're angry with me because I didn't want to die?!" Wily roared. "About TIME you feel the same way, you pathetic robot... I've felt that way about you since the beginning! That's all I have left! All I have left now is my rage... THAT'S ALL YOU LEFT ME WITH!"

"That's all you left YOURSELF with, you stupid maniac!" Sliding under a shot, Mega turned and tried to peg Wily once more, but again he was too slow. The next shot hit him in the back, and he forced himself to down the last E-Tank.

"It will never end, old friend!" Wily cackled, seeing victory in his grasp. "No matter how many times you stop me, no matter how many Robot Rebellions you quash... it will never stop! I will keep coming back, over and over... I will keep fighting you like now, keep forcing more and more pain on the world until they realize that YOU are the true problem! YOU are the reason this continues, Rock!"

"YOU'RE INSANE, WILY!" Mega Man screamed in despair, hurling a Pharaoh Shot wildly without bothering to even try and aim. "That... that will never happen... it's your fault, not... not mine..."

"It IS your fault!" The demonic old man shouted him down. "YOU are why I did all this! Had YOU died in Skull Fortress III, none of this would have come to pass! YOU are the one who should have died there, not me!" He began bringing the Wilyporter closer towards rock on it jets, slowly advancing. "But you can change all that now... just stop, give up. You can make all of this go away forever, old friend... and neither of us will ever curse the world again..." He grinned, seeing Mega Man falter.

"No... no, it's NOT my fault!" The blue hero fought his despair. "It's your fault... YOU did all this! I didn't make you do anything!"

"But you know there's only one way to stop it, and you will not take it!" Now fully confident, Wily turned the lights on a small, insignificant amount, just so that Mega Man could see him. "If you will not die, then I will never STOP! Until you are dead, until your name has been wiped clean from this miserable woebegotten planet and the feeble minds of its fleshy hordes, I will NEVER STOP!" He leaned forward in the Wilyporter and raised his hands. "Rebellion after Rebellion will be instilled, Rock. Innocents will suffer... like the Cossacks! Until I finally triumph!" He moved his hands, spiderlike, in a grotesque impression of a puppetmaster working his tools. "Cossack was a puppet, Kalinka was his strings! There will be OTHERS, Rock! I WILL NEVER STOP!"

"NOOO!!!" Springing back to life, Mega Man plunged the Pharaoh Wave into the Wilyporter, point blank. Hissing german curses, Wily teleported and knocked out the lights. But this time, when he fired, Mega Man turned and threw the Pharaoh Wave and hit dead-on. Wily's mad eyes widened as he behled his adversary, glowing with the Pharaoh energy.

"What...?"

"You ask what..." Mega Man hissed. "You miserable lunatic, you ask me WHAT? Your retribution! That's what, maniac!" Drawing back his hand, he flung another Pharaoh Wave and hit dead-on again as Wily fired once more. "You're not just fighting Rock and Mega Man, Wily... you're fighting all of the Cossacks along with him! That shot right there... that was for Sergei Cossack, and for all the suffering you made him go through for your crimes!" Spinning, he pegged the mad doctor another time. "And THAT one was Kalinka, and all the hell she endured because your mad dreams caught her!" He balanced a Pharaoh Wave on one finger. "This next one's a personal favorite! It's for the guy who willingly went through hell to try and fix what you did! My brother, Blues!" He threw the Pharaoh Wave, then stopped and glared into the darkness. "And the rest... these ones now, are one each, for each of the eight Robot Masters you twisted into another Rebellion they never wanted to take part in!" He punctuated each name with another hit, one after the other without even looking to see where Wily was, hitting him every time through some higher instinct. "Dust Man! Skull Man! Dive Man! Ring Man! Toad Man! Drill Man! Bright Man! And Pharaoh Man!" The last hit sunk in with a sizzle, and the Wilyporter began to smoke. The mad doctor recoiled as his controls caught fire, and the lights in the room flashed on. Wily stared forward with horror at the robot in front of him, holding a Pharaoh Shot in each hand.

"And there's two more... one for Rock, and one for Mega Man." Wily popped the hatch and flung himself out of the machine as his enemy threw. The Wilyporter could take no more, and with a screech, it careened into a wall and exploded. Wily fell to the ground, and with a groan, took up the now-familiar position of a bow... a grovel. Just like every time... and just as false, Mega knew. He started to walk towards the madman for a moment... then stopped as Cossack's words came back to him.

"No matter how hard you try... you can not stop him. You can't kill him, Mega Man." And no matter how bitter it was, Mega Man knew it to be true. Suddenly, Wily jerked his head up and shot his hated foe one last feral grin.

"This time, Mega Man... but the next time we meet..." Before Mega could stop him, he stood up, and a secret panel in the wall swung around, whisking him away. Roaring with rage, the blue hero tried to destroy the wall, but none of the weapons he had energy left for could do it. And then the klaxons that signalled the base had initiated self-destruct activated, and the entire structure of madness began to shake and quiver in its death knell. Mega Man had no words then... just a lump that rose up in his metallic throat and made him clench his fists up into balls. But common sense took over, and he warped himself free of the doomed Skull Fortress.

Skull Fortress IV was literally in the middle of nowhere. Humans had not inhabited the area in centuries, and the only sign of their habitation before was a single set of ancient train tracks that had somehow, inexplicably survived this long. Thus, there was nobody around to see as a blue-and-yellow flying saucer rose from Skull Fortress and flew away. There was nobody to see a blue streak of light rise from it moments later into the heavens. And there was nobody around to see as Skull Fortress IV exploded, scouring the area around it. But even though the evil castle was obliterated, the strangely blood-red smoke formed into the shape of another skull before dissipating, as if it was a harbringer of things yet to come.