The Other World Chapter 6: The News
(Beta reader's note: The author is Canadian, I'm American, so please forgive any inconsistencies in the spelling of various words that differ between the two forms of English our respective countries use.
On another note, for those of you who are confused, Mega is Neb 'Mega' Mann. Megaman/Rock is the robot fighter from the Classic universe. Roll Maylu is Mega's friend, whereas Roll/Empress is Megaman's sister.)
And now, the part you're all here for (and not that pesky story) the DISCLAIMER: Caution: The following story may cause sudden brain intracalutriation, severe reading syndrome and the inability to comprehend that I do not own Megaman, nor do I own the prefix mega-, or the Moon. I do however own the concept of the AM, PM, and DO (not to be confused with B.O) Also, mathematically there are 70 robot masters but TenguMan and other robots appear in multiple ones. So while there are 70 robot masters in all 9 games, not all of them are different (Megaman 2-8 had 8 robot masters, as did Megaman and Bass, and Megaman 1 had 6, so 8x8670). Scene changes are now indicated by:
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...Blue the color, Blue the dog, Blue the feeling... Blue sighed and stared off into the distance. He was supposed to be on the lookout for any dangers, but it seemed that Mega and Roll were doing fine in their new home. The only problem was that his quantum brain was bored out of its skull. He sighed as he remembered the way life had been when the AllMost had still existed, when he could go universe hopping at any time he wanted. Now he was responsible for keeping the MegaGuardians safe, which meant staying in one universe - and pretty much just one building - the whole time. How dull. He looked at his own personal armband and activated the program inside it. "Data?"
/Yes, sir?/ asked a small monkey on the screen.
"Teleport me to where Roll and Mega are, it's time for them to learn more about their powers. They need to be educated in the ways of the PerfectMillions..."
/Affirmative sir, beginning teleportation protocols./ Blue stood up and let himself be compressed into a stream of particles and speed skyward.
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Mega was assessing his situation. He was face down on a cold hard surface in some sort of lab, his entire body was throbbing in pain, his head was telling him he had just fallen several stories through several solid surfaces- /Uunnngghhh... Next time you feel like doing that... don't./
-and his sarcastic armband was still attached after all that. Simply wonderful.
"Are you all right?"
Mega looked up and saw a girl in high heels and pink shirt with her hair sticking out the top of her helmet. She wore armor and her head and face were protected by a pink helmet and red visor. Wow... She's pretty, thought Mega happily. Oh well, if I'm hallucinating then it isn't so bad. But I don't feel like I'm hallucinating. I just like my body went through a meat grinder. Maybe she can help me... wait... falling through the floor, landing in a laboratory, girl in pink... new armor...
"Roll!" shouted Mega.
"No," said the girl. "I'm only Roll when I'm in regular armour. Now I'm Empress."
Mega looked at her. She had changed. A lot. Now she looked like a teenager. Well, a teenager that could whup me if she wanted to, murmured Mega's inner coward. Empress turned and pointed at the red male robot standing next to her. He was admiring himself in the mirror, occasionally pulling out a saber, then a shield, and then yelling "Kawasaki" then doing something that looked like bad kung-fu with both of them. It made him look like he was trying in vain to out-perform himself. The disillusioned scarlet robot suddenly came up with and idea. He put back his saber and shield, reached down for a piece of stone and tossed it into the air in front of him. Mega's eyes followed the stone's path whilst two small voices began arguing in his head. Should I or shouldn't I, should I or shouldn't I, I should- He smiled evilly and saw the red robot ready to strike the small piece of gravel. Just as he was about to slash it with his saber, Mega called out, "PSYCH!"
The red robot spun around, then spun back just in time for the rock to hit his helmet. His body hadn't been badly damaged, but his pride was mortally wounded.
"ARRRRGGGGHHH! YOU LITTLE-"
Mega couldn't help himself, he burst into loud peals of laughter. Clutching his sides and rolling on the ground, he cried with mirth - up to the point where he poked himself in the eye with one of his helmet fins.
"Oww!" he cried.
Now it was the karate robot's time to laugh. Empress reached down and helped Mega to his feet. "He's Proto, used to be Protoman. As you can see, his vanity can get the better of him sometimes. Maybe you should take off your helmet before you hurt yourself."
"Huh, easier said then done. I've been trying to. After I stopped crying, Megaman asked me if I could take off my armour like him. But I couldn't."
"Oh come on," teased Empress. "You must be able to. You're a human!"
"Do you expect me to snap my fingersor clap my hands-" He snapped his fingersto emphasize his point, and, to his surprise, his armour glowed briefly before dissipating into a fine blue mist that was sucked into his armband. As the blue mist disappeared, it revealed the clothes he had been wearing before he had gotten his armour, completely undamaged. Empress giggled as Mega inspected himself in dumbstruck awe. Maybe next time I should change clothes before going on a life changing adventure. He still had on the ragged skin-tight clothes he wore in the Virtual Reality Pyramid.
Meanwhile, Dr. Light had woken up and moved towards the elevator, intent on checking what Megaman was doing. "Come, Protoman and Roll-" began Dr. Light. "It's Proto," said Proto in a cooler-than-thou voice.
"And Empress," added Empress.
"What about me?" asked Mega.
"Fine," said Dr. Light. "Empress, Proto and- wait, when did you get here? How did you get down here? Only I know how to get down here, and I certainly don't recall telling you that."
"Err- I can walk through walls?" said Mega.
"And so he can," came an unknown voice from inside the elevator. When the doors pulled back they revealed a surprised looking Roll Maylu and an even more surprised Megaman. But the most odd looking of the group was the navy blue humanoid that had just spoken.
"Does everyone know how to get down here?" asked Dr. Light angrily.
"There is more to these two," the stranger said, indicating Roll Maylu and Mega, "than what meets the eye."
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Baritone placed his arms in front of him. "You say you can give me the coordinates of Dr. Light's compound? I can get you in there." "How?" demanded Bass, still brooding from the clear favouritism Wily was showing towards the new robot Baritone.
Baritone smiled. "Not 'How' but 'When'."
Dr. Wily snorted. "You may be able to sneak into my skull compound, but not Dr. Light's, not any day of the week."
"Oh? I don't plan on sneaking in. I plan on us walking in, stealing the armours, and walking out. No sneaking."
"So, how do you plan on getting into the most heavily guarded place on the planet without sneaking?" asked Bass skeptically.
"Simple," replied Baritone. "We go when it is not the most heavily guarded place on the planet. Specifically, when one of us can get us in there without raising any suspicions." He looked at Wily. "Do you still remember the passcodes for the compound from when you and-" he gave Dr. Wily a sidelong glance, thought quickly, and said, "-that horrible fat old man worked together?"
"Of course," grumbled Dr. Wily. "I'm not old and senile, like some robots may lead you to believe." He glared at the grumbling Bass. "But what the heck do you mean by 'when'?" asked Dr. Wily
"If you recall, I mentioned chronon displacement by antimatter phaz-o-tron and flux capacitor, or time travel," Baritone replied.
"Time travel? Who does this guy think he is?" muttered Bass under his breath.
Apparently, Baritone had been listening. He turned away from Dr. Wily and met Bass's eyes directly. "I never promise something impossible. Besides, I can help him achieve his true dream of world domination. Can you?"
Bass stopped and thought. "Yes... probably... if Megaman..." the ebony android trailed off.
Baritone dropped his voice to a whisper. "Join me. I can give you true power. Not that flimsy 'dark power' that Dr. Wily gave you from that meteorite. Real power." Baritone placed a finger of darkness to his pure black lips. "I'll accept your response later - now is the time for action." He turned and faced Dr. Wily. "You wish for me to prove I can manipulate time? Please hand me a bolt."
Dr. Wily did so, and as Baritone wrapped his fingers around the bolt, there was a brief flash of purple light.
"Please look at where the bolt was."
Dr. Wily stared at where he had taken the bolt. In its place were three bolts in a row, all totally identical. The one on the far right flashed and disappeared, then the bolt on the opposite side winked out of existence too. Then the centre one flashed and appeared on Dr. Wily's head. "I simply took the bolt from the future and placed it in the past, then took it from the past and replaced them both, then placed the bolt from the present on your head."
Dr. Wily was over the moon. "You can go back through time! Now, take me back to the time I made the armours. I can teach that Dr. Light a lesson once and for ALL! " he laughed maniacally.
"Perfect. If you'll do me a favour and stand behind me, we can proceed right away." Baritone raised his arms over his head. A glowing orb of purple energy began growing between his hands, swelling until the entire room was wreathed in an eerie purple light. The ball of light floated down until it covered the group of three.
Bass looked outside the walls of light. He glanced up and saw a similar orb slowly moving up, shrinking, disappearing, then himself and Dr. Wily walking backwards from behind Baritone. Then Baritone sank back into the shadows and Dr. Wily started unmaking a robot in his lab. Bass turned to Dr. Wily, but the old man's eyes had begun to glaze over in wonder. The black robot growled inwardly. We met him only an hour ago and now we're supposedly going back through time?
Then another voice inside his head replied, The bolt trick looked real, didn't it?
Bass frowned at Baritone as the lab around them started to deconstruct itself and the people moving backwards became blurs. Maybe he is telling the truth...
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Dr. Light led the small group to the 4th floor, where a large mahogany conference table sat, overlooking a huge window showing the heavenly . The odd assortment of Proto, Empress, Megaman, Mega, Roll Maylu and Dr. Light sat down. "Now, sir," said Dr. Light. "Explain." Blue looked at the odd collection of people around him. Roll Maylu had changed into her regular clothes after learning how to from Mega. "First off, Mega and Roll, as you know, are Defenders of All. They have been granted armours to augment their capabilities to aid them. They have also been given the abilities of the AllMost-"
"Those guys, the AllMost. Who are they?" asked Proto.
"I'm not saying, but you two have a message from The Creator," replied Blue.
He tossed a small, glassy black cube to Roll Maylu, saying, "Here. Put this in your armband. I've gotta go." He walked towards the window a few steps before whispering something to his armband which made him fall straight through the floor, leaving no hole or indication of what he had just done.
Roll Maylu's charismatic ANIMAL projected a hologram of a man in an ivory lab coat and blue tie. His beard covered most of his face except his eyes and mouth. His eyes, though somewhat distorted by the hologram, seemed to reflect galaxies in their endless depths.
"I believe that you wish to hear about the AllMost. To explain their true history, I must remind you that the universe exists in both Time and Space. The AllMost and their counterpart the DarkOnes used to be a single race, the PerfectMillions."
"Heh, heh. Get it? AM and PM!" giggled Mega.
Roll Maylu leaned over as if to whisper, and then hit him hard on the back of the head. "Please go on," she said.
"The PerfectMillions were responsible for keeping all universes in good condition until they go MegaNova. However, two factions emerged. One argued that all universes should be changed so that they end happily; the other argued that each universe should end in turmoil. Soon they were at each other's throats. Only one thing prevented a multiverse wide war, and that was the fact that they were each to be given a domain of each universe to rule over, either Time or Space. So, the AllMost chose Space and the DarkOnes chose Time."
"So they could move only in space? And the evil ones could only move in time? That makes absolutely no sense! How could they move around in a universe?" argued Dr. Light
"You see the first problem. This meant that the AllMost and DarkOnes could not actually do anything in a universe to change it to attain the correct outcome. This led them to develop people in each universe to make sure that each universe ran like clockwork. For the AllMost it was the Guardians and their Creators," replied the hologram.
"Hey! That's me!" yelled Megaman excitedly.
"Yes. For the DarkOnes it was the Villain and their Minions. There are usually more Villains and Minions than Guardians and Creators. However, for one reason or another... The AllMost... Gone... Need MegaGuardian..." the hologram trailed off mumbling.
"What are you trying to say?" asked Roll Maylu.
"I'm saying that you two need to be told of your powers, but I can only tell you of two. The rest you must uncover for yourself. The first is the AllMost ability to travel through space."
"What's that supposed to mean? We technically travel through space whenever we move. What possible use could a power to travel through space be?"
"When I say space, I mean all space. Anywhere. Even if there's something there already, although in that case you become insubstantial," answered the shimmering hologram
Mega's mouth fell open. Roll Maylu looked dazed. Mega felt along his face for a moment, grabbed his jaw and pushed his mouth closed. It fell open as soon as he removed his hand. "Anywhere... at all?" Mega asked, still unable to comprehend the magnitude of his powers. He started to giggle uncontrollably.
"The second is the power of all Guardians to absorb the powers of a defeated enemy. Be warned however, that while evil enemy's powers will be strong they will also affect you. Each dark power you absorb will contaminate you, turn you evil with every time you use it. That is all I can tell you I'm afraid, the rest is up to you..."
The hologram faded and disappeared, leaving the mahogany table devoid of its presence.
The entire room was silent. Everyone was staring at where the hologram had been. They stared there for a long time, attempting to digest all that they had heard. Roll Maylu slipped her hand into Mega's and squeezed while still staring directly at the spot the hologram had disappeared from, until she suddenly realized what she had just done. "Oh, sorry. It was a... natural reaction..." She blushed furiously... but didn't remove her hand.
Dr. Light stood up and addressed everyone there. "I'm off to bed, if you don't mind. I was working hard on Proto and Empress. In the mean time, I suggest you all start looking for any news that may be connected to the Dark agent."
While walking towards it, the elevator doors opened to reveal a familiar ruby red garbage can. Eddie looked up at the tired scientist yawning, frowned for a moment, then flipped open his top. Out shot a small glass of warm milk that landed directly in front of Dr. Light. The good doctor looked down with shock at the small glass of the warm white liquid. "I never cease to surprise me..."
Suddenly through the room passed waves and ripples. It seemed as if the room and the very air within it had suddenly become liquid. However, Megaman and Empress changed into their regular clothes as thougn nothing was happening, Dr. Light pressed the call button for the elevator, and Proto was getting ready to teleport home. None of them even seemed to notice the strange waves around them. Mega and Roll Maylu grabbed each other tightly and waited for the waves to subside.
"What was that?" quavered Roll Maylu.
"What?" asked all four in unison.
"Those creepy waves!" exclaimed the very shaken boy.
"Waves? I didn't see any waves," responded Rock (Megaman's non armor form).
HelpMan's screen flickered on,
/Oi, Mega. My internal sensors just picked up an odd energy burst,/ whispered the fearful program.
"Where is it coming from?" demanded Mega.
/Err... checking internal sensor readings. What the? That can't be possible!/
"What is it?" asked the petrified Mega.
HelpMan's screen sparkled for a second. On his screen appeared a huge pair of binoculars on a lime green robotic torso. His left arm was a large magnifying glass and his right was a huge satellite dish.
/Wow, my body function finally came online. Now you can see me./
"What about the energy burst?"
/Well… there's good news and bad news. The good is that I can detect what caused the energy burst, the bad news is that it came from the entire planet. That can only mean one thing: that something in the timeline has been altered. It caused the entire timeline to change. That was the waves. I can track who did it by their indifference to the changes. Hmmm… crosschecking DNA signature… checking AllMost robot list… android energy listing.../
Roll Maylu looked down at Mega's armband, then at her own.
"Spin? Do you have a real form too?"
Her armband glimmered and revealed a small girl in scarlet with black hair cascading down her back.
/Guess,/ said Spin sarcastically.
/According to the readings I picked up there were two androids and a human going in but there were eight robots and a human coming back. The funny thing is that the energy signatures of the robots match the armour Dr. light gave Proto and Empress. The one who took them there was a Dark agent, listed under the name of Baritone, he took someone called Dr. Wily and a robot called Bass. They brought back six armour energy signatures-/
"Dr. Light, look who's coming! I think it's CutMan and GutsMan, but they look really different!" screamed Megaman.
The white bearded doctor ran to the window. The setting sun silhouetted his worst fears realized.
"Confound it all! Why has he waited so long to bring his armours out?" raged the angry doctor.
"Wait, armours? You mean the ones that Proto and Empress have?" panicked Roll Maylu.
"Yes, but the ones I made for the First Robot Masters."
"I think I know how history changed…" began Mega.
"Who is Dr. Wily anyway?" inquired Roll Maylu
"WHAT??? HAVE YOU BEEN LIVING UNDER A ROCK?" yelled Empress.
"NO, JUST IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE REMEMBER?" replied Roll Maylu.
"Girls, calm down!" commanded Dr. Light. "Dr. Wily was my partner many years ago. Then he went evil and used my original robots to conquer the world. He also stole some experimental armours many years ago and is now using them!"
"Wait, if he stole the armours how come Megaman and Empress have theirs?"
"Well, obviously he didn't, and why would he? The only two robots he couldn't reprogram? And Protoman was too much of a loose cannon for him to be augmented" chuckled Dr. Light.
/Caution: Universal stability at 98,/ bleeped HelpMan.
"What's that supposed to mean?" yelled everyone.
Spin spoke up, /Jeez, why all the yelling? It simply means that this has already happened in another universe, so if it happens here, too, it will produce a precisely equal reaction cancelling out both universes./
The room went deathly quiet.
"Does that mean that-" began Rock.
/Yes, we will all die. Not only that, but since this is where the main Guardian is then all the other Megaman (Classic) universes will collapse. Since this is the "correct" universe all other Megaman Classic universe are based off this one./
It didn't seem possible but the room went even quieter. Faintly in the distance there were sounds of several large explosions and mayhem, doubtlessly from the two pumped up versions of CutMan and GutsMan.
It was the good Dr. Light who broke the silence.
"Wait, if you could absorb the powers of defeated enemies, couldn't you get some sort of time travel ray from the robot that's responsible for all this? And let's worry about us first. We're the only ones who know about this and the only ones who can stop it. Proto, you go out to the front and distract them. Megaman and Empress, you grab whatever you can from the lab and get to the roof and fight. Mega and Roll, you two go around the back and try to surprise them."
Why didn't he send the entire army of armoured robot masters? wondered Mega. Little did he know that that was what Baritone wanted them to think.
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Baritone smiled as his scanners indicated what he had been expecting. The pesky MegaGuardians were in chaos, The Plan was coming along nicely and Dr. Wily didn't know about his impending doom. He tapped a concealed button on his shoulder. "Master?" A voice like an organ being put through a meat grinder answered, "Yes, Baritone? You come with good news?"
"Better than could be imagined..."