The robot exploded, sending debris everywhere. The explosion destroyed the firing range and carried over into the armoury, wrecking it beyond repair. All the navis were literally scattered. Bar one…
Megaman woke up. Strange, he thought, the explosion should've killed him. He looked around the desolate area. He saw something glinting in the ground, a few metres in front of him. He went over and looked at it.
'Oh, no…' He groaned. He followed the path of corrupted data until he reached the inevitable. He fell to his knees in shock, even though he knew he'd find it. It was a torso. To be more precise, his torso. He tried to grab at it, but his hands went straight through it. He looked up. A creature was standing a few metres away.
Hello, Hub. The words went straight into what might pass as his mind without going through what might also pass as his ears. On the mangled torso at his feet, his face could've passed for his ears. It's been very difficult to get you these past few years, and I nearly got you at birth. You've lived for far too long.
'Who are you?' Megaman asked, backing away slowly. He was also reaching for any weapon he might have. The creature laughed.
I am the harvester of mankind, the reaper man, the reaper navi, you might say. He leaned closer, showing a skull inside his hood. I am Death.EXE. I am the Grim Reaper. With that, he slashed at Megaman with his scythe.
Megaman opened one eye. Death's scythe was imbedded in him, but he couldn't feel anything. He opened the other eye, tried to move, and fell over. He looked up, and a shining vision helped him up.
'What the?' He said, but mainly to himself. The vision in front of him waved at him to follow. Sod this for a game of soldiers, Megaman thought, and ran away. Five steps later, he fell down a hole. 'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!' Megaman screamed as he fell. He fell for what seemed like hours. When he hit the ground, it was with a good, sodden thump. He got up, and saw the vision standing before him.
Please, it said, Don't try that again. The vision walked towards an archway, and through it. Megaman followed cautiously. Inside there was a DNA, and in the middle was a giant diamond. This is the main power source for NetCity.
Where am I? Megaman asked. He then looked down at his mouth. His ears didn't report anything being said, but his brain had heard something.
You are in the main core room for the Net, the vision said. Whoa, Megaman thought.
Wait, he said, the entire Net?
Yes. Whoa again, thought Megaman.
What am I doing here?
Step into the light, the vision said. Megaman looked at it quizzically. He walked over to the weird structure and looked down. Nothing. Absolute darkness. He looked over his shoulder. The vision was encouraging him to walk into the light. Shrugging and thinking that nothing could be worse than anything that had already happened, then regretting the thought instantly, Megaman walked over the crevice.
Megaman looked below him. Where he stood, energy sparkled off an unseen surface. Then he walked forward and was engulfed by the light.
'Megaman? Megaman, speak to me!' Roll was standing over him. He looked up at her and saw her blinking away a tear. He smiled faintly.
'Any chance of a hot dog?' He said. Roll laughed faintly and kissed him. When she pulled away, she was wiping away her tears. Axl, was standing a few metres away, polishing his weapons.
'We thought you were a dead navi.' Axl said. He was about to offer his congratulations when Glyde silenced him. He stared long and hard at Megaman, as if pondering a hard calculation.
'What is it, Glyde?' Roll asked.
'I sense a great power within Megaman.'
'Oh, we all know-' Axl began.
'I mean a new power. Something huge.' Glyde replied. They all looked at Megaman. Megaman looked down. His torso was tied with a digital bandage. He looked at himself in a mirror that Roll gave him. There was a huge crack along his helmet, held together with rope. He also had a long scar from his nose to his left ear. It was covered with stitches. But that wasn't the worst of it. Just above his core was a large wound that was still bleeding. It had a huge bandage over it, but it still bled data. He looked up at Roll. She was crying again.
'Glyde had to perform a bit of surgery.' She said. Megaman looked over at Glyde.
'Thanks, Glyde.' He said. He looked round. 'Hey, where is everyone?'
'We don't know. They were all scattered by the blast. We only survived because we hit something, most likely.' Glyde answered. Megaman looked at his trusty crew. He could see what he meant. Axl had a big bruise on the side of his head, Glyde had a dent running all along his right side, and Roll had-
'Roll!' Megaman cried in shock. She smiled faintly. There was a gaping wound in her thigh.
'I'll be alright.' She said. Megaman nodded blankly. He looked into the distance. Death.EXE was standing there, holding a lifetimer. He seemed to be smiling slightly.
You survived. He said. You seemed to be favoured by the higher beings. He stopped, and drew out a second scythe. There are many deadly viruses here. This will help you. It will be left with your other weapons, along with instructions on how to use it. Farewell. Then he disappeared into the shadows. Everyone was staring at Megaman.
'You all right?' Axl asked.
'Yeah I'm fine.' Megaman replied.
'Yeah. By the way, we found your weapons literally scattered across the area. We also found this.' Axl handed Megaman a scythe. 'Know what it does?' Megaman looked into the shadows. There, he thought he saw death winking at him before disappearing again.
'I have a pretty good idea.' He said.
Reaper man: The Reaper man is another name for Death in a book by Terry Pratchett, called Reaper Man.
Lifetimer: Death owns hundreds upon thousands of hourglasses that show how long each and every being in the universe has until they die. Including the Gods. These are called lifetimers.