'You have got to kidding.' Axl said. A large, nay, colossal crevasse lay in front of them. No way across. Glyde checked something on his computer. A few seconds later he stared in shock, then looked up at the crevasse, then back at his computer, as if checking for confirmation.
'My God.' He said.
'What is it?' Roll asked. Glyde waved vaguely towards the crevasse.
'This crevasse is the firewall around NetCity.' Roll put her hand to her mouth in shock. Axl looked disbelieving.
'A robot did this?!' He said incredulously.
'No,' Said Glyde. 'Something else did this. Something big.' As one, they looked up. The sky had become a dark orange, with a few transparent orange clouds in the sky. Apparently hanging there was the Elixir cannon. A beam connected to something in a hole which led underground. Every few seconds, a pulse travelled down from the cannon, making the ground shake slightly. Glyde typed up something on his computer.
'Uh huh.' He said.
'What now?' Megaman asked.
'There's the exit.' He pointed to the cannon.
'Exit?' Roll repeated.
'In that cannon is the only way out of here.' Glyde said. Silence.
'Bugger.' Said Axl.
'Yah.' Glyde answered. Megaman thought for a second.
'Hold on, I think I know a way around.' He said.
'A way AROUND?!' Axl exclaimed. 'It's a bloody crevasse! If it was any deeper it would qualify as the new Grand Canyon! How can you 'get around it'?!'
'Oh, cut him some slack!' Roll said, then winced at the pain in her leg. She continued, 'He's been through the worst!'
'I agree. Let's hear him out.' Glyde said.
Megaman walked forwards a few steps, then pointed his buster at a point a few metres in front of him. He charged it up and fired. Where he fired immediately appeared a data stream. After hesitating, he stepped into it and was instantly compressed and sent into the ground. Roll looked at the others, then walked after Megaman. So did Glyde and Axl.
'Weren't we just here?' Axl said. Megaman looked around. He had to admit that to the naked eye this area seemed no different from the one above them, bar the one above them didn't have a few thousand metre high roof. The landscape around them was a hive of fire and destruction. Many other data streams had either been sucked dry or smashed. Unfortunately, there wasn't a working one for miles.
'I saw this place in my dream. It was full of data streams…this shouldn't be happening…' Megaman said.
'Well, it is.' Axl replied. 'Now let's go.' Suddenly and without warning, a missile flew over their heads and hit a data stream next to them., making data erupt like a mushroom cloud.
'Heads down!' Megaman shouted as data fell around them.
'We have to go back!' Glyde shouted over the explosions.
'We can't! This is the only way out!' Megaman shouted back. Axl looked around, scared out of his wits.
'Screw this!' He said, and rushed back into the data stream. Glyde looked back at the data stream, then at Megaman and Roll, made up his mind and ran into the data stream. Finally, it was just Megaman and Roll.
'Don't go…please!' He said. Roll looked saddened beyond belief.
'Mega, I'm so sorry.' She said. She then turned around and went to the stream. At the last moment, she turned around and looked at Megaman. 'I'm so sorry.' She said. Before she could move, she was shot by a missile.
'No!' Megaman screamed. Roll vanished into the data stream, just as it exploded. He stared after her. 'No…' He turned around. A couple of heavily armed navis were making their way quickly towards him. Megaman gripped his gun. He opened up the mini-computer and input a code. The gun then changed into a Blaze Launcher. I don't remember this, he thought. Too late, he thought again. He fired. He regained vision a few seconds later, and even then all he got was an intensely bright light. Three seconds later, the light died down and he saw the damage. A crater the size of a small house had appeared where he targeted. His internal computer made a few changes to help Megaman see better when he fired. Then he made his way towards the beam.
'Jesus H. Christ.' Megaman was freaked. This shouldn't be possible. But it was. By jiminy, it was. There was a firewall between him and the core. Megaman stared, then took off his helmet and threw it at the floor in frustration. 'Shit! Come on!' Then he looked to his left. Something had caught his eye. A data stream. A working one. Megaman ran straight into it. Pity. He really wouldn't like what he'd find on the other end.