Chapter 9

                "Mother Brain! We have trouble!" Ridley cried as he flew into a dark cave. However he stopped short when he saw the Brain in her glass chamber, quietly communicating with a metroid.

                "It's not possible. Samus destroyed them all. Have we finally perfected the recreation process?" Ridley asked moving closer. Mother Brain's eyes flew open and the metroid latched on to Ridley.

                "NEVER SPEAK HER NAME IN MY PRESENCE IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?" Mother Brain roared. The metroid removed itself from the weakened Ridley and floated over to the glass chamber.

                "Of course master. Forgive me." Ridley said.

                "We haven't completed the process, but this one is amazingly close. Now what small little problem could we possibly have that would need such dire attention." Mother Brain asked, getting impatient with Ridley. Ridley paused for a moment. The Brain was furious with the mere mention of Samus' name. How would she react to her presence on this planet?

                "Uh, a group of heroes on this planet attacked me and they know about your plans. They are quite strong and use strange powers." Ridley said, avoiding the obvious point.

                "Oh pooh on them. I'm not afraid of a bunch of measly humans. Besides, as long as Samus isn't here, then there's nothing they could do to harm me or the metroids." She said quite matter-of-factly.

                "She's here." He muttered. He started to back away from Mother Brain.

                "Did you say something Ridley? Speak up." The Brain ordered.

                "She's here master. I don't know how, but she's here." Ridley asked.

                "Who's here? Who are you talking about?" Mother Brain asked.

                "Samus." Ridley said. He flew behind a large boulder, but there was no big explosion, no fireballs. Nothing.

                "Samus? Here. Well isn't that just ducky. I was so hoping that she wouldn't interfere with my plans, but I suppose it's fate that we meet up again."

                "You're not mad Mother Brain?" Ridley asked looking out from behind the rock.

                "Of course I'm not mad. Come to me Ridley." The Brain said. Ridley walked over to her chamber. "I'M FURIOUS!!!!" She screamed. She vaporized Ridley with one large blast. "Oh now look what you've gone and done. Must I resurrect you again?" She revived Ridley and she closed her eyes, deep in thought.

                "This poses significant problems. How many are there?" The Brain asked.

                "I counted eleven of them. Twelve, if you count the mutt. They were all human except for one. Not overly sure what it was." Ridley explained.

                "Tell me about these powers of theirs." The Brain queried.
                "Even I do not understand them. They seemed to be able to speak words and things would happen. One of them spoke 'vanish' and a hostage I had disappeared in my very hands. But he was still there and the dog picked him up and carried him away. Very confusing." He said.

                "It's called magic you ignoramus." Came a voice from the entrance. There stood a tall man with a large sword and a long black cloak.

                "Who the hell are you, barging in on my domain?" Mother Brain roared.

                "My name is Sepiroth. As for barging in on you're domain, it sounds like we have a similar interest. I've been listening to your conversation and it sounds like the ones using magic are undoubtedly Cloud and his little groupie. Sounds like they found some friends though." Sepiroth said.

                "You have a point I hope." Brain said, getting impatient.

                "I'm, what you would call, the evil of this world. As we speak I have a giant meteor on it's way to vaporize this pathetic planet. However Cloud has this crazy notion of stopping me. He's become quite the pain."

                "Don't like the planet so have it vaporized. I like your style Sep. Maybe we can work something out after all." She said as her laughter echoed into the darkness.

*                              *                              *

                After what seemed like forever, Mega Man finally awoke. Back to his normal self, thankfully. He looked around and almost got shocked out of his wits. Tron, Tiesel, Roll and Bass were talking calmly. They weren't fighting, they weren't arguing, but actually talking?

                "I never thought I'd see the day…" Mega man said as he looked dumbfounded at the group.

                "Mega Man! You're awake! Thank goodness." Roll said going over and hugging him.

                "Roll go easy on me. You're gonna crack my armor and squash me!" He said. Tron stood up.

                "It's good to see you're okay. You had us worried." She said. Mega man looked confused.

                "You two never cease to amaze me. First you wanna kill me, then you want to help me, then try to… well you know what I'm saying."

                "We're not completely heartless after all." Tiesel said. "Tron proved that when we found out she had a crush on…" Tiesel was cut off and doubled over as Tron gave him a hard elbow to his midsection.

                "SHUT UP TIESEL!" Tron said, blushing. Mega man got a confused look on his face. Roll had a look on her face that would get a bear to flee, but no one noticed it. Mega man sat with the others.

                "So how come you were following us?" Roll asked Tron. She looked up in surprise at the question, but calmly answered.

                "Well we were trying to find a town to sell that huge refractor we got after you're last mission. After all our boat was in bad shape and it was all we had left. Now…" she said looking at what remained of their craft. It was easy to figure out it was no longer sea worthy.

                "Speaking of the refractor, where is it?" Tiesel asked as he realized it was no longer hanging from the back of the boat. He got up and started looking around.

                "First one to find it gets to keep it!" Bass said as he bounded up and disappeared into the brush.

                "Hey we had it first! Get back here you creep!" Tron screamed, running after him.

                "They seem to get along real well." Roll said while chuckling. She looked at Mega Man. "You sure you're okay?"

                "I'm fine. Well shall we search out that refractor? It'll give us something to do." He said, lifting himself up.

                "I suppose it wouldn't hurt to…" she never finished as Babu came flying out of the forest at high speed, Tiesel, Tron and Bass close behind.

                "We've gotta get outta here. The big refractor cracked and there's some kind of energy reaction. It's gonna blow and probably take this island with it." Tiesel said as he ran to his boat.

                "It's gonna what?!" Roll said, jumping up. "Everyone to the flyer. I just hope we can lift off with all of us on board." No one hesitated, and they all ran towards Mega Man's small craft. Roll started to climb the ladder, but Bass and Mega man simply jumped to the tree tops then onto the craft.

                "It's time to leave Roll." Mega man said as he saw a flash of light to the south. There was a large crackle, like fire racing through an acre of dried tinder. Then there was a huge flash and an earth-shattering explosion. They all looked to the south and saw bright white light in a sphere ever expanding towards them.

                "It's too late! We're not gonna make it!" Tron said as the aircraft started to lift off. But the weight proved to be too much and the craft couldn't get more then a few feet off the ground.

                "We're too heavy. We're finished!" Tiesel said as he covered his head and knelt down. The light over took them and everyone felt searing heat tear through their bodies. It was like being in the center of the sun, yet somehow surviving. When just as quickly as the light had overtaken them, it receded and disappeared into a small puff of smoke. The craft then lifted off and headed into open sea.

                "That explosion must have energized our ship or something because we're flying quite easily now. Is everyone alright?" Roll said into the loudspeaker. Bass appeared in the front window as he had been on the upper deck. Roll jumped back and screamed, but after she realized who it was, she glared at him.

                "I'm fine, thanks for asking sweet cakes." Bass said with a mock grin. He stayed on the top deck and enjoyed the sunlight. Tiesel came up the ladder behind her.

                "How did we ever survive that? I thought we were barbecued for sure." He said. Roll looked at him.

                "I can't explain it myself. How's Tron and Babu?" she asked. Tiesel looked up at her.

                "Well Babu is fine, but I haven't seen Tron. Nor Mega Man for the matter."  He replied.

                "Mega Man?" She said, her face going pale. She grabbed the microphone and the speakers on the ship crackled to life. "Mega Man, report to the command deck immidiately." She waited for a few moments, then repeated herself. Bass opened the top hatch and poked his head inside.

                "Hey Roll, you might wanna see this." He said, his face somber and quiet. He was missing his attitude and meanness. Totally not like Bass at all. She became even more worried. She rushed up the ladder to the top deck. When she got there, Bass pointed to a spot on the deck. There, unmistakable to the naked eye, were two foot marks burned into the deck. She looked at Bass and he nodded.

                "He was standing right there just before that light hit us. I thought I heard something but my instincts told me it was my own voice crying out from that heat." Bass said.

                "Mega Man was… incinerated?" she said, choking on the words. Babu came racing from around the side of the ship, babbling like crazy.

                "What do you want Babu? This isn't the time!" Tiesel said looking at Roll and the burn marks. "Wait a minute. Where's Tron?!" The group raced down two levels and into Roll's room. There, laying on the ground, was a smashed picture of Mega Man and two more burn marks. No doubt in their mind that they matched Tron's shoe size perfectly.

                "Not Tron too." Roll cried, picking up the picture frame. She looked at Mega Man standing there, giving her the thumbs up to let her know everything was all right. She started to sob uncontrollably as she fell to her knees. Tiesel came in the room and saw the scene.

                "Tron… where are you! Troooonnnnnnn!" His voice echoed off into the open air as the aircraft floated off to nowhere inparticular.