Well, on with the story! I bet all of you should know who Megaman is. If not, then keep it to yourself; because you're gonna get a lot of weird glares if you don't. Not knowing who Megaman is as bad as not knowing who Mario is!
Chapter 36: The Trial Continues! Out of the Prison We Go!
Rock, now in his battle form, is standing on top of his faithful android dog Rush, flying towards Wily's Super Fun Land. Instead of flying for the main entrance, he flies over the gate and towards the giant skull-shaped castle at the end of the amusement park. Good thing no security camera taped him down.
-
Blizzardman slams his hand against the ground, and the snow floats up and forms a giant snowman! The snowman moves on its own and slowly approaches Young Link. "How in the world does it move by itself!" gasps YL.
"Hehe! It's because of the Darkling!" replies Blizzardman. "The Darkling has possessed the snow, allowing it to move on its own!"
The snowman throws a punch at YL, who quickly hops away to avoid the punch. He pulls out his bow and fires a Light Arrow at the snowman Darkling. The arrow shoots into the snowman and flies out through the back! "What! It missed!" gasps YL.
"Ha! You didn't aim well!" laughs Blizzardman. "Unless you hit the Darkling, you cannot destroy the snowman!"
The snowman continues to throw punches at YL, who runs around to avoid the blows. "If only I have fire arrows, then I can melt the snow and reveal the Darkling!" thought YL. "But there's no fire around here. Wait a minute, the lighter!" YL reaches into his pocket and takes out a light, but when he lights it, he notices that the fire is too small to light an arrow.
"Hey you! Don't play with fire!" Blizzardman scolds him. "It's going to melt the snow!"
Then an idea came to YL. "That means Blizzardman's weakness is fire! But I doubt this tiny fire can burn him."
The snowman throws another punch at YL, but he quickly avoids it again. "How can I make the fire big enough?" Then a thought came to him immediately. "That's it! The sunflower oil!" He remembers the sunflower oil Yoshi won from the pie eating contest. "The oil will surely boost up the fire!" He turns around and quickly runs toward the boat. The snowman breaks down into particles and flies ahead of YL, forming in front of him and blocking his way. The snowman throws a punch at him, but YL avoids it by rolling between its legs.
YL runs to the boat and sees the bottle of sunflower oil lying there. "Here it is! But how should I use it?"
The snowman approaches him from behind and raises its fist to punch him again. YL quickly turns around and fires a Light Arrow. Amazingly, the arrow hits the right spot! The arrow flies into the snowman's head and a Darkling is pushed out by the arrow from the back of the snowman. When the Darkling dies, the snowman crumples into pieces.
"So you destroyed the snowman. You're really good!" says Blizzardman. "But you're not good enough to defeat me!" He fires several snowflake-shaped blades at YL. He pulls up his shield to block himself from the blades, and then he quickly runs off in another direction.
"I'll have to make him stand in one place," thought YL. "But how?" As he is running, he accidentally bumps into Luigi. "Oof! Luigi!"
"Uh… Young Link… We're done for, aren't we?" asks Luigi.
"Not quite! I have a plan!" Then YL whispers into Luigi's ear.
Blizzardman steps up from over a snow hill and says, "You there! Come and fight me like a man!"
YL pulls out his sword and shouts to him, "Then come down here, you big ball!"
Blizzardman angrily skis down the hill and clashes his ski pole with Young Link's sword. As the two are trading blows with each other, Luigi runs in circle around them, pouring oil on the path he travels. When he made a ring of oil around them, he calls out to YL, "Done!"
YL nods and jumps out of the ring of oil, leaving Blizzardman confused on what he's doing. YL takes out the lighter and throws it onto the oil. When the fire of the lighter touches the oil, it burns up and follows the trail of oil, creating a ring of fire! Blizzardman, who is trapped inside the ring, panics and cries in fear. "No! Fire! Take it out! It'll melt the snow!"
YL takes out his bow and begins firing arrows into the fire. When the arrow goes through the fire, it catches afire. Blizzardman moves around fast to avoid the fire arrows. "Stop playing with fire!"
YL ignores him and continues shooting arrows into the fire. Soon, Blizzardman had enough. "That's it! I'm going to use my ultimate attack! Snowstorm!" The sides of Blizzardman's body opens, and cold wind blows out of it! The wind is so strong that it creates a powerful snowstorm!
"What the heck!" gasps YL as he uses his hand to cover his face from the wind. The wind continues to blow until the fire dies out and everything is covered by snow.
After a while of blowing, Blizzardman finally stops the wind. "Whoosh… I've never though I'd be using this move… That kid really got me mad! Kids should never play with fire!" He looks around for YL and the other Smashers, but they are nowhere in sight. "Strange… Where are they?" When he tries to move his hands, it won't move. When he looks down at his body, he sees a long metal chain strapped around him! "What!"
"Hehe! Got you!" laughs YL, who is standing behind him. "While the wind is blowing, I sneaked up behind you and tied you up with my Hook Shot!"
"What the! Let me go!" yells Blizzardman, trying hard to struggle out, but the chain is too strong and he can't break loose.
Suddenly, Yoshi appears before Blizzardman, and on the dinosaur's hand is the Meteor Mace. "Now's my turn to get you," says Yoshi in a soft but scary tone. Yoshi, with a scary grin on his face, slowly approaches Blizzardman while patting the mace against his hand.
"What are you doing!" cries Blizzardman. "It's not fair! Two going against one! That's not fair!"
"I tell you what's not fair!" says Yoshi. "You put our friends to prison for no apparent reason! You keep on talking about how strong you are and how you will kill us all! We entered this trial so we can rescue our friends, but you're stopping us! And furthermore, your fighting style forced Young Link to use up all my sunflower oil! I was planning to cook fries with it when we got home!"
"You're crazy!" screams Blizzardman.
"Now you will have to face consequences!" Yoshi goes nearer and nearer to Blizzardman.
"Don't! Dr. Wily will be angry with you if you harm me!"
Yoshi ignores what he says and goes even nearer to him. As he approaches, his smile becomes more and more demented and his eyes seem to imply that he's out for blood.
"No! You'll be sorry!"
Yoshi stands in front of Blizzardman and slowly raises his mace.
"You'll regret it!"
Yoshi then brings his mace down at full speed!"
"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
The mace smashes into Blizzardman's head, tearing down into the body and all the way to the bottom. The two halves of Blizzardman's torn body collapsed onto the ground and short-circuit.
-
The Longman Darkling slams its hand onto the floor to get Fox, but he hops aside to avoid it. The instant the hand slams onto the floor, Mario smacks the hand with his extended Fire Rod and holds it there, not letting the Darkling draw back his hand. Fox runs up to the Darkling and jumps up in front of its face. He points his Nuclear Gun at the Darkling's face and pulls the trigger. The beam shoots into the Darkling's head and comes out the other side, making a large hole in the head. The Darkling's body falls backwards off the platform and onto the spikes, and then it disappears into thin air.
"Phew… We finally got him," says Fox while wiping the sweat off his forehead.
"Okay, we got the enemy, now what do we do?" asks Falco.
"Wait?" answers Mario.
Samus gets back up onto her feet. "My armor is cracked again… I should get it fixed fast!"
-
The defeat of Blizzardman triggered the harness to let go of the boat, allowing it to move once again. "Okay, the enemy's down already," says YL. "Let's continue moving."
"I thought we're done for," says Pikachu. "But I'm glad we made it through."
"I'm glad I was useful earlier," says Luigi proudly. "I should continue being a brave man!"
Yoshi is weeping with tears. "The sunflower oil…"
"Just get over it!" YL tells him. "Sunflower oil isn't something that can't be found in stores!" They got back onto the boat and sets sail, following the only path forward.
-
A rather plump robot with some sort of a Chinese pigtail and two large fans on his shoulder is sitting cross-legged on a platform, with winds blowing around him. "The wind brings me news. It says that Blizzardman is defeated. That poor thing, he does not have enough experience. I, as the master of the Trial of Wind Windman, am definitely nothing like Blizzardman."
In another room, an orange robot built in the form of an Arabian sultan sits among the flames. "Blizzardman is defeated. Now I know that those flesh beings are not to be underestimated. Still, their powers are no match for the master of the Trial of Fire, Flameman. And that's me!"
In yet another room, a robot whose head resembles a flower is walking through a garden filled with all kinds of lush green plants and colorful flowers. "Ah, my little friends, I understand your feeling," he says to the flowers. "It is tragic news that we lost one of our friends. May he someday bloom again and get revenge on his attackers. I, master of the Trial of Plant Plantman, will avenge for him."
-
Megaman is somewhere outside the castle, sneaking around and trying not to get caught by the Sniper Joes that are patroling around. He peeked from behind a wall and sees some guards standing in front of a large door. "That must be the gate to Wily's office! But how can I get in there without being noticed?" He sees a heating vent above the wall he's hiding behind. "Perhaps this vent will somehow lead me inside." He takes off the heating grate and climbs inside the vent, followed by Rush.
-
The boat is traveling very well through a long tunnel and nothing has happened so far. Luigi is humming that tune from Mario 64 whenever you are in an open field like Bob-Omb Battlefield while driving the boat.
"When will this trial reach an end?" asks Yoshi. "I'm tired of it! And hungry too…"
"It's probably coming to an end, because I see a gate over there," points out YL.
"That better not be another battle of some sorts," says Luigi. "I don't wanna fight again!"
"I thought you said you want to be brave," says Pikachu.
"But that doesn't mean I want to fight!"
The boat continues to travel, and really, nothing is coming after them! Okay, something happened at this moment. A black robot suddenly hops onto the front of their boat! Luigi screams and crawls under the driver's seat and YL pulls out his sword and says, "Who are you? And are you attacking us?"
"Relax," says the robot, or an android, to be precise. "I have no interest in fighting you guys. You don't look strong after all."
"What! How dare you underestimate us!" says Yoshi angrily.
"We no weak! We very strong!" says Jigglypuff. "We beat big metal ball earlier!"
"Ha! That big skiing ball is a joke compared to me!" says the android. "If I were fighting him, then I could've defeated him in a split second, for I am that old geezer Wily's most powerful robot!"
"And what shall we address you by, tough guy?" says YL.
"My name is Bass, and remember it."
"So what do you want with us!" shouts Luigi from under the seat.
"Just walking around and I happened to come by here. I'm not in the mood of fighting you guys, since you'll surely lose to me."
"How dare you underestimate us!" says Yoshi angrily. He pulls out an egg and hurls it at Bass, but he smashes the egg with a single punch.
"Ha! You call that an attack?" laughs Bass. "You're nothing compared to Megaman! Now he packs a challenge to me!"
"You mean that boy who calls himself Rock while other people call him Megaman?" asks Yoshi.
"So you know him. That reminds me… I feel like playing with him right now. Hehe, it's gonna be fun!" Having said this, Bass jumps off at a very fast speed.
"Now what was that all about?" asks Luigi as he climbs up from under the seat.
The boat continues to travel, slowly reaching the gate ahead. When the boat finally got near, the gate opens and the water current starts moving inwards fast! "Whoa! Hang on!" shouts Luigi.
"It's another water slide!" says Yoshi happily. "I love it!"
The water gushes into the gate, entering the darkness behind it. The boat is being tossed and turned around by the wild current of the water. The Smashers are enjoying the ride, except Luigi, who is screaming his head off.
-
"Hey, have you heard anything?" asks Fox.
"Yeah, you're not the only one," says Samus. "I hear some screaming also."
At this moment, part of the wall opens and water starts rushing in! "Water is flooding in!" gasps Falco. "That Wily is gonna drown us all!"
The water begins filling up the entire place, covering the spikes at the bottom. All of a sudden, a boat comes rushing into the room and lands onto the water with a splash. "Woohoo! That was fun!" says Yoshi.
"Hey! Guess who's down there!" says Samus, pointing to the boat.
YL looks up and smiles happily. "Well! We found them!"
"Hooray!" goes the other 4 Smashers on the boat.
When the water is at a certain level, Luigi jumps off the boat and onto the platform, and then he runs to hug Mario. "MARIO! I MISS YOU SO MUCH!"
"Relax-a, Luigi! You are very brave to come here and save-a me!" says Mario.
Fox notices that the water continues to rush in and the level starts rising. He looks up at the spikes on the ceiling. "Um, guys… I think I figured out what those spikes on the ceiling are for…"
"What?" asks Falco.
"The water level keeps on rising, and eventually we'll be forced up there and die to those spikes!"
"I thought Wily said it'll be over when we reach the destination!" says Pikachu. "He made this a trap all along!"
"But we together again. We should be happy!" says Jigglypuff, who apparently has no idea about the situation they're in right now.
"How do we get out of here!" screams Luigi. "Did I come all the way here to die!"
Remember that heating vent mentioned back in chapter 34? The grate of the vent suddenly busts open and someone familiar appears behind it! "Hey guys!" shouts the person.
"Who are you?" YL calls back.
"It's me, Rock!"
"Rock? You don't look like him…"
"Just get over here fast!" Megaman places his arm cannon on the air before him and creates a long blue energy road that leads to the platform! "Quick! Cross the Magnet Beam and come to the vent!"
"Can we trust him?" asks YL.
"He claims he's Rock, so we should trust him," says Pikachu. "Even if we stay here, we'll die." So the Smashers cross the energy road one by one, until they all got into the vent.
"It's kinda small in here…" complains Yoshi.
"Well, it's a heating vent. What do you expect?" says Pikachu.
"Good, you're all here! Let's get out of here," says Megaman.
"Who ARE you?" YL asks him again.
"I told you already I'm Rock! This is my battle form, and the one they call Megaman!"
"Are you serious?"
"Of course I am! Now let us get out of this tight place!"
As Megaman crawls away, the Smashers follow him through the winding vent tunnel.
Dr Wily saw everything from a monitor. "Megaman! He came to rescue them!" He quickly presses a button on the controller and the door in the prison room closes, preventing water from coming in. He pulls out a microphone and shouts into it, "The prisoners have escaped! Get them at once!"
-
A guard robot is patrolling inside some building, when suddenly the heating grate above him breaks open and Rush falls on top of him. "Hey! Aren't you the dog that Mega…"
Megaman drops down from the vent and stomps the robot onto the floor. The other Smashers jump down and pile on top of Megaman.
"Finally, we're out! It was really hot inside the vent!" says Yoshi.
"Where are we?" asks Samus.
"I believe we are somewhere inside Wily's castle."
Suddenly, a large group of robots appear before them! "You are surrounded, Smashers and Megaman!" says one of them. "Give up now or we'll shoot!"
Megaman gets into offensive position, but Samus pushes him back and says, "I think we can handle these ourselves. It's to repay for your kindness of rescuing us."
The Smashers charge at the robot and starts beating on them. Within a few seconds, all the robots are in several pieces, lying on the floor. "You guys are strong!" exclaims Megaman.
"It's all because of me!" says Falco proudly. "Under my command, we are an unstoppable team!"
"Yeah right…" mumbles Samus.
Suddenly, the ceiling opens and a giant spike ball drops down! "We're in for trouble…" says Pikachu. And then the spike ball starts rolling towards them!
"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
They all run through the hallway with the ball chasing behind them. When they come to a 5-way path, they all ran in different direction.
Megaman and Rush took the left-most path. Falco took the next one. Pikachu, Yoshi, and Jigglypuff took the one next to that. Samus, Fox,and Mario took the next one and Luigi took the right-most one himself. The spike hits and blocks all the entrances and gets stuck there, for it is too big to go inside any of them. As for Young Link, he found a small alcove on the side of the wall, so he hid into it and is safe from the spike ball.
Luigi continues to run for his life, thinking that the spike ball is still behind him. When he notices that it's no longer after him, he stops to take some deep breath. "Phew… It's gone… I'm safe… Wait a minute, where is everyone?" He looks around him and sees no one. "I'M LOST!"
TO BE CONTINUED…
I made Luigi go by himself because I want to give him a moment to shine. Yes, it means he will come face to face with a tough enemy by himself.
My Shamans in the Pirate Era is posted on the Shaman King section, so if you're interested, go and check it out!