Rhythm took a sharp breath, she was up so high! The second Robot Master just had to have been in the weather station above Mega City. Rhythm looked around, the station seemed pretty deserted. Where were all the people? She glanced over the side of the railings. Rhythm couldn't even see the city it was so cloudy.
"Rhythm?" her dad asked, bringing her into focus. Rhythm backed up from the edge, and responded.
"I'm here, have you ever been up here, Dad?" she asked.
"More than once, but most of the time it was on peaceful terms." Rhythm's dad replied. Rhythm glanced up. the sun was hanging high overhead. Rush barked, grabbing Rhythm's attention. She spun around, little flying robots were patrolling the skies overhead.
"What are those?" Rhythm asked.
"Those robots belong to the weather station, they maintain the instruments that are too dangerous for people to reach on a regular basis. Hopefully they're friendly." her dad explained. Rhythm gulped.
"Hopefully?" she said, keeping a close eye on the bots. She walked past, hoping it was casual. Not so, because the weather bots charged! Rhythm ducked, letting the little red robots zoom overhead. Rhythm dashed forwards."Let's get out of here, Rush!" she exclaimed. Rush barked and sped after her. Rhythm took a quick glance behind her, the bots had regrouped and were coming in for another pass. That wasn't good. Rush started barking like crazy, forcing Rhythm to look down at him.
"What is it, Rush?" she asked. Rush pointed with his nose up ahead. Rhythm followed the direction of his pointing, eyes widening. The walkways were broken! Rhythm looked back again, the robots were catching up. "What are we going to do, Rush?" she asked. Rush barked, and sped up. He leapt off the broken segment, turning into what Rhythm was sure was the Rush Jet. He hovered right in front of the broken part, motioning for Rhythm to hop on. Rhythm sprinted forwards, and jumped. She was screaming partly from fear and partly from excitement. She was flying! Really actually flying! Rush left the weather bots far behind. Rhythm hollered in excitement. "Wow, this amazing! Faster, Rush, faster!" she exclaimed. Rush barked excitedly, he seemed to be enjoying the ride.
"Having fun?" her dad called through the com system. Rhythm couldn't stop smiling.
"You bet I am! This is amazing!" she exclaimed as Rush zoomed underneath a walkway and over again. Rhythm looked ahead, there was what looked like a Robot Master standing on an observation platform just up ahead. Rhythm smiled, feeling a little more sure about herself. "Let's go, Rush. Let's win this thing." she told the robo-pooch. Rush barked and flew down. Rhythm jumped off his back, landing with an echo on the observation deck. The Robot Master looked up. This one was a girl.
"Well hello there, I wondered why my little fair-weather friends were all excited, visitors!" she exclaimed. She extended a hand. "The name's Vapor Woman, part of the latest generation of Robot Masters, and you are?" she asked. Rhythm hesitantly shook Vapor Woman's hand.
"M- er, Rhythm. I'm sorry to say I'm not here to say hi." she said. Vapour Woman waved her hand in dismissal.
"I'm sure you aren't, but there's no reason not to chat before we fight, I mean, except for the weather robots, there's not many people up here." she said, backing up and spinning around the observation deck. "It gets super lonely up here, nothing but the occasional message from one of my siblings or sometimes Dr. Regis. Can you imagine how lonely one girl could get?" she said pointedly. Rhythm looked around, it was pretty lonely.
"Maybe you could come with me without a fight? You would have somebody to talk to and maybe get a less boring job." Rhythm suggested. Vapor Woman shook her head.
"I can't do that. It would let my other siblings down, plus, I'm a fighting robot, I have to do what I was built for." she said. She smiled, but it looked strained. "Ready?" Vapor Woman asked. Rhythm nodded sadly.
"Yeah, but-" she started saying when Vapor Woman cut her off with a burst of, clouds? Rhythm instantly moved out of the way, what was with the Robot Masters' weapons? They made no sense. She knew they were dangerous though, she nearly learned that the hard way. Sure enough, the clouds dropped down, freezing into ice.
"Like it?" Vapor Woman asked. Rhythm bit her lip.
"What's it called?" she asked. Vapor Woman giggled.
"The Vapor Cloud, what about yours?" she asked. Rhythm hesitantly raised her weapon.
"The Rhythm Buster!" she exclaimed, sending a volley of shots at Vapor Woman. Vapor Woman simply twirled out of the way.
"Oh, cool weapon!" she exclaimed, before spinning to a stop. She readied her weapon. "Now it comes down to the classic one weapon against one weapon, the constant back and forth of the skills of the robots. That's what I'm looking forwards to!" she exclaimed, sending the Vapor Cloud. Rhythm slid out of the way, instincts taking over. She looked at the cloud, it covered a huge amount of area, and Vapor Woman seemed to be having a hard time concentrating on it. Rhythm saw her chance.
She closed her eyes, and focused on the Caution Burst. It activated. Rhythm opened her eyes, her coloring switched from silver and blue to white and orange. She grinned, but quickly refocused on Vapor Woman. She sent the three traffic cones around her, and let them spark. Vapor Woman lost her concentration a second too late.
"What?" she exclaimed as the cones sparked with the current. It coursed through Vapor Woman, causing her to spark and start to deactivate. Rhythm looked down, letting the Rhythm Buster return to default weapon. Vapor Woman looked at her with surprise. "Maybe I had gotten too used to the formula, I wasn't expecting something new. I think I'll take you up on your offer now." she whispered before coming offline. Rhythm looked at Vapor Woman.
"I hope so." she whispered back.
"Megan?" her dad asked the moment her com cleared up. Rhythm felt like crying.
"I've beat Vapor Woman, all the Robot Masters can be fixed, can't they?" she asked.
"I'll do whatever I can to do that, trust me, Megan. I know how it feels." her dad assured her. Rhythm smiled softly, then bent down to copy Vapor Woman's weapon.
The Vapor Cloud.
