The rainshower had turned into a thunderstorm by the time Rhythm and Lazuli found Dr. Regis' fortress.
"Subtle." Lazuli said sarcastically. Rhythm nodded, agreeing. The whole place screamed 'evil genius'. Shiny metal walls, huge menacing doors, and little defence robots everywhere. And they were going in. Rhythm switched to the Mic Effect and disabled the first of the defence robots. Lazuli ran in right afterwards, aiming with perfect accuracy. Rhythm switched back to the Rhythm Buster, aiming as well as she could, which was significantly better. One by one they worked their way through the robots, making it to the door. Rhythm looked at it.
"You think this is it?"
"What evil overlord doesn't use huge doors?"
"True."
"Might as well open them." Rhythm gripped one half of the door, and Lazuli grabbed the other. Rhythm pulled as hard as she could, tapping into the huge amounts of power she had just below the surface. Slowly, with a cold shriek, the doors inched open. Rhythm peaked inside, bare metal floors and high up railings were lit up by bright floodlights. Lazuli took a step forwards.
"Ready to go in?" she asked, activating her weapon. Rhythm activated her's too.
"You bet." she announced. She inched through the small space in the door, and stumbled into the fortress, Lazuli not far behind. Their footsteps echoed twice as loud in here. Rhythm looked around, there was nothing in sight.
"This can't be right." she whispered.
"I smell a trap. Be ready for anything, Rhythm." Lazuli warned. Rhythm nodded. They had just about come into the center of the room when something loud thumped behind them. Rhythm whirled around, her eyes widening to the size of plates. A huge yellow, thing, was behind them. Another thump sounded. Rhythm looked back just briefly, a second one had showed up. "Two of them?!" Lazuli exclaimed. Rhythm looked at her.
"What are these things?" she asked, half yelling.
"Bad news, that's what!" Lazuli called back. She sent a volley of shots at the thing in front of her. "Go for the eye, that's it weak point!" she exclaimed. Rhythm nodded and started firing on the yellow thing's single, red eye. It barely moved, but the attacks did seem to be dealing some damage. The yellow thing started walking forwards at the pace of a golem. Rhythm fired her shots more quickly, it was coming closer and closer. She bumped into Lazuli. They looked back at each other, Lazuli's mind seemed to be racing. "We need to let loose a fully charged shot, it might be our only chance." she exclaimed.
"Right!" Rhythm exclaimed, and started to charge up her Rhythm Buster. The yellow thing came closer and closer, its big red eye starting to charge with energy. At the very last second, Rhythm let the charged shot fly. It hit dead-on. Rhythm cheered when she saw the yellow thing fall into clumps of goo. Lazuli let loose a cheer too.
"Yeah, that was- what in the world?!" Lazuli exclaimed. Rhythm looked at the two clumps of yellow goo. They merged together and reformed. Rhythm took in a sharp breath, that thing was huge! Instead of simply one eye, it had two, and were in the process of letting loose a burst of energy. Rhythm couldn't move. "Megan!" Rhythm felt somebody push her out of the way. She stood herself up. Lazuli! She took the brunt of the attack and flew across the room into one of the walls. Rhythm had no time to wonder how Lazuli knew her name, she had to get that thing! It was charging up another burst of energy. Rhythm switched to the Vengeance Strike, letting the attack hit her. The pain of it was massive, but she bore it. She raised he weapon and let it loose. It destroyed the eyes, blowing them up into smithereens. The goo fell to the floor, all runny. Rhythm whirled around, was Lazuli okay? Rhythm sighed in relief when she saw Lazuli propped up against the wall. She had removed her helmet, and was shorting in and out, bad. She grinned though. The pieces clicked into place.
"Jazzie?" Megan exclaimed. Lazuli, really Jazzie grinned.
"I wondered when you'd find out!" she teased. Megan shook her head.
"No time for jokes, Jazzie, are you okay? And how-" she started asking when Jazzie held up a hand to silence her.
"I'm okay, my leg's all busted up, but I'm okay. And as for how, I can tell you after you beat Dr. Regis." she said, pointing to the now-opened doors on the other side of the room. Megan looked at them, and nodded.
"All right, stay safe, Jazzie." she said.
There were no more of those huge yellow robots, but there were plenty more in the hallways ahead. Rhythm was starting to get a little tired, but she knew she had to keep going. She couldn't come all this way and stop. Robot through robot she smashed, making her way slowly through the fortress, eventually coming to a door that she was sure was the final one. Unlike the others, it slid open without a problem. Rhythm took a deep breath, and stepped inside. The room was dark and silent except for Rhythm's footsteps. She cupped her hands to her mouth and called out loudly,
"My name is Rhythm! I'm a Robot Master and I've come to stop you, Dr. Regis!" She spread her arms open and put a confident expression on her face. "Show yourself!" The lights suddenly came on throughout the room, temporarily blinding Rhythm. When she regained her sight, her eyes went wide. Dr. Regis was sitting comfortably in the cockpit of a spider-like robot. He glared at her with strangely calm eyes.
"So you're the one who stepped up to the plate in the place of Mega Man. I'm surprised, who built you anyways?" he asked coldly. Rhythm forced her face to stay the same.
"Does it matter who built me? I don't think it does." she said. Dr. Regis scowled.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you were built out of the same parts as Mega Man. Do you know why I built the next-generation Robot Masters? Because the government destroyed all the original ones. Even the lesser robots got a better fate than the Robot Masters. They were simply put into storage, meanwhile, the government took the liberty of dismantling the others. Dismantling I say!" he exclaimed. Rhythm bit her lip, it didn't seem like everybody knew what 'dismantling' meant for Robot Masters.
"What do you find so special about the older Robot Masters anyways?" Rhythm asked. Dr. Regis set his hands on the controls of the spider mech.
"They were perfection. Gleaming works of steel and circuitry, all made to be powerful. They did things ordinary people couldn't, like me." he declared, raising the mech up. Rhythm activated the Rhythm Buster, if Dr. Regis wanted to fight her, he would get a fight. The spider mech lowered a pair menacing cannons, and started firing them. Rhythm slid underneath, the bright bursts of energy barely missing her. She sent up a flurry of shots, then switched to the Draco Power, aiming at the belly of the mech. A ripple of explosions sounded, Rhythm whipped her head around, about to see how much damage she had done, when one of the mech's eight legs rammed into her. Rhythm crashed into the wall, pain rippling through her back. She slid down, head pounding. She looked up and saw why. The spider mech had knocked off her helmet. Rhythm raced towards it, but the mech crushed it into a dozen pearly fragments. Rhythm stared, that helmet had become special to her, how could she have let it get destroyed?
"Sentimental?" Dr. Regis asked. Rhythm looked up a second too late. Another one of the spider's legs came crashing down. The impact was jarring, Rhythm called out in pain. "Not so brave now, are you?" Dr. Regis taunted.
"She is." a voice declared. Rhythm looked up, her dad was there in the doorway, wearing the blue helmet he had pulled out of the box. Mega Man's helmet.
"Eh? Who are you?" Dr. Regis asked. Rhythm's dad looked up at the spider mech, the look on his face was so brave and full of courage.
"My name is Rock Light, and I've come here to help." he exclaimed. He threw something, Rhythm assumed some sort of weapon, at the spider mech. It exploded, suddenly shorting out the spider.
"Hey, what have you done?" Dr. Regis exclaimed. Rhythm's dad smiled.
"Something I know shorts out robots." he declared before running over to Rhythm. Rhythm quickly gave him a big hug.
"Dad!" she exclaimed.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, mostly. What did you throw at the mech?"
"The magnetic core."
"Some good finally came out of it."
"Yeah. I have a couple of things It think you need." Rhythm's dad unzipped a bag that was hanging over his shoulder, and pulled out one of those blue cans. "This will get you recharged." he said, handing it to her. Rhythm smiled, and opened it.
"Jazzie gave me one of these earlier- is she okay?" she asked. Rhythm's dad nodded.
"Blues is taking care of her. Do you think we could let you girls storm a fortress alone?" he explained. Rhythm shook her head as she took a sip of the oil stuff. "You'll need this too." Rhythm's dad said, taking his helmet off of his head. He placed it on Rhythm's. Rhythm couldn't believe it, she was wearing her dad's helmet. Mega Man's helmet. Rhythm's dad gave her a hug. "It looks great on you, Megan. Are you ready?" he asked. Rhythm nodded.
"I'm ready." She activated the Rhythm Buster, and started charging it. The mech was nearly under control.
"No, I've almost had it." Dr. Regis exclaimed. Rhythm raced forwards, putting all her extra charge into the Rhythm Buster. The mech was nearly on-line again. Rhythm jumped, aiming at the back of the mech. It came on-line. Rhythm fired! The massive charge of energy hit the mech, causing it to blow up. Dr. Regis hastily climbed out of the mech, his calm eyes wild. Rhythm landed on the floor, skidding to a stop. The mech blew up until there was nothing left of it. Rhythm smiled wider than she ever had before, she had did it! She had won!
"You did it, Megan!" her dad exclaimed, somehow picking her up in a hug. Megan gave him a hug back.
"We did it." she clarified. She set her feet on the ground. "Me, you, Roll, Blues, Jazzie, Rush, all of us. We won."
