A world of electricity greeted Mega Man upon his touching down. The power plant's recent rennovation made the place more blinding than ever.
That wasn't the only thing that was off, though.
Scrambling across vibrantly colored pipes, he realized something: the place was completely void of enemies.
Outside of the occasional death trap as well as a few of the red and blue nodes that he recognized from from his last conflict with the Robot Master, little of interest stopped him from getting to the end.
Even the "Dr. W" door that he expected no matter what was changed up this time. Instead of the evil doctor's insignia, he saw a strangely written "N" symbol on the door.
On the other side, he found what he thought was the yellow and black robot in question.
The bot was awake, but made not q sound. It was almost as if he had been shut down.
Yet, there he was, staring a hole right through him.
Mega Man didn't even bother keeping up his guard. Honestly, he wasn't sure if what was in front of him was a threat. "Fuse Man…"
Still no response.
"Um… Please stand down?" The hero felt nothing but awkwardness as he kept talking.
The robot had not moved.
Not sure what to do next, he decided to interact with him.
He walked up to him, but just before he could make contact, the enemy bot sprang to life, rushing to the other corner of the room and striking a fighting pose.
Unsure of what to do next, Mega Man's shooting arm trembled as he hesitantly summoned his arm cannon.
"If this is the way you want it… I'm sorry."
Projectiles of electricity bounced around the room as the blue hero went on a sliding and jumping spree evading them.
Despite the lack of offense from his part, he managed to get a few passing potshots at him.
About a quarter of the way through, one of rhe strangest things Mega Man had ever seen in his fights happened.
The enemy stopped dead in his tracks.
It actually took a second for the hero to process this.
"A… Are we done?"
The smile curling its way onto his face vanished as the formerly vacant stare of his adversary turned into a smug smirk and a completely alien voice came from the Robot Master.
"No, Mega Man. We're not 'done'. Not by a long shot!"
Mega Man lined up a shot, though more out of fear than anything. "W-who are you?!"
"Put the Buster down, boy. We both know you don't have the programming to fire on something with a human voice."
Said boy complied. He wasn't wrong.
"M-must I repeat myself? Respond!"
"Threats. How cute. Very well, I'll tell you, in the interest of being a good sport. You deal with Mr. Andrej Novak, the man who will be handcrafting your replacement."
"Replacement?"
"Don't you worry your robotic little head about that one. You won't exactly be around to see it. But you will see my true power soon enough. Until then, farewell."
The bot carrying the strange man's voice warped away, leaving the Blue Bomber with a sense of dread previously foreign to him.