09:58 AM (Japan Time), Wednesday June the 17th…
"Let us begin! Death Spiral Cannon!"
"Double… Thunder!"
"Futile!"
"Where did the guy…?"
Death Shadow had begun by loading up his arm cannon and shooting out a bluish stream of energy sharped as a spiral.
Rock Man formed the "Vadous Soul", drew the blades, intercrossed them, and ran purple static electricity into them, which fused into a beam headed for Death Shadow, who flashed and vanished out of sight.
His attack met Rock Man's and they cancelled each other.
BEEP – BEEP – BEEP
"Is that my alarm clock?" Netto wondered.
"Wrong! This is…!"
BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!
"Jump!" Blood Shadow yelled.
Rock Man managed to jump out of the bomb's reach.
He flipped and landed elsewhere as everything else was protected through "force fields" to avoid collateral damage to them.
Death Shadow was hovering above one of the deposits.
"What is the matter, Rock Man? Too fast for your mortal reflexes?"
"And now you're gonna say you're immortal!" Netto grumbled.
"No… I am "death" itself! I cannot die since I am already dead!"
"Unending Cyclone~!"
"Play with that weak one, my copy!"
Rock Man formed a cyclone, but the foe created a copy, which rode along the cyclone until he was propelled skywards.
The copy switched the arm cannon's configuration and began to shoot a barrage of missiles towards Rock Man, who barely dodged in time.
"Where's the real one?"
"Over here… And over here, too!"
Rock Man gasped and saw how Death Shadow was jumping from deposit to deposit while always spawning a copy of his.
He created a total of eight copies, which began to switch positions and mix, to Rock Man's consternation.
"How do we tell them apart now?" Netto cursed.
"I guess the copies have lesser HP! Vicious Fire!"
He holstered the swords and formed a set of black flames on his hands. which he then threw and latched at one foe as if they were real flames.
This one exploded, so Rock Man rushed to launch another attack.
"Great Wave!"
A giant wave washed over two foes into one "force field", deleting them.
Rock Man didn't waste a second and ran towards another pack.
"Crushing Avalanche!"
Boulders formed in mid-air and fell atop another set of two foes.
"Five down! Three left! One of them is the real one! Pure Light! Burn!"
He shot two continuous streams of pure light which cut their way into one foes' body, blowing it up as well and leaving just another two.
"Condensed Dark!"
He formed two spheroids of black energy.
They latched into one of the two foes and halted his movements as he drew the swords.
"Double Thunder!"
The electrical blast hit the frozen Death Shadow and blew him up.
"Phantom Time!"
The Death Shadow began to slow down, and Rock Man plunged both swords into him, blowing him up as well, to his obvious surprise.
BEEP – BEEP – BEEP
He gasped and spotted how the whole field had been riddled with energy bombs and Death Shadow's spheroid was sitting atop the control console.
He jumped into the air just in time as an explosion swept the whole area.
He landed back in the ground just as the real Death Shadow did, laughing.
"That power is real! I have felt it. But you wasted it all on my copies! Fool! I shall slowly suction your life before I condemn you to fall into the endless abyss of despair and torment!" He laughed in his cold and echoing voice.
"I'm not over yet, Death Shadow! Seal of…!"
"Too slow! Red Beam!"
Rock Man had been about to attack when Death Shadow shot that red beam, which latched into Rock Man.
He yelped and collapsed into his knees while trying to break the beam.
"Your energy will be interesting to study. Maybe by combining it with "Omicron Factor" I shall increase its power… No more wasting time!"
He signaled the control console, and it beeped as red lights turned on and sirens began to ring out.
"Warning. Main gun loading procedure final stage started. Main gun will be available to fire in 7 minutes. Starting injection of energy deposits… Repeat: 7 minutes..." An auto-voice warned.
The deposits hissed and began to descend into the body of the gun until they were totally inside, and their compartments were sealed.
Death Shadow then signaled the hatch.
"I also have my own ace-in-the-hole. I shall test it out to crush you! Crushed like the eyesore insect you are! I would prefer that method, true. But the pact with my collaborators goes first. I do believe it is more enjoyable to slowly destroy you lowlifes' mind and body than just granting you lowlife a quick and sudden demise…"
"It's just as Blood said! Those two were influenced by those psychos!"
"Devil! Last thing we needed!"
A platform climbed up from inside of the compartment.
It revealed a four-legged mechanical vehicle made of a reddish metal.
It had two "eyes" on both side of the sphere which served as the core.
"Mecha Arachnus!"
"Mechanical Arachnid?" Rock Man translated.
"Correct! I shall now combine with this vehicle… And none of your weapons can harm it given its thick armor… Kurayami! Where did you say you found the inspiration?" Death Shadow called out.
"Metal Gear REX's composite armor! You'd need a HEAT missile to begin harming it! And unlike REX, this doesn't have weaknesses built in purpose by Otacon!" Kurayami laughed.
"Sheesh! What nerds!" Rock Man grumbled.
"You needn't tell me!"
"Feel the agony!"
Death Shadow jumped inside of it using an open access hatch atop it and closed it from the inside.
The eyes turned red, and the knee joints opened, revealing machine guns.
A laser gun emerged from the underside of the machine, and it was already charging.
There was a missile launcher on the back, about to unload its cargo.
"No good!"
"Battle Chip, Area Steal!"
"Mecha Missiles!"
He warped to another spot of the area, but the missiles had locked on him given how they were already inches away from him.
He was unable to react in time and ended up receiving the impact of about a dozen missiles which formed cracks and fissures on the armor and forced him to step back.
"Rock Man! Can't we…?" Netto called out.
"Not yet, Netto – kun! The Chao Beam needs 3 minutes to fully recharge, and we can't use it before then!" Rock Man replied.
"3 minutes! It's been 5 since the thing started loading! We'll only have a couple of minutes! Unless we could disable the charging sequence! However, I'm afraid that just destroying the console won't do it, either! Recovery 300, Giga Mine! Double Slot In!"
The Mecha Arachnus stepped into one concealed land mine and the blast made it roll and have its legs wave the air in vain.
It fired a missile straight at the ground and the explosion helped straighten it up while Death Shadow's laughter rang out from the inside.
"Futile! Futile! Four minutes left! Shibuya shall become a feeding ground for new variations of the "Omicron Factor" with the feeble creatures there dying off in a painful manner while the strong ones will evolve as they fight each other for supremacy!"
"Shaddup!" Netto growled.
"Mecha Laser! Mecha Machineguns! Be brought down!"
The laser turned on and almost hit Rock Man, who rolled towards the right to dodge, and the machinegun rounds bounced off his armor.
"Double Thunder! I'll try to disable the weapons at the very least!"
He aimed for the laser, and it frizzled with obvious symptoms of electrical overload before it blew up and obviously stopped functioning.
The Mecha Arachnus boosted forward and ran Rock Man over as he attempted to maneuver out of its reach.
"The main body itself can attack, too!"
"3 minutes left! Wander in despair and hopelessness!"
"Rock Man! Try to do the same thing for the other weapons, too!"
"Hmpf! Omicron Barrier!"
"Double Thunder!"
A blue shield formed around the Mecha Arachnus and Rock Man's attack was bounced off and back at him.
He, however, waved his right hand and made the electricity's coloring switch to blue.
"Reversed polarity! Now… Battle Chip, Super North-Wind! Slot In!"
The gust of wind blew the "Omicron Barrier" away and Rock Man quickly stabbed both front knee joints to disable their machineguns.
The Mecha Arcachnus ran him over again and he managed to stand up nevertheless to see a rain of missiles locking on him and heading for him at top speed.
"Battle Chip, Dummy! Slot In!"
Rock Man jumped into the air, leaving the dummy doll behind and managed to make three shuriken get stuck on the missile launcher.
Death Shadow jumped into the air to land back, causing a blue shockwave of energy which swept the area.
It hit Rock Man, making him collide with the perimeter "force field" and become electrocuted by it.
He dropped into his knees and groaned as he seemingly tried to stand up.
"What powerlessness, really! Vadous! You granted them false "hope" and "courage" like all those "wonder weapons" mottoes which are always used in wars! You are pathetic! I shall make sure to locate your laboratory and then destroy it with one attack of Ourobos!" Death Shadow laughed.
"14 seconds to finish loading…! We can do it! Death Shadow! Get ready!"
"Boast while you can, Rock Man EXE! Rather… A feeble human who tried to escape from me by being reborn in another entity!"
"Hmpf. That's but information you stole from Blood Shadow!"
"And we've had enough of your dramatics!"
Rock Man's chest emblem began to glow with a bright blue glow.
"Hmpf! Another of Vadous' false hopes mechanisms? What a fool!"
"Boast while you can, freak! You're over!" Blood Shadow scoffed.
"Prepare to meet OUR true power! Synchro Level: 99%!"
"If we can achieve Full Synchro, then…! The Chaos Beam's power should be strong enough to blow that thing up and hit Death Shadow as well!"
"Boast while you can!"
"Full Synchro achieved!"
Rock Man's body began to glow with a pale blue light, and he began to build up energy on his hands while his chest emblem pulsated.
The Mecha Arachnus merely jumped into the air and was about to land atop Rock Man.
"Become spatial dust! This planet is doomed to become another Omicron! The breeding ground to shoot more seeds across the Universe!"
"CHAOS… BEA~M!"
An obviously overpowered Chaos Beam flew out of Rock Man's body accompanied by a spiraling surge of blue energy.
The ground shook and so did the air as the beam yet again broke the speed of sound and made the whole area rumble.
The metal bent and deformed as the beam headed upwards and for the approaching underside of the Mecha Arachnus.
"1 minute 30 seconds until firing..." The auto-voice reported.
The beam hit the machine and piercedthrough it while continuing towards the "ceiling" of the Cyber World where it stopped, yet it persisted, amplifying its power.
The machine broke down into large clusters of data and Death Shadow's form could be seen inside of the beam as he roared in agony and his data began to lose integrity.
A shifting combination of rainbow colors began to originate in the area and a crack opened in the middle of space.
"IMPOSSIBLE~! I AM "DEATH"! I CANNOT DIE~! I… OMICRON FACTOR… EXPAND…! EVOLVE…! RULE THE UNIVERSE~!"
His body broke apart into several clusters and was sucked in by the crack, which then closed and released a shockwave of energy.
The shockwave overloaded the "force field", causing for the area to frizzle, its lights to flicker at wild and some pieces of the Cyber World suddenly exploded.
"DEATH!" Both Kurayami and Kanaya gasped.
"A massive EM outburst is going on! Rock Man! We must pull out before all energy here goes unstable and blows up!" Blood Shadow called out.
"EM outburst! Several systems off-line! Unable to proceed countdown! Evacuate immediately…!" The system announced between bursts of static.
"Roger! Full recovery program: start! Let's get out! Obihiro readied the emergency escape routes!"
"By all the…! I can't believe Death of all people would be beaten down!"
"We'll avenge him one day!" Kanaya hissed.
They jumped into the shaft until they reached Level 1 and ran out using the Warp Point followed by Rock Man and Blood Shadow.
The Cyber World's situation began to turn crazy with alarms going off everywhere and parts of the central device blowing up along with the cooling systems thus rising the temperature to dangerous levels.
"This thing will blow up, but I guess the heat will set all "Omicron Factor" into fire, too… And given how it easily burns up then nothing will be left for any dangerous parties to pick up. Not even the stuff atop Mt. Fuji!"
"Why?" Netto asked.
"Death Shadow continuously emits an ultrasound signal which is picked up by special cells inside of the raw "Omicron Factor" and tells it to be a persistent existence. But now that the signal is no more, all will die out! And, besides, Sir Omega and Sigma have already sterilized the place. We're still repairing the "Hunter's Guild" members and a Navi named Aqua Man. Yet… Now that Death Shadow is gone, the "Omicron Factor" inside of them will be deleted without a trace!" Blood Shadow detailed.
"Good! Then no one will be able to exploit it!"
"We won!" Netto exclaimed.
They reached the normal Cyber World as the Warp Point deleted.
A holographic screen showed explosions triggering in an empty spot of orbital space, and chunks of data blowing away to delete.
"Since it's a data construct, the energy will cause for it to delete itself!"
"Clean sweep, then! Nothing will contact the atmosphere!"
"Although it was a close call. Glad we readied that trump card!"
"Truly! We owe you so much!"
"Don't mind it. It's our way of amending for our blunders!"
A huge explosion rang out and expanded as a sphere.
"And that's the end of their ambitions…"
"Hmpf. Arrogant until the end! It was but a program!"
"Sure. A program with a huge ego…"
"Reminds me of Nebula Grey… But this one was smarter…"
"Indeed. Humans can make frightening things, indeed…"
"Those two were indeed cheaters. And their boasting was stupid…"
"I heard, too! Time travel? Must've been reading too much SF!"
"They fled, obviously… They sure were insensitive!"
"More like cowards…"
"Good work. We will use the data feedback to improve the "VS"…"
"That was amazing, man!"
Omega and Sigma met up with them as well.
"We can finally enjoy summer!" Netto sighed in relief.
"Sure thing… As for those two… Whatever. You handle them…"
"Delighted. I've got a score to settle with them!" Blood Shadow affirmed.
"They ran away last time! I want to teach them a lesson, too!"
"Let's not get overconfident, either… Else they'll sneak away again!"
"Roger that, Sir Omega!" Both confirmed.
"Plug Out, Rock Man! We gotta celebrate this with the club!"
"Agreed! I'll be going out! See you!"
"Take care! And enjoy the vacation! Men! Let's start the hunt!"
"Roger! My shotgun will settle the score!"
"And my sword will send them flying!"