Mega Man VI
Chapter Seven: Plant Man
Rolling to the side in order to take cover behind a tree from any following attacks, Mega Man reached up and pulled the sharpened flower-blade… thing from where it had embedded itself into the visor of his helmet. Doing the same with the others that were stuck to the front of his armor, the blue robot tried to ignore the damage and pain from where that gyro bug's rotors had cut deeply into his back, but then he had to focus on what was in front of him when there was some movement in the bushes. Ducking down and then leaping sideways to avoid another swarm of those flower blades as they stabbed themselves into the tree, Mega Man fired his arm cannon blindly into the grass and bushes, starting a few small fires, but that was quickly suppressed by the irrigation sprinklers.
"Be careful with the plants, cabron!" That same voice said as there was more movement off to the side. "They do so much for the world; air, food, lumber, medicine, the list goes on… but you just shoot them like they are nothing."
More movement in the bushes now, but this time a tall and slender figure stepped out into the open, clad in lightweight blue and green armor that appeared to be wrapped in thorny vines, while three large red flower petals surrounded the slender robot's head like a fancy collar. Firing three more shots with his arm cannon as soon as Plant Man had been in view, Mega Man was disheartened when more of those flower blades began flying around the slender robot like a shield, one of them destroyed with each energy shot that was blocked, only to be replaced by more a second later. As soon as the blue robot stopped firing, the rest of the flower blades were sent at him in retaliation, forcing him to drop down as they flew past, but giving him time to charge up the mega buster.
Boom! The enlarged blue and white energy shot, and although Plant Man was able to avoid it by doing a graceful sideways flip, the slender robot was still thrown forward by the blast when it struck the large tree right behind him. Rolling to his feet while the destroyed tree fell over behind him, Plant Man leapt up into the air while surrounding himself with the flower blades, extending both arms toward Mega Man while the coiled vines flew toward him like a whip. One of the thorny vines knocked a nearby branch with a sharp crack, while the other one grazed the blue robot's arm, the edge of the thorn sharp enough to make a thin cut across the armor on his forearm, while the shot from his arm cannon was again stopped by destroying one of the flower blades.
"I will admit I am not very strong." Plant Man said once he landed on the ground. "But I am quick, and my defense is almost perfect, while you have already taken some pretty hard hits… and here is another one for you."
Unleashing the vine whips again, Mega Man jumped forward, leaping over them and then firing his arm cannon as rapidly as he could, destroying flower blade after flower blade while running right toward the slender robot. He knew that he couldn't get a shot past that flying shield, but there were only so many of them, and it took a few seconds to get replacements out. Plant Man began to back away as his defenses fell, but he was unable to avoid taking two hits, one in the stomach putting a crack in his lightweight armor, and another destroying the red petal on the left side of his head in a small explosion that made him stumble to the side.
Hoping to end this fight quickly, the blue robot charged up his mega buster while still running forward, but the slender robot retracted the vine whips just as the blast was being fired. Catching Mega Man's feet from behind, the mega buster was shot straight upward while the vines tore up the armor on his heels, destroying a large piece of the facility's roof at the same time that the blue robot fell on his back. Now pieces of glass and steel were raining down into the garden, forcing both robots to take cover, but giving Mega Man time to charge his mega buster one more time from where he was hiding underneath a wooden table that was holding a bunch of potted plants.
While having difficulty using his feet from the vines damage, Plant Man had been unable to get to cover, instead using his flower blades to protect himself from the falling debris, and leaving himself vulnerable to the fully charged shot that hit him from behind. In a flash of fire and smoke, the slender robot fell forward so hard that he slid across the grass, into the trunk of one of the large fruit trees, the blue and green armor sparking where Plant Man's shoulder, arm, and right side flower petal used to be. Not wanting to give him a chance to recover, Mega Man crawled out from cover, firing more shots rapidly from his arm cannon, and one of them even hitting the slender robot in the leg before he was able to save himself.
Throwing out his remaining vine whip, Plant Man used it to grab onto one of the higher branches of the tree, and then retract so that he was thrown upward, flying right toward the blue robot before he could even react. The slender robot landed right on top of him before he could aim another shot, both of them sliding across the wet grass for a short distance, and then the vine whip was used again. This time it wrapped itself around both Mega Man's arm cannon and around his helmet, slicing deeply into the armor, and trying to decapitate the blue robot while he kept Plant Man's remaining arm restrained so that he couldn't retract the whip.
"Come on, just give up, already!" The slender robot yelled, struggling against him. "Te cortare en tiras, you little blue insect!"
"You won't win!" Mega Man yelled back, firing shots that almost grazed his enemy's face as they struggled. "You're just as hurt as I am, I… only… need… one… shot!"
If it had been just a contest of strength at that point, the blue robot would have won, but just as he was starting to overpower Plant Man, another swarm of those flower blades appeared, tearing into what was left of Mega Man's armor as they flew around their master, and quickly weakening him until the slender robot was actually starting to overpower him. If Plant Man managed to move the arm cannon far enough away from his face to where he could lean forward and retract the vine whip, then the blue robot was doomed, but he couldn't get a shot in, and in a matter of seconds the slender robot was going to win… there was no choice now but to do something that had been advised against by Dr. Light, but what else could he do?
BOOM! Mega Man didn't know what the power he had copied from Blizzard Man did, nor how it worked, or what the negative side effects could be, but that didn't stop him from activating the weapon program and firing it. The result was a large explosion that blinded the blue robot with smoke and flame as he was violently thrown away from Plant Man, destroying that table with the potted plants when he was thrown into it. The first thing he saw when the smoke cleared was his enemy, or rather what was left of the slender robot, with his legs pretty well intact, but everything above that reduced to a sparking mess of twisted burning metal… but then Mega Man saw himself as well.
Trying to get up in order to scan his enemy and make sure he was destroyed, the blue robot realized he was unable to because much of his own armor had been destroyed as well, leaving pieces of blue metal scattered across the burning grass. Sparking, burning bare circuits were exposed all across his torso and legs, while Mega Man's arm cannon, as well as the arm it was attached to up to the elbow, was just gone, as was part of the helmet, allowing water from the sprinklers to rain down on his face. With one good arm, and legs intact but nonfunctional, the blue robot crawled his way over to what used to be Plant Man, verifying that the slender robot was in fact destroyed, and also copying data from him regardless of the risk.
"Roll!" He called into the radio weekly. "Roll… I need recovery! Tele… teleport me out!"
His sister was saying something back, but the speaker in his helmet must've been damaged, because Mega Man couldn't understand a word of it, and next thing he knew he was reappearing inside the Japanese laboratory in a flash of light. Lying on his back, still smoldering and sparking, the reactions of his friends turned from delight at the blue robot's return, to horror at his condition, with a lot of commotion as he was picked up from the floor and placed onto the work table. Once plugged into the diagnostic machine, a very long list of needed repairs came up on the nearby screen, the materials of which were easy to come by, but the repair work itself was going to take a long time, even with all of the assistants at Dr. Light's disposal.
"Well, this proves that without an energy balancer, the data of these new robots is unstable." The older scientist commented, looking over the data. "More importantly, the repairs to Rock's systems will be easy, but the replacement of his armor and weapon are going to take a long time, giving Mr. X more chances to realize what's going on."
"No need to panic, Comrade Thomas." Dr. Cossack replied. "The girls will help you with the energy balancer and armor, but there is no need to stop the mission. While your boy was playing in the snow and in the jungle, I have finished work on a way to make that silly dog of yours into something a little more useful, and it will be ready by the time his circuits are repaired. Now where is that silly dog?"
The younger scientist stated looking around the tables and through doors, crouching down and whistling for Rush to come to him, while quickly getting frustrated when the robot dog didn't do so. As for Mega Man, the repairs to his actual systems and circuits were started right away, with Kalinka and Roll getting Dr. Light the tools and equipment he needed, beginning with what was required to remove the blue robot's damaged feet and what was left of his shooting arm. By this time Dr. Cossack had finally found Rush, getting angry and chasing the robot dog around when it wouldn't come to him, like it wanted nothing to do with this new experiment, leaving Mega Man to wonder exactly what it was.
