At first Light was a bit surprised when Samus had returned from Croatia, bringing a special guest home with her but he didn't mind and after they had told him the whole story he had offered Dvornic a place to stay over night at the lab. There was a rest room some scientists occasionally used when they were so deep in their work that they decided not to drive home for sleep or when they felt ill. This seemed like the best option for Ivica to recover from his traumatic experience.
"It's all worse than I expected. I know Imu for some years now or at least I thought that I did but I'd never had seen something like this coming. Seems even after the last incidents I underrated her evil intentions. Having one of her robots torturing and who knows probably even ordering to kill humans..."
"Speaking of traumatic experiences, imagine you have to finish off your opponent because despite having already lost several limbs she refused to give up as she was programmed to fight til death instead of even considerung to surrender" Samus added to the conversation after Dvornic had gone to sleep. Sure, Elec Girl had been turned into an insufferable sadistic bitch but it was still hard to get those pictures out of her mind. Technically it was even impossible thanks to the quality of her memory chip.
"I'm sorry you have to go through all of this" Light softly spoke with his eyes closed.
"At least there are only two more of them left."
"Not sure if this will automatically end if you defeat Ice Girl and Fire Girl. Seems like Imu is completely out of her mind now and a wild animal only gets even more dangerous the more threatened it feels."
"Nice comparison but aren't all humans biologically animals?" Mega Girl responded with a kinda smartass remark. However she had to remember the final words of Elec Girl. 'It will never be over', that sounded alarming indeed.
"There's one other thing that is concerning me. You and Dvornic both told me that Imu was working under the false assumption of the Magnet Beam being a mighty weapon which turned out not to be the case. I can say a lot of things about my former lab assistant but she had always been very precise when it came to research. So I wonder where she got that false information from?"
"No idea. Who knows. Maybe she's not that much of a genius after all" Samus shrugged. "Can you prepare to install the Thunder Beam into my weapon system or should I go to the rest room and cuddle a bit with Ivica? You know, I could join him in bed and then we could do what they do in those movies?"
Light was staring at her in disbelief and with an open mouth, his face seemed to turn pale.
"Hahaha, just kidding! Don't be silly, there's no need for a human and a robot to do such things with each other. Only wanted to see your reaction!"
Dumbfounded the doctor turned away and prepared his tools on the lab table.
"Don't you ever dare to make such kind of joke again..."
Next morning the Thunder Beam was finally installed as latest addition to Mega Girl's weapon system but unfortunately it was considered to be too dangerous to test it out at the lab or anywhere outside as Light said he didn't want her to run around accidentally electrocuting people. As if she was that careless or clumsy or something when playing with her new weapons!
Anyway, instead she made breakfast for everyone like she used to do. The only difference was that she had to add a bit more for Ivica this morning who stuck his head into the kitchen and took some peeks at her several times, for some reason still acting really shy when he was around her. Must be that trauma she guessed.
"Good morning, Ivica! You're feeling better today?" Samus asked him friendly.
"Oh, good morning, eh, yes, thank you" the scientist answered awkwardly. For some minutes neither of them said a word. He almost forgot that this beautiful blonde sitting opposite to him at the table was a robot and so she didn't need to eat anything. It felt a bit uncomfortable as she was watching him having his breakfast
"There's something I have to tell you" Dvornic broke the silence after a while.
"As long as you don't tell me that you love me" Samus joked with a grin.
"T-That's not what I was going to s-say" the scientist responded a bit too hastily, almost choking on his coffee. "I was thinking about how I could repay you for saving my life and I already talked with Thomas about it this morning. So, I came to the conclusion that you should have the Magnet Beam prototype i-if that's okay for you?"
"Seriously? Thank you, that's awesome!"
Mega Girl pulled Dvornic into a big hug, she was definitely happy about that present.
"But are you sure that I can really have it?"
"Yes, I am. It's just a prototype and you've already seen the flaws of it. In fact I don't really know what way it could be used for in it's current state but one thing I'm sure of is that you will be using it for a good cause and I hope it will prove helpful in your fight. I-I've got a lot of trust in you, M-Mega Girl!"
The mysterious shadow that was secretely watching the steps of the so-called Mega Girl from far had also noticed the blonde's return to the lab while being accompanied by this middle-aged scientist now it seems. It was this person who had been indirectly given that false info about the Magnet beam to Imu and in return was about to send the coordinates of Imu's next target location to Light labs. Which side would ultimately prove to be stronger? And which ideology was more worth fighting for?
It started as usual. Like the last few times before Samus had been sent on a mission, the old bearded man came running up towards her, informing her about where she had to go next, although the difference this time was that it was not one of their own drones had found out about the Antarctic low temperature research facility but it seemed an unknown source (whatever that means) had sent them this piece of info. She didn't really care about such details, in fact she was more asking herself why Ivica called her Mega Girl instead of Samus despite the offer to call her by her first name. Did she say something wrong? While it was super nice of him to give her the Magnet beam as a present he seemed a bit more cold and distanced towards her than before. But maybe she should be used to cold and distanced things as she beamed to Antarctica and would be meeting Ice Girl again.
"Woah, what the hell is going on here?"
Confused by what she saw Samus looked at all those frozen palm trees and some other rather tropical looking bushes and plants growing in the icy climatic landscape of Antarctica. There was no way this could be happening, the temperatures were way too low for anything growing naturally under those circumstances! So all of this stuff must have been artificial? That was the only logical conclusion she came up with. One thing was sure, she would demand an explanation after she returned back to the lab!
While still thinking about those unlikely palm trees the first hostile robot came running directly towards her, Mega Girl shot him with her arm cannon but this only caused the enemy to split his body into two different halves, one attacking from the ground while the other one was flying in the air. However, the Thunder Beam got rid of both of those halves in satisfying fashion. Nice! She collected some of the debris to make sure having some fragments to power the Magnet Beam later on if necessary. And after shooting some more of his metallic friends she came to a big water basin. After a short moment of hesitation she jumped right into it. Yes, she was able to swim, she was just not very good at it. Robots weren't really made for diving unless they were specifically constructed for this purpose. The problem was not the freezing cold water that would be too extreme for a human and she didn't need to breathe either, it was just embarrassing to sink like a stone to the ground.
It was a strange feeling to jump around under water and it didn't get any better as a freaking penguin came flying straight into her face. Electricity and water were not a good mix, as that penguin bots and spiny things should find out when Samus was making her way through that basin and climbed out on the other side. That had been slightly annoying but it wasn't too bad. She couldn't see what was waiting for her yet as she made her way deeper down that low temperature lab that has been turned more into an ice cave.
"Not this bullshit again!" she moaned in disbelief as she fell down into a chamber with several of those appearing and disappearing blocks she encountered at the electricity tower in Zagreb first. After taking out the spiny on the lower level she tried to patiently hop on one after another, hoping to get the timing right while ranting and swearing all the way up. Whoever came up with a stupid invention like this should be glad that Asimov's laws existed, otherwise Samus would feel the urge to kick them in their butts pretty hard. From here on things should turn to become even worse. Yet another sequences of those Yoku blocks were following directly after and then she was standing at the edge of another giant gorge. There were some transport platforms flying around through the air, maybe she could jump from one to another, crossing the gorge this way, if she waited for them to come close enough to each other? Mega Girl did not really look forward to this as she hated heights with a passion but she couldn't simply stand there forever and as one of them came close enough she leaped onto it. However, before she could try to get to another one that platform fired a shot out of it's side directed towards her. It missed her only by a few centimeters. This made her yell at it in rage.
"Are you mad? That shot could've been hitting me, taking me off balance and making me fall to death!"
What how it occured to her had to be the plan behind those platforms all along. Imu really wanted to see her destroyed at all costs.
"Hey, wait a moment, maybe I don't need to rely on you at all."
If there was one perfect opportunity to use the Magnet Beam it had to be this one! Loaded with lots of debris she created a rather long platform mostly consisting of and being held together by the debris of her fallen enemies. Samus remembered that she would only have a few seconds until it would disappear, so as soon as she was standing on it she aimed a bit higher and created another one that she could climb up to. As long as she moved on fast this proved to work way better than attempting to use that unsafe shooting platforms. More than half the gap to the other side was taken until another problem occured. Some penguin bots came flying over the gorge, so Samus had to carefully dodge them to not getting knocked off and whenever she was on the same level as that nasty shooting frauds they kept firing their bullets at her. She was more then glad as she somehow had reached the other side in one piece.
"Thank you, sir, I have no idea if I had ever made it past this nightmare without having the Magnet Beam in my hands" she thanked Ivica for his present. It was pretty ironic to think that she would also never have been taking possession of it in the first place if Imu hadn't been so eager wanting it in her own hands. Little did she know about the involvement of a third party at this time.
Just when she thought nothing could stop her now from meeting Ice Girl yet another Big Eye was becoming visible in the distance like a bad omen. This time Samus used the Thunder Beam, being optimistic to finally having found a weak point. While the electricity hit it the Big Eye moved on as if nothing happened however! Were those things really undefeatable?! What could she do now? She looked at her weapon power display. There was still a bit of usage left for the Magnet Beam...
Mega Girl hurried to create one platform after another but this time she wasn't aiming sideways, she was aiming upside instead. Every time she was making her way up a bit higher and higher until she reached a top level that was actually out of reach for the Big Eye, even for it's biggest jump. It was close and only possible because she had enough time and space for this strategy as she spotted the enemy early on but it somehow worked and she quickly let herself fall to the floor as soon as the Big Eye had jumped past her underneath. Only some more penguins awaited her before she reached Ice Girl, on the ground they were far lesser threatening than underwater or in the air.
In an elegant dress wearing a pantyhose underneath and a fur coat above Ice Girl was standing in the middle of the frozen cave, casually licking a popsicle.
"Hi, what's going on in eskimo town, ice princess?" Samus greeted her in an almost too friendly and non-hostile tone as she used to before Imu botnapped her sisters because in comparison the girl with the ice blue eyes and ice blue scarf looked like the least threatening out of the Robot Mistresses. She was standing there almost peaceful.
"So you've come to kill me too I see?"
"Yes. If I need to" Mega Girl answered with an uncomfortable sad tone.
"How brutally honest you confess that you are here to murder me in cold manner."
"It doesn't have to be like this, however I do know now that unfortunately you are not programmed to stop killing me first, so it's more like self-defense!"
"That's an interesting way to look at it."
"Is this an attempt to irritate me or are you just trying to play it cool? Pun intended."
"Unlike the others I'm open for talking things out. Come, feel free to take yourself some ice-cream out of the fridge and then let's have some conversation."
While offering this Ice Girl pointed towards somewhere behind Samus and the blonde made the mistake to turn around, as one second later she got hit hard by an Ice Slasher attack that froze her legs and feet to the ground.
"How damn cold of you!" she shouted, angry about herself for having fallen to the oldest trick in the world. "And why are you even licking a popsicle? Robots don't need to eat and can't taste in the first place!"
"Of course it's cold, I'm Ice Girl after all, what did you expect? And as for the popsicle, it's like my trademark, bet you can tell why I chose something like this?"
"Because you think it looks cool?" the blonde asked back, rolling her eyes.
"Exactly. Seems like you're stuck. This is unfortuante for you but did you really think you could come here without having defeated Fire Girl first? Without Fire Storm you won't be able to free yourself and also I won't have to fear having a 'meltdown'."
This was not entirely right however. It occured to Mega Girl that electricity could indeed create some heat and that was why she secretly already had started to place her right hand onto her frozen legs, hoping to melt the ice and free herself. It was a good thing that she was so talkative, as she needed to keep Ice Girl distracted.
"What's with the palm trees growing in this facility? It should not be possible for those plants to grow in places like this, are they artificial?"
"They are. What you saw here is a silly new project of the humans trying to restore the nature they've destroyed" Ice Girl explained, way too satisfied with herself.
"By replacing nature with artificial plants? How is that supposed to be working?"
"Humans need oxygen to breathe. So they are trying to create synthetic trees that are supposed to work like real ones someday, even producing oxygen and growing fruits or becoming home to animals some time in the future. All while resisting both extremely cold and extremely hot weather influences. But as said, it is stupid and that's why Queen Imu sent me here to stop that nonsense."
"You know what something else is stupid? You are!" Samus screamed as she finally was able to break free and fired a Thunder Beam wave at her opponent. Ice Girl was hit hard and couldn't believe what was happening as her body started to smoke.
"What is that?"
"You never heard of cooking with electricity?"
"Damn you!"
Ice Girl jumped up in anger and shot a whole row of Ice Slashers in different heights at Mega Girl, who dodged them by ducking under the higher ones and jumping above the lower ones. She couldn't allow herself to get frozen again if she didn't wanna end as an ice sculpture, so she wanted to finish this off quickly by roasting Ice Girl.
"So much about not having a meltdown!"
One last Ice Slasher missed her ponytail then Ice Girl finally overheated and broke down, her popsicle silently falling to the floor.