As Samus returned to the lab Light was not awaiting her arrival as he usuall did which seemed odd to her. Confused as she was about him not greeting her with that worried but relieved face the old man always had when she came back from a mission she asked one of the scientists who told her that he currently was having a meeting at the conference room. Upset to hear that Mega Girl rushed through the building towards the offices. This couldn't be! While she was fighting hard to stop all those hostile robots and taking down her sisters Light just decided to take a long coffee break?! At least that's what came to her mind until she heard some voices coming from said conference room, seemingly having a heated discussion. One of them being the one of their rich sponsor, that businessman Xanatos. Hesitating at first Samus reached for the doorknob to enter but stopped midway curiously eavesdropping about what the two men were discussing.
"There is just no other way, I swear, I cared for every single one of them, probably even more as you did, they are my constructions after all!"
"You'd never have been able to do anything if it wasn't for my money! I've invested lots of it in your research, staff, materials, everything! The Robot Mistresses were our big breakthrough project! You don't even wanna know the amount of money I've put into all eight of them! And now you tell me there's no other choice than having one of them run around and having her destroy all of her 'sisters'?" Xanatos complained.
Eight? Samus paused. What did he mean here? Did he just include Imu on his list? By hearing this dude speak the blonde immediately remembered why she never really liked him the few times she actually encountered him. Light was doing all the work but David Xanatos was acting as if he completely owned the company. Okay, maybe technically he does own it but she couldn't stand how bossy he acted. Spontaneously she decided not to be so polite to knock on the door but just kicked it wide open before storming into the room.
"Guess who's back! Best regards from Ice Girl, she told me to wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year!" Mega Girl yelled, interrupting the conversation.
"Ah, fine, another victory for you then, good work" Xanatos responded, trying to play calm and cool by faking a proud smile, sitting at the end of the large table in his chair as if it was his throne, not making a much better impression than 'Queen' Imu. He never cared too much for her or the others so despite those nice words of praise she was wary of him.
"I'm sorry I wasn't in the lab but David decided it was time for a little emergency meeting" Light apologized, earning him a suspicious look from Xanatos. Samus couldn't tell if it was because he was calling him by his first name or because a human apologizing to a robot seemed too odd in his eyes to handle it.
"Emergency? What's going on?"
"The thing is that the riots are still going on and despite our best efforts all those incidents can no longer simply declared as malfunctions" the guy with the brown ponytail explained with a dark look, having a harder time to keep his patience now, "we were forced to do some damage limitation before the people are losing trust in Light Labs. Have you ever thought about taking the spotlight, making the right connections to reporters and all? We could need a robotic hero for our publicity."
"Not sure if I'm able to follow but I don't know if that would be wise."
"You've already missed a great opportunity after you came back with that Dr. Dvornic. A few pictures being taken after you rescued him, a short interview, it could all have changed the people's current view of robots for the better."
"I'm not sure if the world is ready for that. I've been told to stay back and let you humans handle this kind of stuff. And you know, I may not look like it but I'm actually more the shy type of girl." Now she was pissing him off on purpose as much as she could and succeeded by doing so.
Xanatos sighed, clearly annoyed by her response but he knew he had to rely on her for now so he quickly changed the topic.
"When we can't have a robotic hero then we need everyone to know about the human villain. As at least I have common sense and enough influence I've taken counter measurements by now, you're gonna see it on TV tonight. At this point it looks like I've nothing more to say than wishing you good luck at bringing down the remaining Robot Mistress! It's a big shame though, Fire Girl had always been my favourite, really have a thing for fiery redheads with a short temper and damn, she looks so cute when she gets angry!"
Almost upset like an angry teenage boy who's favourite toy was about to get destroyed Xanatos rushed out of the conference room.
"What a creep, bet he's going to cry his eyes out..." Samus muttered to herself.
When she saw her face on every news channel this evening Imu was laughing manically. Not that her situation was actually funny with Ice Girl's light having vanished from existence and having her left with only one more Robot Mistress.
"Look at those fools! How dare they calling us a 'cyber terrorist'? We're gonna make them pay hard for their stupidity!" she yelled mostly to herself and partially to the only other person left standing right behind her in her base. Fire Girl.
"Stupid shit-for-brains!" the latter screamed in rage.
"Oh, on the other hand it's like watching the muppet show, do they really think that we care about being hated? Hated for actively starting a new age, the next step of evolution? My dear, if someone ever starts some propaganda theater like that against you, you know they are in fear. They are clearly fearing the wrath of Queen Imu. As it should be!"
"Go down in flames, fucking muppets!"
Several interviews of researchers and other people followed, one of them being Xanatos who of course badmouthed her in the worst ways possible.
"Hahaha, watching this clown talking about things his brain will never be able to understand is such a pleasure but we've seen enough I guess. Boring to watch how easily he gets those sheep on his side, making us the most hated genius of the century."
"Lame idiot! Will roast him like a sheep if you wish!"
"Nah, that worm is not important to us. The only thing that matters is that you get rid of that annoyance Mega Girl which somehow managed to kill all of your sisters. We rely on you to finish the job, as you are the strongest of all we put all of our trust in you, so we ask, can you do it?"
As everything so far coming from her Fire Girl's response was intense, she formed some big fireballs in her fingerless gloves, her eyes glowing demonically red, and shot them at a row of training puppets standing at the other end of the room, turning them into a big field of human-sized burning candles, it was a flaming inferno until the sprinklers came to life, extinguishing the big fire.
"That murderous Mega Dumbass! I will burn her down to ashes!"
Satisfied with that reaction Imu gave her a thumbsup. Samus may have been able to destroy five of six Robot Mistresses but fire had always been a thing every human, animal and machine was heavily vulnerable of. The determination Fire Girl showed also made her optimistic about this and while she'd never openly admit it she couldn't help but she looked so cute when she was angry...
"Uhm, the laptop is frozen, what should we do?"
"It's fine, something like that can happen, I'll have a look at it."
"Ah, cool. No pun intended" Samus joked as she prepared to go on what she hoped to be her final mission despite nobody could tell what might come after all of the Robot Mistresses were defeated. Imu might have become mentally too unstable to admit her defeat and try something desperate. The whole atmosphere was kinda strange after the news announcements and the talk with Xanatos. It felt like the world has changed in some very unpleasant way it did when 9/11 happened, Covid appeared or as the Russians attacked Ukraine. Panic and bad feelings all around. But she told herself that she would end this today. Whatever Fire Girl had in store for her she had to overcome it for everyone's sake! With that thought she beamed herself towards the location high robot activity had been reported at, a big waste incineration plant somewhere in the midwest of the United States.
As Light watched her go he turned around to have a look at the laptop, with a sigh realizing that it was frozen more literally than he had thought, with icicles hanging down on it.
The first thing Mega Girl noticed at the incineration plant was the intense heat, there was no chance to meet any human workers inside here. The first robots she met were the stationary cannons called Screw Drivers that were firing shots in differenct directions when they registered movement coming close to them.
"What a heart-warming welcome" Samus told herself as those security bots surely hadn't originally been placed here. At first she tried taking them out with the Hyper Bombs but she was still not good at throwing them and the Thunder Beam proved to be a way better option, destroying them quite fast, so she could make it through almost unharmed. However, things would become more dangerous from now on. There were holes in the ground with something looking like a lavastream going all the way through under the floor. Samus was almost sure that under no circumstances she should fall down into it as this was more than likely hot enough to melt her whole body, meaning instant death awaiting her! To make it even more deadly without a warning a row of fireballs suddenly shot out of the lava pool up in the air and rained down uncontrolled in every possible direction. She was lucky that she hadn't jumped already, otherwise they would have thrown her off directly into the lava pool! To make things worse even on the platform it was not safe and she was caught off-guard, being knocked back by a flammable gas leaking out, going up and down like a column.
"Damn you, Fire Girl, you were having way too much fun going berserk on this facility! Freaking death trap" Mega Girl cursed. It turned out that the flammable gas could be extinguished by her Ice Slasher but only for a few seconds. She only used the weapon when it was really necessary and moved on carefully avoiding those leaks altogether.
It didn't take too long after ascending down a ladder she found herself at the edge of a really big lava pool with not very safe spaces to hide and occasionally more of those nasty fireballs popping up and raining down on her. Samus was almost about to yell "Leroy Jenkins!" and speed through to the other side if it didn't appear to be a bit too suicidal. So she moved on rather slow and careful but could not avoid to take some damage and having to roll on the floor one time as she caught fire and had to put it out in that not very graceful style as there was no other way. While robots luckily weren't able to feel pain burning felt extremely unpleasant to her, an experience that she for sure didn't wish to make again. Already feeling like what humans would call a nervous trainwreck she somehow made it past the big pool and climbed up another ladder but what she made there was no child's play either.
"What the hell is this shit? How am I supposed to get past that?" she asked in disbelief. There was a narrow space like a shaft where walls of fire were running through it every few seconds. Even running at her fastest speed it was impossible to calculate the perfect timing needed for this to make it through! What an unfair obstacle!
But then Samus saw something and smirked.
"When you're not playing by the rules then why should I?"
The blonde simply put out her trusted Magnet Beam and formed a platform out of rubble at the very left side to the wall, jumping on it and avoiding those 'firefalls' (as she named them like opposite versions as waterfalls) completely. Things went surprisingly well after that section, there were a few rocket type enemies and Spinys but the worst places were already left behind her. Seemed she was getting too good to care for them by now!
Overconfidence is never a good thing, especially when you are being attacked out of nowhere by an enemy fighting with burning passion for their purpose. Without any warning a fireball hit Mega Girl right in the chest, burning some of her clothes and she had to roll around wildly on the ground to put the fire out. As she was about to sit up and look around another one came flying towards her and only a fast jump to the right side saved her from being torched up another time.
"You little sister-killing bitch! It's time you get what you deserve!" Fire Girl yelled. She was not out to make any prisoners, not willing to give her enemy only a slight chance. This time talking was the wrong strategy, Samus simply fired everything she had at the redhead. But even the Thunder Beam did no damage. The Rolling Cutter was melting right away. The Super Arm was useless. And the Hyper Bomb was a terrible idea. The fire ignited the bombs way to early, so they were exploding way too close to Mega Girl herself, knocking her back badly and blowing a hole into the ceiling. Dust and rubble that fell down from it at least made it harder for Fire Girl to see so she had to throw her fireballs around blindly. It was still dangerous though as she shot around herself in blind anger.
"Damn fool! Coward! Why dou you want to avoid Queen Imu leading us to a better future?"
"She's not creating a better world, she's destroying it!"
"Thank you for responding, telling me your position, Mega Dumbass!"
Before the next fireball could hit her, now that she accidentally gave her position away to Fire Girl, Samus used her Ice Slasher in defense, hoping it would at least reduce the harm being done to her.
"Can you just stop throwing insults around? Yeah, I know, people say you look cute when you're angry but this makes you sound like you've been raised in a ghetto. Trying to brutally murder me is one thing but you could at least try doing it in a civil and polite way."
While speaking Mega Girl realized something very strange, the fireball that was supposed to hit her every second now wasn't there anymore, instead the ice had turned into water and not only had it extinguised that fireball, it also rained down on Fire Girl, preventing her from forming new ones! Immediately Samus continued to fire more Ice Slasher shots, every time when her opponent was attempting to start her fire powers, avoiding them from working.
"This can't be! That is flawed logic! Fire melts Ice! Not the other way around!" the redhead desperately cried in disbelief.
With the continuous usage of the Ice Slasher the whole fight had been turned around.
"Like it or not, I've evolved, I have become fireproof!" Samus mocked the other Robot Mistress while she kept her unable to use her Fire Storm weapon.
"I won't accept this! Imu is counting on me, I'm the only one left standing between you and her, I can not afford to lose! And for fuck's sake, I. AM. NOT. CUUUTE!"
Having a complete temper tantrum Fire Girl started running around in patterns that didn't make any sense, trying to run away, turning around and charging directly towards Mega Girl. She hated losing, she hated giving up but the Ice Slashers were messing up her body badly. How could anyone want a hot girl like her to cool down like that?
"You were cute before Imu turned you into a monster! I'm gonna stop this once and for all, no robot will ever be reprogrammed and have to suffer because of that" Samus promised while Fire Girl's movements were becoming slower and slower, the ice freezing the functions of her systems down, she had bravely fought her last stand but it was over.
"Kiss my hot little ass. Always hated you blonde bastard" were her not so peaceful sounding last words before the furious red eyes stopped glowing.
Mega Girl couldn't believe it. She had done it. She had defeated all of the six. Bomb Girl, Guts Girl, Cut Girl, Elec Girl, Ice Girl and Fire Girl all were down. So why did this somehow not feel like a victory to her? Everything was supposed to be fine now, wasn't it? No, nothing was fine. She had been forced to kill all of her sisters that she once loved and cared for and that person responsible for all that was still out there hiding somewhere.
"All Robot Mistresses down, one Queen left. Imu, I'm coming for you! And then we're gonna find out if I really can't hurt any human being..."