It was no different than the first time as Samus was out on her first mission in China, having to fight another Robot Mistress for the first time ever, Light thought. His robotic daughter had become more experienced since then but the old man couldn't help and still being always worried when she was out there on her own. So he decided to finish the work on one of his inventions in the meantime before she (hopefully) made it back. As always when she returned to the lab Light was pretty relieved and ran directly towards her for a welcome hug which made the blonde roll her eyes.
"I'm fine, it's okay. Was a very tricky fight though."
Both of them were looking at the body of Flash Girl that Samus had been taking with her as she had teleported away from the clock tower in El Salvador.
"Why did you bring her with you?"
Mega Girl shrugged.
"Well, she may have been constructed by Imu and maybe never had another purpose other than trying to kill me but being responsible for her death is still something I hate. She's an advanced robot like me or the previous series of us and she never really had a chance in life. So I thought, despite them being built by the enemy, you could maybe be able to bring her and the other ones back from dead and reprogram them if that's possible?"
Light was now moving closer to the fallen Robot Mistress and was inspecting her body.
"Should be able for me to do that" he nodded.
"But first, can you please install her weapon into my system? No lie, I'm rather excited to get her powers as this girl was a freakin' timelord!"
"A 'freakin' what?"
"A timelord. You never watched Doctor Who?"
"Who?"
"Ah, nevermind. The thing is that Flash Girl was able to freeze time and although it was only lasting a few seconds, an ability like that will be mighty helpful for me on my missions!"
Almost feeling euphoric now she told the old scientist everything he needed to know about Flash Girl and her last mission.
A few days had passed and Samus wondered what was taking him so long to finish installing her new weapon into her weapon system. Light was also looking kinda frustrated as he finally explained what was bothering him.
"I'm sorry, it surely is an unique power Imu came up with but unfortunately I lack some knowledge about time manipulation and having not constructed Flash Girl by myself I'm not knowing everything about her exact specifications either."
"But you were able to make it work, right?"
"The Time Stopper is completed, that's the good news."
"What's the bad news?"
"I couldn't figure out how to stabilize it without it running out of power immediately, so, it will work but once activated it just won't stop, so you'll only have one usage for it. I'm sorry but that's it."
"Mighty bummer" Samus stated disappointed, "So, it's like stepping on the gas pedal of a car, driving in full speed for a few seconds but being unable to brake?"
"That's not the comparison I would have come up with but you basically got the idea."
"Shame. And I think we both know that there's only one logical choice for which Robot Mistress I should pick next. Pulling a break on the fast one."
Light nodded but wasn't finished yet as he was taking out some mechanical device out of a cabinet from the lab.
"What's that?"
"This is Item-3, I've just finished it when you were away."
"Number three? What happened to the other two?"
"Still working on them but they aren't as easy to build as I thought, so I ended up finishing the last one first" the doc confessed, scratching his head. "Anyway, you remember that Ivica was suggesting to invent something as replacement for the Magnet Beam?"
"Oh, yeah, I do. So you came up with something equal? What is it?"
"This is what I call 'The Spider', let me show you what it does!"
The device seemed to have what appeared to be spider legs on both of it's sides and started climbing up on a wall, providing enough space on it's top for a person to stand on it.
"Ah, it's an improvised elevator, I see" the blonde spoke but didn't manage to hide some disappointment as that thing needed a wall to be useful in the first place. "I appreciate your attempts but lately your inventions have turned out to be a bit half-assed to be honest."
"With an attitude like that you can kiss my... you-know-where, and not literally" Light responded in an upset tone and it dawned on Samus that she might have said something wrong.
"Just joking, just joking!" she lied, "I gladly take it but why a spider?"
"Should I have sent you to battle with a Tango instead?"
Tango was a green cat robot Light Labs recently released on the international markets as a simple mechanical pet, mostly for children.
"Nah, it's fine, really. Would be cool to have a cute looking animal bot as my companion though" Mega Girl admitted to the still a bit annoyed looking doctor.
"Will see what I can do about this in the future, but for now you've got a job to do" Light promised and was asking himself since when Samus had became such a needy daughter.
After some video calls with a few politicians and people from the army had been made both of them finally had gathered enough info about the exact whereabouts and possible plans of the pink-haired Quick Girl.
"She's currently in Germany, somewhere near Hamburg, about to attack a military test base" Light spoke.
"Military stuff again?"
"At first the germans didn't want to tell much about it but after some of the other countries put enough pressure on them they finally admitted that this is a testing ground for some new panzer-breaking laser technology."
"Panzer-breaking lasers? In a seemingly peaceful world? World politics really are just one big lie, aren't they?"
"Be very cautious when you go there. If those lasers really are able to penetrate the shells of tanks they could kill you in one hit! Although I gladly doubt that the germans have activated them yet and they won't be stupid enough to attack you with it."
"That's good to know. I should head out as soon as possible though before Quick Girl gets her hands on their technology. I may have only one shot to slow her down but trust me, I will make the most out of it!" Mega Girl assured and teleported herself to the base.
"Ha? Found you already?! You're not one who likes some long foreplay I guess?" Samus asked in surprise. As soon as she came out at top of a long downwards-leading shaft after her teleporation there was the fast and furious Quick Girl standing right before her, having a smug grin on her face.
"You're very wrong about that!"
"Why? You're Quick Girl, so maybe you prefer a quickie?"
"If you want to stop me, you have to catch me first and I doubt you'll be able to keep up with my speed! Give it a try, catch me if you can!"
Before Samus could even think about activating the Time Stopper Quick Girl dashed away, directly downwards the long testing shaft, so fast that she was almost only visible as a pink and yellow blur. As soon as the Robot Mistress entered the testing grounds the germans activated the laser systems but she was moving way too fast and rushed past every one of the lasers Mega Girl witnessed as she was looking down with some respect.
"How can she even move that fast while wearing high heels? Bet this was Dark's idea, instead of giving her some sneakers as footwear she had to wear those, probably to mock this scene of that woman running away from that dinosaur in a certain Hollywood movie."
Yeah, she didn't get to know her older sister pretty well but what Samus could tell was that this would match her sarcastic and absurd kind of humour.
After a while the lasers were deactivated and there was no sign of Quick Girl. Mega Girl sighed. So she had to go down there after all.
"It's fine, the lasers are off, so it should be safe."
The blonded descended downwards and besides a few Scworms jumping around that could easily be avoided nothing spectacular happened. At least for the first moments.
Then suddenly a laser activated a few meters above her head, Samus looked up in confusion, then another one followed, below the first one.
"No, this can't be! What are you doing, you idiots?!"
Panicking the blonde started running as fast as she could, not caring about falling when she had to, deeper through the strangely-shaped shaft. What where those crazy germans thinking to activate the laser system while she was in it? Luckily she reached the ground rather soon and there were no more lasers at the bottom. While she rested for a few seconds, still in shock, there was a voice coming from some speakers at the ceilings. A familiar female one.
"Your speed was acceptable enough to make it through the first set I see" Quick Girl praised her enemy, "but unfortunately for you there's a second shaft waiting for you and let me inform you, this one will be way more brutal and impossible to pass for anyone that can't move as fast as I can. There's also no way you're able to escape the way you came from, even if you would somehow manage to climb back up I've taken control of this facility and I won't deactivate the lasers anytime soon. Accept your defeat, you are effectively trapped in here, Mega Girl!"
"We will see about that, I'll never give up!" Samus responded with more confidence in her voice that she really felt. The situation she was in was really bad. It didn't get any better when suddenly the lights went out. On her way forewards she met some fire-making robots that could have been the children of Fire Girl if robots were able to reproduce, bringing some light source back in the dark hallway, at least until she had to destroy them as they had the habit of throwing fireballs at her when she came too close to them.
Carefully making her way through the darkness suddenly the lights came back right before a hole lead downwards, normally this would be a good sign but it was obvious that the second shaft was waiting right below her.
"Okay, there's no other way" she spoke to herself, remembering she had the Time Stopper and while this was far from being the optimal solution she really didn't wanna get destroyed by those horrible lasers. If she would die here she would never get the chance to fight and stop Quick Girl anyway.
The running Robot Mistress had not been lying, this shaft was built even more confusing and even more merciless when it came to reaction time, Samus barely managed to make it past the first set when the deadly obstacles almost got her. There was no other choice. When she was standing in the middle of a platform with lasers appearing and shooting to her from both sides she had to press the button on her weapon and activate the Time Stopper. Only a few centimeters away from her face the deadly lasers froze in time but she couldn't afford to make a pause as the clock was ticking against her. Mega Girl let herself fall downwards, not caring about taking any possible fall damage and was praying that her weapon lasted long enough until she reached the end of the testing grounds.
"Choke on your damn Sauerkraut" she cursed about the germans as her weapon power was about to run out. She hadn't made it fully through the course as the Time Stopper ran out of power and there were lasers appearing above her again. She sprinted to the very left and let herself fall down another level as she landed on her face but there were no more noises and no more lasers coming.
"Hahaha, I've made it!" she yelled in relief as she was hit by some bullets in the stomach.
"Argh, look who's back greeting me!"
Compared to the death traps before the two Sniper Joe's in their hopping machines that were attacking her were not that big of a worry though.
There was one bigger fish waiting that was Quick Girl herself and now that she had used up the Time Stopper already Samus had lost her trump card in that upcoming fight. In yet another strangely shaped control room the pink haired runner was waiting, looking relaxed and very pleased with herself.
"Okay, I wouldn't have expected to ever see you again. Say, how did you manage to get through the second shaft in one piece? It's not because you used Flash Girl's weapon to make it past the lasers, right?"
Damn, she knew.
"Absolutely not" Samus inconveniently lied and shook her head.
"Let me tell you, you're not a good liar."
"I'm not lying!"
"Yeah, so why don't you freeze me in my motions immediately if you could? I'm waiting."
"Okay, fine, maybe I used it up but I still can defeat you" Mega Girl admitted looking embarrassed to be exposed and with an awkward annoyed sigh but as soon as she ended speaking she felt a fist in her face hitting her hard and so she was being thrown backwards while having important questions in her mind. Why exactly was Flash Girl named Flash Girl and didn't have a name like Time Girl instead while Quick Girl was moving as fast as that superhero in that red costume called The Flash?
"It's nice knowing that my sister's weapon is out of play. I really wouldn't have appreciated being stopped in my movements. Unless the dumb ones you met last time around I'm smart, I was warned and I came up with a plan to counter you! That's why I've got you cornered now."
"Stop with self-praising and fight!"
Samus fired her arm-cannon wildly around, a few shots must have hit her fast-moving opponent at least.
"Not so invincible at all I guess!"
"Doesn't matter, playtime is over! Unlike you I still have my special weapon!"
While Mega Girl calculated the movements of Quick Girl and successfully avoided her physical attacks by jumping and dodging this time she got hit by something sharp on her back, her shoulder and in her stomach simultaneously which felt not good. She inspected those metal pieces that had penetrated her body as she pulled them out of her body. Those boomerangs looked like smaller versions of Cut Girl's Rolling Cutters and while their range wasn't wide there were three of them at once flying around every attack making them hard to deal with.
"Goddammit! Imu was bragging so much about being superior, unique and individual and what is she doing, she's recycling some weapons of doctor Light's first series!"
"Stop whining and start dying!"
"I don't plan to!"
Samus was taking damage but the space in here was not enough to dodge every bullet either, not even for someone moving as quick as her opponent. Then she was thinking about her old strategy again, when not having an adequate counter weapon you need to use the shape of the room! Dodging the boomerangs as best as she could she tried to lure Quick Girl into changing back to using physical attacks.
"Come and get me!"
"Fine, you like to be rammed, that's okay for me too!"
"Don't make this sound so sexual!"
It took a lot of good calculation and faith for this to work but Samus counted on her reflexes as she stood super close to the right wall when Quick Girl rushed to her in high speed. Only at the very last moment she jumped up with all the might in her long legs while her enemy crashed head-first into the hard wall. The runner with the pink hair barely realized what happened to her as additionally to the head damage some plasma bullets were raining down on her. Suddenly worried she tried to get away but felt some grip on her leg.
Quick Girl desperately tried to pick up some speed but Mega Girl was holding onto her golden high heels, not letting her run.
"Speed is nothing without control. Although I never went to a human driving school I think that's something you've gotta learn when driving a car."
This couldn't be! The plan had been perfect! Why did it have to turn out like this? Those were the last thoughts of Quick Girl when she felt that Samus pressed her to the ground with all weight. Having built as a lightweight focused on speed she lacked the strength to effectively fight back in a brawl. There was no more running, she was finished.