Mega Man and Bass: Frenemy Mine

The Final Battle!

City Streets: 12:30 a.m.

The Blue Bomber opened his eyes to see Proto Man. He was sparking, heavily charred, and it was a wonder he was even still functional, but he was alive.

"Blues..."

"I had to..." an error message came through the red hero's mouth. Then a vocal glitch. "Shield you at the last minute."

He then pointed across the sea of flames that used to be an apartment complex. How many people perished in this?

The charred remains of Proto Man's shield lay there.

"C-Company..."

Mega Man didn't have to guess who it was.

The boy wasn't in his machine anymore, as that was scattered around the surrounding 500 foot radius. The machine's top, which was comprised of a heavily modified minivan, was what he was seated in this time.

The Wily boy was clearly visible through the van's window. This wasn't the arrogant Dr. Wily wannabe that had been issuing this little challenge all the way up to this point, but a traumatized, scared child.

"It's not over yet..." His voice was barely audible and painful to hear.

"I'll make it over." Proto Man half-limped, half-crawled by Mega Man, charging and aiming his buster. "You need to be stopped, Wily, and unlike my brother, I'll stop you even if it involves ending you."

"NO!" Drawing upon what little strength he had left, Rock dove to catch his brother's Buster arm.

"What are you doing?!" A few vocal glitches escaped the elder brother's mouth. "He's not going to stop! He'll turn out just like his grandfather, which you could have killed on more than one occasion when you had the chance!"

He remembered the first instance of that. No amount of firmware updates from Dr. Light could wipe that memory away.

"He who hesitates is lost, Mega Man!"

He looked back into the boy's eyes. His final decision was made at that moment.

"You need to be stopped," Mega Man stared at the boy, determined. "But that's all I'm going to do."

"Then stop me, Mega Man. I don't know how to stop..." There was a pleading moan to the boy's voice as he started up the machine in a rather mechanical fashion.

The final battle was on!

The vehicle only had one weapon. It was a flamethrower rigged from a repurposed exhaust pipe. He fired it at the duo in a variety of ways, from one continuous stream to multiple concentrated blasts.

The duo were so beaten up by this point that they had to physically move each other out of the way in just to dodge anything, which was no easy task...

"I'm sorry... I'm so, so, sorry," Joshua would mumble this as well as, "I'm a monster. Please stop me..."so often during the fight. Mega Man had to force himself to fire on his enemy.

Proto Man broke down and lost consciousness during the fight. To Mega Man's surprise, Joshua didn't kill him while he was down. In fact, he ignored him.

"Stop me quickly. Your brother needs help..."

Joshua's words genuinely disturbed and saddened Mega Man.

A few successful charged shots later, the "capsule" was beginning to explode.

"Joshua, get out of there!" Mega Man panicked as the craft began to sputter to the ground. The boy could clearly feel the craft heating up.

"I've been thinking... Maybe I deserve to die, like Proto Man said. I'll only end up like..."

Mega Man was already running as fast as he was able to toward the ship. "No you won't! The Dr. Wily I know would've killed me while I was unconscious for his own petty sense of self-satisfaction. You didn't do that. There's still some good in you!"

"I've killed so many people..."

Mega Man was under the craft now, weighing his options. "Yes... But you can still make it up to the people who..."

A Chisel Axe projectile came out of nowhere and ruptured the exhaust pipe. It was obvious who it came from.

Bass's interference made an explosion more imminent. He had to think fast, or the he and Joshua would be added to the death toll. Forcing all of his mental processes into overdrive, he decided to take a risk.

He switched to Cheese Whiz and sprayed the craft with all his might.

The cheese encumbered craft wound up falling relatively harmlessly to the ground. Mega Man couldn't get out of the way, as he had nothing left. He just collapsed under the machine's weight. The boy was badly burned himself.

Before losing consciousness himself, he looked at the boy in his semi-conscious state.

"Thank you..." Joshua rasped groggily.