I tapped my foot restlessly against the metal floor. I waited as patiently as I could while Light did some research on his computer. After Wily's threat, the press conference had been immediately canceled. I was now waiting for Dr. Light to make up his mind about something.
I looked up. "Well, Dr. Light?"
He looked up and over at me. "I can't let you do it."
I stood up in frustration. "But you heard what Wily said! If I don't do something, innocent people are going to get hurt. Please, I need to do this."
"That's almost exactly what you said last time." He replied.
"So?"
"So I can't let that convince me now. You're like my son, Rock. I understand this passion for justice you have, but I can't let you go out there and risk destroying yourself."
"I can stop him. It can only be me. Just trust me, Dr. Light. I would never let you down."
He turned away, then looked down at his feet. After a moment, he took a deep breath and looked up again. "Only if you're sure you can win."
"I'm sure I can. I just don't know what that means for the actual mathematical probability of me winning."
He smiled. "Take this." He told me, tossing me my helmet. I slid it over my head, and was greeted with a bizarre feeling running through me for a moment.
"What was that?" I asked him.
"I updated your systems. Besides installing a satellite communication system, I've also thought about Wily's teleportation technology, so I've decided to start programming all of you for it. I've just connected you with our personal teleportation system."
"And just in time, too!" Wily's voice came again. I turned quickly to the computer system, where his face appeared on the screen. "Have you made a decision yet, Mega Man?"
I nodded and stepped forward. "I will fight your Robot Masters. And I will defeat them, and I will stop you."
"Yes, well, let's not get ahead of ourselves." His face disappeared suddenly, and was replaced by a series of numbers.
"What are they?" I asked Dr. Light.
He quickly slid into his seat. "They look like...coordinates. Most likely to the first Robot Master. Just let me input those in here..." After a moment, a map pulled up on the screen, and Dr. Light frowned.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"This facility. I created it to house one of the new...I mean, it's a water treatment facility in Central America that I commissioned. It helps give numerous villages in the area daily fresh water. If Wily stationed his first Robot Master here..."
"He could contaminate their entire water supply." I finished. "I can't waste any time. Send me in, Doctor."
"Alright. Good luck, Mega Man." He told me, before inputting some key sequences into the computer, and in a flash of light, I found myself staring at a waterfall.
---
I did a quick glance around to make sure that nothing was threatening my immediate location. I tapped on one of the circles on the side of my helmet. "I'm here, Dr. Light."
"Good." His voice sounded through my headgear. "The facility is built into the side of the cliff, in order to use the running waterfall to power itself. You definitely don't want to take a fall here."
I glanced down briefly over the edge of the platform I stood on. "Yep." I gulped.
"You'll have to get moving. Proceed with caution."
I jogged forward until I reached the edge of the platform. Ahead of me, another section of metal stretched forward, with a very large gap in between the two. "Hey, just saying, but the architecture on these metal platforms seems pretty...not safe."
"I had bridges installed. Wily must have taken them down."
I took a few steps back and let a tense sigh get me ready. I rushed towards the end, and jumped forward, landing firmly on the other platform. After taking a few steps, I glanced up at a hint of movement above me, and hopped back as a large robot fell in front of me. It was designed like a green frog, with a very large mouth, about as big as me.
It opened its mouth, and several smaller frogs leaped out at me from within. I scrambled back as two flew a short distance over me, and the third landed directly on top of me. Upon landing, it sent an electric shock through me, before I pried it off and flung it across the platform. I destroyed it with a single shot.
I turned my attention to the larger frog, which proved to be a mistake. The remaining pawns hopped onto my back, granting me another shock. I managed to blast one off, and the other jumped off on its own. I quickly destroyed it before turning and firing several shots at high speed towards the larger frog. It was able to sustain a decent number of shots, but it soon ruptured, and exploded, leaving on the ground a small energy pod.
As I took the small pod, happily regaining some of the energy I had lost, Doctor Light called me again.
"Rock, are you alright? Your system levels were spiking for a moment, there." He asked me.
"I'm alright." I replied, before heading towards the end of the platform. "Took a few shocks from some robot frogs, but I'll be fine."
-At Light Labs-
"Well, just be careful, R-" Dr. Light stopped as the sound of his door opening was followed by rapid footsteps. He spun his chair to see Roll stop in front of him.
"Dr. Light!" She panted. "I came as soon as I saw it. It's Tempo, Doctor. I think she's waking up."
Dr. Light stared for a few moments, deep in thought. Roll spoke again. "Doctor?"
He shook his head and returned to reality. "My apologies. Let's hurry."
-Meanwhile-
I tapped on the communication system a few times. "Doctor Light? Were you saying something?"
There was no response.
Must be interference or something, I thought to myself as I traversed more of the platforms. Two more frogs were on the platforms ahead, but each time I knew better how to handle them. After dispatching the third, I looked forward to see a series of smaller platforms suspended over the large drop, each held in its place by a powerful engine of some kind.
Something about them I didn't like. I made a jump to the first, and found that my suspicions were correct. Upon landing, the engine began to give out, and I quickly hopped to the next one to avoid plummeting down with it.
I made my way across my temporary landing spots, leaving little time between each jump. I finally made a jump to a much larger platform like those I had been on in the beginning.
I ran along until I reached the end, where the platforms began descending almost like a spiral staircase. I hopped from each one to the next, until I reached some which featured something else: robots designed like hermit crabs.
They paced back and forth across their platforms, with very little else going on. I jumped behind the first one and fired at its shell. The force of the shot caused the shell to fly off and fall down below. The robot spun around and charged with significantly greater speed.
"Oh crud." I did a small leap over it, and continued off of its platform, hoping it wouldn't follow. Thankfully, it didn't. With the others, I ignored them as well as possible, as they didn't really go out of their way to stop me.
I was prepared to jump off of the last platform when I noticed something. Looking below, the only thing I could see was water. I looked around but couldn't really tell where I was supposed to go. I looked back down, and sighed.
"Here goes nothing."
I jumped off and into the water. I hit the surface, and kept going into the depths. I relaxed a little, since the force clearly hadn't crushed me. I opened my eyes, and noticed I was still sinking steadily. I waved my arms to try to send myself up, but it did nothing. Panic began to fill me, as I realized I was too dense to float.
As I tried with immense effort to effectively swim, I felt my throat becoming tired with holding in my breath. With no other option, I opened my mouth, and water rushed in.
And it felt like nothing.
Curious, I opened my mouth again, and more water came in, but I felt no different. "Huh." I said aloud, startling myself. After a moment, I tried again. "Hello? Testing. 123. Dr. Wily's mustache is dumb."
I chuckled a little, and suddenly felt metal beneath me. I had reached another platform, and surprise surprise, there were more crabs.
"Alright guys..." I muttered. "Let's do this thing."