For the record, if it says "undefined" anywhere and then a big space, nothing's missing. Wattpad's just being stupid.
---
"Bubble Man, Heat Man, and Wood Man." Dr. Light muttered, walking around his office uncomfortably. "Wily's branching out from general uses. I think he really wants to outplay you, and he's making these Robot Masters to show he can."
"Yeah." I replied. "No kidding."
He shook his head. "But we're not even halfway, if the eight he showed at the conference were all he had. We still need to stop every last one."
I swallowed and stared down at my buster. "Sure. Definitely..."
Dr. Light stopped and looked at me. "Are you alright, Rock?"
"Fine. Just...bothered."
He nodded. "About Wood Man?"
I sighed. "I don't know, my head's so confused. I'm just tired of fighting, I guess. And since Wood Man showed a desire for the same, I guess I feel pretty poorly about destroying him."
Dr. Light put his hand on my shoulder. "You did what you had to, same as Wood Man. Perhaps when this is over, we can find a way to come up with a plan for him."
"Did I hear something about a plan?" A voice called from the doorway. I turned, finding Ice Man standing proudly. "I came as soon as you requested, Dr. Light."
Light nodded. "Excellent, thank you. I appreciate you taking the extra time away from your work. Rock may need all the help he can get."
"Yessir, I won't let you down as a mission coordinator."
Dr. Light put a hand on his shoulder. "Oh no, Ice Man. You're joining him on the mission."
He stopped and swallowed. "I am?" He quickly darted his eyes around, as if looking for something. Or someone.
He shook himself and stood tall. "...Of course. My orders are...understood."
A ping earned Dr. Light's attention. "Good, because we may have to begin the mission right away." He typed on his computer for a moment with intense concentration, and finally pulled up an image.
He frowned a little. "I'm not sure what is supposed to be there, but those are the coordinates." He turned to the two of us. "Are you two ready?"
"Yes, sir!" Ice Man shouted, preventing me from saying anything.
"Alright." He put a few more commands into his computer. "Your coordinates are set. Good luck."
The teleport icon in my monitor blinked, and my view was replaced with a quiet alleyway. It seemed to be beside some sort of warehouse, and I could hear machinery operating far away.
Ice Man frowned. "Minimal enemy activity it would seem. Are we sure we're in the right place?"
I didn't reply, but walked over to some sort of loading platform nearby. It was completely empty, and sat idly on the ground. I looked at it carefully. "This has been modified. Not sure how, but certain pieces are out of place."
Ice Man nodded. "Then maybe we should see what it does." He stepped on, followed shortly by myself.
We stood still on it for a moment, before a soft rumble could be felt beneath our feet. I began to feel a weird sensation, and I tried to place what it reminded me of in order to properly asses the situation.
An elevator.
"Get down and hold on!" I yelled, and hardly a second later, the platform shot into the sky on some sort of rocket propulsion. I was thrust downward onto it, and I gripped the edge with the determination that only comes from not wanting to fall off of a rocket.
I could feel whatever was in my stomach being thrust toward the ground, which unfortunately kept getting further away. I gripped it as hard as I could, but that didn't really help much when the platform stopped suddenly.
I was thrust into the air by the sudden removal of what was carrying me. However, my arm held me to the platform, which meant I stopped with a jerk before being sling shotted to the surface again.
I shook my head and tried to get my bearings. Around us, I could see clouds hovering there, so close I felt like I could just jump onto them.
No, of course I didn't. I'm not an idiot.
I glanced over at Ice Man, who stumbled around a little precariously for a moment. "Yes, sir...I can occupy the...restaurant..."
I grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him. "Hey. You alright? 'Cause we gotta go."
He blinked a few times before nodding. "Right. Understood." I let go of him and turned around to view what was ahead.
The platform had connected to a larger one suspended in the air on a series of rockets. It hovered so cleanly that it felt like real ground. Almost. The one we stood on continued for a while before it seemed to stop.
I activated my buster while saying, "We'd better go and see what's ahead. Better to not waste time."
We walked forward for a while, and nothing came to bother us. It was rather peaceful for a moment, just the two of us walking down this piece of metal.
"Did you not want to go on this mission, Ice Man?" I asked.
He sort of rubbed the back of his head. "Well, no, I certainly...I mean, I wouldn't want you to be...It...I..."
I looked over my shoulder at him.
He hung his head. "Not really."
I nodded. "And yet you seemed really excited to be showing up at Light Labs, so...anything about that?"
He shrugged. "I like his desk chair?"
"Heads up." I called back as we reached the end of the platform. Below us seemed to be a straight drop down to the ground. I wasn't normally scared of heights, but this kind of got me going. I took just a half of a step back.
"Attention front, soldier!" Ice Man shouted up to me. I looked ahead, seeing a large red robot emerging from the top of a small cloud. Both were floating towards us, and the robot held a lightning bolt-shaped weapon of some sort, which he threw towards us. I had to jump to avoid the hit, and fired a series of shots into the robot.
The cloud continued to hover there after the robot was destroyed. I took one last quick look around, and sighed. "Guess we're going cloud hopping."
---
After some time, we came across a series of large robots that we were apparently supposed to use as platforms. The only problems were that they had large spikes emerging from either end, and continuously created small drones that would follow us around trying to damage us.
As we jumped from one to another, I looked back at Ice Man. "So, for real."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean why were you so excited to be here if you weren't hoping to go on the mission?" I blasted a drone that flew up into my view.
He shrugged as he froze on of the spikes solid. "Well...I guess...I wanted to see Roll."
I glanced back at him and smirked. "Really."
We made it to some flat ground, and continued moving. "Well, she's just so...nice. I love being around her, and she makes me feel...kinda warm inside? Hmm, emotions are such a confusing concept for us Robots..."
I turned around and looked at him. "So, are you saying that you...LIKE Roll?"
He rolled his eyes. "In the broadest possible sense, yes. I like her."
I turned around and kept running, thinking to myself, well isn't that interesting? I wonder if Michael knows...
A series of the small bird robots with eggs, that I had encountered with Wood Man, appeared as we went, and we had to slow down to avoid being overwhelmed by the smaller robots.
Finally, after what seemed like ages of running on the platforms and avoiding those birds, we came across a large gateway much like the other Robot Masters had. We approached, and the door opened swiftly, leading us into the corridor before the main room.
I looked back at him. "Are you ready, Ice Man?"
He swallowed and took a tall stance. "That I am, sir."
The two of us stepped up to the next door and dropped into the room. A large blue robot stood in front of us. Something about its design was very unique from anything else we had encountered. He was reasonably tall, but had a design that made him appear well built. His chest was most of his body, and in the middle of it was a very large fan. He stood facing us with his arms behind his back, which seemed like it was either supposed to be courteous or arrogant.
"Welcome, Mega Man." He announced as I approached. He glanced over at Ice Man before adding, "...and guest..." He turned his attention back to me. "I will do you the courtesy of introducing myself. I am Air Man. I assume you are here because of Dr. Wily's challenge."
Ice Man stepped up ahead of me. "Indeed we are! We will defeat you, for the sake of justice!"
Air Man looked directly at him and stared him down with an intense glare. I whispered lightly to Ice Man, "I got this. Let me do the talking."
I stopped and looked at him. "Air Man, listen to me. I just defeated Wood Man, and he showed me another side to all of you. I know deep down you don't want to do this. If you just trust us, we can help you with that."
He didn't react for a moment. Then, very suddenly, he let out a chuckle. "Well, isn't this interesting? Mega Man, the combat robot, the fighter for humanity doesn't want to fight? Who would have thought you'd be so empathetic."
He laughed a little more. "Wood Man is a joke. A creative concept that is much better on paper than in practice. And just like all of us, any personality he has is programmed. He thinks only what Wily told him to think. Any connection for 'nature' and 'life' comes from some code in his head, not real feelings. He was a tactic. Meant to lower your guard and take you out in a unique way. We are meant to destroy YOU, Mega Man. Don't forget that."
I frowned and readied my weapon. "I don't believe that."
"I don't care if you do." He replied, removing his arms from behind his back. "But you will find that I am nothing like that sentimental pushover." He held out a cannon his right arm, which released strong gusts of wind which quickly whipped up into several small tornadoes. The fan on his chest began to spin, quickly reaching high velocity. The tornadoes began to move toward us quickly, and on top of that, the force from the fan made it difficult to make forward progress.
The two of us managed to barely dodge most of the winds, and I fired a few shots at Air Man. Only one managed to hit before he created another tornado, which for some reason dissipated the shots on contact. Another wave was quickly sent our way, meaning we had to dodge again.
This time, I tried to find an opening to shoot through, and fired a few times, hoping to hit him long distance. Thankfully, most of the attacks hit, but now he jumped to the other side of the room, suddenly behind us. His fan reversed, pulling us in with tremendous force. Ice Man was pulled off his feet, and upon approaching Air Man, was smacked to the side with an arm.
I jumped into the wind, spinning around to try to kick Air Man as I approached. To my surprise, another tornado formed in front of my path. I felt intense whipping pressure crush against me, and I was thrust to the side.
"Don't let my physique affect your combat. I'm smart enough that I don't need to out-move you to win." Air Man boasted, proudly tapping the top of his body.
The two of us got up, and I began firing at him. By rapidly shooting at him, I could fit in a few hits when his guard was down, but it also left me defenseless. I took more hits than I should have, and had to lay off to avoid doing myself in.
I dropped back away from Air Man, where it became easier to dodge his attacks. I looked over at Ice Man, who stood against the back wall, frozen to the spot (not literally, you know what I mean).
"I don't mean to sound pushy..." I muttered as I sidestepped another tornado. "...but shouldn't you be doing some icy stuff? You know, like helping us win?"
"I...I could...but..." He stammered, and I noticed he was shaking.
"Look at me, man."
"I've been trying!" He yelled, looking over at me, with a defeated look in his eyes. "I've been trying to get her to notice me, but it doesn't work. No matter what I do, I always just blend in, whatever I'm doing. I couldn't beat you, and I certainly can't beat this guy."
I grabbed him by the shoulders. "LOOK AT ME!" I shouted, shaking him as I did so. "That sucks. Alright? I'm sure that's really hard for you. But sitting here with your back against the wall giving up is NOT gonna prove anything. There's always to turn around the odds, but you have to try to find it. I don't care what you're struggling with. I need you now. YOU need to get yourself sorted out." I pulled him out of the way of yet another attack.
I let go of him and turned towards Air Man. "Figure it out. A lot of people are counting on you and me. That includes Roll."
After finishing, I looked away and jumped into battle with Air Man once again.
I started thinking it through. His fan was his big tool. It made movement difficult, and allowed his tornadoes to become even more useful. Somehow, it had to be taken out.
The Bubble Lead and Atomic Fire were automatically ruled out. The Bubble Lead would instantly pop on contact, which would probably do nothing. The Atomic Fire would take too long to charge, and I had only two shots with it, based on how much ammo it consumed from my fight with Wood Man. So that left one thing.
"I hope you got me something good, Wood Man." I muttered.
LEAF SHIELD LOADED
I spawned the shield, but a problem arose upon doing so. The winds were an unpredictable projectile, always finding their way through the barrier. After unsuccessfully blocking a tornado, I had to abandon the idea of using it defensively. I then repeatedly tried throwing the shield at him, but his winds would hit the leaves and cause them to separate and fall idly.
"How...am I gonna...do this?" I asked myself as I tried once again, this time with a seemingly clear opening present.
Air Man performed a jump across the arena, causing the weapons to strike the wall harmlessly.
I looked at my ammo meter, which read only a few bars. That likely meant one more shield. But I didn't have a chance to hit him. Another volley of tornadoes launched. The hopelessness paralyzed me a little too long. I only had time to brace myself.
"NO ONE WILL HURT ROLL, DO YOU HEAR ME? NO ONE!!" The scream pierced the howling wind that Air Man had created, and a sudden chill blasted through me. I opened my eyes in surprise to see a cloud of mist in between Air Man and me. Inside, I could see the shape of the tornadoes, frozen in place.
"How...is that possible?" I asked quietly. A hand on my shoulder quickly drew my attention. Ice Man stood behind me, wheezing.
"Go." He exhaled, before collapsing.
I nodded and hurried into the mist, which had become dense, making it difficult to see. But Air Man's fan was loud and obvious. I pointed towards it, and threw one last Leaf Shield.
After a second, Air Man exclaimed, "What...was that?"
I rushed towards his voice and fired the buster, hitting him with a few shots. I finally came to a more visible section, where he stood, small sparks coming from holes on his body, and his fan. Inside the blades were dense clumps of leaves. He seemed to be trying in vain to turn his fan with them, but they were causing it to stick.
"No. No, this isn't possible. The power of the blades, it should have..." He looked up at me. "What did you do to me?"
I shrugged. "Gave you a mouthful."
He seemed flustered as he responded. "Shut up! That's not even where my voice box is. It...why am I even telling you this? I'll remove these, and destroy you!" He began to put an immense amount of effort into turning the blades, which still wouldn't turn. They began to smoke and spark even more, but he continued.
I realized what was happening. "Air Man, don't-" I was cut off as his body was engulfed in an explosion, releasing a thick cloud of smoke. The sound of his turning engine had ceased.
I tried to clear away the smoke, to pretty much no avail. Regardless, I walked forward and knelt down when I found Air Man. He lay on the ground with his eyes closed, a small fiery hole the only remnant of his fan.
DEACTIVATED ROBOT DETECTED. INITIATING PROTOCOL. SCANNING...SCAN COMPLETE. AIR SHOOTER DOWNLOADED.
I sighed and sat down next to him. As the air began to clear up, I could see Ice Man also laying down a small distance away. I smiled as I watched him.
"He likes Roll, huh? My oh my..." I laughed, looking at the open air above us. "I wonder if he knows about Michael, then..."
---
Halfway there, Mega Man. Keep it up!
And also myself. Keep it up, we're almost through this.
Okay, that might have seemed confusing. IT'S NOT ENDING AFTER THE MEGAMAN 2 ARC. I just want to get to that point so I can take a small hiatus.
As usual, I appreciate your comments and votes, so keep reading!