//------------------------------//
// 5-Alive: Game Over 
// Story: Wily's Wittle Wub 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	As Mega Man warped in to the front of the Skull Fortress, he found Vinyl sitting right next to his warp in coordinates, with Albert behind her and Bass holding a camera to record the whole thing.  Mega Man blinked in shock at that.  "Aren't you supposed to be waiting for me inside, so I have to fight my way through?"

"Why?" Vinyl asked curiously.  "The challenge said you have to destroy the Fortress to beat me this time.  Never said you had to fight your way through it first.  And when you managed to get Wub Man's weapon, I figured you'd decide to make sure there wouldn't be any collateral damage before just blowing the place up.  So I'm here to let you know that I've already teleported all the robots and drones out.  If it gets blown up, it'll be purely symbolic...which is the idea here, isn't it?"

Mega Man nodded slowly.  "I suppose so...but didn't the challenge say Wub Man would fight to the death?"

"Wub Man is dead," Vinyl replied sadly.  "Or at least, close enough to it to make no difference.  All that came of teleporting out when he did was extracting his personality core directly, rather than remotely downloading the program.  Putting enough sonic tech in him to be a true sound-based Robot Master left him with very little armor, and rather vulnerable to direct impacts."

"Oh..."  Mega Man turned to stare up at the Fortress, then back down at Vinyl.  "And this isn't a trap or anything?  There's nothing in the Fortress to cause some sort of problems or logic error if I try to destroy it from here?"

"You have my word, nothing in the Fortress is a trap for you should you try and destroy it," Vinyl promised.  She gestured to a red line right in front of them.  "I even marked out the shrapnel radius, and evacuated the entire area.  The only thing that will be damaged should the Bass Cannon be turned on the Fortress will be the Fortress itself.  I've played my last card, Mega Man.  I'm just here to be a good sport, and face the end of our game with dignity."

Mega Man smiled softly.  "You know, for all the danger and everything else...this has been a lot of fun."

"It has been," Vinyl agreed as Mega Man turned back to the Fortress.  She watched as his coloring changed to blue and white, as he lifted his buster and gathered energy, the speaker panels sliding out the sides and angling to direct the sonic disruption energy as power flowed from all over Mega Man's body into his buster.  "Mega Man, before you pull the trigger, there's one thing I have to say."

Mega Man glanced back towards her as all the energy in his body focused into his buster.  "Y-Y-Y-eah?" he asked, his eyes widening in surprise that his voice box errored.

Vinyl grinned widely as she watched his systems carefully.  After a time, she lowered her shades to look him right in the eye.  "It's my win."

As she spoke, Mega Man's entire system shut down, his eyes going dark as the energy in his buster dissipated, his entire body going limp before collapsing to the ground.

Albert's eyes opened wide in shock.  He started to open his mouth to ask a question, but Bass put his hand to the man's shoulder to quiet him.

Vinyl approached Mega Man's body and gently removed the helmet.  Pushing the focus crystal out, she slipped the hole around her horn as she slid the helmet onto her own head.  Grinning, she turned to the camera, extended her hoof, and pointed down.  "Drop it!"

"And cut!" Bass proclaimed as he shut off the broadcast.  "All done, Vinyl.  We'll just have to see if it all worked as well as what you put in the Bass Cannon program."

"I'm sure it will," Vinyl agreed as she turned back to her Dad.  "So...you have questions?"

"Why did he just shut down like that?" Albert demanded.  "Did...did you slip a voice command prompt into the Master Weapon program or something?"

"Nah, that wouldn't have worked," Vinyl corrected.  "I designed the program so that in order to fire it, several safeties have to be deactivated in order for it to draw the necessary energy to fire...specifically, the ones that keep the Weapon programs from drawing more power than the system can spare.  What Mega Man overlooked when he did that was that it could drain his system completely dry...even without being fired.  Only Bass' bassnium power core generates enough energy by mundane means to fire the Bass Cannon safely, and he only gets one shot.  So the moment Mega Man dedicated his systems to firing the Bass Cannon...he lost."

"I...see," Albert mused.  "I admit, I never would have thought to program a Master Weapon like that.  What kept such a trap from triggering for Wub Man?"

"I gave him the Bass Cannon program and tech, but none of the required drivers to actually initiate the firing sequence," Vinyl explained.  "And don't worry about Rock.  Power Core dropping to these levels automatically triggers the Sleep Mode, so he'll be fine and undamaged once he's recharged."

"And...what was with the pose for the camera?" Albert asked curiously.

Vinyl grinned widely.  "That's the best part.  I found a specific sub-harmonic frequency that can be broadcast through any type of speaker, completely undetectable.  When the human inner ear translates that particular sound wave into brain data, it makes the human mind very accepting of things presented to it.  It basically makes anyone who hears it a lot more gullible."

"And it's been playing in the background of the entire broadcast, making everyone believe to the core of their being that the fate of the world was balanced on our fight...and that the simple act of besting Mega Man means I now rule the world."  Vinyl's grin split her face.  "And all the world leaders - political and military - were watching the broadcast."

"You mean...?" Albert gasped in shock.

"Yup!" Vinyl confirmed.  "I'm Queen of the World!"