As the next Round was being set up, X-P0N3 zipped around on Item 2. "Well, we've had quite the interesting set of matches haven't we? From the comedic to the cringe-worthy to the action packed..." She chuckled into the microphone. "Let's see what sort of battle we'll have here?" As the crowd cheered, X-P0N3 made her way to the first contender, a purple Robot Master whose design seemed patterned after the samurai, complete with the war helm that covered - and on closer inspection, was - his face. He was armed only with a long spear. "Tell us a little about yourself!"
"I'm Yamato Man," the Robot Master replied. "Anything else you need to know about me you'll see in the ring."
"Whoa!" X-P0N3 replied, shooting back. "Someone's eager for the fight, and it's not just the audience!" With that, she zoomed over to the other Robot Master. This one was as different from the others as could be. Instead of a fully humanoid body, only the upper body was human in shape. From the waist down, this robot was a tank...literally. The torso was heavily armored, with a large energy cannon in the center. Each arm was equipped with heavy machine guns, and the robots head was completely covered with a helmet with a gas mask for a face plate. "Looks like a real heavy contender here!" X-P0N3 announced with a wide grin. "And who might you be?"
"Merkava," the robot replied, the voice heavily distorted by the gas mask.
"Huh...and what's your story?" X-P0N3 inquired.
"You'll find that out when I win the tournament," the robot growled back.
"Fiesty!" X-P0N3 proclaimed happily. "Looks like this is going to be an interesting match!"
A jet turbine on the bottom of Merkava's tank body lifted the robot over the edge of the ring to land in the combat area. Yamato Man back flipped over the barrier and into the ring.
X-P0N3 took up her position over the ring. "Ready...FIGHT!"
Merkava immediately opened fire with the heavy machine guns, tracking Yamato Man as he dodged around, using the shaft of his spear to deflect the bullets that came near him by rapidly spinning it. "Quite the heavy hitter, aren't you?" Yamato Man called out. "Maybe you should go on a diet!"
Merkava ignored the jibe, firing missiles from alongside the heavy machine guns.
Yamato Man used his spear to split the missiles before they could hit him. "What's wrong? U mad bro?"
Merkava calmly switched back to the heavy machine gun on one arm, backing it up with missiles from the other, slowly moving around the arena for better angles.
"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn!" Yamato Man shouted out as he dashed from side to side to avoid the volley, rushing up to Merkava's side. "Or the barn side of a broad for that matter! Nudge nudge, wink w-"
Merkava calmly smacked him aside with one arm before launching several missiles after him.
Yamato Man barely managed to dodge the missiles before leaping to the edge of the arena. "Is that the best you got?" he shouted out. "You hit like a fembot!"
Without warning, Merkava fired off the torso-mounted heavy plasma cannon straight at Yamato Man, which he barely dodged. "Shut up!" Merkava roared.
Yamato Man slowly looked up at his opponent. "Oh, I see...you are a fembot! Kinda hard to tell. I seriously thought you were a dude-"
Roaring in fury, Merkava charged, slamming into the edge of the arena and nearly running Yamato Man over with her tank treads.
Yamato Man scampered back, the point of his spear missing as he twirled the haft carefully. "Geeze, what's got you so upset? That time of the month?"
Merkava spun about, rotating her torso on the tank treads before charging after Yamato Man, intent on slamming him into the ground, only for him to dodge to the side.
"You know, I don't think you're cut out for this!" Yamato Man called out, dancing around in circles and forcing Merkava to spin on her waist to track him. "Why don't you try flashing your tits? Probably more effective than that tit buster of yours!"
"Shut up shut up shut up shut up!" Merkava snarled, the heavy plasma cannon firing again, once more missing and now smoking and sparking.
"Maybe you should get back in the kitchen!" Yamato Man offered, dashing up to Merkava's side. "And make me a sandwich!"
"I'll kill you!" Merkava roared, lifting her arms up to smash him to bits.
Yamato Man spun, using his spear shaft to slam the spear point he'd left embedded in Merkava's waist deep into the pivot joint, the force of the blow and the damage it had already done as she'd spun on it causing her torso to pop free of her tank treads. Catching the spear blade back on the haft, he lunged in as she flew through the air, severing the latches that held her armor on by slipping it between the armor plates and her actual body.
Merkava landed on her back, her armor fallen away along with her helmet and gas mask. A rather cute red headed, green eyed, freckled face snarled up at Yamato Man as she brought her heavy machine guns up.
Yamato Man lunged in, his foot on her torso. His spear spun, knocking the guns out of alignment before the blade came to rest at her neck. "You're beaten," Yamato Man stated calmly, the joking and teasing tone from earlier gone from his voice. "Wait for the ten count, and I won't kill you."
Merkava glared hatefully up at him...then lowered her arms.
Merkava sat on the lab table as her repairs were being done. She still was very upset about losing so easily, especially when she so plainly outpowered Yamato Man. The spear was his only weapon! Even so, despite her capacity to, she refused to let herself cry. She wanted to prove that fembots like herself could be just as much of combatants as their male counterparts...and she'd failed miserably.
"If only I'd kept my cool..." she grumbled to herself.
"You would have beaten me," Yamato Man stated calmly, stepping into the room.
Merkava glowered at him, crossing her arms defiantly, wishing she still had the heavy machine guns equipped so she could blast his head off. "Come to gloat?" she demanded angrily.
"No," Yamato Man replied. "I've come to apologize for what I said in the arena. It was not meant." He gestured to a nearby chair. "May I sit?" he asked politely.
Merkava 'tsk'ed angrily to herself. "I can't exactly stop you."
Sighing, Yamato Man took the seat. "Merkava...you were plainly designed to be a high power, high defense robot. A literal tank in combat. By specs alone, we both know I should never have been able to beat you. Had I kept my mouth shut during the fight, you would have eventually worn me down, and bested me."
Merkava frowned angrily. "Come to rub it in?"
"No, to explain myself," Yamato Man countered. "My only weapon is my spear. The blade and shaft can be separated, but they're designed to return to each other. But my combat style is not based around my spear. It's based around finding the weaknesses in my opponent's defenses and exploiting them."
"Yeah," Merkava grumbled. "That blade did a number on my waist. The pivot grooves need to be completely re-filed-"
"Not all weaknesses are physical," Yamato Man interrupted. "That is the reason for my taunts. To find my opponent's mental weaknesses. The chinks in their discipline. My words are my weapons there...because we are more than soulless machines, if not much."
Merkava grumbled a bit to herself, then looked back up at him. "You expecting forgiveness?" she grumbled.
"No," Yamato Man countered. "I expect you to take my words to heart, and make a much better showing of yourself in the Second Tournament."
Merkava glanced up at him in surprise, then looked away. "...you'd better become champ," she stated finally. "And not lose to anyone till I take that title from you!"
Yamato Man's eyes smiled. "It's a promise," he offered happily, extending his clenched fist.
Managing to smirk, Merkava returned the fist bump.
The winning robots all seem to be either really silly or really badass. I approve.
Yamato Man and Merkava...
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...ship?
Okay, I was inwardly hoping for a stereotypical over-zealous warrior personality for Yamato Man (I've got Dynasty Warriors on the brain, LU BU FOREVER!!!), but honestly, I was genuinely caught off guard and found myself enjoying this persona. Good work on the submission, and even better work on the execution, Tats.
ooooo awesome chapter!. Yamato made me think of Ranma Saotome for some reason
7015285 I agree. I ship it like FedEx
7015285 Agreed
I do love those kind of twist reveals. Whether it's Lord Dominator or Merkava, nothing's more awesome than some powerful and seemingly masculine figure revealing themselves to be a beautiful woman who can kill you in many ways.
7015285 Ah, what the heck? I ship it, too It's almost like Ban and Jericho in the Seven Deadly Sins. I mean, yeah, there's Elaine, but I ship those two
7015304 Lol
7015304
I ship it like Walmart.
That was excellent and surprisingly cute. Great work, and now I want to see Merkava again along with all the other shippers.
Also, Yamato Man is going to totally destroy Mega Man with his battle tactics. Given how fragile Mega Man's sanity is at this point, it really won't take much for Yamato Man to completely shut him down with those kinds of verbal attacks.
I like Merkava, I'm glad she survived. I'm glad Yamato came and apologized, too, he was kind of an ass in the fight.
I like it! Fury in battle, friendship in the aftermath.
When I read that, I immediately thought Merkava was based off of an Armored Core. And until she spoke, I thought she was more machine than robot.
EDIT:mechadamashii.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/acv_tank1.jpg
Sadly, this is the best AC tank tread image i can find. None of the classic AC, or it was too classic. Either way, it's for those of you who haven't played AC.
At first, I was going to say something along the lines of "Wow, so this is what Yamato Man (or JapanMan.EXE as I knew him as) is like?... Would've been better-suited to be called Deadpool Man, to be honest"... But what do you know, he has an actual, defined character. I can only imagine what he'd do to Mega Man when push comes to shove.
Sorry if this wasn't funny or anything.
7015795
...actually, that's rather hilarious. I hope you don't mind if I use that for the chapter when Mega Man fights Yamato Man?
7015795 I likely
7015800 How DARE you, sir?! Why, for the very mention of such a thought, I ought to-
Useituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseituseitus-
Anywho, maybe you might be able to do a better job than me when the time ultimately comes.
still metal man
* shudders *
7015795
7015815 I will never not be surprised that people are still disturbed by that scene. My theory is that they never read/watched Elfen Lied.
7015838 I think I saw a part of that somewhere.
its just I dont like reading about such characters, in a anime im fine in fics not so much.
7015850 I can respect that, AND anyone who acknowledges that Mega Man Zero happened. Fist bump *bumps*.
7015301 it's basically how the Saotome Anything goes works...
7015902*bumps* the ending to 4 tho
7015795 That was very funny indeed!
7016007 Some psychopath even had the balls to spoil it for me. THE NERVE!!!
7015285
DAMMIT!!! I WAS GONNA SAY THAT!!!!
...........*ahem*.............
Well, um....uh...
F#ck it. *insert positive response of chapter here*
7015285
Seconded! I agree! :D
7016014 wait me ,or someone else?
if someone else then yep that's a shame nothing like playing the game and experiencing the ending yourself.
7016127 ... Someone else.
7016132 that's a relief for me for a second I thought I accidentally did it to you
When I read the description of Merkava, my first thought was the digimon Tankmon.
Guess Yamato Man... Made the cut quite easily.
It seems Merkava couldn't quite... Tank the hits.
I'd say Merkava was having... Quite a blast this match.
Seems that Merkava should've... Treaded lightly this fight.
Another enjoyable chapter. Good work.
7016610 That match was a blast!
Yamato Man? Yamacho Man.
Yamatroll Man.
I feel like Mega Man Killers could be in, but not sure...
Whoever designed Merkava must have been a fan of IRL tanks, because that's the name of an Israeli tank.
Ah, that was the fight I've been looking forward to. A job well done, Tatsurou, I couldn't've envisioned better. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the good work. Deus tecum.
7015281 Yamato man is both!when he wants to be.
Also, I want more of Merkava. She is a tank, afterall. might even prove difficult for Megaman to beat, especially without any stored away master weapons. Also, if she's as durable as a tank, I think it might be possible for her to appear in the distant future?
I've heard this from a very old game.
Was "glitch in the system" when you faced off against General Corrosive in the arena and the milbots would scream it at you when you got close to the sides or tried to hide under something.
Gosh it brings back memories of good times
7017214 I like the Witt in that comment.
...
No? Okay, back to my corner I go...
7015285 INDEED!
7024152
...and here I thought it was an Austin Powers reference...
7042555 it may be a powers reference but that's where I remember it from but who knows?
Dude, bit over the line there. I'd have said something about getting an upgrade to her chassis or something.
Oh thank gods, I was afraid he was going to be a sexist bastard.
I like Markava, I want to see her show up again at some point. Maybe provide covering fire for Mega Man as he charges a base????
7015285 Agreed.
7015813
Coming back to this while planning out the Yamato Man fight...
I do believe I can.
I would have at least slapped him.
Bonding between lesser characters.
7015304
7015455
You really don't want to ship it like either. I've never had a package shipped via FedEx show up on Time, if it showed up at all, and having worked unloading trucks at Walmart for Two Years... Simply put, there's a reason I never buy anything fragile from Walmart such as Light Bulbs or large Electronics such as TV's or Stereos (), nor will I ever buy Meat or "Fresh" Produce from there ()...
Instead I ship via UPS. Never had a late package from them, and more often than not they turn up Early.
(I realize that this is almost Necro-posting, but these analogies made me cringe)
7015800
Yamato remind me of the way spider man fights in the comics but it also remind me of deadpool not sure which.