//------------------------------//
// 10: Cutting Through 
// Story: Wily's Wittle Wub 
// by Tatsurou 
//------------------------------//

	The first of the infected the trio decided to go after was Blade Man, chosen at random.  Apparently, before the Roboenza outbreak, he was a fencing instructor, which meant his combat protocols should be somewhat limited.

Blade Man was based in a European castle of all places, guarded by spider bots and jumping axes, as well as spiked drones that raced across platforms.  The trio had no trouble with any of these between Bass and Prometheus being able to shoot at an upward or downward angle to get enemies before they got to them and Mega Man's recently upgraded charge buster.  When enemies were more plentiful, Mega Man would brace himself against Prometheus and Bass before unleashing the Skull Buster, which could clear whole rooms.

"Let's not do that too often," Prometheus grumbled as he got up after the first such instance.  "It's really not good for any of our servos."

"If I could fire it more often, I'd use my Bass Cannon," Bass offered, "but I only build up enough energy for one shot a month, and I can't store charges."

One new obstacle was a strange see-saw platform that allowed crossing over pits of spikes, which had to be cleared by jumping onto the two platforms in sequence as it crossed.  Mega Man and Bass dealt with this by each taking one platform, allowing both to cross together.  Prometheus used his scarf to tether himself to the platform, and then allowed himself to be dragged across the pits while standing on his shield, shooting down enemies that tried to knock the pair off the platforms.

Half way to Blade Man, they encountered a guardian that was shaped like a miniature castle.  It had two control points on the towers which controlled cannon turrets, and one that controlled a door in the center that sent bladed discs after the group.  Bass and Prometheus each stood at an angle to the tower control points, firing relentlessly, while Mega Man jumped to hit the one over the door.  The guardian did not last long from the combined assault.  A white flag rose, and the entire mini-castle exploded.

The last see-saw platform seemed somewhat tricky at first, as it passed over bottomless pits with spikes on the ceiling.  Prometheus quickly found a solution, however, as he was able to magnetize his shield to attach to the spikes on the ceiling, allowing himself to be dragged along behind again.

As they reached the final chamber, Blade Man dropped down.  He was a purple humanoid robot with a sword shaped helmet and two swords for hands.  He attempted to fight them by jumping and clinging to the walls and hurling three blades at them, then shifting to cling to the ceiling and doing the same.

The trio's solution was simple.  All three stood behind Prometheus' shield and fired from behind, Prometheus and Bass at angles, Mega Man leaping out from behind the shield whenever Blade Man was close enough to shoot.  Before long, Blade Man dropped to the ground, too damaged to continue.

"So...now what?" Prometheus asked.  "How do we get him back to the lab without risking infection?"

"Dad made these," Mega Man spoke up, pulling out what looked like small beacons.  "Once they're disabled, we can throw them at the robots.  They'll stick, and send a signal to the teleport network to beam them into the Quarantine Lab.  At the same time, it'll send us their weapon program."

"Useful," Bass mused as he hurled the first beacon.  It struck dead on, warping Blade Man away and downloading the Triple Blade weapon to all three of them.  "So, who should we go after next?"

"Strike Man was a baseball robot," Prometheus offered.  "Perhaps we should start with those robots that would have a more difficult time changing their nature to combat?"

"Works for me," Mega Man replied.  "The more we get back to the Docs faster, the more likely they'll have a way to immunize us before we get sick."





Strike Man proved to be based at a massive sports complex, and various ball throwing robots blocked the path inward.  Unfortunately for the ball throwing bots, they could only throw straight forward, making them easy targets for Prometheus and Bass at angles.  Mega Man brought out the shield he'd gotten from Prometheus on the last day he had still been Protoman, using it to deflect incoming attacks.

The next new foe they encountered was in the locker rooms, as various locker doors revealed themselves to actually be robot drones protecting the locker room, shooting at the trio.  These were easily dealt with by Prometheus, allowing the trio to reach an area guardian...a soccer goal robot.  Its head was at the top of the goal, and it attacked by sending in soccer balls and robotic fists.  Prometheus and Bass dealt with it quickly by shooting straight up.

This and several more sports themed obstacles and enemies filled the rest of the complex as they made their way through to the end, most proving to be more annoying than challenging, proving that whatever had control of it had very little higher brain function available.  As such, they had nothing preventing them from carving their way through to Strike Man himself.

Strike Man was an orange and white humanoid Robot Master built and designed like an umpire.  He fought by throwing balls and bouncing at the trio like a ball.  On an impulse, Mega Man switched to Triple Blade, hoping to deal with the projectiles and damage Strike Man at the same time...only to see the blades shear through Strike Man's body.  Prometheus and Bass quickly followed suit.

"This is almost too easy," Prometheus murmured as they beamed Strike Man's defunct body out, the Rebound Striker weapon downloaded into their systems.

"Yeah...doing it this way takes all the fun out of it," Bass complained.

"We are trying to save the world while running the risk of becoming mindless robo-zombies," Mega Man pointed out.