//------------------------------// // Assault and Resolution // Story: Wily's Wittle Wub // by Tatsurou //------------------------------// Mega Man rushed to find Dr. Light as soon as he returned from the planetoid. "Dr. Light!" he called out. "Doc Robot never had the Energy Elements! He'd left them with his Maker all along!" "Mega Man!" Dr. Light called out breathlessly. "Dr. Wily has stolen Gamma!" "Then he was behind this all along!" Mega Man proclaimed. "I'll pursue him right away! I left a tracer on the capsules." He paused as he turned. "...I probably should have used that instead of chasing Doc Robot..." With that, he beamed out to follow Dr. Wily. Dr. Light let out a sigh of relief. "Here he comes, Al," he murmured. Mega Man made his way quickly through Wily's Fortress...which was actually his second Fortress, the one that never blew up, but following a different path to get to where Wily had secreted Gamma. Between his seven Master Weapons and Rush's three modes, Mega Man was able to get through many obstacles readily. He faced the first Fortress Guardian underwater. It stayed well out of the water, using air jets to try and make Mega Man slam into it, while occasionally sending out green turtle bots to attack Mega Man. To penetrate the hard shells more efficiently, Mega Man used Needle Cannon on the turtle bots. After destroying several of the turtle bots, the guardian exploded. In the next segment of the Fortress, Mega Man had to climb up...and up...and up. After that, he used Rush Jet to clear a large segment filled with spikes. The Guardian of this section proved to be a creature made of yellow ooze controlled by a black sphere...a being Mega Man's systems registered as the Yellow Devil. The ooze flew around the chamber in sections, trying to hit him before the beast fully reformed to shoot at him from its eye. At first, Mega Man had a hard time dodging the ooze chunks. "Geeze, is this a fight or a dance?" he demanded angrily, before pausing, taking another hit. "Wait a minute...my internal gyroscope is reinforced when I'm using Top Spin..." Switching to Top Spin, he used the improved maneuverability of the reinforced gyroscope to evade each of the chunks more easily, several times looking a bit like he was break dancing. And since he wasn't actually using the weapon, he didn't run out of energy. When the Devil reformed, Mega Man quickly switched to Hard Knuckle, attempting to knock the core out of the body. While that didn't work, it did seem to damage the core quite effectively. Following this pattern, Mega Man was able to conquer the Yellow Devil. The next segment of the Fortress was very straightforward, with few obstacles he had trouble with. The only difficulty came in a large section with moving platforms surrounded by spikes as he had to climb up. Because of the pattern of the platforms' movement, Mega Man had to be both careful and fast. He made it to the other side out of breath, but otherwise fine. The guardian of that part of the Fortress proved to be hard light hologram versions of him. Remembering how he dealt with Gemini Man, he sent out his Search Snakes, which proved supremely effective against the holograms. The next section of the Fortress involved moving downward while facing robots that looked like they were made of junk and threw blocks of junk parts at him. One teleport capsule later, and Mega Man found himself surrounded by teleport capsules. Each one led him to duplicates of the robot masters. The first he faced was Needle Man. "Ready for a rematch, bub?" Mega Man lifted his hand. "Did you know my buster has a fire governor?" Needle Man blinked. "A what?" he asked in confusion. "It governs the rate at which I can fire either my standard weapon, or the weapons I got from you guys," Mega Man explained. "I can turn it off, and fire all the sub weapons insanely rapidly...but that burns out my buster." Needle Man stared at him. "And...why are you telling me all this?" "Because I brought a spare buster," Mega Man explained, "along with a Weapon Energy recharge tank. So I've turned the governor off." Four rapid fire Gemini Lasers later, Needle Man was a smoking husk. Six other Robot Masters went down just as easily...but the eighth teleporter - the one that would have led to Shadow Man - had shut itself down by the time Mega Man got to it. Dismantling his arm, Mega Man swapped the burnt out buster for the fresh one. "Convenient," he muttered, heading through the final door. The last teleport capsule took him to the final section of the Fortress, which dropped him down into a large area. Dr. Wily came out in a large Death Machine, which was basically his saucer attached to a walker, with a gun at the bottom that launched blasts that flew at Mega Man in a spiral. "Mega Man!" Wily proclaimed. "This time you will-" Before Wily had even finished speaking, Mega Man had fired several Spark Shocks into the gun, causing it to explode. "Hey!" Wily complained. "I wasn't finished-" Calling Rush, Mega Man launched himself into the air, firing off several Hard Knuckles at the glass cockpit now that it was visible, shattering it. "You used to be so polite," Wily growled, shaking his head disdainfully before it popped off his neck on a spring. Mega Man blinked. "A copy?" Turning, he raced towards Gamma. Mega Man managed to get to Gamma before Wily could make it take off. Using its dock as a platform, Mega Man was able to blast away at the primary control unit until it burst, forcing Wily to take direct control. "I'm going to crush you, Mega Man!" Wily roared angrily. Mega Man leapt onto Rush's back, carrying him up to Wily's cockpit. "I don't think so!" he shouted as he threw himself into a flying kick. Switching to Top Spin, he activated it, drilling straight through the cockpit dome and into the controls, frying them. The kick also punched through the back of the cockpit, taking Mega Man and Wily out as Gamma began to explode. Mega Man took a heavy hit from falling debris and blacked out. While he was unconscious, Protoman grabbed him and took him back to Light Labs. Shadow Man grabbed Wily and went to meet with Wood Man, Crash Man, Air Man, and Doc Robot at the new fortress, where Vinyl was already settled in. As Mega Man awakened in Light's lab, he blinked. "...I didn't catch Wily, did I?" "No," Dr. Light replied. "You didn't." "How...did I get out?" "Your older brother, Protoman, rescued you." Mega Man's eyes widened. "I have an older brother?" he gasped. "Why haven't I met him?" "You have," Dr. Light replied. "He's been secretly pushing you, testing you, to make sure you were ready for what was to come...at least he was, until you punched him in the face." Mega Man glanced away, blushing. "Still, I consider this a success," Dr. Light indicated. "Not only can Dr. Wily not use Gamma, but it's been shown just how dangerous such a robot is in the wrong hands...and the fact that it can't function as designed, since you defeated it so easily." Mega Man managed a smile. "Thanks Dad," he said softly. Vinyl glowered up at her father, grumbling under her breath. She understood that it was especially cold and covered in snow outside the new Fortress, but she felt this was excessive. She had a fur coat, after all. She didn't really need a parka, snow pants, thick boot snow shoes for all four hooves, a snow hat tied under her chin, a scarf covering her face under her glasses, and - the ultimate indignity - a hand knit horn cover! It didn't help that she couldn't even be angry about that since her Daddy had knit it himself for her specifically because he knew how sensitive her horn was to extreme temperatures, and she could see the bandages covering his hands from all the times he stuck himself with the needle. At least he'd stitched a nice pattern of blue and white, reminiscent of both her mane and tail and the discharge of her sonic disruptor. "There now," Wily declared happily. "Now you're safe to play in the snow. Enjoy!" Grumping and grumbling under her breath, Vinyl waddled out of the Fortress and into the snow. She blinked in surprise as she saw another Fortress not too far away. Confused, she decided to investigate. Waddling up to the other Fortress, she knocked on the door. A young blond girl with green eyes wearing a red fur coat answered the door. "Da?" she asked curiously before gasping at the sight of the figure at the door. "Oh, is this someone's snowman joke?" "Nmph!" Vinyl grumped through the thick scarf. The young lady gasped. "There is a creature in all that? Come in and get warm!" Pulling Vinyl inside, she set her next to a warm fire. "Where did you come from, malyutka?" she asked as she slowly unwrapped Vinyl. Smiling, Vinyl pointed towards her Daddy's new fortress. "Ah, you are new neighbors!" the young girl replied. "Daddy will be so pleased to meet...tiny unicorn?" she asked in confusion as she finished unwrapping her guest. Vinyl smiled up at her. "I'm Vinyl Scratch Wily!" she introduced herself happily. "What's your name?" The girl smiled. "I am Kalinka Cossack. Wait, Wily? You are Dr. Wily's daughter?" Vinyl nodded happily. Kalinka clapped her hands together. "My Father has always vanted to meet your father! He will be so happy we are friends!" Vinyl grinned widely in response.