The remainder of the afternoon passed uneventfully for the group in the fortress, as they relaxed and played games while watching Mega Man making his way through the area Dive Man had claimed for terrorizing. As expected, it proved little challenge for the by-now veteran robot hero, who cleared through most of it using Rush's Marine mode, which turned the robotic dog into a submarine. Wily took notes on that for something he would be working on later...only to notice that Forte and Vinyl were both discreetly taking notes of their own. Wily made a mental note to keep an eye on the pair any time they were in a lab, either together or singly.
Everyone stopped what they were doing individually, however, to watch when Mega Man entered Dive Man's chambers.
As Mega Man entered the underwater chamber - glad that his voice modulator automatically adjusted for aquatic distortion - he was surprised when music began playing out of nowhere. Dive Man descended majestically through the water, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood proudly. "Mega Man!" he proclaimed loudly. "Finally, you have appeared! Let us see which of us shall reign triumphant here!" He flexed his arms outward, entering a battle stance.
"So we're going to blast away at each other like cowards?" Mega Man demanded. "Hardly fair. You are built for water when I am not...but in all likelihood, I have your weapon weakness."
Dive Man frowned. "You speak truth! For the Skull Shield's energy field interferes with my system functions at close range. But what would you suggest otherwise?"
Smirking, Mega Man caused his buster arm to revert to a hand. "Let us settle this instead...like Men!" He slammed his closed fist into his palm. "Hand to hand! Steel to steel! As real Men ought!"
Dive Man gasped happily. "A wondrous idea!" he declared. "Let us see who is the better Man! Prepare yourself!" Pulling his fist back, Dive Man charged forward with all the speed his turbines could give him.
Mega Man managed to side step the initial punch, countering with a right cross to Dive Man's chin. The pair quickly began to exchange punches as they side stepped back and forth to evade. While they moved about the room a great deal, neither moved far from the other.
After a time, Dive Man lunged forward, catching Mega Man's hands in his own for a grapple. "I will bring you to your knees!" he proclaimed. "None is stronger than I in the water!" He blinked, tilting his head. "It is hard to tell in the water, but...are you a shade lighter?"
Mega Man smirked. Interlacing his fingers with Dive Man to hold him in place, he activated the Skull Shield, having switched to it during the fight. With Dive Man locked in the shield's range, it wasn't long before he went down. "You're right," Mega Man said as Dive Man collapsed. "I'm not stronger than you in the water...but apparently, I am smarter." Taking the weapon chip, he beamed out.
Wily stared at the screen, scratching his chin. "I don't know whether to be disappointed that Dive Man fell for that, or impressed that Mega Man took a page out of my book."
Forte shrugged. "Not a bad fight till Mega Man cheated," he admitted. "He set the rules of that fight, and then reneged. Then again, it was rather stupid of Dive Man to tell him his weakness."
"And by process of elimination, he knows Drill Man's weak against Dive Missiles," Kalinka admitted, sighing sadly. "Between Drill Man not talking and him having the weakness, it's probably going to be a boring fight."
"In that case, we'll do something else until Mega Man starts his journey into Mikhail's Castle," Wily suggested. Stepping forward, he fiddled with the screen to set an alert for when Mega Man beat Drill Man, and then turned to the game cabinet. "Who wants to play Monopoly?" he called out.
Several hours later, the game of Monopoly ended just as the sun was setting. It had eventually come down to Vinyl against Kalinka for control of the board, only for Vinyl to claim final victory. As Vinyl celebrated, Forte turned to Wily. "Yo, Pops...shouldn't we have gotten the alert by now?"
"Have we missed something?" Kalinka gasped out as the group raced back to the screen.
On screen, Mega Man was running as fast as he could away from Drill Man shouting, "I don't want to be inflated!" Drill Man was pursuing him with the bike pump.
Kalinka blinked slowly. "I...guess he's played Dig Dug..." Vinyl started snickering uncontrollably.
"So...he does know Dive Missiles are homing, right?" Forte asked.
"Only if you're facing the target when you fire them," Kalinka corrected.
On screen, Mega Man leapt into the air, turned around towards Drill Man, fired three Dive Missiles, and turned back around to land facing away as he continued to flee.
"Not bad," Wily murmured. "A little absurd, but not bad."
After a time, Mega Man did it again, and this time Drill Man was destroyed. "That sure took him a while," Wily murmured.
"I guess that means it's my turn," Protoman admitted. "I'll need to get Kalinka back to Cossack Castle while Mega Man's fighting Dr. Cossack, to make sure things don't go too far. I can always claim I 'rescued' her from you or something."
"And that will keep to-" Wily's words were interrupted by the doorbell. "Now who could that be?" Heading to the door, he opened it. "Hello- Mega Man?"
Mega Man stood with his arms crossed, staring at Wily. "I'm here to take Kalinka back home," he said calmly. "I think she's played enough."
"Wha...bu...how?" Wily demanded angrily.
Smirking, Mega Man tapped the side of his head. "I have an internet connection in here. You really need to keep Kalinka off the Twitter."
Wily groaned and facepalmed.