A Different Place

Chapter 44 - Mega Man Vs. Elec Man

Quackard struggled not to move as his two passengers struggled to hold on to the Birdbot's legs. "Keh keh! You two try to hold still, okay? I'm not made of solid steel, you know!"

"Yes," said Barrel, holding on to Quackard's two webbed feet with his gnarled, old hands. "Only aluminum. That's why Birdbots aren't very strong. Lucky for us you're equipped with a built-in parachute, or we'd all be a bunch of stains on the ground by now."

"Ee Eee!" said Data nervously, standing on Barrel's right foot. The toy monkey had instinctively sought out Barrel once the attack on the Caskett family skyship had begun, and luckily, so had Quackard, just to see what was happening. When the Flutter was cut into halves, the front piece had started to fall, and as they decsended rapidly, Quackard had mentioned his inherent skydiving abilites. All three had taken a leap of faith out the open edge, just to the right of Roll's bedroom.

"Tell Data to stop moving around so much!" Barrel demanded. "He's tickling my foot."

"Ki, ki ki!" Data chittered, offended.

Barrel looked up at the Birdbot. "What did that mean?"

Quackard quacked in annoyance. "He just wanted to remind you that, although---errrerrg!---you can't understand him, he can understand you just fine without a translation, thanks!" The Birdbot tried not to shake himself as the three floated further down. They had better land soon, or he would be forced to ignore his Conscience Chip and shake them both off. Especially that freakin' monkey. Quackard couldn't stand him.

Mega Man climbed up the ladder with resolve. He was almost completely spent, and only about halfway up the tower! Elec Man, his brother robot, was waiting for him atop Monstropolis's Power Station, one of the tallest buildings on the continent (whatever that was, Teisel thought )! Mega Man had to stop him before he took control of all of the power grids in the city, which, ironically, was what Dr. Light had originally designed Elec Man to do.

A Dual-Eye Sphere had sighted him! When unmolested, these green robotic spheroids seemed as harmless basketballs, but when they sensed an out-of-place robot or humanoid, the eyes emerged from the body's interior and each sent a shockingly devastating bolt of electricity towards the intruder. Mega Man let go of the ladder with all but his right hand, then swumg around and between the Dual-Eye Sphere's electric discharge.

"Woo!" said Number Twenty-Eight. "That was close!"

"Right," said Teisel, biting his fingernails. "I sure hope Mega Man makes it out of this okay!"

"Ummm," Number Twenty-Eight said, "now that I think of it, did we get that key we were after?"

"Shhh!" Teisel shushed him. "Something important's happening!"

Something about that wall looked...unusual. Using the ultra-strength he'd copied from Guts Man, Mega Man was able to lift the individual blocks of the wall up. He casted them over the side of the building, revealing an odd device behind the false wall.

"What is this?" Mega Man said, picking up the strange device.

"To tell you the truth, Number Twenty-Eight," said Teisel, "I'm not sure whether or not we actually got that key. We attacked that little yellow ship, but once it was time for Mega Man, I got right down here. I didn't want to miss a minute of the action."

"Yeah!" agreed Twenty-Eight, pumping his fist in the air. "Mega Man ROCKS!"

Teisel and Number Twenty-Eight continued focusing their attentions on the action-packed television show. Just as Mega Man was going to try to leap over an impossibly long chasm, Teisel's door flew open.

"How could you?!" challenged a short, blond girl, who looked like she was just a little younger than Tron. "I'll never forgive you!" MegaMan, a Servbot who looked very much like Twenty-Eight, and a nondescript, tall man were following behind her.

Teisel's eyes grew very wide. "Ummm..,' he said, emulating the Servbots. "And you are?"

"Roll Casket!!!" the girl shouted. "You monster!! How could you demolish our skyship? That was our home!"

Teisel scratched the side of his head, his attention only partially away from the TV show. "Who are you, again?"

"Teisel," MegaMan said, stepping in front of the girl, "why did you blow up their ship? I think we could have gotten the key some other way. We just totally obliterated Roll and Dantz's home."

Teisel leapt up from the couch. "The key?" he asked bombastically. "You mean we have it?"

"Sure," said MegaMan, handing the elder Bonne the "Watcher" key.

Laughing without limit, Teisel slipped the key into his pocket. "This is incredible! I'll have Number One put this with the others!" He thrust his fist dramatically into air, with Number Twenty-Eight mimicking his manly master from his perch on the sofa. "Now, there's nothing stopping us from excavating the Main---" Teisel stopped, his eyes focused on the action on the television screen.

"You don't stand a chance against me, Elec Man!" Mega Man said as he entered his brother robot's high chamber atop the Electrical Tower. "Please, stand down, so I won't have to fight you!"

Elec Man began prancing around the room spastically. "Why don't you give up, Mega Man? Submit to Dr. Wily, and help us take over the world!"

Mega Man stiffened, thinking about his brother's suggestion. "I...don't want to fight you...any of you, Elec Man, but I can't. I just can't turn myself over to evil!"

Elec Man's eyes narrowed, an act visible even through his stylish mask. "I understand, Mega Man. I also don't want to hurt you, but my programming, however..." Sparks flew through Elec Man's eyes, and the Robot Master launched himself at his brother, the robot from which his blueprints had been based.

"You get him, Mega Man!" Roll squealed, pitching herself onto the couch next to Teisel and the Servbot.

"Look," Teisel said as Mega Man started firing his Mega Buster at the electically-charged villain, "I apologize for shooting down your ship..."

"Please, Elec Man!" begged Mega Man. "I don't want to have to deactivate you!"

Elec Man smiled. "You won't. I'll destroy you first!" He fired the Elec Beam at his brother.

"All right," said Mega Man, "you asked for it." Mega Man closed his eyes and lowered his fists. As he put himself in synch with one of his brother's powers, Mega Man's armor flashed, the colors shifting as he locked into Cut Man's abilities.

"Oh, yeah!" said Roll with gusto. "You get him, Mega Man!"

"Right!" Teisel encouraged her.

MegaMan's armor was now completely white, while his gloves and helmet were an iron grey. "I know your weakness, Elec Man, and I'm not afraid to take advantage of it..." He threw a scissor-shaped blade at the electrically-charged robot.

"I'm sorry," Teisel said, "what was the problem again?"

Roll adjusted her dusty red cap as she watched the television. "Um...I think you killed my grandfather, or something..." She was obviously too busy checking out Mega Man's fictional adventures to pay attention to reality.