Chapter 24

I'm baaaaack.

My body was numb. I had slumped to the floor after doing what I did. I remained there. Not having the strength to pull myself up. I looked up at Michael's dead body. My body lurched as grief shot through me. I wanted to cry. I wanted to curl up in a ball and forget about all of this, go back in time and go back to my normal life.

Alex!

I ignored him. How could this all go so wrong? How could I fuck up so bad? I promised him. I promised Garret and...I failed him.

Alex, God damn it! Joes are converging on your location! You need to move!

Doors on opposite sides of the room opened. The familiar green robots filed in and aimed their weapons at me. I looked up at them, there were at least 20.

Get up! Fight, you fucking moron! Don't you die on me!

My heart raced as the realization of what was going to happen dawned on me. I grabbed Michael's gun and opened fire on the group in front of me. Two of them went down and I dived behind some rubble. They shot at me. I checked through my arsenal of powers. Cut Arsenal was almost gone but the rest were in okay shape. I formed a Hyper Bomb in my hand a lobbed it over the rubble. It cleared a few more when it exploded. I used the dust as cover and got to a new hiding spot. As the remaining Joes fire on my old spot I took aimed and flanked the rest of them. They were all down. I stood up and sighed.

"You'd think he would send something else by now..."

Let's not jinx ourselves, please. Look, I know you're grieving, I would be too but you need to keep it together. If you hesitated for any longer you would have died.

"I know, I'm sorry..."

He'll pay. You can count on that, Alex. We will make that son of a bitch pay for all of this.

"You're speaking my language. Now, do you know where Gerald and Lee are?"

I'm not sure. They're probably still on that floor.

I held onto Michael's gun and bolted up the stairs. The halls were mostly empty which was unsettling. My footsteps echoed throughout as I ran down the halls to find the next set of stairs. I eventually made my way back to the floor where I first ran into Bass but Gerald and Lee were nowhere to be seen.

You were out for a while. They must have gone on ahead.

I groaned as I looked around fruitlessly.

"Damn...okay. We'll run into them eventually. I hope they're okay. Rock, let me know if you see them on one of the cameras."

You got it.

"Now, do you have any idea where Wily is?"

I can't sense him, he's not in the med-bay or anywhere with a functioning camera. I think our best guess is to head to the main control room in the center of the base. It might take us a while to get there.

"Back down again." I sighed

I ran back down the eerily quiet hallways. When you've gotten so used to being shouted and shot at while explosions keep happening silence starts to feel unnatural. I periodically looked over my shoulder, checking for anyone who might be tailing me. The silence was broken by Rock.

ALEX!

I stopped in my track and asked "What? What's going on?!"

He didn't speak right away but I could feel his panic.

T-this can't be real...I've been looking through some of Wily's files. I can't see everything because if all the pass-code locks but what I can find isn't good. He's been developing an assembly line of sorts, an assembly line that mass produces Robot Masters!

"No...you're fucking with me!" I said shaking my head.

I'm looking dead at it, Alex. And it's been activated. Recently.

"Did you not sense this when we got here?!"

There are literal hundreds of robots in here, Alex! They've all been running together. I would have said something if I knew.

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted kicking a wall "Okay...this changes nothing! We find Wily and avoid as much combat as we can."

I resumed running down the stairs of the tower.

All of us were crammed into a shelter. I grabbed coffee for Dahlia and I. We were in a small corner of the room with Alex's friends. Molly was holding my wife's hand, consoling her.

"If I have to spend another minute here, I might lose it." Dahlia said is a dry tone, trying to be funny. The last few days had torn her down. You could still see the sadness in her face.

"I know what you mean. When I was a kid my house got hit by a hurricane. I had to stay in a shelter for a while. You can't be by yourself at all." She laughed.

I smiled a little. Molly's kindness was much appreciated. Things were difficult for Dahlia and I even here. Word had spread fast that our son, Alex, was Megaman. It wasn't long until the other townspeople in the shelter made the correlation. We could see their judging looks.

"How could they let their son do this?"

"How dense do you have to be to not know what your child is doing?"

"Where were they during all this?!"

We had heard it all. Sometimes they didn't even need to say it, we felt it. I give Dahlia her coffee, with plenty of cream and just a pinch of sugar. She thanks me and drinks it. I sit next to her and put my arm around her for looks at me with surprise. With all that was going on, Alex going missing, Dahlia and mine's depression and just trying to keep it together our intimacy hadn't bee what it used to be. She manages to smile and put her hand on top of mine. It was such a simple thing but it meant the world to me. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back. Molly smiled at us and left to give us some alone time.

I left Alex's parents for a bit. I went to find Andrew who had disappeared somewhere. He was laying on one of the cots they set out for us. I sat on the edge and he looked up.

"Hey."

"Hey." We both sat there not sure what to say. "You holding up okay?"

He looked down and then back up at me.

"I've been worse but I've been a lot better too." He said sitting up "How about you?"

"I'm okay." I nodded

"Do you...do you think he's going to be okay?"

I looked down at the floor, thinking. I saw Andrew tense up in the corner of my eye. I reached over and put my hand on his knee.

"I think we both underestimated Alex. I think he's a lot stronger than we give him credit for." I smiled at him and he smiled back

There was silence. I leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. He blushed and laughed. I laughed too.

"What?" I ask giggling.

"How are we gonna go back to normal life after all this?"

I put my face in my hands while I laughed.

"Fuck, man...I don't know. We'll deal with that when we get there.

Just as we were beginning to really enjoy out little moment we noticed the shelter had grown quiet. We both looked around confused. All the people were crowded around the various TVs. We got up and went to the nearest television. Our hearts sank when we saw a familiar old man staring back at us. It was Wily. He stood up straight with one hand behind his back and the other on his cane. A weaselly smile creeped across his face.

"Good afternoon, world." Wily started "I'm assuming you all know me...maybe you've heard a few nasty things the army has been telling you. I just want to let you know my target was never you innocent people."

"Oh fuck this guy." I said. Andrew nodded in agreement.

"Unfortunately the person who WAS the target of my attack has not only evaded me, he enlisted the help of a KID to fight his battles for him." A picture of Alex in street clothes popped up on screen. Wily let out an exaggerated sigh and rubbed his temples. "All of this could have been avoided if the world recognized my genius from the beginning! Now...now I must teach you all a lesson. This child, your "savior" is my castle and there's no way for him to get out."

The screen changed to show Alex running a hallway. He would occasionally stop to look around but would soon start running and heading down stairs. Each move he made the camera followed him smoothly. The view then cut back to Wily who had a smile on his face. Next to his head was a small army green disc floating in the air. The device had a camera lens sticking out of it's front.

"Today's episode is brought to you by my state of the art Wily Cam-bot." He said with a shit eating grin on his face. He was really proud of himself, the son of a bitch. "I don't much appreciate trespassers, so I'm going to take care of him and broadcast it all across the nation. Show you what happens when you oppose me..."

It felt like I had been running for hours and making no progress. Nearly all the hallways I ran down or staircases I descended looked exactly the same. I let out an audible groan of frustration as I went down the tenth set of stairs.

Okay, you're on the right floor! You're going to go straight and a a large double door will be on your right, that's the entrance to the main control room.

"Oh thank God! No more stairs!"

I bolted down the hall anticipating the end of my long trek. I cam upon the door. It was large ornate and made of metal. It was an oddly pleasant and royal shade of purple. In the middle of it was a grey skull with red eyes that was spilt down the middle of the two doors. The handles were also grey which made them stick out.

"In a weird way, part of me admires the theatrics." I said aloud looking over the door. "You sense anything?"

It's weird. I can't read much of anything. I think it may be all of the computers in this place. I can't see inside there either

"That's going to cause some problems."

I stared up at the door. I had a bad feeling about this but what other leads did we have? This was the most logical place for him to be. I took a deep breath and grabbed the two handles. I swung the large door open and walked in. The door clicked behind me. I looked around the room. It was almost completely empty. The floors and walls were the same dull grey color. The walls had dust outlines where clearly objects used lie and were moved. The was a large elevator at the far end of the room, industrial size.

That's weird...

"What?"

I didn't see any elevators in this section of the castle on the blueprints.

"Hmm..."

I had a sinking feeling in my gut. I turned around towards the door and ran to it. I tried ot open it but it wouldn't budge.

"Oh shit! We're trapped!"

Ding.

My body seized up. The elevator had reached my floor. I turned around again, my back against the door. I held up Michael's rifle ready to unload on the person who came out. The doors slowly open and my body grew cold. Wily was there, standing in the middle of the elevator. Dressed in a grey lab coat and black slacks, his same sick grin along with his trademark cane. That wasn't the scary part though. All six previously defeated robot master stood around him, in perfect condition. All of them were staring directly at my. Wily started to clap in a mocking fashion as he and his entourage walk out of the elevator.

"Well done, Alex!" He said "Surely a valiant effort! You beat my robot masters, gave me a run for my money in a one on one fight AND you infiltrated my castle! My boy, to say I'm impressed is an understatement." He casually twirled his cane as he congratulated me, but soon he stopped and shook his head.

I thought to say something but instead fire the gun in my hands. I pulled the trigger as many times as I could before it wouldn't fire anymore. The room was filled with dust. As it cleared Wily wasn't standing in his spot anymore.

BEHIND YOU!

I whirled around only to be met with Wily's cane smacking me in the face. I was sent flying and landed on my back. Wily strolled up to me with a bored expression on his face.

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, how disappointing." He swatted me with his cane dismissively and walked ot the elevator. "Unfortunately our little back and forth must come to an end. It takes a skilled man to defeat any one of my robot masters...but defeating all six? All alone? Son, let's not kid ourselves, you're aren't going to leave this room alive."

I stood up and took a fighting stance. my legs were shaking but steel my nerves.

"I'm not alone Wily." I said defiantly

"Oh that's right! Your little friend...how are you, Rock? Long time no see!" He said and laughed. "I almost forgot about you. Allow me to remedy that." Wily produced a remote and hit one of its many buttons. The walls began to hum and crackle. I felt strange. Sort of dizzy.

Al...o...y

Rock's voice was all staticy in my head. I could barely hear him.

"Rock! ROCK!" I called out

I couldn't hear him. Nothing at all.

"Wily! What did you do?!"

He shrugged and said "You can't have your little cheat sheet with you. It was smart to send him into my systems...but did you really think I wouldn't have something planned for that?" He laughed and walked onto the elevator leaving his robot masters behind. "Now you're all alone." The door closed and he left.