The Mega Man: War Games

Ch. 2 Stars and Machines

I was quick to react, leaping out of the way as a hulking mass of metal rushed toward me at high speed.

"Oh boy..." I muttered, tapping my comm set rapidly, begging it to connect. I felt the ground rumbling and saw my opponent rushing towards me yet again. I carefully jumped away again, landing a little more smoothly this time. I turned around and watched him crush two cars in the parking lot and flip a third about twenty feet in the air.

"Of course."

A faint ping sounded in my ear, and I quickly raised my hand to the comm piece. "Dr. Light?"

There was a second of shuffling before his reply. "Rock? Are you alright?"

I looked over at the large bull thing. It was currently trying to get a car off of its horns. "Um, I'm fine right now. But we have a big problem."

"Called it." Came another voice from the headset.

"Flash Man?"

"I said I called it. The fact that we were gonna have some crazy problem show up. I'm telling you, these things never disappoint."

I shook my head at his statement. "You said it like twenty something hours ago."

"The time frame isn't important."

I rolled my eyes, hoping Dr. Light was more focused. "I've got something here I've never seen. I don't know what to do with it."

I heard a small click. "Well have you tried shooting it?" Flash Man asked.

The idea was so simple I was embarrassed to say I hadn't.

"Well, give me what you can, and I'll try to help you out."

I nodded. "Great. Sending you a scan now." I looked up and down the bulky body of the bull, carefully making sure I peeked at everything I could. After I was finished, the scan was sent off instantaneously to Light Labs.

A few seconds later, Dr. Light responded in a way that indicated he had the information. However, a few less seconds later, the bull guy figured out what he was doing, and charged once more. I barely leaped out of the way, as he sailed past me, but hit a hard 180 turn, coming back at me within a few seconds. I jumped over him this time. I predicted his horns would come up to try to hit me, so I pointed downward and launched a charge shot into the top of his head. The blast didn't even damage the spot, but the force tossed him head over heels onto the asphalt.

I stumbled on hitting the ground, and raised a hand to the comm set once again. "Sorry, I missed all of that. What's up with this guy?"

Dr. Light answered. "That's the thing, Rock. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. It radiates a strange electromagnetic energy. It must be interfering with the sensors, because it reads two life signals inside it."

"What?" I asked. "That doesn't make any sense. It's a hulking piece of metal."

"I dunno." Flash replied. "Seems pretty obvious to me."

"How?" Dr. Light asked him.

"Symbiotic relationship of some sort. Possibly parasitic, even. Two life signals would make sense if a host system were being used for the advantage of a foreign species."

Both sides of the line were silent. We were basically wrapping our heads around Flash Man's spurt of wisdom.

"What? I'm smart, too."

Light grunted. "I suppose it's possible."

I shrugged. "Is it possible you could filter out all that radiation stuff from the scan?"