The Mega Man: War Games

Ch. 9 Things Below Part 2

"Uh-oh."

Those are pretty bad words to hear someone say, especially when that someone is supposed to be a super robot hero. If you had been around when I said that in this circumstance, you would have been really disappointed in my competence.

The shot, as it turned out, was not aimed at me. This was good considering that I didn't make any effort to get out of the way. Barely missing my head, it whisked by and hit the ceiling behind me. I heard a splash in the sewer water.

I looked at the robot that was apparently my brother. He lowered his buster, and, with his other arm, lifted a strange device up to his helmet, and attached it across his face. It turned out to be some kind of masking mouthpiece, now making his head completely covered by his helmet. In a deep, distorted voice, he commanded, "Move it."

I shook my head, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. "Now wait a minute, give me a second! Are you even going to try to explain what's going on here?" As I asked, glanced behind me, noticing a strange rippling in the grimy water, moving rhythmically toward me. "Okay, we can figure that out in a minute."

The two of us hurried down the thin concrete paths, getting away from that area as quickly as possible. We slowed down to more of a fast walk, and continued moving in silence for what felt like ages.

"So...how have you been?" I asked him.

He didn't respond.

I shrugged. "Okay, man. Been a long day? I know the feeling."

He still said nothing.

I was getting a little annoyed. "So, you're like the first robot I've met that's older than me. That's kind of weird, honestly-"

"I didn't signal because I wanted to make small talk." His voice was fairly flat, but I could sense the slight frustration in his voice.

I nodded. "Fine. How about you explain to me what's going on with all this?"

"You don't need to know that just yet."

I groaned. "Come on. I'm trying to be helpful. I'd appreciate some acknowledgement of that."

"Just focus on the task at hand. The past isn't important."

"I have a feeling Dr. Light would disagree."

As soon as I said the doctor's name, he stopped on the spot. I immediately became worried about the decision I had just made.

"Don't say his name to me. Don't act as if you know anything about who he truly is."

"He's a good person."

He shook his head. "Then you're as naive as I was. Hard to believe you've defeated Wily twice already."

I frowned at the comment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He turned around suddenly, getting his helmet up in my face. "It means you need to take this more seriously. I spent the several months working for Wily to try to sabotage him, but since you showed up, I had to almost expose myself, and then later got outed anyway. You don't think long term about this, Mega Man. You're winning battles. But you're going to lose the war."

He turned around and continued moving. The sewer was reduced back to the near silence of our footsteps, and dripping condensation.

I decided to change my approach. "Alright. Can you tell me what Wily has planned?"

"It's not his plan that I'm worried about..." he muttered.

"Wait, what?"

He stopped suddenly, and whipped out the shield on his back. Practically the next instant, a blur dropped from the ceiling, and he batted it away. Something tumbled into the sewer water with a startling splash.