The Mega Man: War Games

Ch. 10 Things Below Part 3

I wasn't surprised that I had returned to the damp darkness. It seemed to be Snake Man's forte.

I knew I had spent too much time on both Gemini and Needle Man. I could only hope that I was making better time, since he had to bring Blues with him. I had been trying my comm signal repeatedly, but it always turned out in vain.

Gemini and Needle made me curious. They were powerful. Very powerful. And while Wily had shown an impressive ability to create robots quickly, he couldn't possibly have the resources available to create them. His assets had been liquidated. He was on the run.

I shook my head. Wily never ceased to amaze, and it made me wonder what he had been like when Dr. Light knew him. Apparently, he was a good enough man that Light had been friends.

I tried to distract myself from my spiraling thoughts with the task at hand. Snake Man must have dried off by this point, because there was no trail of water to be found. I knew next to nothing about the robot, so I wasn't sure what other clues there could have been.

Blues was very confusing. I hadn't thought about having a brother before, let alone an older one. So this was kind of weird for me. In fact, he was seeming like a pretty crappy guy so far.

After several minutes of walking with my thoughts, I stopped and leaned up against the wall. I twisted myself a little bit, after the repetitive motion of walking began making my joints and mechanics feel stiff. I bent over and reached down to my boots, then held still.

I heard the faint sound on the wall behind me. I took a guess, and straightened up quickly. My helmet happened to smack into the target behind me.

While I had successfully counterattacked, I hadn't expected just how much headbutting him would hurt. I stumbled forward. I needed to turn around, but my rush to do so almost made me fall back into the stream of unpleasant sewage.

"Not so fast, Snaky." I smiled. "It wasn't hard to figure out you like to strike when you're opponents off guard. Just like a serpent."

He hissed in response, staying in the darkest part of the wall. "Can't blame me. I'm ssssurprised. I thought the othersss would give you more of a...challenge. No matter, though...We'll take care of you ourssselvesss..." As he said the words, a change in light caught my eye. I turned and saw the lights on the concrete ceiling being covered in a layer of green snakes. They chewed into them, knocking them out one by one. 

I raised my buster and began firing, but by the time I could shoot any of them down, they had already finished. I soon found myself in total darkness. The only light came from far away down the tunnel. I was fighting blind now.

"Hmm. Kinda cheap, don't you think?" I asked into the darkness. My voice echoed down the walls.

"Hardly..." Snake Man whispered, but when I fired a shot in the direction of his voice, he was gone. Something hit me from behind, and I fell onto my front.

Clearly he was quick, and knew a thing or two about sound mechanics. And given he was putting me in the dark, chances were he had some way of thriving in this environment. The darkness that surrounded me was hardly comforting. I couldn't even see my hand in front of my face. The sound of the water seemed to be beside me, but without seeing anything, I felt disoriented, and wasn't sure I could trust my other senses.

I shook my head and tried to pull myself together. As I got to my feet, my eyes swept back and forth, as if that would possibly help me find him. My systems were running unusually fast. If a robot could experience stress and panic, this was it. I needed something to get me going.

Gemini Laser Loaded

The weapon flashed out of my cannon from the darkness, briefly sending light in all directions. The laser began to bounce of the walls, creating small flashes on every impact. Unfortunately, everything was too brief to make something out of.  I tried again, this time aiming the laser directly at the wall, so that its reflections wouldn't travel very far.