When next Nova awoke, it was to the sound of fighting happening not too far from his capsule, as his consciousness flickered to life.
Burning red eyes opened up and stared out of the capsule as he laid his eyes on Doctor Wily. His glare bright, clear, and present even though the tinted glass.
The doctor, for his part, ignored him. The elderly man was furiously engaged in giving orders to robots. When he finally noticed the notification. He turned his eyes towards the capsule that contained the resting weapon.
“Punk! You will be the one to defeat that blasted Mega Man! You came before him, I’ve no doubt you are the better weapon, given you were made by yours truly rather than that fool Light” the ego boosted himself as he moved to press some buttons.
“Not like you have a choice anyway; I took the liberty of implementing some safety measures. You are going to listen anyway, the bomb in your chest will explode otherwise” He smirks deviously, pressing a button.
“I’d say good luck, but either you win and go back into stasis, or you lose and are out of my hair for good” Wily says just as his body disappears into light.
—
Megaman, also known as Rock, huffed as he made his way further up Wily’s tower. After a rematch with copies of all eight robot masters, Wily had to have begun running out of ideas.
The child warrior checked his ammo, about half with everything. It would be enough, he had to be reaching the top soon he thinks.
He steps through another door. The robot flails in the air as he suddenly falls down a few feet. Hitting the ground and adjusting himself as he looks in front of him.
He then stepped back, eyes widening as he aimed his buster at the robot across from him.
It appeared to be an older version of him. More heavily armored and clearly meant for battle, claw-like feet dug into the steel ground as two busters rather than one slowly heated up and showed they were fully functional.
For the first time, the robot spoke, its voice box was an afterthought, producing the sound of screeching metal and chiptunes compressed into some form of speaking.
“Megaman” The robot spoke slowly, raising his buster as his eyes burned with red. “Kill, Megaman” he growled out angrily before rushing forward with a barrier around his body.
“A copy, or is it more of a knockoff?” Megaman, for all his apprehension, reacted fast, firing out an Ice Slash, which seemed to only slow the robot down just enough for him to make a leap over his charge. “I guess Wily will do anything to beat me!”
–
Nova felt the freezing cold chink against his armored body as he smashed into the wall. He took a shaky breath, feeling the voice he had growling with that breathing. He turned himself around, staring at Mega Man with bright burning eyes.
He internally took stock of him, Ice Slash, that meant this was Mega Man 1. However, that wasn’t enough information. He had to gain more.
He had a HUD, helpful, it wasn’t quite like the games. He had a display for his armor and internal systems. That Ice Slash only did 1% of armor damage. If that was exact to HP, he had 100 HP and Megaman only did 1 with a special weapon. He couldn’t rule out that it just wasn’t what was effective against him.
It bolstered his confidence though as he raised his buster and fired three shots before jumping and firing two more, landing and finishing with two more.
He watched Megaman weave easily through the attacks, not even being touched as he switched colors into a gray color scheme. A spinning blade shot out, curving towards his head.
Nova activated his thrusters in his feet, jumping back. He had done a lot of fighting before as he engaged in politics and battles. This jump back though was more than he expected. His own body stopped him from slamming the wall, his legs turning and digging into the wall.
He found himself hanging from the wall, and knew it was time to test himself out truly. Attacking an elder wasn’t anything nerve–wracking.
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He wanted to see that protagonist aura burn! Let the plot armor come against him!
Nova jumped from the wall, activating his dash as he fired downwards. Megaman ran forward to dodge the hail as he fired out an electric bolt towards him. Jumping to face the new threat as the lightning surged forward.
It wasn’t like the game where this thing was a projectile. It was actual lightning that struck him.
His HUD flashed briefly, but again, his HP only reduced by a single percent as he landed on the other wall. He took in this information. He knew Megaman probably had some way of telling the damage each of his attacks were doing. He may be testing each of them out.
In his thoughts another cutter rolled towards him. He jumped off the wall and rushed forward. Not quick enough though as Megaman fired another one out right in his face. He felt it dig into his armored jaw as he stumbled back.
This time, he took an entire five percent. A jump from one percent. He was thinking what the cause could be as he regrouped himself quickly only to hear a voice in his head.
“Megaman! When he dashes forward, he puts down his defenses, that’s when you have to strike with a Rolling Cutter!” It sounded like a very young girl. He would guess Roll, but why was he hearing Roll in his head?
It also was clear Megaman heard as well as the super fighting robot nodded to nothing and aimed his cutter attack again, waiting patiently.
“Lucky hit,” he said, touching the cut across his jaw. His voice like machines grinding together to produce garbled words “Won’t, work twice.”
He charged forward this time, his threat was just enough to make the robot hesitate for a moment, but that moment was not enough as he fired out the cutter anyway.
He was ready though for it this time. He kept to his word, as soon as it was fired out, he dashed back instead. Jumping into the air for a brief movement before slamming back into the ground, firing off a new barrage of complex shots before jumping to the ceiling.
–
Rock was running out of steam, this robot was adaptable, not like the others. Buster shots actually didn’t do anything, he had to rely on each of his weapons to do damage. Every time he found a weakness though. The robot adapted to it.
It was pushing the fighting robot to the limit, despite it all though he felt a burning drive with every landed hit. Knowing the robot was going to go down eventually. He had the hope of Dr. Light, of his sister Roll in his mind. He couldn’t lose.
So far, he’d gone down the options. A Rolling Cutter fired during his dash had carved into his chin, so he began being much more cautious during it and dodging with more dashes. An Ice Slash fired into his back dealt much more damage than before, so he began to keep himself turned towards him at all times. A Hyper Bomb that landed on his head, he began shooting those out of the air. A Fire Storm’s orb shield knocked him away when he charged another time, so he began keeping his distance entirely now. Finally, he landed a good Thunder Beam via timing it for the moment he initiated a dash, stopping him in his tracks briefly and interrupting him, so now he was much more cautious and moved normally unless he was out of his range of the electric move.
So far, he’d gone through five weapons. The armor of the other robot was starting to crack, but he needed more lucky hits as the robot kept calling them.
What he didn’t know was that every time Roll spoke about the damage he was doing, just so he could focus on the fight. The other robot adapted to what she said, making full use of her unintentional advice to refine his approach.
He needed a few more attacks, and this would be over.
–
Nova didn’t pant but he wanted to. Even if he didn’t have to.
He glanced at his HUD, between the brief shots of other special weapons he took he was approaching roughly 30 percent of his HP. Whenever Megaman seemed to be running out, one of his dashes to a wall or ceiling seemed to dislodge a weapon energy capsule. He tried to stop doing it but found that he was more or less forced to by the fighting robot’s assault at times.
However the robot had to be out of options now, he noticed him and thought about what to do now. If he was correct, he should only have the Super Arm left which was entirely useless to him without blocks to throw around.
He felt his core burn, desperate to finish the fight. He landed on the floor, digging his claws into it. He raised his busters and activated something. He felt plasma surge, forming flamethrowers from his busters. A stream of concentrated energy.
He threw the busters off to the side as he focused himself. He made that same barrier that surrounded him during his dashes, which he had found out was his special weapon, something he had unlimited access to seemingly. Forcing the flaming plasma energy to surround him.
“Megaman, die!” He raised his flaming busters forward, bright flashes and sparks coming from the barrier like shimmering stars. “NOVA BURNOUT!” he said with a growl. He charged forward with the flaming barrier making a cone in front of him, his busters held out towards the fighting robot. He was out of options.
He had to be, the only way he wouldn’t be was if-
He felt himself slow down; his entire body began to move slower as a purple glow overtook his vision. Time Slow, the move from Time Man. That would mean that he wasn’t fighting just the original Mega Man, he was fighting a version of him from a remake.
He watched in slow motions as his body barreled forward. The robot unloaded everything. Rolling Cutters, Hyper Bombs, he even used an Oil Slick to ram him, another Thunder Beam struck him and made his body seize.
In an instant to his senses, he took 20 percent. As time sped up Megaman jumped behind him, firing off an Ice Slash that hit him. He felt and watched his HP hit five percent as he smashed into the wall. Not having enough time to turn around, his armor cracked and fell off, revealing machinery as he hit the floor.
He was down to only 1 percent. One more attack would finish him off. He didn’t get up from the attack, pretending to be in great shock.
He knew that in Powered Up, Megaman recruited robots that he beat with the buster. He was immune to the buster due to his armor, but now that was cracked and fallen off to expose his internals. Meaning he could be shot with the buster and knocked out.
He stumbled to his feet, aiming his buster before falling to his knees. Seeming unable to fight any longer. He was relying on the hope that Megaman would knock him out, sparing him. Rather than dying here and now.
Sure, enough he watched the child warrior fire off a single buster shot aimed right at his chest, as his percentage ticked down to zero, he felt himself fade away and fall into a deep slumber. Despite this, he remained on his knees, not collapsing down.
–
Megaman stared at the copy, the knock off, whatever they should be called. They were strong. Adaptable. More than anything they were the worst fight he had so far. Despite that though after so long fighting them. When he witnessed them stumbling and still trying to fight. He took the merciful path, maybe Light could help him.
He watched as he was beamed out by Roll, and looked to the door, walking forward to finish this ascent.