MegaMan stood alongside a crack assault team of United Earth Army soldiers, waiting for the last of the Wilybot's to come out of their wall. The front gate, a thirty foot high steel and concrete monstrosity, stood closed. The massive skull shaped building glowed errily in the halflight of dusk. The army had found in the plays of light brought by the failing sun sometimes made the Wilybots misjudge their targets and miss. These were few and far between, but happened often enough to warrant a frontal assault to storm Wily's castle. Originally it was a Scottish castle, built in a time no one could remember, but it had been so defiled by the metal of Wily that one could only tell it had a castle format. No one could see at first glance that the steel pyres had a heart of mortar and stone. An age of iron and rock improved by steel and genius.

 

A low siren wailed into the half night, thes door creaked open and slowly pushed the black dirt aside. The frontal assault team pulled back ina mock retreat as Wilybots cascaded out of the opened gated. Megaman waited, watching as they took up defensive positions shooting down the fleeing soldiers easily. He looked at the small device in his hand, as detrimental to him as it was to the Wilybots. A logic scrambler, meant to disrupt robotic subroutines that were responsible for aiming and firing. On all test subjects it had allowed for a 39% dodge chance and 14% chance to miss altogether. Unfortunately it affected all those in the vacinity, eventually the scrambler could be overcome but it would buy enought time to gain entrance to the fortress. Hopefully.

 

He flicked the switch in his hand, the device whirred a little and fell silent.

 

Why would you do this to us? Now you must rely on your Human  side to aim. We are imperfect now, our battle subroutines are shot.

 

 

 

MegaMan looked around him, taking in the eyes of his fellow soldiers. Fear, it was abundant here. But there was something else, a slight glimmer as if they knew something that he could not quite figure out. A secret that he was not privy to. And yet when he thought about it, it was so easily defined. He smiled and motioned them to the apex of the hill, they would attack in but a few seconds. Hope, it reflected in their eyes was like seeing yourself in a pond. A fleeting mirage that disappears if you disturb it, but allow it to be untouched and it will remain. Careful then not to lose too many or the reflection would die, and so would he. He breathed in deeply, a purely superficial act, cast one last look around and said, "Let's go."

 

They ran down the hill, firing their weapons wildly into the mass of Wilybots still pouring from the gates, desperately trying to destroy enough to clog it open should Wily try to shut it. The bots already grounded fired back, just as wildly. The scrambler was working, few men were hit while the ground around them was charred. After the initial flurry of shots, the flow of Wilybots stopped as the gate began to close. Too late, there was barely enough scrap metal that one body could fit through at a time, but that was all they needed. Redoubling his speed, MegaMan focused on running to the gates. Only a hundred meters of flat land to go. The Wilybots focused their fire on MegaMan, but he was moving too fast for them to get a good shot. He lept over a small nest, they fired upwards at him, not noticing the present he left behind for them. The crash bomb exploded behind him sending bodies flying. Forty meters, the defenders were more abundant here. He reached behind him, grasping the Boomerangs, one in each hand and sliced his way through the crowd. He slowed only a little as the almost indestructable metal cut a swath through the bots nearest. Ten meters... he climbed up the bodies the blocked open the doors, leaving behind another explosive. The bomb cleared the bodies and the door closed firmly behind him.

 

The assault team didn't even make it down the hill before they retreated, their job was only to distract and they did their part. The only thing left to do was to meet up with the others and continue the assault as best they could. The hope was still there, their job done. But it was as fragile as a butterfly's wings.

 

Megaman rolled and landed on his feet uneasily. He looked at his body, everything was still there. Unforunately he was not alone.

 

It rose to it hind legs, the great metal monster that stood fifteen feet tall. It's shining metallic wings almost looked leathery in the halflight, the shadows playing on them perfectly to give the impression of the dragon it was supposed to resemble. It's body was painted black as onyx and it's eyes glowed a deep crimson. The wings were silvery, giving it an almost angelic look. Much like the Angel of Death it was both beautiful and repulsive; intruiging and terrifying, deadly and destructive all at the same time.

 

It twisted around, its tail swinging out towards Megaman who lept straight in the air. He threw a crash bomb at the monster, which attached onto a wing. It exploded but the damage was superficial. Okay, next plan. He grabbed a metal blade as the dragon stood, then crouched as if to leap. Good, Megaman thought, come to my blade. But instead of leaping, the dragon opened his mouth. Megaman jumped to the side, rolling just barely out of the way of the flames shot out of the dragon's gaping maw. He landed in a run, keeping from the fire which melted the metal from the wall like an ice cream cone left in the sun too long.

 

Megaman ran still, the beast was too large to move with him. Obviously he couldn't have been given enough attention to have a complex CPU, he was the beast he resembled. Megaman took aim and tossed the metal blade squarely into the dragon's chestplate, burying it inches deep. Damn, he is adamentite. Well Wily I have to give you credit on making this at least a bit of a challenge.

 

He grabbed his boomerangs and charged the dragon head on. The dragon swiped at Megaman, he grabbed his hand and swung himself towards where the metal blade was buried. Luck, skill, or maybe divine intervention played its part as Megaman landed just perfectly, feet planted squarely on the blade.

 

 

Megaman began buring the boomerangs as far as he could into the dragon's chest and wrenched them out just as quickly. Only seconds were needed for the bladed edges to pierce the armor plating enough to expose the core of the dragon. He tore into it with the boomerangs, heedless of the dragon fallign backwards, lutching at his chest. He dug into the core, his blades disintigrating at the touch of the anti-matter leak. The body began to eat iself from the inside as the anti-matter reacted perfectly with its surroundings, countering the matter and leaving nothing but vaccuum in its wake.

 

Megaman stood back, watching the slow destruction of the once mighty beast. The reaction stopped a short distance from where the core was, a perfectly spherical hole where the heart should have been. He looked down at his blades, now useless, and let them drop. He still had one of Metal Man's disks on him, perhaps that's all he needed. But without his versitile boomerangs he felt naked and exposed.

 

His sensors picked up a new higher function coming online. Hopefully it was the last of the Masters. Maybe then he could be done with this war.