Hardman's Bar

By Hadrian Howell (Hardman)

Chapter 14

“Pick up the pace,” Megaman’s older brother shot back at me.

I winced. “Still kind of injured here, genius.”

“Deal with it, we have to move fast.”

“We’d be a bit better off if we knew WHERE we were going,” Magnetman said with some amount of effort.

“Can’t say,” Protoman spat, “Who knows if he’s listening or not.”

I couldn’t argue with the logic, much as I’d have liked to. My feelings about Protoman seemed to be similar to his distaste for me. I always found him much more difficult to deal with than Megaman, and HE was always trying to get me to stop serving alcohol in the bar. Aside from Roll, I could really take or leave the Light siblings.

The first Robot Master stopped and crouched low, shoving his hands into the concrete. He pulled up what could be generously called a trap door and motioned for us to get in.

Magnetman slipped in easily, and Protoman followed him. I found it a bit of a squeeze to get through, and my side screamed in painful protest, but I managed to slide down with minimal swearing.

The room I found myself in was some weird kind of arcade, from the looks of it. Well, it might have been an arcade at one point, but there was no electricity down here. No lights, no whir of electronics, and no noise. I gave Protoman a questioning look.

“So do ya always bring ‘em home on th’ firs’ date?” I said in a kind of snide tone.

“Shut up,” he shot at me, “we can talk freely down here.”

“Why’s that?” Magnet asked.

Protoman took the opportunity to replace the trap door and knock on the ceiling. “Lead.”

“Ah. Superman can’t see us now then.”

“Wise up, moron,” Protoman said curtly. “It stands to reason the Mesmerman’s power can be blocked by lead. Well, lead and the fourteen different wavelength jammers I have down here.”

“Building a bunker?” I asked.

“More like a trap,” Protoman nodded. “If I can lure him in here, he’ll lose contact with everyone he’s controlling outside. The problem is drawing him out.”

“You seem ta know a lot about this guy, even though we ain’t ever heard a’ him before,” I said with a long glare at Protoman, “Why is that?”

Protoman sighed and sat down against a wall. “You remember when Duo got infected with that evil energy and created his general, right?”

“Yeah, that was Artilleryman and Golemman. The latter of whom I know I’ve seen too much of lately,” Magnetman commented.

“Well, Duo didn’t stop with rounding out the Evil Eight. As far as I can tell, he’s got at least two other generals, one of which is Mesmerman. He’s positively soaked in evil energy, and he can spread his influence to anyone in his range, which is almost unlimited if he tries hard enough.”

“Ouch. What about the other general?”

“I don’t know too much about her,” Protoman said darkly. “But Mesmerman is top of my list right now. I suspect he’s taken control of a few more prominent names in the city aside from da-… Dr. Light.”

“Which explains th’ Mayor’s irrational behavior an’ th’ police department’s lack o’ initiative on this arson thing,” I said, beginning to understand things a bit better. “But I still don’t understand why he was tryin’ ta frame Needlegal.”

“Maybe he wasn’t,” Magnetman said thoughtfully.

“How do ya mean?”

Protoman smirked in a mirthless kind of way. “If Mesmerman’s control of someone is uninterrupted, he can erase the memories of what they’ve done under his control.”

Realization dawned in my mind like sunrise in Antarctica. “Oh hell,” I whispered to myself. “She DID do it…”

“Exaclty,” Protoman nodded.

“But… she… she wasn’t in control, so that doesn’t count, right?” Magnetman scrambled for a solution.

“That’s not for me to decide,” Protoman sighed. “I’m going to go try seeing how the other Megaman Teams are holding up. You two wait here.”

“Fine,” I grunted, crossing my arms.

“I don’t much feel like traveling anyway,” Magnet groaned.

In a swift motion, Protoman disappeared out of sight through the trap door, which closed itself silently.

Magnet and I sat there in the darkness for a while. “Well,” I eventually said, “might as well catch some sleep.”

“I hurt in places I didn’t think I had,” Magnet said sourly.

Pain flared reminding me of my side. “Yeah, I know th’ feelin’.”

We sat there in silence, gathering our thoughts.

Mesmerman… This new foe had already proved to be problematic to track down. I hadn’t even suspected something like him until this most recent development. With Mesmerman identified as our overall enemy, things started clicking into place. Needlegal, under his influence, had burned down and robbed those places almost in her sleep, and presumably had deposited the money somewhere Mesmerman would be able to get to it. The Mayor, likewise affected, started luring all of the Megaman Teams that were active into a trap. A big, elaborate trap. Since the Ascendant Androids and the Mechanical Maniacs (minus 2) were both showing up at the Mayor’s office to confront him, they probably didn’t suspect that they were going to expose themselves to Mesmerman’s control.

I could only shiver as I thought of the Mechs and the Androids going on a rampage. Combined, those two teams could do some incredible damage, and the other teams would be hard pressed to stop mind controlled allies.

Still, how did this explain Wily’s connection? Mesmerman’s control on a person or robot was made obvious by the smoky grey light, which I hadn’t seen in Golemman or any of the other Evil Eight when we fought. Was it possible Mesmerman had allied himself with Wily? Or was Wily out to eliminate this new comer?

And why was Megaman immune to the effects of Mesmerman’s ability? Did it have something to do with Mesmerman’s reliance on evil energy?

I faded into dreaming as I sat there, seamlessly passing from disturbed thoughts to disturbed sleep.