The Unnamed: A Mechanical Maniacs Mini-Novel

By Gauntlet (Shadowman)

Chapter 17

Monsteropolis was in deep trouble.

A new wave of powerful robots had come out of seemingly nowhere to attack the city. They were called the Gammas. And unlike any previous force ….. this time, there were more than eight of them. There were ….. the Gammas! Hulking robots, all with similar likenesses, however with ranging powers. They laid waste to Monsteropolis with their might.

C.J. smiled. It was going off without a hitch. Currently the Gammas were assaulting the central power core of the city.

“How’s it going on, Artillery?” asked the leader of the rebellion over the communications channel.

“Pretty good,” said his lieutenant, “the ‘bots here aren’t too clever. They should have beefed up security after that fool Wily took over so much.

There were many security bots, but Artillery had it covered. With guns blazing he cut a path of destruction wherever he needed to go. His enemies went down like toothpicks. Artillery laughed to himself. He felt invincible in this new body!

Artillery was so engrossed in his work that he didn’t notice a single soldier rise from behind him. His guns were so loud that he didn’t hear the soldier get up and take aim. Soon it would be over for him. The soldier took aim and…

Was cut down by a large projectile. Artillery turned. Then smiled.

“Thanks for the save, Shadowman Gamma!”

The Gamma didn’t respond. Its thoughts were suppressed like all the others.

“Now, you and Expressman take out the garbage!”

Shadow-Gamma and Express-Gamma responded. As the fastest of the Gammas Artillery took them along to deal with the situation quickly. It was imperative to get it done with the utmost of speed! They were a blur of motion, blasting and cutting the soldier robots to bits.

“Take aim!” shouted a seignior soldier robot. Obviously they had developed a plan. Artillery was excited to see what it was.

“FIRE!” shouted the commander. To Artillery’s surprise they didn’t aim at the robots directly, but at the floor underneath. It exploded violently under Shadow and Express. Obviously it contained something that the soldiers knew of ….. Artillery wondered how the Gammas handled it.

When the smoke cleared the solders were all dead. It seemed Shadow and Express were alright. Artilleryman was disappointed. Still, they did take a lot of damage. They fell to a crouching position. Their legs sustained too much damage, it seemed.

“Alright, get lost you useless pieces of scrap. The rest of us can take it from here.”

Wordlessly, the Gammas obeyed. No matter. The bulk of the forces were dealt with. He and his other two comrades moved into the main control room.

“Looks like we made it.”

“Yep. Time for me to shine!” said Sean, the former Sparkman of the Mechanical Maniacs. As the technical genius, he was most capable of fulfilling this mission. He went to a console and went to work. It would take some time to hack by the security and initiate his programs. In the meantime Artillery had his hands full. The place wasn’t unguarded yet. He could hear the hover motors of the power core boss. Not daring to face him here, he and his last comrade went to the next room to face him.

“Halt intruders! Prepare for incarceration!” said the security robot. It was massive. It had no legs and no arms….. its hands floated eerily. Its body was a massive shell. Its head has two cold, lifeless eyes. Obviously it had little intelligence.

Artillery gave his answer with a flurry of bullets. No good. The robot’s thick hide protected it and the bullets. With a wipe of its mighty hand it sent Artillery reeling into the wall. He exhaled audibly. The battle had drained him more than he though.

“It’s up to you …. Bizarro.”

“Wrong!” said the strange backwards-talking creature. Bizarro shot three Shadow blades right away at the sentry, to little effect. Apparently it was made of metallium, the substance used primarily in construction of Mets. The sentry retaliated with a powerful laser, hitting Bizarro squarely in the chest. Bizarro grunted. It had been a while since it s last hurt.

Running quickly, it avoided several small bombs shot by the Sentry robot. Bizarro, however, knew he had more powers than this large waste of metal. He had the powers of the entire Megaman three team. He shot Spark Shots which stunned the Sentry robot. Seeing his chance, Bizarro leapt into the air and shot out Magnet Missiles, further damaging the robot. Bizarro began to laugh. It was almost too easy!

But the mutant robot’s mirth was cut short as he was grabbed by the robot’s floating hand!

Bizarro let out a yelp in surprise. Sean looked up to see what was going on.

“Just a few more minutes, Bizarro,” shouted the one-time Sparkman, “I’m almost done here!”

Bizarro was hit with electric current within the fist. Shrieking in pain, Bizarro struggled against the iron grip of the hand. No good. Worse, it was within the field of his Borg Shields ….. he couldn’t adapt against this attack! He had to use something else ….fast!

On instinct, the cords that attached to his back writhed and stretched and finally attached to the electrifying hand. Using advanced Borg technology Bizarro had acquired on one of his misadventures he hacked his way into the hand’s mainframe and took control of it. Immediately it released its grip on the twisted robot. Bizarro landed on his feel.

“Make peace!” shouted the robot gleefully. The hand that Bizarro had control over flew straight at the Sentry robot’s little, cold head. With force it grabbed the robots head and squeezed. The Sentry robot screeched for a minute as its systems tried to re-assert control over its limb, but after a large crunch, the robot fell gracelessly to the ground. The floor shuddered with the impact.

Sean looked impressed. “Good job, Bizarro! You saved the day!”

“Did you get it done?” asked Artillery, sitting on the floor.

“Yep. The shield program is installed. Now neither Megaman nor Bass can get into the city. We’re free to secure our power base.”

“Excellent.”

“Uh, Artillery ….. could you meet me in the meeting room of the Technodrome? We have something to chat about.”

Artillery nodded suspiciously.

***********

Artilleryman teleported directly into the meeting room of the Technodrome. C.J., the first Topman, was there to meet him.

“Hello, Artillery,” said the ‘Maniacs’ leader.

“So, what’s the deal,” asked the militaristic robot, Artilleryman. “Somehow I don’t think this’ll end up good.”

Pain shot up Artillery’s neck. He spun, but couldn’t see who attacked him. His head hurt, his eyes hurt. Something was going on!”

“You made for a good ally, Artillery. But, according to our sources, you’re pretty incompetent. We don’t need that running around in this organization.”

“What ….. sources?” asked Artillery through a blaze of pain.

C.J. gestured and, from another doorway across the room, stepped the mad scientist, Albert Wily!

“Wily!? You …. Teamed up with him? But ….. he’s ….. unpredictable!”

“Yes, but with a little mind control device attached and he’s pretty obedient. We need someone to work on the construction of our larger projects after all.”

Wily stood there. Artillery noticed his vacant expression.

“I’ll …. Never …. Let you …. Do….”

C.J. laughed. “That body came with a price, ‘friend’. It links to your brain. We can bypass your personality circuits and make you as dormant as our one-time comrades, the other Mechanical Maniacs. Your power’s pretty useful, but ….. you, an unpredictable failure of Wily’s, are not!

Light streaked in front of Artillery’s eyes. He couldn’t feel his feet anymore. He couldn’t see or hear anything. The pain turned to a dull throbbing sensation. His frantic efforts to activate an emergence head eject button were failing. Slowly …. It became too troublesome to keep trying.