The Megaman War:
Part 2 – Decisions, Destruction, Duty, and Destiny

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 26: Countdown

Bombman set the final explosive into place. He'd decided long ago that he was going through with this particular plan, no matter what Wily demanded of him. After all, what was some terrorizing and destruction without a little suspense? He chuckled and he programmed the pre-set time into the bomb.

Nodding at a job well done, Bombman made an augmented leap out of the rubble of the building Gutsman had crushed days before, and made for thr rooftops of New Detroit.

Rock burst into the rented aircraft hangar on the edge of New Detroit. Dr. Light immediately looked away from the TV. "Rock..."

"I know!" Rock shouted, running for the case in the corner they'd stored the armor in. "His name is Bombman! Two of Wily's masters defected on him and gave me the information. I'm getting out there right now!"

"NO!" Dr. Light shouted.

Rock stopped in the middle of putting on the chest plate. "W... What?"

"Bombman sent out a message over the news stations! He's issued you an ultimatum..."

"What was it?"

"He says he's set up ten time bombs all over the city, each with the strength to knock down a city block. He said you had five hours to find them all."

"When was this?" Rock asked, going back to his application of the armor.

"Two minutes ago," Dr. Light told him. A look on his face told Rock there was more to the bad news.

"Doc...?"

"Rock... Roll... Tron and Bon went out shopping after you left. They aren't back yet. According to the news, the Downtown Mall was completely demolished... if they were there..."

Dr. Light didn't have to say anything else. In a flash of blue and a trail of smoke, Megaman had already vanished.

"So..." Shadowman managed, trying to stand up while still leaning against the wall, "I have to ask... as an uninvolved third party, what do you think about what's going on?"

There was a short silence. Ben tapped Gary on the shoulder. "Is he talking to us?"

"Probably," Gary shrugged. "Everyone else left."

"Oh, yeah." Ben sighed and looked in the general direction of the ninja master. "Personally, I think it's just a cover up."

"Oh?" Shadowman's eyebrow cocked, his interest piqued. "A cover up? How?"

"Well, think about it this way: While Megaman and Wily have their private war, imagine how much other crime is passing unnoticed because everyone's focuse their attention here? There might even be some other group operating behind the scenes to keep the war going. Hell, they might've even started it, somehow." Ben leaned back and moved his neck around, cracking it a bit. "All the news stations are convinced this is such a great story, but it doesn't take a working pair of eyes to tell the subconcious that something else is going on. Something bigger."

Shadowman's hand passed unconciously over his left eye-turned-camera. "For a blind man, you are very insightful."

"I get that a lot," Ben sniffed.

Gary, who was hurting his neck following this conversation, decided to speak up. "But if there IS some kind of secret force behind this war, when would they reveal themselves? When one side or the other is dead?"

"More than likely," Ben shrugged. "It gives them the element of surprise on their contented opponent and the advantage of being at full strength against a weakened enemy."

"But if one side had knowledge of this third opponent before hand, and was prepared for it...?" Shadowman posed.

Ben shook his head again. "It might not make much of a difference, as the remaining force is still weakened. It gives them a little bit of a better chance, but that's about it."

Shadowman sat in thoughtful silence for a while as the brothers exchanged thoughts. After a while he said this: "I need a butter knife, and some gauze."

Ben looked at him quizzically, then shrugged and told Gary what to acquire. As the younger brother left, Ben laid back on the bed. "Got a plan, Shadowman?"

"I had one before I got shot," Shadowman told him. "I think I died a little there. Yeah. Definately died. Shadowman doesn't exist anymore."

Ben almost laughed. "Then who am I talking to?"

Shadowman chuckled a little and removed his ninja hood, revealing dark red hair slightly marred by the installation of the System. "Call me... Gauntlet. Yeah. That's a good name."

"Kind of lame, if you ask me," Ben laughed this time.

"Yeah, nobody asked you."

"So, back to my first question... What's the plan, Gauntlet?"

"Well... THAT is a secret." Shadowman/Gauntlet smiled as Gary returned with the butter knife and a first aid kit.

Icema'am arrived at the scene of the first few explosions. Rubble was everywhere. This was the first time she'd ever seen carnage on this scale, and it made her want to vomit. Swallowing hard against the rising bily, she began to search for survivors.

Her search was made slightly easier by a prominent mound of rubble. That was making noise. Muffled voices that must have been shouted to be heard out here. She cautiously approached the pile of rubble, occasionally making out words...

"SHIFT YOUR FOOT! SHIFT IT TO REDISTRIBUTE THE WEIGHT!"

"I'm TRYING! Lord knows I'm FRICKIN' TRYING!"

"HEY! Don't put your foot THERE! THAT WAS MY CHEST, YOU SICKO!"

"SORRY! SORRY! Give me a... DAMMIT!" The rubble shifted and four voices screamed a little.

"BABU!"

"I don't see YOU up here!"

Biting her lower lip, unsure if she'd be able to pull this off, the shortest of Wily's masters took a deep breath. Her Ice Slasher worked much like the liquid nitrogen that powered it. By hocking an effective loogie, she could spit a substance that froze object to a brittle state intantly. Spitting a bullet of ice, she hit one of the larger pieces of rubble, and quickly smashed it into snow with quick, precise blows from her hands.

"The hell was that?"

"Did it just get colder in here?"

"Hang on! We might be in for a bit of a ride..."

Repeating the process with another piece of debris, Icema'am did her best to remove stones that wouldn't collapse the entire pile, but merely reduced its weight. As it shifted and shook, she listened to the voices.

"It's getting lighter..."

"Can we get out soon?"

"THANK YOU, WHOEVER IS OUT THERE!"

"No problem," Icema'am muttered, shattering another veritable boulder.

"That's good! Stand back!"

Doing as she was told, she took a few steps back and watched carefully. The entire pile seemed to shake momentarily, and then a large amount of rock flew into the air. As the bulk of the pile started to fall into itself, it too flew away, pushed away by superhuman might with superhuman quickness. The overall effect gave the impression of an explosion from the inside.

When it was over, someone that looked like a red version of Megaman stood over three bodies that started to pick themselves up. A blond girl was the first on her feet, and she gave a quick bow. "Thank you very much, miss!"

"Who's this?" Tron asked, getting to her own feet as well.

"Er... Don't be afraid?" Icema'am hazarded.

"Babu..."

"She's a..." Protoman coughed in the middle of his sentance, "Master... one of Wily's..."

"No! Wait!" the parka-ed woman said raising her hands. "I'm on Rock's side! Honest!"

"Hang on a moment," Tron said, inspecting Icema'am's face more closely. "You were that girl in the store before, that was talking to Rock!"

"Well... I guess that means she might not be lying..." Roll pondered. She almost jumped when a heavy thud from behind her drew all eyes back to where they'd been incarcerated for almost twenty minutes.

"BABU!" Bon cried.

Protoman had collapsed.

Megaman powered through the streets, propelled by the ABJ and fueld in no small part by his own anger. Bombman, of all the masters, was going to pay more dearly for his crimes. He'd probably hurt, maybe even killed, Roll...

He would suffer.

But first, he was being forced to jump through hoops. Find the time bombs before they went off. Like some deranged Batman villan. Megaman's rage only grew with this thought. He was no great detective. He was just a guy who'd been kidnapped and experimented on against his will. He'd never chosen this life...

Had he?

Megaman had made the decision to take the fight to Wily. Megaman had decided to save those people in the jewelry store. Megaman had stood up to the mad german's minions, and continued to win. Megaman had been the one who'd failed to move fast enough. Megaman hadn't yet stopped Wily. Megaman was still a reactionary force.

But none of that mattered now. With his 'sister' injured or dead under the rubble of the mall, Megaman was now only one thing.

Incredibly, unstoppably, angry.

"How much time is left?" The President asked.

"4 hours," Leonard Travitz told him.

They'd all seen Bombman's message. He'd killed a newscaster and cameraman to get a hold of the camera to deliver it. All eyes were on New Detroit, and people across the world were sweating out the 5 hour time limit. With all of the horrors that had happened to New Detroit, this one was obviously the most planned, and was created to grab attention.

Bombman still had the news camera, and was using it to broadcast... well, whatever he felt like. The President was reminded of a friend he'd had as a teenager, who was a pyromaniac. He'd laugh at anything explosive, and giggle while anything burned. Given that Masters were normal people once, could this be the same person...?

"Well, well, well, my little bomb baits," Bombman's slightly cracked voice came in over the speakers, "With 3 hours and 45 minutes remaining, Megaman has found the first bomb! My oh my, he's still got nine more to go, providing this one doesn't BLOW HIM AWAY! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Anybody here want to make a bet as to wether or not Megaman can pull it off?" the President asked dryly.

"Not a chance," the Secretary of Defense shook his head. "I'm going to start organizing disaster relief..."

"Wait," the President said, holding up a hand. "Let's wait. And see."

"Sir?"

"I have faith in the boy."

Bombman prattled on. "Remember, kiddos: the big blue dweeb can't just kill me to stop the bombs from going off, because if he did that, and automatic failsafe in my bombs would cause them to blow up as soon as they lost the signal from the transmitted built right into my brain. Should I die, KABLOOIE! Beef stew as FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE! YAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!"

The crazy face in the shakey camera gave a maniacle grin. "We'll be RIGHT back, after this commercial break!"