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

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 27: Time Out

"So, I have to ask," Gary said, looking at the ninja, "What's the butter knife for?"

"This," the newly christened Gauntlet said, and he looked at the knife in his hand. He'd been preparing fdor this since he got here, but it was still an ugly idea.

His left eye had been replaced with a camera by Wily, who was able to see anything the camera saw from his fortress, allowing him to instantly see and hear what Shadowman saw and heard. Although Wily had lost the feed even before Shadowman stopped using the camera, Gauntlet knew the device in his head was dangerous to his plan.

He took a deep breath and, with his left eye still closed, drove the knife into the camera lens.

"Gotta... help... Megaman..."

Bon ignored his cargo's delerius ramblings as he ran after Roll and Tron. After a frantic conversation, they'd decided they needed to get Protoman back to Dr. Light, in case something had gone wrong with his System. The one who'd introduced herself as Icema'am had disappeared, saying she was going to try and help Megaman.

As they ran, unaware that Megaman was racing against time to save the city, Bon could only look at the steel clouds filling the sky, warning those below of rain.

"Babu..."

Megaman sped away from the location of the first bomb, satisfied with his plan of action. This was going to be a big surprise for Bombman if he did it right...

The insane bomber himself was watching Megaman from a distance, with the help of the camera's zoom feature.

"Hey... what's he doing?" Looking down at a sensor pad, which showed him the locations of all his bombs via in-built tracking devices, more questions sprang to mind. "He didn't diffuse that bomb at all! He just left it there! Hmmm... What's he playing at...?" The master lowered the camera and turned it back on his own face, grinning wildly again for his public. "Well, well, well, boys and girls, it looks like our little blue buddy is trying to make his own rules in my little game! Well, he's got 3 hours and 43 minutes until he realizes just how unforgiving my game is!"

It was only 10 minutes later that Megaman found the next bomb. Only a minute later, he left to find the next bomb. At the 2 hour mark, Megaman had dealt with half of the bombs.

The President sat back. "Five bombs left. Anyone going to take me up on my bet, or am I going to have to talk to the cabinet?"

Lenny forced a chuckle. "Morbid, sir."

"I got to keep myself busy somehow."

The former Shadowman was shaking, the shattered remains of the spy camera staining the carpet next to him with blood and oil. The butter knife lay next to it, chipped and bent after it had been used to literally pry the blasted thing from his skull. Breathing deeply, he shakily reached for the first aid kit.

Gary looked away from the bloody spectacle at Ben as Gauntlet patched up his eye. "So, what happens next?"

Ben shrugged, which was odd when he thought about it. How'd he picked that up? "I guess we wait for Icema'am to get back. It isn't like Shadow... er, Gauntlet is going anywhere."

The red-headed ninja shook his head, holding the patch in place. "I didn't intend to stick around for this long. It's too dangerous to stay in one place for too long."

"Why?" Ben asked.

There was a loud crack, and all working eyes were drawn to the window. Glass protested only for a moment as the metal frame bent outward, tearing at its anchors into the surrounding wall. Shards of see-through flying death flew into the motel room as the window dislodged itself and busted outward like a bubble.

Ben grabbed Gary and roll off the bed and behind it for cover, while Gauntlet dived to the corner near the window to avoid the worst of the storm.

"What the hell was THAT?" Gary screamed in pants-wetting terror.

"That," said a muffled, synthesized voice, "was me."

Gauntlet swore. "Magnetman..."

Dr. Wily had done a lot of research to make his 'master of magnetism' Master work just right. By devoting the arms of this Master to the manipulation of strictly positive or negative charges, Magnetman had the ability to exert magnetic control over anything with such a charge by magnifying it first. Even non-magnetic materials could be effected if Magnetman tried hard enough. Of course, the frame of the window was an alloy, with enough iron involved to allow the crimson Master to make short work of it. This meant, however, that Magnetman's armor was made mostly of high-tech plastics instead of Titanium, making him a bit more vulnerable to damage.

Also, Wily had severly damage Magnetman's voice box during the installation of the System, so his vocalizations came from a more robotic source. The speech unit Wily had installed in this Master had seemingly made him more machine than any of the other Masters.

Gauntlet already knew all of this. He also knew that without the full use of his arm, there was no way he'd be able to best Magnetman, who even now floated into the room, pulling himself along on the girders built into the building itself like an electric train.

Dark blue shades covered eyes that scanned the room, and a mask over his mouth barely moved as he spoke. "Icema'am is not here. This is unfortunate." Revolving around in the air, his gaze eventually settled on Gauntlet. "The other traitor is here, however. This trip may not be wasted after all."

"You tracked Icema'am all the way here?" Gauntlet asked.

"She didn't make it hard. Master Wily has ordered me to deal with her. However, she is not where I surmised her to be. I shall deal with you, instead."

Gauntlet laughed. "Fat chance."

There was an explosion of smoke.

Megaman smiled. He actually smiled. This was going to be a lot of fun. There was just one more bomb to find, and he was pretty sure, with Bombman's habits, it would be somewhere around... There!

Dr. Light had abandoned the computer when Roll, Tron and Bon had come into the hangar with Protoman in tow. He was in the middle of a hasty physical, trying to figure out why his first creation had collapsed. Protoman only spoke in a low voice occasionally.

"Gotta... help... him..."

"You're in no condition to go ANYWHERE," Dr. Light told him firmly. "How did you DO this to yourself?"

"T...time... ran... out of time..." Protoman's head thrashed back and forth.

"Oh lord," Dr. Light muttered.

"What happened to him?" Roll asked anxiously.

"He's suffering from Temporal Withdraw," Dr. Light told them gravely.

There was a short silence.

"Babu..."

"You just made that up, didn't you?" Tron asked sardonically.

"Yes, but that doesn't make it any less true," Dr. Light sniffed, turning up his nose.

"Be... be fine..." Protoman managed.

Gauntlet wasn't the strongest Master, physically, but the System still enhanced his strength. Enough to carry and blind man and a deaf guy, anyway.

"Where are we going?" Ben managed as Gauntlet made another enhanced leap across the gap between buildings.

"Away from the guy who could probably force the iron in your blood to congeal!" Gauntlet shouted over the roar over the wind that kicked up as he landed.

"Hey! Did you feel that?" Gary asked, paying little attention to the conversation he couldn't see.

Shadowman squinted his remaining eye at the sky. "Rain..."

Bombman finished the rudimentary tripod just as Megaman arrived on the rooftop of the Shout Out, a district-based newspaper headquarters. The blue hero arrived on a jet of smoke in the increasing rain.

Bombman checked the camera one final time. "You know," he began, not turning around until he was sure it was perfect, "your city SUCKS! Fireworks are SO abysmally dull in the rain."

"Well, it's too bad you chose New Detroit. It has a tendancy to rain on the parades of psychopaths," Megaman smirked.

Bombman laughed. "Well, you little blue fool, I'd like to see what you do next. NONE of my bombs were removed or disabled. If you kill me, they all go off! Of course, it doesn't matter, since they'll all blow in two minutes anyway!"

Megaman crouched low before rocketing forward. "Thanks for the reminder!"

Bombman laughed crazily as lightning struck a nearby lightning rod, and the thunder tore across the rooftop. Easily leaping over the blue streak his opponent had become, Bombman snatched a grenade from on of his many bandoliers and gave it and easy toss at Megaman. "Low-yield flash bangs should give you something to think about!"

With another thunderous sound, a plasma bolt picked the grenade out of the air, causing it to explode prematurely and ineffectually high above its intended target. Cursing, Bombman immediately side-armed another grenade as he landed again, but that, too, was destroyed in mid flight.

"Hey!" the mowhawked Master shouted, "Fight fair!" In anger, he threw two more grenades, hoping to catch his opponent with at least ONE of them, and he only got angrier as Megaman shot one down and dashed forward to avoid the other.

Rolling to the side to avoid his charging foe, Bombman left a mine in his wake with an ominous click. Megaman saw it, however, and boosted himself up and over it. Again, Bombman shouted in rage. All of his wonderful explosions were being rendered USELESS! That wasn't fair! Explosions ALWAYS win!

"A minute left, Hero!" Wily's Master shouted, hoping to lose some of his anger in his assured victory. He almost smiled as Megaman leaped backward off the edge of the building. He was obviously trying to save the city, although he'd never make it in... time?

Bombman stood dumbfounded as Megaman, a large backpack stuffed with... a lot of boxes, it looked like, in one hand, flew back over the lip of the building off to his left, crashing into the explosive Master. An armored fist buried itself in Bombman's gut, winding him. he tried in vain to catch his breath asn the hand grabbed the collar of his armor.

"Wh... what are you doing?" Bombman managed. He was rewarded with Megaman's knee hitting him just below the ribcage, right under where the breastplate of his own armor ended.

In between the spots that clouded his vision, Bombman could see and feel himself rising. Blood rushing to his brain barely obscure the sound of Megaman's booster jet. They were going straight up. With a minute remaining.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Bombman tried again, trying to grab Megaman's arm. Another knee to his gut ended his efforts.

"All your precious bombs are in my bag of tricks now," Megaman told him over the roar of the jet. "I removed the location transmitters and left them where you put them, so you didn't know I was bringing them all with me. I was hoping to blow you up with your own 'block busters', but you said yourself how fireworks and rain don't mix..."

Bombman's brain processed it all, and his mind screamed in terror as his tongue went numb. He'd bitten it the last time he got hit. "Ou're crathy!" He screeched, "we'll bof be kiwwed!"

Megaman laughed a laugh that made Bombman's spine tingle. "Nope. Just you."

As the energy available for the ABJ system ran out, Megaman used the last of it to spin in the air, putting all his power into throwing the backpack of bombs sky high. As he started to fall, he used the minimal amount of energy the EC coil had collected to spin himself around again, this time using both hands to hurl Bombman upward as well.

As Megaman began frefalling back to the earth, he could hear Bombman shout.

"DAM OU MEGAMAA! DAM OU!"

Ten bombs designed to take out city blocks all went off at once, right next to each other. One and two eights seconds later, Bombman's grenades, all fifty three of the ones remaining, went off as well.

Luckily, all of Bombman was vaporized, otherwise it would have been a very messy rain.