The Megaman War:
Part 1 - Whistle in the Wind

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 5: Fall of the Mountain

Over the next three weeks, Dr. Wily made frequent visits to Dr. Light’s lab, always interested in the latest test results and wanting to see just what Rock’s limitations were while in the Armor. During these visits, Wily would talk with Light about components of the Armor itself, learning why Dr. Light had decided against in built weapons and some of the other design decisions. Afte the lest of these visits, the German walked back to his own lab, smiling to himself while lost in thought.

Dr. Light, however, was worried. As a supposed assistant, Dr. Wily wasn’t contributing much. He was also very unsettling to be around. Even Rock would comment once the other scientist was gone that he seemed more like the stereotypical mad scientist than anything else. Light refrained from telling Rock that Wily had been interested in Rock’s personal information during one of their conversations, but Light had ‘lost the paperwork...’

Almost out of instinct, Dr. Light began to make a list of vital equipment; things he could not operate or maintain the System and the Armor without. Should a swift evacuation become necessary, as Dr. Light had an odd feeling it would, it would be good to keep some of the essential equipment with him, just in case...

Dr. Wily, in the meantime, had take one of his lab technicians aside.

Well, ‘aside’ was a loose term for it. What had actually happened was that Dr. Wily had requisitioned an empty laboratory from another section of the Mountain, taken the technician there with him, and introduced the man to the process of going from ‘unwilling’ to ‘willing’ in one easy application of a chloroform soaked rag. Chuckling to himself, he hauled the smaller man onto a table and set about cutting the man open to install his own ‘System.’ He chuckled to himself as he toiled away, thinking back to ho he had solved Dr. Light’s energy problem and never told the white-haired man. Wily was certain that his own creation, and any to follow, could operate indefinitely...

While Dr. Wily went to work on the man’s body, a reluctant and somewhat sickened Reggae, who had agreed to this for reasons even he couldn’t understand, placed a set of Video-Goggles on the man’s head, which would play a pre-programmed video over and over again. This particular video ran along the lines of “Obey. Master. Wily. Obey. Wily. OBEY. WILY. OBEYWILY. OBEYOBEYOBEYOBEY!”

As Dr. Wily’s insane laughter echoed about the lab, Reggae couldn’t help but try and find a place to hide until this episode of gruesome madness was over.

Roll’s phone rang. It rang again. And again. She sat there and stared at it, hoping against hope that it would be Rock. She couldn’t bring herself to reach for the receiver, though.

He answering machine clicked. “Hello, ma’am, this is officer Erik...” Roll’s heart leapt. Had they found some clue? Had they found her friend? “I guess you’re not in right now, but I wanted to call and tell you that, while we haven’t had any luck yet-“ Roll’s heart fell “-we HAVE alerted a local FBI operative who says he’ll be sure to keep an eye out for him. Sorry to bother you.” Click.

Roll sighed heavily, her cat padding up to her leg. Tango meowed as Roll reached down to pet him, and she sat there, thinking about her lost friend...

Dr. Wily saw no reason to make the Armor removable at all. He welded the last piece of the Armor into place. Reggae took in the sight.

What had once been a man, and his fellow lab technician, was now something altogether different. His head had been encased in a large, round, and above all else, orange globe, with holes for his eyes and a shutter for his mouth. Above the eyes and going back over the center of the head was a stylized white streak, and on either side were an odd pair of, for lack of a better term, ears.

The rest of the thing, however, looked very similar to Dr. Light’s Rock, except that the soothing blue colors were gone, replaced by a stark, stabbing orange color. The jumpsuit was an almost sterile white, as well, giving the whole thing a striking color scheme. On the chest armor, there was a large ‘C’ painted around a replica of the design Dr. Wily had asked Reggae to make a copy of, which was quickly becoming his boss’s signature symbol.

“Vell, If I haf done zis right...” Dr. Wily felt around the back of the thing and hit something that brought the eyes to life. The body shook and a scream of pain tore out of the shutter-like mouth piece. Dr. Wily and Reggae both stumbled back in surprise as the white and orange being convulsed in obvious pain, shouting and screaming.

As the throes of pain subsided, however, Dr. Wily started to laugh again. “Rise!” he said in a commanding tone. The last remaining convulsions immediately stopped, and the thing swung its legs off the table and stood, a little uneasily at first, on the floor. “Vat is your designation?”

The thing blinks. “Cut Model.”

Dr. Wily clapped his hands together. “Vonderfal! Vat is you functshun?”

“Obey Master Wily.”

Wily did a small dance, like a child who had just gotten what he always wanted for Christmas. Reggae looked at his boss, to the thing, and back. “What... what is this, sir? What’s going on?”

Wily smiled and patted Reggae on the back. “I like you, Reggae, so I am going to give you zis vun-time offer. Join me, and help me take over ze vorld.”

Reggae backed away from his boss, who instantly scowled. “What...? You... you can’t DO that...”

Dr. Wily looked at the thing that called itself Cut Model. “Kill him.”

“... Without some help!” Reggae interrupted, smiling and breaking out in a cold sweat at the same time. “Of course I’ll help! Of course, of course!”

“Gud choice, mein assistant.” Dr. Wily smiled broadly, laughing again. “Now zen, onto the next step... First, ve must complete ze main portion of mein project, and zen we should... persuade Thomas Light and his friend to join us... And if zey refuse, ve shall haf to kill Light and brainvash ze boy...”

“Oh, great plan, sir...” Reggae added, eager to get back into his boss’s good graces, no matter how insane they might be.

Rock awoke to Dr. Light, packing up various pieces of equipment. “What’s up?”

“Ah, you’re awake... good. Get the Armor on and help me move some of this stuff, would you?” Dr. Light said distractedly.

Rock shrugged, and started to put on various pieces of the armor. “Are we moving somewhere else or something?”

The aged scientist hesitated for a moment. “Something like that, Rock. Pack up those tools, would you?”

Confused by the doctor’s sudden rush to pack up the essentials for whatever reason, Rock went over possible reasons for such a change in his mind. Sure, he had figured out that his work made him uncomfortable, but to up and leave? Maybe Dr. Light was getting a better laboratory or was moving some things to help show off Rock’s abilities to the higher ups... His confusion registered on his face, and Dr. Light could almost read what the boy was thinking.

Dr. Light set down the case he’d been filling and gave Rock a calming look. “I... just think now is a good time to leave.”

Having returned to his own laboratory, leaving the Cut Model in the other one to stand guard, Wily found himself again working on the black sphere that was the brain of his original project. With a smirk, he finished the last adjustments, and closed the access panel on the black sphere. “Reggae, how many sections of ze construct are complete?”

Reggae looked out where the various technicians were still filling the globs with gold. Unlike him, none of them had seemed to notice that one their number was missing, standing like some robot in an empty room, waiting for its master’s return... “Looks like... sixteen or seventeen, sir.”

“Gud enough.”

The German scientist cackled and press a button on the sphere, which immediately beeped. A red circle appeared on the black ball, and moved around on its surface, seemingly taking in its surroundings. Its ‘gaze’ fell momentarily on Reggae, who shivered.

“What is that, sir?”

Still chuckling a low, insane laugh, Dr. Wily stood up and walked into the are where work continued on his project. Approaching a specially made, smaller ball of the gelatin, he placed the sphere on top of it, which sank easily into the goo and beeped a few times. Then, the assembly began to hover...

Reggae watched in a weird mix of horror and fascination as the ‘eye’ hovered a foot of the table, and then suddenly zipped toward the nearest completed section, slamming into it with a force that broke the table the section had been sitting on. Every head in the lab turned to watch as the two globs melded together, the sphere sinking into the semi-liquid gold. Then, like before, the whole thing began to float again.

Several alarmed shouts and one mad, echoing laugh were drowned out as this process repeated itself as the... creature that they had unwittingly created began to absorb the remaining completed segments. While the completed plan called for a full 48 segments, Dr. Wily was more than confident that 16 would do for now...

As the creature became larger, but no less slower, more and more lab technicians scrambled to get out of the way. After it had absorbed all of the completed segments, the massive sphere of featureless gold hung in the air for a moment before large arms and legs formed out of it, the legs hitting the ground heavily and the arms smashing a few more pieces of equipment inadvertently. Then, with an almost painful sound, the ‘eye’ surfaced on what could only be called the face of the beast, and the red circle held Dr. Wily, who was still laughing, in its gaze.

As the lab technicians stood around in slack jawed amazement, Dr. Wily’s laugh trailed off into a happy chuckle. “Very gud! VERY gud! Zis vill certainly put zose suits in zere place, ya!”

Reggae was the first to find his voice. “What... what IS this thing, sir?”

“For lack of a better vord,” Dr. Wily chuckled, “I believe I shall name it ze Yellow Devil... Yes... that sounds perfect.”

The golden mass before him, a full 13 feet tall, shivered slightly, registering its name. Dr. Wily pointed toward the door that lead into and out of the lab. “Go, mein minion, and show ze fools in zis mountain ze power you posses! Crush ze command center und destroy ze security barracks, und BRING ME THOMAS LIGHT!”

The eye blinked, once, slowly, and the Yellow Devil took thunderous steps toward the steel door and simply smashed through it. As the noise of its advance died out, Dr. Wily started to laugh again, drawing the stares of all of his lab technicians.

“Get back to vork! All of you! Zere is still much vork to be dun, und I vill not tolerate laziness! Forgetting your paychecks, boys, for ve’re going to take over ze VORLD!” Dr. Wily exclaimed, laughing like the maniac everyone could now see him to be...

Thirty minutes later, several security guards tried to stop the semi-truck as it smashed through the gate leaving Cheyenne Mountain. They’d heard reports of some kind of monster in the lower levels, but they had been more concerned with the several tons of angry freighter vehicle bearing down on them at the time. Several witnesses put one of the Mountain’s personnel, Thomas Light, at the wheel of the big rig, who reportedly had a pleasant smile on his face.

It was four hours later that the meeting in the Situation Room took place. The President was rabid.

“HOW THE HELL DID THIS HAPPEN?” he shouted at his assistants and secretaries.

“It was unexpected, sir,” the Secretary of Defense managed weakly.

“YOU THINK?”

Leonard Travitz sighed and shook his head. “Sir, we only got the report of the attack on Cheyenne Mountain twenty minutes ago, but the report clearly said that the attack had been going on for long before that time. Whatever hit the Mountain hit it hard, fast, and in the vital parts, probably disabling communications first. This HAD to have been an inside job.”

“We’d figured that much out, Lenny, thank you,” The Chief of Staff told him in a tired tone.

“What I want to know,” the President cut in, calming down slightly, “is how many guys it takes to disable the Mountain. It’s the damn MOUNTAIN. It’s my own safe house, and someone can just walk in and take it over? How the hell did this happen?”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs looked at the transcript of the last communication he recieved from the frantic Mountain. “I don’t really believe the report, but there’s several mentions of some kind of golden monster that took the security agents apart and killed most of the vital personnel.”

“Golden monster?” The Chief of Staff asked, looking around the table. “What, did they put hallucinogens into the air ducts?”

There was a small silence that was broken by a rather reluctant “oops.”

Every head slowly turned to the CIA Director, who shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “Er, it seems we overlooked sometin’...”

“Do tell.”

“It’s possible de daft German Wily’s creation went outta control or sometin, but we dun have no clear data yet.”

“Perfect. A government funded weapon of mass destruction went crazy and is killing everyone under Cheyenne Mountain. Dr. Wily’s probably already dead, which means we’re going to have figure out some way to stop this thing...” The Chief of Staff gave each person at the table a measuring look. “There’s no way we can keep this covered, is there?”

Leonard shook his head.

The President threw his hands into the air. “I have to go patch things up with Siberia. You guys fix this in a half hour, no kidding. I want a plan on my desk in fifteen minutes.” He stood up, as did everyone else.

“Yes, sir!” the men and women of the government intoned.

As the President swept out of the room, the Chief of Staff close behind, Leonard was already barking orders and demanding the floor plan and layout of the Mountain. Laying siege to their own modern-day fortress wasn’t going to be easy if the beast decided to hole up in there...