Series 3 Issue #19 - Showdown at Skull Fortress

By Gemini Man (Lennon)

Along his journey to uncover his past, Lennon has met new friends and fought battles against Quint. But now it comes to the final showdown. Lennon, Crash Bandicoot, Hwang Sung Kwang and Seung Mina have now fought their way to Skull Fortress.

Lennon: Here it is, Skull Fortress.

Crash: *make funny gestures and dances around*

Seung Mina: I guess this is the end.

Hwang: Indeed, from here on Lennon must go alone.

Crash: *frowns*

Lennon: Well, it was great having you guys helping out. But now I’m on my own. I’d like to thank you all for helping me throughout this journey.

Hwang: Then this is goodbye.

Lennon: Farewell.

Crash: *frowns and runs off*

Seung Mina: Good-luck Lennon. Hope you find out your past.

Hwang: It was an honour working with you. Farewell and Good-luck.

All 3 disappear and head back to their respective games.

Lennon: I’m on my own. Well I better get going.

Meanwhile inside Skull Fortress, Wily is awaiting Lennon’s arrival.

Wily: It seems Gemini has reached our hideout. And he has left his friends behind, foolish mistake! Spin Man! Claw Man!

Spin: You rang sir?

Wily: Bring Gemini to me, Alive.

Claw: As you wish, My lord.

Spin and Claw leave.

Wily: Yes, my plan is coming along very nicely.

Chimera: nnnnnnnhhhhhhh

Wily: Shut up Chimera Man!

Back at the entrance.

Lennon: Seems deserted. Might as well walk in.

Lennon takes a few steps in Skull Fortress and waits for attackers.

Lennon: Wily! I know you’re in here! Come out and show your ugly face!

Spin: Wily can’t come right now but we’ll be happy to take you to him.

Lennon: Well if it isn’t Spin Man and Claw Man. I thought we killed you when Wily captured me.

Claw: You should know by now that we keep on coming back.

Lennon: And let me guess. Wily upgraded you so you can fight better.

Spin: Yeah. So you better give up.

Lennon: I’d rather not.

Claw: Then you leave us no choice.

Spin and Claw attack Lennon but Lennon blocks their attacks with his crystal shield.

Spin: What! I can’t break through his shield!

Claw: Since when did Gemini have a shield?

Lennon: Since the Power Fighters. I did a little research and discovered I had this move.

Spin: There must be a way to break through.

Lennon: You can try all you want. The shield can withstand any attack.

A shattering sound is heard.

Claw: No! My claws are broken!

Spin: So is my Spinning blade!

Lennon: I might as well end this now. Gemini Laser!

Spin and Claw are defeated. And Lennon walks on.

Wily: Argh! Gemini has defeated Spin Man and Claw Man!

Bass: Well what do you expect? They are junk robots.

Wily: Shut up Bass! You’re just as useless as those 2! War Man! Cleave Man!

War: Yes sir!

Wily: Bring me Gemini Man. And do not fail!

War and Cleave: Sir Yes Sir!

War and Cleave leave.

Omni: Do you really think that’s a wise decision?

Wily: What do you mean Omni Man?

Omni: Gemini seems a lot more powerful than before. It seems that he has learnt some abilities that he never knew he had.

Wily: What’s your point?

Omni: My point is that Gemini Man has learnt his abilities from Power Fighters and might not be as easy to defeat than we first thought.

Wily: Are you questioning my authority?

Omni: No sir!

Wily: Then be quiet!

Elsewhere in Skull Fortress, Lennon is getting closer to Wily’s control room.

Lennon: Nice try Wily! Spin and Claw have been defeated! You might as well give up!

Cleave: Don’t be so sure.

Lennon: Cleave Man and War Man, are you ready to meet the same fate Spin and Claw have?

War: It is you who will be defeated.

Before Cleave or War could move Lennon splits into 2 and blasts them.

Cleave: Cheap shot!

War: My systems are overloading!

War fires all of his weapons and explodes taking Cleave Man with him.

Lennon: Too easy. I guess that leaves Chimera Man and Omni Man. Chimera will be easy. But Omni Man seems pretty damn impossible.

Back at the control room, Wily is furious at War Man’s and Cleave Man’s easy defeat.

Wily: It can’t be! He’s defeated 4 of my 6 best men! Chimera Man! Omni Man!

Chimera: nnnnnnnhhhhhhh

Omni: My lord.

Wily: Forget about bringing Gemini to me! Destroy him! Make him pay!

Chimera: nnnnnnnhhhhhhh

Omni: Right away sir!

Wily: You’ll never learn about your past Gemini! Never!

Meanwhile, Lennon has reached the control room door.

Lennon: Chimera Man! Omni Man! Show yourselves! I’m ready to defeat you!

Omni: You seem pretty sure about our defeat.

Lennon: Well you might say I have something up my sleeve.

Chimera: nnnnnnnhhhhhhh

Omni: Whatever it is. It won’t work. I’m immune to your useless attacks.

Lennon: I know that. That’s why I came prepared.

Omni: I tire of hearing your rambling. Chimera! Get him!

Chimera attacks but trips up and hits his head against Lennon’s shield.

Omni: Damn! Looks like it’s just you and I.

Lennon: Sounds fair.

Omni: Drill Lance!

Omni uses his Drill Lance and shatters Lennon’s shield.

Lennon: Damn it!

Omni: Ha! You’re defenceless! Crushing Grip!

Omni chokes Lennon and lifts him into the air then creates spikes underneath Lennon.

Omni: Say goodbye Gemini!

Lennon: *smirks at Omni Man*

Omni drops Lennon onto the spikes killing him.

Omni: Yes! I’ve defeated Gemini Man!

Lennon: Think again Omni!

Lennon throws a flaming rock at Omni Man.

Omni: Ah! No! Not fire! NOOOOOOOOOO! *Bursts into flame*

Lennon: Good thing I blew up War Man or I couldn’t have got a fire.

Lennon enters the control room.

Wily: Gemini! How could you? Omni killed you!

Lennon: You forget. I can split into 2. Now I’ve come receive information about my past. I believe you have it.

Wily: Never! Bass! Destroy him!

Bass: Oh, now you want my help? Well screw you Wily! Treble! Let’s go!

Wily: Bass! Wait!

Lennon: It seems that Bass has gone against you. Now tell me about my past!

Wily: Never! You can’t hurt me! Robots cannot harm humans!

Lennon: But you see. I’m not exactly a robot am I?

Wily: Your right. So you’ve figured it out. You’re not a complete robot. You’re also a human.

Lennon: What? How?

Wily: When you were a boy you were happy, you had friends until… later on. You lost most of your friends and became an outcast. You struggled to be popular but it failed. Soon you’re happiness was replaced with anger.

Lennon: And what does this have to do with you or the video game world?

Wily: Video games were one of the few things that made you happy. You had a certain connection with them and soon mastered new skills such as sword fighting from Hwang in Soul Blade and shooting from games like Time Crisis and Silent Scope.

Lennon: That explains the video world but where do you fit into all this?

Wily: Watching you become stronger through the video world gave me an idea. Since you existed in both worlds I thought I could get you to become my henchman. But you hated me and carried on with your life until one day.

Lennon: One day?

Wily: One day something happened that shattered all your happiness. I don’t recall what happened but I convinced you to join me and killed your living self. Using the data I recovered from your spirit I intended to make a robot version of you because you had so much potential after mastering sword fighting and shooting skills, but something went wrong.

Lennon: What? What went wrong?

Wily: An accident occurred in my lab. I don’t know how it happened but your spirit somehow survived your death and seemed to have joined your metallic body. At that point you became part human, part robot. You left that day, still filled with hatred against me, but because of your death your spirit had forgotten all memory of your life as a human. That’s why I controlled you. To bring you back to me and fight with your power. But you’re not needed anymore.

Lennon: And why is that? Megaman, The Mechanical Maniacs and I can defeat most of your creations.

Wily: But now I have successfully cloned you, well not you as Gemini Man, I reckon after Gizmo and you went against me I decided to make a clone of your human form. Using the information from your original human design I’ve created an evil version of you.

Evil Lennon: And now Wily and I shall rule side by side!

Lennon: Not unless I stop you!

Evil Lennon: You can’t stop me! Force Fire!

The blast hits Lennon.

Lennon: What! You’ve got all my powers from the upgrade chip!

Evil Lennon: Exactly. I can turn into Gemini Man and fool all the Mechanical Maniacs and then destroy them all with my 'magic' attacks!

Wily: Well not really. Of course he doesn't use magic. You couldn't use magic you just claimed you did so I just went along. The powers you call magic are no different than your Gemini Laser. They are just Robot Master weapons.

Lennon: You can’t take on all of them.

Evil Lennon: I can and I will! Ring of Fire!

Lennon gets trapped in the attack.

Evil Lennon: Wily has successfully tracked down the Maniacs whereabouts. Now I can go and defeat them.

Wily: Let’s go and destroy the Maniacs!

Wily and Evil Lennon leave.

Lennon: You won’t get away with this Wily! Gemini Force! Come!

Gemini Force arrives and Lennon barely escapes the Ring of Fire.

Lennon: Follow Wily and my evil twin!

Lennon takes off in hot pursuit.

Elsewhere the Mechanical Maniacs have arrived at a run down city.

Gauntlet: There seems to be no signs of life.

Sean: Must be a ghost town.

Jacob: I wonder where Hard Man went.

Suddenly Jonathan jumps out wearing a ghost costume and throws pies at everyone.

Jonathan: Boo! Ha! Ha! Ha!

Titanium91: Ha! No ghost is powerful enough to beat Magnet the Mighty! *Hits Jonathan*

Jonathan: Ow! That hurt Magnet!

Nightmare: Hey! Spark’s tracking device shows that Gem’s on his way back.

Needlegal: About damn time. I was sick having replacements like Bender.

Jacob: We'll wait no further! Gem’s back with Wily!

Sean: Wily? Does that mean what I think it means?

Nightmare: Either Gemini has captured Wily or he’s gone evil again.

Evil Lennon attacks the Maniacs with a Gemini Laser.

Gauntlet: I guess your second guess was right!

Evil Lennon: Well, well, well. If it isn’t the Mechanical Maniacs, I was going to trick you into making me rejoin but old man Wily insisted on coming.

Needlegal: This is great! Another control chip Wily?

Wily: No. Lennon joined me of his own free will.

Voice: Yeah, You wish!

Slash hits Wily causing him to run for safety. Everyone looks up to see Lennon in his human form.

Evil Lennon: You! How did you escape?

Lennon: Think about it. I have Gemini Force. I followed you.

Evil Lennon: Well you won’t be here for long!

Evil Lennon fires a blast at Lennon who dodges it and lands next to the MM.

Gauntlet: Gemini? But if you’re here, Who’s he?

Lennon: Evil twin, Long story, Talk later.

Evil Lennon: Well, It looks like I’ll have to take you all on.

Evil Lennon quickly reverts into human form and strikes all 8 Maniacs down.

Evil Lennon: Wasn’t much of a challenge.

Lennon: You’ll never win. I’m determined to see to it that you fall.

A battle starts between Lennon and Evil Lennon.

Needlegal: Great I’m confused. Which ones which?

Nightmare: Just keep watching and see which one uses a power Lennon does not have.

Jacob: Yeah but they’re both using their swords so anything can happen.

Gauntlet: Not really. Lennon can only attack with his sword. The evil one can use his so called 'magic' which is nothing but Robot Master weapons that Wily created by the looks of it.

Jonathan: Why don’t we attack both.

Sean: But we might destroy Lennon.

Titanium91: So. He hasn’t been much help.

Needlegal: What?! Lennon has helped us lots of times. Against Wily when he had his BattleMech, Against Galvatron and Unicron, He even took a blow for Gauntlet once.

Titanium91: Fine we don’t attack both.

Xelloss: I can tell which one is which.

Gauntlet: Xelloss! Why didn’t you tell us?

Xelloss: Well I don’t intend to. I find this situation quite amusing.

Nightmare: Well I might be able to figure out which one is which. After all I used to be Gemini Red.

Gauntlet: Well, It’s worth a shot.

Nightmare takes a wild guess and the Maniacs attack the Lennon, which Nightmare chose.

Evil Lennon: Argh! How did you know?

Nightmare: A bond between brothers.

Evil Lennon: You’ll never defeat me. *Forms a shield*

Lennon: Wrong again. The MM has weakened you. Your shield is weak now if we attack full force I'll be able to slash through the shield and kill you.

The MM uses their best attacks and Lennon slashes through the evil one.

Evil Lennon: NOOOOOO! I cannot be defeated! *Dies*

Wily takes this chance to escape.

Wily: Defeated again! You'll pay for this! All of you! I will never rest until you are all destroyed!

Later on Lennon tells everyone about his journey. How he fought the dragon with Gauntlet, his encounters with Quint and Wily's story about his life as a human.

Jacob: Hmm… I guess things turned out all right.

Needlegal: Yeah and we learnt something to.

Gauntlet: That every time Lennon leaves the team something bad happens.

Needlegal: No. We finally learned about Lennon’s past and that he’s part human. And you can’t break a bond between brothers.

Nightmare: Well until Wily creates another evil Lennon we are… the Mechanical Maniacs!

And so, Lennon's quest for his past has ended. His questions have been answered and he has gained all knowledge of his human life. But the journey is not over. The Mechanical Maniacs still have to find a new home. The journey continues...

THE END

Cast:
Sean as .....	Sparkman	Jacob as .....	Snakeman	Psycho Magnet as .....	Needlegal
Jonathan as .....	Hardman			Nightmare as .....	Topman
Lennon as .....	Geminiman	Titanium 91 as .....	Magnetman	Gauntlet as .....	Shadowman