Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 27: The weather part 2



*This is your severe weather watch team interrupting this program to bring you up to speed with what’s going on. Lets get right into it and take a look out side with Doppler 5000. Just one look on the map sums it up, These areas in red represent

an extreme severity and as you can see there are quite a few of them. As long as that tropical air that’s been hanging over us like it has is there there’s a possibly for rain and severe weather, and it looks like this one is gonna be a big one. Chances are if your watching this you can see the strength of these storms for yourself, there are widespread reports of flooding, it’s very dangerous to be on the roads in certain areas. Look at all of these lighting strikes, especially in these southern counties, were also getting reports of high wind speeds and hail in some places so be careful of that. What I really want to bring your attention to is these areas, we’re picking up quite a bit of rotation so if your in these counties take shelter immediately. Don’t even sit here and watch this news cast, go to the lowest levels of your homes. Let see if I can Zoom in…Doppler 5000 storm cast showing street level now, with the first squall I can see the cell showing rotation approaching emarry road and stark, so if your in one of those areas... Wait, we have breaking news just coming down the wire, your first alert forecast at work here We have unconfirmed reports of funnel clouds...*





The rain seemed much worse inside of a car then outside of it, at lest to Tadashi. A torrent of water pounded down on the windshield and windows with a thunderous roar, the view was distorted and burry, the wipers had trouble keeping up with the sheeting river intent on coating every inch. Tadashi came to a rough stop in the center of an empty road, in front of an impossible pool of standing water that encompassed the entire 4 way intersection. “Come on…” He grunted, pounding his hand against the steering wheel, debating with himself should he chance a crossing or not. After a few idle seconds of thought he decided against it, shifting in reverse and making a rough, sliding half circle and then pulling off into the opposite direction.



The roads were empty, eerie in their silence, aside from a bare few that he passed by occasionally. He wondered why that was, there were strong storms of this caliber all the time, and they were never enough to clear out a downtown road like this. It was unsettling, the sole sound of the thick drops of rain pounding against he steel hull of his car was an constant reminder of just how silent and empty the roads were. A nervous, anxious feeling began to bubble up into the center of his chest forming a pressure around his lungs and heart, he could sense the stress building. “Weird…” Tadashi squinted his eyes and peered out on the dormant road, scanning through the tall, encroaching structures, watching a few indistinguishable forms dart down the side walks, holding any items they could over their heads. Then it was empty again.



His car hydroplaned through a sloshing collection of water in a small dip of the road, two walls of water shot up around both sides with washing sound, then he rose to the top of a small hill and turned. The sound pounding of rain became louder and harder, as though small rocks were falling on to his car. “What the…” He leaned closer and could immediately see the cause, hail, chunks of ice a little smaller then golf balls.



A loud, shrill whine suddenly flared to life, echoing through the roads at a deafening emission. Tadashi flinched and his heart began to pound in his chest from the sudden fright, and continued to pulse rapidly from confusion and anxiety. ‘What is that?!’ Tadashi came to a sharp halt, he knew that sound, he knew that sound! He tried to think of the source but the only thing that came to his mind as he looked around was how bad a time it was for a memory lapse. “Damnit.” It was much harder to see out of these windows then he’d first realized, so with a strong anxiety and a confusion slowly producing a building fear, he opened the door, grabbing his brief case and climbed out of the car. His already damp body was immediately soaked again by the heavy rain and he covered his head with his brief case in a meager attempt to protect himself from the hail, the sirens blaring even louder.



“Where is that coming…” His voice trailed off in silent awe when he looked up, his mind when cold and blank with fear when he saw the massive black cloud in the sky churning. It seemed to be over flowing, seeping out of the ocean of other black clouds and slowly spilling towards the ground, it seemed close, terrifyingly close, and massive his prospective. “T-Tornado…” Now everything made since, the near empty streets, the scrambling people, the sirens. He watched in a morbid, tense, frightful interest as dust, dirt and debris rushed up from the ground to meet the other half . It was close, he could see the massive rotation, though still barley, eclipse the large tower where he’d just come from. “Damnit!” He cursed to himself for the second time and climbed back into the car. A man with much less obligation might have opted to take shelter, but he had to get to hospital, right now.



Tadashi barreled forward with a now more lose regard for the speed limit on the empty streets, he could only hope he didn’t run into anymore impassable roads.



! - ! - !



“Your x-rays do show a growing amount of liquid around your lungs, and the amount does give us reason for concern.” The doctor said.



Lan slowly at up on in his bed and scratched his head, he felt groggy and irritated that he’d just been woken up, again. A growing resentment started to form in him, he was resentful that everything that was given to him seemed to make him sleepy, and weak, at a time when he felt obligated to, at the very lest, stay awake. He stretched his arms behind his head and felt a dull pain in his chest that made him rethink the action, instead he simply yawned and readjusted his shirt, “So…what does that mean?” He asked, his voice heavy with tired breaths.



“You will need surgery, and we are going to have to expedite that surgery given your…prior condition.”



Lan glanced over at Megaman sitting by the window with a curious watch on him, and then Enzan who was sitting in a chair half asleep, though slowly awaking with new interest. “Now that you mentioned it, what are you gonna do about this stuff?” Lan held up his arm where an IV was still connected to a half empty bag of medical cocktail he knew nothing about.



“Because of the risk of drug interactions, we’re gonna take you off of that for a while, at lest until after the surgery is over.” The doctor explained. “This is a very routine procedure so you have nothing to worry about. We’re going to insert a tube through the skin and into the chest cavity to drain the fluid. It won’t take *too* long.”



“You said your going to expedite the surgery.” Enzan suddenly spoke up, his voice growing more alert by the word. “Expedite it to when?”



“We want to do it today, in a few hours if we could.” He said. “So we’re going to have to start prepping you for surgery, and remove that IV…Oh and I’m going to have ask you to stop removing the patient’s gown.”



“The only way your getting me into that thing is if I’m unconscious.”



The doctor went about explaining the procedure to Lan, going into details and giving instructions before he finally left.



Lan sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his arm softly, happy to have the IV out of his arm. “Man…I guess it’s gonna be over after this.” He dropped his head and sighed. “With my luck they’ll find fifty more things wrong with me and I’ll never get out of this place.”



Megaman slipped his hands into his pockets and sat down in front of the windowsill, “Don’t say things like that Lan, I’m sure everything will be fine.”



“I don’t think it’s gonna happen like that this time.” Lan leaned forward, planting his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. “Nope, I think this time I’m pretty screwed.”



Enzan smirked with a dark humor. “What happened to all of that optimism you always have?”



“I don’t know…” Lan shrugged. “I’m just tired I guess…I wonder where my dad is.” He stared down at the ground with the eyes of a small child suffering separation anxiety. He hadn’t missed his father like this in as long as he could remember. “He said he was on his way right?”



Enzan’s eyes took on an increased interest as he watched Lan. “That’s what he told me.” He leaned forward and gauged Lan’s slumping form and anxious expression. “But I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”



“I guess.”



“Hey guys…” Megaman closed his eyes and concentrated on his hearing, “Do you hear that?”



Lan and Enzan both looked back at him. “Hear what?” They book asked in unison.



“That sound…It sounds like…” Megaman leaned closer to the window, but it was of no use, he could see nothing but a wet blur. “A siren.”



The lights dimmed and flickered, drawing questioning glances from the 3 of them. Then the room went dark, leaving only the battery operated glow of Lan’s monitor and LCD display of Lan’s disconnected IV. “What the hell?” Enzan pushed himself out of his chair and slowly stood to his feet, the room was illuminated in split second flares of lighting like dozens of camera flashes, he flinched. Then there was an explosive roar of thunder that rattled the windows, it startled him so much he nearly fell back down.



Enzan’s P.E.T flared back to life as Blues re-entered it from a port in the wall it was connected to.



“Blues’, what was that?” Enzan asked. His eyes remained fixed on the silhouette forms of Lan and Megaman. “Was it Zero or something?”



“No, the power went out.” Blues said, he narrowly made it back, having to find his way to battery operated systems and navigate as best he could.



“Is it the storm?” Lan asked.



“You guys don’t know? There’s a tornado outside!” Blues barked, “It just touched down.”



The three of them looked around at each other in the dark, an anxious, fearful, dreading silence persuaded in disbelief for a few seconds.



Then the door opened and the dim illumination of emergency lights shined in from the hallway. It was the nurse, Tammy. “Excuse me, but you three are going to have to evacuate this room.” He said, her voice was calm and firm, she seemed aptly prepared for this. “All the patient rooms on the corner of the building or in the outlying perimeter are being cleared out.”



“But aren’t all the patient rooms on the outer perimeter?” Lan asked. “They all have windows. So does that mean every room is being evacuated? Where are all of these people gonna go?”



“Don’t worry, there is plenty of space in the interior of the building. This is just a precaution.” She said.



“Precaution my ass.” Enzan grunted. “That damn thing is headed strait for us isn’t it? That’s the only reason you’d move all of these people like this.”



The expression on her face wasn’t clearly seen, but it was felt in the dark. “I said, do. Not. Panic. This is just a precaution.” She said curtly. “Lan your surgery has been postponed until farther notice, there’s a wheelchair on it’s way up for you.”



“I can make it just fine.” Lan protested.



“Nonsense, it’ll be here in a minute. “ The nurse said, before leaving the doorway.



Lan clinched his forehead. “A tornado? You have got to be kidding me!” He groaned, a new fear finding it’s way into his voice. “My dad’s probably still out there.”



“No way.” Megaman tried to reassure him. “After all of this time I’m sure he’s here by now, he probably just can’t up here right now.”



“Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here but…” Blue’s voice trailed off for a moment… “Look at your monitor Lan.”



Their attention turned to the battery operated monitor measuring Lan’s vital signs. The image wavered and distorted with burst of static, “Now? Right now?” Enzan looked around in a frustrated disbelief, he was amazed at how when one thing went wrong, everything else seem to go wrong. “Why’d he come back?” Enzan grasped his head and sighed in frustration.



“The thing was he never really left.” Blues admitted reluctantly.



Enzan’s voice became slightly less resounding. “Is… that was what you were doing all that time?”



“I wasn’t taking walk.” Blues snorted. “With everything shut down there’s really only a few places left for him to go…unfortunately since this place is running on generators the only things that are actually working are emergency services, the most necessary systems and lights…and…there’s a tornado outside, what the hell are you all standing here for?”



Megaman peered out the blurry window staring out into the overcast white sky on the horizon beyond the thick black clouds above, the haze of dirt, dust, debris and rain fogging the air, and most fearsomely large back swirling mass of wind that took up half the window. “What are the odds it’s gonna hit us? Tornados are unpredictable, they change course all the time.” Megaman said nervously, trying to be reassuring. “But…I think we should leave right now.”



Lan stared over his shoulder out of the window with gaping wide eyes, he froze at the sight, entrapped in fear and amazement. He’d never seen anything like this so close, and to think that such a fearsome power was coming strait towards them, to actually watch it tear across the city right at them was... “Yeah… we should go.” Lan pushed himself off of the bed, taking in a deep breath as he stood up strait, his heart pounding, fear flowing through his veins like ice. His mind was racing with out developing one thought, he was flooded with a mild panic and a wash of hectic stress. “But…Zero, do we really have to…I mean now-“



“I don’t want to do this either.” Enzan sighed. “But we have to do this now, I mean there’s a tornado going through downtown, this place is gonna be flooded with injured people and with Zero here, they’re not gonna know what hit them. This place is gonna be-“



“Yeah, I know.” Lan nodded, grasping the door knob and pulling it open. “We don’t have a choice I guess, but how are we supposed to find him?”



“We just have to look.” Megaman reached over Lan and held the door open for his two companions and they slipped into the hall. It was as though entering a new world, through dim lights they could see people flooding into the halls, the only safe place at such a level. Their thoughts were slowly being drowned out by the calmer of voices, some low and calm, some fearful, some loud and yelling. Having been struck by this suddenly there were little people in place to keep order, any staff on the floor was busy rushing to evacuate patients. It was the beginning of chaos. “They’re probably going to want to prevent people from leaving the floor and going off around the hospital, we better hurry while we still have time.” Megaman said.



With Megaman proceeding first, the three of them made their way through the cluttered floor with expeditious steps, weaving through all of the faces up and moving about in a constant disarray. They made it to the stairs without incident, slipping in and quickly shutting the door behind them. The clamor of chaotic noise was dulled to a faint murmur and their vision was demised even father, it was dark, dangerously dark, only the red glow of exit signs near the doors, and limited emergency lights, leaving most places a dark recess. They could hear wind blowing harshly, a faint, almost ghostly sound, became a haunting ambiance that filled each square foot of the tower like structure with a hard, uneasy tension. Just the thought that a tornado was barreling towards them was enough to incite panic.



Enzan caught a glimpse of Lan’s face in the pale red glow of the exit sign, he could see the fear in his eyes, the taunt expression, his tightly clinched jaw. He could hear his harsh breaths trembling and he saw Lan’s hand shaking, Lan tightened his hands into fist and took his first step down the stairs. “Lan.” Enzan whispered softly. “Scared?”



Lan looked up at Enzan with a startled expression, then turned his head and stared forward, never keeping his eye’s focus on one thing. “Why do you ask that?” Lan said, his voice was surprisingly strait. Then he looked over at Enzan timidly. “…Are you scared?”



Enzan nodded. “A little.” He admitted, it was easier to admit when he knew Lan felt the same fear he himself felt, but his prime motivation was to console Lan. He didn’t know exactly how to do that so he prodded around carefully, for once actually seeking for Lan to open up to him. Maybe he simply wanted to confirm that he wasn’t the only one feeling this fear, something he’d so often conceived as a weakness. “More nervous then anything.” The nervous and anxious bubbling from his stomach in to his chest felt suspiciously like fear.



“Yeah…” Lan’s eyes rolled around from one thing to the next, avoiding Enzan except for those few seconds Lan forced himself to look, or their eyes met by accident. “Me too.” He admitted with apprehension. His heart seemed to beat harder, not faster, pounding against his chest, though it didn’t feel as though it where pumping any thing, a pressure around his lungs made his breathes labored. He was terrified, he clinched his fist even tighter to steady his hand.



There was nothing he could really say to ease Lan’s fears, unless he could say something to make it all go away, Enzan knew that. So he simply reached out and grabbed Lan’s hand, his eyes strait forward the entire time and his figure tense.



Lan looked over at Enzan, then down at the hand latched on to his own before looking away as well, squeezing Enzan’s hand tightly before Enzan slowly withdrew it.



A sharp sound echoed up from below, like rattling metal, like the railing on the stairwell. A sudden surge in the wind’s muffled howl made Lan finch and the dampened noise from beyond the hospital’s walls grew a little louder from panic, creating a steady line of tension in the three of them. “What was that?” Megaman ran over to the railing and leaned over the side peering down into the darkness, he could barely see beyond the next level.



“It probably was just somebody, there are a lot of people around here.” Enzan told them, truthfully he didn’t want to know, he didn’t want to find anything, not now. “Where are we going anyway?”



“Go to the basement.” Blues interjected. “He’ll show up sooner or later, right now there’s a goddamn tornado coming at us.”



“Maybe you two should go.” Megaman suggested. “We can’t let Zero mess up this equipment, especially not now. And Blue’s will never get there on his own.” Megaman paused and looked back at the two, coming to a landing where the emergency lights didn’t come close to piercing the darkness. He could barely see Lan and Enzan’s shadowy figures against the distant red glow. “And there isn’t much you guys can do in your condition anyway.”



“We can’t go back now!” Lan protested. “I still have to find my dad, he said he had a plan didn’t he?” His main motivation for wanting to stick by them was fear, he was terrified, the darkness gave birth to more fear of what he could not see, the haunting echoing sounds made his heart pound and his mind race. He had to fight off the urge to cling to whoever was near.



“…” Megaman rubbed the back of his neck and looked down at the ground. “I’ll look for Tadashi, just worry about…” Megaman’s voice trailed off and his mouth was left hanging open slightly. His body was suddenly awash with a sudden wave of oppression, his head felt heavy and cloudy, and his body felt that soul wrenching pull and biological attraction, “Whoa…” It was strong and came without warning. “He’s-“ Megaman didn’t have time to utter another word before a solid weight, a body, came plummeting down from above right into his chest, knocking him backwards on to the thin bar of the railing and the oppressive weight pulled him over the edge with it. A strangled cry of pain tore from his mouth as he tumbled downward, entangled with the other body.



“M-Megaman!” Lan barely had time to flinch and realize what was happening before it was over and Megaman was gone. The boy darted to the railing and leaned over with a frantic haste. For his efforts he was just barely able to catch a glimpse of the two body’s in the view of another set of emergency lights below before being swallowed by the darkness. “It’s Zero.” Lan said, knowing he shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but it had caught him off guard none the less. Lan pushed off the railing and immediately bolted off down the stairs, a hectic fear running through his blood like adrenaline.



“Hey Lan!” Enzan called out, immediately running after him. “Wait a minute!”



Lan ran as far as he could as fast as he could, descending seemingly endless amounts of stairs until his chest burned and his air starved lungs never seemed to get enough in one breath to make a difference. He was so tired he nearly collapsed against the railing, managing to grab a hold of it and ease himself down on to the stairs.



“D….Damnit…” Enzan coughed out, fairing far worse then Lan was. His legs grew a dull, throbbing ache that quickly became unbearable from the stress put on them. “Why’d you run off like that!?” Enzan slowly eased himself down beside Lan, rubbing his legs softy, they felt as if they were burning, like boiling water was bubbling up from inside his muscles. He simply didn’t have the muscle mass to keep up anymore.



“Mega…Megaman.” Lan coughed sharply and cringed, clinching his chest with heavy audible breathes. “I gotta find him…He can’t…take on Zero…alone.” Lan paused, simply breathing for a few seconds until he could regain the stamina to finish a sentence. “You’ve seen him, he’ll just space out.”



“…Your right he will.” Enzan said with a silent curse. “But that was stupid, you don’t even know where they are. “The stairwell was devoid of any distinct sound aside from the howling of wind and the clutter of people beyond the doors,



Lan looked up the door in front of him, they’d stopped at the first floor, and the basement was the level below them. They hadn’t fallen from that far, and Lan was sure he’d seen them plummet past the second floor. “They’ve gotta be on the first floor or the basement.” Lan said with a certainty. “We have to find them.”



“So you want to split up?” Enzan asked questioningly. “That’s a horrible idea. I mean look at us,” They were in no shape to be going anywhere, let alone anywhere by themselves. He hated himself for the weakness, and even more so for actually having to admit it was a severe as it was.



“ There’s no choice, we have to hurry!” Lan protested again. “I’m gonna go the basement and see if I can find them, You check the first floor. Even if you don’t find Megaman, you and Blues have to stop Zero anyway.”



Enzan glanced down at the P.E.T on his waist grudgingly. “Damnit. He’s right you know.”



“The one time I need you to listen to me and you just go off and do whatever anyway.” Blues commented with obvious aggravation. “You both are idiots, but I guess at lest Lan’s gonna be safe, it’s better then nothing.”



Enzan sighed. “Sorry Blues.” He said apologetically, a depressing guilt eating at his insides. He knew all of Blues’ anger wasn’t coming just from his and Lan’s reckless abandonment for safety. He was apprehensive, he was stalling, he didn’t want to fight Zero, he didn’t even want to see him right now, he didn’t think he could bear too. “But it looks like I’m gonna need your help one more time.” He sighed.



“…” Blues narrowed his eye and looked away. “Fools.”



Lan pulled himself up, haste still burning through him. “I gotta go.” He held on to the railing tightly, moving at a much slower pace.



“Be careful Lan.” Enzan called out. “If you die down there I’m kicking your ass.” Enzan watched Lan give one last look back before he disappeared in the darkness.



Enzan sat there for a moment, waiting until the pain in his legs eased enough to move, basking in a half awkward silence with Blues. Then he took in a deep breath and stood up, opened the door and was met with a murmured roar of seemingly a hundred voices, it was almost overwhelming. 5 men were standing around the elevators, clearly security guards and hospital staff, trying to pry the doors open in a clutter of words and orders. ‘Must have stalled.’ He thought to himself. He looked around in awe at the multitude of people inhabiting the floor, some of them standing idle with fearful uncertainty, others rushing about with their own purpose, all among a loud blur of millions of words. “They’ll never keep this place under control…” Enzan said with a remorseful tone as he did his best to slip in-between the obstructing crowd, he could hear the sirens and see the flashing lights of an ambulance blazing past the front door towards the ER outside. It was regrettable, he felt a nervous remorse and a pity, he knew this hospital wasn’t ready for this, especially with the power out and a certain virus interfering with equipment. But he knew all he could hope to do was try not to let him slow them down more then he already was.



“This is stupid.” Blues growled. “You don’t know where the hell he is, and look at where you are!” He indicated the many hazards around him. The fact that the lobby had a glass ceiling, no matter how reinforced it was, and a crowd of half panicked people.



Enzan could only apologize for his recklessness, feeling a stomach churning guilt for the torment his Navi was going through. “Sorry.” He half mumbled. He felt a cold, moist burst of air flood the room as the front doors were pried open. Much to his surprise a cold, drenched, flustered Tadashi rushed in, a briefcase under his arm. The man hadn’t spotted Enzan at first and immediately began rushing towards the elevator, on his way to Lan’s room no doubt. “Tadashi!” Enzan called out, alerting the man to his presence.



“?” Tadashi looked back and saw Enzan, immediately rushing over to meet him. “Enzan?”



“Are you alright?” Enzan took note of his appearance, and his nearly frantic pace, all of it made him seem flustered. But now that he stood next to the man, his demeanor seemed far more composed then he’d first seemed. The way the man always seemed to hold his composure amazed Enzan, he couldn’t help but look up to him to a certain extent, which was why his appearance worried him so much.



“I’m fine. What are you-“



“You said you had a plan right?” Enzan curtly interrupted. “The power is out, this place is only going off generators, people are piling into the ER and Zero’s screwing up all the equipment, this place is circling the drain.”



Tadashi felt then tension in Enzan’s voice, adding to the stress in the atmosphere. Tadashi was tapped in that tension and the anxious energy that fueled him grew with it. “Yes, I have a plan.” Tadashi nodded, lifting his briefcase. “Where’s Lan and Megaman?”



Enzan shifted his eyes away, it wasn’t until he was about to explain himself to Lan’s father did he the idea of splitting up draw the most aggravation and regret for Enzan been. He wasn’t looking forward to telling Tadashi that he hadn’t kept track of his son, especially now. “Lan is looking for Megaman. Zero ambushed him on the stairs and we…kinda lost them. Lan’s searching the basement.” Enzan glanced up into Tadashi’s eyes for a quick second and immediately looked away. He burned with shame under his gaze, it made him want and explain every circumstance that had driven them apart and to plead for understanding.



Tadashi, as Enzan expected, wasn’t happy about that. “It was his idea wasn’t it.”



“Yeah.”



“I’ll bet.” For the third time that day he silently cursed to himself. “Alright, since he’s under ground he should be safe for the moment. We have to put this in action and then I’ll go look for him.” Tadashi said, he began moving with quick steps towards another wing of the hospital while they heard the woman at the information desk start to call out for the attention of those scattered about the lobby.



“Where are you going?” Enzan ran after him and quickly matched his pace, “We don’t know where he is.”



“Not specifically, no.” Tadashi said, navigating the halls as though he knew his way around. “But every one of the hospital’s servers are located in the same place on every floor, since the power is out most of the other systems around the buildings are out, the back up power is going to only the most instrumental networks and servers, our best bet is that he’s in one of these servers.” Tadashi said. “We’re going to check those first.”



“How do you know that?” Enzan asked.



“I was the one that put them there. My company implemented and still manages this hospital’s networks.”



“Sound’s good I guess.” Enzan nodded. “But what’s the plan?”



“It’s not complicated really…” Tadashi’s words became a lot less confident and slowly grew softer and reluctant. “We’re gonna jam his signal, pin him down in one place so he can’t escape, the rest is up to Blues…speaking of which, let me see him.”



Enzan handed over his P.E.T silently, his eyes wondering the entire time. He felt as though he was betraying Blues by handing him over to Tadashi, they had developed their own rules of engagement so to speak, many of them were silently agreed upon things that wouldn’t discuss. Things that were detrimental to the other’s pride, to their emotional state, truths about themselves that neither wanted to face or admit. Planning Zero’s demise was one of them, Blues would have rather been thrown into this fight ill prepared then to premeditate it. To actually it out…the very thought was almost too much to handle. “Tadashi.” Blues said with anticipation, not giving the man a chance to speak. “Every time I’m near Zero I see these…these ghost that appear out of nowhere and disappear just as soon. They can hurt me but I can’t touch them, I can’t even defend against them.”



Tadashi closed his eyes and sighed silently, answering his question. “That’s the interference you’re seeing, the physical embodiment at lest, with all of that random data floating around sometimes you get a malicious code. The stronger the interference, the greater instances of them… That’s one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, you see, there is a way to kill-“



“Why does he come back?” Blues hastily interrupted again. “After I fight him he always comes back to his senses.”



“Well…” Tadashi shifted his eyes away from Blues with a bit of frustration, this wasn’t easy for him either, this was the hardest thing he’d ever done. Why couldn’t Blues see that? Did he have any idea the horror, the overwhelming guilt and shame he felt when he had to think all of this out? How many times he simply had to stop and stare out the window at the rain, silently apologizing over and over as if Zero could hear him. He didn’t want to do this either, he didn’t want to think about this either, not only did he have to be the one to explain it, but he had to live with himself for designing away to kill the person he promised so adamantly he would save. “No complicated answer for this one. He’s simply doesn’t like pain, it’s a defensive measure, the virus part of him reseeds.”



“And what about when-“



“Blues.” Tadashi interrupted this time.



Blues stared up at him for a few seconds in awkward silence, then Blues narrowed his eyes and looked away. He cursed his weakness and lack of resolve, he didn’t want to deal with this, he didn’t have the strength to do this, not now at lest.



Tadashi felt the conflicting urges to say so many things to Blues right now, but nothing he said could have been the right one, nothing could make any of this better, or relieve the sorrow and guilt and pain. “…”



“Alright…” Blues murmured grudgingly, he had to force himself not to stall, he had to hear this. “So what is it?”



“…Zero has a weakness.” Simply thinking those words felt blasphemous to Zero, he couldn’t have hoped to describe how wrong he felt after all of those promises he made to Zero. After telling him all those times he was going to save him and all he had to show for it was a way to kill him. He felt…wrong…this depressing grief that crushed his heart. “When I was going through the logs that were created when Zero and Megaman were processed into body, I noticed that both of their logs are mirrored in places, they’re equal opposites so to speak.” He explained. “ Places where there is viral data in Megaman and also Navi data in Zero and vice versa.



“If Zero can use the infected against Megaman, then there must be a way to use the navi part of Megaman against Zero. The way to do that is to use the same process, Zero effects Megaman by trying to infect other data and create more viral data. So we simply inject Megaman’s data into Zero.” Tadashi said. “I created a worm that simply writes over any data with key files of Megaman’s system. It’s like a password that opens a file so it can be deleted. The Navi data destroys the virus data and vice versa and both are neutralized it. They just cancel each other out.”



“And how are we supposed to do that?” Blues timidly asked, his voice filed with resentment.



“A program for you.” Tadashi dug into his pocket and retrieved a small case containing a flash drive, then connected it to the P.E.T. “It’s an upgrade for your sword.”



Blues simply went along with it, falling into a detachment of sorts. “Hn.”



“There’s only one problem.” Enzan said. “We don’t know which Zero’s the real Zero and which one is just an infection or whatever it is he’s using to be at two places at once.”



“No, we don’t.” Tadashi agreed. “We’ll have to kill them both…” Tadashi was amazed at how easily the words flowed out of his mouth. Maybe he had grown a little detached also.



Enzan looked away also and an uneasy silence descended between them. The explosive sound of thunder rolled over head with a deep, bass filled roar.



! - ! - !



The silence immediately made Lan tense, possibly more then the haunting murmurs of the stairwell, it filled him with dread and anxiety. As though maybe some sudden object of fear would spontaneously appear and catch him off guard, or the ceiling would creak, breaking the silence, and fall on to his head. ‘Creepy…’ Lan took cautious, apprehensive steps forward. The bright florescent lights that usually illuminated off the white concrete walls and white tiled floors were dead, leaving only the emergency lights mounted on the walls to show the way. The illumination brightened the center of the floor it shined upon in a spotlight, and left everywhere else dim, most corners where nearly pitch black.



“Megaman!” Lan called out, listening to his voice echo faintly. He started to feel as though he were making a mistake in calling out like this, the darkness and silence made him fear the unknown, and screaming at the top of his lungs drew attention from the unknown that created his fear. ‘Where is he? Where did they go?’ “Megaman!” Lan called out again, wondering aimlessly. “Megaman!” He called for the third time, and the moment the words left his mouth he heard a soft sound echo through the tunnel like halls. “!!” Lan flinched and immediately looked behind him, then every which way he could. “Megaman?” He was still, feeling a drop of sweat inch it’s way down the side of his face and listing to his own heavy breaths as he anticipated the sound again.



He could hear the faint though rapid sounds of footsteps and other scuffling sounds that were too mixed to decipher. Lan looked towards the left side of the hall where it came from and ran towards it. ‘There’s gotta be someone—“ Lan didn’t get more then two steps before something firm and strong, an arm, wrap around his neck and pulled him back. “!!” Lan panicked and his mind raced faster then the world as he felt himself being pulled against a firm chest and pinned there. He was screaming in his mind in fear, screaming at himself to struggle and break free without having to think it once. “Z-zero!”



“Lan!”



Lan heard Megaman’s voice and from the corner of his eye saw a dark figure bursting in from his side faster then he could keep up with. There was a strong impact that resonated through Zero and then tremored through out his entire body as Megaman punched Zero hard against the side of his head. The blow carried enough force to knock Zero off his feet and send him sprawling to side, pulling Lan with him as they both landed hard on their side and Zero’s grip became non-excitant. “Megaman?!” Lan rolled away from Zero and scurried to his feet at Megaman’s side.



“Are you ok?” Megaman asked, studying Lan’s dim form in the darkness as best he could.



“Yeah, what about you?” Lan asked, trying to do the same.



“I’m alright.”



They both watched as Zero began to stir at the edge of the spot light, quickly sitting upright as if unphased by the blow completely.



“Megaman…you know that-“ Lan’s voice cloaked up slightly and he clinched his eyes shut, quickly trying to push back the tears that suddenly swelled up in his eyes.



“Yeah, I know.” Megaman reluctantly nodded, his eyes shifting from Zero to Lan continuously. Zero climbed to his feet and moved toward Megaman with intimidatingly steady steps, the embodied virus had a fearful presence. Silent, overbearing, aggressive with out furry or any emotion at all, he was constantly blank, Megaman was never sure if he was doing anything at all against him. “You have to get out of here Lan.”



Lan knowingly eased back a few steps, out of striking distance. “I just… wish I could help you.”



Megaman gave him a sullen glance before turning his attention back to Zero. “Lan, that is the last thing on earth I’d ever want you to do.”



! - ! - !



As Tadashi and Enzan neared the storage room on the sixth floor of a non-patient area, a burst of static erupted from Enzan’s P.E.T. Enzan, Tadashi and Blues all froze and looked at each other for one eternal, ominous, breathless second. The sound of strong winds and hail pounding against the side of the building echoed across the walls. This was it. None of them wanted to move, none of them wanted to act, but…they did. Tadashi pried open the door, revealing the uniform towers, bright with small green lights and blue glows. “Enzan, go ahead.” He said, knelling down to open his briefcase, containing a small box with two rubber antenna protruding from the back.



Enzan nodded. “This is it Blues…”



“…” Blues didn’t respond.



Enzan looked around awkwardly, Blues could see he wanted to say something though he wasn’t sure he wanted to hear it, he didn’t even want the attention of Enzan right now. “…It’s alright you know…” Enzan said. “To feel guilty, and to be sad or whatever.” He could have laughed at himself, telling Blues these things when he was trying to act in the same manner as he was. The same detached, disregarding demeanor, as if this wasn’t effecting the both of them. “Cause…uh-“



“Your really bad at this.” Blues smirked in amusement.



Enzan rubbed the back of his head and laughed softly. “I know.”



Blues knew what he was trying to say, he always understood Enzan, even when Enzan didn’t always understand what he was trying to say himself. It was simply there, like a vague feeling, something you can’t describe completely but know is there. Enzan, and Blues for that matter, exuded this vague feeling, it was something that was hard for others to comprehend, but to them it was perfectly natural. “…Sorry.” Enzan half mumbled.



“I know.” Blues said, looking away awkwardly.



“Good luck.”



Blues nodded, listening to haunting sounds of wind. “Be careful.”



“Aren’t I always.”



“Tch.”



Enzan connected the P.E.T and Blues went through, an upheaval of static quickly filled the void, shutting them off from each other. Enzan found himself unable to do anything more then stare at it, as if in shock or disbelief. His mind was blank, only a wash of feeling was left in him now.



Tadashi was silent as he pushed the power switch, quickly tuning it to a preset frequency and activating it.



! - ! - !



Megaman felt the subtle clouding over his mind intensify, his head began to feel heavy, as though it was encased in a sudden weight. It distracted him, it was tormenting, it felt as though he could simply shake it off but nothing would remove it. He was brought back to attention when he felt a hard punch strike him across the face, sending a wave of phantom pain emanating, he placed his foot back to catch himself just as Zero reached out and grabbed him by his neck. “!!” Megaman grabbed Zero’s wrist and pulled away, pushing Zero back. ‘I guess this it.’ Megaman thought to himself. He was nervous, afraid even, his throat went dry and he felt his stomach trembling slightly. He wasn’t sure if he could win let alone kill…



Zero stumbled into a shadowy corner, and emerged from the darkness with the same emotionless persistence. ‘I can’t just stand here.’ Megaman scolded himself. He knew he had to put all of his weight into this fight or else he didn’t stand a chance, just like the other times. So he took in a deep breath and swallowed, trying to push down the choking feeling in his throat, and ran at Zero. The short distance between them was quickly filled, Megaman lunged his arm out to grab him but Zero moved back with one long stride and punched him, hammering down on him from the top of his head, sending him plummeting towards to the ground, a wave of phantom pain jarring his body. With a small outcry of pain, Megaman planted his hands against the ground and moved hastily to pick himself up. But he wasn’t fast enough, Zero slammed his foot down onto Megaman’s back and knocked him back down. “Unnn…”



The will he’d gathered for this fight, to do the necessary evil that needed to be done, was the first thing to leave him. The cloud surrounding his head grew thicker and heavier. The pull he felt became all encompassing “…” Megaman stared outward but his mind ceased to process what his eyes were showing him, “N…no…” He felt heavy, the pull began to feel comfortable, as if it was lifting him out of this weight… “…” He was falling asleep….



“Megaman!” Lan called out, almost angrily. He fearlessly bolted out into the dim light and rammed Zero with a sharp push, it was enough to force the virus off of Megaman. “Hey! Get up!” Where Megaman’s mind had gone dormant, his was racing.



“!!” Megaman flinched and pushed himself up onto his knees, the sleepiness draining from his body at the sharp and distinct return of a hard pain. He could feel an entire body that wasn’t there. “Lan, get out of here!” Megaman pushed Lan back roughly just in time to reach out and capture Zero’s leg as he tried to stomp down on him. Then he pulled him sharply, enough to send him tumbling to the ground. ‘Zero!’ With a grimace at his actions, Megaman climbed on top of him, pinning him in place with his weight as he began pounding into him with furious punches, as hard as he could.



! - ! - !



There wasn’t much choice for Blues this time in his direction, it was clear there would be no searching involved this time. Blues looked around with an anxious dread at the red sky that seemed to be forever descending towards him and the thick red fog surrounding both sides of his path as well as behind him. There was only one way to go, most other routes were infected by the creeping red fog or inaccessible due to the power outage. He looked down at his newly upgraded sword, and was unpleasantly surprised to find that there was no blade. ‘What the hell…’ He held up the hilt and looked over it suspiciously, the weight of it felt strange, it felt as though there was an object attached to the hilt that was far longer and heavier. And that’s when he realized that there actually was a blade, he simply couldn’t see it. ‘Why in the hell would you make a sword that’s-‘



A burst of static appeared in front of him and much to his surprise a ghost a darted out of small disruption right towards him. Blues saw that haunting look and flinched. “!!” Immediately he lifted the sword and slashed nearly blindly, watching with awe as the unseen blade sword tore through the ghost and it disappeared… Blues held up the sword curiously again, staring at the hilt. “It works at lest…” Not seeing the blade wasn’t an insurmountable difficulty, the blade was about as long as his last, he had enough experience to get an equitable sense of it.



He stood there longer then he knew he should have, staring at his sword, listening to the silence around him. This would be so much easier if he never met him, that damned idiot, doomed from the moment he took his first breath. ‘He could have saved himself.’, that’s all he kept thinking about over the past few hours, ‘Zero could have saved himself! This is his own fault!’ So he had no barring over what he was about to do. Blues’ fist clinched tightly around the hilt of his sword and his jaw tightened, he felt a furious energy filling him, it made it hard to be still. His body trembled. ‘He did this to himself, this was all his fault, to hell with him’. “Damnit!” He was so infuriated that he couldn’t stand still any longer, he bolted forward down the path with his eyes fixed strait ahead. It kept repeating in his head, over and over, it was his fault, it was his fault, it was his damn fault!



He was so blind with his anger that he didn’t focus on his surroundings as well as he should have, a geyser of white energy erupted from underneath him, stripping the sword from his hands and swallowing him. The sensation of being electrocuted scattered his senses, and the immense friction made him feel as though his body was on fire. He didn’t even realize he’d been forced upward and hurtling towards the ground until he forced his eyes open and saw it coming right at him. “!!” He felt nothing at first when he landed, then the impact jarred through his entire body like a hard blow with an additional pain. “Son of a…” He grumbled to himself as he hurriedly pushed himself off the ground, his hand clinching his chest. He ran to where his sword had fallen, spotting Zero still knelling on the ground with his fist against the dense surface.



He felt as though he wasn’t ready for this, this was all too sudden, he felt as though he were still frozen in shock and it all had yet to sink in. This didn’t feel right, though he didn’t suppose it would have, he wanted to say something to Zero but he wouldn’t respond, he probably wouldn’t have even heard it. He wanted to speak to him but it would have felt even more wrong knowing what he’d come here to do. So this was it? “…” Blues ran towards Zero with all of his furry, his sword raised above his head. Zero climbed off the ground just as Blues’ dawned on him, he lifted his sword above his head just as Blues attacked and blocked. Zero awkwardly lifted his foot and sent a sharp kick to Blue’s leg, making him stumble backwards to catch himself.



Giving Zero enough time to jump up and send a hard slash at Blues’ chest all of his strength behind it. Blues, being quicker and more agile, lifted the unseen blade defensively, intercepting Zero’s sword before it could strike him. But he couldn’t handle the amount of strength Zero put behind it, the sword was knocked to the side, nearly peeled out of his hands. For that, critical second Blues was wide open. Zero, with those emotionless eyes, whipped the sword back and lashed him across the chest. “Uhn!” Blues stumbled backwards out of the way, narrowly avoiding a second strike.



It was astounding to him how physically strong Zero was, it was only now that he realized how much Zero must have held back during those times they had fought. He had to admit, it hurt a lot more when Zero was using a sword.



Zero quickly dropped down to his knees and struck the ground and a geyser erupted right in front of him, followed quickly by another right behind it, and another behind that one, until a wall was rushing at Blues with like a tidal wave. “!!” Blues narrowly slipped to the side, passing so narrowly by an eruption of the silver energy that he could feel the heat radiating onto his body, and charged at Zero. Zero quickly stood up, but he didn’t have time to lift his sword before Blues was in striking range. With a loud grunt he pulled the unseen blade to his side and slashed it across Zero’s chest. It easily passed through the armor as if it wasn’t there, a thin line etched across Zero’s chest and blue blood began to fill it, streaming down across the armor.



Blues froze at this, watching Zero stagger away with more haste then previous times he’d been struck, the oddly colored blue liquid spilling on to his red armor. Then he stared down at his sword in a horrified amazement, the tip of it was painted in the blood that seemed to simply hang in mid air of his own volition. He felt his throat tightening and his heart began to pound, “…” He furiously wiped his eyes and stood ready again.



! - ! - !



Megaman pounded into Zero as hard as he could, reaching down and grabbing his head in an attempt to hold on while Zero struggled underneath him. It wasn’t long before Zero slipped his knee between them and kicked Megaman off, Megaman fell on to his back and pushed himself against the wall, grabbing on to anything he could to pull himself up. But he didn’t get the chance, Zero rose before he did and was upon him before he could stand. Zero lifted his foot and pounded into Megaman’s chest with a sharp kick, extracting a sharp cry of pain from him. “Unnhh!!” Megaman felt as though insides had just ripped out of his back and spilled out against the wall, the phantom pain racked his body, he wasn’t even sure he was all still there. He didn’t get the chance to find out before Zero stomped down on him with another sharp kick to his face, this time creating an imprint on the concrete wall behind him. For a moment his vision went black and the entire world was gone from him, he felt nothing but the familiar phantom pain. That began to drift away soon enough, everything was drifting away, even he himself was… like…sleep.



There was a deep, low rumbling that pulled him out of it this time.



Then reality came back to him like a collision with a brick wall, sudden and hard, He heard his voice crying out in pain and felt the ache in his head. In the darkness he saw Zero’s foot coming at him and he flinched, falling to the side and rolling out of the way. That’s when he realized the rumbling he’d heard wasn’t as low as it had first sounded, it was frighteningly loud, the ceiling shuttered with sharp tremors, the concrete walls trembled with strong vibrations. “Wha…What’s happening?!” Megaman looked around with alarm, and was nearly struck by Zero’s fist for his distraction. “!!” Zero took another step forward and threw another hard punch towards Megaman’s head. Megaman leaned back and grabbed his fist, sharply tugging him forward before he had a chance to break free and latched a hold of him. “Zero!” He lifted Zero off of the ground with ease and flung him unto a wall, it seemed just as Zero’s back struck the hard surface Megaman was there with a firm grip on his neck a torrent of strong punches to his face. They weren’t friends anymore, but two strangers fighting brutally. There were moments when Megaman’s mind was so captivated in the fight and simply trying to survive that he forgot who he was fighting any why, he simply fought. Other times he distanced himself from all thought and purposely lost himself in the fight, detached.



“!”



Lan, who hadn’t managed to get to far, seemingly went into overdrive when the tremors began. “Oh man.” His stomach sank and a wave of fear bubbled up in his chest. His mind raced as the emergency lights flicked and went dark for a moment, leaving him blind for a terror filled second. ‘I gotta find Enzan!’ He thought frantically, feeling a horrid fear for Enzan’s safety, and a fear for himself, he didn’t want to be alone. Lan took in deep swallows of air but it didn’t seem to be enough, as if something was blocking his lungs from expanding completely. He clinched his chest and staggered forward, watching the shadowy forms of dormant florescent lights hanging from the ceiling rattle.



He heard something snap and then saw the same shadowy form plummeting swing towards him, “!!” Lan entire body tensed and shuttered in split second and he made a staggering step to the side, feeling a rush of air wash over him as he fell against the wall and the swinging florescent light rushed passed him. One side of the wires holding it in place had snapped. “Oh crap!” He half shouted, his mind still reeling. His heart skipped a beat when the emergency lights gave out, leaving him in darkness. “W-what’s g-going o-o-on?!”



! - ! - !



Enzan nearly lost his balance when he felt the floors tremble beneath him. “!!” He reached out for whatever he could to catch himself and unwittingly grabbed Tadashi’s arm, which seemed to knowingly stiffen to support him. “Please tell me this isn’t what I think it is?!” He had to shout over the roar of the large building and it’s contents shaking as though an earthquake had hit. His voice was choking and trembling with fear, despite the fact that his mind was set with an iron reserve, his body was wrought with a growing terror. He couldn’t seem to calm himself, no matter how much he focused, or stopped and breathed, he felt terrified.



Tadashi held his arm steady until Enzan found his balance, pausing to push his glasses back into place. Almost instinctively he lifted his head from the signal jamming and leaned back just enough to see past the server room door to the hall window. What he saw was darkness, or something the appeared a lot like the embodiment of it. A wall of wind, black with dirt and debris pelted the window, it sounded as a spray of rocks was contentiously being wiped into the glass. “It is.” Tadashi called back. He grew anxious and dreadful, startled at times, but he didn’t physically feel the same fear Enzan had, “We have to move away from-“



It seemed just as Tadashi began to speak his voice was cut off by a loud crash, the window shattered into a fragmented rain of glass and it’s tempered plastic frame. It was felt before either of them fully processed the sound, a torrent of jagged glass plowed into them, striking Enzan first. “Unn!” He clenches his eyes shut and ducked his head, covering his face with his arm, it felt as though thousands of needles stabbing into his front and side. After each stab he felt a warmth in the spot and he could feel his pulse like something pushing from underneath his skin a rhythm, it was blood.



“Enzan!”



Enzan heard Tadashi’s voice and looked over his shoulder, he flinched and his body tensed bracingly with fright when he saw the man diving off of the ground towards him. His mind raced, processing his senses in double time making the world seem to travel at a slower speed. He followed Tadashi’s wide eyes and looked forward towards the window, and to what horror his mind could comprehend that split second, he saw a steel beam, carried on the winds, smash through the wall and careen towards him with an exploded cloud of concrete, drywall, ceiling tile, wire, and a florescent light torn from their places. “!!”



He couldn’t even draw up the thought to move before Tadashi dived on to him, dragging him roughly to the ground and covering him. Tadashi clinched his eyes shut as he felt to steel beam pass narrowly over his body with gust of air, dragging a sheet of dust and destruction in it’s wake and sending most of it plummeting into his body. “!!” Tadashi bit down on his lip and grunted in pain when a chunk of concrete fell on to his head and other unidentifiable things fell on to his back.



! - ! - !



The steel beam, tangled in wires torn from the ceiling and walls, easily tore through the doors of the sixth floor elevator entrance and crashed into the wall of the shaft with an explosive clatter that could be heard several floors both ways. Gravity then took over, and the large steel beam plundered strait down like a bullet into the stalled (and luckily now empty) elevator. It impaled the steel box nearly completely through, the unfortunately placed strike tore it from it’s cables and sent it sprawling downward, the protruding steel beam tearing a line through the wall every inch of the way down.



It came to an explosive stop on the basement floor, the protruding steel beam tore through a piece of the ceiling and halfway down the elevator doors. It had also managed to capture a few wires in the ceiling, pulling them sharply and jarring most of the ceiling lose in the process. “!!” The deafening sound in the dark nearly made Lan’s heart stop, the quake from the crash swept him off of feet and sent him hurdling towards the ground. “Uhf!” Then the ceiling tiles came plummeting down with thick, severed, and worse of all, live wires flowing with power fresh from the back up generators. Lan let out a loud outcry of fright when the drywall and tile fell on to him, his mind going off with thoughts of being crushed, being pinned down, trapped, suffocating, dieing. He frantically fought through the pain and struggled to push it off of him, which was when he realized for all of the pain it caused it wasn’t that heavy. “What’s going on!” He staggered on to his feet, light headed and dizzy he fell against the wall, still rumbling with vibration.



He heard the buzz and saw the sparks of swinging wires coursing with electrify, some of them igniting small flames. He heard the scorching sizzle, he saw the red glow flicking from behind the half torn off elevator doors, he smelled the burnt metal and tasted hot soot and ash from the black smoke starting to billow out before he noticed it hanging in the air. He’d never felt a fear this strong in his life, the entire time he’d thought the building was collapsing over his head, it wasn’t until half of a minute passed that he determined that wasn’t the case.



! - ! - !



The staggering and now bleeding Zero planted a foot back and stopped his body from receding any father. Acting before Blues could regain his focus , Zero stumped his foot down on the ground and a devastating wave of silver energy erupted from the ground defensively around him. The geyser came narrowly close to Blues, managing to rip the sword out of Blues’ hands and sent it flying into the air, nearly throwing Blues on to his back. “Damnit!” he grunted to himself forcing himself to pay better attention. He looked up, trying to locate his sword, and Zero again took advantage of the distraction, darting through of the veil of the silver energy and throwing a hard punch across Blue’s jaw.



Blues staggered backwards and Zero sent a sharp kick to his chest, knocking him to the ground. Blues shook his head and pried his eyes open, biting back a cry of pain when Zero stomped down on his chest with all of his superior physical strength, planted his foot in place and pined him there. “Bastard.” Blues coughed, opening his mouth wide and gasping from the air forced out of his chest. He heard the sword plunge into the ground blade first somewhere to his left and as if awaking from a dormant sleep he sprung into action. Before Zero could move again he grabbed Zero’s leg and rolled to the side sharply, despite Zero’s resistance he was easily able to drag Zero down. The virus fell face down on the ground and an instant later Blues was on Zero’s back pinning him down. Blues peeled off Zero’s helmet, tossing it aside, and began pounding into the back of his head with all of his strength behind each blow.



With each strike Zero’s head was hammered down and smashed in to the ground with equal force, blue blood splattered from his forehead disorientingly until a pool had formed and it was now streaming down his face. Zero threw his elbow back and missed Blues, then he quickly reached out for him and caught his head in his grasp. With his strength he pulled Blue’s down over his shoulder and slammed his head into the ground. “!!” Blues’ instincts began screaming at him with the memory of past fights with Zero blazing through his head, he struggled his way free and rolled away as Zero pounded his fist against the ground and a geyser of silver energy erupted from around his body. Blues bit down hard on his lip when he felt the sensation burn across his arm, he hadn’t moved fast enough, and hadn’t realized it until his arm was pulled upward and felt as if it would be torn off of his body. “Fuck!” He managed to roll free, clinching his arm tightly as he staggered on to his feet and ran towards his sword.



‘Goddamnit, how’d he do that…’ Blues grunted in the throbbing pain that radiated from his left arm, he tried to move it but there was no response, it simply hung dead, it’s pain intensifying from the movements that aggravated it. It was dislocated, and for a moment he feared that pushing it back into place would cause the burning pain to grow stronger. Blues grabbed the sword with the invisible blade, the hilt half erected in the ground seemingly elevated on it’s own, and turned towards Zero, he instead was faced with a line of geysers bursting from where Zero knelt to directly in front of him, blue blood streaming down his face from the base of the blond hair. “!” The energy peeled him from the ground like an immense blow, knocking him into the air, and with perfect timing another erupted behind it to catch him and attack again. But Blues caught himself this time, with a firm grip on the sword he leaned backwards and flipped almost fully. With a show of his agility he, hanging upside down, he intercepted the geyser just as he was about to plow into it. He slashed into it with his sword with his good arm and immediately found resistance that stalled him in mid air, enough resistance to push off of it and land on his feet.



Hissing with pain from his landing, he pivoted towards Zero just in time to be met with a burst of hot, red air that pushed him back. ‘?’ He hesitated for a moment when he saw a vent of hot air erupting from underneath Zero’s feet and blowing high into the air with a wavering distortion while the infectious red fog surrounding them was sucked towards him. He was using the infected data. “No goddamn way!” Blues shouted in anger and frustration, his eyes began to blur and water without the aid of the air rushing at him. He wasn’t sure why he grew so anger at that moment, maybe it was the pain…



With his eyes narrowed and his left arm hanging lifelessly at his side, Blues sprinted with all of his superior speed strait at Zero. With sudden burst, red lighting shot out from the hazy vent of air at Blues in the blink of an eye, Blues’ heart skipped more the one beat as his body reacted with quick reflexes, he turned to the left and pushed off one foot, flinching when he felt the burning heat of the red lighting graze narrowly past his side. The few feet separating them seemed endless to Blues, a few hair like strands of energy diverged from the main ray, somehow attracted to Blue’s armor like a magnet, and began slowly burning him where they touched. He tried to ignore it as more and more of the hair like strands diverged to his armor until a web of them grew connected to him and he screamed in agony. His steps staggered and stumbled but never lost speed, with his mind reeling from the pain he leapt upward, dawning on Zero, hoping to escape the pain. “Damnit Zero!” He screamed at the top of his lungs as his body plunged through wall of sneering air surrounding Zero and into the red fog being sucked into his body. The pain seemed to cause time itself to slow down for him as he fell into the fog and he felt this immense piercing pain through out the inside of his body. He nearly blacked out, it was hazy as he drew the sword back, and thrust it right at Zero, carried by the momentum of his fall. It didn’t seem real as he watched an invisible laceration form and tear through Zero’s chest, where his heart would be had this not been a dream, and hallow a hole right through his body with a splatter of blue blood.



! - ! - !



The sudden darkness and crushingly loud sounds disoriented Megaman, his mind raced with panicked thoughts, blazing a million miles a second as he felt the entire structure shake around him. The earthquake like tremors took the foundation out of his balance an he felt himself fall off Zero whom he had pinned down, and when he fell on to his back he was met with a wall of smoke and ash filled air. Had he needed to breath he might have began to choke. It sounded as if a train was barreling past his head, he didn’t even notice the pulling sound, then the snapping sound of hard wires and pipes in the ceiling, until the tile, steel piping, and concrete rained painfully down on him . “!!” He thought the entire building was collapsing on to him.



A gas line severed, sending a breeze of natural gas billowing down, incidentally, right on to a sparking live wire. An automatic shut off was started with the pressure inside the pipe had dropped, indicating a break, but by then a fireball of gas had rained down on the debris, setting it a blaze.



“What…in the world…” Megaman shook a cracked chunk of drywall off his face and pried his eyes open. His blurry vision was met with a red haze dangerously close to him, he could feel the heat near his cheek, he could smell the gas and burning kindling that kept it going, he could taste the ash from the black smoke it created. His eyes widened. ‘F-Fire?!’ With the word echoing through his head he scrambled to get to his feet, only to find all the things that fell on him weighted more together then he could handle. He frantically began tearing it off his body piece by piece, but it wasn’t fast enough. A shadow covered him, before he could even look up he felt Zero’s hands reach down, grasp his neck and effortlessly pull him out of the shallow grave.



A wave of overwhelming phantom pain washed over his body and his mind seemed to crumble and scatter into a million pieces, then came the pull like dust into vacuum. “N-No!” Megaman’s eyes trembled as he looked fearfully into Zero’s empty ones, staring past him it seemed. He could barely find the strength to struggle. He grabbed on to Zero’s wrist and tried to kick him off but he couldn’t find the will to do that, the world began to recede and he felt the overtaking sense that he was apart of something larger, that the pain would stop of he simply was connected again, just… sleep and…



From the corner of his fading vision, he spotted a live wire swinging around in the fire beside him. ‘That…That’s…’ With one last push, he drew what will he could to resist and Megaman reached out for it and grabbed on to it. He barely had the strength to swing the frayed end into Zero’s back, and for his resilience he was rewarded with a jolt of electricity burning agonizingly though his body, transferred from Zero. Zero silently, and quickly, released Megaman and stumbled to the side away from it, staggering and falling to the ground weakly.



“…ow…” Megaman clinched his head, *feeling* a sharp ringing resign through his head and his ears like sharp vibrations, for a few, frightening seconds he couldn’t hear. ‘God that hurts…’ He thought to himself as he pushed himself off the wall and staggered forward a few dazed steps, before he was surprised by a hard kick to his side by a seemingly now unphased Zero. “Uufff!” Megaman felt himself plow through the fallen wreckage and the flames that consumed them, keenly aware of every object he pushed through and the heat for every second until he came to a stop halfway through. A trail of pushed aside or flattened wreckage created a tread through the pile. He was beyond the flames, but he’d fallen close enough to feel the heat baking his skin.



“Damnit…” By now Megaman couldn’t tell where the pain was coming from on his body, all he knew was everything hurt, he was sure some things were broken by now. With half lidded eyes he could seem Zero coming at him, with that hauntingly blank look on his face and that same intimidating pace. And for the first time, Megaman though that he could actually die here…It wouldn’t be so bad, it was nothing he couldn’t handle, he felt as though he could die for what he was doing now. This person was a part of him, he was his friend, and they were fighting like two strangers, to enemies trying to kill each other. But he was the only one that was intentional. He hated himself even more as he reached out to grab something to pick himself up with and his hand struck a jagged pole. The guilt was crushing as pulled it out of the pile and found half of it doused with the mist of the gas and burning. He clinched his eyes shut and screamed as the oppressing depression crushed his soul while he thrust it outward at the unsuspecting Zero with all of his strength and drove it right into his stomach.



A horrid regret struck him when Zero grabbed a hold of it, halfway in and tried to stop it, but the flames kept him at bay as he kept pushing it forward. His eyes blurred and burned with tears as he felt the resistance while he shoved farter and father until he could go no farther. A tremendous regret burned him as he screamed at the top of his lungs in a loud sob while he kicked the end of the pole, driving it completely into Zero. A thousand apologies emanated off his disturbed face as he watched Zero fall backwards towards the swinging live wire, just as he had calculated.



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The second part of the ending is next, the Epilogue. Thanks for reading –SDI



Since this is one of the last times I get to ask, please, please review. It really is my life blood, tell me what you thought, what you did or didn't like, just tell me something.