Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Gatecrash ❯ Chapter 4: The Meeting ( Chapter 4 )

Chapter 4: The Meeting

For a moment, the entire assemblage stood motionless. Moblin, human, and robot, all looked at each other with the same quizzical expressions on their faces. If Link had considered it, he wouldn't believe the moblins to bear enough intelligence to be confused. But he would be correct in that the moblins didn't have enough intelligence to be kept that way for long.

One growled a loud challenge and raised his spear, charging forward. The battle re-ensued. Link reawakened as well, fending off two attackers with his sword.

Mega Man saw the strange beast coming at him and ducked out of the way. Since he had no files found in memory regarding the data of such creatures, he couldn't automatically assume they were enemies. They could be humans in a clever disguise, such as a holographic field, for all he knew. This regulation prevented him from taking immediate action against the attackers, since it could result in the violation of Law One. However, judging by the little he knew of the situation, since he saw the lot of them fighting one single human on the other side of the clearing, it would seem that these monsters had malevolent intentions. However, it would not be wise to jump to the conclusion of which side was which yet. It would be optimal if the human in green could provide information as to the happening events.

With this .0002 nanoseconds of environmental processing finished, Mega Man ducked a spear stab from a monster. He could take no offensive action, but he could take defensive action according to Law Three. Ducking blows, he maneuvered backwards to cross paths with the human warrior.

Link bravely defended himself as well. The swish of swords and clang of metal against metal repeated rapidly. Regarding the man in blue, Link thought perhaps he could gain an ally in this struggle, since the moblins had attacked him too. He was defending himself now. Wherever the strange man came from, he could sure use another hand. Moving smoothly, drawing his opponent forward, he stepped back to the center where the blue man was backing up from oncoming monsters.

"Excuse me, what transpires here?" the man in blue asked.

"It doesn't matter, I could use your help."

"What sort of people are these?"

"They're not people, they're monsters."

"Then they're not human?"

"Right."

"All right." That was all Mega Man needed to hear. If they weren't human, the first law of robotics didn't apply. Unsheathing his Mega Buster from within his arm, he immediately unleashed a plasma shot at one of the monsters. The energy ripped through its flesh, leaving a gaping hole where the shot went through. Dumbfounded, the moblin looked down to see his lack of torso, looked up with a rather pathetic face, and vanished in a puff of smoke. Mega Man shot two more monsters, killing them with one blow of the buster. The two other monsters saw this and immediately fled in the opposite direction, disappearing back into the woods.

Link looked on in awe. This had to be the man of metal with the arm of light, undoubtedly. This was the one prophesized to him to help him recover the three pendants. He looked like no one he had ever seen before. A little shorter than himself, he had a helmet of dark blue, and wore a skintight light and dark blue jumpsuit. Rather odd attire for a warrior of this caliber. And the weapon seemed to melt into his arm. If he didn't know this was an ally, he'd be inclined to run the way of the moblins.

Mega Man turned to see who was his fighting compatriot. He looked enough like a human, but he had some rather elf-like characteristics. His ears were pointed, and he had long golden hair raining from his hat, which looked like a stocking cap. He wore a green dress, sandals, and was carrying a knapsack.

"Thank you," Mega Man said.

Link approached Mega Man, sword still out at the ready should he be wrong. He slowly put out a hand. Mega Man looked at it curiously; it wasn't in the proper position for a handshake. Link touched Mega Man on the chest. He felt cold and hard, like the metal that made his blade. This was a suit of armor, yet so thin. How could it be effective? He reached up and touched his face with a pointed finger. It felt soft, like skin, but not exactly, colder. He pushed in, and met something smooth, not irregular like bone. Something melded to the exact shape of his round face.

Mega Man still looked at the elf-boy curiously; he appeared to be ascertaining what he felt like.

"Are you... a man of metal?"

"I am made of metal. Various alloys and plastics as well."

"Do you have a name?" Link asked.

"My name is... Mega Man," Mega Man wasn't sure whether to introduce himself as 'Mega Man' or 'Rock', but for right now, 'Mega Man' was fine until he knew this person better.

"My name is Link."

"What is this place?"

"The Lost Woods... in Hyrule."

Hyrule. No files found. Not only that but he had lost all his telecommunications links, period. That either meant he was in an undiscovered part of Earth, unlikely, or some other planet altogether.

"Is there a name for this planet?"

"What's a planet?"

"A celestial body moving in an orbit around a sun," he said, quoting from his lexicon.

"All right," Link replied warily, completely in the dark about what he just said. "We don't have any of those here. We call this land Hyrule. Just where did you come from?"

"Not here, definitely. I come from Earth in a city. It-"

"What's a city?"

"An inhabited place of greater size, population, and status than a town or village."

"I've never heard of that before."

Mega Man did another scan of Link's attire. It seemed almost medieval judging by his weaponry and clothing. This must have been a lesser developed culture. But when and where?

"What is the deal with your arm?" Link asked.

"The deal?"

"What..." Link wasn't quite sure what to ask. "What is it made out of?"

"It's a plasma energy cannon capable of energy charge with an integrated weapon copy system."

Once again, in the dark. "Okaaaaaay," Link smiled and nodded. Nonetheless, he was still convinced that this was the man of metal.

"I need to recover my telecomm links. I have to get back to where I came from before the robots take total control of it."

"What's a robot?"

"A robot is composed of a mechanical and electrical device that looks like a human being and performs various complex acts of a human being, being computationally programmed through use of circuits and wiring to..." Mega Man stopped as he realized he was sounding too much like a dictionary and Link wasn't comprehending anything. "Robots are other men made of metal. Mechanical men, so to speak."

"Okay." Once again...

"Wait, do you mean to tell me that there are no telecomm links, no robots, no cities, no nothing?"

"Wherever you came from, it's not here." Link felt a strong wind and looked up. Dark gray clouds were moving in from the east. It appeared that the storm of his dream was literal. They were on the edge of the forest and could reach shelter in time if they hurried.

Mega Man contemplated what to do. What was the vortex that was created? Perhaps if he could analyze the traces of the portal, he could find more data and get a better idea of what he was dealing with. Of course he had no tools to do so, so his results would be limited.

"Come on, let's go."

"No, I should stay here and analyze this area to see if there are traces of the portal left."

"We have to get moving. There's a storm coming in. If we start now, we can get to shelter before it comes."

"No, even after my analysis is complete, we must proceed to your leader's home base and inform your sovereign of my situation. Perhaps that person will be able to provide a solution."

"We're not going back to Hyrule Castle," Link replied incredulously. "It's much too far to walk now. I didn't travel all this way just to find you."

"'Hyrule Castle' is the most likely place to have the answers to my questions."

"We can't go backward. We gotta press forward if we want to make it to shelter."

"I have to get in contact with those who have the best chance of assisting me."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"Yes."

"All right, all right, let's compromise, let's go to an inn. The village is near here anyway."

"That's fine. But first I need to complete my analysis."

"We don't have time for your stupid analysis. Didn't you just hear me say there's a storm coming? Won't you rust or whatever?"

"My armor is an airtight-"

"No, no, just forget it. Just hurry up and do your analysis." Link dejectedly walked up to a tree and sat against it. He took out the canteen from his backpack while he waited.

Mega Man scanned the area once all the way around. "Finished."

"What?"

"I'm finished with my analysis."

"Already?" Link hadn't even opened his canteen.

"Yes, we may go."

"Well... all right then." Link picked up his backpack and headed out.

Why did every inn seem to look the same around Hyrule, Link thought. Wine barrels against the wall. Table in the corner. Bar against the wall. A single picture with a portrait of a smiling somebody. And every bar had the same picture of that grinning idiot. Was he the patron saint of alcohol?

Link stepped up to the bar, intending to talk with the barkeeper for anything he might have heard about current events.

Mega Man scanned the scene. In this environment he would stick out like a sore thumb. "What should I do?"

"Ummm... just... try to blend."

"Try to blend?"

"Make some friends, I don't know," he shrugged. "Go over there, meet some people. Maybe they can help you."

Mega Man furrowed his eyebrows and approached a table of male patrons.

Link ignored him for the time and looked at the barkeeper.

"He a friend of yours?"

"Just something I picked up in the woods," Link replied as he took a seat on the stool.

The bartender set out a red drink before him. Free of charge to the Hero of Hyrule. "If you're asking about where the moblins might be comin' from I couldn't tell ya," the drinkslinger said, "Since the news hit the town, most people just hear the word 'moblin' and scatter."

"Not worried about the moblins right now. What've you heard from the thieves' corner?"

"Thieves' guild? I try to stay out of their business."

"I try to stay out of their business too, but it never seems to work. What do you know? Anything about a palace heist?"

"Might know someone who'd be able to help you better than anybody else in town. Goes by the name of Grizzled Jack, used to be part of the thieves' guild. Ornery fellow, lives out in the wilderness, likes to keep selves to selves, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." Link stole a glance at Mega Man, who was now sitting at a table engaged in conversation.

Roll shoved Dr. Light down into the underground shelter, and quickly shut the vault door behind her, sealing the dual-locking system.

"We can only hope Rock and Rush can stop them before it's too late."

"Yeah, that sounds rather familiar," Roll smirked.

Dr. Light smirked back. "Yes, I suppose it does. After all the confidence I've put into Mega Man, he's been in tougher situations than this and survived. I'm sure he'll win the day. But why are we being attacked outright? Wily's never taken direct action against me before, he's always tried to control the world. Why is he just attacking me?"

As if to emphasize his statement, thunderous crashing echoed in the chamber, coming from above. Coming from Wily and his robots destroying his home. Tremendous crashing rang at random intervals, making Light shirk back in fear.

"Oh my precious experiments. I-"

A great crashing, the loudest of all, rang out right next to the door. Roll opened the ultaPyrex eyehole and looked out. All she could see were the granules of a rock blocking her view.

"It looks like we're trapped. There's been a cave-in and it's blocking the door."

The overhead light flickered and died. The hum of generators slowed down to a crawl and silenced.

"The power's gone out," Roll stated.

"Oh, dear, that's bad, that's bad."

"What?"

"This shelter was built airtight. Without power there's no oxygen generators. I'm going to suffocate!"

Next Chapter: Bar Fight Tonight