Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Gatecrash ❯ Chapter 14: Talk to Everyone ( Chapter 14 )

Chapter 14: Talk to Everyone

Roll cantered back into the house after making her report to the police. Digger robots were milling about at her feet trying to clean up the rubble and debris. No humans were in the house anymore. They had taken all the pictures of the damage and reported on all the city-made repairs that would be needed, such as water leakage and construct stability. Since no humans were living in the house though, Roll could stay there indefinitely. Later when Dr. Light was well, they could discuss rebuilding the house, but until that time, she had two priorities to take care of - find Rock and find whatever it was Dr. Wily was looking for. Rock was the priority right now, since she was still trying to figure out how to find something that wouldn't be there. She feared it would be a lost cause, but since the diggers and mettools were cleaning up the place, she had no other duties to perform. She had express orders from Dr. Light to get the job done.

As she traveled back up to the security room the first thing she tried was using her internal communicator again. This was the same comm device they could use to call out to any normal telephone, except it could connect to Mega Man directly since they both had the same protocol. Like all the other times, though, it garnered no response. His comm device was down or he was out of range or in a place that interfered with a signal. She now feared getting 'could not connect' messages every time.

She made it back into the security room and toggled the monitors. Switching frequently from channel to channel she scoured the breadth of the mansion looking for any sign of him. Any sign of life at all, in fact. Half the channels were just showing static, though, making a search nearly obsolete. As she flipped back and forth through camera angles, she couldn't help but wonder where he had gone to. Maybe Mega Man was the thing Dr. Wily was looking for. A valid theory, but nearly impossible. Mega Man would never allow himself to be taken captive. Besides, Wily's objective would be to destroy Mega Man, not capture him or enslave him. He had already proven resistant to reprogramming, so that wouldn't work. He couldn't be coerced into doing something or that would conflict with the Robotic Laws and render him useless. So Dr. Wily wasn't looking for Mega Man when he came in here.

With none of her questions answered by the cameras, she exited the security room and headed downstairs. He wasn't in the house. He may have been under it. Not under a collapsed part, he could easily break free of that.

Roll's mind suddenly jumped back to seeing Dr. Light under the ceiling as it rained down on him, watching his terrified face as he put his hands up to stop the crushing blows.

No, she couldn't think about that right now. She had to perform these duties. If for nothing else than to distract her from the worry and thought that was recurring in her mind.

She mulled over other possibilities. Mega Man could have teleported out certainly, but if he did, he would have made contact with them by now. He wouldn't be unavailable for contact. Not to mention it was unlike him to run away from danger, especially when those closest to him were in trouble. He could have teleported out and then come into more danger, but that was a long shot.

The house system has several lockdown measures. It was possible that Mega Man could be trapped in a room, particularly the rooms in the basement. Mega Man could have gone down there and either gotten trapped or hid himself away. Hiding was unlike Mega Man also.

Roll started her way down the laboratory. It was nearly a separate mansion in itself, designed this way to ensure that containment was maximized if one of Dr. Light's experiments got out of control. The walls were reinforced litanium and the doors all had lockdown measures to go off in emergency or on command. It was possible a command router suffered damage and Mega Man would be trapped down there.

She took the smaller loading ramp down, meant for front door deliveries. It was a long hallway slanted down to go into the lab. It ended at a closed door blinking green and yellow. That indicated some sort of warning or error, unfortunately she couldn't tell which.

Roll unlocked the command entry panel in the lower right of the door with an alphanumeric keypad. The red LED screen was flashing a message - 'DO YOU WISH TO UNLK L7DOOR? Y/N'.

Roll pressed nine on the keypad, the same as 'Y'. The display screen asked 'PLEASE ENTER PASSCODE'.

Roll knew all the basic passcodes for the security doors, so she entered one. The red letter color changed to a more pleasant orange with the message "PASSCODE ACCEPTED". The lights on the door returned to stable green. Roll shut the panel and pulled up the release crank on the door itself. The titanium slab split in two and slid back into the wall, revealing the real door. The motion sensors reawakened with the presence of Roll in front of them and opened.

Roll entered the one of the lab rooms. A large bookshelf filled up the space of one wall and two tables stood in the middle. Several welding and drilling machines and smaller tools were scattered through the rest of the space.

"Rock?" she called out. "Are you here." She traipsed through this room and into another with a similar set up. No Rock there either. Four other labs later there was nothing. Through her rapid succession she barely noticed that in this particular one, half the room was in a decrepit state. The tables were broken, the papers were thrown apart, cabinet doors were open or ripped off the hinges. Going into the next room, she noticed the pattern increasing and the damage with it.

"Uh-oh," she muttered to herself. This was one of Dr. Light's bigger laboratories, connecting to the alternate loading ramp. The door was locked down and flashing red, and she noticed a piece of black-colored metal in the vague shape of an arm lay near it. Roll immediately walked over and picked it up. It was clearly not Mega Man's, giving her a sigh of relief.

"Well, at least he got one of them," she said as she tossed it back on the floor. She looked to the left and saw a chaotic pile of metal tubes and circuitry. Before the incident, Dr. Light was working on his large-scale transporter here. Unfortunately, it was now demolished. The tattered ruins of the metal circle lay in a heap on the floor like a pile of straws. The control box was flung to the other side of the room. All the other tools and implements were strewn about and more closets and file cabinets were torn away.

Roll stepped closer to the destroyed teleporter, disappointed that Dr. Light's most recent work now had to be started all over again. She hoped Rock hadn't tried to use it.

Mega Man looked idly at the books in the Seer's bookcase. Many forgotten tomes of literature filled the shelves with information about the land, some ridiculous, some not - "Divining for Fun and Profit", "Lands of Hyrule", "Prophecies", "Charcraft's Timeline Theory". If he was a data-retaining robot, he would be speeding through these books, but it would take Mega Man too much time to absorb all this information. The science of Hyrule was weaved into a complex web of magic and sorcery, so much so Mega Man could never hope to separate the fact from the half-fact.

He pulled a book down from the shelf - "Races of Hyrule" - and began reading about a race called Zoras. "Zoras have a history of severe evolutionary changes. Earliest reports indicate that Zoras were once a civilized species living under the freshwater of Hyrule. The positioning of found bones indicate they could walk upright and had hands and arms like other humans. The head was their most distinguishing feature. Male heads tapered back to a long tail-like growth complete with fluke. Female heads fanned out from the back of the cranium. Their skin was smooth and they needed water to survive. At some point, a great disaster occurred in the Zora world which caused them to either die out or undergo major physical change. Some speculate that using magic and the natural process of evolution over time they took to the air, becoming a race of 'bird-men'. However, there is no evidence that these bird-men existed. Others believe that Zoras changed into the unintelligent species that menace our waterways today. Some think that this is untrue and the naming is a conventional mistake.

"Zoras today sport green scaly skin and fin-like outgrowths at the head. Their mouths are filled with fangs and they have the ability to spit fire. Only strong shields have the ability to deflect this attack so they should be eliminated with long-range weapons. Reports are sketchy, given their tendency to dart in and out of water at fast speeds, but some indicate their ability to walk on land.

"Despite their animosity with the civilized races of Hyrule, the Zoras seem to retain some sort of cohesive society. Their aggressive nature may be a defense mechanism against intruders into their domain. The existence of the Zora King supports this theory, who has the ability to speak and collect currency. Little else is known about this figurehead, though."

The book then went on to talk about waterways, the best attack and defense strategies, more details about their possibility of civilization, etc. Mega Man didn't much like the gaps in the facts and logic behind the information in these encyclopedic tomes. Despite all the knowledge that has been collected and written down, none of it was very firm. Holes were everywhere. It was as if those who wanted to make an information volume relied on secondary reports instead of going out and collecting empirical data. Maybe those who were scientific in nature were ill-equipped to defend against the apparent dangers in the world.

"Are you finished yet?" Mega Man asked the Seer who was behind the curtain.

"Almost, almost. Got to get the powder mixed. The powder must be mixed a lot, sir."

Mega Man rolled his eyes. He had been waiting in the Seer's room for nearly three hours since he had pulled him out of dinner with the 'important news'. Apparently the important news was that he had to wait while the Seer conducted his experiment. In the meantime, the Seer had taken to asking him annoying questions about his world and his past.

"Now tell me," the Seer said as he was doing his own thing. "Your armor, what it is made from."

"It's a special titanium alloy, built to resist plasma energy blasts."

"Ah, I see, interesting. It seems so hard and tough. Could you show our blacksmiths how to make it?"

"Probably not, unless you have an electro-chemical plant."

"No, but maybe you have some seeds?"

"Seeds?" Mega Man then realized what he meant. "Never mind, I don't think you could make it. It's found mostly in the planet's crust, if that helps."

"It does not!" he said eccentrically.

Mega Man was disappointed, all these people seemed to care about was his battle capabilities. Granted that's what his purpose was, but he had so much more. He had joints that were used in medical replacement surgery, he had computer data storage technology, he had decades of knowledge ahead of him that would help them excel in the most simple things like agriculture, irrigation, and transportation, but no one was asking him those questions.

"All right, come back here," he finally said. Mega Man pulled back the curtain and found the robed man sitting at the table with a bowl of powder sitting on a large map. He held up a long needle. "I need a drop of your blood."

"I have no blood."

"What?"

"I don't have blood. I'm a robot."

"You have no blood? Well, how is this supposed to work?"

"What is it?"

"It's supposed to be a locator. A locator that would display on this map where your home is. That it would."

Mega Man looked over a map on the Seer's table. It was the largest scale map he probably had with the whole of the land on it.

"I don't think you understand. Even if I had blood, this map wouldn't show you where I'm from. I know I don't live in this... this place. The entire area."

"You mean you don't live in Hyrule?"

"I mean, I don't think I live anywhere on this planet. Maybe not even this time."

"Oh my, my, my, my, my, my, my." The Seer stood up from the table and shuffled around worriedly, pacing back and forth behind his table, his finger to his lips deep in thought. Mega Man thought he looked something like a Druidic wind-up toy.

"Oh dear, this is harder than I thought. Not qualified for this. Oh my. Definitely, definitely not qualified." He worked his way around the table and past Mega Man to the bookshelf. He traced his finger smoothly along the rows of books, going down each row in a column until he came down to the lower shelf with the dusty lesser-used books.

"It could, it couldn't, it could, it couldn't. Here." He took one of the leather bound books out and opened it. "Sometimes, sometimes, they come out. This book. This book talks about this world. This world and the worlds that might be beyond it. Past Hyrule, past the sun, past everything."

"Past everything? I'm sorry, but I just don't think you have the evidence yet to understand it."

"A theory do you have then?"

"Maybe. In my time we have some scientists who believe that there are parallel dimensions. Other universes like this one. Ones that exist in a different time and space, but are almost identical in nature."

"Ooh, ooh, my head hurts. What is this gobbledy-gook you spatter?"

"I mean that maybe, somehow, the gate that brought me here somehow sent me to this place. This is a parallel dimension to mine, and mine is a parallel dimension to yours."

"Preposterous thinking. I like it. The infinite possibilities of worlds beyond this. Whole worlds. It's too much for this little Seer to think about."

"What are you saying? That you can't get me home?"

"How? How would I do so? The magic hasn't been invented yet that can transport us from even one room to another. How would I transport you across worlds?"

Mega Man looked down dejectedly, but he wasn't ready to give up yet. "There must be some kind of transportational magic that you have. Maybe it can be amplified?" Mega Man couldn't believe what he was saying - relying on magic, an unproven science, to get him home.

"I don't know. Don't know do I. More research must be done. Research on a completely unknown subject, yes. I will consult my fellow fortune-tellers. Perhaps something, perhaps something. But until then..." he shut the book with a sharp snap, a cloud of dust flew up. "You may as well make yourself comfy."

Mega Man tapped his fingers against his leg, caught in a recursive loop of trepidation.

Link's sleep came slowly. The steak he had eaten felt like a rock in his stomach, like his body had barely made an effort getting it digested. Though his belly felt stiff, his tired muscles and his relaxed mind made the rest of the effort of carrying him off to dreamland.

His four-post bed was unbecoming of a traveling hero, but it was deserving of the one who had saved Hyrule. His triple layered sheets kept him warm in the drafty castle. Thin white satin curtains hung draped over the high posts. He rested his head on three down pillows. The top sheet was a royal purple, emblazoned with the royal Triforce symbol and ornamented with runes and curly lines. Link slept soundly on this pleasant bed, dressed in his light blue flannel pajamas.

In his state, he flipped over, placing his hands under the pillow for comfort. He was oblivious in this condition. His alertness was non-existent. For someone who often slept outside in the midst of danger, this bed dragged him down deeper into a trance-like sleep. For this reason, he did not see the black shape open the window of his room.

A light breeze entered with the assassin, fluttering the curtains next to the portal. The shape stepped into the room, not making a sound, soft padded feet hitting the carpet as light as a feather. Moonlight reflected off his gleaming eyes, making them seem soulless. Pulling out a knife from his belt, he held it blade down as he crept closer to Link's bed.

The shadow of the killer flowed up Link's content face like a shroud. The stiletto blade of the knife dangled in front of Link's shut eyes. He gripped tighter on the hilt.

Suddenly he felt a shifting of the rug below him. Surprised, he looked down and found a long tube like projection coming out from under the bed. It touched his legs and sent forth a sharp blast of electricity.

"Ercck!" the killer let out accidentally, nearly dropping the knife.

Link's eyes shot open, wide and alert, as if he never went to sleep at all. He tore off the covers just in time to see the black shape stumbling back from the shock. The buzzblob shimmied out from under the bed and angrily burbled at the assassin.

"Who are you? What are you doing here?" Link yelled as he assumed a fighting stance, bobbing slightly on the mattress.

The black-clad killer scowled at Link and leapt out the window. Link and the buzzblob dashed to the window and looked out. No sign of him on the ground, the roof or anywhere. He apparently had disappeared. Link muttered under his breath in angered disappointment.

Zelda and a guard burst into the room as Link turned around dejectedly. "Link, we heard you yell. Did something happen?"

"Yeah, we found out that castle security is terrible."

Next Chapter: Finding a Clue