Legend Of Zelda Fan Fiction / Mega Man Fan Fiction ❯ Gatecrash ❯ Chapter 50: Battlegrounds ( Chapter 50 )

Chapter 50: Battlegrounds

"Uh, Mega Man?"

Link padded the silver metal wall, blocking any further access. He knocked on it, expecting some window to slide down and the robot's face to appear.

"Mega Man? You there? Can you hear me?" He pounded even louder on the slab, but it was like trying to damage a pillow. "Mega?"

Okay, this was not good. He was completely separated from Mega Man, and trapped in a little room. He needed some help. "Computer! Locate Mega Man for me and make a communication."

Nothing.

"Computer, respond."

Nothing.

"Computer?"

Okay, now this had just been upgraded to desperate emergency. No Mega Man, no way to contact him, no Computer to tell him what to do, no way out of here, and no way to fight dozens of invulnerable monsters. He couldn't go back the way he came, the direction of the conveyer belt wouldn't allow him to get enough speed to avoid the crushing pillars. Unless that changed at some point he was trapped.

He ran his fingers along the seam of the door, checking for a weakness, or perhaps a failsafe mechanism. That yielded nothing. Then he realized the keypad was still there, but he had no idea what combination Mega Man had put in, and was cursing himself for not being more observant. Above there was no passage, just a ceiling, the same ugly metallic gray as everything else in this forsaken place. Was he gonna starve to death here?

No, no, it was way too early to think about giving up like that. He hadn't exhausted nearly all his options. Of course, what did he do when he was prevented with an inescapable room? He pulled out his handy-dandy door-maker - the bomb.

Yanking out a globe from the knapsack he set it in front of the door. Of course, there weren't a lot of places in this space to hide from an explosion, so it was a bit risky. As soon as he lit the fuse, he ran to the farthest corner of the room, pulled his shield to his back and held his hands over his neck, creating a makeshift shell, the best he could do.

The bomb went off in a red booming blast. Link peeked out from over the top of his shield to see if any damage had been done. As soon as the smoke dissipated he found that not even a scratch was made, just a black jagged scorch mark. Plus the fact that the explosion had ripped the keypad out of the wall, where it was hanging by a single wire. Link cursed his luck and stood up, ready to walk over to the door again. The bomb did nothing but make his life worse, and he was running out of them as well.

Suddenly he tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face. Instantaneously, he looked back for what he had tripped over.

There was some sort of square indentation in the floor, about the width of a person, and a small green light near the bottom. It looked like something like a block should be inserted there, probably some sort of trigger trap or access point.

As he was fingering the light, it switched to blue and part of the floor popped out to show what looked like a handle. Link, not really knowing how else to proceed, wrapped his fingers around it, and the floor made a hissing, vibrating sensation. He pulled the handle up, and the section of the floor gave apart in his hand, revealing a hatch. Link breathed a sigh of relief at this new development, not looking forward to being found as a green-clad skeleton centuries later.

The hatch led to a ladder, somewhere on a floor below, down to nothing recognizable. As he climbed down he tried to think of how he was going to fight the hordes of robots no doubt gunning for him. Short of a lot of hiding, which he was not keen on, he wasn't sure how he could do it. Well, he was able to incapacitate the Mega Man clone in the mining tunnel, but that was just for a second and he was soundly whipped after that. Plus that was utilizing a bomb, and he had to conserve those now. Unfortunately, his only trump card was in scant supply here.

He reached the bottom floor and found himself in a room full of unrecognizable equipment, and dangerous pits scattered about. He foresaw a quick death for himself if he was fighting and happened to stumble backwards into oblivion.

But so far, nothing was happening. His hand was cautiously on the hilt of his sword, ready to spring it forth if necessary. His eyes darted around in all directions.

As he predicted, he heard a mechanical whine coming from above. Two bubble bats were fluttering down from the rafters and exercising they're jaws. Link was expecting some heavy fire and held up his shield to his face, but they did not appear to be able to shoot plasma blasts.

The Hylian arched his arm back and pulled out his bow and an arrow, hoping to pick off a few of them before they got too close. With swift precision he fired at the leading attacker. The arrow zinged through the air and fluttered to the ground like a feather after undisruptively hitting the black exterior of the bat.

"Not good," Link said. Maybe if he still had silver arrows, but... no, not time for retrospect. Maybe a boomerang. No, same effect. Didn't he have anything? The hookshot? That would just draw them up to him. Was this the best he could do?

On impulse, he pulled out his ice rod. "Oh, baby, if there was ever a time for this to work, it's now." He extended his reach, pointed it at the ever-threatening group, and fired. The blue crystal at the end remained defunct.

"Urrk!" Link dove for the ground as the flock swooped down, trying to bite his head off. They passed by and rotated to make a return pass. Link used his failsafe plan.

He ran like the dickens.

He knew the bats were hot on his trail, and he did his best to stay away from them. Their airborne nature was the only thing letting him gain any ground on not being torn to shreds. He skidded around a large machine in the middle of the room and his pursuers kept right on after him. They would never get tired like he would. They would never need to get water or take a break. He couldn't taunt them or anger them into making a mistake. So he ran. Now he really saw first hand why it was so necessary to have robots fight robots.

He felt one nearly take off his hat, and he burst with speed in order to try and make it out of their range. But they were going to catch up eventually. Luckily, he saw an alcove hidden away in the machine and dove for it. Gripping the metal in his hands he pulled himself inside, cuddling into a square compartment deep in the heart of whatever this thing was. The bat-bots apparently couldn't or wouldn't follow him in here.

Link took the split moment to make a reality check of what was going on. Now he had a chance to regroup. He couldn't escape right now, being where he was. The best thing he could do was make a surprise attack. He looked up and saw the perfect opportunity to do that.

The top of this compartment was open, so he climbed out and withdrew his sword. The two bats were hovering around the machine at ground level, patrolling where they expected Link to come out. Time for him to take advantage. Link held his sword downward and leapt off the machine.

"Hiyaaaaa!" He headed with precision at the robot on the left and drove his sword deep down into its spherical body. The blade skewered through, screeching of metal on metal. Sparks and oily fluid flowed out like robot blood as the motor functions ceased. Link tumbled to the side as the bat did its best to fight back, but it was moot, as the sword fell on its side with a clang and the bat stopped flapping its wings.

The other foe, oblivious of his brother's demise, flew at Link. Reacting quickly, he grabbed the sword up of the floor. But he was nearly pulled to the ground by it. His blade was still nearly hilt deep in the heavy broken shell. As he ran Link tried to shake off the bat, but it was stuck tight, and he couldn't wave it fast enough with what felt like a iron ball on its end. With a little distance he tried to shove it off with his foot, but he didn't have the strength. And that bat was closing in on him.

Cursing, he dropped the sword and headed to a nearby ladder leading a up to a tower above the machine. The bat was right under Link's feet, and ready to climb up and hit him that way. But Link was having any of that. No more running for him. He turned around on the ladder and jumped off, onto the bat, screaming a ferocious battle cry.

The confused robot turned around as Link collapsed on him. Little did he know of the flying strength of these bats. The robot continued flying higher and Link nearly tumbled to the ground. He managed to get a grip on each of the bat's wings, and hung down off the ground like he was holding a flying bicycle.

The robot attempted to fly higher, as Link's eyes widened from the distance between him and the floor. He gripped on tighter, trying to shift his center of gravity up so the strain on his arms wasn't so great. The bat wriggled and wiggled as best it could, but Link held on for dear life.

Link pulled on one of the wings, and the flier spun around in the direction Link wanted him to go, but that wasn't stopping the attempts to try and fight him off. Link swung his legs back and forth, adding inertia to his own will of direction. They were headed straight for a wall at a rapid pace, diving like a dropping bomb.

Link managed to bring his knees up to his stomach, tucking himself in, and pressed the soles of his boots against the helpless robot's back. Just as they were about to impact against the wall, Link pushed away in a backflip, shoving the robot further into the wall in a burst of speed and throwing Link away from the ensuing explosion.

Link landed on his feet, with a hand gripping the floor, watching the black shrapnel raining down from the smoke cloud.

"Phew," Link sighed with relief. He'd rarely had a more difficult fight in his life, with the exception of some temple guardians and Ganondorf's minions. Those bats must've been some pretty advanced robots to give him such trouble.

He brushed himself off and headed to where he dropped his sword. With a little might, now that he was no longer under the desperation of being pursued, he yanked his blade out by pressing his foot on the bat. It slid out with a horrible screech, and he put it back in his scabbard. With this breath he looked around the room. The nearest doorway out was a wide gate covered in a ribbed metal sheet. It looked like the hangar, or a door to a stable.

As soon as he approached it, the door rolled back into the ceiling, shifting off a section at a time. Link walked under it and into a darkened hallway. No robots in here either, just another door at the end of the way. He couldn't really think of what purpose this hallway served, it seemed rather out of place. The door behind him shut, one section at a time. Finding no reason not to go forward, he headed to the next door. It shifted up and deposited him into a large empty room.

Next Chapter: Robot Fighting Time