FIGHT!
We all warped into the giant sewer. A maze of twisted pipes and flowing waters greeted us. “Hey, this is my place!” some voice announced behind me, followed by a frantic shush noise. “You’ll rat us out early, Toadington,” one of my teammates announced. “Use TeamSpeak next time, all right?” He sighed as he readied a Gyro Attack. “I’m never gonna be able to fly around in this dump.”
My team was a mix of new guys and hardened veterans, with a couple in between. Some couldn’t even color their names, while others had racked up thousands of frags over their long war careers. There was mess of classes in our squad, all of different play styles and power. I tapped the shoulder of one of my close friends while we set out to find Wily’s soldiers. “So, lol, who do you think he sent here this time?”
“Who knows?” lol answered quietly. “Probably a squad like ours. New and old soldiers.” He was a tough-as-nails Charge Man, able to crush through the enemy lines with his powerful Charge Kick. Some other Charge Men in our forces advocated the Coal Shot more, but he didn’t care for it. He echoed the thoughts of the Gyro Man before him. “It’ll be difficult trying to charge into guys in here, but I guess I’ll just have to use what I’ve got... Sure do wish Michael were here. He’d love a chance to punch through a couple of Wily bots.”
A notification pinged on the message feed. “Player was shocked by Electric Slide’s Spark Shock.” Down went one of our guys. I recognized him since he was the only unnamed man on the team. He kept trying to ask us in broken English how you were supposed to play, but he ignored what we told him about strafing and aiming properly. Looks like he paid the price. “He was probably Mega Man, anyway,” I muttered, checking the ammo on my Magnet Missiles. Full as usual- still don’t know why I check it when I don’t fire it. “Sounds like a Spark Man’s down here,” I said in TeamSpeak.
“Dealing with him now,” a reply came back. A few seconds later, another message popped up. “Electric Slide was chopped up by Super Gyro Pilot’s Gyro Attack.” His health came back just a moment later. “I’ve got 83 tanks of fuel left to fly, let’s light ‘em up!” Apparently he wasn’t much trouble to him. I sighed a breath of relief before lol’s arm stopped me short. He beckoned me back. “Look up there.”
I saw what he was worried about. There was a Freeze Man patrolling across the hallway- somehow he hadn’t seen us. Before I could get a shot on him, lol grabbed my arm and yanked me away. We scurried to a safer position and watched him go up some stairs off to the left. “Why didn’t we try and take him?” I asked in slight irritation.
“That was Freeze Ray,” he said bluntly. “He’s one of the best men Wily’s got- he wiped out 7 guys and only lost 30 health doing it one time.” I didn’t need to hear his description- I’ve heard of Freeze Ray. He was bad news, and his activity showed. Up came a message- “Super Gyro Pilot was frozen solid by Freeze Ray’s Freeze Cracker.” I looked at our team settings- we had five men left compared to their six. Then there was another- “Monato was flushed by Toadington’s Rain Flush.” Then another- “MarioLuigiPal was flushed by Toadington’s Rain Flush.” Suddenly we were at an advantage.
Lol and I ran into some more of Wily’s foes- we killed a Stone Man (Aptly named A Load of Bricks) and a Bass player named Huffley with a neat color for his name- might have to test out colors to see if I can find it. Now it was four against two- four because some guy fell off when he wasn’t paying attention.
Then things got bad. Apparently Freeze Ray was still around and his partner wasn’t terrible either. Toadington was picked off by Supercharger, an Elec Man who was too fast for the battered frog to keep up with. Stargazer, our only teammate left, met an unfortunate end as well- a notification popped up when it said that he was frozen solid, just like Super Gyro Pilot. He only sent us one message- “I hit him a couple of times, he’s weak.” Thus, all of our teammates had warped out on us.
Lol and I decided to split up to see if we could take the two on directly. Whoever we ran into, we would fight. I prayed silently that I would run into Freeze Ray- Lol could take care of the flimsy Supercharger with his superior armor. Readying my Magnet Missiles, I hoped to take him out from a distance, though the tight sewers might prove difficult to do so. I checked my health- Huffley hit me a couple of times with his peashooter. I still had about 73 health left- enough to do some damage. I was worried about lol though- our run-in with A Load of Bricks took a chunk out of his health.
Suddenly a Thunder Bolt ripped into me. I dashed for cover as I checked my health- 42. Apparently it wasn’t quite direct. I looked around carefully and saw Supercharger dashing away. I fired a couple of Magnet Missiles- one hit. I chased after him. “Supercharger must be hit hard,” I said into TeamSpeak. I fired more Magnet Missiles, but had to wait until it was reloaded.
Another Thunder Bolt whizzed past me. “That was close,” I mumbled as I chased after him again. I lost him, though, and stopped by a waterfall to catch my breath. Then another Thunder Bolt came from behind me. It barely missed again. I fired off three Magnet Missiles behind me in hopes of hitting him at least once.
Apparently, I did better than that. A message came up on my display- “You Fragged Supercharger!” I guess the last volley was enough to send him packing. I breathed a sigh of relief. “I’m gonna have to message lol about this!” I said excitedly as I checked the player list.
His name wasn’t there. Only my deep red name and Freeze Ray’s light blue shone on the display.
I was dumbfounded. Where was lol? His name was there last time I checked. Panicking, I checked the message feed. I missed one while fighting Supercharger- “lol was frozen solid by Freeze Ray’s Freeze Cracker.”
I gritted my teeth as I searched deeper into the sewers. “He’s gonna pay,” I muttered angrily. I kept searching around the place for the ice robot, but no luck. I finally sat down and looked at my stats. 42 health, a full load of Magnet Missiles, and no teammates left. It was no overstatement to say I was in big trouble.
I breathed a sigh and got up from my seat when I heard footsteps coming from the left. I looked over that way. I locked my Magnet Missiles in place and waited for him to pop out and take a couple pot shots. “Let’s hope for a good fight,” I said, determined.
Then I was grabbed from behind, a hand clamping my shoulder. I wheeled around and saw Freeze Ray’s ruby red eyes shifting into an angry glare as he shot two Freeze Crackers at me. One slammed into my shoulder and I tumbled down. I checked my health bar as I got up from the fall. Only 27 health left. Doing quick calculations, I deduced I could only get hit once more. He charged at me and grabbed my torso. Time seemed to slow down as precious seconds ticked by. I looked into his eyes in a sort of frantic panic.
They were glowing a demonic red. It seemed so out of place when looking at the ice that adorned his shoulders and head. I didn’t see it in any of the other Wily bots me and lol faced- not even in the capable Supercharger’s. Something was wrong with this robot.
I was worried out of my mind as he threw a punch into my gut. It hurt badly, but I was still alive. I saw a Freeze Cracker being charged in his hand. I started to panic- but then I thought of lol. He was badly injured because of this guy- I didn’t even know whether he got out or not. A blind rage flew into me as I started to charge my alternate attack. I fired it just as the Freeze Cracker was about to leave Freeze Ray’s hand.
Freeze Ray flew backwards. The Freeze Cracker sailed into the ceiling and formed an icicle that fell into the river below. He edged closer to the cliff of the waterfall on the other side, but regained his balance as he teetered on the edge. I raised my hand and fired one Magnet Missile. It slammed into him, sending him freefalling down into the sewers below. A message popped up: “Freeze Ray fell too far.”
Suddenly, my intercom buzzed. “Magnet Dood, this is Light Base. What is your status?”
I wiped my forehead. “No enemies remaining.”
“Good work. Report back to base. Over.” The com crackled off.
I looked around uselessly as I searched for any sign of lol. There was none. “I’ll find you soon, buddy. I swear I will.” I set my coordinates and warped out.
Light’s forces had won- this time.
I warped back into Dr. Light’s expansive headquarters, feeling distraught. He would’ve sent a message if he was hurt, I thought, worried for my friend. Still, there was no point in not checking the infirmary- maybe he was there and just hadn’t had the time before he was warped out. I was only a little hopeful as I trudged down the halls to see what squad members had returned from the run-in with Wily’s forces, led by the deadly Freeze Ray.
That reminded me of the unusual red glow in his eyes. In the entire time I had been with the army, I had never seen it before in any one of the people I’ve downed. No enemy soldier had tried attacking me so aggressively like he did. Perhaps it was part of a new scheme cooked up by that maniacal genius. Maybe he was just built that way. Either way, he was gone now- hopefully for good- in the depths of the expansive sewers.
Dispelling these thoughts, I was not surprised that lol was not among those who had warped back. Stargazer and Super Gyro Pilot were shivering and covered with icicles. Toadington was twitchy, and his armor was constantly sparking. “Wh-wh-where have you b-b-b-been?” Stargazer stuttered, trying to control his jaw as it moved like a nutcracker attached to a motor. “W-w-w-we thought you f-f-f-fell into the river and dr-dr-drowned.”
“Well, uh, I won,” I said, scratching the back of my head as I took an E-Tank from a nearby shelf. The run-in with both Supercharger and Freeze Ray left me awfully tired, leaving me with only 13 hit points. I chugged the tank and crushed it into a ball before throwing it into the trash. “We don’t have anything up for a couple of hours- they’re trying to get some new guys trained for the next few blocks. Why don’t we go see what War Games are up right now?”
“Ah, jeez, Dood, I don’t know,” Toadington said before he suffered a slight spasm. “Supercharger hit me hard.” The two others echoed his feelings. “Besides, everyone’s probably playing that dumb boss rush game they installed a few months ago- I hate doing that one.”
“I’m sure some other squad would join us if we just wait for them. Come on, we need to stay loose. After what we just went up against, who knows what could be next?” I also wanted to get my mind off of lol- if I could.
Eventually, the three grumbled consent, and we walked down to the training areas. On the way, we stopped and gawked at the new weapon shipments we received. There was an independent company that manufactured all of our battle classes, and each shipment was received with considerable attention. Instead of fixing flaws in them, we received all new battle classes. They looked amazing- one of them was a hulking frost giant able to shoot giant ice waves to stun opponents. Another could fly around and summon meteors. However, they still looked a bit buggy. One of them started spurting out missiles after explaining his cannon could be charged and aimed. Still, all four of us were eager to try them out- eventually.
We reached the training area. Already there was a huge crowd at the Boss Rush mod- it was insanely popular with new players. The other teleporters looked dusty and disused. “Roboenza”, Toadington said after wiping off dust from the name plate above one of them. “I remember when this thing was the rage... fun times.”
I brushed a few cobwebs off of one in the corner. “How about a game of Capture the Flag, guys?” This was always one of my favorites, as the games required both strategy and skill. The others had mixed responses. Toadington was fairly excited for it, but Super Gyro Pilot shrugged. “Eh... 1-Flag is better. Now those games get intense. Let me tell you about this one time...”
He was interrupted when a group of four people came up to us. “You guys looking to play some CTF?” a fearsome-looking robot said to me. He was a Punk, decked out in spikes and sporting an angry glare. I looked at my teammates, who seemed visibly scared, then back at the Punk who addressed me. “Uh... well, yes, actually...” I shut my eyes, hoping I wouldn’t get yelled at.
“That sounds awesome! I’d love to join you guys! Mind if I and my friends play? My name’s Fluffy, by the way.” I opened my eyes, and looked at her confusedly. Toadington barely stifled a laugh. Fluffy? Seriously? That’s the name he went with? I thought, shocked. “Erm, uh... Oh, well, sure. Yeah, we’ll face you four.” Wiping my face, I hopped into the teleporter. I heard Super Gyro Pilot mutter “This’ll be a piece of cake” before I found myself looking at a flowing plain, with pagodas piercing the skies. “We must be at Sacred Shrines,” I told my teammates as we headed into our base. I hadn’t played here very often, but I vaguely remembered there being about three or more paths to get to the flag in here. This was an open map- we'd need a strong defense.
I told Toadington and Stargazer to guard the base from the attacking team as me and Super Gyro Pilot headed out into the open to grab the flag. I decided to take the underground route, while my teammate stayed above ground to get a little open air.
I ran into my first offensive effort by the other team. It was a Sniper Joe, hopping to and from the rocks as he tried to get to our base. A few Magnet Missiles took care of him as he warped back to his flag site. The ammunition we received in war games doesn’t actually knock people out of commission. Instead, a separate health meter is used with dummy ammunition that mimics the real things. When the meter hits zero, the soldier is forced back to their home site, or a new spawn point, depending on what game is being played. The frag message displayed his name as Sir Juicy- these guys sure do have odd names, I thought.
Soon I climbed up the ladder into the other base. There was no one around- maybe they were going for an all-out offense. I climbed up the stairs to the flag. “Easy pickings,” I whispered quietly.
Before I could put my hand around it, though, a spiked ball slammed into my back and pushed me into the wall. I took some serious damage as the Punk rolled out, triumphantly wagging his finger at me. Afraid he was going to attack again, I shoved him backwards with a Magnet Push... which flipped up his top to reveal a girl’s face. “Oh, you’re a girl,” I said, shoving my hand into my face on the inside.
Fluffy looked confused. “Of course I’m a girl! What kind of guy has a name like Fluffy?!” She chucked a Screw Crusher into my head, sending me warping back to my base. All I could think was Good point. I picked myself up and started off for another try at grabbing their flag.
Super Gyro Pilot had been largely unsuccessful on his end. Like us, the other team was using a half and half approach. To him, though, it seemed like all four were gunning for him. The first time he got into the other’s base, he was taken care of by Fluffy, in much the same fashion. “Argh... He’s tough!” he said as he warped back to the base again. “Erm... he’s actually a she,” I muttered to him.
He seemed to be even more upset at that. “Great... I’m getting my butt kicked by girl. This was a great idea, Magnet Dood. Good call. Sure wouldn’t want to do anything else right now, like, oh, say, play 1-Flag CTF.” Eventually, however, Stargazer spotted Super Gyro Pilot flying towards our base, sporting a peace sign with one hand and the enemy flag in the other. Thus, we were the first on the board.
The game kept seesawing back and forth, as Fluffy’s tough team kept punching through Toadingtons’ and Stargazers’ defense while me and Super Gyro were starting to grab the flag in a hit-and-run fashion. Finally, Fluffy’s team brought back our flag for the last point, and we all warped out of the play area. All of us were tired, but we enjoyed the game we played. Fluffy saw me after the match. “Hey, you guys are pretty good! Let us know if you want to play again.” I nodded and turned around before she grabbed my arm. “By the way, call me Rui,” she said with a wink before walking away with her squad.
I grinned underneath my facemask as I started to walk off with my squad. Still, after all of the action, I couldn’t help but think of lol again. He’s out there somewhere. I’ll find him soon. With that, me and the others headed off to our bunks, waiting until we had to go to our next mission.