Chapter 3: Confrontation
The ruins were dark and dusty. A rat scurried amongst the scattered debris. Several two-story buildings lay dormant, some missing shingles while others had shattered windows or even massive holes in the walls. The remains of an old exposition center lay everywhere, thrown in every direction from the explosion two centuries previous. A faded sign on a cracked pillar was mostly illegible; all that was visible and intact on it was the message, "Cy... A.a..my." A vehicle rocks and sways in the gentle breeze, suspended by its crash into the side of its pillar-like station. The wind grew stronger and seemingly more sinister, and blew by a young man taking in the devastating sight.
"Creepy..." muttered Geo.
"But this must be the place the archer mentioned. Let's head in."
"Okay..."
"It's not like there's any ghosts!"
"Mega, shut up! TRANS CODE, MEGAMAN!" A bright flash engulfed the pair.
"Kid, be careful. I sense a lot of viruses up ahead."
"Can you sense Sniper Sagitta?" Geo asked. Mega scanned the area.
". . . . . . Got her! She's atop the old tower with that cart crashed into it!" The two turned around and saw her.
"Teehee... So you've made it. I was beginning to think you had chickened out. Now that you're here, meet me at the principal's office at the academy ruins. And be at full strength. I want to drain all your power myself before making you beg for your miserable life. Not that it would do you any good; either way, I'm still going to delete you. Ta-ta!" With that, she vanished.
"She sure is confident for the first boss..." Mega commented.
"First boss? This isn't a video game, Mega," Geo chided.
"Well, she is our first big adversary in this crisis. Just like Taurus Fire, Dark Phantom, and Spade Magnes were for those threats," the alien explained.
"Ah, I see your point. Let's find this academy she spoke of." Mega Man walked over to the dusty plague and rubbed it. Nothing happened; it still read Cy... A.a..my. "Well, this is probably it. That explosion really did a number on this place." They walked up some steps and saw a second-floor balcony. Upon it was a pedestal that looked like it once held something. The floor was in surprisingly good condition, or so it looked. There was a door with two old gates to the northwest. There was rubble blocking the entryway to the halls beyond. He looked back up to the balcony. "That is probably our destination... but how do we get there?" Mega Man looked around and saw a doors to the southwest on both floors.
"What are you waiting for?" Mega demanded. They entered the doors into the teacher's lounge. Suddenly, a group of Mettennas appeared. They were deleted just as quickly. Mega pointed to the stairwell beyond two doors. "Let's go there!" Mega Man walked up the stairs only to find even more Mettennas; these ones swarmed the hero and blocked off all escape routes.
"Nowhere to run! We're trapped!" Geo exclaimed.
"Only one thing to do! Let's rip 'em to shreds!" Mega said excitedly, a sinister grin on his face and gleam in his eyes to match. The buster was charged up and fired; a path was made right through the viruses. "And now let's give them a deadly shower, shall we?" Geo nodded in agreement. Climbing atop the nearby railing, Mega Man tried to jump into the air. However, a Mettenna jumped up and grabbed onto his leg before he could get airborne. "Got it, kid! I was getting hungry anyways!" Mega chomped and devoured the virus. A thoughtful look entered his eyes.
"What is it?"
"Hmm... needs more salt... Ready, kid?"
"Yep!" This time, the jump succeeded, and Mega Man fired rapidly into the seething mass, easily deleting half of the swarm. "Still hungry, Mega?"
Mega looked sad all of the sudden. "Now I know how Bud feels..." He shrugged it off. "Meh. Let the buffet begin!" Holding his left arm forward, Geo charged into the Mettennas. Mega quickly devoured it the remaining members of the swarm. "Wakka wakka BURRRRPPP!!!! Sorry 'bout that; worth it though."
"Well it appears our busting level was 9 on that... not too bad... And, somehow, we're fully healed. And there's a skull in front of that door. Let's go." Mega Man entered slowly and looked around. Within seconds, they found...
"Nothing?" Mega growled.
"She said she'd be..." CLICK!
"Here? I did say that. Nice technique out there. Teehee... Now, prepare to dance for me." The voice seemed to come from nowhere. A volley of crossbow bolts suddenly flew seemingly out of the far wall. Geo narrowly dodged them. When he landed, he looked up, only to find the crossbow pointed directly at his forehead.
"Sorry, miss, but you'll be the one dancing... right to your demise!" Mega roared.
"Wave Battle! Ride on!" yelled Geo.
Sniper Sagitta... Max HP: 500... Element: Null, proclaimed the Hunter-VG.
"500 hit points? Easy!" Mega said.
"Hmm... at least I know the new scanner feature works." BRAANNNGGG!!! Geo sidestepped the bolt.
"Careful, kid. She might be harder than you think."
"What makes you say tha-WHOA!" A shockwave narrowly missed Geo.
"That does. Stay frosty, kid!"
"Frosty, eh? That gives me an idea..." Geo quickly used an IceStage battle card, and followed up with a ChainBubble1 attack. Sagitta was quickly frozen by the combo.
"I told you to be frosty, not her!" With a flurry of buster shots, her HP was reduced to 400. "Look out!" SLAM! Sagitta ran back after missing with her crossbow slam. She then shot a flurry of bolts aimed right at Mega Man. They were easily evaded. "Smooth moves, kid! Now stop messing around; if you get deleted, I go too!"
"Got it!" Geo used a SnoStorm card, halving her HP. He followed up with a Buki1 attack with the aid of Mega's lock-on ability, reducing it to 50. "Almost there..." Another flurry of arrows... these ones made contact. Before Geo could recover, Sagitta dashed up and slammed him with her crossbow. "Unnghh... that hurt."
"Told ya she was dangerous. Now finish her off!" Geo used a Sword chip with the lock-on again, and quickly slashed her... Her top half slid off of her waist and fell to the ground. Oddly enough, there were no nerves or blood or anything...
"Y-you de-defeated m-m-me..." she said.
Geo was stunned. He had just sliced someone in half... or did he?
"Tell me why Cepheus and the AM Sages want us dead!" Mega demanded.
"It w-was an or-order... a prime d-d-directive... if you will... I'm at the b-b-bottom of the t-t-totem p-pole... you'll h-have t-to d-de... defeat my comrades... if you want to... know... more..." she said.
Geo mustered up his courage, curious about the lack of gore. "Tell me. Did you wave change with a human to achieve this form?"
"N-no... I d-d-did not..."
"Then how did you become like this?"
"I... can't rememb..b..e..r..." Her data suddenly was blown away in the wind, except for a small sphere.
Sniper Sagitta deleted. Busting level: 5. 1000 zenny earned. proclaimed the Hunter-VG.
The sphere rose into the air. A small piece of it darkened, and disintegrated. "
Seal removed. Barrier at 87.5%." The sphere flew high into the air until it was lost from sight.
"W-what was that all about?" Geo asked.
"Why are you asking me? Why would I know?"
"I don't know..."
"Let's head back and regroup. Maybe we'll be contacted by one of her comrades... Hopefully they can give us more answers." The pair transed out and left the ruins.
A feminine shadow stepped out from a darkened corner, holding some sort of device. Sagitta's data returned to the area and was sucked into the device. "Mega Man... hmmm... this could be harder than I thought..." the shadow said. It looked up through a hole in the ceiling, and looked at the crack in the sky. It started laughing maniacally.