Little Boy Blue

Chapter 6

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Mega Man, used to falling great distances, landed on his feet. His problem wasn't really the drop at all, but the danger of being squashed by the others around him.

For several confusing seconds he tried to scramble out of the way, but every direction he went it seemed as though he was underneath someone else's foot. Luckily he was able to dodge all of the feet without having one come down on him, and after a few moments Dr. Light finally managed to scoop him up and out of danger.

"Lost you there," the scientist commented, dropping back. "Sorry about that."

"It's not your fault," Mega Man said as the last of the enemy robots was destroyed. Kevin hoisted his zapper and he and Kid Icarus rejoined them.

"Sorry I'm not much help," Mega Man spoke up before either of them could say anything. "But I, well...see for yourself." And he turned and fired at the wall.

Kevin broke into laughter at the sight of Mega Man's tiny shots. When he could speak again he said, "That's great! Here, check this out!" Then he took Mega Man from Dr. Light and set the little teenager onto a small platform about half a meter off the floor. "See," Kevin explained, moving back, "it's the size of a video game!"

Mega Man glared at him.

"Uh, on a really big-screen TV, of course," Kevin added quickly.

But Mega Man wasn't actually upset. He'd never seen a Nintendo game before; he knew them only through Kevin's words. Playfully he struck a pose. "You better look out, Tron," he said, parrying an imaginary foe. "Because I'm on my way!"

Kevin was laughing again, and in seconds Mega Man joined in. They only fooled around for a few moments, though. Soon Mega Man had climbed back onto Dr. Light's hand.

"Ready?" the scientist asked.

"Yeah," Mega Man replied. Suddenly he jumped off the hand and dropped onto Duke's shoulders. The dog, startled, yelped and ran in a circle, then he skidded to a halt and tried to see what had landed on him.

Mega Man was clinging to the blue bandanna tied around the animal's neck. "Ride `em, cow-boy!" Kevin called, laughing once again. "Looks like he's turned you into a horse, Duke!" he added to his dog.

Mega Man paused to glance around them. "I think the invention's this way," he said, getting back to the original subject.

Kevin noticed the direction the robot pointed and motioned to his dog. "Come on, Duke! Let's see if we can saddle-train you!"

Duke simply followed Kevin and never really accepted any commands from his rider, but he did get Mega Man where he needed to go. The next room they encountered was huge, and it had several branching corridors.

Mega Man frowned. "I don't remember this," he said sheepishly. "I guess I wasn't really paying attention." He slid off Duke in order to move around and view the room from various angles.

Meanwhile Dr. Light moved forward to examine some of the room's sparse equipment. "This looks like it's just a knuckle intersection," he commented.

Mega Man turned toward the others, looking not at them but at the hallway in front of them. It looked like it was in the best direction. He was about to speak up when suddenly he heard a soft step behind him. A tingle went up his spine. Mega Man glanced around, confirming what he already knew--all of the others, including Duke, were in front of him.

Mega Man's back went stiff. Slowly he moved--first just his eyes, then his whole head--to look behind him. He found himself staring into a pair of yellow mechanical eyes.

Mega Man turned. The glowing eyes were set into the head of a robotic cat the size of a house pet. That put Mega Man at about the height of its stomach. The cat had two rows of shiny, sharp metal teeth--one on its top jaw and one on the bottom--and it was showing them all off at him with what looked like a sinister sneer. For a couple of seconds Mega Man could only stare in surprise and terror. Then he got a grip on himself and started to back away. "Nice kitty," he stammered. "Good cat. Yeeooow!!" Mega Man whirled back around and started running just as the cat lunged at him. "I was just kidding about being a mouse!" he cried as he barreled past his surprised friends, not sure where he was going as long as it was away from those sharp teeth.

He was heading for a wall, but as he approached it Mega Man suddenly noticed a perfect escape route. A metal grate covering a small ventilation shaft was built into the floor right by the wall. Without thinking he leaped forward, diving through between two of the bars. The cat landed on the grate with a clang and snarled angrily.

Mega Man hardly heard it. He discovered too late that the shaft he had chosen to leap into was vertical. With an echoing yell he found himself plunging headfirst into the gaping darkness.

Kevin, Kid Icarus and Dr. Light had followed behind, but the first to reach the grate was Duke. With excited barks the animal headed right for the robot cat. At the last second the latter noticed Duke leaping at it and, with a very life-like growl, it whirled and fled. Duke took a sharp turn on two legs and chased after it.

"Duke!" Kevin yelled as his pet was about to pursue the robot down one of the branching hallways. "Stop that!"

Finally the dog stopped and returned reluctantly to his owner. Kevin watched Dr. Light trying to loosen the grate with his bare hands. "You know, that cat looked familiar," the Game Master commented.

Dr. Light pulled up the grate and set it aside. Then he glanced at Kevin while Kid Icarus peered into the shaft. "Why's that?" the scientist inquired.

Kevin shrugged. "I don't know. I don't remember where I've seen it," he said. He thought for a second. "Duke was chasing it--oh, yeah--in another fortress. That's when he chased it down a hall and disappeared."

"I can't see the end of it," Kid Icarus said, changing the subject. He was still looking down the shaft.

"It could go on for several levels," Dr. Light agreed. He sighed.

"What now?" Kevin asked, dropping the subject of the robotic cat.

"We have to find him," Kid Icarus replied with determination. He measured the opening in the floor with his eyes. "I don't think even I can fit through there," he added.

"Don't," Dr. Light told him. "You could get stuck. I guess we're going to have to trace the shaft and find where it lets out."

"Do you think he'll be okay?" Kid Icarus asked worriedly.

"Yeah, he's too small to fend for himself," Kevin agreed.

Dr. Light answered them both with, "He'll be all right as long as he doesn't fall into a heater or an air cleaner." Kevin and Kid Icarus looked at each other. "Or, for that matter," the scientist added, " Tron 's hands."

Kevin jumped to his feet. "Let's go!"

Mega Man was tumbling down the winding tunnel, hitting the metal walls around him occasionally as the shaft made another turn. He managed to flip himself around by using one of these contacts, but he couldn't stop his fall.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, the tunnel's path shifted and began going down at an angle. Mega Man landed on the lower wall and started sliding. He began to slow down but at that moment he slammed up against another grate, this one set vertically. Light streamed through the gaps between the bars.

Dazed, Mega Man realized he was at the end of the tunnel. Still leaning on the bars, he discovered that he was staring into a totally different room. His impact, though, had loosened the grating, and before he could pull himself away it had tipped out into the room. Mega Man tumbled out of the shaft just as the grating dropped to the floor with a loud clang.

In this room the shaft had been built high in the wall. Mega Man was facing a three meter drop down to the floor.

A short distance away was a metal table. Mega Man got a glimpse of its paper-scattered top before he had plummeted past it. He did, however, manage to stick out his arms and catch the edge of the desk, stopping his fall.

He was just pulling himself up when he felt himself sliding. Looking over the edge he discovered that he was gripping a small slip of paper. Before he could move his weight had pulled it with him over the edge, and he was falling again, still holding the paper. It was at this moment that he found out that he could use the slip as a makeshift parachute, allowing him to float softly downwards. He tried to land on a nearby chair but he didn't have time. He landed on the metal floor a short distance from it.

Once standing on solid ground, Mega Man took the time to glance at the slip he held. It was a piece of narrow printer paper, and it was covered with a column of 1's and 0's.

"Binary," Mega Man muttered. "Hmmm...143 divided by two fifths of...looks like a formula." He looked up at the desktop high above his head. Remembering the other papers he had seen, he wondered if there was any important information up there.

His glance went to the wheeled chair sitting in front of the desk. It had a center base that expanded into three diagonal legs each tipped with a black wheel. It could be his key onto that table.

Mega Man hurried over and began climbing up one of the legs. When he reached the center column it was more difficult because the post went straight up. But luckily he was able to jump away from the column and grab onto the base of the chair's back. After dangling for several seconds, he got a better hold and pulled himself up.

Once on the seat of the chair it was a simple matter of leaping up and grabbing onto the edge of the desk and pulling himself over. As he stood up he noticed that he was standing on what looked to be a data-collection center. Several monitors were built into the wall above the desk, as well as a few different types of printers. One keyboard sat to his left, and the rest of the area on the table was taken up with papers of various sizes. One glance around revealed that the rest of the small room was bare.

" Tron sure has been busy," Mega Man said, looking around at the scattered printouts. "I must be more toward his laboratory," he realized. Tron didn't put things like this out where unwanted visitors could mess with them.

Curious at what he had unwittingly discovered, Mega Man knelt down to read the paper on which he happened to be standing. It was filled with more mathematical equations. The next one held coordinates. After moving from one page to another, Mega Man realized that much of the information was not recent, and some of it was over a year old. This gave Mega Man the impression that what he had found was the desk of a man who never throws anything out.

Most of the information was therefore meaningless. Before giving up, though, Mega Man glanced at one more sheet. And this one proved interesting.

It was a diagram of a crystal along with various comments. The page was also on the top of the pile, indicating that it was recent.

"I'll bet it's about that crystal he got off the island," Mega Man said excitedly, looking more closely. He was so absorbed in his reading that he never heard the gate go up behind him, nor the footsteps heading for him.

All at once he was snapped out of his thoughts by a hand that snatched him off the table. "It figures you'd find your way here," Tron 's voice boomed, and Mega Man's heart flew to his throat. The girl caressed the little Purifier. "I don't know how you got out but I've tracked you down here. You can't hide from me, even at that size."

Mega Man struggled and was almost able to slip free. But Tron tightened her hold at that moment. "I'm seriously considering just squeezing you till you pop, your too sweet to avoid the possibility" she added, emphasizing her words by squeezing harder. Mega Man's struggles grew feeble. Suddenly the girl turned and used her free hand to turn on one of the monitors. "I'll bet I know how you escaped," she commented, and in seconds the computer had confirmed her suspicion. "Just as I thought. Captain N is here." she laughed. "I was expecting him. Guess you got through to Dr. Light after all." she paused. "That'll teach me to work without monitors nearby. I have to fix that alarm system."

Mega Man, having recovered now that the pirate's hold had loosened, resorted again to firing his arm cannon. And again Tron jumped enough for Mega Man to pull free.

"Darn you," the girl growled as Mega Man dropped to the desk. The boy tried to start running but only succeeded in kicking papers in every direction. Tron lunged and attempted to grab him but ended up knocking him into the wall.

"Ow!" he cried involuntarily, dropping to the tabletop.

"You're worse than a computer bug," Tron grumbled. "I would finish you now but I need more information--like how long the size change will last. You never know--you might revert back to your true size...and then, there's my plans for us."

"It might wear off?" Mega Man cried. That news both relieved and horrified him, for he found himself remembering where the 16-year-old girl had placed him. What if the change had occurred while he'd been imprisoned? His tiny cage and the wall in which it had sat would have crushed him. "That's right," Tron agreed, as if she'd read the boy's mind. "But I doubt it will happen."

Mega Man shifted and ended up putting his hand down on the edge of the mobile keyboard. All at once he snatched up the light device and hurled it with all his might at his adversary. Tron cried out and threw up her arms to block. Mega Man took the opportunity and made a bold leap right off the desk. He dropped to the floor and landed running. With the angry teenaged giantess right behind him, Mega Man barreled out of the room and started down the hall. Tron was fast and she now had a much larger leg-span than the robot and could cover more ground with each step. Mega Man had to find some place to escape his nemesis. Further ahead he caught a glimpse of what seemed to be a branching hallway. Mega Man rounded the corner but ran face-first into another gate. The door went up as Mega Man, stunned by the blow, stumbled backwards and finally toppled over. Then he came to his senses and leaped forward into a room. Behind him, Tron 's yells grew even more furious and even sad. Mega Man felt something soft her got up and gapped, he was in the center of a pillow. He was staring right at a large furnished in violet and pink, as well as prominent placement of metal skulls--the symbol of the Bonne family--in various places: some on the walls, one over the window, another one next to the potted plant. Spare parts littered a corner of the room, but the rest was spic and span, and there was even a piano just to the left. A quick glance around told him immediately that he had just stumbled on Tron's personal living quarters. This was without a doubt the pirate's own bedroom. Somehow her entire erratic personality was summed up in this single room. It spoke of a careful organization yet was delightfully pleasant The girl herself came into the room and stopped in the doorway. Mega Man, startled out of his astonishment, turned and began running again. But Tron, satisfied that she now had the robot cornered, locked the room's only gate and moved purposely forward. "How convent ," she said smiling. "You came into the very place for my plans with you." Mega Man turned red, leapt off and rounded the bed, hoping to duck under it. He hid under the bed and quickly spotted just what he needed: another ventilation shaft. This one was also set into the wall, but at floor level instead of up near the ceiling.

At least that meant the tunnel was horizontal instead of vertical. Mega Man immediately headed for it. Just as he was near it, Tron's shoe slammed in front of him "I've got you now my naughty little mousy!" she said. Smoothly Tron reached down and closed her hand around Mega Man "Let me go!" he shouted "Nope, your mine, ah... this'll be fun." She set Mega Man down. This proved unwise as MegaMan dashed into the shaft. Tron yelled out in frustration. She'd forgotten about the shaft. She made a lunge but Mega Man was able to slip between the bars before the girl could grasp him. Mega Man stopped a few steps into the safety of the shaft and laughed triumphantly. "It's not over yet," Tron returned. She whirled and yanked open a drawer. Curious, Mega Man moved forward but he was unable to see what Tron was looking for. Then he realized that maybe he didn't really want to know. He decided that he'd better get out of there while he had the chance! Mega Man turned and disappeared into the dark tunnel. Meanwhile Tron had pulled out a mechanical spider she'd once built to infiltrate and spy on enemy fortresses. Now she was looking for a spool of good, strong thread. Tron cast glance behind her and saw that the shaft was empty. But she wasn't concerned. A smile spread across her face. "You can run, and you can hide," the pirate girl said aloud, "but this thing can follow you no matter where you go!"

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