Little Boy Blue

Chapter 4

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Tron didn't hang around for more chatter. she got the three transit trucks moving, and Mega Man had to kneel down before he lost his balance and fell. The three trucks, with the cage between the other two, were heading single-file through the trees in the opposite direction from the cave. Mega Man pressed himself up against the bars and peered ahead, suddenly unsure as to where they were going.

All at once the three trucks came to an abrupt halt. Mega Man was almost thrown but his grips on the bars saved him. At the same time he heard a shout.

Quickly Mega Man turned to look. He saw Break Man standing in front of the trucks, frozen in surprise.

"Oh, no," Mega Man groaned. Then he called louder, "Break Man! Get out of here! Run!"

Break Man turned and seemed to see him for the first time. He took a step back in surprise and confusion, but it was too late. The four Robot Masters had emerged from the other trucks and were converging on him.

As Mega Man had, Break Man tried to get away, but he could neither fight nor flee. He was overcome just as quickly and hauled right off the ground. Mega Man had been watching in horror from his cage, but he was so frozen with shock that by the time he realized the robots were heading for him they had slid the barred door aside. Once he came to his senses Mega Man attempted to leap from his open prison but ended up colliding with Break Man as the Robot Masters tossed him in. Break Man's momentum won out and the two tumbled into the cage.

"Ow!" Mega Man cried as his head slammed up against the bars on the opposite side of the cage. Break Man landed on top of him. Before either of them could move the Robot Masters had clanged the cage door shut and secured it.

"Oh..." Mega Man groaned as Break Man climbed off him.

"Ouch is right," Break Man said ruefully, rubbing his shoulder. Then he grinned. "That's the last time I try to rescue you!" he teased.

Mega Man didn't answer. Break Man frowned playfully. "How many times has it been?"

"Three," Mega Man said without hesitation.

Break Man grew sober. "I'm not too good at it, am I?" he commented as he helped his brother sit up.

"Did Dr. Light send you?" Mega Man asked.

Break Man frowned again. "No. Actually," he admitted, "I wasn't really on my way to rescue you at all. I was just joking." He glanced around. "I got back to the lab and it was empty. But the warp was set."

Mega Man laughed. "You did what I did! So you did talk to Dr. Light?"

Break Man shook his head. "No, I never saw him. I came out of the warp and was there for just about long enough for it to close behind me, then--these guys showed up."

Mega Man looked surprised. "You came out on the island?"

"Island? Well, yeah, I guess so."

"Oh, I forgot," Mega Man said suddenly. "Since Tron removed the crystal, I guess the protection was removed too."

"Crystal?" Break Man echoed. "Protection? What are you talking about?"

Mega Man explained. By the time he was done the transits had moved to the edge of the island, where a large warp waited for them.

" Tron was going to hunt me down, Break Man," Mega Man finished. "And I have a feeling that now he has two test subjects instead of one."

The three vehicles moved through a large warp at the edge of the island. When they emerged from the other end, they were in a metal-cased hallway.

"We're in Tron 's fortress!" Break Man noted. "We have to get out of here!"

"Lots of luck," Mega Man returned wryly, casually rebounding a shot off one of the bars of their cage. "Tron's found a metal that's too powerful for even us to bend."

Break Man ducked the plasma shot as it bounced his way. "Yeah, but what about with both of us together? If we combine our strength..."

Mega Man watched the yellow-white sphere of plasma bounce between two of the bars on the other side of the cage. "It's worth a try," he agreed.

They gathered around one of the bars and secured solid grips. "Okay," Break Man instructed. "Pull!"

Together they heaved. But before they could make any headway the cage tilted, sending them tumbling to the floor.

Tron had a unique way of getting her captives out of the cage without giving them a chance to escape. After having taken it up to the proper level of her fortress, she had rigged it up to a huge crane. In this way she could lift the entire cage off the floor and was now carrying it down a hall and into a huge room.

Most of the room was bare, since all of the equipment was on the far side. To the left was a strange machine. To the right was an area surrounded by what appeared to be an almost invisible force field. Beside that was a computer console.

Tron went up to the computer and took over the controls of the crane from there. she moved the cage until it was directly above the area protected by the force field.

Mega Man and Break Man watched worriedly, crouched by the bars. All of a sudden their cage flipped sideways and they tumbled onto the very bars they'd been kneeling beside. Just as they were recovering from that, the entire barred door swung downward.

Taken by surprise, the two found themselves tumbling down to the floor far below them. They landed without injury, but when they got up they discovered that they were trapped beside the wall. The force field made a complete semicircle around them.

Tron put down the cage while Break Man and Mega Man explored their new prison. Then she came back and went to work installing the crystal on the top of the odd machine. Once she was finished, the girl went back to the computer and moved the crane back over to the force field. The metal grabber on the end glistened as it came to a stop above the two captives.

"Let's see...which one?" Tron mused. she moved the crane lower, and the two captives jumped away from it.

"Oh, this is going to be fun," the pirate girl laughed. she leaned up against the console in a fashion that seemed to say that she had all day.

The pincer on the end of the crane shifted, moving sideways and a little lower. "What now?" Break Man asked quietly.

Mega Man started charging up his arm cannon. "You know the saying: `When in doubt, break something!'"

The two began to fire at the claw but their shots bounced off. The pincer moved in short bursts as though it was timid. But when it was in the right position it came down like a lead weight. Before he knew what was happening, Mega Man was caught in its iron grip.

"Yeow!" he cried out as the arm retracted, pulling him off the ground. Break Man charged up a cannon and managed to hit the claw's arm just as it cleared the force field, but the shot didn't destroy it. Two seconds later the claw was out of his reach.

Mega Man was hauled over to the machine across the room. The left side was a complicated mass of electronic material. But the right side was more bare. A large, circular plate of metal sat on the floor with another disk about two meters directly above it. The upper disk was held in place by a metal support that formed the rear wall of the circular chamber. The rest of it was ringed with what looked like glowing glass.

The upper disk slid aside along a metal track. This allowed Tron to move the crane right over the cylinder-like chamber and drop Mega Man inside. Then the disk slid back into its original position.

Gingerly Mega Man touched the glass around him. It was warm but it didn't shock him. He was assuming that this was the big invention, and he wasn't sure if he liked what he saw.

"Okay, Tron," he said in a low voice. "What is this thing?"

"Impatient, aren't you?" the girl replied with delight. she was busy tapping away on her computer. It was obvious that he was refusing to say any more.

"But what's it do?" Break Man persisted.

"Relax--if I wanted to destroy him there are easier ways," Tron told them as if she had read their minds. "No, he'll live to see the effects of this invention--that is, if it doesn't malfunction."

"That makes me feel better," Mega Man commented sarcastically. His voice sounded funny since it bounced around his small prison, and the others' voices were muffled by the electrified glass.

Break Man had his hands pressed against the force field around him, and even though his eyes were hidden behind his dark visor, Mega Man was able to read the expression easily. I think he's taking this even harder than I am, Mega Man realized. But if the situation had been reversed, Mega Man knew he would be terrified for his brother too. There was no telling what Tron could be up to.

Instantly Mega Man decided that he wasn't going to just stand there and wait. He began searching the small area around him, concentrating particularly on the metal wall behind him. He didn't really want to try his hands on the electrified barrier because he knew the shock would probably be more than he could stand. He could be extremely damaged, if not destroyed. And that wouldn't help any of them.

Mega Man was kneeling by the base of the wall when he heard Break Man gasp. Quickly he turned and saw his friend staring at the top of the cylinder.

All at once Mega Man remembered the crystal which Tron had installed on the upper disk. He couldn't see it from where he stood underneath it, but he could see the light it was producing. Then more light began pouring down on him, shining directly from the underside of the disk.

Mega Man threw up his arms but he couldn't protect himself from the powerful light. It even began playing with his eyes. The whole world began to pulse around him, and for a couple of seconds Mega Man was afraid he was going to black out.

But he didn't, and the yellow light continued raining down, surrounding him. He glanced up at the disk; it seemed to be moving away from him. Was he falling? Quickly he glanced down. Now the floor was rising up to meet him, and yet his feet were planted firmly.

What's going on? Mega Man wondered. I must be hallucinating. And how can I feel like I'm moving when I'm standing still?

Actually the whole operation only took a few moments, but to Mega Man it seemed like hours. As the light finally faded away he shook his head and glanced down. He was still standing on the metal disk--at least he hadn't gone anywhere.

Still a little unsteady, Mega Man didn't notice the glass panel around him slide open. The first thing that caught his attention was the sound of Break Man sucking in his breath. Then Mega Man heard a footstep, and he felt someone in front of him. Slowly he raised his head. His eyes traveled up a pair of Pink shoes, skin-tight brown slacks, which matched her shirt, which in turn had the aforementioned symbol of the Bonnes on the chest. Said shirt was complemented with a blue jacket,... Tron was standing in front of him. But Mega Man's eyes grew wider and wider as they moved up, and up and up. The pirate girl was huge! Then Mega Man glanced around him and came to a shocking discovery: Tron wasn't bigger; Mega Man was smaller. A whole lot smaller. He only came up to the top of the girl's shoes!

When the realization set in Mega Man did what any normal person would do if caught in such a situation.

"Aaaaaahhhh!" he shrieked.

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