Little Boy Blue

Chapter 7

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It was pitch black. Mega Man slowed to a walk and put his hands on the sides of the shaft. He had been temporarily blinded once and thus had learned how to navigate in the darkness, but that had been a while ago. Now that he was a safe distance away he began moving slower and thus bumped into walls a lot less. The first thing on his mind was finding his friends. He had fallen quite a distance and thus knew he must go back up somehow. His steps echoed hollowly though the horizontal tunnel. There seemed to be no end to it. All Mega Man saw was black, and all he heard was the rhythmic clanking of his steps.

Clank...clank...clank...clank-clank...clank—

Mega Man froze. There had been an extra echo. Unconsciously holding his breath, he stood still and listened. At first there was only silence. Then he heard it: a soft, humming sound and an accompanying clanking. And it was getting closer.

For several seconds Mega Man was paralyzed at the eerie sound. Then he noticed how hard he was breathing. Immediately he was angry at his own fear and yet he still gave into the impulse to flee. With one hand on the wall to guide him, he ran on, his own steps echoing loud in his ears. At times he would stop to listen again for the sounds of his unseen pursuer. They were always there, clanking patiently after him. Caught by the terror of the unknown, Mega Man continued running. He felt as if he was trapped in a dream. His hands searched the walls, looking for some way out. They found nothing. He was surrounded by the darkness, and behind him was the ever-present scraping noise always growing closer. Mega Man instinctively glanced behind him but he couldn't see a thing. Then he turned back around and stopped short. For a second he was afraid his eyes were deceiving him, having spent what seemed like forever in the darkness. But he blinked and realized that it was true. There was a light ahead! Finally! Released from the nightmare, Mega Man began running with renewed energy. He found that the light was coming from a short branching tunnel that led off of the one he'd been heading down. At the end was another grate. With a cry of relief Mega Man turned the corner and raced toward his freedom. The tunnel grew lighter and lighter until finally he was plunging between two of the metal slats and into a hallway. He was in the corner of a bend in the hall. To his right it went on and intersected another hallway. To his left it traveled out of sight. Mega Man didn't recognize his surroundings but right now he didn't care. He took a deep breath and relaxed. Now that he was in a well-lit hallway it was easy for him to chide himself for panicking.

" If I was still relaying on that accursed system on Elysium I wouldn't be afraid," Mega Man said aloud. But since he was alive, he had human-like feelings that ordinary antros lacked. Fear was one of those feelings. Mega Man did his best to conquer it, and ultimately decided that the advantages of being alive definitely outweighed the drawbacks.

He was still thinking about this when he became aware of the haunting scraping noise coming up behind him. Now that he was out of the dark tunnel the noise wasn't so frightening, but his back stiffened anyway. Mega Man managed to make himself turn slowly to see what had been pursuing him this whole time. At first all he saw was the black tunnel. Then a shadowy shape began to emerge. As it got closer to the light Mega Man was able to make out a round body and eight long metal legs. It was a mechanical spider, just a little taller than Mega Man's reduced size.

Mega Man dropped back in surprise as the spider slipped between the grate's slats and came into the hallway. He raised an arm and began firing at it, but his little shots did about as little good as normal-sized ones would do to a three meter tall robot.

The spider stopped and showed off its sharp, pincer-like jaws. Afraid it was about to fire back at him, Mega Man turned to gain some more distance between them.

The robotic spider did fire, but it wasn't using the normal plasma cannon. Instead it shot off a strand of glistening white thread. The loop curled around Mega Man's leg and tripped him.

"Yeow!" he cried as he hit the ground. The thread tightened around his foot and the spider began to pull. Lying on his stomach, Mega Man found himself sliding backwards across the metal floor. "Hey, cut it out!" he ordered, twisting himself around. The spider continued to patiently reel him in. Therefore it was a couple of seconds before Mega Man could get a good grip on the line. With a short blow, he snapped the thread in two.

But he had hardly gotten back on his feet when the spider fired off another strand. This one coiled around his chest, pinning his arms to his sides. Mega Man simply gathered himself together, then thrust his arms out, breaking free.

The spider escalated its attacks, and was soon throwing lines right and left. One wrapped around Mega Man's arm. He broke it with his other hand. Then another wrapped around his other arm, and a third around his waist. While Mega Man was busy dealing with those, the spider coiled yet another strand around both of Mega Man's legs. Caught by surprise, the little blue purifier lost his balance and tumbled back to the floor.

The spider came closer, wrapping lines around Mega Man faster than he could break them. He tried to get to his feet again but his legs were too tangled. As he fell back down, more strands tied his arms to his side.

"Hey!" Mega Man was yelling. "Stop that!" Now that he was lying again on his stomach, the spider began wrapping him up in a cocoon of thread. "I thought spiders were supposed to catch flies, not mice!" Mega Man added indignantly. Luckily the robot spider was leaving his head free, but that didn't help him get loose. Mega Man turned onto his side and tried snapping the stands with his teeth. Then he noticed that the spider was advancing again.

"What are you doing!?" Mega Man cried as his attacker used two legs to flip him onto his back. Half sitting up, Mega Man started to inch backwards. At that moment the spider lunged and knocked him flat on his back by landing on him.

"Ow!" Mega Man protested as his head hit the hard floor. When he opened his eyes he found himself staring into a pair of glowing red eyes. The spider's razor-like jaws glistened as it moved them back and forth.

Mega Man's eyes grew wide. Was he about to become the spider's next snack?

But robots don't eat! his mind told him. At the same time, the spider neatly folded its incisors up into its head. Then, before its prisoner could react, it lowered its head and took a quick bite out of Mega Man's energy reserves.

"Yeow!" Mega Man yelped with a start. The spider didn't stop there, though, but continued to drain away its captive's energy in short bursts. Mega Man's body went rigid with each round. He yelled and struggled but was held firm by all eight legs. As his energy levels got lower he began to grow weaker and more weary. Soon his struggles ceased altogether. Good, now rest until I've found you MegaMan. Tron thought

"There has to be some way to find him," Kevin was saying.

"Well there would be if this were my lab instead of Tron's," Dr. Light retorted. "I didn't come prepared to do any tracking."

"He's so little," Kid Icarus commented in sympathy. "There's so many places he could be."

"Hush," Dr. Light hissed suddenly. Kevin also heard what the scientist had and quickly hurried to peek around a corner.

"It's Tron!" Kevin told them in a whisper. "She just went that way!" And he pointed down the hallway.

"Let's follow her!" Kid Icarus urged, hurrying toward the hallway.

Looking around the corner, Dr. Light realized that Tron must have come out of a nearby room. "No," he replied, "let's see what's in that room."

Stealthily the four slipped around the corner and through a gate. It was a monitoring room. The small chamber was filled with computer screens, printers, and other such devices, all mounted on the walls. There was one small metal table which held various electronic devices.

"Well, what do you know?" Dr. Light laughed, picking one up. "A tracker! What luck! Let's see if it can pick out MegaMan."

In seconds he had obtained the general location of his shrunken creation. The four hurried together out of the room, hot in pursuit. Then they realized that they were heading in the same direction as Tron had.

"Coincidence?" Kid Icarus asked.

"I don't think so," Kevin replied. "Tron was holding something. It might have been another tracker."

"That's probably exactly what it was," Dr. Light agreed. "We have to beat him to Mega Man!"

They went faster but never encountered the pirate girl. "Do you suppose we went another way?" Dr. Light hoped.

His question was soon answered when they entered a new hall and looked down. There, near the corner, a robot spider had neatly wrapped MegaMan in white thread and pinned him to the floor.

"Mega Man!" Kid Icarus cried out. Mega Man didn't respond. Kevin leaped forward and kicked the spider, sending it flying toward a wall. Without breaking his movement, the teenager then smoothly snatched his zapper and fired. The blue ray connected, destroying the spider with one shot.

They knelt down by their miniature friend. Mega Man slowly opened his eyes and gave them a small smile. "Wow," he said. "Where'd you guys come from?"

Dr. Light was busy cutting the strands with a small pair of scissors he'd had in his pocket. "Thanks," Mega Man added before they could answer his first question.

"I must say, Mega Man," Dr. Light told him with a chuckle, "you do get yourself into the oddest of situations."

Mega Man laughed weakly. "Well, look on the bright side. One small energy pellet ought to refill me at this size!"

"We'd better get moving," Dr. Light advised. "Tron has a fix on your location."

Mega Man nodded and climbed into the proffered hand. "Hey, Dr. Light," he spoke up. "Guess where I was. Tron's living quarters!"

"You found her bedroom?" Kevin asked in surprise.

"Yeah." Mega Man had to start laughing. "Now that was something!"

"Was it near the lab?" Dr. Light asked him.

"I don't know," Mega Man said, growing sober. "I'm all mixed up now, Dr. Light. I don't know where we are or how to get to Break Man."

"Hmmm..." Dr. Light glanced at the tracker he still held. "I could use this--if I knew what kind of energy frequency that invention emits."

"FW-27," Mega Man said instantly.

Dr. Light stared at him.

"I saw a specification page on that crystal Tron used," Mega Man explained, suddenly excited that the information he had found would come in handy after all. Maybe that would compensate for his plunge down the ventilation shaft.

"That's wonderful," Dr. Light praised, inputting the information into the electronic tracker. "We'll be able to find it easily with this."

Then he hesitated, thinking, his eyes on his tracker. "And Tron will be able to find you easily, too, if she has another tracker like this one."

Dr. Light was silent for another moment, then he suddenly began tapping away at the buttons on his tracker. "Just as I thought," he said aloud. "I can track Tron, too. She's not very far from here. This thing's powerful." Examining the device, the scientist went on, "I have an idea. Better cover your ears. Especially you, MegaMan," he added, setting him down. "This will probably hurt them a little." MegaMan moved away as he and the others watched Dr. Light curiously. They did, however, follow the scientist's advise by putting their hands over their ears.

With a little rigging, Dr. Light got the tracker to emit a loud, piercing whine. He turned a dial that raised the frequency until the sound was no longer audible to the humans. Mega Man, however, being a purifier unite, could still hear it. He winced and pressed his hands to his helmet but it didn't do any good. The sound started to give him a headache, and the world began to spin around him. However, just when he thought he was going to lose his balance and fall over, the sound stopped.

"What'd you do?" Kevin asked Dr. Light as Mega Man shook his head, staggering a little.

Dr. Light was watching the tiny display screen on his tracker. "I shorted out Tron 's tracker. Unless I miss my guess, it has just disintegrated." He glanced at Mega Man. "You okay?"

Mega Man nodded. "Yeah."

"I realized that the frequency would probably scramble your circuits a little as well, but it wouldn't be enough to do any permanent damage." Dr. Light held out his hand again. "And I didn't want to leave Tron with a means of finding you--especially if we get separated again."

Mega Man remembered Tron 's plans as he was in her room, and nodded in agreement.

"Though she'll probably just go get another one," Dr. Light went on with a small chuckle. "But at any rate, if we do get separated again I can find you now. Just find a safe place to hide and stay there. We'll be there."

 

Tron had been tracking the spider as opposed to Mega Man himself since it was easier that way. Evidently the spider had done its job because it was now standing still.

Tron was heading for it when suddenly the spider's location dropped off her tracker's map altogether.

"What--?" Tron skidded to a halt. Then she reset the tracker until she was able to pick out Mega Man. The little blueboy was still in the same spot, but the spider was no longer there.

"Blast," the she growled. "He must have destroyed it."

Just as she was saying this her tracker suddenly made a strange screeching noise. Then it vaporized into a puff of smoke right in front of a surprised Tron 's face.

"Wow!" the girl yelped, instinctively letting go and jumping back. As it turned out, only part of the tracker had been destroyed. Tron picked up what was left and carefully examined it. "It looks as though its circuits were just fried. But that only--"

All at once a thought occurred to her. She whirled and dashed into a nearby monitoring room. Within seconds she had brought up on the screen an image of the room that the tracker had claimed was where Mega Man was. Indeed he was still there, but he wasn't the only one. Gathered around him were Kevin, Kid Icarus, Duke, and Dr. Light.

"Dr. Light!" Tron cried. "What's he doing here? He's almost worse than Mega Man. My fortress isn't safe from his knowledge."

But Tron realized that Dr. Light, in a way, also posed as the group's biggest weakness. Quickly Tron summoned Crystal Man, at the same time wishing that she had more Robot Masters with which to deal with this problem. But she had sent out the only other ones she had at the moment--Gravity Man, Stone Man, Guts Man, and Hard Man--to dig up some more fuel ore. The shrinking invention used a lot of energy.

"No matter," she said to herself as Crystal Man entered the room. Tron turned to him, pointing at the screen. "Find them and see if you can't make off with either Mega Man or Dr. Light," she ordered. "Don't bother trying to fight Captain N."

Crystal Man nodded. "Will do." Then he dashed out of the room.

"That should slow them down," Tron said, watching on the screen as the N-Team turned and began to walk down a hallway. "At least until I can finish the shrinking ray. Then we'll see how good of a Game Master Captain N is when he's only five centimeters tall!"

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