Paper Cuts - The Novel (Classic Megaman)

[Gustaa]

Well well well. I've started writing stuff.
And why? Because later this year I'm participating in English and History Abitur exams. I'm already having my heads full on readin the history text books and making notes, and I god damn ain't gonna start the same thing with the English grammar book!
So how does that involve writing stuff? Well, because that's how I can improve my English skills. If you'd be so kind to point out at least the worst grammatical mistakes in my text, that would help me a lot to eradicate the problems I have in English language.
As for the text itself, it is a novelized and highly modified version of my Sprite Comic with a same name. So anyway, let's start with the Prologue then, shall we?
********
Prologue

An Army convoy rolled through sandy Nevada deserts, leaving a large cloud of sand floating in the air behind them. The leading Humvee with tinted windows turned right, off the main road, followed by four Army trucks. Without any signs of hesitation, vehicles passed a large sign, which stated the following: “Warning – weapon testing area – unauthorized personnel will be apprehended”.
The road led to a large compound surrounded by high-voltage iron fence. Inside the fence there was a huge main building, which was a weird mixture of fortress and office complex, barracks, fighter jet hangars and a few helipads with Apache helicopters on them.
Outside the iron-fence gate, there was a small, green tent that held inside a squad of five unfortunate soldiers that were in guard post that day. Drinking soda, cracking puns and playing Texas Hold ‘Em, they were trying to survive the last three hours of their turn. As the sound of the approaching convoy grew louder, the bored squad raised their heads and looked on each other.
“Must be the supply trucks. Two hours ahead of schedule. Evans, go check their ID’s” said the officer. Youngest of the five let out a sigh of frustration when he dropped his cards and walked lazily out, leaving the comfortable shade of the tent.
Private Evans signalled the convoy to stop. The leading Humvee stopped right left to him, and the tinted window of the right front door opened a bit – suspiciously not enough to reveal the passengers but enough to allow conversation.
“Excuse me, Sir, I need to see your ID before I can let you in the compound”, Private said, raising his hand to a lazy salute. He then gave a look to the rest of the convoy and started to wonder: if his memory served, there was supposed to be only two trucks. Whirring voice of an opening window made him turn his head back to the car. Private was going to ask about the extra trucks, but the words got stuck in his uvula.
Instead of looking face to face with a strict-looking officer giving him an ID card, he was looking at nasty-looking smile of a man with crystal-decorated blue helmet – and most importantly, some sort of weapon that seemed to be an extend of his arm directed straight to the Private’s chest.
“My name is Gemini Man, and this is how I identify myself”, he said with a soft, silent voice, and the thought of warning the others did merely have time to raise it’s head in poor Private’s mind, as the weird man fired his weapon. A bright-blue laser beam emitted from the hand cannon and pierced Pirate John Evans’ chest, killing the man. Private’s body fell in the ground, the look of surprise and the realisation of his impending death stuck on his young face.
It’s 20XX.

*****
Comments? Grammatical errors? Please?
Ps. The actual chapters are gonna have much more lenght.

[Gustaa]

No comments? Oh well, let's get into the actual story.
*****
CHAPTER 1
Robots and humans

The very moment Private Evans’s body hit the sandy ground, things started to escalate rapidly. The four trucks moved off the road and stopped on the both sides of the Humvee, brakes screeching. Green robotic soldiers, each equipped with an arm cannon and carrying a shield on the other hand, jumped off the back of the trucks. One such a robot also jumped to sight from inside of the Humvee, as it mounted the .50 cal machine gun on the vehicle roof.

Screeching brakes alarmed the remaining guards around the poker table, and they rushed outside, switching off safeties on their assault rifles. Before they could even comprehend the gravity of the situation, green robot soldier on the Humvee .50 cal opened fire. Guards that rushed out of the tent in a row made it look like a target practise at shooting range. One two-second long sweep of the weapon, and the squad was down with a cloud of dust and sand floating around them, mercifully censoring the bloody mess of four soldiers shot to Swiss cheese.

Couple of robot soldiers rushed to the side of the car and fired a few well-aimed plasma shots from their arm cannons to the edges of iron-fence gate. High voltage fence waved and sparkled as the blue bursts of plasma hit it. At the same time, the alarm was raised and the Humvee’s tires screeched against the asphalt as it accelerated towards the still wavering gate. There was a series of loud bangs and another screech, as the Humvee crashed down the gate and stopped at the compound yard. Fifty cal on its roof moved from side to another to aim at the surprised people running around the compound, looking for cover.

From the crashed gate, the foot soldier robots marched in, overwhelming any of the compound personnel on the yard and seizing their access to the hangars and helipads. After that was done, invading robots moved into formation for storming the compound interiors. The Humvee’s front doors opened. From the driver’s side of the car, a yellow and white coloured man stepped out. If anyone of the compound personnel would have had time to get a better look at him, they would have no doubt wondered his appearance – not only because of the orange colour of his head but also because of the scissor blades on the top of his head. He looked a little aghast of their brutal advance.

“Looks like the luck is on our side this time, Mr. Cutman”, said the crystal-helmeted man, a slight trail of smoke still following his blood-stained arm cannon. With a vicious, victorious smile on his face, he gave an arrogant look at the results of their first strike. Cutman glanced at his partner with a slight disgust for such an excitement and joy caused by this brutal bloodshed.

“It’s not over yet, Geminiman. The facility is huge and they are getting ready for us even as we speak. And who knows how much reinforcements could be on their way?” Cutman said.

“These pathetic humans are no match for the Sniper Joes, we’ll have the facility clear in a minute and we’ll be able to get the hell out of dodge long before any of their reinforcements have time to arrive”, Geminiman replied.

“Maybe”, Cutman said, “but the risks are too big, especially when considering what kind of orders we were given. ‘Get in, steal everything that isn’t nailed down and get back.’ And there’s no much doubt about who’s he going to blame if we fail.”

“True. Doctor Wily is not fit to lead such an army he possesses. Under his command, we are not going to achieve the total domination over mankind”, Geminiman said, his smile fading. His words made Cutman, who criticized Wily for different reasons, feel uncomfortable. Much to his relief, Geminiman dropped the subject as the robot soldiers – Sniper Joes – got ready for storming the facility. Geminiman nodded and one of the Joes planted an explosive to the blast door that had covered the front door when the alarm was raised.

Directed, bright explosion tore a hole into three-inch door with a loud, crumbling noise. Shields extended, the first Sniper Joes stepped over the pieces of blast door and through the smoke. At the very instant, loud rat-at-at-voices of four assault rifles echoed from the narrow corridors, followed by loud BANG of a detonating hand grenade. Mangled body of one of the Sniper Joes that had entered the facility was thrown back by the force of the explosion. Cutman’s face turned into a grimace of shock and hesitation, but Geminiman didn’t show any signs of setback or compassion.

“Overpower them! Advance at all costs!” he yelled, and the Sniper Joes rushed in again. Gunfire and explosions started their ear-hurting concert again, and soon they were joined by the sound of plasma cannons and screams of pain.

“We could cut our losses right here and just demand their immediate surrender, they are heavily outnumbered”, Cutman proposed with a slight prudence clouding his voice. Geminiman didn’t even turn his head from the front door to thwart this suggestion.

“No. If we start gathering them up and disarming them, it’s going to take too long. This way it’s much faster and easier…” he said, turning to Cutman with a maniacal look on his face, “…and much more enjoyable”. A long, miserable scream of pain echoed out the building and raised Geminiman’s evil smile even more.

“They have gotten through the first corridor. Come, Mr. Cutman!” he said to his reluctant partner. They followed the Joes through the hole in the blast door. Six or seven Sniper Joes had fallen in order to beat the first defenders. It’s hard to say were there six or seven, because one or two of them were blown into uncountable pieces.

Four US Army soldiers were also lying on the floor as a result of the first gunfight. Three of them were definitely dead and the fourth one was trying to crawl towards the front door with a growing puddle of blood beneath him. When seeing Cutman’s robotic boots in front of him, he lifted the pale, bloody face and looked at the robots with a silent call for help.

“There’s a medical kit in the back of the car, I could-“ Cutman started, but Geminiman didn’t bother to let him finish. He just raised his arm cannon and fired for the second time, and the bright blue laser hit the wounded soldier’s side. Man was thrown against a wall, and a long dying breath wheezed out of his mouth. Cutman looked furiously at Geminiman.

“That was unnecessary! That man was of no risk to us anymore!” he protested. Geminiman didn’t note his fury at all; he just looked towards another hallway where the sounds of battle began to rage again.
“I’m going to make sure these humans will fall. You coming or not?” he asked bluntly. Cutman shook his head.

“You know I can’t” he said. Geminiman gave a mocking smile.
“Oh right… Because you’ve started to feel compassion for these pitiful life forms, or because of the cold fact of your weaknesses?” he asked. Cutman did not answer; it was not the first and not likely to be the last time Geminiman had pointed out Cut’s “weakness”. As he was originally built by Dr. Wily’s rival, Dr. Light, as a part of an industrial robot series, deep in his programming there was a code that prevented him from intentionally harming humans. Though, Cutman thought silently, he didn’t know whether or not to call it a weakness. Right now he wouldn’t have wanted to be anything that Geminiman was.

“Go wait in the car”, Geminiman said, and activated his special power; he started to glow so brightly it was hard to look at him, and then it stopped as quickly as it had started. Now there was two Geminimen, identical from toes to malicious grin.

“Yeah, you heard the man”, said the twin, and the two ran towards the battle, laughing like two schoolboys who had just made a practical joke to the teacher. Cutman rolled his eyes, sighing as he walked out of the facility, trying not to look at the dead bodies on his way.

The engagement began three minutes ago. They had estimated that humans would have reinforcements in half an hour. Estimated. Another flaw in the plan. According to the plan, they were to escape through the teleport at the back of one of the trucks before the reinforcements could arrive. But what if, Cutman thought, what if the teleport truck would be destroyed before that? What if we can’t seize the compound in time? What if the reinforcements would get here sooner?

Cutman stopped his thoughts, as he noticed they were the same things he had said out loud when receiving the mission from Dr. Wily. Yet his concerns had a same effect regardless did he say them out loud or just repeated them in his head. He kicked a tire of the Humvee in frustration. Wily had become even more paranoiac and deaf to anyone else’s thoughts than his own. And to his Robot Master underlings, especially to a weak industrial robot built by his rival, he was a huge pain in the-

He lost the thought pattern as the black dot in the sky he thought to be a bird got closer. Cutman grabbed binoculars from the dashboard of the Humvee and began to pinpoint the unidentified flying object through them.

Cutman gasped as he found it; he was looking at a man in blue, with similar arm cannon to the ones with Geminiman and Sniper Joes and a blue helmet. Man was also riding a flying robot dog with red armour protection and jet engines on its hind legs.

Megaman was coming.

[Gustaa]

Sooner or later, I'm gonna squeeze comments from you folks.
****
Chapter 2
Reinforcements

For a brief moment, Cutman wondered what to do. Megaman meant menace, that was for sure. However, they had a clear advantage on numbers. A grief for appreciation from his fellow robots or Doctor Wily himself battled with the urge to surrender right away. Finally he decided to fight for it, and sprinted inside the facility again.

He followed the blood-stained corridors filled with bodies of both the human defenders and the assaulting Sniper Joes, and found the Geminiman twins from the middle of Sniper Joe swarm, planting an explosive charge to another blast door.

“He… he’s… the Blue Bomber is coming!” Cutman panted, nodding towards the way he had come. Sniper Joes looked bewildered and both of the Geminimen raised their faces towards Cutman.

“Megaman will be here in a minute!” Cutman nearly yelled.

“Run for your lives!” one of the Sniper Joes shouted out loud, causing restless movements within the group. Geminiman smacked the yeller.

“Five of you Joes stay here, make sure the humans won’t try anything funny!” the other Geminiman ordered and ran outside, getting the rest of the crew follow him.

“He was right there, coming straight at us!” Cutman said, pointing to the sky. Geminimen looked around, and the Sniper Joes looked aghast.

“Hope this isn’t any of your jokes, Mr. Cutman, or I’m going to rip off your –“ another Geminiman said, but was interrupted at once. On his robot dog, Megaman flew from behind the hangars, blasting his arm cannon as he flied low over them. Three of the Sniper Joes took hit, and many started to run for cover.

“Get back here! Anti-air formations! There’s just one of him, we can kick his-“ Geminiman twin yelled, but was once again interrupted as a charged plasma cannon shot hit him in the neck. Nanite blood spilled pretty much everywhere as his neck ripped apart and the head spun across the yard and fell to the feet of the original Geminiman.

“Yeah, and now there is only one of you as well!” they heard Megaman yelling with a burst of laughter as he flied by.

“That’s it, Megaman!” he shouted, firing a few beams of laser after him. Sniper Joes moved into formations of three, where one was shooting at the flying target and two were protecting him with their shields. Soon the yard was full of high-pitched sounds of arm cannons.

Cutman looked at the far away target, and saw that he was far out of range of his scissor blades. As he looked at the others, frustrated, he remember the fifty cal on the Humvee. He sprinted towards the car and climbed on the roof and dropped himself to the gunner’s seat. He rotated the weapon to aim at the flying menace, as something happened so fast, he didn’t have a clue what was it.

Something red and grey flashed in front of him and grabbed the machine gun on its way. The momentum of the move rotated the weapon so fast, that Cutman, who was still holding tightly on its grips, was pulled out of the gun nest and thrown many feet away from the jeep. The red flash – now revealed to be another robot with a similar design to one of Megaman’s, though his eyes were covered by large shades, he had a Sniper Joe – type of red shield on his back and he was of different colour – used the movement of the gun to slingshot himself in the air and land in the gunner’s nest with incredible speed and accuracy.

Cutman was too confused by the sudden attack to yell out the warning, as the newcomer aimed the .50 cal towards the Sniper Joes that were trying to shoot Megaman down. Loud gunfire locked Cutman’s ears for a second, as the point fifty calibre machine gun started to – pretty literally – rip apart the poor Sniper Joes. Geminiman turned his head towards the Humvee, and his eyes enlarged from surprise. He overcame the setback remarkably quickly and aimed at the gunner – just to get a blast of Megaman’s plasma cannon to his low back. He fell down on the bloody ground.

Cutman stumbled up on his feet, snatched his Rolling Blades from the top of his head and threw them like a boomerang. The blades zoomed through the air and cut the machine gun in half. Red-grey robot didn’t expect this, as he fell inside the gunner’s nest, still holding the rear end of the weapon.

“Get the wounded and fall back to the teleporter! Go! Go! Go!” Cutman yelled, grabbing his Cutters as they swung back to him. Sniper Joes gladly took the command and ran wildly towards the truck in which the teleporter was left. Two of them were carrying Geminiman, barely conscious and swearing, and many of them were helping their injured comrades, as Megaman flied above them, shooting volleys of plasma charges in their midst.

All of a sudden, from the front door of the facility, a team of US Army soldiers, shouting from anger and thirst of vengeance over their fallen friends, stepped out, their assault rifles firing. Cutman saw Sniper Joes falling, either by the hand of Megaman, human soldiers or the red-grey robot that had gotten out of the Humvee and was now shooting with his arm cannon as well.

This battle is lost, Cutman thought, and decided to run for it. But before he could take a step, he took hit in the leg from one of the compound soldiers. Letting out every single swear word he could remember, he fell on his face to the hard ground as the pain stroke like a lightning. A nearby Sniper Joe helped him on his uninjured feet and together they limbed towards the truck, where the panicked Joes tried to save themselves.

“Thank you”, Cutman said, breathing heavily. Sniper Joe gave a quick, surprised look at him with its only, large red eye. Such words as “thank you” or “well done” were rarely said to these drones only used to kill, Cutman thought.

A long burst from the assault rifle hit the helping Joe in the back. Sparkles flied when bullets pierced the robot’s metallic body. Lifeless body fell forward in the midst of a step, and Cutman was also thrown forwards. He hit the back of the truck and was forced down to the ground by the pain in his leg. Another, even longer rifle burst was fired, and the five Sniper Joes in the back of the truck, rushing towards the teleporter, sparkled in the bullet storm and fell on each other.

“Cease fire, cease fire!” Cutman, who didn’t dare to move, heard Megaman yelling. Assault rifles went silent, and all of a sudden it was so quiet it sounded awful after the messy sounds of battle.

“Thank god it’s over”, one of the humans said in a thick voice.
“Another battle may be over, but the war is still far from it” the grey-red robot said.
“Damn robots should’ve never been invented” said another human.
“Watch it, buddy”, said the grey-red robot again.
“Take it easy, Protoman”, Megaman’s voice said, and Cutman flinched when he spoke, his voice was coming from very near. In fact, he felt that Megaman was bending towards him. He tried to hold his breath, but-

“Good evening, Cutman”, Megaman said with amused tone.

[NeoMan]

While some of your grammar could use some work, you are good at creating suspence.

'course, the grammar could be a regional thing. Like some people wait ONline at the movies while where I live, it is wait INline.

[Gustaa]

YAY a comment! Thank you NeoMan.

It's unlikely that my grammar mistakes would be classified as a regional thing, as here in the cold north we are taught pretty "official" English, and as I rarely get a chance to actually speak English, I hardly get any regional influences.
Though I must say that inline sounds weird.

Could you point out one or some of the biggest mistakes I made, so I can get a better hint at which I could concentrate more?

[NeoMan]

Just the way somethings are worded. "practical joke to a teacher" It should be "on" a teacher. Things like that. Its not bad, just a little odd. Not something to really get hung up on.

[Gustaa]

That particular example was something I thought long and hard for (so long I had time to drink 2 cups of coffee while thinking) and finally came up with the wrong alternative. Damn you, coffee!

Anyways, moving on.
*****
Chapter 3
Blue Bomber

Megaman dragged Cutman to sit. The soldiers quickly aimed at him, gun safeties clicked off in a row.

“Relax, guys, this isn’t an execution”, Megaman said, confiscating Cutman’s Rolling Cutter.

“I don’t know about that, Rock. Over thirty good men are now lying dead on this yard and on those corridors after the attack HE led on my base!” said the officer without lowering his weapon.

“He didn’t have a much of a choice, colonel. Leave him to me” Megaman said calmly.

“I can’t do that, Rock. He should at least be taken into custody and interrogated later” colonel said, looking at Cutman.

“Look Ted, this is far more complicated than you think. Besides, the government – your boss – has always been very eager to leave the robot unrests to my and Dr. Light’s hands. One less thing to worry about, wouldn’t you say?” Megaman said. The colonel looked hesitant.

“Perhaps, but now they have started to attack us! It’s like a direct declaration of war to the United States!” he said angrily.

“Indeed, this is something new”, Megaman said thoughtfully, “but until the government takes a new line to take robots more seriously, this is still out of your jurisdictions.” The colonel gave a joyless laugh to this new argument.

“Jurisdictions? Rock, many of my people have died here today”, he said.

“I know, and I am sorry for that. But killing Cutman won’t bring them back, or even reduce the deaths in the future. He’s just a puppet. And he isn’t even a military robot; he can’t harm humans, unlike the other ones that got away! It’s Doctor Wily that you want, and when I get him, I’ll be damn glad to hand him over to you”, Megaman said.

“You’ve done that before and yet he’s still on his old tricks!” colonel counter-argued.

“Yes, because he either escaped or was granted mercy every damn time! He’s an evil genius, he can build robots to do his bidding faster than you can fieldstrip that M16. Hunting down and killing every single one of his robot underlings isn’t going to get you any closer to the end of this war”.

“So why won’t you let us take that guy for interrogations?” colonel asked.

“If I know anything of the humans, it’s not going to do us any good. I have a hunch that even if he’d lead you straight to Wily’s front door, your government is never going to let you, or anyone else for that matter, to lead a raid to his fortress. Not until he proves to be a far too big threat to the national security”, Megaman said.

“I think they are moving towards that threat level”, colonel said, nodding towards the dead bodies that were now being identified and gathered.

“Thirty plus dead people isn’t going to convince US government to use its military resources on a mad scientist. Not unless they could get their hands on Middle-East oil or other equally valuable asset”, Megaman said, causing colonel to let out another joyless laugh.

“I see. ‘Dead of one man is a tragedy, dead of millions is statistics.’ You think you robots are any better?” he asked.

“I never said such. But I’m not fighting solely for robots; I’m fighting for both humans and robots, and for harmony to exist between them”, Megaman said with a sad smile. Colonel gave him a long, thoughtful look.

“I believe you, Rock, but there are many people, even here in my base, that do not. Do as you want, but make him clear one thing; if he ever steps inside my base again, I’m going to shoot him right at his robot balls”, colonel said, turning to walk away. His men followed his lead. Megaman sighed in half-relief, half-frustration and walked back to Cutman and Protoman, who both had followed this conversation.

“…what did he say about my balls?” Cutman asked with rounded eyes. Megaman smirked at Cutman’s first expression and sat down to take a look at his injured leg.

“Doesn’t look too bad. I’ll remove the bullet and fix the tissue around the wound, that’ll help for a moment but you’ll better get some more detailed repair once I drop you back to Wily’s fortress”, he said.

“Once you WHAT?” Protoman let out and looked strict, almost angry, as he looked at Megaman, his little brother.

“I know what I’m doing, Blues” Megaman said defensively.

“I think I know what you’re doing as well, Rock. A mistake” Protoman said.

Megaman stood up. He was an inch or two longer than Protoman, yet Protoman had some undefined greatness which Megaman lacked.

“He’s not even a military robot! I doubt it would make any difference whether we take him prisoner or return him to Wily”, Megaman almost yelled.

“Well I happen to have a same opinion as our good friend colonel does. Better not to leave any threads open”, Protoman said, and the mouth of his arm cannon found its way to Cutman’s forehead.

Cutman opened his mouth to protest, but the words dried out as he saw the look on Megaman’s face as he stared through the shades in Protoman’s helmet. There was a contest of wills that lasted for at least two minutes, which felt like eternity to Cutman, whose forehead was aimed with plasma cannon.

Finally, Protoman withdrew his weapon and backed off.

“You’re doing good, Rock”, he said, smiling a little. He turned away, throwing his yellow scarf around his neck. He walked away and in a few seconds he was gone.

“That was… disturbing”, Cutman said, still sitting on the ground, leaning on the back of the truck.

“I’ve got used to that”, Megaman said, smiling after his brother. He turned back on his wounded enemy.

“Rush! Come here boy!” he called. His dog, Rush, who had been helping the humans to carry the wounded, barked and sprinted to them, stopping so hasty Cutman could have sworn to have heard screeching brakes. After seeing Cutman, he jumped forwards to sniff busily his face.

“Aw, look at that. Rush likes you!” Megaman said, trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, marvellous”, Cutman said, trying to hush the drooling dog a little farther. Megaman opened a little tool box in Rush’s back, and took out a little pliers, something that looked like a miniature welding pipe and a blue beverage cans with a large E on the side.

“Okay, there’s two ways I can deal with this. Slow and painful way, or quick and painful way”, Megaman said, looking at the wound.

“That supposed to reassure me?” Cutman asked, rolling his eyes.

“No, not really” Megaman said and put the little pliers rather clumsily in the wound. Cutman flinched at the rather unexpected pain, and the movement caused even more agony.

“Oh yeah, try to stay still” Megaman said.

“Thank you, House!” Cutman snarled from between his teeth.

“Don’t worry and stay still, I’ve almost… right… here!” Megaman said victoriously and pulled the pliers out, holding a bullet with it.

“Here, drink this”, he said, throwing the E-can to Cutman, who was squeezing his forehead with his hand. As he looked suspicious, Megaman added: “Drink it. It makes you feel better”. Cutman opened a can carefully like it could explode any second and took a little gulp. It actually tasted pretty good, and as he drank it, a warm feeling split across his body and eased the pain.

“So, Cuts,” Megaman said in a chat tone, working on Cutman’s leg, “how many time has it been already?”

“…I think I’ve lost count…” Cutman said, taking another sip from the can.

“And how many times have you won?” Megaman asked, raising his head and smiling innocently.

“…you’re a douchebag, you know that?” Cutman snorted.

“Douchebag that just saved your life, I might add” Megaman said. A long silence fell over them.

“Why did you, actually?” Cutman asked finally. Megaman didn’t answer right away.

“We wouldn’t have to be enemies. We differ from each other because we are on different sides”, he said, then fell into the thoughtful silence again. “Like I said to the colonel, I fight for peace for both humans and robots. You have been misled by Wily, but I still want all of you to be free.”

“That all sounds very noble and whatnot, and it’s not like I don’t appreciate it, it just feels… wrong”, Cutman said. To his surprise, Megaman burst into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Cutman asked a bit defensively. Megaman chuckled the last breaths of laugh before answering.

“Well… it’s just pretty ironic to receive a lesson of what is right and what is wrong by a robot who commits crimes in the name of an evil scientist!” Seeing Megaman’s point, Cutman couldn’t help but to join the laugh of his enemy. He felt a weird mixture of shame and happiness as he felt a bond of understanding forming between him and the robot who was supposed to be his mortal enemy.

[Gustaa]

On with da show. A little shorter chapter than usually.
*****
Chapter 4
Flying home

“You can open your eyes, Cuts”, Megaman shouted through the wind. Rush had transformed back to his jet form, and they were flying above the countryside. Scenery was whizzing below them as though as it was moving instead of them. Cutman, who was sitting behind Megaman on the flying dog, opened his eyes carefully.

“So, Cutman, why did Wily attack that military base?” Megaman asked.

“I have no idea. Our orders were to steal everything that isn’t nailed down and retreat through the teleporter”, Cutman said with shivering voice.

“That teleporter wasn’t very big, you couldn’t have stolen anything much bigger than a man or robot, am I right?” Megaman continued.

“Yeah. Wily had found out that the base had been receiving many raw material shipments lately. He was probably hoping us to bring him the supplies…” Cutman said and hesitated, as he realized he was just giving information of their operations to the Blue Bomber.

“I’d think there would be easier ways to get supplies than raiding a heavily defended military base”, Megaman said.

“Well Wily has been getting pretty senile lately…” Cutman said before he could contain himself. Megaman laughed, but then got serious again, as he turned sideways – pretty hazardous when considering they were flying at 200 feet.

“There’s literally no reason for you – or anyone else for that matter – to follow him. You were reprogrammed by him over twenty years ago… Dr. Light believes that the reprogramming has worn off by now. I didn’t get more than a quarter of his lecture, but from what I understood, reprogramming makes you believe in something or gives you will to do something that you might never have even wanted to think before. But just like the belief or resolve that had come up on its own, they can die out when facing enough reason to do so. During these, what, 24 years or so, you ought to seen enough reason?” Megaman said.

“Failures, mad schemes, mistreat, slavery, arrogance, paranoia…” Cutman listed.

“I can turn Rush around anytime – just give me the word and you’ll have an opportunity to join the good guys”, Megaman said.

“What makes you the good guys, Megaman?” Cutman asked, confused.

“We’re giving you a chance”, Megaman said, his blue eyes piercing Cutman’s mind.

“I… I can’t. It’s not that simple”, Cutman said, turning away. Megaman nodded with slightly sad look.

“We’re approaching Wily’s base. I’ll drop you down before we get too close” he said. They were flying over a large forest, approaching a mountain range where Wily’s newest fortress was hidden. After a long persuasion by his senior staff, Wily was convinced to leave the impressive yet too visible giant skull from his fortress design. Nevertheless, Megaman had obviously found out its location.

Suddenly, Rush started to bark so suddenly and so loudly that Cutman almost fell. A small panel opened in the back of the dog’s head, revealing a small screen.

“What is it?” Cutman asked.

“They know we’re coming. Two bandits heading our way… if you’re still going back there, they better not see us together. How’s your swimming skill, by the way?” Megaman asked. Cutman got even more confused by the sudden change in topic.

“Huh? Okay, I guess, but why-“ his words were pushed back into his mouth, as Megaman steered Rush in a steep nosedive. There was a lake beneath them, and suddenly Cutman realised what he was going to do. Before he could voice his opinion, Megaman adjusted the flight again, and at the same time he grabbed Cutman’s shoulder and shoved him off the dog.

Cutman felt a sudden, funny feeling of weightlessness, before the reality stormed in as the uncontrollable fall that ended in pancake landing. After getting a hold of himself and falling through the water for several dozen feet, Cutman rose up to the surface and glanced up to the sky.

Megaman and Rush had already got far, but there were two of Wily’s fighter jets on their tail. A distant sound of Megaman’s plasma cannon firing echoed to Cutman, and he saw another one of the fighters losing altitude, leaving a trail of thick, black smoke behind it. Cutman had no doubt on how that battle was going to end.

As he turned away from the battle and began to swim himself towards the shore, thoughts rolled in and out his mind and he muttered out words that he could not suppress.

“Safe flight, Megaman.”