I was quick to react, leaping out of the way as a hulking mass of metal rushed toward me at high speed.

"Oh boy..." I muttered, tapping my comm set rapidly, begging it to connect. I felt the ground rumbling and saw my opponent rushing towards me yet again. I carefully jumped away again, landing a little more smoothly this time. I turned around and watched him crush two cars in the parking lot and flip a third about twenty feet in the air.

"Of course."

A faint ping sounded in my ear, and I quickly raised my hand to the comm piece. "Dr. Light?"

There was a second of shuffling before his reply. "Rock? Are you alright?"

I looked over at the large bull thing. It was currently trying to get a car off of its horns. "Um, I'm fine right now. But we have a big problem."

"Called it." Came another voice from the headset.

"Flash Man?"

"I said I called it. The fact that we were gonna have some crazy problem show up. I'm telling you, these things never disappoint."

I shook my head at his statement. "You said it like twenty something hours ago."

"The time frame isn't important."

I rolled my eyes, hoping Dr. Light was more focused. "I've got something here I've never seen. I don't know what to do with it."

I heard a small click. "Well have you tried shooting it?" Flash Man asked.

The idea was so simple I was embarrassed to say I hadn't.

"Well, give me what you can, and I'll try to help you out."

I nodded. "Great. Sending you a scan now." I looked up and down the bulky body of the bull, carefully making sure I peeked at everything I could. After I was finished, the scan was sent off instantaneously to Light Labs.

A few seconds later, Dr. Light responded in a way that indicated he had the information. However, a few less seconds later, the bull guy figured out what he was doing, and charged once more. I barely leaped out of the way, as he sailed past me, but hit a hard 180 turn, coming back at me within a few seconds. I jumped over him this time. I predicted his horns would come up to try to hit me, so I pointed downward and launched a charge shot into the top of his head. The blast didn't even damage the spot, but the force tossed him head over heels onto the asphalt.

I stumbled on hitting the ground, and raised a hand to the comm set once again. "Sorry, I missed all of that. What's up with this guy?"

Dr. Light answered. "That's the thing, Rock. It's unlike anything I've ever seen before. It radiates a strange electromagnetic energy. It must be interfering with the sensors, because it reads two life signals inside it."

"What?" I asked. "That doesn't make any sense. It's a hulking piece of metal."

"I dunno." Flash replied. "Seems pretty obvious to me."

"How?" Dr. Light asked him.

"Symbiotic relationship of some sort. Possibly parasitic, even. Two life signals would make sense if a host system were being used for the advantage of a foreign species."

Both sides of the line were silent. We were basically wrapping our heads around Flash Man's spurt of wisdom.

"What? I'm smart, too."

Light grunted. "I suppose it's possible."

I shrugged. "Is it possible you could filter out all that radiation stuff from the scan?"

"Already trying." He replied.

"Great." I nodded. "Let's hurry up and figure out what we're-" I stopped mid-sentence as I turned around. I found myself looking toward the minotaur-esque machine/life form. Standing between me and it was someone much closer to my size, wearing what appeared to be a black jumpsuit covered by blue armor on his chest, arms, and lower legs. I couldn't see too well from the backside, but a bright green glow was coming from around the right hand.

I blinked. "Uh, let me know when that's done. Gotta deal with something."

I began to walk toward him. As I approached, I noticed a lot of people were sort of peeking out from cover to take pictures with the smartphones. I rolled my eyes as I came within about five feet of him. At that point, however, he stopped me.

Holding out a hand in my direction, I got a better look at him. On his front side, his chest armor bore a strange gold symbol resembling a bursting star. His face was covered by a lightly tinted red visor, which was seemingly held to his face by the ear pieces on the sides of his head, which extended up from his ears to a sharp point at about the top of his head.

"Don't worry Mega Man. This guy's mine."

---

The following situation probably could have been avoided entirely. Even if it hadn't, I could have handled it much better.

As it was, neither of those things happened.

I walked forward. "Um, what?"

He looked back at me, replying, "I said, I can handle this guy. He's right up my alley."

I stared at him. Shook my head. "Your alley is quite literally an alley. You've fought backstreet criminals. That doesn't prepare you for this."

He raised a hand to the back of his head. "Just trust me. I know what we're dealing with here."

I nodded sarcastically. "You do?"

"Oh yeah. We work the same way." He stopped for a second, then added, "Not that I'm, like, evil or anything. I just...you know..."

I heard my comm system come online. "Rock, I have it."

I nodded. "Great, let's hear it."

The other guy seemed to be distracted, and he randomly said, "Oh you've got to be kidding me."

I gave him a funny look. He quickly shook his head. "Sorry. Not talking to you."

I rolled my eyes. Dr. Light spoke again. "Rock, is everything okay?"

"Yeah," I said a little too quickly, "it-it's all fine. Just...tell me what you've got."

"The scan results, though a bit difficult to work through, eventually cleared up. I had to remove several dozen frequencies of electromagnetic waves in order to clarify. When I finally got through, I found a fairly accurate picture of the inside of our friend." There was a momentary pause, and then an image flashed up in my screen. "Unfortunately, that means we've got a problem."

"Oh...boy..." I muttered.

"What?" Light asked, "What's wrong? Do you recognize them?"

I looked at the scan of the human body which apparently existed deep within this creature. I looked back and forth between it and a facial image that had been reconstructed.

"Yeah. It's only my childhood bully who it took me nine years to stand up to."

I looked back at the creature. "What do I have to do?"

"Unfortunately, I have almost no information on what we're dealing with. My best idea would be that perhaps, if you know the person, you can get them to weaken the bond. Talk to them."

I shook my head. "Of course it is. Whatever, I guess I'll give it a shot."

I stepped over to the large bull. He was still dazed from the fact that he kept running into things, but now he was able to stand, meaning any moment we might get thrown back into this.

I took a deep breath. Let it out. "Hey, uh, bull guy. Large, fiery bull thing?"

It turned quickly, albeit a bit wobbly, to face me. A deep, clearly enraged voice sounded from within, making my insides tremble a little from the power of it. "WHAT?"

I swallowed and decided to just keep talking. "Well, there's something I need you to do, Mr...uh...what do I call you?"

It roared and smashed its two fists together, causing flames to flash out each arm. "TAURUS FIRE!!"

I snapped my fingers. "Taurus Fire. Right. Basically, the deal is, you've got my good friend Dex stuck in there. He's not exactly a great guy, but I'm pretty sure this isn't something he'd wanna do. So if he can hear me," I said with a little more emphasis, "I just wanna talk to him."

Taurus Fire stared at me for a second. Its eyes seemed to indicate that it was considering how many ways it would be able to crush me into a pancake.

Suddenly, the beast buckled over, dropping to one knee. It groaned in a low rumble, as its form began to vibrate. I dared to move a little closer, as a young man began to appear within as the shape of Taurus Fire became less solid.

"Did...did that just work?"

I came closer. "Dex, I need you to try to get out!"

He barely turned his head to look at me. I couldn't hear anything he said.

"Look, man, I have no clue what you're saying, but I'm guessing you can hear me, right?"

His head moved slowly up and down.

I smiled. "Good. Then I need you to fight back. Resist whatever it's throwing at you. You're better than this."

He looked straight ahead once again. He closed his eyes for a moment. Then shook his head, mouthed something. 

I shook my head for a moment, then simply extended my hand into the massive energy field between us. I felt waves of heat and flame rush over my hand instantly, making me feel like I was getting baked alive. I reached out a little further towards him. "Take my hand!"

Dex stared at me. His mouth moved, and I could easily interpret these words.

I'm not strong enough.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes you are! I don't care what you think about yourself, you're a good guy. I know that...somehow."

I hung my head. A thought had entered my brain, and I saw no other option but to grab it. "I know you can do this..." I raised my free hand to my head and removed my helmet. "...because I know you're too stubborn."

I suppose I expected more of a universal gasp. Someone loudly exclaiming and fainting. In reality, I was probably the only one who felt like I was about to pass out.

I extended further, despite all my logic processors telling me ARE YOU NUTS!? GET YOUR ARM OUT OF THERE NOW!! "Come on!" I urged him, and I saw him struggle to raise his arm. He lifted his hand and extended his elbow towards me.

I just barely reached his fingers when everything went to heck.

A powerful laser shot sunk into the energy field. Evidently this was exactly not what to do when trying to remove a person from an electromagnetic life form. I was nearly instantly engulfed in light, and my arm within the field was heated to unbearable levels. Before I could pull the limb out, (Author note: Hoo boy, avoiding innuendos) I was launched away by some sort of shock wave.

I groaned and dragged myself up onto one knee. My head spun as I watched Taurus Fire become fully reformed, letting out an earth shaking growl. I turned myself around to face the other guy who had showed up. His right hand, which I now saw more clearly, was a weapon shaped like a sort of blue dragon head. It was steaming.

Anger fueled me to my feet. "Why would you do that!?"

He stood almost a little confused for a second. "I...I was trying to take it out."

I walked toward him. "But you screwed me up! I was THIS CLO-" His hands grabbed my shoulders, dragging me to the ground a short distance away as Taurus Fire rushed past close enough to distort my vision with his heat.

"You're welcome." He grunted as we rose to a stand once again.

I shook my head at him. "You're ridiculous. You say you know something about what we're dealing with, but you don't seem to wanna stop it."

"It's not that, it's-"

"Then what is it?" I interrupted.

He opened his mouth to speak, but stopped. He seemed to respond to something else, raising his hands in protest. "Nonono wait!"

Relax, kiddo. You're way out of your league here.

The voice was a masculine one, a little on the deeper side. It seemed to come from my headset.

"What the ****?" (Dang it Mega Man, we're trying to keep this kid friendly!) I said aloud.

The other guy lowered his head.

Hi. Name's Omega-Xis, btw. You can call me Mega if you want. 

"Um...okay, I'm gonna not call you that."

Suit yourself. I'm just here to let you know that what you're seeing isn't something your science could begin to operate with. Like I said, you're out of your league.

"I'm sorry, how many battles have you been in?" I asked in frustration.

You have no idea.

"Yeah, so..." The other guy interrupted, obviously wanting to prevent us from exploding at one another. "...That is Omega-Xis. He's sort of like this alien made of living electromagnetic radiation. He needs to bond with someone to access his full power, which is, you know, why I'm here."

I tried to ignore the fact that said alien was blabbing into my head. "I take it big, red, and angry is one of them too?

"Yeah, it's..." He seemed like he wanted a better word, but with a sigh he settled on, "...it's weird."

I looked at him for a moment, and something clicked. I figured a conclusion that  could explain a lot of the things I knew about him, and things I didn't know about somebody else.

I decided to keep it quiet for now. "Would you mind taking back your rude alien, now?"

There was a small click in my comm set that gave me the hint that he had left. "Thanks. Alright...you know, what do I call you?"

"Huh?" He looked up at me with a little bit of surprise. "Oh, I'm...um...well, I mean, what with the whole Omega-Xis thing, I guess I was initially leaning towards...I dunno...Mega Man, I guess..."

I gave him a look that let him know exactly how I felt about that.

He stood there for a moment pondering. "What should it be?" His expression changed a little, and he spoke again, "Uh, no. We're not going with that name."

I shook my head. "Please just forget about it. There's something more important right now."

He nodded, returning his attention to me. "Taurus Fire is incredibly powerful, but he's not invincible. He has to be weakened properly in order for his bond to be broken effectively."

"Fine." I turned towards Taurus Fire, who had once again been struggling with a car on its horns. It had finally removed the motor vehicle, and turned its attention to us.

"So, you feeling a double charge shot?"

I shrugged. "Knock yourself out."

The beast lowered his head and charged us, a fiery aura surrounding him as he approached. I jumped out of the way along with my compatriot, and as we landed, he began to turn. His momentum slowed, and the fiery "shield" momentarily dissolved. It was all we needed. I let loose a charge shot into his chest, which was followed less than a second later by a large green charge shot from the other Mega Man.

The two blasts knocked him over, and he fell to the ground hard. My ally approached him and fired a shot at its face. The alien body began to glow red, and after a brief flash, it was completely gone. Returned to normal, Dex lay there on the ground confused. 

I shook my head in acceptance of what had just happened.

He gave me a thumbs up. I walked over to him. As we both looked down at our rescue-e, I felt something on my shoulder. I turned to find a young man standing beside me, who said quietly, "Um...you dropped this."

I looked down in his hands and saw my helmet.

Right. If there was any doubt that people had seen exactly who I was, now there was no doubt. The entire latter half of that battle, I had been without my helmet.

I only nodded in response, and accepted the helmet silently. I put it onto my head. "It's time to go."

He turned his head a little. "Wait, what? Dude, relax. You just won. Give yourself a little-"

I grabbed his arm and pulled myself right up to his face. "Michael," I whispered harshly, "it's time to go."

The opposition ceased quickly. He gave a silent nod, and we walked away from the scene.

As the rumbling of voices began to dim while we walked, he quietly asked, "So, how did you know?"

"Trust me. You were doing pretty terribly at hiding it."

"Really?"

I decided not to answer that one. He cleared his throat. "So, are we just gonna walk back, or-"

I reached out and took his arm as the teleport sequence finished. He yelped in surprise as blue light surrounded us.

I opened my eyes back in Light Labs. Michael pulled himself free and immediately fell against a doorframe, holding a hand over his mouth. He removed his helmet, letting his hair spill out in front of his face. "Oh geez..." He croaked.

I turned when I heard footsteps in the hall nearby. Roll stepped inside, immediately locking eyes with me.

"Rock!" She smiled, then noticed Michael next to her, holding his helmet gingerly to prevent the vomit on the visor from spilling onto the floor (wow, that was unnecessary detail).

He swallowed, his face returning to a natural shade from green. "'Sup?"

She looked back and forth between the two of us a couple times. Finally, she threw up her hands and walked out. "I'm not even going to bother."

---

I kinda hoped I'd fit more than just the battle in this chapter, but I think this'll do. I liked how well I handled this, especially since I only had the bare details planned out going in. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed. Be ready for the next one!