"Uh-oh."

Those are pretty bad words to hear someone say, especially when that someone is supposed to be a super robot hero. If you had been around when I said that in this circumstance, you would have been really disappointed in my competence.

The shot, as it turned out, was not aimed at me. This was good considering that I didn't make any effort to get out of the way. Barely missing my head, it whisked by and hit the ceiling behind me. I heard a splash in the sewer water.

I looked at the robot that was apparently my brother. He lowered his buster, and, with his other arm, lifted a strange device up to his helmet, and attached it across his face. It turned out to be some kind of masking mouthpiece, now making his head completely covered by his helmet. In a deep, distorted voice, he commanded, "Move it."

I shook my head, trying to figure out what the heck had just happened. "Now wait a minute, give me a second! Are you even going to try to explain what's going on here?" As I asked, glanced behind me, noticing a strange rippling in the grimy water, moving rhythmically toward me. "Okay, we can figure that out in a minute."

The two of us hurried down the thin concrete paths, getting away from that area as quickly as possible. We slowed down to more of a fast walk, and continued moving in silence for what felt like ages.

"So...how have you been?" I asked him.

He didn't respond.

I shrugged. "Okay, man. Been a long day? I know the feeling."

He still said nothing.

I was getting a little annoyed. "So, you're like the first robot I've met that's older than me. That's kind of weird, honestly-"

"I didn't signal because I wanted to make small talk." His voice was fairly flat, but I could sense the slight frustration in his voice.

I nodded. "Fine. How about you explain to me what's going on with all this?"

"You don't need to know that just yet."

I groaned. "Come on. I'm trying to be helpful. I'd appreciate some acknowledgement of that."

"Just focus on the task at hand. The past isn't important."

"I have a feeling Dr. Light would disagree."

As soon as I said the doctor's name, he stopped on the spot. I immediately became worried about the decision I had just made.

"Don't say his name to me. Don't act as if you know anything about who he truly is."

"He's a good person."

He shook his head. "Then you're as naive as I was. Hard to believe you've defeated Wily twice already."

I frowned at the comment. "What's that supposed to mean?"

He turned around suddenly, getting his helmet up in my face. "It means you need to take this more seriously. I spent the several months working for Wily to try to sabotage him, but since you showed up, I had to almost expose myself, and then later got outed anyway. You don't think long term about this, Mega Man. You're winning battles. But you're going to lose the war."

He turned around and continued moving. The sewer was reduced back to the near silence of our footsteps, and dripping condensation.

I decided to change my approach. "Alright. Can you tell me what Wily has planned?"

"It's not his plan that I'm worried about..." he muttered.

"Wait, what?"

He stopped suddenly, and whipped out the shield on his back. Practically the next instant, a blur dropped from the ceiling, and he batted it away. Something tumbled into the sewer water with a startling splash.

I readied the Mega Buster, looking up at the ceiling. There didn't seem to be anything else up there.

"Stay sharp." The robot, whose preferred name I still wasn't sure of, called out.

I turned to look behind us, just starting to reply when the water rushed up behind me, the sound startling me into turning around. I found Blues wrapped in the arms of a bizarre robot I hadn't seen before.

His hands, off white, crossed over the front of the red robot. I couldn't see much else, but I could see his head, fairly normal looking, but covered in a large green snake head. He chuckled. His voice was quiet, and a little higher pitched than I had expected.

"Ssssorry, I've already taken a few too many sssswimsss because of you." His voice slurred the "s" sound like a snake's hiss.

I raised my buster and pointed it at the two of them. "You're Snake Man, aren't you?" I asked.

He turned his head to look at me, and the look in his eyes made me uncomfortable. Like he had just realized how tasty I looked. "My my...how did you know, Mega Man?"

I swallowed. "Call it a lucky guess."

He quickly looked back at Blues. "Well, I've ssspent enough time with you two. I'll be taking my-HAAAAAH!!" He quickly released his grip, frantically shaking himself, before rushing to the water and diving in.

Confused, I looked at Blues. Steam and smoke were rising off of his body, and when I stepped towards him, I felt heat radiating off of his body.

He grunted, sounding as if he was in pain. "I need time to cool down. You'll have to do the fighting."

I rolled my eyes. "Gee, thanks."

Snake Man leaped from the stream nearby, shooting straight up to the dark ceiling. He seemed to disappear as he crawled away, and soon there was no sign he was anywhere nearby.

I turned slowly, keeping my eyes fixed on the walls and ceiling around us. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."

When I began to face the wall, I heard a faint hissing behind me, and I spun around, nailing my target as it dropped from the ceiling. I took a step towards it, realizing that it was far smaller than it should be. I reached down and picked up a smoking robotic snake.

"What the-" I spun quickly to see several more snakes cluster around Blues, and carry begin slithering away, holding him down as he was covered in a layer of green.

"Sssso long, Mega Man." Snake Man's hissed into my ear. I reached back and grabbed a hold of him. He was a little startled, but removed my hand pretty easily.

"Shoot." I raised my Mega Buster, but felt a few of the robots slither up my legs. Before I could move, they suddenly released a shock, that went through my body and quickly caused me to lock up. I fell to the ground just before everything seemed to fade.

---

I opened my eyes and found myself staring at the concrete.

It took me a few seconds to process what had happened. My mechanics felt stiff. I lifted myself from the ground and tried to think things through.

Blues was gone. A quick look around told me that. Which meant that Snake guy most likely had him. I couldn't tell which way they had went. I wasn't sure what to do.

I swallowed and regained my composure. Blues had shaken my confidence. I had let him get to me. I could handle this.

I carefully studied where the wet spots on the concrete were. After walking a ways in each direction, I settled on one of them, deciding that more water likely meant that he had gone this way.

"Alright. Let's do this." I muttered to myself.

---

After a brief time of hurrying through the sewers, the passage condensed into a pipe, and the concrete walkways ended. With no other option, I stepped into the pipe, the sewer water swiftly rushing around my boot. I walked quickly and quietly, making it to the end of the pipe very soon. When it finally opened up, I took a look around.

There were lights in this section again, which I was relieved for. They were relatively scattered, but provided enough that I could see what the room's general layout was. 

There room was tall and relatively narrow. Pipes emerged from the walls all over the room, pouring out sewage water in large quantities into a collective cesspool at the a good distance below me. The sound of the water moving was reasonably quiet at this height, so sonar awareness wouldn't be much of a problem.

I was glad Dr. Light had showed me how to disable my sense of smell, because I didn't like it when I first came in, and I was pretty sure this was probably even worse.

Small and broad pipes crisscrossed over the open area, and I chose a path to take. I walked along the top of one, being careful not to lose my balance.

As I prepared to step to another pipe, voices, coming from all sides, told me in unison, "Watch your step. That one's slippery."

I almost lost my balance in shock. I regained my footing and lifted my Mega Buster. "What's going on?" I shouted.

"What's going on?"  the voices responded in a disturbing chorus, "what's going on is you interfering with Dr. Wily's business. You can tell Light that Break Man isn't his concern."

I frowned. So that's what they call him... "Well I'm sorry, but I beg to differ."

One voice began to chuckle, the echoing atmosphere making it difficult to trace. It was joined by a few other identical voice, until the room seemed to shake with their laughter. After a few minutes, the laughter began to die down. As soon as it was gone, a single voice whispered behind my head, "It's your funeral."

I turned my weapon toward it, but was met with nothing. Confused, I looked around slowly, trying to swallow down growing anxiety. "Who are you? Show yourselves!"

A deep sigh sounded from all around. "Poor Mega Man. You have no idea what's going on. But I'll help you out. I can show you exactly who you're dealing with."

I noticed a flash of movement, and saw a robot jump onto a pipe about twenty feet above me. It was a robot with a dark blue body, with bright white gloves and boots. A large breastplate that resembled two butterfly wings was over his chest, and its seemed to be a more unique, crystalline silver. The same kind of material was on a set of spikes radiating from the forehead of his helmet.

As soon as he landed, I pointed my weapon at him. More movement caught my eye, and looking at the new target, I found what appeared to be the exact same robot. I lowered my arm, unable to decide where to look as more and more continued to take positions on the pipes all around me. I wasn't sure what to think about them. My systems weren't telling me anything remotely useful.

One more landed on a pipe that was roughly level with me, only about ten feet away. "It's just me." He said alone.

I looked around. All of them watched me with a curious grin, waiting. I closed my eyes for a second and composed myself. "Alrighty, then." I reverted my buster into a glove. "If we're playing the numbers game, then I'll just have to take you down one by one!" I lunged for the one that had just landed, swinging my fist as I landed on a pipe in front of him.

I watched my fist pass through his body as if he were nothing.

"Wha..." The sight dashed the confidence I had just given myself. I threw a few more punches, which he didn't even try to dodge. He stood patiently as my fist slid through his body time after time.

He rubbed his chin. One duplicate yelled, "Man. Isn't that just frustrating?" He laughed at his own joke. A different one called out, "Cool your jets, little blue."

The one in front of me smiled. "The name's Gemini Man. I've been looking forward to this."

I wasn't sure what to think. I looked around, all of them watching me with smirks. I tightened my fist. "I don't know what kind of trick you're pulling. I just want to know what you've done with Break Man."

"A trick? HA!" His voice blasted from every side, making me wince. "You're seeing exactly what you're supposed to see, buddy."

I did some quick thinking, and reached out to him, watching my hand pass through again. "You're a hologram." I smiled. "You can't really do anything to me."

He frowned, a grimace forming at the corner of his mouth. "Oh. Well you sure figured that out quick."

Then in a flash, I felt a blast hit me in my chest, launching me backward. I bounced off of a few pipes, barely grabbing on to one as I rolled over it. I shook my head to focus myself. Gemini Man held up his cannon, the barrel pointed towards me. "Well, make that almost figured it out."

"What the...heck?" I muttered as I pulled myself up.

"Light, Mega Man. My copies use light-based laser blasts. Even if they aren't physical, I can fire a shot from anywhere I want."

"That's...that's incredible..." I muttered.

His grin widened a little. "Why thank you. I'm glad someone appreciates my potential."

I stood and looked around. There was a greater fear and respect for Gemini Man's copies now, and I was racking my brain trying to come up with a solution.

"Hmm." He muttered. "Well, if you're not going to strike back, I guess I'll just keep my streak going!" He laughed, and I barely moved aside fast enough to avoid another shot.

I raised my buster, planning to go about finding him the old-fashioned way. Before I could I felt another blast hit my back, and I fell forward. I had never heard a shot fire.

All the copies exploded into laughter. One called out, "BOOM!! NO SCOPE, BABY!!"

I cursed myself silently as I stood. Light could be reflected. It seemed like he could only fire one shot at a time, but that was pretty much all he needed. Nevertheless, I stood up and fired a series of shots at multiple copies. They stepped aside, which told me that the plasma based weapon would potentially hit and destroy them.

As soon as I was done, a different shot fired, hitting me in the side of the head. I was knocked down to a lower level. I got up dazed. "Hey! I got a headshot!"

"Nice, man!"

I was frustrated. I couldn't figure out how to get through his virtual army. He was also really annoying me.

If I could fire my Mega Buster faster. If I had something else to use...

I recalled my encounter with Snake Man.

Search Snake Loaded.

"This better work." I muttered, pointing my buster at the ground. A robotic snake almost identical to Snakes Man's weapons popped out. I decided to make a few more, and the machines began to slither away along the pipes.

One of the Geminis caught sight of them, and his face melted into what looked like an uncomfortable frown. "What on earth is that?"

"That better not be what I think it is."

As they moved quietly along, the copies stepped out of the way, visibly repulsed. "They're so...uggh."

"Wait, why are they ignoring us?"

I watched as they continued up a series of pipes to one specific copy. When they were close, they all quickly made a joint movement towards him. His face filled with horror. "Oh no."

Once they touched him, an ear piercing shriek split the air. I had to restrain from laughing, as he began screaming hysterically and swinging at the robots as they slid across his body. "NO NO NO NO NO GETOFFGETOFFGETOFF!!!

I stood up and stared at him in amazement. The copies only watched in horror as what I assumed was the real Gemini Man suffered the wrath of the tiny little robo-snakes.

They began to emit small shocks, causing him to interrupt his nonsensical screaming with yelps of pain. I jumped up from pipe to pipe, finally making it to my true opponent. He now lay shivering on the ground, his arms flailing in vain to remove the pests.

"Well, it's been fun." I lied.

He locked eyes with me, and shouted, his voice cracking, "Ch-cheater! You're not supposed to figure it out that way! You're not playing by the rules!"

I created another snake, and held it in my free hand. I knelt down beside him and let its miniature tongue flick across his face. "Where's Break Man?"

His face didn't seem like it could process any more horror. He swallowed and replied, "D-don't be so..." He stopped to shiver once. "My copies can still...take you down..."

"Nah, you're on your own, man." One answered.

"Oh." Gemini Man muttered. "GG, then."

---

By taking Gemini Man's directions, I found myself in a different area of the sewers. I had left behind the dank stench of the water, and was finally in a dry passageway.

The room I entered now was far different from the last two. It was better lit, and a bit more open. It was a circular room with a large cylindrical machine in the center. Several pipes ran into the machine, and my systems told me that it was a part of the water treatment system.

I stepped around the perimeter of the device. There was a droning whir that resonated from all sides of the cylinder, a volume just loud enough that you could hear reasonably well, but the noise was definitely always noticeable. Once I had made my way to the other side, I met my new opponent.

His appearance reminded me of Air Man, much more on the bulky side, and a similar blue color on his body. His posture seemed impatient, which was kind of odd to see considering that he was also knitting. Two large needles were coming out of his arm cannons, and a set of three large spikes emerged from a metal plate on top of his head.

And on the point of knitting, his needles were carefully intertwining to pull together an interesting looking blue sweater. I wasn't able to get a good look at it before he noticed me.

"Oh, Mega Man." He said, his voice tired and a little relieved. "Finally. I assume this means you've beaten Gemini Man. Thank goodness, I was beginning to think we'd never see the end of this."

I nodded. "I have. And if you're going to try to stop me, I'll take you down too."

"Yeah, whatever."

I was caught off guard. "Uh...what?"

"I said whatever you want to do. I've got no stakes in this. I was just dying to get out of the base for once. Who would've thought I'd just end up stuck underground again..." I noticed that he hadn't looked up at me since he first saw me arrive.

I had no idea how to begin. I decided to take the courteous route. "...Do you...wanna finish that?"

He looked up at me, and down at the sweater. "You...you would give me time? To-to..."

I shrugged. "Yeah. I'd just need to get through here, and you can have all the time you want."

He moved the project onto one of his needles, and bowed respectfully. "Thank you so much for this, Mega Man. It means a lot..."

His eyes narrowed. "...but I have orders."

Shoot. I thought, barely managing to turn away as one of the needles fired at me like a bullet. I dropped to the ground and performed a rocket slide, but he quickly jumped backward into the air, firing three needle shots at me. I had to stop short and jump to avoid being pinned down. I fired a few shots from the Mega Buster, which he avoided.

"Don't be foolish, Mega Man. Wily still has plans for you and the rest of this pathetic world. And I, Needle Man, am still committed to my master."

I was quickly realizing that he was no pushover. He was fast, his weapon seemed very effective, and he meant business.

"Although if we're gonna be honest, he's a real pain in the exhaust port."

Okay, maybe not the third one.

He was able to fire the needles startlingly fast, and was fairly accurate. Wanting some method of defense, I grabbed two needles out of the ground, and held them up to block incoming shots. After doing so, I leaped forward swinging. His eyes widened and filled with horror. He fell backward, rather clumsily compared to how he had dodged all my previous attacks.

"Whoa!" He cried, "Don't point those at me!" His arm shook a little as he pointed at it.

My face likely never looked more disappointed. "They're...your weapons. Are you like Metal Man or something?"

He rubbed his cannons together awkwardly. "No, they're just...a little intimidating, that's all."

I chuckled slightly. "You, Needle Man, are afraid of needles?"

"It's a very serious condition!" He exclaimed. "Of course you don't understand. You're perfect little Mega Man! Well, guess what? We're not as lucky as you are. We don't get to copy everybody's powers, and be good at EVERYTHING. If I'm the one who has to knock you off your high horse, then SO BE IT!"

As he shouted, he leaned back and snapped his body forward again, and the plate on the top of his head launched out in a flash. I was startled, and only barely raised my arms to try to block. The impact launched me back and off my feet. I bounced a few times off the ground, before sliding to a stop.

I tried to lift myself to my feet. I was shaken up by the hit; the power was greater than I had expected. I didn't have much time, and had to throw myself to one side to avoid Needle Man coming down from a jump.

"Alright, pull yourself together, Rock." I told myself. "Let's give him something to worry about."

I turned around, and raised my buster.

Gemini Laser Loaded

I pointed towards him and fired. He easily jumped aside, but the laser bounced off the wall behind him. Unfortunately, the circular shape of the room didn't make the reflection quite as easy as I had expected. The shot bounced slightly to the side, and then a different direction off the cylinder. After a few more bizarre bounces, it dissipated on contact with a wall.

The two of us stared at where the laser had disappeared, trying to wrap our heads around what had just happened. Then I lifted my cannon and fired a laser directly at him.

---

 Alright.

I've recently gotten a writing surge. I wrote a good portion of this chapter in the last couple days. I'm also trying to start something new, which I hope you guys'll check out.

Anyway, I really liked this chapter. Hope you guys did too, and I'll see you on the next one.