Categories > Games > Zelda > Gatecrash
 Chapter 12: Medical Emergency
Roll sprinted through the house at breakneck speeds, twisting in and out of broken corridors, trying to get through to the outside to find where the police were. Dr. Light was trapped under the ceiling fall, still conscious, but bleeding. Where were those police? They should have been here by now.
She skidded to a stop before the security server room, which was upstairs. "Damn," she muttered. The stairs were out and she would have to walk all the way around to find an alternative route. There was no time for that. She pulled out her laser gun, the green visor automatically slid in place, and fired two shots at the ceiling. The floor collapsed in front of her. Jumping up on the rubble she hoisted herself up to the second floor, right in front of the security room. The grid of closed-circuit cameras and a large blinking computer in the wall were overseeing the grounds. According to the monitors, about eight police cars and two fire trucks were wailing outside the gate. Their occupants were just standing there, talking to themselves.
Roll picked up the speakerphone and clicked 'gate'. "Hey, get in here! We need medical attention!"
On the monitor, a cop jogged over to the gate and pushed the intercom button. "We'd like to but the security protocol is still up."
/Damn/, Roll thought, /it was/. Searching through the control panel she looked for the disabling mechanism. The outside grounds' security must have been activated when Wily burst in. It was meant for small intruders, not large hulking robots. The laser and motion sensors would instantly disable any police that tried to walk on.
She looked up at the computer. All the buttons and switches and not one label. Dr. Light never told her how to work the security program, it was all automated. "Computer, are you voice-activated?"
No response. Apparently not. She started flipping switches, turning some up and some down. The monitors flickered out. She flipped that switch back on. A warning on the outside camera flashed "Security disabled - perimeter."
Roll came back to the microphone. "It's off. Get in here."
The police sent one lone cop towards the house, apparently as a scout. He huffled in and entered the torn away wall that used to be the entrance foyer. He waved to his partners and the collection of EMT's ran in. Roll dropped the microphone and headed over to the foyer. Jumping down into the hole she had created, she sped down the hallway towards the front of the house and nearly ran into a firefighter.
"You. What happened here?" she said.
"Not important. Need assistance for Dr. Light. Follow me."
The firefighter called back to the others. "Charlie, get the parameds in here!" She followed after Roll.
Roll hurdled debris easily. The humans and helper robots climbed over it, not having her agility, but they still managed to keep up. They found Roll standing over a pile of rocks and wood like a loyal retriever.
"Aw, jeez," the firefighter said. "Get the shovelers out here now." The ones who had made it to the scene started pulling off wreckage as fast as they could. "Get this stuff off him." Roll helped as much as she could, but she still didn't have as much strength as she ought to for a battle robot. An EMT came in holding two small robots with shovels attached to their face. He set them down on each side of the pile and they began digging up rocks at the foundation, making it easier for those who were pulling off the top. Roll pulled off a piece of tile and found the right breast pocket of his lab coat.
"I see him!"
"Put your backs into it." The paramedics and firefighters started pulling faster, knowing the finish line was there. "Get that stretcher ready."
They pulled off the last of the ruins and brushed off the dust. "Dr. Light, can you hear me?" Roll said.
A paramedic came in with an electronic med-box. "Clear out." He ran a pull-out scanner over Dr. Light while looking at the readings on the box. "Slight internal bleeding. Broken femur and tibia. Ribs... Heart looks good." He looked up to the other medics. "He's stable but hurting. We can move him."
"Let's get him out of here."
The medics pulled lifted him up and put him on the hoverbed next to the ground as gingerly and quickly as possible.
"Uhhh..." Dr. Light moaned.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" Roll said, gleeful that he had the ability to still speak.
"Roll... I'm okay. Sort of," he groaned raspily as they pushed him out of the house.
"It's okay, Dr. Light. I'm right here. I'm going with you."
"No, don't. Roll... you need to stay here and search."
"But-"
"That object was here. You must find it. If it was more valuable than my technical secrets or his revenge... who knows what danger we may be in."
Roll followed him until they reached the ambulance. They lifted him into the vehicle while Roll waited at the entrance, bound by her programming to follow his orders.
"But... all right, doctor. I'll find it."
"Find it. And find your brother. Don't worry about me."
"I will."
The EMT's closed the doors, the sirens started their wailing and the ambulance sped out. If Roll were human she would have been crying.
Mega Man and Link crawled over the grassy knoll and saw the castle in the mist.
"There it is. Hyrule Castle. The center of Hyrule."
Mega Man had never seen a real castle before - one with medieval architecture, made of mortar and stone. It seemed authentic, as if real and a picture at the same time. A reinforced off-white wall surrounded the castle itself, with guards posted at central locations. He could see a beautiful courtyard from this distance, filled with trees and other greenery. In the center was a path leading from the entrance down to wooden gate and melding seamlessly across the river to form a bridge. It seemed very inviting and friendly, not like the castles he'd read about, with cold stone walls with guards, cannons, and drawbridges, designed to keep any and all intruders as far away as possible.
"It looks beautiful," Mega Man said.
"It is." Link had found a new pride in the royal castle, since he had been to the Dark World and found its equivalent to be a soulless golden pyramid where the Triforce was housed. "We'll rest here a bit." Link took a seat under the shade of a thick oak tree and took a deep breath. Resting was definitely a perk on a quest and he intended to use it whenever possible. There wasn't any need to be in the castle right now.
"So, we've got the finest mages and seers in the castle. They'll probably be able to get you home," he said as he plucked up some grass and threw it around idly.
"I hope so, but I have my doubts. How I got here seems to be beyond human comprehension. It may have been a fluke in mathematics that can never be repeated." Mega Man doubted that the underdeveloped people here would ever be able to get him home. He was brought here by science. What hope did a people who still believed in magic have of being able to recreate the same instance when even humans from his world wouldn't understand it. If they knew he was here. By now, Light's mansion was likely destroyed and everyone was dead. Without him around to save them, Wily would likely have taken over the world by now. That was only if time was still going in his world the same as it was in this. For all he knew, time was going backwards since he left.
"Well," Link responded. "What will you do if you can't get back?"
"Unknown. It appears your justice system could need some revising."
Link laughed. "Yeah, you'd be good at that. A nigh invulnerable captain of the guards. Horace would be happy to have you replace him." Link picked up some more grass blades and started chewing them. "So what's it like there?"
"There are many tall buildings, commercial centers. Other robots keep the streets clean, buildings repaired, transportation running smoothly. It is essentially a utopia. Humans are happy. I would think, though, that you would find it too busy, fast, and crowded for your liking."
"Perhaps," Link said as he tried to picture it. He imagined tall castles with spires next to each other. "I wonder how many other worlds there are out there. Like, what's beyond Hyrule. The mountains border us to the north, plateaus to the south and east and dense forest in the west. We're pretty secluded in here."
Mega Man nodded. "World travel is common where I come from. People can jump from one side of the world to another in an instant."
"Wow, I've lived in Hyrule all my life. I can't imagine what else could... be..." Link became distracted by something down the hill on the other side. Mega Man looked down and saw the buzzblob waddling up the hill with wide coal-black eyes.
"Aw, come on. Go away already!" Link said as he stood up angrily. "Shoo! I thought we lost you at the river."
The buzzblob just kept on coming up, as if he didn't understand them. It had been following them since the ravine, despite numerous attempts to try and lose it.
"Well, he did help us with the Card Club."
"Oh, he's just attracted to you. Cause you got that lightning gun."
"Don't hurt him. He's just lost."
Link rolled his eyes at Mega Man's compassion for a monster. Even if it was sort of cute. "Okay, you. Go... that way. Over there. Go. Now. Shoo."
"Come here, little guy. Come here," Mega Man said as he slowly advanced down the hill to it.
"You're not helping."
The buzzblob cheerfully wobbled up to Mega Man. He held out his hand like he would for a dog to sniff it. The buzzblob cautiously looked at the hand and nuzzled it with the top of his head. Mega Man was surprised when he didn't feel a sharp painful jolt. "Hey, it's all right. It looks like the shock is just a natural defense mechanism."
"Great," Link said from the top of the hill. "You wanna take him home with you?"
"Well, it would be a shame to lose such a good helper." He picked up the buzzblob like a baby and carried him over to Link.
"Oh, you are not carrying it like that."
"Isn't he cute?" Mega Man held the green blobby thing up to Link like a child.
Link rolled his eyes. "Fine. But how are we gonna get him inside the castle. The guards will snipe him with an arrow once they see him. And they have good eyesight."
"Hmm," Mega Man pondered as he put it down. Mega Man couldn't let this monster be taken out when it had done so much good for them. "I have an idea. Do you have any extra clothes?"
The tower guard swept over the breadth of the castle with his telescope, watching the backs of other guards posted around the outside walls, milling about. It was a slow day, but then every day was a slow day. Bright blue painted the skies, songs of idle birds in the forest, same as any other day. The most fun was when a crow would suicidally decide to breach the castle walls. Then the lucky one would get to shoot it down with his crossbow and they would all talk about it for weeks, building it up until the crow had posed the most dangerous threat to Hylian walls since Agahnim.
The guard took the telescope from his eye and perused the grounds with his naked eyes. Just as little happened up close as far away. Oak trees and hills obscured the grounds in front of the castle beyond the river. He sighed and looked up at the sky, watching a cloud pass by. Peaceful, natural, and the same thing he'd seen for the past eight years. As he cracked his stiff neck he suddenly saw a speck approaching the castle, just emerged from the trees. He fumbled with his scope for a bit, off-put from the excitement and looked down below.
It appeared to be Link coming towards the castle, recognized by his green tunic, along with a... young-looking palace soldier dressed in blue full-body armor? With a helmet? And between them was... a very small person wearing Link's shirt and hat? They were holding hands with him, but it looked like his arms weren't big enough to reach the ends of the floppy sleeves.
"Ahoy! Who goes there?" the guard called out once they trio had reached shouting distance.
"It's me, Link!"
"And what company do you keep?"
"He means who are you with," Link said to Mega Man, rolling his eyes at the guard's penchant for taking his job too seriously. He shouted back up as he stopped at the wooden gate. "This is Mega Man, he is from another island very far away and we need help to get him back home."
"And who's that betwixt you?"
"This? Ah... this is my... friend! Buzzy!"
"Buzzy?"
"Yes, Buzzy."
The guard tried hard to look at Buzzy's face, but the hat was covering him up completely. How was he able to see? "Are you sure? He seems awfully small."
"Uhhhh..." Link stalled again. "He's been sick."
"Oh... All right then," the guard said. He was still a little suspicious, but Link could be trusted. "Raise the gate," he called down to the guards in the courtyard. They began turning the crank, making a clickety-clack sound as the wooden door was raised. The three started walking under the archway.
"'Buzzy'?" Mega Man asked as they walked in.
"I didn't see you coming up with anything," Link said in jest.
Next Chapter: Meeting New People
Roll sprinted through the house at breakneck speeds, twisting in and out of broken corridors, trying to get through to the outside to find where the police were. Dr. Light was trapped under the ceiling fall, still conscious, but bleeding. Where were those police? They should have been here by now.
She skidded to a stop before the security server room, which was upstairs. "Damn," she muttered. The stairs were out and she would have to walk all the way around to find an alternative route. There was no time for that. She pulled out her laser gun, the green visor automatically slid in place, and fired two shots at the ceiling. The floor collapsed in front of her. Jumping up on the rubble she hoisted herself up to the second floor, right in front of the security room. The grid of closed-circuit cameras and a large blinking computer in the wall were overseeing the grounds. According to the monitors, about eight police cars and two fire trucks were wailing outside the gate. Their occupants were just standing there, talking to themselves.
Roll picked up the speakerphone and clicked 'gate'. "Hey, get in here! We need medical attention!"
On the monitor, a cop jogged over to the gate and pushed the intercom button. "We'd like to but the security protocol is still up."
/Damn/, Roll thought, /it was/. Searching through the control panel she looked for the disabling mechanism. The outside grounds' security must have been activated when Wily burst in. It was meant for small intruders, not large hulking robots. The laser and motion sensors would instantly disable any police that tried to walk on.
She looked up at the computer. All the buttons and switches and not one label. Dr. Light never told her how to work the security program, it was all automated. "Computer, are you voice-activated?"
No response. Apparently not. She started flipping switches, turning some up and some down. The monitors flickered out. She flipped that switch back on. A warning on the outside camera flashed "Security disabled - perimeter."
Roll came back to the microphone. "It's off. Get in here."
The police sent one lone cop towards the house, apparently as a scout. He huffled in and entered the torn away wall that used to be the entrance foyer. He waved to his partners and the collection of EMT's ran in. Roll dropped the microphone and headed over to the foyer. Jumping down into the hole she had created, she sped down the hallway towards the front of the house and nearly ran into a firefighter.
"You. What happened here?" she said.
"Not important. Need assistance for Dr. Light. Follow me."
The firefighter called back to the others. "Charlie, get the parameds in here!" She followed after Roll.
Roll hurdled debris easily. The humans and helper robots climbed over it, not having her agility, but they still managed to keep up. They found Roll standing over a pile of rocks and wood like a loyal retriever.
"Aw, jeez," the firefighter said. "Get the shovelers out here now." The ones who had made it to the scene started pulling off wreckage as fast as they could. "Get this stuff off him." Roll helped as much as she could, but she still didn't have as much strength as she ought to for a battle robot. An EMT came in holding two small robots with shovels attached to their face. He set them down on each side of the pile and they began digging up rocks at the foundation, making it easier for those who were pulling off the top. Roll pulled off a piece of tile and found the right breast pocket of his lab coat.
"I see him!"
"Put your backs into it." The paramedics and firefighters started pulling faster, knowing the finish line was there. "Get that stretcher ready."
They pulled off the last of the ruins and brushed off the dust. "Dr. Light, can you hear me?" Roll said.
A paramedic came in with an electronic med-box. "Clear out." He ran a pull-out scanner over Dr. Light while looking at the readings on the box. "Slight internal bleeding. Broken femur and tibia. Ribs... Heart looks good." He looked up to the other medics. "He's stable but hurting. We can move him."
"Let's get him out of here."
The medics pulled lifted him up and put him on the hoverbed next to the ground as gingerly and quickly as possible.
"Uhhh..." Dr. Light moaned.
"Doctor, can you hear me?" Roll said, gleeful that he had the ability to still speak.
"Roll... I'm okay. Sort of," he groaned raspily as they pushed him out of the house.
"It's okay, Dr. Light. I'm right here. I'm going with you."
"No, don't. Roll... you need to stay here and search."
"But-"
"That object was here. You must find it. If it was more valuable than my technical secrets or his revenge... who knows what danger we may be in."
Roll followed him until they reached the ambulance. They lifted him into the vehicle while Roll waited at the entrance, bound by her programming to follow his orders.
"But... all right, doctor. I'll find it."
"Find it. And find your brother. Don't worry about me."
"I will."
The EMT's closed the doors, the sirens started their wailing and the ambulance sped out. If Roll were human she would have been crying.
Mega Man and Link crawled over the grassy knoll and saw the castle in the mist.
"There it is. Hyrule Castle. The center of Hyrule."
Mega Man had never seen a real castle before - one with medieval architecture, made of mortar and stone. It seemed authentic, as if real and a picture at the same time. A reinforced off-white wall surrounded the castle itself, with guards posted at central locations. He could see a beautiful courtyard from this distance, filled with trees and other greenery. In the center was a path leading from the entrance down to wooden gate and melding seamlessly across the river to form a bridge. It seemed very inviting and friendly, not like the castles he'd read about, with cold stone walls with guards, cannons, and drawbridges, designed to keep any and all intruders as far away as possible.
"It looks beautiful," Mega Man said.
"It is." Link had found a new pride in the royal castle, since he had been to the Dark World and found its equivalent to be a soulless golden pyramid where the Triforce was housed. "We'll rest here a bit." Link took a seat under the shade of a thick oak tree and took a deep breath. Resting was definitely a perk on a quest and he intended to use it whenever possible. There wasn't any need to be in the castle right now.
"So, we've got the finest mages and seers in the castle. They'll probably be able to get you home," he said as he plucked up some grass and threw it around idly.
"I hope so, but I have my doubts. How I got here seems to be beyond human comprehension. It may have been a fluke in mathematics that can never be repeated." Mega Man doubted that the underdeveloped people here would ever be able to get him home. He was brought here by science. What hope did a people who still believed in magic have of being able to recreate the same instance when even humans from his world wouldn't understand it. If they knew he was here. By now, Light's mansion was likely destroyed and everyone was dead. Without him around to save them, Wily would likely have taken over the world by now. That was only if time was still going in his world the same as it was in this. For all he knew, time was going backwards since he left.
"Well," Link responded. "What will you do if you can't get back?"
"Unknown. It appears your justice system could need some revising."
Link laughed. "Yeah, you'd be good at that. A nigh invulnerable captain of the guards. Horace would be happy to have you replace him." Link picked up some more grass blades and started chewing them. "So what's it like there?"
"There are many tall buildings, commercial centers. Other robots keep the streets clean, buildings repaired, transportation running smoothly. It is essentially a utopia. Humans are happy. I would think, though, that you would find it too busy, fast, and crowded for your liking."
"Perhaps," Link said as he tried to picture it. He imagined tall castles with spires next to each other. "I wonder how many other worlds there are out there. Like, what's beyond Hyrule. The mountains border us to the north, plateaus to the south and east and dense forest in the west. We're pretty secluded in here."
Mega Man nodded. "World travel is common where I come from. People can jump from one side of the world to another in an instant."
"Wow, I've lived in Hyrule all my life. I can't imagine what else could... be..." Link became distracted by something down the hill on the other side. Mega Man looked down and saw the buzzblob waddling up the hill with wide coal-black eyes.
"Aw, come on. Go away already!" Link said as he stood up angrily. "Shoo! I thought we lost you at the river."
The buzzblob just kept on coming up, as if he didn't understand them. It had been following them since the ravine, despite numerous attempts to try and lose it.
"Well, he did help us with the Card Club."
"Oh, he's just attracted to you. Cause you got that lightning gun."
"Don't hurt him. He's just lost."
Link rolled his eyes at Mega Man's compassion for a monster. Even if it was sort of cute. "Okay, you. Go... that way. Over there. Go. Now. Shoo."
"Come here, little guy. Come here," Mega Man said as he slowly advanced down the hill to it.
"You're not helping."
The buzzblob cheerfully wobbled up to Mega Man. He held out his hand like he would for a dog to sniff it. The buzzblob cautiously looked at the hand and nuzzled it with the top of his head. Mega Man was surprised when he didn't feel a sharp painful jolt. "Hey, it's all right. It looks like the shock is just a natural defense mechanism."
"Great," Link said from the top of the hill. "You wanna take him home with you?"
"Well, it would be a shame to lose such a good helper." He picked up the buzzblob like a baby and carried him over to Link.
"Oh, you are not carrying it like that."
"Isn't he cute?" Mega Man held the green blobby thing up to Link like a child.
Link rolled his eyes. "Fine. But how are we gonna get him inside the castle. The guards will snipe him with an arrow once they see him. And they have good eyesight."
"Hmm," Mega Man pondered as he put it down. Mega Man couldn't let this monster be taken out when it had done so much good for them. "I have an idea. Do you have any extra clothes?"
The tower guard swept over the breadth of the castle with his telescope, watching the backs of other guards posted around the outside walls, milling about. It was a slow day, but then every day was a slow day. Bright blue painted the skies, songs of idle birds in the forest, same as any other day. The most fun was when a crow would suicidally decide to breach the castle walls. Then the lucky one would get to shoot it down with his crossbow and they would all talk about it for weeks, building it up until the crow had posed the most dangerous threat to Hylian walls since Agahnim.
The guard took the telescope from his eye and perused the grounds with his naked eyes. Just as little happened up close as far away. Oak trees and hills obscured the grounds in front of the castle beyond the river. He sighed and looked up at the sky, watching a cloud pass by. Peaceful, natural, and the same thing he'd seen for the past eight years. As he cracked his stiff neck he suddenly saw a speck approaching the castle, just emerged from the trees. He fumbled with his scope for a bit, off-put from the excitement and looked down below.
It appeared to be Link coming towards the castle, recognized by his green tunic, along with a... young-looking palace soldier dressed in blue full-body armor? With a helmet? And between them was... a very small person wearing Link's shirt and hat? They were holding hands with him, but it looked like his arms weren't big enough to reach the ends of the floppy sleeves.
"Ahoy! Who goes there?" the guard called out once they trio had reached shouting distance.
"It's me, Link!"
"And what company do you keep?"
"He means who are you with," Link said to Mega Man, rolling his eyes at the guard's penchant for taking his job too seriously. He shouted back up as he stopped at the wooden gate. "This is Mega Man, he is from another island very far away and we need help to get him back home."
"And who's that betwixt you?"
"This? Ah... this is my... friend! Buzzy!"
"Buzzy?"
"Yes, Buzzy."
The guard tried hard to look at Buzzy's face, but the hat was covering him up completely. How was he able to see? "Are you sure? He seems awfully small."
"Uhhhh..." Link stalled again. "He's been sick."
"Oh... All right then," the guard said. He was still a little suspicious, but Link could be trusted. "Raise the gate," he called down to the guards in the courtyard. They began turning the crank, making a clickety-clack sound as the wooden door was raised. The three started walking under the archway.
"'Buzzy'?" Mega Man asked as they walked in.
"I didn't see you coming up with anything," Link said in jest.
Next Chapter: Meeting New People
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