FicWad


Chapter 34: House Guest

Link stared down the flying bug, but it returned a lifeless gaze, hovering in the air up and down. With a buzz, the snout shot a fine red laser beam at the human. Link instinctively turned away and the beam grazed his shoulder.

Link's eyes went wide with pain. He'd never felt any sort of burning like this before, ten times that of normal fire, and it wasn't even a direct hit. He grabbed his shoulder and ran out of the way.

"Wait, wait, I'm a friend," Link exclaimed. The menacing hoverbot followed him with the barrel of his blaster, keeping it neatly targeted on the scampering human. Link found a large object to duck behind and collect himself. He checked his shoulder and saw a bleeding red mark was drawn through the scorched clothing. Whatever this thing was, it wasn't about to be negotiated with.

The robot accelerated forward and turned to Link behind the box. Link narrowly dived out of the laser blast as it disintegrated the objects around him. Link's desperate flee mode turned to fight as he ran out of places to hide. He took his shield off his back and prepared to charge.

As soon as he moved forward the helicopter fired another shot. Link brought up his shield to block the blast. The laser burned a neat hole through the metal plating with wisps of smoke coming out. Link peeked on top of the armor, aghast at his penetrated protection. He turned back to the robot with anger in his eyes.

Rolling out of the line of fire, he grabbed the boomerang out of his pack and flung it with all his might at the attacker. The wooden weapon spun around and around and smacked against its side with a clang, doing little more than knocking it slightly off-course, which it immediately corrected. The boomerang flew back to his hand and Link dodged the subsequent blast, but the laser brushed against the lower part of his tunic, suddenly setting it ablaze.

Link shrieked in surprise, batting out the flames quickly. He jumped up and down, trying to keep being a moving target without spontaneously combusting. The flames left a black mark on his frayed clothing. While Link was distracted with this, the heli-bot fired again, making a direct hit on Link's leg.

"Arrgh!" Link shouted in agony. He dropped to one knee, struggling to stay upright, holding the muscle that had been wounded. His sword clanked to the ground at his side. It felt like a white-hot needle had just been jabbed into his thigh. Turning his gaze from his leg back up to the assailant, the bot continued staring at him behind those soulless scowling eyes. It whirred silently as it readjusted its turret, and Link knew that its next target was going to be his head.

The bot was suddenly encased in a purple energy wave that came from behind. The robot shuddered once and crumpled under the power, making it explode in a bright flash of yellow light. Link held his hand up to protect himself from the falling debris. When it cleared, he looked up to see what had happened.

Mega Man stood there in the doorway, holding a large canister with a purple end, glowing in a repeating pattern.

"Link?"

"Hey, neat trick."

"It's an ion cannon I found. What are you doing here?" Mega Man exclaimed with alarm.

"Hurting- ah-" he said as he tried to stand up, putting way too much weight on his injured leg. Mega Man quickly rushed over to help him up. "First the bear trap, now this. I'm not gonna have any legs left by the end," he quipped.

Mega Man checked the injury. A very bad burn mark on Link's leg, square in the center, and a more minor one on the shoulder told the tale.

"This needs to get treated. Come with me."

Link made little argument as he put his arm over Mega Man's shoulder and used him as a crutch to stand up on. They hobbled through the white laboratory rooms, all of which looked fairly similar to a first time observer.

"Is this where you live?" Link asked astonishedly. It was indescribably strange, but for some reason, seemed very much like Mega Man's taste. Every room looked the same - same size, same shape, same look, same sort of staticness. And none seemed to have any purpose behind them. But the fact that light came streaming in from the ceiling was amazing him. The sun must have been awful powerful here to come in from the skylights with such intensity. It must have been a desert world.

"Yes. Well, in a sense. You're in the basement laboratory of the Light manor. There're more human comforts at ground level. How did you get here?"

"I took the same way you did. Man, I thought the waterways were a ride," Link said, still looking up.

Mega Man hadn't experienced any tactile sensation during his journey so he thought nothing of it. "The portal? Why? You said you wanted to visit, but-"

"No, no, this was not a voluntary trip. After I said goodbye to you, the ceiling caved in and blocked the way out. I didn't really have much choice after that."

"Mmm, that's going to be a problem."

"Why?"

"Because that is what got me there in the first place." Mega Man pointed with his free hand as they entered another room.

There stood a mangled piece of machinery, consisting of wires, buttons, piping, and metal shards torn away in a pile on the floor.

"Uh, I take it it's broken," Link said.

"Correct. I'm positive we couldn't replicate the portal that brought me from Hyrule to here. Even if I knew how, the Triforce beam burnt out my circuits. I'll never be able to use it again."

"Oh, no," Link said sympathetically. "You don't have any seers here who could help?"

"There are no seers here anywhere," Mega Man said as they shambled past the broken equipment. Link looked back once at it, wondering what it looked like assembled. "The man who built that device is nowhere to be found right now. But we need to get you healed first."

"So I'm stuck here until we can find that guy?"

"Even if we find him, we may never be able to replicate the circumstances that brought the portal to Hyrule."

"So, I could be stuck here permanently?" Link bit his lip.

"Perhaps."

"Where's the guy who can rebuild it?"

"I just said, I don't know. I just arrived here right before you did. I have no idea what's been happening since I left." Mega Man hit a panel next to the door which slid up into the wall.

"Whoa, what was that?"

"A door."

Link looked up into the seam the gray panel had disappeared into. "Is it going to come back?"

"Yes. On your head, if you don't move." Mega Man gently tugged on Link as they passed through the archway. The door closed once they were through. Link looked behind him to see it do so.

"So you just touch that panel and the door moves?"

"Yes." Mega Man realized Link was being exposed to certain things which were certainly going to wreak havoc on his idea of living. It was like bringing a man from a thousand years past into the future. There was no precedent for what he was dealing with, for how to counsel Link. "You might see some strange things while you're here. Let me assure you they are all harmless and not a product of magic, just advanced science."

"Sure, sure," Link said. Mega Man expected Link to be more close-minded with his way of life being so unambitious. He seemed to be taking it all in with the inquisitiveness of a child.

They entered another door that whooshed up into the ceiling. This revealed a very tiny room which they entered.

"This is an elevator," Mega Man explained. "It is an automatic lifting device consisting of a cage that is raised and lowered mechanically in a vertical-"

"Yes, yes, we have elevators in Hyrule. I'm not that stupid." They were operated by rope and men, and there needed to be two at a time, one to go up and one to go down, but they existed. They were used more in mining tunnels, since no building could be built higher than Hyrule Castle.

Link felt a slight sensation in his body, as if it got heavier. In a flash, the sensation was replaced with being in motion, as if floating. "What's happening?"

"We're moving to the ground floor of the manor."

"Oh," he said, "I knew that." Link, despite hearing about elevators, had never actually been on one.

The lift reached the top floor and beeped pleasantly. The door opened, and the two of them stepped out into a hallway. The corridor held some doorways with panels next to them and some art pieces. Link's head remained glued to a fern as they passed it. It must have looked completely alien to him, Mega Man thought. The robot brought him out to a sitting room, where there were some chairs and sofas, lamps, and a standing plant in the corner.

"Wow," Link said, examining all the features of the room, especially fascinated with the bed-like resemblance of the sofa and wall embedded with bookcases. "It's the castle of the future."

"One could say that, but we have no governmental power. This is a dwelling for private citizens."

"Private citizens live like this? What kind of place does the king live in? Ow." Link was so fascinated with what he was seeing he temporarily forgot about the stabbing pain in his leg. Mega Man caught him as he dropped down.

"We don't have a king, but these are all questions I'll answer later as soon as we get you healed."

"I never remember to fill my potions," Link said idly.

Mega Man took Link to the next room which was the bathroom and leaned him just outside the door. The robot entered and opened a drawer below the mirror and grabbed a metal syringe-looking device. He came out and kneeled down to Link's leg, pressing a switch on the device. A yellow light began flashing on the top as he waved it over Link's wound.

"Second degree burn. This'll take care of it." The light switched to orange. Suddenly, Link felt no pain in his leg. In fact, with the sudden absence of pain, a strange echo was left in its place. He shook it away, testing out how it felt. It was like it was better than before.

"That was it?"

"Sure." Mega Man stood and did a quick wave over Link's shoulder. Any lingering sensation in that area lifted away like a blanket.

"You don't need a tourniquet or a potion or anything?"

"This device was all that was needed. And we don't have or need potions here."

"Really? Wow, definitely more advanced in medicine, if all you do is wave a stick over me. You sure that's not magic?"

"I assure you, magic does not exist here." Mega Man replaced the device in the cupboard and came out. Link peeked inside the bathroom to see what that was like. It felt like the cleanest, most sanitary area he'd ever seen, enough for doing surgical procedures in.

Mega Man said, "Okay, I need to check the computer."

"Computer? What's that?"

Mega Man briefly thought how best to define a computer to Link, because it had so many definitions, and because Link wouldn't understand many of them. "It's a device that we use for controlling various aspects of our lives, like storing information, communication, entertainment. Actually, it's a little like a robot, but it's distributed throughout the house."

"Ah," Link said, half-comprehending. This was probably something he was going to have to see to understand.

As they entered the room, Mega Man turned back to Link. "Stay here, and try not to touch anything."

"What, do you think I'm five years old?" he commented as Mega Man walked away. The robot simply didn't want Link activating the thermostat and putting the house in arctic temperatures by accident.

Mega Man went to the sofa and sat down in front of the coffee table. He flipped the top lid of the monitor open and activated the telecommunications program. He noticed that the last person contacted was Dr. Mihail Sergeivitch Cossack and it was made not too long ago, after he had left. He was a trusted friend of the family and might know where Roll was if she was the one who made the call. Mega Man redialed the connection.

The terminal monitor listed the command script it went through every time it made a call. The feminine computer said, "This call is long-distance and you will be charged an additional fee for connecting as described in the terms of agreement contract with TeleTech International. Do you accept these terms?"

"Yes," Mega Man said.

"What is that? Is there someone else here?" Link barged into the room.

"It's just the computer." Mega Man noticed Link was holding something in his hand that was whirring. "What are you holding?"

"I don't know, I was hoping you could tell me." Link held up the device for Mega Man's scrutiny. "It's not dangerous, is it?"

"It's a dentison. It's a device used for cleaning teeth."

"Really? How does it work?" Link tried putting it in his mouth and felt an incredibly peculiar sensation as his teeth nearly vibrated out of their gums.

"Mega Man?" the monitor said in a thick Russian accent. The two turned to the monitor, which showed a middle-aged man with graying light brown hair, matching beard, and thick square glasses.

"Dr. Cossack?"

"Mega Man, you are alive! Oh, is so good to be knowink."

"Is that what the computer looks like?" Link asked. Mega Man waved his hand to shush him. Link had no idea what he was looking at. Maybe the computer was some kind of king you went to for knoweldge or control. Like a fortune-teller for the world. He certainly spoke strangely like a fortune-teller.

"Where have you been?" The doctor asked.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you. Do you know what's happened while I've been away?"

"Acch, terrible. Amazink. Wily crashed your home, but iz been repaired, az you can see. Dr. Light was crushed by ceiling fall." Mega Man's eyes went wide with fear. "But iz all right," Cossack quickly corrected. "Iz in hospital, not hurt too badly."

Mega Man was very relieved. "And Roll?"

"Roll iz gone?" Cossack asked with confusion.

Mega Man was no longer relieved.

Next Chapter: Contact