[Coda]

SUBJECT: Skull Fortress No. 2 - Outer Defenses
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily
DATE: January 4, 20XX
FORMAT: Schematics

While searching the archives for what happened next, the computer helpfully presents the schematics for Dr. Wily's second Skull Fortress. The date on the schematics suggests that he had already built it before he began the reverse engineering project that led up to the Mark II Robot Masters. The skull motif is familiar; Wily's first fortress had a similar exterior design. Little historical information is available to suggest why Wily would have chosen such a stereotypically villainous theme. However, it is clear from the offensive and defensive emplacements that Wily was prepared to be besieged from the beginning, even before he began plotting his attacks.

The schematics first display the design of the outer fortifications. The fortress is built into the side of a cliff, making it difficult to assault in the first place by making ground-based vehicles impractical. Several monitoring stations are spread out around the foot of the cliff, providing constant surveillance to identify incoming threats. Large energy weapons are mounted on the cliff face to provide anti-aircraft fire. There are only two ways to get in: fly into the eye of the skull after providing acceptable identification to the automated defenses, or climb the cliff.

That's not to say that the cliff face wasn't also equipped with anti-personnel defenses. The schematics show the patrol paths for aerial mothership drones capable of deploying swarms of small attack fighters as well as tactical bunkers for Sniper Joe units. Surface-crawling robots and condensed energy "scworm" generators provide additional deterrence. Finally, flying explosive kamikaze drones are stationed near the entrance to the compound itself as a last line of defense against any attacking force that managed to get past the rest of the emplacements.


SUBJECT: Security Footage - Front Entrance
AUTHOR: Dr. Albert Wily
DATE: July 2, 20XX
FORMAT: Holovid + Telemetry + attachments

Wily's fortress was designed for aerial access. As such, the security footage of the inside of the fortress's entrance shows a distinct lack of floor surfaces. Immediately inside the access hatch is the cinderblock roof of the defensive bunkers, and beyond that is a wide open area for Wily's flying saucer to come in through, with nothing but support scaffolding below it.

To put the scale of it all into perspective, when Mega Man slips in through the entrance, he looks tiny compared to the vast open space.

What looks much less tiny is the giant robotic dragon that activates from its gantry off to the side in the hangar.

Mega Man has already started across the scaffolding when the Mecha Dragon catches up with him. The dragon tears through the scaffolding in pursuit, launching fireballs from a cannon in its mouth. Mega Man struggles to stay ahead, jumping from girder to girder and narrowly avoiding the flames, but he finds himself cornered when the scaffolding stops to accommodate a wide pit designed to provide access for Wily's saucer.

Trapped, Mega Man turns to the offensive. He tries the Air Shooter first, but the Mecha Dragon's armor dissipates the tornadoes harmlessly. The Metal Blades meet a similar result, and the colors of Mega Man's armor suggests he's considering the Leaf Shield and the Crash Bomber and deciding against them.

In desperation, Mega Man turns the Mecha Dragon's weapon back on it. His armor turns red and yellow as he equips the Atomic Fire that he copied from his last encounter and quickly begins to glow as the weapon threatens to overload his cooling systems. He fires off a couple of small fireballs before turning his attention to jumping to another part of the scaffolding to avoid being blasted himself. The fireballs leave visible damage marks on the dragon's armor, rings of warped metal suggesting that the heat was intense enough to partially melt it.

A warning alarm starts to wail from inside Mega Man's chassis. The air around his body ripples from the heat distortion. Weaker parts of his armor are shining a brighter yellow as the overload intensifies.

Finally, Mega Man has a clear shot, and he takes it.

A massive fireball as tall as Mega Man himself roars out from the aperture of the Mega Buster, so intensely bright that the center of it is rendering as black due to overloading the recording sensors. Mega Man has to scramble to keep his footing on the precarious girder, but when the powerful blast strikes the Mecha Dragon, it punches through the flying robot's interior hydrogen bladder, resulting in an even bigger explosion that tears the dragon apart from the inside out.