Captain N:

A Tale of Two Dogs

Written by Dennis O’Flaherty

Novelized by David Hartline

Mega Man: “When that mega rat, Dr. Wily, kidnaps our dogs, Captain N and I wind up in turtle soup. It’s a dog-fight getting out, but if his giant robot takes over Videoland, we could all bite the dust!”

In a startling twist of events, the diabolical Dr. Wily has joined forces with Dr. Right to bring peace to Videoland at last.

In Dr. Right’s lab, the two doctors of science were working on a giant robot with a round, egg-shaped yellow face-like body that had a red peace sign where the nose would be, and two eyes and a smile painted on it. There was a blue band going around the middle of the body, separated by where the peace sign was. It had blue arms and red pincers on the end; the arms looked like half-pulled accordions. It also had two long cylindrical legs, in length about seven eighths the height of the egg-shaped face. Its kneecaps were painted blue, as were the “sandals”! On the top was a clear dome and the control chamber. Right now, Wily and Right were on an automated floor panel on electronic scaffolding, and Wily operated the machine that put the final touch on the robot. . . installing the left arm in its socket with an electronic crane.

“Building a super robot to keep peace in Videoland was a brilliant idea, Dr. Right,” Wily said with a pleasant smile.

Right hugged him with his left arm. “Its first act of peace was bringing the two of us together in friendship.” Wily used his left hand to press a down button on a control attached to their floor panel that caused the panel to descend slowly to the floor of the lab.

When it landed, Wily jumped off. “I’ll be back with my new control device before I can say, ‘Peace.’ ” A blue warp opened in front of him to his lab, and he stepped through.

In Dr. Wily’s lab, Doc Robot, who looked suspiciously like the mad scientist, was using the scientist’s monitor to view the situation in Right’s lab. When Wily emerged from the warp, he laughed, “Heh, heh, heh! I can say peace all right. . . a piece of cake to steal that super robot!”

Doc Robot turned the chair around and stood. “Master, is it time to take over Videoland?” the robot asked in a monotone version of Wily’s voice. “Is it, huh? Is it?”

“Calm down, metal-head!” Wily snapped, sitting in his seat and turning towards his monitor. “We can’t do anything until Captain Ninny and Mega Moron come back from Topland with the last energy tank.” Topland, a dizzying section of Megaland, appeared on the screen. It was spinning like a top.

Right now, Captain N and Mega Man were in Topland, trying to find Top Man. The two came out from behind a column, and they were arguing about their dogs. “I’m tellin’ you, Mega Man, the baddest dog in Videoland is Duke!” Kevin argued, whispering.

“No way, Captain N,” Mega Man retorted in a whisper. “My robo-dog, Rush, is the new mega mutt!” The two heroes continued down the hallway.

Rush and Duke, their canines, came from behind the column. Rush had a mechanical voice, and he said, “There they go again! Arf!”

The heroes gasped as they encountered an enormous robotic feline! It made metallic feline growling noises. “Uh, oh! I hope that giant kitty doesn’t think we’re mega mice!” Mega Man exclaimed.

The robo-cat spat out a large ball of yarn. Kevin drew his Zapper. “This is no time to play ball!” he exclaimed. He shot the ball, and it turned into smaller balls that fell to the floor. Growling, Duke jumped up to the huge cat and scared it. The mechanized feline turned around and ran. Duke chased after it.

After Mega Man and Kevin had taken care of the last of the balls of yarn, Rush turned into a jet sled. “Looks like our flight’s leaving!” Mega Man said, getting on his dog. Kevin got on behind him.

“Follow that dog!” Kevin ordered. Rush fired his afterburners and took the heroes the way Duke had run. Soon, they encountered severe turbulence. . . several small tops flying their way. Kevin shot the tops to video-dust before he and his friends ran into them.

“I think we’ve lost him, Captain N,” Mega Man told his human friend.

“No, look there!” Kevin exclaimed. “Good ol’ Duke’s got Top Man cornered!”

He was right. Duke was growling and barking at the spinning Top Man. Mega Man stopped Rush right beside Duke. “I’ll hit him with my punch-line!” he said, aiming his left fist at the spinning robot. He fired his fist as the Hard Knuckle, which bashed Top Man in the head, stopped him in his tracks, and caused him to fall to the floor and evaporate to video-dust. A yellow energy tank appeared in Top Man’s place.

“All right!” Kevin said. “We got the last energy tank for the peace robot.” He knelt and petted Duke. “You’re the hero of this trip, fella, for sniffing out Top Man.” He grabbed the tank, but then Mega Man grabbed it on the other side!

“Wait a mega minute!” Mega Man snapped. “We wouldn’t even be here without the Rush Rocket!” He was strong, but not strong enough to wrest the tank away from the angry teenager.

“Duke chased that cat away!” Kevin shouted.

“Yeah? Well, not without Rush’s help, he didn’t!”

The dogs watched as their masters fought over the energy tank.

Back at Dr. Right’s lab, the good scientist used an electromagnetic crane that lowered this eighth energy tank into the robot’s power chamber. He, Kevin, Mega Man, Rush, and Duke were standing on the floor panel of the scaffolding, which was up high again. “Thank you, N Team,” he said. “All we need now is the control device Dr. Wily built for the robot.”

“Dr. Right, are you sure you can trust that mega rat?” Mega Man asked.

“There’s good in everybody, Mega Man,” Right said. “You just have to look for it.”

Kevin laughed. “Yeah, well, Wily does wear a clean lab coat!” Dr. Right lowered the floor panel.

In his lab, Dr. Wily was watching the N Team with his viewscreen. “Heh, heh, heh, heh! And now, I’m going to clean up on Videoland,” he laughed. He got up and went over to a table in his lab. “After my control device turns that peace robot deliciously evil,” he said, picking up the control device, which looked like a joystick with all sorts of fancy buttons. “But first, we have to get Captain Nitwit and Mega Mite out of the way!” He watched as Kevin, Mega Man, and their dogs approached a blue warp. “Heh, heh, heh! And I know just the bait to trap them with. . . those doggies!”

“Come on, Mega Man,” Kevin called. “We earned ourselves some rest and relaxation.” The two heroes and their dogs stepped through the warp, which transported them to the world of California Games.

On California Games, Duke and Rush were surfing on a really big wave. “Come on, Duke! Go, go!” Kevin cheered.

“You’ve got him, Rush! Mega go go go!” Mega Man called. However, Rush slipped off his board and fell into the water with several mechanized yips and barks. Duke slid onto the shore on his board.

“Way to go, Duke! You won, paws down!” Kevin patted his victorious pooch.

“That’s okay, boy,” Mega Man told Rush as he washed onto the shore. “You’ll beat his tail off in the frisbee free-for-all!”

“Here we go again!” Rush said. “Arf!”

Kevin had decided that he should throw the frisbee. After all, if Mega Man threw it, it might go around the world and whack him in the head a second later! “Get ready. . . set. . . go!” He tossed the frisbee, and the two dogs took off after it barking as Mega Man came to Kevin’s side. The frisbee made an upward arc in the air, and the dogs leapt after it. Suddenly, a warp opened in the air to Skull Castle, and the dogs flew right into it!

“Say bye-bye, doggies! Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!” Dr. Wily’s voice laughed malevolently.

“W-wasn’t that Dr. Wily’s lab?” Mega Man asked.

“Ah, yeah,” Kevin said. “Better known as Skull Castle!”

“But why would he want to capture Duke and Rush?”

“Well, like I said, Mega Man: Once a sleezoid, always a sleezoid! Let’s hit it!” The heroes ran through the warp to Skull Castle.

As they approached the main gate, they heard Duke’s voice howling from within. Kevin said, “That’s Duke! I’d know his howl anywhere!”

Within, Wily was watching. “Why are the good guys always such chumps?” he asked with satisfaction.

“Can I spring the trap, master?” Doc Robot asked eagerly, his arms spread apart. “Can I? Huh?”

Pressing several keys on his control panel, Wily turned to the robot and said, “I like your attitude, Doc Robot. Go on! Enjoy!” Doc Robot went to a lever on the wall and pushed it up as Mega Man and Kevin backed away from the door.

“Stand back, Captain N!” Mega Man warned, pointing his fist at the door. “I’m going to blast the door!” Suddenly, a trap warp opened beneath them and dumped them screaming into a tank full of water! They spat out water when they resurfaced, and Mega Man knocked some water out of his right ear when he slapped his head with his left hand. A circular section of the wall slid away, revealing a metal tube that came out of the wall.

“Why do I get the feeling we’re about to go on spin cycle?” Kevin asked. The tube released a large robotic turtle into the tank.

On a platform above the tank, Wily watched with satisfaction. “Heh, heh, heh! So nice of you to come to my pool party!” he laughed wickedly. “I do hope you’ll stay for dinner; my robo-turtles just love super-heroes!” Mega Man gasped as the villainous scientist laughed. The robo-turtle started snapping its jaws. “Heh, heh! If you’re still around after dinner, you can watch me and my new peace robot take over Videoland!”

“You’ll pay for this, Dr. Wily!” Kevin said, swinging his left fist at the scientist.

“Sorry, Captain Numbskull. I left my wallet in my other lab coat.” Wily left the room, and the door closed behind him.

The tube released two more turtles, so three turtles approached the two heroes. Kevin took out his Zapper and attempted to fire, but water popped out, instead! “If we get out of this,” he said, “remind me to have my Zapper waterproofed!”

“Hey, that’s it!” Mega Man exclaimed. “My one non-powered weapon. . . the Shadow Blade!” He took out a Shadow Blade and tossed it at the tube. It hit a button on the device to which the tube was connected, causing it to vacuum all the water and the turtles out of the tank.

“Major brainwave, Mega Man!” Kevin complimented. “You turned it into a turtle vacuum!” Suddenly, they felt the suction, too.

“Now, all we have to do is keep it from sucking us up, too!” Mega Man shouted. He grabbed a grate with a floor in his hands, and Kevin held on to him. He pulled the grate off and grabbed on to the lip of the drain underneath; he and Kevin coughed a bit as the water flowed around them. The two heroes dropped down through the drain and sat, coughing up the last of the water.

Kevin breathed heavily. “That creep Wily just better not have hurt our dogs,” he said. He and Mega Man crawled down the pathway.

Wily told Doc Robot, “Well, I’m off to steal my peace robot.” He jumped into his small vehicle, which would carry only one passenger. “While I’m gone, make sure that Captain Nerdnick and Maggot Man enjoy their misery.”

“Goody goody goody!” Doc Robot exclaimed. “What about dogs?”

“Cut them from the team!” Wily closed the blue canopy and sped out of the lab.

“Will-do, master!” The robot saluted, but unfortunately, he had formed his right hand into a saw, and he cut part of his metallic hair!

In their prison cell, Duke was sniffing around. “Careful, Duke,” Rush warned as Duke investigated the glowing bars. “The bars may be booby-trapped. Arf!” Duke accidentally rammed his nose into a bar, and he got a painful shock and yipped. He growled, backed away and suddenly got an idea, as shown by a light-bulb popping on above his head. He barked, pointing to the floor with his left front paw. He and Rush started digging their way out through the dirt floor.

Meanwhile, Mega Man and Kevin were still digging their way through the castle. . . and they were now digging through the back wall of the cell! “We’ve been digging forever! Do you think we’re still in Skull Castle?” Mega Man asked. The wall fell away, and they entered the cell.

“Are you kidding?” Kevin asked. “We’re lucky if we’re still in Videoland!” They gasped as they discovered where they were. “Darn! Out of the frying pan and into the fire!” They saw Duke and Rush dig up on the outside of the cell! “Duke!”

“Rush!” Mega Man exclaimed simultaneously with Kevin.

The dogs barked excitedly back at their masters. Down the hall, Doc Robot’s voice called, “Hey! Stop that! Bad! Bad dogs!” He fired Metal Blades at the two dogs.

“Uh, oh!” Kevin said. “We’re outta here!” He and Mega Man jumped into the hole. Just after the first two blades had flown by, Kevin and Mega Man popped their heads up from the hole, and Kevin started blasting blades.

“All aboard!” Rush invited, turning into a jet. “Arf!” Kevin, Duke, and Mega Man piled onto the robotic dog.

“Come on, Rush; kick it!” Mega Man said. Rush’s rockets did not want to start up at first, but they did. Kevin, Mega Man, and Duke held on as Rush narrowly avoided the blades. One blade sliced through a ventilation pipe, which fell towards Doc Robot! The robot gasped as the pipe fell on him and crush him.

Skull Castle sneezed and sent the four heroes sprawling on the ground outside. A blue warp opened in front of them, and Dr. Right came out. “Mega Man! Captain N! Dr. Wily’s stolen the peace robot! We’ve got to find him!” Several gigantic footsteps approached them.

“Ah, I think we just did,” Kevin remarked, on his hands and knees.

The peace robot approached the heroes and stopped. Wily was in the cockpit. “I guess you didn’t get my point,” he said, operating the control. A bolt shot past the five heroes.

“Whoa!” said Kevin, now in a sitting position. He drew his Zapper and fired at the large robot. “This game is getting hot! Too hot!” His shots burned the robot’s right foot, and the robot started stomping.

“I’ll crush you like insects for that!” Wily shouted. As he stomped, a branch holding a nest of robo-bees fell off a nearby tree and landed next to Duke, who yapped. The canine suddenly got an idea! “Good-bye, pests!” Wily said with a despicable grin to Kevin, Mega Man, and Dr. Right. He saw two dogs flying towards him. . . Rush as a jet, holding a rock with his legs, and Duke riding on Rush and holding the branch with the robo-bee nest. “What the. . .?” As the dogs approached, Rush dropped the rock, cracking a hole in the glass canopy. Wily hit the deck to avoid getting hit. As he looked up, he saw the branch with the robo-bee nest fall through the hole and crash next to him. “Yipe! Yipe! Robo-bees!” He started racing in circles around the circular control chamber to avoid being stung by the robotic bees. “Help!” he cried, and he muttered unintelligible cries as he ran. As he ran, the robot also ran in circles, and the two humans and the robot on the ground laughed.

The peace robot’s left foot hit a stone, and the robot fell on its face, demolished. Wily ran away, screaming, “Yaah! Bees!” He screamed unitelligible phrases as the bees chased him away.

“I wonder what got into Dr. Wily,” Dr. Right said.

Rush landed on the ground near them. “Something must be bugging him!” the mechanical mutt laughed as Duke got off him. “Harf, arf, arf, arf!”

“Did you say something?” Kevin and Mega Man asked each other simultaneously. They turned to their dogs.

“Duke, you can talk!” Kevin exclaimed. Of course, they both knew which dog could talk, but they just had to be competitive about whose dog was better.

“No way!” Mega Man said. “That was Rush!” The dogs looked at each other and then leapt on their masters, proceeding to lick their faces! Dr. Right smiled in amusement.