Boomstick: Immortality? Not on this show! Time to find out which Mega Man is the most mega of the men.
Wiz: While there are many versions of the character to choose from...
Mega Man: Mega mega!
Wiz: Not that one! This battle will feature the five most prominent: the Classic-era Mega Man...
Boomstick: Mega Man X...
Wiz: Volnutt from the Legends series...
Boomstick: Battle Network's MegaMan.EXE...
Wiz: And the alien Star Force Mega Man.
Capcom's legendary robot hero returns once more in the second outing of season six, the theme of this match being a showdown that pits the blue bomber and his successors from timelines both future and alternate against one another. Each of these azure warriors, technological in nature, has his own take on the concepts which have defined the character, be it upgrades to their armor or allies that grant them weapons, but now, these five most iconic Mega Men, Classic; X; Volnutt; .EXE; and Star Force, come into this storied arena and prepare to establish themselves as the worthiest upholder of this shared legacy through a death battle.
Having five combatants to study, it seems fitting to start at the beginning of the storied legacy that connects them; thus, first up to the plate is the original Mega Man, the crown jewel of Dr. Thomas Light's foray into robotics. In the 21st century, Light and his colleague Albert Wily developed machinery with complex intelligence capable of imitating flesh and blood life. The relationship of the two scientists would only end in tragedy between them thanks to the concept of heightened awareness being Light's own idea; a world where humans and robots could live as equals was the scientist's vision, and the committee overseeing the pair's efforts abandoned Wily's research in favor of Light's independent thought robots. The two scientists graduated together, but Wily, perpetually trapped in the shadow cast by Light and his discoveries, vanished from the world's eye to plot his revenge. With Light going on to become the leading voice in robotics, he put his knowledge into creating domestic servant robots, and would ultimately call upon their services when Wily finally returned; his disappearance gave him the time he needed to found his own robot factory and reprogram a handful of Light's stolen industrial robots to serve as the vanguard of an offensive to conquer the world. Light's lab assistant, Rock, would offer himself to the good doctor, and Thomas gratefully accepted, upgrading and amplifying Rock's combat capabilities to those on par with the rogue robots. Rechristened as Mega Man, the robot would take the fight to Wily's forces, halting the villain and his armies time and again.
Though the intent behind his creation was never fighting, Rock adapted to his new role well enough. The robot's frame is crafted from a ceramic-titanium alloy far more durable than ordinary titanium to capable of withstanding extremes in temperature, and has since been installed with the Double Gear system, Wily's original product whose cancellation led him down the path of villainy. The Double Gear system can temporarily overclock Mega Man's systems, and as the name implies, consists of two key components; the Speed Gear, which heightens Rock's speed and reflexes to such an extent that time seems to slow down around him, and the Power Gear, amplifying the speed and potency of his attacks. In the way of firepower, Mega Man's go-to weapons are the Mega Busters, arm cannons that fire limitless amount of concentrated solar energy as ordinary rapid-fire rounds or charged shots. The true centerpiece of Mega Man's combat protocols, however, would be the Variable Weapons system, a program that enables him to acquire samples from a fallen robot's weaponry to use for his own. Having acquired over a hundred of these special weapons from fallen robots, it should go without saying that Mega Man has no shortage of munitions to do battle with and it would take a tremendous amount of time to properly list every entry. Summarizing the general array of powers via the Variable Weapons system instead, Mega Man has access to various elemental projectiles, explosive devices, a number of rotating barriers, ceratanium-based weapons, and more esoteric fare still, such as localized meteor strikes and condensed black holes. As an additional, final measure, Mega Man can also call upon the aid of his robotic canine companion Rush, and merge with him using the Super Adaptor. Under its effects, Mega Man is granted flight and launch his fists to act as homing projectiles.
Light's original hero and truly his most iconic has saved the world from destruction multiple times over, and Mega Man has proven himself more than capable of the task. The robot has demonstrated an impressive number of accomplishments during his exploits of fighting evil, such as keeping one of Wily's 60 thousand ton towers from crushing Light and Wily by singlehandedly keeping it aloft and defeating Sunstar, a robotic super-weapon capable of exerting 7 trillion megatons of force. In speed, Mega Man can keep pace with Quick Man, a robot who regularly outpaces thunderbolts and can even reach light speed at his max potential. Little doubt remains as to why Wily's machinations of global conquest are constantly halted, but even Mega Man can be undone given the proper foe. Every one of his weapons sans the Mega Buster rely on a finite supply of energy, meaning each weapon has to be conserved for the proper situation. The Double Gear system likewise has a time limit upon which it operates; exceeding this limit renders a gear inaccessible for a brief time, and while Mega Man can use both gears while in critical condition, it massively overheats his systems, temporarily weakening him. These weaknesses force Mega Man to fight strategically, using each weapon and gadget available to him for the right moment. Luckily for humans and robots alike, Light's greatest legacy has always worked past them to ensure there would always be a hero to fight on their behalf for everlasting peace, no matter how many times Wily and his plots start anew.
Mega Man: (happily walking forward) Mega Man? I like it!
The classic Mega Man fought for peace tirelessly, but as proud as Light was, he knew that greater potential to fulfill his vision lie in wait; he took to designing a robot who was free to make his own decision in life, and from his efforts spawned the next in the Mega Man lineage, Mega Man X. X was unique among Light's creations in that he bore limitless potential without being constrained by the three laws of robotics as Mega Man was before him, but having dealt with Wily's forces numerous times before, the robot sparked concerns within his creator. Out of a fear that his moral programming had been underdeveloped and grant an ultimate menace unto the world, Light had X sealed way in a special capsule to judge the robot's capacity of gauging right and wrong, knowing he would not live to see his final creation enter the world. The testing took several decades to complete and it would not be until the world reached the 22nd century that the archaeologist Dr. Cain would find the remains of Light's laboratory, and with it the capsule holding X. Cain took to developing an immeasurable number of androids modeled after X, but even after studying the schematics Light left behind, Cain never put his own creations through the same rigorous morality testing. In the years that would come, Cain's replica androids, which would be colloquially referred to as Reploids, developed irregular violent behavior. These Maverick Reploids would plunge the world into turmoil and strife, and Cain, realizing the mistakes he made by bringing these androids into the world, made amends by forming an organization known as the Maverick Hunters, the task force assigned to arrest irregular Reploids. As the Mavericks were based off his own designs, X joined the Hunters and followed in the legacy of his predecessor, working tirelessly to keep the peace between humanity and Reploids.
Light designed X to be the successor to all his prior creations, even the original Mega Man, and X has proven he has functioned well beyond the doctor's expectations. Like with the original Mega Buster, the Maverick Hunter's X-Buster can fire off rapid shots of solar energy and store energy into a charge for a more powerful burst. X has another weapon in his arsenal in the form of the Z-Saber bequeathed to him by his comrade in the Hunter forces, Zero; the saber generates an energy blade sharp enough to slice through virtually any substance. However, the ability to possess and utilize a diverse number of weapons is a hallmark of any Mega Man, and just as the original had a Variable Weapons system, so too does X have his own upgraded model. Dozens of Mavericks have fallen at the hands of X, and their weapons have thus become his to use. streams of fire and lightning, personalized barriers, drones, even the abilities to generate black holes and freeze time, all of these weapons may give one the impression that X's arsenal is merely a repeat of the original Mega Man's powers, but where X proves to be better still is in his capacity to charge energy into and enhance these weapons; to list just one of several examples, the Chameleon Sting, a tri-directional ray of light, temporarily renders X invulnerable while charged. For an additional increase in his already-phenomenal power, X can equip himself with the Ultimate Armor as, true to its name, his most versatile armor; while it may not have certain features of his other armors, the fact that it supplies X with flight, unlimited energy for his weapons, and access to certain spiritual martial arts still demonstrate its undeniable benefits. Topping the versatile arsenal of X is the Mother Elf, the sapient program reverse-engineered from the Maverick Virus responsible for corrupting Reploids; through her powers, X can repair himself and rewrite a Reploid's code, essentially letting him manipulate cybernetic beings.
Throughout the constant struggle against Mavericks, X has never surrendered to their machinations. The X in his name stands for the X-Factor that embodies his endless evolutionary potential, and he continues to prove Light's work has been put to good use. The X-Factor is the vital piece of the Maverick Hunter that permits him extraordinary feats such as regenerating his whole body from just the core. It has also proven X as capable of dodging beams of weaponized light and defeating the General, an unwitting pawn of the Maverick Hunters' rogue leader Sigma. To emphasize the volume by which this latter feat speaks, the General withstood the full brunt of a laser designed by Sigma meant to destroy the planet; as such a laser would have 57 quadrillion tons of energy behind it, the fact that X was able to best him in combat is a testament to his continuous capacity to evolve and grow. Indeed, with the aid of the Mother Elf, X was able to simultaneously purge the Maverick Virus from every afflicted Reploid in the world, ushering in a new era of peace for society, though as is the nature of these things, such a peace was only brief, and when the world was plunged into war once again, X was there to fight alongside his fellow heroes.
Several thousand years after this, the world would be ravaged beyond the wars that came after X's time. A mysterious Master System wiped out the survivors of these wars still left on the planet, operating from the miniature world of Elysium hovering above the earth. To take the place of both humanity and Reploids, it produced and managed the numbers of artificial humanoids known as Carbons, while the few humans left existed on-board Elysium. Despite its intended purpose of being a utopia where aging and disease were no longer around to plague mankind, unknown circumstances took the lives of every human aboard Elysium, except for one, the enigmatic Master. Alongside Sera, the chief protectorate of Elysium, and his Carbon assistant Mega Man Trigger, the Master lived an eternal, yet hollow life as one of the few beings aboard the colony; this would all change when Trigger accompanied him to the planet below, now known as Terra. The Master would see how the Carbons lived happily despite still being burdened with the same hardships that troubled mankind for millennia before, coming to the conclusion that Elysium and the continued existence of the Master System were both tragic mistakes. Being away from Elysium for even this long proved to be fatal to the Master, who used his final moments to give Trigger a final request to purge the Master System of all the data it held regarding humanity and take Elysium down with it. Trigger, despite being a Carbon meant to eliminate threats to the Master System, upheld the Master's promise, much to the consternation of Sera. In order to deal with the threat herself, Sera traveled to Terra, where and Trigger both expended their energy in their ensuing showdown; Trigger, in particular, was almost completely destroyed in the fight and his Carbon form forcibly regressed to the state of an infant to save him. Several years later, the scavenger miners known as the Caskett family found Trigger in stasis and adopted him into their ranks. Without any knowledge of the events prior, Trigger was trained in the way of the diggers, officially becoming the next entry in the line based off Light's creations, Mega Man Volnutt.
During his travels with the Casketts, Volnutt faces off against a number of foes like the Mega Men before him, and as if to assert his heroism in the legacy, he is also a versatile Carbon. His left arm houses the Mega Buster which is a mainstay of any who bears the Mega Man title, and through attachments that can be installed onto the Buster, his arm cannon can utilize rapid fire shots that can range in power, speed, and range. His right arm, meanwhile, can be outfitted with any of a wide number of weapons; though Volnutt can only wield one such weapon at a time, they encompass a wide array of weapons, such as various firearms, missile and grenade launchers, and unassorted melee weapons. The greatest weapon on offer to Volnutt, however, would be none but the Shining Laser, a beam with long range, and, unusual among Volnutt's weapons, consumes no energy while in use. Although impressive enough on its own merits, Volnutt's capacity for adaptation merely begin with firepower; the Carbon has a similar variety in the way of utility parts. The pieces that Volnutt can equip himself with include armor that reduces damage received from enemy attacks, barriers that protect him from elemental damage, further barriers that can temporarily render him invulnerable, and most diverse, a number of skates and shoes that can improve Volnutt's mobility and protect him from a number of hazards.
On paper, Volnutt may not be as impressive as his predecessors, and in all fairness, there is some truth to the claim. Unlike Rock and X, Volnutt is limited to his Mega Buster and only one other weapon at a time, which run off a shared pool of energy, and his arsenal lacks the excessively fantastic miscellanea of the prior two. Another few points of difference between the original robot and Reploid compared to the Carbon, the latter has to manually swap between weapons, and even his special weapons restrict him to one spot while operating them. Indeed, Volnutt comes across as the least imposing Mega Man yet, but in doing so, it is easy to forget that he is still a formidable foe against the forces that threaten his existence and those of the Casketts. Volnutt can outrun meteors entering Terra's atmosphere at Mach 33 or withstand their impact head-on, and has both caused and survived explosions with payloads equivalent to dozens of tons worth of TNT. Since then, Volnutt went to defeat Sera upon their return to Elysium. The last known location of Volnutt would be aboard the station stranded alongside Sera as the Master System's predecessor came online. The Casketts mounted a search party to rescue him from his plight, but the fate of their outing has yet to become clear, thus marking, for the foreseeable future, the end of the path started by Light and the original Mega Man.
Yuna: Why?
Mega Man Volnutt: I know Roll. She'll come looking for us, no matter what happens!
Although that may have been the end of the original Mega Man mythos, the legacy of the blue bomber continues on in its own way. Another reality that exists alongside that of Rock, X, and Volnutt had its own Thomas Light; this esteemed scientist, here known as Tadashi Hikari, revolutionized science and the world not through robotics, but through computer networking. Hikari's research has since led to the Internet's integration into every facet of life, and as every piece of electronic equipment has been affected by this change, the doctor's work created another dimension, Cyberworld. This digital world exists mainly for the convenience of the physical one, processing constant input of data and enabling every system connected to the Internet to function; aiding in this operation are semi-sentient computer programs known as Internet Navigators, or NetNavis for short, stored within an individual's personal terminal. All of these elements would come together in the form of Tadashi's adolescent grandson, Lan Hikari. Though he inherited his grandfather's intelligence, Lan had little in the way of motivation at school, instead focusing on his livelihood of quelling viruses within Cyberworld alongside his personal NetNavi, MegaMan.EXE. In truth, MegaMan is the digital embodiment of Lan's older brother Hub, converted into data as a final measure to overcome a fatal heart condition he was stricken with at birth; for that reason, the bond he shares with Lan grows to become more intimate than most people have with their NetNavis. When the cybernetic mafia WorldThree caused a series of technological malfunctions in Lan's home of ACDC Town, he and MegaMan were pit against the criminal organization to unravel the intent behind the attacks, sparking the first of many conflicts that put the real world and Cyberworld on the line; in doing so, Lan would help the NetNavi truly become the first Mega Man of his timeline.
Despite the fact that he exists in a separate universe from the original lineage of Dr. Light, MegaMan.EXE is nonetheless a devoted upholder of justice in his world. The Mega Buster, that calling card of all Mega Men, is one that .EXE shares with his fellow heroes, and his own unique take on the weapon is the capacity to change the element fired by his shots. The true versatility in the NetNavi's arsenal, however, stems from Lan's collection of Battle Chips. Data storage cards that can be inserted into a user's terminal, Battle Chips provide a NetNavi a number of supporting measures; providing them with another means of attack, instantaneously recovering from injuries, stunning and incapacitating foes, virtually any effect that can be used in battle can be manifested through a Battle Card, and with Lan having over fifteen hundred Cards to his name, MegaMan.EXE is prepared for any eventuality. Some of the highest quality Battle Chips that Lan can supply .EXE with display power of apocalyptic proportions, and yet to claim that the NetNavi has potential even beyond Lan's immediate aid is unfathomable to think of, but it is still true all the same. When his soul is corrupted by Battle Chips saturated with dark energy, the NetNavi emits an aura barrier said to be capable of withstanding the collapse of the entire Cyberworld. Being a digital program, .EXE can withstand attacks that would prove instantly fatal to an ordinary human and be none the worse for wear. .EXE can cross over into the physical world should it require his presence or even use his close fraternal bond with Lan to merge their forms together to utilize the Hub Batch form, who can bend the Cyberworld to their whim.
To be the first Mega Man of a separate universe simultaneously means that Lan and his NetNavi are both trailblazers and new bearers of a reputation to live up to; thankfully, the brothers have proven themselves as worthy inheritors of the title. .EXE has fought and defeated Cybeasts, planet-sized viruses who could cause chaos across the internet with minimal effort, and withstood them exploding with 14 septillion tons of force. MegaMan has traveled the entirety of Cyberworld, comparable in size to the universe of the real world, in under a minute, and his Hub form can recreate the entirety of this universe as well. Truly, the NetNavi incarnation of the blue bomber is a force on a cosmic scale, but not all of his power can be attributed to him alone; Lan and his Battle Chips supply the wide assortment of powers associated with this specific Mega Man, and to incapacitate or otherwise render him unable to provide assistance weakens the full potential of .EXE. Even so, the ties that link these brothers together should be seen as a strength worth this drawback, one that has enabled the duo to save their respective worlds no less than six times over, even leading them to become leading scientists in the field of computer sciences once their adventures had concluded, just as Tadashi before them.
Different turns and developments have followed the march of progress within the series, each featuring their own interpretation of the classic character of Mega Man, but the 23rd century of an alternate universe marks the fifth and final combatant of the episode, set well after the perils faced in the Cyberworld. Like the computer intelligence renaissance of yesteryear, humanity has developed further breakthroughs in technology to expand their reach, this time harnessing electromagnetic, or EM waves. Mankind has begun to venture out into the stars, and it is the astronaut Kelvin Stelar who opens the story of the latest Mega Man; an inhabitant of the space station Peace when it exploded, all signs of Kelvin's presence within space vanished for three years, leaving behind his despondent son, Geo. The Stelar son would succumb to depression and neglect his schoolwork until one of Kelvin's co-workers bestowed upon him Kelvin's own set of Visualizer glasses that enabled him to see EM waves. Through the Visualizer, Geo first met Omega-Xis, the EM-based being which helped Kelvin survive the destruction of the Peace station and a refugee hiding from the malevolent members of the FM-ian race which he shared a home with. Recognizing Geo as Kelvin's son, Omega-Xis performed an EM wave change, combining with Geo to tackle threats both earthbound and cosmic. In doing so, the pair created the latest incarnation of the classic hero to carry on the never-ending battle for peace, the Star Force Mega Man.
In merging with Geo, Omega-Xis gives birth to a form much more powerful than either of its base components. A EM wave-based lifeform has its innate powers amplified by fusing with a physical being, and in turn, the human becomes part of the Waveworld, the complex web of EM waves surrounding the planet's surface; to describe it as Star Force's equivalent to its predecessor's Cyberworld would be something of an oversimplification, but accurate nonetheless. Within the Waveworld, Geo is invisible and, albeit requiring some effort to maintain, intangible to those in the physical world; the EM waves provided to him from Omega-Xis also grant Geo teleportation, flight, EM wave control, and the ability to manipulate machinery connected to the Waveworld. With regards to what ties him to the other Mega Men, the Mega Buster which Star Force uses happens to be the leonine maw of Omega-Xis, who also controls the arm said Buster is on. Unlike the others' Busters, Star Force's can automatically charge its shots' energy when not actively used, and can change the specifics of how his shots operate through Wizard Equips. Like .EXE, Geo can use similar technology as the Battle Chips to unlock other weapons to channel through Omega-Xis; these Battle Cards can turn the AM-ian into different weapons entirely. The traditional menagerie of weapons and supplementary powers are on display with Battle Cards, but more specific to Star Force are Cards that summon other EM beings to fight on his behalf and manipulate the excess energy emitted by EM waves, otherwise known as noise. Proper utilization of noise can disable technology and even allow Star Force to access even more imposing forms. Specifically, forms such as the Black Ace and Red Joker can unleash a tremendously powerful laser known as Red Gaia Eraser, capable of reducing one to EM particles.
Throughout their voyages, Star Force has put the combined powers of his base forms to good use. Geo himself can survive through the vacuum of space with the aid of Omega-Xis, while as Star Force Mega Man, he lived through falling into the event horizon of a black hole. The cosmic Mega Man has put down a wide number of EM threats, including Sirius, an EM being that manipulated the aforementioned black hole with a force of several decillion tons; enough to obliterate a whole solar system. Being made of EM waves, Star Force is automatically capable of moving as speeds comparable to that of light itself. Geo and Omega-Xis have even traveled through time to fight MegaMan.EXE within the Cyberworld; although the duo lost, they specifically held back their full potential strictly to ensure the existence of the future they hailed from. The most impressive feat of Star Force, however, may not be the foes the Mega Man has triumphed over or the obstacles he has pushed through, but perhaps it is finally ushering in an era of long-lasting peace for the world in which he calls home. In doing so, the human child and the EM wave alien have proved that peace between humans and the technological beings that co-exist alongside them can exist, ultimately meaning Light's vision of a world of humans and machinery living together can be made possible, and, distant though that proof may be, the long and storied series of events that have produced every Mega Man shows the development is worth working for, no matter the adversity in their way.
All five of the combatants have been studied, their place within the series understood, and all of them given a fair share of study. One advertisement for the Blue Apron cooking service later, and now, it's time for a death battle!
The setting sun bathes the skies above Abel City rich hues of orange as night begins chasing the daylight away. Standing atop one of the highest skyscrapers within the metropolis is the Purifier Unit Carbon of Elysium, Mega Man Volnutt. His admiration of the skyline is cut short by an iconic pinging sound as another cerulean robot warps onto the rooftop; the original Mega Man himself. Though Volnutt anticipates an imminent fight, the warrior's stances shared by he and his original predecessor is interrupted by a triad of blue figures colliding into them from above: the Maverick Hunter, Mega Man X; the Star Force duo, Geo Stelar and Omega-Xis; and the Cyberworld hero, MegaMan.EXE. The five Mega Men recover and take their positions in a circle around one another; with Busters at the ready, the five blue marvels of technology charge their cannons with energy.
FIGHT!
The blasts from the cannons collide, flooding the rooftop with blinding light. X leaps backwards from the others and nimbly dodges .EXE's Yo-Yo3 Battle Chip, forcing the NetNavi to follow up with a barrage of energy shots. With the other three Mega Men, Rock juggles Star Force with an Air Shooter while Volnutt's own energy shots are ignored. X closes the distance and knocks the Carbon off the tower with a well-timed Shoryuken; watching the Master's assistant fall, however, leaves the Maverick Hunter open to an ambush from Light's original creation. A sliding tackle later and X suffers the same fate as Volnutt, with a Hard Knuckle shot sending the Reploid careening into the asphalt below. Rock touches down a moment after and draws a series of Metal Blades to hurl at X; to his credit, the Reploid swerves around the ceratanium blades and retaliates by charging the Thunder Dancer through the X-Buster. Upon the rooftop, .EXE and Star Force meet in a clash of energy sabers, tinting the battleground purple from the sheer power exerted with each repeated collision. The EM wave warrior sends a barrier towards .EXE, but the shield is shattered by a current of pressurized wind. .EXE closes the distance with a diving tackle, but Geo phases into EM waves to dodge the attack. Not a second after this does Star Force re-emerge from nothingness, catching the reborn Hub with a flurry of saber slashes that knock him into the concrete roof. MegaMan recovers, but is soon confronted by Geo focusing tremendous amounts of energy into his Mega Buster; the NetNavi meets this by charging his own Buster. The moment the alternate Mega Man meets his successor, the area surrounding them begins to warp from the power coursing through both arm cannons.
Back with the original duo, Rock and X continue to trade charged Buster shots; the ceratanium robot ups the ante by channeling the Power Gear to unleash a pair of fully charged blasts. Once again, X darts past the solar energy, sending his precursor into the heavens with an upward slash from the Z-Saber. Being juggled for a few extra seconds before unceremoniously collapsing onto the ground, the original Mega Man is helpless before X, but fortune smiles upon the robot; Volnutt has leapt back into the skirmish, garnering the attention of the Maverick Hunter. This distraction gives Rock the opportunity to capitalize on X's peturbance by launching a Crash Bomber into the Reploid's face. The explosion knocks Rock away, but the Maverick Hunter still stands despite the cheap shot. The situation grows dire for the first Mega Man as he calls his faithful companion Rush to his side; the robotic canine collides with Rock, unlocking his Super Adaptor form. X watches unamused before channeling a luminous flare around himself. The light dies down to reveal X clad in the Ultimate Armor, his injuries seemingly repaired. The two powered-up Mega Man lock eyes with Volnutt, whose eyes are flared open with alarm. It seems, however, neither of the other robots have any interest in him, best displayed by X slicing through a charged Buster Shot with the Z-Saber. Volnutt's misfortunes only worsen once Star Force and .EXE slam into him after their own collision. Once the Carbon comes to his senses, abject horror paints his face; it becomes apparent his four nemeses have formed a temporary truce to do away with him. The Black Hole Bomb, the Gravity Well, the Blckhole Battle Chip, and a Black Hole Battle Card are all aimed at the unfortunate Carbon. Volnutt tries desperately to run away, but the four Mega Men launch their weapons simultaneously, forming a singularity that threatens to consume all five.
Mega Man, watching everyone else struggling to outrun the event horizon, unleashes Time Stopper to freeze the moment as it is. Dr. Light's prized creation soars throughout the battlefield, but stops upon seeing the vulnerable form of X. The Super Adaptor-empowered Mega Man aims his vermilion Buster as the Maverick Hunter, but what seems to be a moment to take out a prime target turns against Rock's favor; X has used the Dark Hold to negate his predecessor's own time-stopping weapon and the Soul Body to create a decoy of himself. Mega Man only realizes the strategy once the real X ambushes him from behind and impales him on the Z-Saber, only to be catapulted into Volnutt as the time stop wears off. The impact of ceratanium against his frame launches Volnutt into the black hole which proceeds to consume him entirely; one down, three to go. The cybernetic Mega Men resist the pull of the black hole's gravity, but X's own attempt as escaping is halted by Rock grabbing hold of him. The Hunter aims both X-Busters at Rock when the duo are absorbed into the black hole as it collapses in on itself and levels the city in the process afterward. A green orb falls among the wreckage. .EXE takes a moment to recover from his wounds with another Battle Chip, but Geo Stelar's own opportunity to do so is interrupted as the orb releases vast amounts of energy; X's eponymous factor has rebuilt him from within the core. Star Force is perplexed by this development, but MegaMan proves more defiant, firing a series of energy shots at the EM wave hero. Star Force evades every round chasing him, while on X's front, a lustrous white glow hones in on the arm cannon before X fires the Mother Elf at Geo Stelar.
The EM-based Mega Man catches the sapient program head-on; Star Force grips the Mother Elf and channels EM waves into her before she bursts in an explosion dwarfed by the light of the surrounding laser. Star Force continues charging forward and stuns X as he barrels past the Reploid. It is with cruel irony that X's confusion is supplanted with a murderous visage plastered upon his crimson eyes; through Geo Stelar manipulating him from within, the Maverick Hunter has turned into a Maverick himself. The NetNavi only has the quickest of times to react before putting up his Dark Aura force field to absorb Geo's Red Gaia Eraser augmented with X's own power. The shield begins to crack under the intense pressure of the attack, but .EXE soldiers onward, tapping into Lan's presence and unleash his Hub Batch form. In his empowered state, the original cybernetic Mega Man rushes towards X as he fires a concentrated beam that cuts through the inferno. Trapped within the beam, X's form dissolves into nothingness, leaving the vulnerable Star Force remaining. The intensity of the laser proves to be too much for Geo or Omega-Xis to bear, as the light from .EXE's laser grows increasingly brilliant. Once the beam dissipates, only the hero of ACDC City remains, the lone survivor of the once-proud Abel City. .EXE stares in uncomfortable awe at the mayhem wreaked upon the city, his cringe only intensifying as the remains of the original tower collapse behind him; the Cyberworld warrior clearly more concerned by the cost at which his victory has come.
K.O.!
With the match's conclusion, it falls upon the hosts to emphasize the nature of the match-up and how each participant would fare; simply put, the original three Mega Men are certainly powerful and formidable, but they all paled in comparison to their cybernetically based counterparts, both of whom regularly display cosmic-tier feats. In particular, Volnutt has been portrayed as having the least impressive feats and by far the weakest arsenal, thus meaning he would be the most likely of the five Mega Men to fall first. The original Mega Man would at least have a much wider selection of weapons to utilize, but without any sort of way to infinitely replenish their ammunition, it would only be a matter of time before the remaining three eliminated him; in addition, it is both reiterated and proven that X was designed to be Rock's better in every conceivable way, guaranteeing victory would fall out of his reach. However, this means X would be the next of the Mega Men to fall; the Mother Elf may have proven capable of overwriting the Maverick Virus, but both .EXE and Star Force have had experience dealing with similar programs, meaning they could analyze and neutralize X's trump card. With the combatants of the original timeline all eliminated, the fight thus came down to the original .EXE of the alternate continuity versus his successor in Star Force, and surprisingly, Geo proved to be inferior despite the 200-year gap in technology. The pair's duel in the Cyberworld has canonically verified both combatants were holding back and also proved .EXE could damage Star Force despite his EM-based composition. Even putting this aside, the NetNavi's best showings trumps those of Geo Stelar by an ludicrous margin. Star Force Mega Man could move at three million times the speed of light, but in traveling through the Cyberworld, already established as being the size of the real world's universe, MegaMan.EXE can move at three novemdecillion times lightspeed, marking not just the greatest speed record in the battle, but in the show by far. Even in terms of destructive capability was Star Force outmatched; hit defeating a foe with solar system-destroying potential is miniscule compared to .EXE destroying and recreating an entire universe on his own accord. To further hammer in .EXE's victory, his collection of Battle Chips from Lan was much larger and versatile than Geo's Battle Cards and could neutralize the other Mega Men whenever he wanted thanks to a number of them being made for use against robotic foes; the only exception would be Volnutt, as his weapons are mechanical, but once more, .EXE's feats vastly overshadow his. Ultimately, while all five Mega Men are paragons of justice and righteousness in their own times, it was .EXE who proved to stand head and shoulders above his kin, leaving the others unable to keep up.
Wiz: The winner is MegaMan.EXE!
The Mega Man Battle Royale contains examples of:
- Always Someone Better: The Battle Network/Star Force timeline Mega Men are this compared to the Classic/X/Legends timeline Mega Men. MegaMan.EXE and Geo have feats in strength, speed, and durability that far exceed what Rock, X, and Volnutt can do thousands of times over due to them being on a cosmic scale rather than a planetary one. Even within the timelines, there are absurd gaps in abilities.
- X naturally supersedes the Classic Mega Man due to being literally designed to be superior to him in every single way. Volnutt was the weakest of all the Mega Men and was completely overshadowed by everyone.
- .EXE far outclasses Geo. While they may have matched each other in a canon fight in the past, they were both holding back and it was a post-final game Geo fighting a young .EXE. While Geo's maximum destructive abilities make him capable of obliterating solar systems, .EXE has destroyed and recreated an entire universe.
- Just to push this even further, the Classic/X/Legends timeline never had a happy ending after all the war and destruction that occurred in their games. The Battle Network/Star Force timeline was able to ensure that their world received a definitive happily ever after.
- Brick Joke: Early in Rock's rundown, the very first utterance of Mega Man Classic leads Boomstick to compare the future iterations with soda branding, including Diet Mega Man. It isn't until we get to Volnutt and his more underwhelming arsenal that leads to Boomstick calling him the real Diet Mega Man.
- The Bus Came Back: Returning since his defeat at the hands of Astro Boy back in season 2, Mega Man comes back on the show to face off against his successors. Only to end up entirely outclassed by three of his four foes.
- Butt-Monkey: Volnutt. A good portion of his analysis is spent making fun of him because while his feats would ordinarily be impressive, the previous two combatants easily overshadow them. Then comes the animation in which he has three of his opponents fall on him (along with Rock), gets punched off a building, his attacks are treated as a nuisance, which can easily be shrugged off, he's forced to come to the realization that his opponents have a Super Form while he does not, two of his opponents fall on him again, all four of his opponents team up to shoot black holes at him and finally he's pushed into a black hole by X throwing Rock at him. Even his one single advantage in the fight, being immune to .EXE's technology-based Battle Chips, is barely treated as compensation for how outmatched he is by the other four.
- Call-Back: X's death is eerily similar to his Arch-Enemy Sigma's, being hacked and overwritten by an opponent superior to them.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Take a nice long look at the post-match analysis again. Even in stats alone, every other Mega Man can't hold a candle to the ridiculously massive scale that .EXE operates on, and that's not counting how his weaponry and equipment was more diverse than all the other competitors combined.
- Enemy Mine: For no other reason other than disrespecting him further, all the other Mega Man momentarily team up to launch their respective Unrealistic Black Hole weapons at Volnutt (who, ironically enough, lacks such a weapon himself).
- Esoteric Happy Ending: An in-universe example when Boomstick points out that due to Mega Man Legends 3 being cancelled, any optimism that can be garnered from the ending of Legends 2, such as in Volnutt's end-of-analysis quote, is utterly meaningless."[...] Love and peace are lies, God is dead, and we're all totally f***ed!"
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: The states of the three Mega Men who survived the black hole's destruction are an indicator of where they place in the fight; X is reduced to his core and has to regenerate from it, Star Force is visibly damaged and missing an arm from the explosion, and .EXE is completely intact, having taken some damage but very quickly healing it off.
- Foregone Conclusion: X obviously stomps Rock, having been said to be his successor and superior in every way in the episode and previous ones.
- Foreshadowing:
- While talking about Volnutt's weaponry, Boomstick disparages his inability to freeze time or create a black hole. During the fight he is taken out by a black hole while time is frozen.
- The Mega Men enter the battle in the same order they leave it. Volnutt is present first, and is offed by the combined Black Hole without a prayer. Rock arrives next, and though the same singularity offs him, he manages to almost last until it blows. Then X, Star Force, and .EXE are unceremoniously dropped in — all three of them survive the Black Hole, and their specific farings represent their relative power levels (see Five-Second Foreshadowing above).
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Downplayed but Rock is eventually killed by the black hole he helped create. X himself is also dragged into said black hole that he helped create, but his core survives and regenerates from it.
- Lame Pun Reaction: Wiz once again attempts to make a pun. Boomstick found it even worse than Volnutt's name.
- I Meant to Do That: Said word for word by Boomstick when he accidentally blows a hole through the studio wall with the Mega Buster.
- No Body Left Behind: Happens to all four Mega Men over the course of the battle.
- Both Volnutt and Rock are destroyed by the black hole Rock, X, .EXE and Geo created.
- .EXE's final attack is a giant laser to completely disintegrate X and Geo. Justified in this case as .EXE previously witnessed X regenerate from his core after a black hole destroyed his body.
- Oh, Crap!: Tons of them:
- At the beginning, one from .EXE when Star Force catches him with a sneak attack.
- Volnutt has one with the four Mega Men aiming their respective black hole weapons at him.
- He also has one when Rock and X bust out their super modes, likely realizing how screwed he is against them.
- Rock's reaction when the X he targets turns out to be a fake.
- Also his reaction to seeing that X is immune to his time stopper abilities.
- Overshadowed by Awesome:
- Poor Mega Man Volnutt. He may be a powerful robot in his timeline, but compared to literally every other Mega Man, he's a complete joke. He never gets to do anything meaningful in the fight and he gets unceremoniously killed when all the others fire their black holes at each other and X throws Rock at the giant black hole, who accidentally hits Volnutt and launches him into it as the first kill.
- The Classic Mega Man is naturally overshadowed by Mega Man X, as the Maverick Hunter is his complete superior by design.
- All of the main series timeline Mega Men are overshadowed by Geo Stelar, whose feats are solar-system level as compared to the planetary-at-best feats of X, plus Geo's hacking ability surpasses anything the main series Mega Men have encountered.
- MegaMan.EXE completely overshadows all of them, even Geo Stelar. While the others have powerful feats in their own right and Geo is practically a solar system buster, .EXE is an outright universe buster.
- Pyrrhic Victory: .EXE might have won the battle, but he quickly realizes the entire city is in ruins and is definitely not happy about this.
- Rock Beats Laser: Very much subverted. While Volnutt's manual weapon system meant that he was immune to being disabled by .EXE's and Geo's hacking abilities, said advantage didn't matter as he was outclassed by everybody else in stats and weaponry.
- Shout-Out:
- Boomstick comparing the Battle Network/Star Force universe's Cyberworld to the Digital World in the Digimon multiverse.
- Related to Boomstick, when he complains about the animals around his trailer becoming smarter, the screen in the background displays the infamous GEICO commercial with the squirrels staging a car crash.
- When X is revealed to have countered Rock's time stop with his own time stop, the JoJo's Bizarre Adventure kanji for the menacing atmosphere are used, obviously referencing Jotaro countering Dio's time stop with his own.
- Stealth Pun: All the fighters (With the exception of Volnutt, seeing as how they’d be too small) have their strength and toughness feats listed in the units of, what else, megatons of TNT.
- Super Mode: Every Mega Man present sans Volnutt features one: the Super Adaptor for Rock, Ultimate Armor for X, the Hub Form for .EXE, and Red Joker for Star Force; and they all get some sort of spotlight in the battle proper.
- Super Prototype: MegaMan.EXE is a precursor to Star Force, but is the stronger of the two.
- Super-Speed: All the Mega Men have this. In ascending order:
- Volnutt has dodged meteors entering the atmosphere, putting him well over 33 times the speed of sound.
- Classic Mega Man has proven to be superior to Quick Man, who's faster than lightning and can come close to the speed of light.
- X can easily dodge Optic Sunflower's solar beams, making him faster than light.
- Geo has proven superior to other EM-beings capable of reaching the center of the Milky Way galaxy in under three days. This means he can move over 3 million times faster than light.
- .EXE surpasses all the above by so much it's frankly not even a contest. He searched the entire Cyber world in under a minute. Since the Cyber world is about as large as the known universe, this means that .EXE is over 3 novemdecillion times faster than light. Easily the fastest of the Mega Men and the fastest character (or second-fastest if you count The Flash's potentially infinite speed) in all of Death Battle thus far.
- Take That!: Wiz is very quick to bring up that the Mega Man from Captain N: The Game Master will not be involved with the fight at all and wasn't even considered.
- Taking You with Me: Rock attempts this in the fight by dragging X with him into the black hole. He succeeds at bringing X in, but his core just rebuilds him after it collapses.
- Throw the Dog a Bone: Despite all the Mega Men being completely outclassed by .EXE, they are given some leeway.
- Volnutt has legitimate immunity to the disabling abilities of .EXE and Geo due to his weapons being manual, not digital. He may even have immunity to the Mother Elf Anti-virus. None of this helps him in the slightest, but it's still something. Even Boomstick concedes that "You got one, buddy."
- While Rock was superseded by X, he puts up a very impressive fight, holding his own and even managing a Taking You with Me final move. Additionally, the episode begins with the notation that all the other Mega Men serving as his successors has essentially granted Rock himself true immortality.
- X is shown to be the strongest Mega Man of the original timeline, lasting all the way to the Geo vs. .EXE fight, being responsible for Volnutt's and Rock's deaths, and doing a decent job as well as holding his own against the aforementioned cosmic-level Mega Men.
- In addition, the combined full-power of X and Geo was enough to crack the Dark Aura, a shield that can withstand the destruction of the Cyber World Universe.
- While Geo was out of his league against .EXE, he does have one feat that no other Mega Man has: ensuring his timeline ultimately had a happy conclusion.
- Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: From two separate timelines.
- Megaman vs his upgraded successor Mega Man X. Upgrade wins: X was specifically designed to exceed Rock in every way.
- MegaMan.EXE vs his successor Mega Man Star Force. Prototype wins: while both are cosmic level and completely outclass the other Mega Men, Star Force peaks at solar system levels of destruction, while .EXE is a universe buster.
- Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?:
- Boomstick considers "Volnutt" to be a very stupid name.
- Wiz is quick to assure viewers that the name of MegaMan.EXE's operator is in fact Lan.
- Geo Stelar and his father Kelvin get similar reactions from Wiz.
