"Now you're sure your ready, Billy?"
     "Yes, mom!"
     Billy's mother finished her habit of fixing his collar and looked at him.
     "Son, your becoming a man today... Where has the time gone..."
     Billy just stood there. He was eager to begin his rite of passage. He couldn't help being a little bit nervous, though. After all, he had been training for this very event for over 13 years, ever since he started developing his motor skills.
     Just then, a car horn blared and Billy kissed his mum goodby and ran out the door.
     In the 1989 Camaro sat Billy's friends Tyler, Derek, and Jez. They all looked pretty anxious to get going, just as Billy did.
     "Well, we're all here," chimed Dered, "We had better get moving, before we're late".
     The driver took off and headed south.

     Billy's eyes widened. The facility was huge. The waiting room alone was bigger than Billy's whole house.
     A man in a while coat came out of a door on the side of the receptionists' table.
     Without saying a word, the man handed each of the boys a clip-board and a newly sharpened #2 pencil. A few seconds later, 3 people in lab coats took the three waiting boys into seperate rooms.
     Billy looked down at his clipboard and saw the first question. He was expecting something like "name" or "birthdate", but he was asked something else instead.

     "YOU ARE GUTSMAN. YOU HAVE BEEN SENT TO DESTROY THE BLUE DEVIL, CODENAMED MEGA MAN. DO NOT BE DEFEATED"

     Billy looked up and he was in a new world. It took him a few minutes to realise that he was in mega man. He was 8-bit. He was Gutsman.

     After about 15 minutes in the alien NES world, Billy got the hang of things. Picking up rocks, throwing them at trees. Billy could move now.
      All of the sudden, the "blue devil" bolted onto the screen. A while pellet shot out at him.
     Direct hit.
     Billy lost the will to play. It didn't hurt when you were sitting with your best friend by your side and you got hit.
     Another hit.
     This time the shot got Billy going.
     Billy jumped over the speeking Mega Man and picked up a rock to hurl at his foe. It misses.
     Mega Man responed with a barrage of shots. Billy got hit again, and, for a short period of time, Mega Man's other shots went right through him and Billy was in a catatonic paradise. He felt like he was blinking in and out of paradise. Then he was real again.
     "Concentrate..." Billy said to himself, and threw another rock.
     This one hit, and took a considerable amount of damage off of megaman's life meter, which seemed to hover in the corner.
     Billy got in a couple more hits off, when Mega Man suddenly turned pink and started shooting razor-sharp boomerangs at him. These hurt even more than the pellets.
     Luckily, Mega Man was inexperienced with this weapon and didn't hit Billy much more.
     It was down to the end of the battle. Both required 1 more hit to die. Billy had one more rock, and he swiftly jumped over to it while dodging Mega Man's attacks.
     Billy picked up the boulder and cornered Mega Man. he helt the boulder high over his head, and let out a vicious scream.
     Just then Billy had an epiphony, which hit him like a ton of bricks. Mega Man was good. Mega Man was supposed to win. I am supposed to lose...
     Billy put down the boulder and closed his eyes, preparing himself for the ultimate sacrafice. Then there was white.

     The man in the white coat told him that he failed, and he would be welcome to come back in 3 months after he had had more practice.
     "I know..." said Billy.
     "I did what I had to do"
     And then he left.
     While Tyler was telling Derek and Jez about how he sucked the life out of Samus, Billy looked out the window.
     He looked out the window, and could almost see Mega Man smiling down on him from the gargantuan building.
     Billy smiled.