Well, first, he starts off very far from Wily's Fortress. After making it through the intro stage, he sees Wily's Fortress, which has a *gasp* giant skull on top. Then, as Mega Man is about to attack the fortress, he realizes he forgot something. He has to defeat the 8 robot masters in order to go any further because we all know that we just can't go to Wily's Fortress right away or else that would cause a paradox and an end to all existence as we know it.