Author's Notes:  Just so everyone knows, a lot of the physics and ideas that I used in this story come from Mandi Paugh, of Mega Man Homepage fame.  If you haven't read her stories yet, I suggest you do, over at www.mmhp.net.  Anyway, most of you probably don't need to be told this, but I guess I have to put it up here to avoid lawsuit (I mean, why's it called a FAN-fiction, you'd think people would be able to figure this out)  I don't own most of these characters, most notably, I don't own Mega Man, Capcom does.  Some of these characters are indeed mine.  If you wanna use 'em, go ahead, but I prefer that you let me know beforehand.

I hope you enjoy the show.

The Enemy of My Enemy

It was a quiet day, too quiet.  But then, those are the days that Dr. Albert W. Wily liked the best.  They were perfect for causing trouble, and that's what he did best.  He paused over the security consoles of his recently constructed fortress and surveyed the many halls.  Checking the security measures once again to make sure that all systems were working optimally, Wily set about to bring his next plan into action.  Walking into his new lab, he paused to sniff the stale, fresh, air.  He loved that smell, but also resented it in a way, as it reminded him that the new lab was usually the result of the destruction of his previous structures.  But this time, it wasn't the case.  This particular structure was the second in two operational fortresses currently in his possession, with two more that would be online in a matter of weeks.  Things were going his way, and nothing was going to stop him now.  "After all," he mused to himself, "That blue nuisance never shows his face as long as I stay hidden, which gives me all the time in the world."  He sat down at the command console and went to work.

                After ten minutes of fixing the bugs in the new systems, Wily sat back and relaxed for a bit.  He felt a little thirsty.  "Computer, get me a glass of water, and make it quick!"  A few seconds later the water was set in front of him.  He loved being immediately obeyed; it was what life was all about.  Just as he finished the glass, security systems suddenly went yellow.  "What the blazes...that menace couldn't have found this place that quickly!" Wily scanned the console.  "Computer, pinpoint source of security breach." 

                "Affirmative."  The computer quickly pinpointed the problem through one of the cameras hidden around the perimeter.  "Long range scanners have picked up a metallic object 5.3 kilometers from the complex, heading at 30 kph towards the structure.  It appears to be metallic in origin but fits no profile of any such robot or craft in the database."

                Interesting.  "Computer, have all cameras in the field of vision zoom in on the device, I want a readout of all basic elements and any components that may be easily derived."  The cameras zoomed in and Wily got a good look at the thing.  It was basically a large sphere, with a single jutting eye on the front that glowed green, and what appeared to be an antenna sticking out the top.  It was nothing he'd ever seen before.  "What is this?  Is my old friend Thomas playing with a new toy, a reconnaissance probe perhaps?  I might learn something from this."  Then the readout came up.  "What the..." It was indeed something that he'd never seen before, nor was the configuration any more familiar.  It had metal parts to it all right, which was what the computer picked up, but that was the least of it.  It appeared to be organic! Its energy patterns were very similar to nerve signals of the human brain, and it seemed to be carbon based as well.  A cyborg?  In that kind of form?  Wily keyed his comm.  "Shadow Man, report."

                Wily's comm unit suddenly displayed a deep blue portrait with a silver four-fingered star on its forehead and white shoulders, wrists, and calves.  "Shadow Man here, what's all the commotion?"

                "We have a visitor, take Magnet Man and Elec Man and bring it here, in one piece, if possible."

                "Can do, Dr. Wily.  We'll have it in a short time."

                Wily thought for a moment, "On second thought, take Flash Man and use his time stopper to help, I want it unharmed, and be careful, I'm not sure exactly what we're dealing with."

                "Gotcha.   Shadow Man out."  The comm went black, and Wily began to prepare to examine his new guest.

* * *

He'd seen all the technology in the known world, and had even gotten the chance to examine the most advanced robot on the planet, Mega Man himself, but what Wily had in front of him, however, was a wonder all on its own.  His robots had little trouble bringing it in, though the "probe" had sprouted a small laser gun and zapped Magnet Man a few times, but Flash Man had stopped it cold.  They brought it in and Wily had set about finding a way to safely disable it. 

Now Wily had it caged, its laser gun dismantled and set under a different scanner.  The gun seemed to be a small armament, and appeared to do no more damage than a small plasma shot, but regardless, it was incredibly well focused, and its trigger mechanism was smaller than thought possible.  The probe itself was no bigger than two feet across.  Wily's scanners were helpless; nothing could recognize what it was.  It was indeed a living creature of some sort, but Wily guessed it had no free will of its own.  It was a complete robot in a way, but its body was a living being.  It could repair itself much like Mega Man, Wily contemplated it being a bioroid, as Mega Man was, but this was indeed no robot, it was an actual living creature.  And it would come in handy.  He set his systems to do a complete full inner and outer bionic scan.  The screen brought up anything it could make sense of, but there were still many elements that could not be defined.  Wily took a closer look.  No, they were not elements, they were minerals, he realized.  No wonder the computer couldn't define them!  Those metals were thought to be incompatible with each other, the computer couldn't recognize them until it had done a more specific scan.  What was more amazing was that these basic metals, when combined, formed an organic compound that made up the skin of the device.  It was extremely durable and could self seal, but it was not invulnerable.  Conventional weapons did normal damage, and bladed weapons did a bit better.  Aside from its resistance to plasma, the most interesting thing about it was its healing capabilities. 

"This couldn't be Dr. Light's." Wily said to no one in particular.  Though it was fairly safe to assume that the famous Dr. Light had superior technology to even Dr. Wily, he rarely used it for these purposes.  Besides, Light would never use organic molecules in his inventions.  His regard for life was too high.  Wily set about to download all he knew into his databases and made copies, which he promptly shipped to his other operational fortress.  Immediately after the upload was complete, klaxons began blaring. 

                "What!?" Wily turned to his command monitor, "What's going on!?  Computer, give me a reading!"  Security screens were showing only static. 

                "Camera systems being jammed, rerouting to manual signal.  Fortress hull has been breached on northwest wall.  Standby." 

Wily waited with waning patience.  Then the cameras came online.  Wily scanned the monitors.  "This had better not be that annoying Mega Man."  It wasn't.  Instead a horde of what appeared to be giant spiders were crawling through the halls, and they were packing weaponry.  Wily's eyes went wide.  "Alert, the fortress is being invaded, all robot masters report to co-ordinates 23-5A, and prepare to fight!"  A flashing red light caught Wily's attention.  Security systems were not responding!  Wily swore under his breath as he set about his consoles and went to work.  After a few seconds his comm beeped and Shadow Man's profile appeared.

"Hey, these things are putting up a fight, where's the backup!" 

"I'm working on it!  Anyway, it's not your concern, just get back to the fight you rusted scrap heap!"  As Shadow Man's profile disappeared, Wily went back to work, he hated it when his robots frustrated him, it was the downside to upgrading their artificial intelligence, but their fighting technique was greatly enhanced, and Wily was learning to put up with it. 

* * *

Meanwhile, Shadow Man and the robot masters who had responded first were having a difficult time.  These spider things did not want to give in, and they were awfully persistent.  He jumped as a shot came at his heels and let the apparent leader have another shadow blade.  Magnet Man was beside him, trying his best to hit the targets. 

"These things aren't attracted to magnets!  How am I supposed to hit them!?"

"Try aiming."  Shadow Man responded.

"You know very well my aim stinks, I'm not used to hitting things directly."

"Then put up your magnet shield and cover me."

"What good would that do?  It won't affect them."

"Yeah, but maybe you can block their shots and provide some cover."  Magnet Man seemed to think it over, then decided to try it.  His shield went up, but almost pulled Shadow Man right into him.  "Hey!  Lessen the intensity!  You're getting the wrong side!"  The magnetic pull dropped and Shadow Man was able to use him as adequate cover.  The shield seemed to block the creatures shots with successful efficiency, but he couldn't keep it up forever.  Shadow Man intended to use the cover to its utmost advantage.  Across the hall, Top Man took one hit too many and was gone in a flash of exploding energy.  Shadow Man hoped the enemy couldn't use the weapons of defeated masters like that annoying blue bomber, or he wouldn't be functioning very much longer.  Next to them, Knight Man and Wood Man followed example and used their own shields to provide cover while the Gemni Men plastered the enemy with plasma shots. 

The spiders they fought were seven-foot-tall war machines.  They didn't seem incredibly unstoppable, but there were a lot of them, and they kept coming.  "Wily had better get those security systems online or he's not going to have many robot masters left."  Magnet Man commented.  His shield had run out and he and Shadow Man had taken cover behind Wood Man while he recharged.  "Flash Man would have come in handy as well." 

Flash Man had been the first to reach the scene, but was almost immediately vaporized as five beams of intense light converged on him.  Right now those specific cannons were silent, but that was hardly a good sign.  Behind him, Shadow Man felt the ground vibrate, and wondered if the things had somehow gotten around behind them.  It wasn't the spiders; it was something more awesome.  The huge robot known as Hard Man rounded the corner, with Crash Man at his heels.

"Hey, sorry I took so long, what'd I miss?" Hard Man said.

"Not much, though you did miss the vaporization of Top Man and Flash Man."  Knight Man replied.

"Huh, well, sucks to be them.  What are we up against?" 

"Beats me, I've never seen anything like this, even in Wily's labs, and that's saying a lot." Magnet Man said.  Hard Man surveyed the battle.  "Hey, you gonna fight or just sit there?" 

"Oh, right, watch out everyone, I'm gonna jump."  The robots prepped themselves as Hard Man took a leap and landed with a resounding boom.  The enemy robots, whatever they were, were not prepared for the rumble and momentarily lost their balance.  Wily's robots wasted no time, and quickly poured on every shot they could get out.  One spider was blinded as a crash bomb attached itself over the visual sensor array.  A hard knuckle followed suit and set off the bomb as it collided with the spider.  The enemy exploded under the combined assault, taking a rather damaged ally with it.  Meanwhile, Shadow Man discovered that he could shear off individual legs with a single shadow blade.  Soon, legs began to fly left and right as the incapacitated bugs were quickly finished off. 

Though the masters fought hard, the onslaught continued.  Gemni Man was now down to his original self, and though his energy was getting low, he found that his laser did rather well against the things.  Knight Man's shield had taken too much damage to be any use and he abandoned it in favor of the jumping and dodging routine.  Wood Man was now their sole source of cover, as well as the occasional Magnet Man, but the masters found themselves being pushed further and further down the hallway, and faster than they would like to admit.  Hard Man tried another leap, but this time the spiders braced themselves as well, and were undeterred by the attack.  Frustrated, Hard Man fired a knuckle into the lead spider, knocking him into two others.  The knuckle continued down the hall and out the hole in the wall where it hit something and exploded.

"Got one!  But we can't keep this up much longer!" he said.

Just then, the masters heard the powering up of equipment, and lights suddenly lit the hallway.  The spiders began exploding one by one as defensive turrets and minor robots filled the hallway and poured blazing plasma and exploding projectiles into the invaders.  The security system was on-line.  The robots took a breather, not that they really needed it, but they didn't know what else to do.  Then Shadow Man's comm beeped.

"Shadow Man here, thanks for the assist doctor."

"Those blasted things had my systems jammed, you must've destroyed the one that was emitting the signal.  Anyway, I want you to bring me the least damaged of those things you can find, and I want it as intact as possible."  There was a pause, "Oh, and find that jammer if you can, I think it was outside." 

So, that's what Hard Man had hit, he thought to himself.  "Gotcha doc, Shadow Man out.  Hard Man!" he yelled across the hall, "Wily wants one of these things in the lab.  Crash Man, keep watch, the rest of you get your energy refilled, we might need it soon."  As the robots complied, Shadow Man walked through the hole and searched for the device that might resemble a signal jammer.    

* * *

The situation just kept getting more and more interesting.  Wily was busy with his next guest when Shadow Man walked in with what used to be a large box with legs and a double barreled cannon on the top.  It was now in pieces, thanks to Hard Man.  "Excellent," Wily said, "Put it on table three, and get back on patrol, who knows if more of these things are going to show up.

Shadow Man dropped the fragments onto the table and made a hasty exit.  Wily was still bent over the attacker bot.  It too, like the probe, was manly composed of organic matter, with metallic parts grafted to it.  He had managed to get the electronic computer components plugged into his own system, and was busy trying his best to see if the creature could be manipulated or reprogrammed.  After all, that's what Wily was famous for.  After a thorough examination and multiple attempts, he realized that the central programming was not in the electronic or mechanical portions, and after further examination, he discovered that the creature had its own brain, which was somehow being controlled by an external controller.  "It's a virtual living robot!"  He exclaimed, "But unlike Mega Man, it does not have its own free will!  Someone or something has the ability to convert living organisms into mindless drones!  This technology, I must know all the secrets to its use, then I could literally take over this planet!"  Wily went back to work with a new fervor.  His enthusiasm kept him up through a good part of the night.  It also kept him out of bed, and soon, Wily was asleep at the console.