A Duel In Love
It was a dark, starry summer night out as the entire city slept peacefully. The gentle summer breeze blew through the trees, and the temperature was the perfect mix between not too hot and not too cold. Now, I said that the entire city was sleeping, well that's not entirely true. There was one house that was almost always active, the laboratory and residence of Dr. Thomas Light. And outside the house, in the bushes of the garden, someone was stirring. A robot with pitch-black armour, laced with orange highlights, with a helmet in the shape of a cobra and a arm cannon where his right fist should be. His name was Bass, a creation of the nefarious , but in more recent times he had partially allied himself with Mega Man and Protoman. Mega Man thought it was for the simple reason that Bass also wanted to achieve world peace, but Protoman knew the real reason. Bass was in love with Protoman's sister Roll.
Roll sat in her room, thumbing through the pages of a book that was barely keeping her attention, while glancing out her window at the night sky from time to time. She was beginning to worry herself, as she hadn't seen eye or ear of her lover Bass in quite a few days.
"Where, 'o where are you, Bass?", Roll thought to herself, still thumbing through her book. At this point she was barely even paying attention to the book in her hand.
Meanwhile, Bass was standing on the ground below her window. He looked about, observing how to get in unseen.
"Treble!", Bass called to his faithful robotic dog companion, "I need you to boost me up to that tree branch so I get into Roll's room without anyone seeing me."
Treble nodded and laid down, spreading his paws out as he lowered his head. Bass stepped on Treble's nose, and with one swift thrust of his head upwards, Bass flew into the air and landed on the tree branch right outside of Roll's room. He looked in and licked his lips at the sight of Roll's nightgown. It was pink, see-through, and clung tightly to her breasts. Bass was craving her, and he couldn't wait any longer.
Meanwhile, down in the kitchen, Mega Man and Protoman were sitting up enjoying a warm cup of midnight tea. Protoman was uneasy, as he knew something was amiss.
"Quite the string of robot attacks recently, huh Rock?", Protoman asked.
"I suppose so, but luckily it hasn't been anything we couldn't handle.", Mega Man remarked with that usual smile on his face.
"Wish I could say that for you. On our last mission, Drill Man stabbed you in the stomach and spun you around like ruler with a pencil in it's hole.", Protoman laughed.
"That may be funny to you, but I was throwing up for the last two and a half days because of it!", shouted Mega Man.
"Sheesh, relax, bro. It's a joke!", Protoman chuckled, "I was simply pointing out that we're not always so careful. We need to be cautious that 's robot masters are getting stronger and stronger."
"We need some help, perhaps a third member. How about we ask for Bass' help?", Mega Man piped up. At those words, Protoman spit out his tea, spilling it all over the floor beneath him.
"Bass? Are you serious?", he cried, "He's nothing but a worthless little hothead punk! Not to mention that he treats our sister like a chew toy rather than a girlfriend! And to top it off, he's one of 's robots!"
"So what?", Mega Man asked, perplexed.
"So what? So, that means he's evil, no matter how good he acts on the surface!", Protoman continued to fume.
"You know something, Protoman. You said the same thing about another one of 's robots, and you were wrong.", Mega Man sternly stated. At that point, Protoman got up and walked away. Mega Man simply shrugged and went back to sipping his tea.
Back in her room, Roll had fallen asleep reading, when Bass climbed through her window and quietly walked up to her. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder and rocked her back and forth to slowly lull her back to concinous. Roll yawned and sat up, rubbing her eyes as they slowly opened. And the first thing she saw was Bass holding her close to him, with a warm smile on his face.
"Glad to see your awake, my love.", he cooed. Roll's eyes went wide and she threw her arms around him and locked her lips with his. Bass savoured the sweet satisfaction he got from Roll's lips almost instantly.
"Bass! I'm so glad to see you again!", she shouted with joy, "I was so worried about you."
"You act as if you thought I was dead or something.", Bass chuckled.
"No, no! Nothing like that! I just was worried where you were these past few days.", Roll explained.
"There's no need to explain yourself, my darling.", Bass said sweetly as he placed a finger up to Roll's lips, "All that matters is that I'm here now." Roll nodded and then went straight back to kissing him. The heat between them was intense, a natural result of being apart for so long. It seemed their little makeout session was bound to elevate, that was until Roll heard a noise at her door.
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK! That noise made her freeze with fear. She pushed Bass off of her, causing him to land on the floor. She frantically began pushing him back towards the window.
"Hey, hey, hey! What's the matter with you? I thought we were having fun.", Bass objected.
"We were, but now you've got to go!", Roll whispered loudly, pushing Bass closer and closer to the window, "You know you can't see me here at night! And that's probably Protoman or Dr. Light!"
"Or it could always just be Mega Man, whose perfectly fine with all this.", Bass suggested.
"We can't take that chance! Now get outta here!", she said, giving him one final push, and sending him tumbling out the window, where he landed on Treble who was sleeping peacefully up until that moment.
"GAAAAAARRRRRRRHHHHHHHHH!", screamed Treble at the top of his lungs as Bass landed on him. Bass quickly threw his arm over Treble's mouth, hoping to God nobody heard that.
Protoman swung the door to Roll's room open, looking around to see if everything was alright.
"Is something going on in here? I heard a noise.", he stated, clearly not amused. Roll put on the cutest, most innocent face she could and held her hands behind her back.
"Why no, dear brother, everything's fine.", she giggled.
"That's funny. You only call me 'dear brother' when you're nervous.", he pointed out as he leaned in to interrogate me further, "Are you sure nothing went on in here?"
"Absolutely I'm sure!", she happily assured him. Protoman smiled and hugged her.
"Alright, then. Get some sleep.", he bid her good night as he closed the door. Roll sighed in relief, and walked out to her window to find Bass lying on the ground, petting Treble.
"Bass!", she called to him. He immediately looked up and noticed her, climbing to his feet. "I'm sorry we don't get to spend any time together tonight, but you know the rules."
"Promise me tommorow, at least?", he asked with his hands in his pockets.
"...I promise. Now go get some rest.", she told him, "Good night, my love." And with that, Bass and Treble walked off down the street and into the night.
It was the next morning, the sun was brightly in the sky, and the birds were chirping. The Light family sat around the breakfast table, and Roll was uneasily looking at her watch every few minutes or so. She was worried, she had forgotten to give Bass a definative time to come. She knew he and Protoman almost never got along, so she had been on edge since she woke up.
"What's the matter, Roll? You seem kind of frazzled.", Mega Man commented, obviously worried.
"Oh, it's nothing.", she said, "Just a little tired still." At that moment, the front doors slid open, revealing Bass and Treble standing in them.
"Good morning, all.", Bass greeted them, "I'm looking for a little help with something."
"Plowing my sister, I bet.", Protoman snarled. He wasn't ever happy to see Bass, under any circumstances.
"Shut up, you.", Bass retorted, "I'm here to see Roll, yes. But I'm also here to ask Dr. Light for his help."
"Well, what can I help you with Bass?", asked the doctor. Bass reached into his back panel and pulled out several different weapons parts, the kind you'd see in upgrade kits for combat androids.
"I was wondering if you could help me form these parts into an upgrade for my cannon.", he explained, "I need to seriously power up my weapons systems if I can even hope to beat some of Dr. Wily's robots."
"Hmmm...", Dr. Light pondered, "I suppose I could whip something up! Follow me down to my lab."
It was some time later that Dr. Light had finished upgrading Bass' arm cannon, with Roll hanging onto him with her arms wrapped around his neck the whole time. Protoman was not enjoying the show, and hoping to himself that Bass got that drill of Dr. Light's jammed in his forearm.
"There you go, Bass.", Dr. Light exhaled from the mass amount of work he had put into the new weapon, "Your new cannon upgrade, Fire Smasher, is ready. I hope you use it wisely."
"Don't worry...", Bass sneered, "...I'll only use it on people I can't stand." He shot Protoman a dirty look, and Mega Man rolled his eyes at the sight of them bickering again.
"Well now, I think I've earned some lunch.", Dr. Light chuckled, "Come along you two."
"Coming Dr. Light!", Mega Man hummed as he walked alongside the doctor with a bounce in his step. Protoman glared back at Bass, who stuck his tongue out at him while Roll was looking away.
"Bass...", Roll began, "Shouldn't we follow them?"
"You and I didn't get much time alone last night before Blues over there barged in, so I think we go out to the garden and you can 'make good' on your promise.", he replied with a lustful look in his eyes. Roll knew that look all too well, but she simply smiled and nodded, taking his hand as he led her away to the garden.
Bass and Roll walked out quietly into the garden at the back of the house, the flowers and grass sparkling from the still wet morning dew. Bass took Roll into his arms and carefully laid her down in the flower beds, trying not to get her dress wet. He bent down and brought his lips to hers, kissing her long intervals, then drawing back so they could both catch their breath before going at it again. All the time Bass reached down and began to fondle Roll's breasts, moving them about in a slow, circular pattern to increase the pleasure. Bass moved his lips down to Roll's neck and began to kiss her there. Roll bit her bottom lip to keep from letting out a loud moan, but she surrendered to Bass' foreplay and moaned, albeit as softly as she could.
"Bass, please...stop...", she pleaded, "...we can't make love...not here in the garden, at least." Bass ignored her and continued to move his hand down her stomach, and past her waist, not noticing the figure holding a garden hose rise from the bushes.
"GET YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF MY LITTLE SISTER!", Protoman shouted as he turned the hose on full blast and soaked the young lovers with a wave of ice cold water. Roll shrieked and threw Bass off her as she scrambled away from Protoman. Bass got up and swiped the hose out of Protoman's hands. He growled and threw it on the ground as he stormed off.
"Bass, sweetheart, come back!", Roll called to him as he whistled for Treble and turned the corner. Roll turned to her brother, who had a smug smile on his face. She raised her hand and smacked him right across his face, causing him to reel from the blow.
"I swear to God, brother, you are insufferable! I hope you think hard and long about the way you treat my boyfriend all the time, because you need a serious attitude adjustment!", she exploded at him, causing his face to go white from the pure shock of her freak out. Roll turned and walked back into the house with tears in her eyes, slamming the door behind her.
It was mid-day now, and Bass sat in the internet cafe, sipping a bottle of ginger ale, as Treble sat at his feet, playing with a chew toy.
"I honestly don't know what to do, man. That jackass Blues keeps cock-blocking me from spending any intimate time with Roll. Did you know he made it so I can't go over there at night anymore? Do you have any idea how frustrating that is?", Bass demanded from the robot sitting across from him, with his chair back to him.
"I know exactly what you're going through, my young friend.", said the robot who swiveled his chair around to reveal himself in his shining red armor and long blonde ponytail.
"You do, Zero?", asked Bass in awe.
"Of course! You don't think my girlfriend's brother tried to seperate us while we were dating?", Zero inquired.
"Well, what did you do about it?", Bass probed further.
"It's quite simple, Bass, the answer couldn't be more clear. If you love someone with your heart of hearts, you've got to prove you love them. You've got to fight for them.", Zero answered with a smile on his face, arms folded.
"You fought for Iris, right?", Bass asked. Zero nodded, "Did you win?"
Zero simply chuckled and pointed to the gold ring on his left hand.
"You tell me.", he smirked.
Treble whinced at Bass, who was now marching steadfast towards Dr. Light's lab, determined to teach Protoman a lesson. The robotic dog was thinking Bass was taking Zero's words to heart a little too much for his liking.
"Relax, boy.", Bass asserted himself, "There's no way Protoman's going to stop me this time." Treble barked at Bass angrily, as if in protest. "What could go wrong?"
Bass came up to the house and narrowed his eyes, enjoying each step that brought him closer to his revenge. Treble covered his eyes with his paw as Bass kicked open the door to the house, making his presecence known. Protoman batted an eye to him.
"I've had it up to here with you, asshole!", Bass shouted as he pointed his accusing finger at Protoman, "You should know that Roll is old enough to make her own desicions! You should know that you don't have the damn right to control her life! She may be your little sister, but you know what she also is? She's a fucking woman!", he boomed, grabbing Protoman by the scruff of his neck.
"So how exactly do you propose we solve this little dilema?", Protoman asked with his eyebrow raised.
"A duel! And the winner gets to decide the fate of Roll's lovelife!", Bass challenged him. Protoman smirked.
"Alright, fine! We'll see just whose the most powerful!", Protoman accepted with glee.
"Wait a minute!", Mega Man piped up, "This is nuts!"
"SHUT UP MEGA MAN!", they both shouted at his face.
"O...okay...", Mega Man squeaked as he shrank back in his chair. Roll had a look of both worry and terror on her face at the sight of this. A full blown battle between them was the thing she feared most since the day she brought Bass home and it was clear Protoman didn't get along well with him. Bass and Protoman's minds were made up, however. The fight was on.
The junkyard, where robots are discarded and turn to rust with all the other garbage that humans throw away. The wind was no longer a cool summer breeze here, it was now a howling cold whip of air. Bass and Protoman stood across from each other, feet planted firmly on the ground, arm cannons activated, and ready to face off. Mega Man and Roll stood on the sidelines, her head hung and Mega Man's arms crossed in dissapproval.
"Are you sure there's no chance you guys can call this whole thing off and just apologize to each other?", Mega Man begged.
"Absolutely no chance.", Bass said sternly.
"Let's set some ground rules, Bass.", Protoman advised, "Rule number one, there are no rules!"
"Sounds good to me!", Bass cackled, "Ready?"
"I was born ready, moron!", Protoman jeered.
"Then spin the wheel, Raggeddy Andy!", Bass cried as he charged at Protoman full speed. Protoman jumped to the side to dodge it, and fired off a blast of energy at him. Bass knocked it to the side with his hand, sending it to collide with a rock and destroy it. Bass lunged at Protoman and jabbed him in the stomach with his elbow. Protoman fought through the pain, grabbing Bass' arm and slamming him against a pile of metal girders. Bass rebounded by kicking his foot into Protoman's jaw. Protoman held his jaw in pain, stmubling backwards. Bass fired off a few rounds that hit Protoman dead on and sent him flying into the air. Bass ran up one of the junkyard walls and leaping into the air. However, Protoman saw Bass coming and shot off his arm cannon, creating a huge ball of energy that flew into Bass and exploded, which made Bass fall to the ground and land in a huge cloud of dust. Protoman landed on the ground feet-first and walked up to Bass, who was laying motionless. He raised his arm cannon, ready to deliver the final blow, but Bass got up and swung his legs along the dirt, tripping Protoman. Bass then did a flip forward and smashed his knee into Protoman's ribs. Protoman struggled to get up, but Bass dug in deeper and deeper.
"Ha! Not so tough now, are you?", Bass proclaimed in victory. But unbeknownst to them all, a robotic green serpent crept along the ground, up to Roll's feet. It slowly rose up, takign advantage of Roll's distraction to open it's mouth wide and clamp down on her neck. Roll screamed in pain, causing the other three to take notice. Mega Man drew his cannon, and prepared to fire, when suddenly a large yellow boomerang came spinning in and struck him in the side of the head. Mega Man collasped to the ground.
"Wow! Talk about an entrance, buddy!", laughed Snake Man, the snake-hooded robot master who now rode the robotic serpent, with an unconcious Roll in his arms.
"We were enjoying the show, so we thought we'd drop in and join the fun!", Quick Man laughed like a hyena.
"You two! What are you doing here?", Bass demanded, "Answer me!"
"We came here for you, Bass!", Snake Man explained, "We want you to join up with , so we can crush the mega losers as a family!"
"And we thought we'd grab your girlfriend as a bargaining chip! Ya know, to raise the stakes!", Quick Man taunted Bass.
"You give her back right now! I'm warning you!", Protoman yelled.
"If you want her, come find us!", they both howled as they teleported away.
"This is all your fault, bolt breath!", Protoman shouted to Bass, "It's because of your connections to Dr. Wily that those two kidnapped my baby sister!"
"You're the one whose at fault here! If you had just leaved Roll and I alone, we wouldn't be in this mess!", Bass acussed.
"ENOUGH, BOTH OF YOU!", Mega Man screamed at the top of his lungs. Bass and Protoman both went silent. It wasn't every day that the little blue bomber raised his voice that high.
"If we're going to have any hope of rescuing Roll, you two had better put aside your petty little differences and learn to work with each other!", Mega Man ordered. There was a long, akward silence as Bass and Protoman stood with their arms crossed, looking away from each other. Finally, Protoman sighed and extended his hand to Bass.
"He's right, Bass. If we're going to save your...girlfriend...we're going to have to work together. It's the only chance we've got to do this!", Protoman insisted.
"...Alright. I'll do this. But not for you! For Roll!", he protested.
"Whatever you say.", Protoman chuckled as the shook hands. The three of them then set their coordinates and teleported off to Quick Man's lair.
Upon their arrival, they found themselves standing above a deep chasm, with a number of ledges protuding from the walls and hanging in mid-air. Protoman observed the area with his visor.
"Looks like the only way to go is down.", he observed.
"No shit, sherlock.", Bass snorted. Protoman shot him another dirty look. At this point, you could almost turn it into a drinking game. They began to climb down slowly, keeping a tight grip on the walls, and dropping from ledge to ledge as carefully as they could. A strange light began to fill the corridor they were passing on their way down, coming closer and closer at an alarming rate. Their eyes went wide as they saw it was a huge incineration laser. They all let go of the ledge and dropped down several feet, passing three other lasers as they fell. They quickly grabbed onto a ledge to stop themselves.
"Oh yeah!", Mega Man remembered, "I forgot this place had those huge lasers."
"YOU WHAT?", Bass roared as he grabbed Mega Man and shook him violently.
"Never mind, let's just get out of here and defeat Quick Man and Snake Man!", Protoman ordered. And with that, they continued climbing down. However, another laser came barreling through the moment they got moving again, causing Protoman's hand to slip from the ledge, sending him falling towards the laser below. Bass quickly reached out and grabbed Protoman's hand and stopped him from falling to his death. The laser roared past, only singing the tip of Protoman's boot. Protoman looked at Bass in disbelief, and Bass rolled his eyes.
Finally, they reached the door to Quick Man's room. They blasted it open and ran in, finding Quick Man standing before them, but no sign of Roll.
"Where is she?", Bass asked sternly. Quick Man laughed.
"I'm just a decoy, retard!", Quick Man admitted, "You're going have to dismantle me if you want to find her!"
"With pleasure!", Bass snarled as he jumped into the air and fired a few rounds that Quick Man easily outran. Protoman jumped into the fray and landed a few punches in Quick Man's face, but Quick Man grabbed hold of his boomerang from his back and swung it at Protoman, slamming him against the wall and onto the ground. Bass was next to try and stop Quick Man, but the crafty robot master used his boomerang once again and dealt Bass the same blow he gave Protoman. Quick Man prepared his twin firearms, taking aim at both their heads. But before he could deliver the final blow, a blast rang out. Bass and Protoman both looked up to see Mega Man lower his cannon, eyes narrowed and angry at Quick Man. The robot master collasped to the ground, dead.
"Well, glad that's over.", Protoman breathed a sigh of relief, "Guess we better head over to Snake Man's lair."
"Naw, ya think?", Bass said sarcastically. Protoman chose to ignore it as they teleported away.
They arrived at Snake Man's lair, but with little time to react, as a huge fireball barreled down on them. The blast hit them full force, and they fell to the swaying, swinging ground. What they saw when they looked up made their jaws drop. It was a massive robotic serpent, even larger than the one that had attacked Roll.
"What the hell, Protoman? How did we end up this close to Snake Man's room?", Bass shouted in shock.
"I don't know! I guess I must've made a mistake when I was plotting the coordinates!", Protoman panicked.
"It dosen't matter how we ended up here, we have to destroy this thing and get to Snake Man!", Mega Man reminded them, "Each of you go in a different direction, and on the count of three, fire your cannons at that thing's head!"
They nodded and went off, Protoman to the left, Bass to the right, and Mega Man jumped back in a straight line. They quickly charged up their blasters, and just as the serpent opened it's mouth they counted down.
"One, two, THREE!", they all exclaimed at the same moment and fired off, sending three massive shots into the serpent's mouth, causing it to blow apart, revealing the gate to Snake Man's room.
"Let's go smash apart that snake-hooded train wreck!", Bass rallied as he smashed through the gate and into Snake Man's room. Snake Man was quite surprised at Bass' eagerness to fight.
"Boy, you must really want to get your girl back, don't you?", Snake Man snickered.
"No, I just want to smoke reefer with you, snake skin!", Bass insulted him.
"R...really?", Snake Man asked, a little confused.
"No, dumbshit! I'm here to kick your ass!", Bass screamed in Snake Man's face.
"Bass! Help!", cried out Roll. Bass turned his head and gasped, seeing Roll suspended by a thin rope over a pit of acid in the middle of the floor.
"Don't worry, Roll! I'll get you down from there!", Bass assured her.
"Ha, ha, ha! You'll have to catch me first!", Snake Man egged him on as he bounded off the back wall and through the air, speeding by Bass and slicing his arm with his razor sharp fangs. Bass growled, turned, and fired blindly at Snake Man, who moved along the ground at a frightening pace. Bass fired off round after round, but nothing seemed to hit Snake Man. At last, Snake Man lunged at Bass and pushed him to the ground, wrapping his hands around his throat and squeezing until Bass began to choke. Tears started to from in Roll's eyes as she watched her love getting strangled to death in front of her. It looked like the end for Bass, when just then a green sabre came flying through the air and stabbed Snake Man in his underarm.
"GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!", Snake Man whailed in pain, "My arm! My friggin' arm!" Bass looked up and saw Zero standing on the ledge below the windows high up to the cieling.
"When I said 'if you love something, you have to fight for it', I didn't exactly have this in mind.", Zero sighed.
"Were you following me this whole time?", Bass said, stifled at the sight of the heavily armored reploid.
"Not important.", Zero stated. Bass turned his attention to Snake Man, who was writhing on the floor.
"May I?", he asked.
"I'd be insulted if you didn't.", Zero mused. Bass lowered his arm cannon to Snake Man, and pressed a button on the side. It immediately formed a red and orange casing around it, giving it a vaccum-like form. Bass then formed a massive ball of flames and energy and unleashed it on Snake Man, who promptly exploded and shattered into thousands of tiny pieces.
It was quite some time later, the three of them returned to Dr. Light's household, with Roll back safe and sound. Dr. Light patted Bass on the back.
"I must say, Bass, you fought excellently today. You proved you're on our side by putting yourself on the line to save Roll. I'm proud of you!", the doctor beamed with pride.
"Yeah, and you really saved me back there in Quick Man's lair.", Protoman thanked him as he shook his hand, "I promise I'll try to back off a little from now on."
"And?", Bass smirked, obviously probing Protoman for a further reward.
"And you can start coming over at night.", Protoman sighed, "Just behave yourself!"
"Come now, you two. Let's leave Bass and Roll alone, I think they've earned some time together.", Dr. Light beckoned his two boys to follow him which they did. Roll took Bass by the hand and led her up to her room, where she locked the door, drew the curtains, and dimmed the lights.
"You deserve one more reward.", she cooed as she grabbed her dress by the bottom and threw it over her head. She then reached around to the hooks of her bra and undid them, letting the garment drop to the floor. She untied the bow from her hair, letting it fall. Bass' mouth was hanging open by this point, and Roll bent him down to the bed and climbed on top of him, so they could finally express their love to the fullest.
THE END