Chapter 2 – Remembering an Evil Long Forgotten
Zero was peacefully recharging in his chamber. He was happy that the random flashes of data stopped showing up in his recharge cycle when his unfinished data was removed. He could access them any time he wanted, but he usually chose against it. While he no longer saw the memories of a man telling him to kill Megaman, he still had one thought:
Find Bass.
He had gotten this thought a few weeks ago, after he, X and Axl had taken out Sigma. As usual, Sigma claimed Zero was to serve him, but that time, a part inside him sparked with a faint memory. Something told him to search for Bass, and he was trying to.
"Layer, can you tell me about fighting robots from the past century?" Zero was sitting next to a blushing Layer after he returned from the moon battle.
"Um, sure! Let's see, more than eighty entries are relevant to the request, but I think you're after one of five. So if we refine the search…" Layer typed the request into the database. It came up with five names; Duo, Megaman, Protoman, a mainly domestic bot named Roll and Bass.
"Can I get a copy of all entries relevant to Bass, Layer?" Zero stood from his seat and began to loosen his stiff joints. Layer nodded and asked no questions, when Zero asked for specific data, she leant not to question why.
It had not been long after that when he had tracked down the only locations Bass could possibly be. There was one castle left, and Zero was sure he was there. Layer had recorded odd energy signals coming from the coordinates of the castle. Images from the drones showed it was mostly intact. Though the top most spires had suffered damage and the stone base had clearly experienced weathering, it looked mostly functional.
Zero woke with a grunt,
"I suppose that this Bass guy will be able to answer a few questions for me." Zero rose from his capsule and left for his bike in the hangar. In the hallway, he ran into a cheery and familiar face.
"Zero! Hey! Guess what!" Axl waved happily as he approached the older Hunter.
"What is it Axl?" Zero sighed, making Axl's smile quaver for a moment before returning in full force.
"I've been bound to the base, orders of Dr Weil! So now you don't have to worry about me being destroyed out there and the base will be safe from attackers with me and X here to protect it!" Zero smiled sarcastically,
"X and I, that's the correct grammar, Axl. Did your language circuts get hit or something?" Zero joked as he walked away, leaving the younger Reploid to figure out the last statement. Zero was satisfied when he heard an angry growl emit from Axl's voice card.
"Okay, coordinates set, let's roll." Zero said to himself as he was given clearance by the guards at the hangar. His bike roared to life, the map showing his location and distance to his intended coordinates. The bike flew over the city roads and sped along the dusty outlands, he went past a cliff that overlooked the sea, an old castle in the distance. Zero had been there before and found nothing he was actually searching for, but still retrieved data for X to look at. He passed more ruined castles on his journey.
It was late into the night when he reached the castle he wanted. His bike picked up strange energy emissions coming from within the walls. Zero pulled his sabre from the compartment in the bike's side and placed the bike in a small alcove by the door of the monstrous construction.
"Layer, this is Zero. I'm heading inside. Keep this channel silent until I have cleared the premises." Zero whispered over his commlink with the base. He approached the door and sliced the lock with his sabre. He noticed the emergency lights were on in the foyer. To the left and right was carnage of old bots and various bits of machinery. He followed the carnage down the hallway to find himself in a large room with capsules of assorted 'Robot Masters' he had heard Megaman fought against. But these ones seemed functional, so Zero decided to watch for alarms that could possibly cause them to activate.
But if there are RMs, thought Zero, them could this be the Doctor's castle? Sure enough, as the trail went deeper into the building, he was met with a giant 'W' on the door to the main computer room. Surprisingly, the computers appeared to be intact and working, showing images of blueprints for several robots.
"No, no, no! This cannot be right! If that's the case then how does that work?!" Zero ducked behind one of the pillars close to the entrance of the room, inside he saw a black robot with wings on his helmet staring and growling at something on the monitor before him.
"I know you're there, brother. How long has it been?" Zero froze, the bot was walking out to his location. He drew his sabre and prepared for an attack.
"How do you know me? Who says I'm your brother?" Zero demanded as the bot stopped in front of him.
"I know you because Wily made you. He made me too. SNW001. You are SWN002, which is ironic, considering you are named Zero. But no matter, I can still kick your tin can butt out to space, regardless of my age!" Bass readied his buster and pointed it at his alleged brother. Zero lowered his sabre and extended a hand to the older bot.
"Well, it's good to meet you Bass. But what do you mean, 'Wily made you'?" Bass sighed,
"It'd be easier to show you. This way." Bass lead Zero into the computer room, whereupon he saw a dog bot resting in a corner.
"Don't worry, Treble's out of commission. He has been for years now. I'm going to go soon too, so I guess it is good you are here now." Bass had a faint smile on his face before he turned to show Zero the monitor.
"These plans were made at the same time Light was making X. Apparently, You and X were very similar by coincidence. X was made to create a new age, and you were to destroy the current one at the time. What the old coot didn't count on was his illness. He finished you only a week before he died in hospital. We were all there to say goodbye, least we could do. After that I went hunting for you and I tried to undo the Mega program in you, but yours was a difficult code." Bass uploaded a stream of numbers, which translated to the robots as a message;
KILL MEGAMAN.
"So I guess all the incomplete data…." Zero started,
"Was an accident, yes, I didn't mean for it to affect you as it has, but some things can't be predicted for sure. So what I ended up doing was disrupting the code instead. Light passed away before I could ask for help, then the day came. The dreaded day…" Bass sighed, Zero gave Bass a concerned look. Bass pushed a key on the computer and walked over to Treble. A recorded scene played.
"Megaman! We have come to collect you. Please comply or you and your remaining friends and family shall be destroyed, as well as this establishment!" An officer called from outside a small dome house, the Light residence.
"What is it you people want?" Megaman walked out into the yard of the house, Rush and Roll not too far behind.
"We've come to ensure that you are properly taken care of. Since the good doctor is no more, we require you to be sealed away." Doctor Cossak walked out from behind the line of soldiers, hi daughter Kalinka ran to hug Roll.
"Rock, Roll, Rush, I'm sorry…" She sobbed, "You are going to be scrapped! They'll tear out your cores and turn you into museum pieces!" Kalinka was taken away by an officer and the Light robots were neutralised and taken too.
The camera switched to a new scene.
"Protoman is here too, go say hi to your brother for the last time." Dr Cossak said quietly as they walked the robots down the lab hallway to a set of capsules. Inside one was Protoman, he was conscious, though.
'Blues! Where's Forte?!" Roll whispered to the other bot, to which he replied,
"He is okay, He'd taking care of a little unfinished business Wily left behind. Some high powered robot needed to be neutralised…" Blues whispered back. Roll's eyes welled up and soon tears fell down her cheek,
"Stay alive, Forte, please, remember me as I was…" Roll said as she wailed into Rock's chest.
The footage stopped.
"What…. Was that? I was told that Mega timed out, not taken away like this…" Zero mumbled.
"The government at the time deemed us too dangerous and ordered us to be neutralised. After their cores were sent into cyber-space, they met up with Light's AI. I don't know much past that, as I've been waiting for you so I can time out." Bass stood up from Treble's carcass.
"The other names you heard used, we all have actual names, but it was a sign of familiarity to use them. Now, that doesn't matter." Bass switched the computer off and closed off all the other hallways.
"Bass, come with me. At least time out where we can put you with Roll. She seemed to care lots for you…" Zero offered his brother his hand.
I've been feeling really inspired at this moment, so expect a mega-upload of chapters today! And while this was only started yesterday, I think I could get this done by next Friday at best, if I still have this inspiration. (^v^) So again, free donuts to all those who like playing Megaman!
Oops... Silly me! (^_^;) Thanks, verifiaman, yeah... My computer has weird moments, but thanks for letting me know about that. It's fixed now! Ummmm... well that was awkward...
