Chapter 2 The Quest

Proto walked his way back to Skull Fortress full of doubts whirling in his head. The things that revealed by the two government agents indeed troubled him, although he did suspect someone was watching them all along, that explains why Mega Man would be able to show up whenever they start an operation, and now it is confirmed.

The thing that worries him was the price on Wily's head, He doesn't really worry about himself too much, but Wily is just a weak little human, and certainly a 'weak' one among the humans, there is not much he can do if someone got him. The authority's movement is also a concern, they even bother to send someone to reach out to him, that means they are edgy to control the situation.

Proto didn't know whether he should believe the agent's words, but considering there have no reason for them to make up a lie, if what they were saying is true, Wily would be in instant danger, that's his major concern. He has to do something about it.

Before he could figure out how to resolve the complicated situation before him, he had already reached Skull Fortress.

Few of the robot masters were hanging about on the hanger, Ring Man and Metal Man were playing dice with Cut Man in the corner. Elec Man was standing on the on the side in nervous as if he was waiting for him to come back.

"You are back. I just want to ask you how what to do with that big chopper. The hanger is not big enough." Ring Man called towards Proto Man, seeing him approaching, Elec Man came towards Proto too.

"Leave it there; I will handle it tomorrow." Proto replied, "Did Wily came down to check out the score?"

"No, he didn't." Elec Man replied nervously, "Now you mention it, about the score you took, it's..."

"He didn't? Did anyone get to tell him we did it FOR him?" Proto simply ignored Elec Man's statement and kept walk towards lift to Wily's workshop.

"We did report to him about that thing, but he didn't response." Elec Man replied, "Proto, you have to listen to me first, that thing you took..."

"Tell me tomorrow, I had a complicated day today, and I am exhausted, I don't think I can make a fair judgment at the instant, just leave everything right at its place before I wake up."

"But..." Elec Man was still tried to protest, but the lift door was already closed behind Proto Man's back, leaving the disappointed Elec Man in the hanger.

Of course, Proto Man didn't head for his room to recharge, and he went to Wily's room instead. He couldn't let his precautions down after that little conversation with the government agents tonight, at least he had to make sure Wily hasn't been killed, or abducted, yet.

Once the door slides open, the place was as messy as it used to be. Proto's eyebrows furrowed behind the visor. And then he saw Wily was asleep on the whacky coach inside the room.

Proto sighed, he wonders how this old fool could live the years when he is not even able to look after himself? He carried the sleeping Wily in his arms and placed him on the bed in the next room and covered him with a blanket.

He then left Wily's room and head back to his quarter; it's one in the morning already. He took off his helmet and scarf, swung them onto the small table in the corner, then slump onto his cot directly. He felt frustrated and tired; he doesn't know how to deal with the problems piling down on top of him, he didn't want to think about anything at the moment.

"Let's hope there won't have any dreams tonight..."

Proto Man's dream Episode(1): Distant memory

Proto Man found himself sitting in the back seat of a car. A man was sitting next to him. The man was around late fifty, with a brushy white beard, wearing a white shirt with a red tie and a brown coat. The man seemed worried but forced to smile when Proto looked at him.

"Who is this guy? He looks familiar to someone..." Proto wondered, but he strangely can't see the man's face clearly, but he is sure he know this person.

"Oh no...another stupid dream again. Where this car is going?"

"Relax, my boy, Dr. Cossack is a good guy; he will look after you. I will come back and take you home once I finish the affairs there." The man crooned and patted his shoulder.

Proto didn't answer, just stared back at the man with a strange look. "What is he talking about? Who is Dr. Cossack?"

But he wasn't worried about that too much since he knows this is only a dream. He started to look out of the car's window to watch the moving scene outside. He noticed snowflakes were fluttering in the wind outside; the trees were covering with snow, and the signs on the side of the road were not English.

"This Don't look like anywhere in the states..."

After another fifteen minutes later, the car stopped outside a house in the countryside. The old man stepped out of the car.

There was a guy was standing in the gateway expecting their arrival. That guy is tall and seemingly vigorous, a set of bright and piercing blue eyes are shining behind a pair of thin glasses. The two adults hugged each other close and playfully patted each other's shoulder. Proto remain sitting inside the car, he has an uneasy feeling about this, although he doesn't even know why.

The old man came back to the car, and waving Proto to get out by his gesture. "Come out and meet Dr. Cossack." The old man said, Proto stepped out of the car reluctantly, unwilling to leave the warmth and secure inside the car.

"This must be that Dr. Cossack he talked about." Proto thought.

"So this is him? The 'boy' you told me about." The man patted on Proto's back hardly, even Proto could merely stand still to take the hit,

"Ouch! That's hurt!" he gasped.

"What a magnificent robot you build! You never seized to amaze me." The man added.

"He is my...masterpiece, the best thing that I have in my life, that's why I can't..." The old man choked with a deep sadness, unable to finish the sentence.

"There, there, he will be just fine staying here. I bet he will be good friends with Kalinka." The man reassured. "It's too chilly to chatter out here, let's go inside."

The door opened, a pure white light flash into his eyes, blinded him instantly, He had to shield his eyes by his arm to avoid further damage to his optical circuit.

"What the hell? They installed ten thousand light bulbs inside?" He screamed.

When he opened his eyes again, all he could see was the usual grayish ceiling as always, while he was still lying on his cot in his room, daylight shines on his face through the window.

"It's the day time already..." Proto sighed, still lying on the cot with his arm shielding his eyes. Originally he was going to back to sleep mode again, but his thoughts drifted to the conversation last night, where the two agent bots had offered him an opportunity to do some work. That would be a chance for him to redeem himself, but what about Wily? He doesn't want to be a snitch. Wily might be a psycho, an addict, and a horrible master, but Wily is his mentor and probably the closest person he ever has. He simply couldn't leave Wily behind; his conscience doesn't allow him to do that,

He got up from the cot and decided to see today's Wily.

He bumped into Elec Man once he stepped out of his quarter as if he was waiting for him to come out.

"Morning', pal. What's up?" Proto asked lazily.

"Morning? It's past noon already." Elec Man replied, "It's about that thing...you really need to come see it..."

"There are thousands of 'things' in my mind at the instant, what 'thing' are you talking about?" Proto jabbed impatiently.

"The thing Ring Man, Metal Man and Quick Man bought back here yesterday, it's..." Elec Man said as he followed Proto to the hallway.

"What's with that? Don't tell me those guys down there have ruined it already, or I will be pretty irritated." Proto asked as he pressed the button to call the elevator.

"No, but you have to see it before this thing kicks off, it makes me nervous."

"Hell, you are always nervous anyway." Proto couldn't figure why Elec Man being such edgy about this, although he knows Elec Man was made that way. But he decided to look into it first, as he is curious about what 'the Brewer' is like.

"Alright, alright, I am coming with you."

Proto followed Elec Man to the hanger, Ring Man, Guts Man and Cut Man were playing cards in front of the container.

"Hey, Proto Man, we need one more for the game, wanna join us?"

"Nah, got to attend to some business." Proto waved them away as Elec Man open the container's door. "Ring Man, fly the Aircrane back where you took it."

"Huh?"

"The hanger is not big enough to store it; we can't let it stay outside of the skull fortress, giving it back is the best way."

Ring Man didn't protest, he simply turned and left with a sigh.

Elec Man opened the container's back door, and there was a black projectile sitting in the middle of the container.

"What on earth is that?"

"Wily!" A fury Proto Man stomped into Wily's workshop, the robot masters in his way were all ducted to the side and avoid unnecessary contact with him.

"What is it...?" Wily rubbed his eyes and yawned.

"What did you had me to steal yesterday? It isn't ancient artifact; it's a nuke!" Proto Man yelled.

"Oh, that thing? It's not a nuke; it's the latest experimental super weapon of the US army! Muhahahaha!"

"But you told me it is a..." Proto tried to protest, only interrupted by Wily.

"Yes, yes, I am sorry I lied. But if I told you it is a super weapon instead of an ancient artifact, you wouldn't agree to bring it back for me, are you?" Wily said with a cocky smile on his face.

"Of course I wouldn't agree! You have gone too far this time! You can blow up their airports, steal their building, attempt to screw up their super computer or whatever, I don't care. But if you stole a nuclear bomb from the army, we will end up in every watchlist of the entire planet!" Proto slam his fist against the wall, even the entire building could feel the shock done by the hit.

"Watchlist? So what?"

"So they don't watch! They kill!" Proto shouted even louder, "They will wipe out the whole fortress before you could even shit yourself!"

"No! They don't dare do such things to us! We have their latest weapon in our hands; we can use this thing to threaten them, make them give me the whole country, everything I ever wanted! And soon, the world will be mine!" Wily yelled in his hysterical, manic laughter.

Proto could feel his anger almost reached a decisive point; only reason that he could still hold off his anger because he doesn't want to harm Wily. Hs fist tightened and ground his teeth, then stomped out of Wily's workshop in without saying a word, leaving Wily alone inside his studio laughing by himself.

Proto went back to his room, he bangs his head and his fists against the metallic wall, making three new dents on it.

"Urggggggh! Why am I such a fool?"

He could feel anger was overwhelming inside him like a flood. He was angry for being tricked by Wily; the emotions soon turned into helplessness. They have crossed the line too far, and he knew Wily's craziness wouldn't allow him to return that projectile back to its place, and the States probably won't just let them keep it too, he didn't know what to do to smooth out the situation.

He took a peek at the old desk in the corner, where that little piece of paper the agents gave him last night pinned on it.

"Wily, you leave me no choice..."

The next day...

El Castillo del Diablo

Proto laid on a huge boulder with his arm behind his head, staring at the clouds flowing on the bright blue sky above him.

Proto loved to hang around at this spot, especially when he felt troubled. Although he knew dwelling by himself won't help to solve his problem any bit, but there was no one for him to confide in, at least this place could provide him some peace and quiet.

Proto Man felt particularly worse today, the first thing that bothered him was the projectile he stole. He was still angry how Wily used him to take it in the first place, and he can't do anything about it. The other thing was Mega's words during the fight yesterday. He was trying not to let it bother him too much since there is not much he can do about it anyway. But he knows Mega was right, this war will come to an end someday, what is he going to be by then? He couldn't even imagine. He has to find some way out, and drag Wily out of the game too, so he doesn't have to watch Wily getting fired on the electric chair.

To escape from reality wasn't the actual reason for him to come here tonight, for the first time in his life, he was about to take another step forward, trying to work for someone else other than Wily.

There was the sound of a car engine coming towards Proto's location. Proto pulled himself up and jumped off the boulder.

"Hey! Here you are." A robot got out of the car's driver seat and greeted, "I am sure this means you are agreed to work with us, yes?"

"Yeah, whatever." Proto mumbled, "So, what's the deal?"

"Let me introduce myself first; I am Enkar. I will be there to assist you throughout the whole mission." The robot held out his hand for a friendly handshake; only Proto didn't make the gesture in return.

"No nonsense, just give me the details. What's the quest?"

"Alright, we need to extract some..files from our investigation target, the Northorn Peace Company. Their security is tight; they intend to keep their documents out of the internet, so they put the hard drive that contains the file in an isolated place, the only way we can get these files is from their vault inside the building."

"So, you want me to go in there and steal that hard drive, that's easy, any fool can do that," Proto said.

"It's not that simple, there is no way you can break through their security on your own, they have got a whole robot army guarding the tower." Enkar stated.

"I guess you are underestimating what I can do, pal." Proto retorted. "I can take them all out in one minute."

"We don't need to be obvious and have causalities in this case. There is a charity ball going on in their building in LA tonight, a lot of celebrities will be there, governor, mayor, movie stars, baseball players...something like that." Enkar continued.

"How do I get in?"

"We have set you up to disguise as a waiter in there. Your job is to play as a part and try to find the opportunity to get to the vault ,and then bring back the whole drive then you can walk home free. You can use whatever methods you see fit; we won't interfere."

"Wait up, what's the pay? I am not doing this for free." Proto asked.

"Our boss will discuss this with you after this is done, don't worry about that." Enkar got back to the car's driver seat and signaled Proto to get in, "Let's get going, we don't have much time. You have to dress up on the way."

"This is way better than doing all the grunt work for Wily, I suppose."

7:00 p.m.

Downtown Los Angles

Proto was wearing a white shirt, and black vest and a black bowtie, holding a tray with several glasses of champagne with one hand, act as a wine waiter of the charity ball and serving drinks for the celebrities. Tonight he specially took off the whole set of his armor, including the helmet and his scarf to make himself as ordinary as he can. No one would imagine that he is the notorious robot Proto Man underneath.

Since his 'real' job right now is to study the security features inside the ballroom and figure a way out of here, that's the easy thing for him to do. The only thing that made him felt queasy was he had to go without his shades and scarf since it looked the way too out of place if he kept them on.

"You are on your own now; I will provide you guides and information throughout this mission." Enkar stated, which Proto heard from the invisible headset he is wearing.

"Just remind me why am I doing this?" Proto hissed.

There was a buffet session before the charity auction, so the room is full of celebrities. Amongst the crowd, Proto could spot a significant blue figure in the room, right next to him is a blonde female wearing an emerald silk long dress, it's Mega Man and his sister. But Dr. Light is nowhere to be seen.

"Shit! It's Mega Man!" He gasped out loud softly.

"What's wrong with that?"

"You could have told me Mega Man is coming here tonight! I can't let them see me!"

"But you said that he has ever seen your face without your helmet before, right?"

"What if they recognize me? I am screwed!" Proto sneered. "I had just fought him on the train the two days ago!"

"Just act normal and you will be all right."

Proto hurried to the other side of the ballroom to keep himself away from Mega Man. There is a huge cake in the center of the stage, along with the charity auction items.

One of the auction items caught Proto's eyes; it was a metallic ring, bronze in color with strange symbols carved on it. It was placed in a box made out of pink silk and covered by a bullet prove glass dome. Proto had a strange feeling as he keeps staring at it, like the ring itself is alive, asking him to come over.

"Proto Man, what are you doing? You need to find a way to get to the files; the ball ends at ten, there are less than three hours for you to work!" Enkar voice struck into Proto's mind.

"Shut the hell up; I know what I am doing..." Proto hissed in perfunctory as he still staring at the ring, he didn't even notice a man was standing next to him.

"Hello." The man greeted.

"H...Hello, sir." Proto replied reluctantly, he was a bit startled by the stranger's surprise greet and realized that's one of the guests in here. "Em...drinks?"

"You seems interested in this ring. It's exquisite, isn't it?" The man said, "I haven't seen you around before, your first day on the job?"

"Um, I...I am just a part time." Proto stammered. "Shit! I about to blow my cover now!"

"Relax." The man said with a gentle smile, Proto shot him a strange look, "I am an artifact collector, this is one of the collectible I am after at the moment, it's called 'The Brewer'."

Proto's eyes blinked, "The Brewer..?"

"The Brewer...this is interesting!" Proto smirks as he thought to himself. "Turns out I have made a right choice comeing here."

"You seem startled, what's your name, son?"

"Pro...No...It's...it's.." Proto's internal processor went blank at the instant; he couldn't tell others of his real name, and he wasn't wearing a name tag like other waiters do. "Shit, my name tag must have fallen off."

"I am Ivan Romochka, the CEO of the NPSC." The man patted Proto's shoulder, "Concentrate on the job." And then he turned around and walked into the crowd.

Proto startled as he heard the man's last remark. "This guy might have know something. Enkar, what is NPSC?" Proto asked.

"Are you for real? That's the 'The Northorn Peace Security Consulting'! The one you invading right now, stupid!"

"Aww, shut up!"

Meanwhile...

On the other side of the ballroom, Mega Man, Roll and Dr. Light were greeted by several celebrities and a few highly ranked government officers, most of them were expressing their gratefulness for Mega Man's heroic actions, protecting the country from Wily's terroristic attacks.

Mega noticed Roll wasn't looking very pleasant at the moment since she went all silent after they entered the ballroom.

"Why the long face? You were pretty excited about this ball couple of hours ago." Mega asked, sitting down by her side.

"Nothing, I am just bored." Roll sighed, "I was just hoping there would have some young, handsome man in social intercourse like this one. And you see, people here are either, old, tacky or annoying. Even the waiters are looking better."

A wine waiter passed by, Roll took a glass of white wine off the tray smoothly.

"What are you doing? You know you can't drink that!" Mega reminded.

"Of course I won't drink! I am just trying to blend in with the place, so I can at least pretend I am not a robot for now."

"This isn't a good idea..." Mega protested.

"We will see about that." Roll stood up walked into the crowd.

Roll walked around the room with her glass of white wine to see if anyone she knew or anyone she could start a conversation.

At the meantime, Proto was way too distraught by the 'Brewer' he just saw; he was already plotting ways to steal it for his own inside his head. Both him and Roll didn't notice each other's way, Roll bumped into Proto's chest directly and poured all the wine onto his suit. Luckily the tray on Proto's hand didn't fell off.

"Oh no, I am sorry." She hurried to grab a table linen to help clean it up.

"Uh, I am sorry too. I didn't see you here." Proto replied, and startled when he realized he ran into one of the people he doesn't want to encounter today. "R...Roll?" He slipped before he could even catch his lips.

"You know me? Well...that's embarrassing." Roll began shyly.

"Of course I know you, everyone knows about you, you are the female robot hero who saved America, along with Mega Man, right?" Proto said intentionally, hiding a slight smirk on his face.

"Did I met you anywhere by any chance? You looked like someone to me." Roll asked.

"Nope."

Mega Man hurried to Roll's side, "I am sorry about my sister...I told her not to take that wine."

Both Mega Man and Proto were startled when they caught each other's eyesight; Proto turned his glance to elsewhere quickly. "Excuse me; I got to work." He then withdraw from the scene and walked towards the direction of the kitchen.

Mega kept staring at his back until Roll tapped on his shoulder lightly, "What's wrong?" Roll asked.

"Something's weird about that guy." Mega replied, still staring at the door where the stranger disappeared, "I have a feeling that I know him, I have seen that face before, but my face detection program identified him as..."

"Your suspicions is haunting you again, not that everyone is weird or is Wily's spy. The security here is tight; they won't get a chance." Roll sighed.

"Maybe, I better check him out, just to make sure."

Mega followed the mysterious guy he just met and walked into a corridor furtively, the sign on the wall indicated the male lavatory was just around the corner, the kitchen is at the end of the hallway. A guard was patrolling at the moment, coming right towards him.

The guard saw him and greeted him loudly, "Hey, Mega Man! I didn't know you are here! I am your big fan!"

Mega jumped as he didn't expect to be addressed by one of his 'fan' in the corridor. Proto heard the guard's voice and ran past the corner quickly.

"Would you sign me an autograph? For my son..." The guard stopped right in front of Mega and shook his hands happily, and then he pulled out a picture of Mega Man himself from his wallet.

Mega took the picture and the pen reluctantly; his mind was still on the corner where the suspect disappeared.

After the guard was gone, Mega ran over to the corner quickly, but no one was there. He then ran through the kitchen door directly, only to see several cooks and waiters performing their duty inside, but the mysterious wine waiter was not on the scene.

Mega withdraw from the kitchen with a frown on his face, "Where did he go?"

He left the kitchen with growing doubts and saw Dr. Light walked out of the male lavatory on his way back to the ballroom. "Dr. Light, are you alright?" He asked.

"I think I am just allergic to the oysters..." Dr. Light said with a gentle smile. Mega went into the lavatory and pushed open the door of each compartment, and no one was inside. "Is something wrong?" Dr. Light asked

"No...nothing." Mega answered in an absence of mind, "Have you seen a waiter in here, just about same height as me, brown haired, blue eyes, wearing a black vest and a bowtie?"

"No, no one was in there before you came, what's going on?"

"I saw some suspicious figure around. I am not sure, but I think I have seen him before." Mega explained. "Something weird is going on; I saw him went this way."

Mega walked out of the lavatory and checked the place carefully, there was an elevator which is out of service, and an emergency staircase on the side, Mega tried to get into the stairs, the guard came over and stopped him.

"I am sorry Mega Man, you can't go through there. There is an alarm on the door. The rest of the building is for authorized personnel only." The guard said.

"Are you sure?" Mega asked.

"I am sure, the security system in this building is superb, not even a fly can go in without permission, so don't you worry about it." The guard explained.

"You are way too nervous, Mega, let's get back to Roll, the auction is about to start." Dr. Light grabbed Mega's arm and dragged him back to the ballroom.

"Then why do I have a bad feeling about this..." Mega sighed.

Meanwhile

Proto lean against the door of the kitchen's food storage compartment, "Damn it, that was close." He sighed, "Now it's time for the real job."

He sneaked through the kitchen's back door; there are a staircase and a cargo lift which can go from the fiftieth floor to the parking lot in the basement. There were no guards or security cameras around, since most of the waiter or the cook even the guards would have their cigarette break in such place.

"Looks like I have hit the jackpot. Enkar, where is the vault located?" Proto pulled out his yellow scarf from the pocket and wrapped it over his face until only his eyes could be seen from the outside, he then ran into the lift quickly before anyone sees him snooping around.

"It's should be on the fifty-third floor, inside the CEO's office."

"How do you feel, Huh? Doing a service for the society for once." Enkar asked while Proto was going up to the higher storey of the building by the elevator.

"It should be me to ask you such question, how does it feel to make a bad guy do your dirty work for you, so you can keep your hands clean?" Proto complained.

"Don't play smart with me, I do my dirty work everyday."

Proto startled for a while, and this aroused his curiosity, "So, you got dirt on your file as well. That's good to know."

"I am not discussing this with you right here; it's personal." Enkar tries to change the subject, " How do you operate the service elevator, it's should be locked to travel between the lounge and the loading bay only."

"That hit a nerve." Proto thought to himself and smirked, but he is not going to probe for now. "That wouldn't be a problem if you have the keys to activate it."

"Where did you get those keys?" Enkar asked in astonishment.

"I swipe it off the guard while I was playing hide and seek with Mega Man in the corridor."

The elevator was stopped all out of sudden, and the lights went out next. "What's happening?"

"I am on the roof of the building right across the street. Nothing seems abnormal from the outside." Enkar states.

"But the electricity is out in here, something funky is going on." Proto interjected, "There is way too much of coincidence in this 'mission'...Whatever, I better get out of here." He started to tear the lift cabin door open by brute force; that's not a hard thing for his strength to do.

The lift stopped between two storeys, Proto climbed out of the lift and dusted himself off, then pulls out the pistol hidden underneath his vest and headed for the staircase.

"Works for me!" Proto replied, "Mega Man is down there with the guests, he should be able to deal with the situation himself...I guess."

Down at the ball room

The whole ballroom turned into silent and horrifying gasps when all the lights were out, turning the whole place into infernal darkness. While everyone on the scene is wondering what could have happened, even Mega Man and Roll were startled for a few seconds.

"What's happening? Are we under attack?" A woman screamed

"I have got to get out of here!"

"Everybody please remain in your seat and stay calm, I am sure the electricity supply will back to normal very soon. " The host tries to calm the people down.

The guests tried to open the door which leads to the way out, only discovered all of the entrance were locked from outside.

"The doors are locked!" A man exclaimed.

"Help! We are trapped! It must be Wily!" Another cried. The crowd turned into chaos at the instant.

"Something's is awfully wrong." He transformed his left arm into blaster mode just in case.

A squad of robot troops with guns swarm into the room from the entrances. Mega grabbed Roll's arm and pulled her to hide under a table, trying to sort out the situation before making appropriate actions.

The robot soldiers surrounded the guests quickly, pointing their guns towards them, intimidating the guests to gather on one side of the room.

A small black hole appeared on the stage, and two robots stepped out of it. One is carrying a hula loop; the other one has a beak like feature on his helmet and Eagle claw-shaped feet.

"Robot Masters? Where did they come from?" Mega thought to himself.

"Good evening citizens, I am Jupiter and this is my pal Saturn, we are here to announce-" The robot took the mic off the party host and switched it into a loud volume. "-That you have been taken hostage!"

"Where is Dr. Light?" Mega hissed

"He said he is having diarrhea and went to the lavatory!" Roll whispered.

"Go find him and keep him safe, I will distract them and provide cover for you!"

"But what about you?"

"I will be just fine handling this by myself, just go."

"Give it up! Just surrender or I will blast you out of universe." Mega flipped over the table where he was hiding and yelled, pointing his blaster towards the intruders.

"There you are! I was wondering when you will show up." Jupiter taunted, he started up the jet engine on his back and hovered high up to the ceiling, "Saturn, go get the items, I will handle the blue boy here." He ordered.

"You are not going anywhere!" Mega fired a shot at Saturn, who used his hula loop to bounce off the shot. The shot hit the crystal lights on the ceiling, the lights fell off and nearly hit the guests below.

"Damn it, I can't fight them in here; there are too many people around!" Mega contemplated. He didn't aware Jupiter was hovering right above him. Jupiter unleashed an electric shock and hit Mega right on the top of him.

With a sparkle like a lightening, Mega Man fell on the ground with smoke coming out from his body. All of the guests were grasped with shock and startled at the instant.

"No! Mega!" Roll cried, she was trying to run for the service entrance to look for Dr. Light, but she changed her direction after seeing Mega got fired. She transformed her arm into a frying pan and thrust towards the robot master.

Before she could even touch the robot master, she has already been pinned down by several robot soldiers.

Just as this moment, Dr. Light entered the room with his hands behind his head, a robot soldier was pressing a gun against his back. "A civilian is found hiding in the corridor." The soldier reported.

"Oh no! Dr. Light!"

Mega struggled to stand up, still breathing heavily due to the counter effect of the electric shock he suffered. He tried to approach Dr. Light. Saturn throw his blade like hula loop on Mega's back, making him fell again. Luckily the hit didn't cut through Mega Man's reinforced titanium armor but leaving a slash mark on his back.

"Don't move or I will cut his head off." Saturn warned, pressing his hula loop against Dr. Light's neck lightly, making a thin cut and small amount of bleed was coming out.

Mega froze, he didn't know what to do to save both Roll and Dr. Light but defeat the intruders at the same time. Back off and let these bandits take the auction items? He simply couldn't let the bad guys walk away this easy; but if he takes his chance to fight them, may lead to harm to his families and other guests inside the room.

"Mega Man, let's have a duel." Jupiter challenged, "This is a battle that you are in no position to refuse."

Meanwhile

On 53th floor...

Proto Man was busy doing his 'job' in the documentary vault. Thanks for the breakdown of the electricity supply in the building, he was able to break into the vault without too much trouble.

"There are hundreds of deposit boxes in here, how do I know which has that thing you need?" Proto asked.

"The intel said it's in the box E41. Get the whole safe box out of there." Enkar states.

"Screw that; luckily I have brought a torch myself." Proto started to torch the key slot of the box.

"You intend to melt the locks down? Why not use sticky bombs in there and blow it up?" Enkar asked.

"You definitely haven't hit a bank before." Proto smirks as he keeps firing the torch to the lock. "They have done a special treatment on these safe boxes, they make them hard enough to endure physical damage such as explosives or brute force, so melting it down would be easier."

"Looks like you know your way around." Enkar commended

"I have got much experience on such things," Proto said, "I am an expert of locks and guns." Proto stopped torching as the metal locks are nearly reached the melting point.

He simply plugged a screwdriver deep into the half-melted key slot and spun it with brute force, and then the deposit box's door was swing open. Proto took the safe deposit box out and shut the vault door back to its place, make it looked like nothing had happened with the vault.

"I got that thing, I am leaving."

There were sounds of police sirens could be heard from the streets, Proto lean himself towards the window to see what's happening.

"Damn, there are police on the scene, did I blow my cover?"

"I am listening to the police channel here; they seem to have a problem down at the ballroom." Enkar states. "The guests down there has been held hostage."

"How could that happen? Mega Man should be down there." Proto hackled, sounding edgy.

"How do I know? I am just the lookout. You better use this as a cover and get out of there!"

"Overwork and underpaid! Damn it!" Proto mumbled as he ran down the stairs as fast as he could.

Back at the ball room

Mega Man laid on the floor gasping in pain, he was trying hard to keep himself standing. He was battered, there was smoke coming out of his titanium skin surface because to the heat generated by Jupiter's electric shock.

"Ha, ha, ha. I have won! I have defeated Mega Man!" Jupiter lands on the ground and stomp his claw-shaped feet on Mega's head.

All other humans on the scene were banished and cowered in a corner of the ballroom under the supervision of heavily armed robot soldiers. Mega Man's defeat created an intimidating horror on other hostages; no one else in the dares to resist the bandit's demands anymore.

Dr. Light and Roll had been 'looked after' with special treatments, they had been tied up on a chair in the center of the stage, and there were robot soldiers standing behind, pushing the gun barrels against their heads. The rest of the robot troops were busy transporting the auction items into the black hole generated by Saturn.

"Hey, we got everything we need, we are good to go!" Saturn called.

"Don't poke me!" A familiar voice was coming from the corridor as the backstage door opened, a robot soldier pushed a guy into the ballroom. "A suspicious personnel was found trying to escape through the back door." The robot reported. "Hands on your head,

Saturn walked over and kicked Proto on his back, causing him fell on his face right in front of Dr. Light and Roll.

"Do you really have to do this?" Proto complained.

Dr. Light's eyes grow wide as he saw the person right in front of them, Roll recognizes this was the wine waiter she bumped into before. "You!" She exclaims.

"Th...th...that's not possible, how could that be...? You...you..." Dr. Light muttered in lost by astonishment as he stared at the Proto's face.

"What the hell is going on here?" Proto asked, he stood up and raised his hands in the air. He was shocked as he saw a battered Mega Man was laid under Jupiter's feet. He had an impulse to punch Jupiter on the face at the instant, only getting hold down by the robot soldiers.

"I have got an idea, Mega Man. I think the best way to humiliate you is to kill one of your families in front of your face!" Jupiter kneels next to Mega, who was trying hard to fight the pain and stand up,

"There is a psychological game that is often played by the humans, let's see how that works on reality." Jupiter said, "Tonight I am going to kill one person: your sister or your creator, which one are you going to save?"

Mega ground his teeth, tears beginning to roll down his face, he doesn't want to lose neither one of them, but he was helpless at the moment. He wanted to cry; only his masculinity stopped him from crying out loud.

"How about both at the same time?" A familiar voice jabbed into his thought. He turned to see this was coming from the person he once suspected to be a spy.

"Shut up! Nobody asks your opinion, citizen." Saturn scolded as poke the barrel of his gun against Proto's back.

"Don't poke me! I am warning you!" Proto snarled.

"Looks like we are going to have one more casualty tonight." Saturn said, and he pressed his gun against Proto's temple.

"I have told you not to POKE me!" Proto snapped the barrel of the gun away, he then draws a quick punch on Saturn's face, knocked him out.

Everyone on the scene was all startled by what happened next, including the invaders and Mega Man himself. But Proto didn't hesitate a bit; he pulled out the plasma pistol hidden in his pants quickly. He first shot the two robots behind Dr. Light and Roll, and then turned to shot the other four robots guarding the hostages in the room. He totally fired six shots within five seconds, and took out most of the enemy robots in the process.

"Mega Man, don't stood there like an idiot!" Proto shouted towards the startled Mega Man as he reload his gun.

Mega was relieved as he heard Proto's shout, he fired a fully charged plasma shot towards Jupiter immediately, knocking him off the stage and hit the wall behind him.

Jupiter tried to start up the jet engine on his back to hover, only it has been damaged by Mega's previous strike and failed to start up. Mega fired another level 4 blast right in his chest, sending him flown backwards and fell into the black hole generated by Saturn.

Seeing his colleague had been defeated, Saturn bailed into the blackhole with the remaining robot soldiers, "This is pointless, we already took what we came here for." He mocked before the black hole was completely disappeared.

The police arrived the scene just on time, right after the intruders were all gone. All of the guests were saved from the life-threatening situation. Luckily no one had suffered serious injuries or casualty, but the charity auction items were all gone.

Dr. Light has a three inches thin cut on the neck and sprains his ankle; he was transferred to hospital for treating the injuries. Mega Man was already recovered from the after effects of Jupiter's electric shock, he stayed behind to answer a few question by the police and the reporters; Roll was stayed with Dr. Light while he was waiting for treatment in the ER, and she noticed Dr. Light's hands were shaking.

"Are you alright, Dr. Light?" She asked with concern. "You look like you have seen a ghost."

"Actually, I have." Dr. Light mumbled, his voice shaking. his face was pale as a sheet of paper, his eyes were dull and dazed. He was caught up in some painful memory of something happened in the past, and it was caused by the terrible mistakes he made.

Dr. Light closed his eyes tightly and took a deep breath, the face of his most beloved boy appeared before his eyes again, he almost couldn't believe that he did actually able to see him again, and this boy saved him and his children's life tonight.

"Please don't scare me, I am having enough stuns tonight!" Roll started shaking him. "I should get the doctor to come see you right now!" Roll stood up and head out, only Dr. Light grabbed her arm and stopped her.

"No, please stay with me." Dr. Light breathed lightly, "I am just feeling a little light-headed. I need some company."

"Are you sure you are okay?" Roll took Dr. Light's hand and asked softly.

"I am fine; I was just thinking about something." Dr. Light sighed, "Destiny...it sure is an amazing thing."

To be continued...

Author's note: [8/8/2016]This is the third edition of 'chapter 2', as in, the whole chapter has been rewritten, and the whole story is going to be rewritten. It took me a lot of afford to construct this chapter, for god's sake.

[20/11/2017]Minor changes on grammar and a few dialog lines.