Chapter 3: Back In Blue
Kotobuki Maximum Security Penitentiary was not a pleasant-looking building. Grim and functional, it existed for one purpose only; to hold those prisoners who Japan considered retention of to be the absolute highest priority. Mostly murderers, some singular and some serial, with a sprinkling of other crimes mixed in as well. These damned souls went through their bleak, strictly ordered lives with the blank-eyed stares of knowledge that this was all there was, that there was no hope of release, that it would continue for every day of their lives until the oldest painkiller known to mankind finally claimed them in its skeletal arms. But even for them, there was always the knowledge of something worse. The solitary confinement cells, where those who misbehaved or who could not be kept with the other prisoners were consigned to solitude. Most of them went mad, eventually.
But Dr. Wily had been mad for more than a decade already.
That was what everybody had told him, anyways. Dr. Wily mused on this now, as he lay on his cot and examined the blank white ceiling, idly trying to squint enough to see the line of metal plates. Of an equal age as Dr. Light, he was physically an opposite, lean and lanky with limbs that always seemed to be twisting and turning at odd angles. His hair had receded enough to bare the front and top of his dome a decade ago, then abruptly halted, leaving the back and sides covered with a wild, bushy growth the same gray as his mustache. Was he mad, Wily wondered, as he sprawled in his bright orange prison uniform, magnetic clamps on both wrists and legs. Enough people had certainly told him so. Most of them his enemies. Mega Man, of course; but then, he would claim anybody who opposed him as mad, the self-righteous hypocrite that he was. They had to be mad, otherwise they would not force him to fight them, after all. Equally so for his lackeying brother. A shame; Wily had once believed Blues to have potential, and yet he had thrown it away to crawl at Mega Man's heels. The girl, of course, was useless. Always had been. Thomas, though... hearing the words from him, the flat abandonment of belief and hope... that had still stung just a bit, even after everything that had separated them. Not that Wily had let it show, of course. But Tom believed, Tom hoped... it was what he did. And now he had no more of that left for the man who had once been his closest friend. Dr. Light had abandoned Dr. Wily entirely for the robots now. And with that loss, so too was the last piece of the man Wily had been earlier in his life now gone.
"I should be glad for that." Wily reminded himself with a sneer. "I owe you another favor, dear friend Tom. Thank you for helping me finish myself off." Was he mad? Pah! What did it matter, whether he was or not? The world would decry him as such anyways, as it always had, and it always would. Were he to truly recant, as he had pretended to do in the Third, and devote the remainder of his life to projects of love and peace, the world would still spit on him. And all he had wanted to do was help. He had done it to save the world, he truly had... but from what? Knotting his brow, Wily struggled to remember. There had been something, he knew. Some threat, that required drastic action... that only he could stop, and so he would have to, at any price. But try as he might, Wily could not remember what it was. Relaxing, he smirked again. It mattered not. The world declared him mad, and as for Wily himself, he did not care. If he was mad, or not, it made no difference to him.
Once, his ends had justified his means. Now, his means justified his ends. What happened afterward was unimportant; it was worth it, anything was worth it, just to continue his way of life. Continue his Robot Rebellions, his war with the family of Light. The Rebellions, and his eternal struggle to bring Mega Man's death and curse his life, were the sole focus of Dr. Wily's existence now. That was what had allowed him to wait out his six months in solitary casually, to go through day by day lying quietly on the cot, whistling and thinking over what would happen once it was through, and he returned to the world. It had been so, so tempting to tell Light of what would soon occur, what was likely on its way even as they spoke. But that would have spoiled the surprise. And so, Wily had contented himself with a single line, delivered in parting to raise questions in the other man's troubled mind. "Only time can judge me, Tom. Only time. And time is about to grant me an early parole."
Weaker men would have gone insane in solitary, unable to keep track of time and the passing of days once they discovered they could not mar or scratch the titanium walls of their cell to help them remember. But not Dr. Wily. Without aid, he had counted down each and every one of the days since he had been captured, every time the lights dimmed and then brightened again. Today was the day, Wily knew it was. And so, once returned to his cell, he laid back and thought and smiled, as the dim sounds of explosions and chaos slowly became audible. And the screams... gods, how he had missed the screams. Louder and louder, closer and closer they came. Until finally, a voice was heard through the door.
"Stand back, please, Dr. Wily."
"I've been at the back of the cell ever since I came back here." Wily replied. "Just open it already, you wind-up tin soldiers."
"As you command, sirrah!" The voice replied, and the titanium of the door frosted over, filled with sub-zero temperatures. A moment later, a series of explosions shattered it, layer by layer, into bits of shrapnel. When the way was clear, Wily jumped back to his feet and sauntered out, undeterred by the irons still clasping his arms and legs.
"Dr. Wily! Salute!" Freeze Man instantly ordered, and all four Robot Masters followed suit, arrayed in two lines on either side of his door.
"Well, somebody's taught you how to properly regard your superior. Well done, boys." Dr. Wily approved, looking over the creations he had set aside for the contingency of his capture. "None of you are damaged, I trust?"
"From this, sir?" Burst Man snorted. "Your skill is greater than that in constructing us."
"Good, good." Dr. Wily mused, looking them over. "Not you, not you, not you... ah, Junk Man. You get these things off me." He held up his arm irons, then indicated his legs as well.
"Yes, sir." Junk Man promptly took the binding magnetic clamps in his hands and, in a display of pure brute strength, wrenched them apart. Following suit with those on Wily's ankles, he then wadded both sets into a ball of crumpled metal and tossed it down the hall. "Doctor Wily, we brought your saucer as well."
"Did you?" Wily's eyes lit up gleefully. "Where is it, where is it, take me to it, take me to it!" Giggling wildly, the old man scampered down the hall alongside his creations in his bright orange jumpsuit, out of the solitary wing. At the exit was the saucer, bright yellow on its lower disc and blue on its upper. Wily's favorite vehicle, by now it was as much a part of his image as the devilishly twitching mustache, or the tie and lab coat over the simple shirt and slacks that were his wardrobe. Thinking of those, Wily spoke again. "On that note, did you happen to bring a change of clothes for me as well?"
"On what..." Cloud Man began, then broke off and shrugged. "Well, yes. Inside the saucer. Your favorite."
"Good, good." Wily climbed inside through the roof hatch; indeed, the clothes were all there inside the lower cockpit. In a moment, he would close the hatch and change; first, though, there was one last order of business. Popping back out of the hatch, he regarded the Robot Masters who were once more saluting him. "I assume that upon arrival, you fellows made a beeline for my cell, simply destroying everything and everyone in the way?"
"Such were your orders, sir." Freeze Man confirmed.
"All right. Consider those orders completed. Now, I have new ones." Dr. Wily grinned as he surveyed the building that had been his home for six months. They had held the greatest genius in the world captive to their will, to their idiot, bovine fear. And for that, they would pay. "Kill everybody. Kill the warden. Kill the guards. Kill the technicians. Kill them all. Let not a single human being escape your wrath! Ice them, blast them, zap them, compact them! When you finish, return to base, and we'll decide where you go from there, hm?"
"Yessir!" The four Robot Masters chimed before turning and racing off. Humming a little ditty to himself, Dr. Wily lowered the hatch and moved the saucer out of the facility with one hand while he struggled out of his jumpsuit with another. He had something to do himself, before he was gone and away. Somebody to see.
"Thank you very much, Mister Roboto... until we meet again... hee hee ha ha ha ha..."
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The district of Kotobuki was, in only a few minutes, transformed into an absolute warzone. Killer robots, some the size of tanks, ran rampant through the streets, while frenzied humans blasted down the highways in any cars they could reach, desperate to escape. And yet, no matter how panicked their mindset, each and every one of the escapees turned their heads as they passed the only vehicle that was heading towards the insanity. A vehicle that was driving even faster and crazier than they were. It had been a green pickup truck, once, and to some degree it still was; however, the word "truck" alone could not do it justice, since Auto had "improved" it. Now, the front of the truck bore a king-sized replica of its current driver's own face. The same driver who was pushing it to its current breakneck velocity while muttering under his breath about the failure of the experimental hover system at such a critical moment.
"Concentrate on driving, Auto." Mega Man reminded him from the truck's bed, where he and Roll were standing, keeping themselves stable with their hands on the railing. Obviously ready for action, he had donned his blue armor once more; a form-fitting titanium mesh body suit of light blue, with heavier segments colored darker over his hands, feet and groin. Only the helmet remained; for various reasons, he was delaying putting that on for as long as possible.
"Remind me again why you aren't teleporting." Roll responded to the comment with one of her own. Unlike her brother, she appeared at first glance to be unchanged from her normal mode. A second glance, though, would pick up the combination of fear and anger that caused her to shift around uncomfortably, unable to remain still for more than a few seconds at a time.
"Even if I teleported, I'd be unable to stop Wily's escape." Mega Man explained calmly. His gloom was gone now, replaced with a tired resolve; this was nothing new to him. Not any more. "That'll be their first priority, and he'd be gone by the time I arrived. With that in mind, my first priority is evacuating this place to keep the casualties down. This truck will help a great deal with that. If I teleported ahead, I'd have a lot of trouble finding it once you were here. Besides..." He winced as an unlucky mailbox was flattened. "The way Auto drives, it's almost as fast as if I had teleported anyways."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Auto chuckled, adding a trash can to his hit list as well. "Ehh, your mother was a dishwasher! Well, at least we don't have any trouble finding the way to go." He glared at the massive cloud of smoke covering Kotobuki; the fires were evidently well underway. Searchlights penetrating the smog identified the location of the prison, where the heart of the madness was undoubtedly converging.
"That's not a good thing." Mega Man shook his head. "I'm probably going to regret this, but can you make it go any faster? This attack needs to be contained, now."
"Well, if you say so, I'll punch it up another notch!" Auto shrugged, and impossibly, the truck became even more hellbent. "Hold on to, hell, anything!"
"I still can't believe this is happening again..." Roll closed her eyes, both out of disbelief of the situation and to avoid having to see what they were doing. "Dr. Wily, loose again. Won't that madman ever stop?" The desperation in her voice was something unlike her normal attitude, and Mega risked life and limb by freeing one hand to pat her on the shoulder.
"He won't be loose for long." The hero promised her. "Remember, we've been planning for this. Dad has those upgrades for me and Rush nearly completed. I'll bring him down again, just like before." Further discussion was cut off as Auto suddenly slammed on the brakes, causing the truck to slide wildly before slowing to a halt. Before them, the road had suddenly turned unstable, ripped up by the invading army.
"Whoops... hadn't counted on them targeting the freakin' highway itself." Auto complained. "Well, looks like this is as far as this baby goes."
"All right. You two stay here and look for refugees in the area." Mega Man instructed his siblings. "I'll go in."
"Hold it-message from Blues!" Auto relayed. Peering over into the driver's seat, Rock fixed his eyes on the tiny screen in the dashboard, where his elder brother's face was displayed. Blues had gone ahead on his Melee Moth to scout from the sky, along with the robotic bird Beat. "Any sign of dad, bro?"
"No joy." Proto Man shook his head, now covered with a round red helmet; doubtless the rest of his body wore the gray and red armor as well. "We'll keep looking, but watch out in particular for a steamroller robot with a spiked mohawk. One of 'em fried that news crew that was reporting this mess; mothman smashed it, but there's probably more around."
"Can do." Mega nodded. "Good luck, bro."
"Same to you." Proto saluted before cutting the connection.
"All right." Mega Man closed his eyes, focusing his mind. "Auto. My helmet, please."
"Right." Auto handed him the headgear, and without a moment of hesitation, Mega placed it over his hair.
"Hey..." A moment later, he realized that the feel was different, and opened his eyes again. Reflected in the truck's metal was a construction hardhat. "Very funny."
"I thought so." Roll was openly smirking, as was Auto, and after a moment Mega gave in and smiled as well.
"All right. Laugh it up, while you can."
"Knew you could smile if you wanted to!" Auto cheered, removing the hardhat and replacing it with the correct blue helmet. "Just remember, bro. No matter what happens, you always have the right to smile. Always."
"Thanks." Mega Man climbed down from the truck and made his way forward, into the madness once more.
"Personally, I kinda liked that look..." Auto commented to Roll as their brother departed.
Ignoring that, Mega Man climbed over the chunks of debris covering the road, praying that he wouldn't be too late to save his father. As it was, fate smiled on him in that regard; it was less than a minute before he sighted a familiar figure coming his way, guided by a robotic red dog. "There you are!" Landing in front of them, Mega smiled again, this time in relief. "Had us worried for a moment there, dad. Hold on. I'll go get Roll to help you over this stuff."
"Nonsense, there's no time for that!" Dr. Light shook his head. "I'm not too old to climb a bit. You need to focus on this attack. I'm sure I don't need to tell you what it's a cover for."
"Dr. Wily." Mega Man nodded grimly as he looked into the distance; now he could see the Prison, or what was left of it. As he stared, a familiar capsule shape soared through the skies, gradually growing in size as it approached them. "And speak of the devil, here he comes already."
"Satan laughing spreads his wings!" Howling madly, Dr. Wily pulled his flying saucer up short in front of the three of them, glaring down over a demented grin. Already free of his prison suit, he had returned to his familiar garb, even taking the time to do his tie properly. The Lights were unimpressed by this formality; Rush growled, Dr. Light scowled, and Rock simply turned a blank, expressionless gaze upon him before firing upon the saucer. Equally unimpressed, Wily maneuvered the machine out of the way and twitched his eyebrows mockingly. There were no more words; there was no need for them. The message was clear, as Mega Man and Doctor Wily locked eyes.
I'll stop you. Again, and forever.
I'm back. Again, and forever.
The doctor was the first to break the vision; clambering back down inside the machine, he soared away, his message delivered. Shaking his head, Mega turned to his father once more.
"Auto and Roll are parked directly behind me, past that rubble."
"All right." Dr. Light glanced behind himself. "There are still a lot of people back there, Rock."
"I know. And I know I can't save them all." Mega Man admitted. "But I'm going to save as many as I can. Let's go, Rush."
Barking angrily, the robotic dog fell into step with his master as the hero ran forward, leaving Dr. Light to watch them return to their lives of war, sadly shaking his head before continuing on his own way, back turned against the madness.
The first robots they met were nothing; hard-hat Metools whose armored helmets were worthless when raised to allow attack or mobility, and simple tank-tread humanoids that took far too long to register a target despite bearing mortar launchers on both arms. A charged plasma blast from Mega Man's buster disposed of them as easily as Rush's teeth, and before long a path of charred and shredded enemy casualties lined their way. Humans emerged as soon as they saw them, recognizing their hero instantly, and were waved towards the truck. Some, of course, it was too late for; averting his eyes from the corpses, Mega Man forced himself to focus on the task at hand. They were killed before I could arrive. There was nothing I could do. First Law is not applicable. Once, the sight of a dead human would have frozen him instantly; the First Law of Robotics held a stranglehold on even the most advanced Robot Master. But after so much he had been through, even its grasp had faded into the weariness and age of his mind. The other two laws were less than a joke. As were other things.
"This is too easy." Mega murmured, wasting yet another Metool. "This can't be all..." He paused as the road began to shake, the sign of something huge approaching. Three Metools frantically ran around a corner into his vision, but before he could hit them, something else beat him to it-a robotic steamroller, purple and punk. It was larger than the truck, and crowned with a giant humanoid head bearing a spiked mohawk fin. As its eyes centered on him, that fin was launched forward, becoming a deadly spinning buzzsaw that ground across the road towards him and Rush. "Oh, no you don't." Mega Man easily hurdled the blade as Rush ran out of the way, knowing that he would only be a hindrance against this massive an enemy. Mega, however, was more prepared to return fire, and did so with a vengeance, rattling off a machine-gun stream of plasma bullets aimed at the obvious weak point-the head.
Growling mechanically, the steamroller somehow directed its mohawk blade to return, soaring over Mega Man's head to lodge back in place. Rather than fire again, however, it chose to rush forward along the ground.
"Too slow." Mega quipped, retreating cautiously nonetheless; were he to be caught under that massive weight, his six Rebellions of experience would not save him from being smashed flatter than Pharaoh Man's attempts at humor. He continued his rate of fire as he went, and the enemy's head began to smoke, dislodging chips of paint as well.
Now enraged, the steamroller roared, releasing a flamethrower from its mouth. Even this measure failed, however, as Mega Man once again skipped aside.
"That must be how your buddy 'fried' the news crew." Mega Man realized as the buzzsaw released once more. "Well, it's not good enough for me, bud! Say goodnight!" Jumping the blade again, this time he released a massive charged plasma shot. The four-foot sphere of superheated gas slammed into the enemy's maw like a missile, and that did the trick; systems pushed past their compensation point, it began falling apart as small explosions wracked its frame before culminated in one full-body kaboom that consumed it utterly. Without a moment of pause, Mega Man continued forward.
"This is odd..." The blue hero muttered as he walked. Past the steamroller, he no longer encountered active enemies; instead, he was finding a trail of wreckage. "Somebody got these ones before we came here. Proto Man? But then why didn't he get the big guy?"
"You really want to know that bad?" A voice replied, loud and mocking.
Whipping around to the source of it, Mega Man stared up at a one-story building. Standing on the roof was a Robot Master he had never seen before. Armored in black and yellow, with a blue star in the center of his chest, the newcomer was built slightly heavier than he was. He was grinning cockily, red eyes flashing over a pair of purple lines running down his cheeks; the helmet above them bore an odd, double-finned shape.
"I was chasing him down, but then I saw you, and I decided to let you take him so I could see how good you were myself." He inclined his head at the remains of the steamroller.
"You don't say." Mega Man replied calmly. "Impressed?"
"Well, you didn't screw up. I'll give you that much. Still, I thought jumbo would be more of a challenge than that." The other Robot Master snorted. "That barely told me anything."
"Well, you can feel free to watch me clean up the rest." Mega informed him, but didn't turn away; his instincts were all telling him not to take his eyes off the strange robot, a decision that turned out to be a wise one.
"Yeah... yeah, I could." The other robot nodded sagely. "Or I could take a much more direct route! Show me what you've got, hero!" His right hand shifted into a plasma buster, and he leaped from the building, the grin widening savagely as he opened fire.
"Damn it, it's never that easy..." Mega Man dropped and slid across the ground under the blast, then fired back as he stood. The stranger didn't flinch as he took the shots, simply hurdled the next blast and continued his own rate of fire. The buster was configured differently from his own, Mega Man noted immediately; its blasts had a much slower rate of fire, but were large, an elongated horizontal shape rather than the small circular bullets emitted from his own weapon. More powerful, too; one tagged his arm, and took off twice as much energy as a bullet from Proto Man's Buster would have, identical to his own. "You've got a nice gun there."
"Yours ain't too shabby either." The strange robot admitted, dodging about half of Mega Man's next flurry. "Good rate of fire."
"Thanks, I think." Mega replied dryly as he repeated it again. Despite his powerful Buster, the other robot's moves were clumsy and jerky; it seemed all he would do was jump, run a bit, and jump again. This guy's a rank amateur. "So what's your deal, anyways? If you were busting up the bad guys, why pick a fight with me?"
"I told you, so I could see how good you are!" The other robot replied casually. "Hero of six Rebellions, Mega Man, the famous Blue Bomber... now's as good a time as any to see how I stack up against you!"
"You haven't seen anything yet..." Mega muttered, cutting off his rapid-fire to charge his energy. The other robot didn't noticed, continuing his own pattern, and thus was caught completely off guard when the giant shot emerged. "Try this one, tough guy!"
"Whoa!" Hit full-on, the strange robot tumbled back on his rear end, wincing in pain. Dropping to one knee, he raised a hand. "Okay, okay, enough already! I give!" Instantly, a purple blur appeared before him and solidified into a wolflike robot that growled menacingly at Mega Man. "Stay, Treble. It's okay, I'm just singed."
"All right." Mega Man maintained a wary distance from Treble. "Now that that's over with, mind sharing a few more particulars? Like maybe your name, and where you're from?"
"I'm Bass. Yeah, go ahead and laugh, Bass and Treble." The Robot Master chuckled a bit himself. "As for where we come from and who built us, your guess is as good as mine. We woke up a few months ago in an old lab that was mostly abandoned; all we knew is that we were created to fight Dr. Wily. He was in jail, of course, but we read up on the Rebellions all the same, and when we saw this going down we jumped right in."
"So this was your first fight." Mega Man noted. "This explains a lot. You've got talent, but it's raw. Be careful not to get killed, and eventually you'll be good." He paused, then smiled a bit himself. "As long as you don't keep picking fights with me, that is."
"Yeah, no kidding." Bass rubbed a scotch mark wryly. "You're even better than I expected. Hope you don't mind if we keep at this all the same; you probably don't need our help, but..."
"One thing I've learned in this business is to take all the help I can get." Mega Man extended a hand, and Bass clasped it. "Nice to meet you, Bass. Hope you make it out of this alive."
"Me too, believe it or not." Bass joked again. "Well, looks like your brother managed to finish up here while we were busy saying hi. We'll be off, then; see you around, with any luck." Melting into a yellow beam of light, he teleported away. Treble growled one more time for good measure before following suit.
"Bass, huh..." Mega Man stared up as they soared away. "Well, he seems good-intentioned, even if he's a bit odd. He's right, though... it looks like there's no more robots around. Still, there'll be survivors to help." He sighed. "Come on, Rush. Let's go." Calling his dog back to his side, the hero continued walking onward, through the rubble and ruin that his life always returned to.
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"Weh-heh-hell, this place is looking more lively than it used to!" Bass announced as he arrived back in Skull Fortress VII, Treble landing behind him a moment later. Menial robots were scurrying every which way through the halls, busily cleaning everything. "Guess dad doesn't favor the dust and decay look, eh, Treble? I kinda liked it, but hey, he's the one in charge now, not us. Bet he's in the command center. Let's go take a look, shall we?" Striding down the halls purposefully, Bass found himself whistling a little tune as he went. The encounter with Mega Man had gone even better than he could have expected. Although one couldn't tell that from the look on Dr. Wily's face. Sitting in a swivel chair at the center of the Fortress's command center, he spun around as Bass and Treble entered, scowling ferociously.
"There you are. It's about time you got back. You've got some explaining to do, robot."
"I do?" Bass blinked, genuinely confused. "Whatever it was, I'm sorry."
"Don't give me that." Wily snorted. "You know exactly what you did. Destroying those robots? Our robots? Has your programming failed you?"
"Oh... oh." Bass' eyes widened in realization. "That. I can explain, then, father... it's all part of my plan."
"Six months active, and you're already hatching plans of your own..." Wily mused, then smiled. "Well, I suppose if I didn't want you smart I wouldn't have built you that way. All right, robot... tell me your plan."
"I chose a name for myself, father." Bass said quietly. "Like you told me to. I'm Bass now. And he's Treble."
"Yes, yes, yes, very good, very good." Dr. Wily waved a hand impatiently. "Might as well have been Tuna as Treble, but if you like it, all right. The plan, now!"
"Yes, sir." Ignoring the fish joke, Bass began to walk around the room, hands crossed behind his back. Circular in shape, every inch of wall save for the door was covered in computer monitors presenting various data of the planned Rebellion. Their glow was the only illumination present in the room, causing Bass' form to shift from lit to shaded as he walked. "I've spent my time studying all the files on past Rebellions that you left here for me. I've analyzed all six previous Rebellions. If I did so correctly, then you place great value on repetition. Force Mega Man and his family into the same act, over and over again, to wear him down. Make it indistinguishable, an endless, ongoing onslaught. That's why there's always eight Robot Masters, you always operate from Skull Fortresses, etcetera, etcetera."
"Quite right, quite right." Dr. Wily murmured, getting drawn into the act despite himself. "So then, I assume you plan to break the mold?"
"Yes... and no." Bass stopped, made a 180-degree turn, and continued his pacing. "In past Rebellions, all of Mega Man's interactions with different supporting roles have been replicated at least one time. The eternal villain-yourself-the scapegoat, the supporting villain, the supporting brother... all except one." He raised a finger and rotated on his heel to face his father, stopping his walk. "Before Blues Light became Proto Man... he was Break Man. In the Third Robot Rebellion, he was an independent party who operated from the shadows. His goals were a mystery, but over time he became a friend of Mega Man."
"Oh... oh ho ho, I get it now." Wily's grin was terrible to behold, all his age-old mania and years of mental decay bared to the world. "You repeat that role for him. Be a mystery, but a mystery friend, helping him out and then vanishing into the air once more."
"While pretending to be less skilled than he is, so he doesn't worry about the possibility of me fighting him again." Bass nodded, pleased that his father seemed to like his plan. "You saw that scuffle, I assume. Be assured that I'm far better than that. I just wanted to see what he could do; there was no need to show my hand just yet."
"No, you'll play the game... let him grow to trust you, as the Rebellion goes on." Wily murmured. "And then, at the right moment, when he's most vulnerable, and least expecting... you do what?"
"Well..." Bass did his best to echo his father's grin. "I do believe there is a bit of tradition involved with the odd-numbered Rebellions of his house coming under attack."
"There is indeed, there is indeed." Wily stroked his chin thoughtfully. "As I recall, the last time I did that, I did such a number that they had to move somewhere else. Nice house they have now. Pleasant."
"It's be an awful shame if some jerk came along and blew all the walls out, wouldn't it?" Bass inquired in mock worry.
"Oh, Tom'll have insurance. Unless he's gone senile, that is. Wouldn't that be a shame." Dr. Wily leaned back in his chair. "Well done, Bass. This plan of yours should serve admirably to drive the nails into little Rock's wrists just a little deeper. You are a credit to me."
"I live to serve you, father." Bass bowed deeply.
"Smart boy." Wily said with an amused twitch of his mustache. "Now then, rise. I haven't been idle myself, either. I've already sent the other four off with their armies. They should be arriving and attacking as we speak."
"May I ask where they are bound?" Bass said, standing and reaching down to scratch Treble's ears. Content that his master and his creator were getting along, the robotic wolf sank down to the floor with a low woof.
"Well, of course you should. Otherwise, how will you be able to go there to keep playing with your cousin?" Dr. Wily pointed at one screen, and then another, as he explained what they displayed.
"Junk Man took his army on a field trip to Berlin's finest Metal Disposal Facility. Hardly a high-profile target, really, even if it handles most of Germany's slag, but it was the best I could do that would suit him. At least he'll have plenty to work with. Cloud Man's better-I found another Weather Observation Platform for him, just like the one Gyro Man hit back in the Fifth. The repetition you mentioned should cause Mega Man a headache, with any luck. This one was in Nepal."
"Might need to borrow a map to find that one." Bass joked.
"South Asia, you clank." Wily growled absently as he faced a third screen. "Freeze Man was sent off to an Environmental Monitoring Facility in the Yukon. Global warming did get a lot worse about thirty years back, as I recall... just like everything else. Fun times, fun times..." His eyes misted over in recollection. "Back when I was the world's hero, instead of the devil incarnate... ah, the newspaper headlines, the government awards... I think they even made a balloon of me for the Macy's Day Parade. Tom, too... we were inseparable back then..." The air of reminiscence vanished, replaced by a more common black scowl. "He always got more credit, more glory. Well, that's certainly changed now, hasn't it, Tom? Now who's made more newspaper headlines? Heh heh heh..."
"Uh... what about Burst Man, dad?" Bass coughed politely.
"Eh? Oh, yes, the Rebellion." Wily shook his head before pointing at a fourth screen. "He's down at the Florida Aquarium. A noble place, helping all those endangered aquatic species. Far be it from me to ruin such a lofty project."
"So you told him to just kill the humans and leave the critters alone, is that it?" Bass guessed.
"Exactly! After all, it's hardly as if they're endangered, eh?" Wily slapped his knee and laughed at his own joke. "Not that I haven't made my contribution to that cause, hah! How about you? You bloodied your hands properly yet?"
"Not on humans, no." Bass shook his head. "Have to keep up the buddy-buddy mask with Mega Man. Ripping some shmuck's head off would kind of defeat that purpose."
"Fair enough, fair enough... well, you'll have time for that eventually." Wily reasoned. "Be on your way, then, now that our plans are all in order... you look like you could use some stasis."
"I could use a nap, yeah." Bass admitted, and Treble yawned in agreement, rising. "I'll get to that, then. And then the fun comes. I'll make you proud of me, dad... just wait and see. I promise it." He and his wolf turned and walked from the room, and Dr. Wily watched them go.
"Do what you were built for, robot." The aged madman whispered to himself as they left. "That's all you need to." Turning, he returned his attention to the monitors, and concentrated on the Rebellion once more, all thoughts of Bass forgotten.
In the end, he forgot all of them. For Mega Man, he was the only constant enemy. And he always would be. Earth could not be rid of his presence any more than it could the sea or the sky, now. He was an integral part of it, his legacy carved in blood. And nothing would ever wash it from the surface of the world.
