From the rooftops, Zero felt the heat from the house fire as he got closer to it. "How did a toaster fire get this bad, mom?"
"Just a routine fire fighting, Zero. There's a fire hydrant nearby."
"Got it, switching off communications."
Zero landed in front of the fire hydrant but before he could turn it on, he heard Mega Man say, "I got this one, Zero!"
Zero face palmed. "Of course you do."
"Activate Wave Man schematics!" Mega Man's buster cannon turned into a water cannon and began to put out the fires. Slowly.
"Okay, this isn't working," Zero said.
"Plan B! Activate Ice Man schematics!" Mega Man's buster cannon turned into the ice gun and fired at the fires, turning them into blocks of ice. Wait. That didn't come from neither Mega Man nor Zero.
"Who did that?"
"I did, Zero! I'm a hero!" A familiar looking Robot Master in ice blue winter gear and ice skates whizzed by him, freezing the flames while moving gracefully like a figure skater. When he was finished, he bowed before the cheering crowd. The cheers turned to gasps when Zero pointed the Z Saber at him. "Wait! I'm a hero!"
"The last time you said that," the red cyborg said. "You froze robots and humans together in blocks of ice. I thought you learned your lesson."
(!)
Eight-Bit flash back to when Ice Man was freezing robot and human students together only to be stabbed in the gut by Zero.
(!)
Ice Man made a dark frown. "I did learn something. Especially after you stabbed me in the gut. I learned that you're no hero, no matter what you say. I'm giving the city what it wants."
"Yeah, that's nice," said Mega Man, butting into the conversation. "But the hero position is already taken."
"If that was true," Ice Man argued. "You would have put out that fire like me!" To show off his new "heroics", he started putting out the remaining fires. Mega Man tried to at least put out one of them, but Ice Man blocked him and said, "Stand aside, citizen!"
"Why can't I do that?"
"We've been busy saving the city instead of making snow cones," Mega Mini said. "Plus, ice is kind of his thing."
"Well, saving the day is my thing," Mega Man said.
"Gotta pick your battles, kid."
Something triggered in Mega Man's head the moment he said that. "Pick my battles...yeah! Hey, Ice Man!" He pointed his ice gun at Ice Man, but Zero stopped him. "What are you doing?!" he shouted.
"Picking my battles, blonde." He squirmed out of Zero's grasp and fired at Ice Man, trapping him in a block of ice. He easily broke free.
"Thanks for the ice bath, chum," he said. "But a job well done is all the reward I need. You should leave the heroing to the professionals."
Snow began to fall on top of Mega Man, and only Mega Man as he said in a drone, "Leave the heroing to the professionals." He walked away as if in a trance. Zero was puzzled.
"What's wrong with him, Mom?"
"It's the Ice Man schematics," she said in his communicator. "When he downloaded it, he also downloaded Ice Man's faults, like him taking everything too literally."
"That would explain the way he tried to attack Ice Man like that."
"Forget him. Follow Ice Man. Keep him from hurting people in case his own faults cause him to hurt people."
"You got it, Mom."
(!)
From the rooftop he was perching, Zero could see Ice Man save a kid from getting run over when she ran into the middle of the road to get her ball...by freezing the cars and causing a pile up. Following that, Ice Man stopped a purse snatcher from getting away by freezing the purse. The problem? The purse was in an ice block too heavy for the woman to carry.
"Guess I gotta stop him before things can get any worse," Zero said.
"Uh, you might want to put Ice Man on hold. Bank robbery in progress."
"On it, Mom."
(!)
At the bank, two humans and a robot armed with glue rifles barged into the building and one of them shouted, "We're the Hoover Gang and this here's an old fashioned stick up, see?"
"One of you move so much as a move a muscle or a piston..."
"...we'll make soup out of you literally!"
Before the bank robbers to get the money, a familiar red cyborg appeared and pointed his Z Buster at them. "Now listen here, all three of you! You're obviously new at this, so I'm willing to go easy on you provided you return the money and never think of doing something like this again!"
"Oh, come on," one of the robbers shouted. "Don't you have a robot to blow up or something?"
Before Zero could respond, he suddenly found himself frozen in a block of ice. Guess who jumped down from the ceiling and landed on the ice? "You pseudo custodians should go back to your day jobs! I'm a hero! Heroes know best!" Zero broke out of the ice block, sending Ice Man flying into a wall. The three robbers saw their chance to flee and made a break for it, but a blast from the Z Buster stopped them.
"We're not done here," Zero shouted. "So stay there!"
"Yes, Zero," the robbers said, getting onto their hands and knees.
Suddenly, two Good Guild officers barged into the room. "Everybody freeze!"
"Did someone say freeze?" Ice Man froze them in blocks of ice. Zero punched him in the face. "What are you doing? Those are good guys!"
"What? He said freeze."
Zero growled in frustration. "Why can't you get that darn bug fixed? Stop taking everything so literal!"
Ice Man said darkly, "Such hostility. And you call yourself a hero?" He fired his his gun at Zero, only to be blocked every time with the Z Saber. "How many times have you hurt people trying to save them? How many bots' lives have you taken to save other bots?"
"At least I do not hurt the people I'm trying to save! You tried to help an old lady cross the street by turning a crosswalk into an ice rink! She broke her hip the moment she got to the other side!"
"He's right," a familiar voice said. Mega Man jumped through the hole in the ceiling Ice Man made and landed between Ice Man and Zero.
"You're back," Zero said. "What happened?"
"Let's just say I had to relearn how to be a hero."
"Hey, guy-who-doesn't-remember-my-name," Ice Man said. "Stay out of the way! There's lots of heroing around here!"
"Sort of," Mega Man said. "You stopped them, but you've also endangered all these people. Zero, help me free these guys before they catch a cold."
With that, Zero and Mega Man freed the people from the blocks of ice, except for the Hoover Gang; they were just frozen from the waist down. When Ice Man saw this, he gasped. "Are you helping the bad guys? Because that makes you a bad guy!" He started blasting his ice gun at the two heroes, who countered with their own weapons.
"I don't want to fight you, Ice Man, but people are frozen," Mega Man said. "If we don't help them now..."
"Then we won't be setting criminals free," Ice Man shouted. "A hero doesn't help criminals! He stops them no matter what it takes!" Zero blocked another wave of ice blasts with the Z Saber and fired back with the Z Saber.
Mega Man activated his Wave Man schematics and turned his buster cannon into the water cannon. "No, a real hero protects everyone!" Ice Man fired at Mega Man, but the Blue Bomber used the water cannon to jump into the air and land without harm. "Sometimes, you even have to protect people from themselves."
"And you fall under that category, Ice Man," Zero said, pointing the Z Buster at him. Ice Man used his powers to block every laser blast as he said, "No, I'm a hero now! I know what heroes do!"
Mega Man jumped into the air and fired the water cannon. In response, Ice Man used his powers to stop the water...which was what Zero was hoping would happen. Without realizing it, Ice Man froze himself into a block of ice, leaving himself vulnerable to Zero's sword. The weapon pierced the ice block, Ice Man's chest and the other side of the ice block. Ice Man's eyes dimmed and his lifeline shut down.
Zero pulled the sword out and sheathed it. "Sorry, kid."
"You should be," Mega Man said. "He wasn't a bad bot. He just needed to learn about what happens when you take things too far. And, considering he reminded me about how to be a real hero, I could have given him a second chance."
Zero sighed. "Some people don't learn, fixed in their ways as they are."
"And what about you? Are you fixed on your 'destroy all humans and robots who don't agree with you' ways? It sounds like something Sergeant Night would say!" He suddenly regretted saying that. Zero grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into a wall.
"You be careful what you compare me with," he hissed. "Night only wants robots to be obedient, automatous slaves. Just tools to be ordered about. He would see your kind enslaved! When I attack humans and robots, it's the ones who cannot be reasoned with! Do you honestly think someone like, oh I don't know, Fire Man can be reasoned with?"
Mega Man let out a grunt of frustration. "It still isn't right!"
"It doesn't matter if it's right or wrong. As long as it makes humans and robots happy, I don't care what you think of me."
"Activate Fire Man schematics!" Before Mega Man could get a chance to activate the fire powers, Zero dropped a smoke bomb and disappeared.
Mega Man, alone with the frozen people and Ice Man, let out a roar of anger. "Cool your jets, Big M," Mega Mini shouted. "Your circuitry is overheating!" Smoke came out of Mega Man's nose.
"If you're worried about Ice Man, don't worry!" Suna came out of hiding. "Dad can repair him! Maybe even give him another chance!"
Mega Man's erratic breathing slowed down, then turned back to his base form. "You're right. Everyone deserves a second chance. Even someone like Ice Man."
"And perhaps Zero," Suna said.
"No, not him," Mega Man said. "It's like he said, some people don't learn, fixed in their ways as they are."