When they arrived, it was as two beams of light: one blue, one pink. Fortunately, Dr. Wily's factory was surrounded by an energy field that prevented direct teleportation (chalk another one up to his incredible genius). Instead, they materialized on the grounds about a kilometer away from the entrance. He watched via security camera. They could easily be mistaken for human children, if not for the battle armor they wore.

THESE are Thomas's aces? They don't look that impressive. Rock and Roll had been designed for tool use and domestic chores, respectively, so he hadn't bothered to make them part of his plans for world conquest. He doubted they would be much more dangerous as Mega Man and Mega Woman. I was worried for nothing. They probably won't even make it to the entrance.

The first obstacle was a trio of Big Eye units, huge cyclopean robots that used powerful pneumatics to jump from place to place, attempting to crush trespassers. Strong and durable, they were some of the most deadly robots he possessed. And they had already locked on to their targets.

He leaned forward in his chair as the Big Eyes advanced in large, ground-shaking stomps. The first one took an extra-large jump, ready to crush Mega Man and Mega Woman—

—who simply ran under it. They turned around and fired some kind of energy blasts at the back of its head. Dr. Wily frowned. Did Thomas install arm cannons?

After several shots from each of them, the Big Eye's upper half exploded, and it collapsed. They repeated the same tactic against the second and third Big Eyes when they, too, jumped extra-high.

Wily smacked his forehead. He knew he should have given those things more advanced programming.

-W-

"All right, so you made it to the entrance," he muttered. "But you won't make it inside!"

Five massive metallic cubes blocked the entryway. They would only move aside to admit someone who transmitted the proper passcode. Mega Woman and Mega Man fired their arm cannons at them, but the energy dissipated without visible effect. Wily couldn't resist gloating, and he activated the loudspeakers in the area.

"Those blocks are almost impervious to energy weapons! If you had Elec Man, his Thunder Beam might be able to short out their circuitry and make them retract. Or maybe Guts Man could use his raw strength to punch through them or rip them out. But you don't have either of them on your side anymore, so I'm afraid you're stuck out there! Mwa ha ha!"

He turned off the speaker, deciding to watch them waste their energy for a while longer before sending out his forces to end this. The robots stared at one another, talked for a moment, then turned and walked away. Surely they're not giving up so soon? But no; they stopped and began fiddling with the remains of the nearest Big Eye. Its head was ruined, but its bottom half was more or less intact. What are they doing?

After a few moments, they had disconnected the pneumatics and crusher from the rest of the robot. Together, they carried it back to the entrance and placed the crusher against the first block. Mega Woman held it in place while Mega Man tinkered with the pneumatics.

Suddenly they started pumping again, slamming the base into the block over and over. The Mega twins were obviously straining, but they managed to keep hold of the Big Eye remains as they kept pounding away.

In a flash, Wily realized their plan. They were using the pneumatics as a giant improvised jackhammer. He had mentioned Guts Man punching through, and now they were using the crusher to mimic his strength.

Sure enough, before long they had perforated the block. They adjusted the crusher, enlarging the hole further, then carried the Big Eye remains inside, doubtless to repeat the process on the rest of the blocks.

He growled. Obviously Rock's knack for tool using was still in there, even under whatever extra programming Thomas had installed to make him a warrior.

-W-

"All right, so you made it inside," he muttered. "But you won't make it up!"

His next few lines of defense—fire pillars, tiny bouncing robots called Fleas, spike pits, and Foot Holder flying platform robots—hadn't slowed them down much, but by this point he wasn't expecting them to. He was starting to develop a grudging respect for Thomas's "children."

But this next obstacle would stump them, he knew it. It was brilliant in its simplicity.

They had reached a small room. In front of them was a wall that stretched upward about 25 feet. On the other side of it was another wall, hanging from the ceiling. And behind that wall, not visible from where they were standing, the ladder that led upwards into the next room hung from the ceiling, also about 25 feet off the floor. They would have to scale the first wall, fall two dozen feet or so, walk under the second wall, and then make it to the ladder.

But neither wall had anything they could grip onto that would allow them to climb. Another passcode would make the walls retract and the ladder lower, but they didn't have that code either. The twins couldn't fly or hover, and they couldn't jump anywhere near that high.

If they could create temporary platforms made of semi-solid energy, they could use those to clear the first wall and reach the ladder, but to do that would require a Magnet Beam. And Magnet Beams were rare; there was only one whose location he knew of. It had been in the territory that Elec Man had taken over, and he had made sure to retrieve it during his trip there. If he didn't know where any others were, surely Dr. Light didn't either.

There was no way they could make it through this room. He was sure of it.

He started to taunt them via loudspeaker again, then thought better of it. They had only made it inside because he had given them an inadvertent hint. He wouldn't be undone by his own brilliance again.

The two robots examined the wall and talked for a minute; Wily wished he could hear what they were saying. Then they descended the ladder back into the previous room, which contained a large pit of spikes. Above the pit, several Foot Holders flew in semi-random patterns, occasionally firing a weak energy blast. They jumped on a Foot Holder, just as they had done to cross the pit in the first place. Wily furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what they were trying to do. Surely they haven't just decided to leave, have they?

The flying platform began to slowly sink under their combined weight; a Foot Holder could easily handle one of them at a time, but not both. They shifted and moved around, guiding its descent, forcing it over to the ladder they had just descended. Mega Man jumped back onto the ladder and started to climb, while Mega Woman stayed onboard the Foot Holder, which began to rise again now that its load had been lightened. Whenever its movements took it away from the ladder, Mega Man jumped back on so they could steer it back.

Soon it reached the top of the ladder, and began to ascend into the next room, its sides scraping the walls as it did so. It seemed like it might get stuck, but with a little prodding from the twins, it made it through.

Wily could only watch in silent amazement at what happened next. Mega Man and Mega Woman began to jump in an alternating pattern, one leaping as the other landed, so that only one of them was ever on the Foot Holder at one time. By carefully managing their weight like this, they kept it rising. It was a slow ascent, but it was an ascent nonetheless.

And then they were over the first wall.

Now both of them stood on it together, guiding it under the wall that hung from the ceiling. Then they repeated their jumping trick, until the Foot Holder had risen high enough that they could grab onto the ladder leading up into the next room.

Dr. Wily scowled, but found himself clapping slowly.

-W-

"All right, so you made it up," he muttered, "But you won't make it past my Yellow Devil!"

Formed of a mutable shape-memory polymer that allowed it to separate into multiple pieces and merge again, controlled by a core that acted as both visual sensor and laser cannon, the Yellow Devil was his most formidable creation.

The twins stepped into a large, dimly-lit room. Once both were fully inside, a thick metal gate slammed down behind them, and several hatches opened on the wall. Large globs of yellow-orange polymer oozed out of the hatches and flew across the room. Along the way, several of them smacked into Mega Man and Mega Woman, knocking them to the floor.

The globs flowed together, coalescing into a roughly 20-foot tall humanoid, glaring balefully down at the intruders with one glowing red eye.

Leaning in closer to the monitors, Dr. Wily grinned. This should be fun.