Chapter 10:

Break Man stood in his cage, embarrassed and angry at himself for the day's events. He had had the opportunity to avenge Mega Man and end Wily's reign once and for all, and he had squandered it. Once he overheard Wily's conversation with Light and saw Bass' arrival, Break Man had given his signature whistle and dropped down into the room. He could remember what happened next vividly.

"Damn it!" Bass shouted as he turned to face his aggressor. "I just dealt with Mega Man, and now I have to deal with you?"

Break Man's voice was cold. "No, Bass, this time I deal with you. I should have destroyed you when I had the chance."

Bass shook his head. "I bet you think you're a big man, Light-bot. Let's see if you can defeat me, after I've already fought Mega Man and been teleported to the sun and back. It'll be fun to see you try."

"Stop being so smug, Bass! I can beat you at full strength with one arm cannon tied behind my back."

"Whatever you say, Proto Man." Break Man clenched his teeth at that name. He always hated it. It defined him as a prototype, something primitive that needed improvement. "Yeah, you can defeat me with your eyes closed, whatever. I guess we'll never know since I'm about to kick your ass with half energy."

Break Man could take no more. "Oh, come off it, Bass! Here!" Break Man threw an energy tank towards the dark warrior. "Now I'm going to avenge my brother!" Bass immediately absorbed the E-tank and went into a full assault against Break Man. To him this was the next best thing to a true fight with Mega Man, a fight he was just robbed of thanks to Wily's schemes. Break Man fought with nothing but vengeance on his mind. He was so sure of himself that his guard wasn't what it should have been. Aggression was too strong on his mind for him to even think about using his shield. Though the fight was brutal, Bass had disposed of Break Man without too much difficulty, opting to add insult to injury by knocking the red robot out with a kick to the face rather than ending him with a fully charged shot. Unbeknownst to Break Man, Bass was right. By the end of it he still had over half his energy, and didn't even need the E-tank.

The helmet wearing Break Man was busy blaming himself for this predicament when Bass entered the room. "Congrats, Proto, you're getting out of here."

Break Man stood up and leaned against the back of his cage. "What are you talking about, Bass?"

"It's simple, Proto Man. I was programmed to destroy Mega Man. He's destroyed, so I have nothing left I have to do. I don't have to lift a finger for Wily anymore. Light is working out a plea bargain, and as a sign of good faith I've agreed to let you go."

"I don't buy it." Break Man didn't buy it.

"Believe what you will, but when I let you go I'm going to need you to go to Dr. Light's so he knows I really let you go. I'm having one of my lab robots hook your shield into our lab systems. I'll hand you the shield and you'll be sent back to Dr. Light."

"Stay away from my equipment, Bass, I don't want any hidden explosives or whatever else you can come up with."

"Who do you think you're talking to, Proto Man, Dr. Wily? I don't know how to make that kind of stuff. Teleporters are simple. I'm just magnetically attaching some kind of override device we have in stock. You can rip it off as soon as you land."

Break Man motioned to his wrists. "And what about these cuffs?"

Bass turned to walk away. "Give me some credit. I'm not going to have you tearing up my lab. Dr. Light can take those off." With that, he exited the room. Bass turned and walked down the hallway, entering a comm. room. "Bass to Dr. Wily"

Wily quickly answered from the other end. "Yes, Bass?"

"Have you built that Dark Man clone yet?"

Wily shook his head. "Dark Man is a sophisticated robot. I only started 2 hours ago. Also, I doubt Dr. Light will fall for this trick."

"You don't worry about that, Wily. How much longer?"

"Well, I've built this version before, so I was able to work a little faster this time. The body is complete, but I have to rebuild the head from scratch. Most of our manufacturing rooms were damaged by Proto Man, presumably, before you captured him."

"Good job, Doc. Good job not answering my question, that is. Give me an estimate!"

Wily furrowed his brow. "Four hours. The head is the most complex part."

Bass was visibly upset at the estimate. "Four hours? Two hours was bad enough! Dr. Light is going to get suspicious if Proto Man isn't sent to him soon!"

Wily laughed to himself. "Oh, don't worry Bass, you're the evil genius here, I'm sure you'll think of something."

Bass sneered. "Just get back to work. I have another call. It's Dr. Light." Bass quickly wiped the sneer off his face and switched calls. "Yes, Dr. Light?"

Dr. Light, on the other end of the call, had a confused look on his face. "Bass, I was just wondering, when were you going to release Break Man?"

Bass could not think of anything, so he spoke without thinking. "Oh, release him? I'm sorry. I thought I was supposed to wait for you to call me back. I've never done hostage negotiations before. I don't know the protocol."

Dr. Light furrowed his brow. "No, Bass, when you release someone in good faith, you're supposed to do it as soon as possible."

A look of shock and wonderment appeared upon Bass' face. "Really? I did not know that. I guess I wasn't really programmed for this sort of thing. Tell you what, Dr. Light, I'll go and release him right now. Don't hang up."

Light was beginning to get a headache. He was at a loss for words. "Um...Ok. Sure." Light waited impatiently at his monitor as Bass walked off screen. Bass, in the meantime, improvised.

"Oh my God! What the hell is that!?" Bass shouted as he aimed his own arm cannon at his chest and released a fully charged shot. The dark warrior sent himself hurtling across the room, smoking, right through the frame of the video link. Bass quickly stood up as soon as he was no longer in the camera's view and operated the room's main control panel for a moment. Bass then quickly ran in front of the camera again, firing several random shots outside of the frame. "Oh God! It's too strong! Nothing's affecting it!" With that, the room's power was cut off. Dr. Light stood in his lab frozen with shock as his vidlink showed nothing but static, while Bass walked out of the comm. room, laughing. As he rounded the corner at the doorway, he nearly ran headlong into Dr. Wily. Bass looked at his creator and smiled. "I bought us some time. Did you catch the show?"

Wily was flush with anger. "You idiot! That little show scared me half to death! I thought we were under attack or something!"

Bass became serious once more. "Well maybe if you were doing your job instead of eavesdropping on my calls you wouldn't have anything to worry about! Finish the damn Dark man before Dr. Goodnik sends a rescue team!"

Wily clenched his fist. "I come down here to save you from what I think is an assault and this is the thanks I get!"

Bass smiled again. "Wow, that sounds incredibly familiar. It's like we've had this conversation before except you were the ungrateful one." Bass gave Wily a pat on the shoulder, neglecting to restrain his superhuman strength. Wily was shoved into the wall. "There there, Doc. You'll get used to it. On your way back to the lab, send me a technician droid. I need some work done in the holochamber."

Wily painfully rubbed his shoulder and began walking back to his lab, muttering to himself. "Damn ungrateful robots. You try to take over the world a dozen times and then they wing it with no plan at all and do a better job than you. I should have stuck to making internet viruses."