Chapter Ten
Coinciding Missions Pt 2
Disclaimer
For the record not only do I not own Ruby/Spears Mega Man,
I also do not own the Transformers.
I also wanted to say thanks to all the reviewers
who've stuck with me so far on my long absence
and thanks to all the newer reviewers too.
You guys Totally Rock!
Five disguised robots arrived at the train station early that morning. There were few people there, some were dozing lightly others were just arriving. The robots headed away from the platforms and towards the freight trains. Charge Man was Wily's largest robot master and one of the ways the mad scientist earned money for his operations. He had as "Dr. Schultz," designed the train as a prototype. With a "built in advanced computer" that let the train travel to its destination and perform basic maintenance without human intervention. It was also made out of titanium, to reduce damage. Wily of course allowed others to ship their goods for a fee, but he also used Charge Man for covert raids and to ship his own products under various aliases to companies and criminals around the country.
Charge Man was not the whole train, however just the front part that could easily detach from the rest and an advanced holographic projector to disguise him when he made attacks on other trains. He was hard working, punctual and serious minded. He focused on his work regardless of what he was doing and could not stand dawdling, or pointless conversation.
"Hey Optimus. What's goin on?" Star Man snarked.
Charge Man mentally rolled his eyes, not understanding the reference to these Transformers.
"Shut up bolt-head do you want people to know he's a Wily bot?" Wave Man hissed quietly.
"Knock it off both of you," Shadow said, "we've got our orders. Move out."
While Wily's bots were preparing for their individual missions at the train station, Roll and Ice Man were already on the road. She was scrutinizing Venixion's blueprints.
"So what's the plan?" She finally asked, trying to break the uncomfortable silence between them.
"How should I know? Your sposed to be the advanced bot."
Roll was tired of his attitude.
"Well we need to figure something out! Venixion isn't some low level factory we can just bust into guns blazing! They've got tech that makes Wily look primitive so we hafta work together!"
And Roll knew. Venixion had once asked Mega Man to test their security systems by having him pose as an "intruder" and he had barely gotten out alive.
On the surface Venixion Corps posed as a respectable company that made security systems, underneath, they were some of the most covert advanced high-tech criminals in the world. The reason they never got caught at it was due to a combination of tight control, well-paid lawyers and the fact that they had a lot of government officials in their pocket. Furthermore few people dared to go against them, rumor had it that they had wiped out a small, well connected scientist in Brazil for trying to spill their secrets.
"What's your problem?! I mean why do you hate me and Mega and Dr. Light so much anyways?" She demanded.
It definitely hadn't escaped her notice that the "Original Six" as some people called them, seemed to hate the Light family more then the rest of Wily's bots put together.
"My Problem? You're a Light bot, that's what." He could feel his temper rising by the second.
"So were you! So what?" Roll said hotly.
"So wha-listen little girl, have you ever noticed that your precious Dr. Light would do anything to get you back? But he gave up on us. Even though I gotta put up with the old man's crazy schemes day in and day out, at least at the end of the day I know Wily will always come to get us, no matter how often we screw up."
Roll blinked. She'd had no idea that the Original Six held a grudge because of that. If she failed this mission or got captured and reprogrammed by Wily for real, would Dr. Light abandon her too?
"It's not like he cares you know." She muttered darkly.
Ice Man noticed her discomfort. "Good, I've got the bossy brat thinking." He thought with a firm nod.
"I know, now leave me alone. I'm driving."
She blew out an angry breath and an uncomfortable silence settled over the pair as she scrunched up her legs and pretended to study the layout.
"Why is our target in the second basement?" She asked in alarm.
'What?" Ice Man asked. Not sure his audio sensors heard right.
"The basement, our target is in B-2. How the hell does Wily expect us to get it out of there unnoticed?"
Ice Man felt something cold and jittery travel up his artificial nervous system at the same time Roll did.
"Someday Ice Man, Wily's gonna send you on a mission you cant handle. Something you won't survive." Air Man sneered after he'd sabotaged the Ice Age mission. He began to seriously rethink his previous statement that Wily would always come to get him at the end of the day.
"What if Wily found out I'm a spy?" Roll worried.
"What if this is his way of getting rid of me?" They both wondered.
Shadow and Crash Man were waiting patiently as Snake Man maneuvered his two search snakes around the complex. The mechanical snakes weren't just for attack, they were also there to lock onto signatures and frequencies and were primarily used for spying. Hard Man was found first, the cameras in the snakes eyes were connected to their master's optical units and memory core.
"I found Hard Man, he'sss in the main lab and sssome sscientisstss have taken him apart and are reprogramming him."
Crash Man grimaced, not looking forward to telling Wily that. Beside him, Shadow Man grimaced too, though for completely different reasons. Humans had too much control. He thought angrily. "No robot should have to go through what was essentially brain washing."
"Crash, tell Wily what happened and ask him what he wants to do about Hard Man." Shadow ordered.
Crash, despite being an explosives master was an unusually quiet and pensive robot, which was why he and not Bomb or Napalm had gone on this mission. Wily did want to make an example of the Bennets, but they needed to get their comrades first and loudmouths like Bomb Man or powerhouse hotheads like Napalm would ruin their mission.
Wily, as was expected was not pleased about having to give up one of his robots, granted, Hard Man wasn't one of his best robots, but building ones that could to some degree think on their own was Not cheap and he delivered a chilling ultimatum.
"Leave him and blow dis place to the groud."
A pause.
"Bake sure you scavenge as buch valuable-achoo-material as you can carry before you do."
"Yes…Dr. Wily." The trio confirmed uneasily.
Hotly annoyed, Dr. Wily switched channels.
"Team 3 Attack the city."
"Mega Man, come in. Wily's bots are attacking the city! You've got to do something!"
Mega groaned, he'd been spent the day with Dr. Light during physical therapy and he'd just settled down to recharge for the night. Didn't Wily ever sleep? He wondered.
The cool, night wind rushing in Wave Man's face was exhilarating as they drew up alongside the train.
Crash Man had changed his holographic projector to another train scheduled for this route that they had jumped and damaged, to make it look like the Wily bots had hijacked it.
Robot security guards started shooting from the top of the train as Wave sent a strong rush of water along it, knocking them down long enough for him to slip into the engine room and throw the driver out, screaming and tumbling into the dirt, before continuing to rid the train of its beefier guards.
Star turned towards the cargo, his Star Crash perfectly suited to keep the aerial guard and load bots at bay, who were frantically trying to shoot him down and take the cargo to a safer place.
The train begin to slow and Star fiddled with a small device, slowly the aerial guard and loading bots begin to hover off the ground and began placing the cargo on Charge Man's train. It would take a couple hours to get everything loaded, but they should have plenty of time to go pick up the others at Bennet Labs.
The wall gave a small explosion as Crash Man and Top Man came into Dive Man's view. .
"Bout time you guys showed up." He grinned.
"Took a while to find you." Crash explained.
Dive Man looked around as they broke into a run.
Scattered guards and human scientists lay scattered around the area, courtesy of Shadow Man's shuriken and deadly accuracy. He suspected most didn't know what hit them.
"So where is Ninja boy anyway?" He asked.
"He's taking care of the Bennets and-" Top Man grinned
"Cut the chatter. The bombs are set to go off in 50 minutes." Crash said nervously.
"But-but what about Hard Man?"
"We're…leaving him behind." Crash muttered, his eyes lowered and unhappy.
Top Man and Dive Man gaped.
"But that means he'll be-"
"Wily wants us to get as much valuable stuff outta here as we can so get moving!" Shadow interrupted coldly.
The two bots gave a look in the direction they'd last seen poor Hard Man and took off through the labs.