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Saga 1: The Fall of Mega Man
Chapter 9: Hollow Man, Part 1
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Wily was at one of his various programming terminals, analyzing and typing away like a mad man.

"This data from Psychic Man... and the analysis from Leach Man... this just gets better and better! So, Mega and Rush are using Link2 eh? This will be amusing."

"There is no doubt Mega Man will defeat the robot master's, hell, my plan is counting on it. I guess I need to get off my lazy ass and start coming up with final phase preparations..."

----

BBBZZZZTTT

Roll was hard at work, when she heard a buzz at her door.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"Sorry Ms. Roll, my name is Mike Debour, one of Dr. Cossack's assistants. And I'm here because Mega Man is here, shall I let him in?"

That caught Roll's attention.

"Yes please, show him to my current location immediately!"

"Yes Ms. Roll."

"Ms. Roll, he didn't say that with any hate or sarcasm at all, Cossack's staff really do respect me..."

About a minute later, Mega wandered into Roll's personal lab.

"I thought she was supposed to be here... Wow, this is really her own personal lab? Good to see Roll is doing well..."

Mega looked around the room and whistled.

"So, you like, huh?" Roll came from a supply room carrying stuff, and she had a grin on her face.

"Quite nice Roll! Anyway though, I'm guessing you know at least one of the reasons why I'm here.."

Roll's face darkened quickly.

"You... brought that up so quickly..."

"Sorry, I can't help it, it's nuts, I can't believe Proto is gone." Mega had an empty expression.

"I know Mega, I know."

"Well, there is a silver lining in the clouds. Officer Dale informed me on the way over here that the Mayor wants to hold a public, full scale funeral, in honor of Protoman and his defending human lives against the onslaught of Bass."

Roll was looking somber. If she had tear ducts in her eyes, she would be crying at this point.

"That's nice of the Mayor. Wow Mega, quite honorable actually, Proto will be the first robot to ever receive a public burial procession. Damn that Bass..."

"Please don't be so hard on Bass. After the battle was won, I found out what is really going on. Bass was, manipulated, his very soul was being controlled. Which is the second reason I'm here. Bass warned me of a new plan that Dr. Wily has cooked up, and apparently, Wily has totally gone past the point of no return in the sanity department. So, if you see or hear of any of Wily's robots anywhere, please contact me immediately and don't try to approach them, ok?"

"Okay Mega, I promise."

"Oh Roll... there's another reason why I'm here."

"Oh?"

Mega then began to explain his acquisition of Treble, and the whole story behind it.

Roll was in shock.

"Roll, please don't tell Cossack or Light about this. Also, I was wondering, you think you can repair Treble and do some basic maintenance? Please?"

"Sorry Mega, I didn't know I wasn't supposed to hear that..."

Cossack was standing outside the open door.

"Dr. Cossack, not nice of you to eavesdrop!" Roll sputtered out with a hint of anger. Mega's face went rather pale, especially for a robot.

"Ah ha ha, don't worry, I wont tell Light or anyone else. But Roll and Mega, please do better in the future to keep your privacy if you want it to stay private. And I think it's best not to let any of my staff find out about this, be awkward if any of this leaked to the press or anyone else, ok?"

"Yes doctor, your right..." Roll sighed.

"Anyway, feel free to bring Treble into engineering lab 3, and all repairs will be on me. Also while your there, I'd like to do some tests and calibrations to make sure you stay stable after adding a 3rd entity to your Link 2 network."

"Oh, well thanks doc. RUSH, TREBLE, COME!"

Rush and Treble walked into the room.

"Roll, Mega, Rush, Treble, please follow me..."

Several hours later, the repairs, maintenance, and calibrations were complete. Mega waved goodbye, and headed back to Light Labs. Of course when he got there, he kept Treble out of sight.

---

While Mega was at Cossack Labs.

Light was in one of his two weapon labs. He had just got done completing a new buster for Mega.

"Quite a nice new buster if I don't say so myself. Now whenever Mega fires a fully charged shot, and a miniature missile will be embedded inside it. The missile can cause his energy blast to change directions. Also, I put some programming that should transfer to Mega, that will prevent him from ever harming a human. I'm quite busy tomorrow, but I think Ill install it in him day after tomorrow."

A half hour later, Mega arrived home.

"Hey doc, I'm back!"

"Oh, did you enjoy yourself?"

"Not really, spent most of it kinda, what do you call it? Sad? Yes, sad. And Roll was extremely upset after she heard Proto died. Which reminds me, did you get the news? The Mayor is gonna give Protoman a full honorable funeral!"

"Really? I hadn't heard that, though, that does cheer me up just a touch. Anyway Mega yawn don't let this whole thing get to you, ok?"

"Understood doctor. I'm gonna hit the regeneration table, good night."

"I'm heading for bed too. See you tomorrow Mega."

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Cossack looked at the data he had gathered from his earlier work.

"Woah, Mega Man, Rush, and Treble all have the same BIOS anomalies as Roll, and if Treble's data is right, so did Bass. This just keeps getting more and more interesting... but enough of that, I already have enough work as it is... must not get distracted..."

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Dr. Wily sat a communication panel, and was talking to Hollow Man.

"Hollow Man, do you understand your orders?"

"Yes Dr. Wily, your will be done, at once."

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approximately 1.5 days later...

Dr. Light was relaxing, reading some good old fashioned paper books, Mega was practicing his shooting with dummy targets outside.

Suddenly, a loud, automated audible alarm was going off inside, and the message was also being sent wirelessly to Mega.

"!ALERT! ALERT! UNAUTHORIZED ENTRY AND ACCESS DETECTED IN WEAPONS LAB 2! SOURCE UNKNOWN!"

Dr. Light thought to himself. "Jeez, probably Auto again, or that hyper-active cat. sigh I have to go all the way to the lab to turn it off..."

Mega, Auto, and Dr. Light showed up at the outside of the door to the lab. The doors had been completely blown off. Half of said lab was burned to a crisp. Mega saw a strange blur, then it completely disappeared.

"Who's in there, show yourself immediately!" Light called out.

The assailant responded with an old fashioned hand grenade. Auto picked up the hand grenade and swallowed it. A soft thud could be heard, but that's about it. Mega stared at Auto.

"Hey Mega, betcha didn't know I got an upgrade that allows me to act as a disposal for small explosives!" Auto followed up with a quick laugh.

Light then noticed that the buster he had just completed a day ago vanished in front of his eyes.

"What?"

Dr. Light pulled something out of his pocket and put it in his palm. Suddenly, a rather large creaking thud could be heard. For no apparent reason, Mega's neck felt like it was being squeezed, then he flew across the room. Auto had his legs kicked out from under him. Suddenly, Light was pressed up on a wall, with something that felt like an arm on his chest, pinning Light to the wall.

"Your invisible... some sort of cloaking technology ack"

The assailant began to speak.
"Ha ha, this is going better than I thought! If I kill you here and now, Wily should reward me greatly! Imagine, me Hollow Man, being the one who took Dr. Light down!"

While Hollow Man was blabbering, Dr. Light put the device on the back of Hollow's neck. All of a sudden, Mega was up, and grabbed wildly at the invisible robot, and found an arm. He twisted Hollow Man's arm and flung him out the room and into the wall of the opposite side of the hall. For a second, Hollow Man's cloak was disabled, and what Mega saw was a robot with a black cloak on. Hollow Man tried to teleport out, but his teleporter circuitry was malfunctioning. He managed to get his invisibility back on.

"Hey Mega, if you want this back, come and face me out in the river!"

Hollow Man ran out of the building at blinding speed. Mega turned to Dr. Light.

"What's he talking about?"

"I had built a new buster for you, and he just took it. It's extremely powerful, and if it fall's in Wily's hands... Anyway, go and retrieve it, quickly! Also, I managed to plant a small explosive on the fellow, but his cloaking generator is preventing me from detonating it. I'm sending you the detonation codes. After you retrieve the buster, as soon as you can disable the bloody cloak, detonate the bomb. That should take care of him for good."

"Yes doctor, understood! Rush, cmon, were gonna get that new robot of Wily's!"

Mega also sent a message by thought to Treble over the Link2 system to accompany him. Minutes later, Mega Man and Rush arrived at the river, and Treble showed up shortly after. Mega looked around, but didn't see anything. Suddenly, a paper note hit Mega in the face.

The note was as follows:
"I have hidden that piece of technology within a separate cloaking field. Only by defeating me will the other cloaking field deactivate! Let's see if you survive! Oh and BEHIND YOU!"

Mega looked up from the paper, only to have a wicked jab nail him in the back of his head, followed by what felt like a kick, which knocked Mega into a semi-deep area of water. Rush and Treble fired weapons where Mega had been, hoping to hit Hollow Man, but the shots hit nothing but dirt. Mega got up and looked around. He began to scan the area with infra-red, had Treble constantly ping sonar, and had Rush use spectral analysis. They didn't detect anything.

"He musta ran aw..."

Suddenly, from right in front of him came a small projectile, which struck Mega and knocked him to the ground. The invisible robot grabbed Mega by the foot and dragged him into the water. Mega used his buster and started firing in random directions till Hollow Man let go. Mega then jumped out of the water.

"How... how the hell am I supposed to fight this guy? I can't detect him at all..."

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End of Chapter 9