"You can't fire me!"
"Yes, I can. I have robots who can do your job three times as efficiently, and I don't have to pay them!"
The man who stood before the evil scientist clenched and unclenched his fists spasmodically. "You -- you -- son of a --"
"Now, now, my boy," Wily purred. "There's no need for that. If you will work for half your pay, you may stay on."
"But I've got a family to support!" the young man shouted.
"So? Why did you come to work for me, then?" Wily stood up behind his desk, pointing at the door. "You may leave now, Gordon. I have no further time for you."
Gordon tried to speak, but the old man gestured emphatically. He left finally, shoulders slumped, swinging the door open almost into Forte's face as he walked in. Wily's expression changed from one of cruel glee to one of annoyance in a split second.
"So I go from disgruntled employees to robots who do not know their place -- all in a matter of seconds." Wily turned to face the window -- or where a window should have been. It was only a blank wall, now. "What do you want, Forte?"
"Huh," Forte muttered. "I don't know. I found this neat little machine down in the forest, and I thought you might like a look at it. But never mind."
Wily turned. "Machine? Where is your precious, not-human robot? Hmm?"
"He'll be here," the black robot muttered darkly, "Him and his little friends are gonna want their machine back --"
"What? You brought my fortress under attack?!" Wily stalked around the desk, waving his fists in the air. "What have you bungled this time, you fool?"
"I didn't bungle anything," Forte snarled. "Now, do you want to see this machine or not?"
Wily raised a hand, putting the other wearily to his forehead. "If I do this, Forte -- will you be happy and leave me alone?"
"Sure, Doc. Whatever you say."
A heavy silence hung between them as they walked to the shuttle bay the machine had managed to maneuver into, albeit clumsily. Forte had the satisfaction of seeing the evil, old scientist's jaw drop in utter astonishment as he gazed upon the battered device.
"What is it, Forte?" he asked, stunned.
"I dunno. It seemed pretty important to them, though." Forte made a show of stretching lazily. "They could be here any time."
Wily ignored him walking up to the machine, an expression of wonder on his face. "You know, Forte," he murmured, "this almost makes up for your constant hallucinations."
Forte's expression grew dark. Je-e-e-erk. But he shrugged, walking over to the wrecked hulk and rapping on it lightly. The metal rang. "It -- uh -- needs some repairs, but it has possibilities, ya think?"
"Yes, yes." Wily smiled, wringing his hands in contemplation of how to exploit the device. "Bring it into my main lab -- and hurry." The man had already turned back to the hall, when he raised a hand. "And up the perimeter defenses. Try not to let anyone disturb me."
Forte lifted a skeptical eyebrow. "Su-ure." But he lifted his hands in surrender when the scientist spun on him, about to let loose with yet another blistering ultimatum. "I'll -- get Gutsman out of the latrines." He laughed scornfully and whistled to Gospel, who had settled over in one corner of the room, glowering at the both of them.
The two warped away, and Wily began to have doubts about the wisdom of his creating them. He'd never had a more surly, insubordinate pair under his command in his life.
Blues raised a hand, and the four following him came to a halt.
"What is it, Blues?" Flurry asked, tapping her foot impatiently.
The fortress was before them, rising above the otherwise lovely landscape like a monument to ugliness. It bristled with weapons and other protrusions. Flurry tilted her head, lip curling in a sneer of disgust. She made a noise indicating her opinion of the structure, and Blues glanced back at her, face amused. Tourian regarded the fortress in silence. It reminded him unpleasantly of the Maverick base -- which they had barely escaped from with their lives. Zero and X exchanged a glance, neither betraying the surge of pained remembrance they felt at the sight of the behemoth.
We nearly died in one of those, Zero spat mentally. If I never see one again, it'll be too soon. X's eyes were grave, almost as if he heard his friend's thought.
"So," Zero said finally, "what are we waiting for?"
Blues threw his shield over his shoulder, facing them with a dry look on his face. "He knew we were coming. He's got the area double shielded. Can't warp through it." He threw his head back and barked a laugh. "We're gonna have to bash through it."
"Bash?" Flurry asked flatly. "Just how do you propose we bash through it?"
He laughed again. "Oh, we don't have to bash through the shield. All it does is prevent a transport." He glanced down at the base of the fortress, grinning. "They're the ones we have to bash through."
Zero bit back a curse, staring at the robots patrolling the perimeter. Flurry gritted her teeth and smashed her fist into the palm of her hand. X and Tourian grinned at each other.
"So," Blues said to them, "let's get bashing."
Zero was the first off the ridge, swinging his saber out and baring his teeth in a savage grin. The first robot who noticed his flying leap met his death in silence, sliced neatly down the middle by the glowing sword. Flurry lashed out with her electrical energy, shattering another that moved to attack. A cry burst from her, and she stood her ground, setting the air aglow with a veritable dance of light. Zero darted away from her attacks, heading toward the fortress and swinging his saber with wild abandon. He laughed heartily, enjoying the first straight fight he'd had in what felt like ages.
X and Tourian suddenly bolted his opposite directions, peppering the enemy ranks with mirrored shots that somehow confused the other robots into firing at each other. They then stood next to each other, pointing at the chaos in amusement, until the enemies realized what had happened. At that point, they repeated the process, laughing helplessly when they received the same results.
Blues started to join the fray, but he stopped, staring at the four of them. They were doing a better job than even his brother usually did. He propped his shield up and leaned against it, watching curiously.
The fight was over in minutes, and he continued to watch as X and Tourian gave each other a high five, and Zero tossed Flurry a thumbs-up. She gave her hair a shake, returning the gesture with a grin. Then they noticed him standing there.
"What're you staring at?" Flurry demanded, teeth flashing in a mocking smile. At his lack of response, she called to Zero. "Guess we aren't that bad!"
"Nothing like a battle to bring out the best in you," he retorted with an ironic grin.
"So," X remarked, "why weren't you helping out down here?"
Blues finally picked his shield up and walked over to them. "I got the feeling I'd get in the way," he commented drily. "Let's get inside before he sends anyone else out."
Unnoticed by all was a figure upon the very ridge they had been standing on only moments before. He could only stare for a long moment, running his fingers along his arm cannon in silence. Naturally, he was stunned by the events he had just witnessed, but more than that, he felt a sting, striking deep inside him. So much for trust, he thought, reaching down to pat his dog's head.
Forte snarled furiously. They're good! They're better than I thought. Wily's gonna kill me. He snapped his fingers, and Gospel got to his feet, rumbling curiously. "Listen, boy," he muttered. "We've gotta stall them, or -- well, you know what's gonna happen."
The dog growled.
"I know. I saw him too." Forte darted a glance at the viewscreen, which showed him that not only had the four strangers -- and Blues -- entered the fortress, but Rock was headed their way as well. "We'd probably better tell Doc." He tapped a couple of keys beside the screen and muttered to his dog, "I'm not looking forward to this."
"Not looking forward to what?" Wily demanded, and Forte looked up sharply.
"Nothin'." He took a deep breath. "Those robots are inside the fortress, Doc. I'll try to head them off."
"WHAT!"
Forte shut the viewscreen off before Wily could chew him out, and he took off down the hall with Gospel following close behind. He snapped out a command to the computer, and the viewscreens that appeared periodically down the hall brought up images of the intruders, so he darted around the corner of the hall, nearly knocking Gutsman down, mop, bucket, and all.
"Outta my way, Gutsy!" he snapped.
The big robot growled something, but Forte was so busy trying to catch the robots that had so rudely burst into Wily's fort he didn't even respond. Gospel, on the other hand, snapped his jaws, and Gutsman jumped back, slamming into the wall. Forte doubled his speed, rounding another corner, and alarms went off all over the place, warning all robots to get to battle stations.
His mouth curved into a feral grin. It's time to rock and roll!
Blues swore as alarms rang out all around them. "Right, people! We'd better find your machine and get out of here!"
Flurry skidded to a halt, glaring around for a computer terminal. Upon spotting one, she said, "I can probably hack in and see where he's keeping it --"
"No," Blues retorted, "He's had it for maybe thirty minutes -- he's not gonna have it logged in yet!"
"Then how do we find it?" Zero demanded, shifting nervously. He didn't like standing still and waiting for someone to attack.
"Blues," X said suddenly, "Why not let Flurry try and get a visual?"
Blues made a face. "All right -- but make it quick. We'll have thirty 'bots down our throats in a matter of minutes, here."
"Nothing we can't handle," Tourian grinned, and they took position around Flurry, who turned to the console and got to work.
"Which lab is it, Blues?"
"I'm not sure. One of his main ones, anyway."
Flurry rolled her eyes, quietly tapping away at the limited equipment. The alarms kept sounding, and Zero expected something to leap out of the hall any second, but nothing came. Tourian shifted, energy humming in his arms, and he murmured something to X, who grinned nervously. Blues held his shield ready, watching and waiting; he knew that the size of the fortress and Wily's work force -- reduced to nearly nothing from countless battles -- prevented a very quick response. He also knew that they had destroyed a pretty fair number of the only robots Wily had left out there. For some reason, the scientist was concentrating so hard on his precious new robot he had failed to build any others.
Flurry muttered softly to herself as she attempted to hack through the intricate paths of the security cams. "Hey!" she yelped suddenly, "Some jerk rigged it to show us!"
Blues didn't turn, but he growled. "So fix it."
"So fix it," she mocked him. "I'd like to see you do this."
"Hurry it up, Flurry," Tourian muttered, growing impatient, and she sniffed in response.
"It's not like this is the greatest computer in the world," she retorted. "There -- I 've almost --"
"Turn around right now," snarled a vaguely familiar voice.
She spun, backing into the viewscreen. Her jaw dropped, seeing that same black and gold robot staring them all down again. He lifted his arm cannon lazily, pointing it directly at her. Blues tensed, and Zero brandished his ignited saber, but he ignored them both, grinning suddenly at Flurry.
Flurry bristled. That nerve of that robot -- how dare he threaten her!
"Don't -- you -- tell -- me -- what -- to -- do," she hissed slowly, making sure he heard every word, and turned back around defiantly.
She half-heard Blues roar a warning, and suddenly she was on the floor, trying to scramble to her feet and attack Forte. Blues jumped right in front of her, refusing to let her past. Her eyes saw vaguely the viewscreen -- now smoking and shattered. In the next instant, Forte reeled away with a howl, clutching at his arm.
He glared down the hall, hate filling his stare. "Rrro-ock!" he bellowed, raging forward.
Flurry tried to push past Blues again, and Tourian took her arm, but she didn't notice. She was gazing, eyes wide, past them all -- past Zero, who wasn't quite sure who he should be attacking, past the smoke that filtered into the hall from the hole in the viewscreen, past Forte, who was charging at full speed toward Rock.
The young robot wasn't taking any note of him, staring at the four of them, with and unreadable expression on his face. Blues suddenly yelled out, "Brother! Wake up --"
Suddenly, Forte screeched in pain and crushed into the wall, smashing a hole neatly through it. He lay motionless. Blues' shield clattered to the floor beside him, and Rock when looked at them all again, Flurry suddenly understood. He met her gaze, anger creeping into his eyes.
Betrayal. Hurt.
Flurry took a step back. "Rock, we --"
"Get out of here," he said flatly.
"W-what?" X stammered.
"Get out of here," he repeated. "Get out of this fortress -- stay away from Dr. Light's lab, and go back to wherever you came from." He shifted his gaze to his brother. "You lied to us," he said, still addressing Flurry and the others. "You're robots -- how? Why?"
Flurry's shoulders slumped, and Tourian looked at the floor. "We told you why we're here. And now," he said slowly, "now you know why we couldn't tell you anything else."
Forte got to his hands and knees, groaning, but no one paid him any heed. He gave Blues' shield a vicious kick, sending it skidding into the far wall. He then leaned against and undamaged portion of wall, and Gospel walked over and licked his face. Eyes suddenly weary, he petted Gospel's head, instead of thrusting him angrily away, as was his usual response to the animal's affection.
Rock lowered his arm cannon, kept in position the whole time after shooting Forte. "I don't -- understand. Why are you here?"
Flurry looked frustrated. "For the fifth time, we came here by mistake -- the machine was supposed to take us straight back home --"
"What do you mean? Take you straight home -- well, where's home?"
Dead silence fell over everything, and Zero leaned his head against the wall. Forte suddenly turned his head expectantly. "Yeah," he said. "That's a real good question."
Blues didn't say a word.
"We're from -- the future," Flurry said darkly. "And if you know what's good for you -- you'll let us leave."
"Why?" Forte demanded obstinately.
"Because," X snapped. "Me and Zero -- we're from a different time than even them, and they don't want to mess anything else up!"
Rock opened his mouth to ask another question, but Blues stepped in. "Let's leave it at that, brother."
Rock nodded slowly in agreement, and Forte, fully recovered, jumped lightly to his feet. They all turned to him in surprise, but he shrugged.
"You know," he said, "Wily's working on your little machine. If you want it back, you'd better find it." He started to walk off down the hall.
"Wait," Flurry said flatly. "You aren't going to stop us?"
Forte turned his head, grinning at her. "Why should I? But you might want to let Doc repair your little toy before you take it away from him." He turned away again.
"Forte," Blues said.
The robot stopped, turning completely around and leaning his hand against the wall. His face bore the faintest hint of petulant annoyance, and Blues gave him a sharp look. The two clearly had a great deal of communication behind them at this point, from the level stare that darted between them. Forte finally shifted, rolling his eyes. "What?" he demanded, patting his dog on the head. "I'll bet you want me to tell you where it is. No deal."
Blues didn't say anything.
"Look. I may not like Wily," Forte yawned, "but I still have a sort of allegiance to him. No deal."
"Yeah," Rock said spitefully, "without Wily -- you'd have no one to run to when I kick your butt!"
Blues hissed sharply, raising a hand at his brother, but the words were far out of his mouth before anything could be done about it. Forte's eyes darkened, flashing with sudden rage.
"You -- kick my butt?" The black robot forced himself to take on a relaxed pose, trying not to grind his teeth in fury. Gospel gave his howling rumble, and Rush snarled a response. "We'll see whose butt gets kicked, Rock -- unless you're worried you might get hurt." A feral grin lit his face as Rock bristled.
"Guys -- quit it!" Flurry shouted. "This won't --"
"You're on, Forte!" Rock yelled over her voice. "Choose your ground!"
Forte threw his head back in a rippling laugh. "Follow me, blue boy!" He laughed again and warped away.
Blues snarled something furious, and Rock followed Forte, leaving the rest in the hall wondering what had happened. Zero very nearly started cursing, but Flurry beat him to the punch, screaming out a stream of obscenities that would have made a sailor blush. X growled something, and Tourian demanded that he repeat it.
"I said -- so now what do we do?"
Tourian shrugged. "We go find Zephyr. Rock's buying us the time we need -- and he's keeping that jerk off our backs."
Blues made an approving noise. "Yeah. I know where most of the labs are anyway."
Flurry sighed, glancing at the console. "I almost had it, too."
Zero gave the slightest shrug, and they all set off down the hall -- at a dead run.
Wily was fairly dancing with joy at the beauty of the device Forte had found. Its design was sleek, its purpose, if unclear, could be corrupted to whatever he desired, and its basic components were a study in simplicity. Unfortunately, its more complicated mechanisms were splintered and lying all over the floor. Nothing a brilliant, if evil, scientist couldn't deal with, though.
"If only I knew what its purpose was," Wily mused.
He paced around one side, paced around to the other. He finally stopped and stepped inside the machine again. The blackened console stared at him, seeming to laugh scornfully at all his efforts to understand it. His eyes grew dark, and he smote the wall in frustration.
And to his utter surprise, the machine hummed.
He lurched back, nearly falling out of the ship entirely, and the hum died. Tentatively, he reached out and touched the wall again. The vibrations returned, less forcefully this time, and he threw his head back in his first maniacal laugh in a long time.
Rock and Forte had warped all over the fortress, stopping every once in a while to shoot at each other, but mostly trying to keep each other busy. Rock jumped in close to Forte, firing off a kick at his midriff, and darted away again, sending a couple of parting shots of plasma in the other's direction.
Forte barely felt the kick and dodged the shots easily. Rock would have been an impediment to the other group; obviously he had some mission other than following them. Forte felt he was doing them all a favor by keeping him off their backs. He warped away, laughing.
Rock followed, secure in the knowledge that he had the other robot on the run.
When they landed next, Forte held up a hand. "Listen, Rock. I'm curious, here. Why did Dr. Light send you this time? Wily hasn't done anything major lately -- so what gives?"
Rock growled at the halt in fighting. "That's for me to know, Forte!"
"Hey, whatever you say."
They had ended up in a long, empty hallway. Forte glanced around and decided that they were alone. He took on a slouching stance, glancing boredly up at the ceiling while Rock watched impatiently. Neither had sustained much damage, since they'd been chasing after each other most of the time, but both knew that could change quickly.
"Uh, Rock," he said, "You're not gonna wreck the place this time or anything, are you?" He glanced over at the robot, whose expression became the one that lights peoples' faces just after you've asked a really stupid question. "Y'know, this took a long time to build, and all. I was just --"
"No, I'm not planning to wreck the place -- I never do, if you remember." Rock's face was tight. "Why do you care, anyway?"
Forte had opened his mouth to reply when they both heard a rattling noise from down the hall. They stared in silence at the big, shambling robot who was making his way in their direction, a mop over one shoulder and dragging a cleaning station behind him. Gutsman didn't pay either of the two any notice as he walked on, humming an off-key and slightly annoying tune.
"Never mind," Forte said, firing suddenly and gone in the next instant.
Flurry took a gulp of air as they rounded yet another corner. "Blues! I thought you said you knew where this place was!"
"Maybe I was wrong," the robot retorted. "I thought he'd take it to one of his main labs, but I think I know where it went."
They raced down the hall, oblivious of most of what they ran past, until Flurry saw a human.
Gordon snarled, jabbing viciously at the floor with his mop. That lousy Wily -- he doesn't deserve having me around! He didn't even look up when a group of strange robots ran past; it was all too common an occurrence.
When they all stopped and turned around to stare at him, however, he took notice of them. "Whaddy'all want?" he demanded. "I got work to do."
One of them, a somewhat familiar robot clad in red and grey, shook his head slowly. The visor hid his eyes, but Gordon could tell he was amused about something. Another, a girl with long, red-brown hair blinked in confusion, then turned and whispered something to her white-and-gold armored companion. He grinned faintly and shrugged.
"Well?" Gordon said sharply.
"Um -- do you know where Wily's keeping his latest -- er -- acquisition?" the girl asked.
Gordon scratched his head, wondering what in heaven's name she meant by acquisition. Then it dawned on him. "If ya mean that weird, car-lookin' thing Forte picked up, it's in his new lab."
Her eyes grew hopeful, and she turned to the other four, fairly dancing with excitement. "Blues, do you know where he means?"
The robot nodded immediately. "That's where I thought he put it. In the lab with his other project."
"Y'all're welcome for the help," Gordon remarked as they all took off again.
Shaking his head, he returned to his mopping.
Wily had been experimenting with the machine's reactions to touch; hitting, poking, prodding, and all. It had responded negatively to bashing, punching and the like, but it hadn't really taken well to gentleness, either. An unusual device, very unusual.
He was ready to start fiddling around with the burnt-out and damaged mechanisms, when the proximity alarms went off. His eyes immediately went to the main door of the lab, where he knew the intruders must be. After a moment's consideration, he backed away from the strange ship. However intriguing it might be, his survival was top priority.
He scrambled for one of his teleporting devices, glancing regretfully at his computers, full of data that waited to be exploited. But all that could wait. He snatched something off a table on his way, fingering it thoughtfully and wondering whether or not he should use it.
"I told you," snapped Blues. "Why'd you have to do that, anyway?"
Zero didn't answer him, grumbling furiously to himself. When the door hadn't responded to the normal methods of opening, he had hauled off and fired a shot. It had ricocheted off the heavy metal, nearly smashing through X on its way to the opposite wall.
And then the alarms went off.
"Great!" Flurry shouted at him. "Now he knows we're here for sure! Thanks a lot, Zero!"
"Shut up, Flurry!" he yelled in her face. "I really don't need your moral support right now," he added in an almost conversational tone.
"So it doesn't matter," said Tourian. "We can just break in."
"Yeah. Sure," Zero retorted, "I already tried that."
Flurry made a disgusted noise, whipping out her seldom-used lightsaber. "You idiots -- we can cut through it." She proceeded to demonstrate, and the alarms howled yet louder as the door was breached.
A huge chunk of metal fell inwards, and the five robots ducked inside, ready to fight for the machine. Tourian stared about in awe at the size of the lab, noticing the equipment a bare second later. He tugged on Flurry's arm, pointing around at it all. She nodded in agreement, wonder in her wide-eyed expression. X and Zero took it all in with an instant's time, and Blues was more interested in the aging figure crouched beside a teleporter.
"Where do you think you're headed to, Wily?" he asked sharply.
The man looked up at him, glaring daggers. "Blues, what do you think you're doing? I always thought I could count on your non-interference!"
"Times change, I'm afraid," Blues answered easily. "Now, I want you to hand over that machine and be on your way. Simple enough?"
Wily's face twisted into a sneer. "Take that machine -- if you can get it out of here!" He jumped to his feet and mashed the button of a controller he had held hidden in his hand. Grinning insanely at them, he then jumped into the teleporter and disappeared.
Over the shrilling of the door alarm came a thundering, ponderous gong sound, and a polite-sounding female voice announced, "This fortress will destruct in two minutes. Please take your valuables with you when you depart, as you will not be able to retrieve them afterwards. Thank you."
Flurry went pale, and Tourian scrambled for the time machine. Blues looked at them, slowly nodding.
"I don't think I can really be much more help to you," he said drily. "Good luck with your machine." And he warped away.
Zero had no time to curse at him, otherwise he would have. He and X made for the machine as the fortress began to rock.
Forte spun around, staring at the loudspeakers. "Is he insane?" he shrieked, hands clenching.
"I always thought so," Rock snapped, glaring around. He resisted the urge to smash something in frustration.
"Shaddap," Forte replied, attention still focused on the voice, which was counting down from two minutes. He suddenly turned to Rock with a smirk that barely missed being a sneer. "I guess we'll have to take this up some other time, Rock!" And he was gone. Gospel gave a low snarl and left as well.
Rock turned to his ever-faithful canine companion, who whined uneasily at the ringing alarm. "Doc's not going to be happy about this." He looked around one last time, hands forming fists. He knew he could warp to wherever Wily was keeping his new project, but he didn't know where it was. "I guess we don't have much choice."
They both warped out.
Flurry bent over the shattered console, begging, cajoling, pleading for the Zephyr to take flight.
The countdown ticked to fifty seconds, and the voice remarked, "I do hope you've got everything, because now would be a really good time to leave."
Zero fidgeted, trying to think of something constructive to do as the fortress counted down to their impending doom. X paced around in silence, watching Tourian pat Flurry's shoulder.
"Come on, Flurry -- it started up before, didn't it?"
"I know it did!" she shouted. "I just don't know how!" She smashed her fist into the console. "You stupid ship!" she howled. "If you've got enough intelligence to start on your own, why don't you save yourself?"
Tourian glanced at her. "She's talking to a burnt out control panel. Lord save us all."
The countdown shrilled at fifteen seconds, and the voice said, "Well, if you're hearing this message, you're not likely to get out of here alive. Have a nice afterlife."
Flurry was slumped over the console, sobbing with fury, and everybody else was contemplating their deaths, when Zephyr suddenly hummed. The ship vibrated wildly for a moment, then lifted off the ground. X fought to keep his balance as the machine spun to face the far wall. The side hatch slammed shut, and Zero uttered a low moan.
"It's gonna ram the wall."
"WHAT!" Flurry screamed, turning sharply.
"Brace for impact," X remarked casually, and they were all thrown to the ground as Zephyr made her greatest escape, blowing through a wall of stone, cement, and metal -- with relatively little damage. Zero and X were thrown down, almost sliding into the back hatch, and Tourian fell backwards, glancing off the copilot's chair and cracking his head on the floor. Flurry clung to the console, eyes closed, and waited for it to be over.
Gordon tossed the garbage neatly out on an ever-growing compost heap, wrinkling his nose at the smell. He was vaguely aware of a rather loud noise behind him. What's Wily screwing around with this time?
He turned around, slinging his bucket over his shoulder, prepared to go back to work.
He stopped, blinking for a moment, then sighed.
"I guess I'll have to find another job," he mused wearily. "Not that that one paid so good, anyway."