Chapter Thirteen: White Dove

Proto spun, only to catch the blow right to the chin. When Pharaoh Man hit, he hit hard, and Proto could not stop himself from crashing into the wall. He struggled to pull himself up as Pharaoh Man approached, his cape tattered, his armor scratched up and discolored. But it was his eyes, wide and crazed, that alarmed Proto the most.

Pharaoh Man was unstable, and had been since Wily reprogrammed him.

Proto stood and aimed his blaster at the Robot Master, but in such a small space, he risked hurting Kalinka. Instead, he threw a punch at Pharaoh Man—who caught it and squeezed. The titanium armor on his hands—like that of his neck—was thinner for maximum mobility. That was not a problem when he was up against anyone else.

The Cossack bots were on another level.

Proto cried out in pain as Pharaoh Man's grip tore into the metal of his right hand, causing wounds that sparked with severed cables. He collapsed to his knees, but Pharaoh Man would not let go, squeezing harder.

"How is the eye?" Pharaoh Man said, his voice hollow. He grabbed Proto's helmet with his free hand, pressing his thumb against the visor until it began to crack. "Ready to lose the other one?"

Proto gasped, still trying to wrench free and failing. "How did you—"

"Ptolemy!" Kalinka cried. "Stop!"

The Robot Master barely turned his head. "He hurt you."

"He didn't," she said firmly. She wrapped her arms around Pharaoh Man's waist and hugged tight. "Let's go home. Please?"

Pharaoh Man looked back at Proto. "Very well. But he will not follow."

"Kali, wait—" Proto gasped. But Pharaoh Man's fist was rushing in, and the only thing that followed was blackness.

#

He woke to Shadow Man picking him off the ground. "Pharaoh Man—"

"Gone," Shadow Man said grimly. "The girl with him."

Proto's head ached as much as his hand did, and he had to lean against Shadow Man as a wave of dizziness hit him. "He—he knew about my eye," he mumbled. "How—"

Shadow Man paused. "I told him."

"You—What?"

"You are not the only one who gets lonely," Shadow Man said sharply, though he kept his expression flat. "And he is the one who damaged it. I thought it would mollify him. I was wrong."

Proto stared at him, pulling away. "I don't know what the hell you're talking about—"

"After the first and only mission he was brought along, he snapped once we returned to Skull Fortress," Shadow Man said.

"I remember that," Proto snapped. "He did a number on Charge Man, and Wily locked him in one of the sub-basements."

It had been sudden. Pharaoh Man seemed normal enough, silent in his favor. Then he turned to Charge Man—who hadn't even been facing him—and shot him right in the face. Wily was furious. Charge Man had yet to even see battle before Pharaoh Man reduced him to scrap.

"Not before he turned on you," Shadow Man said, staring at him oddly. "He slammed you into a generator, and held you there as it electrocuted you both. You don't remember?"

"I…" Proto lifted a hand to his eye, stopping himself halfway. "I remember waking up the next day, but my eye didn't start flickering out until weeks later. I don't—I don't remember anything after he tore Charge Man in half."

"The electric shock must have wiped your short term memory." Shadow Man swore in rather inventive Japanese. "I assumed you would have remembered why you should not anger Pharaoh Man. I have miscalculated. Badly."

"Yes, you have," Proto snapped, straightening. "Is there any other secret of mine you've yet to tell the whole damn world?"

Shadow Man ignored the threat, moving to the hall. "Did you tell the girl?"

"I didn't get the chance," Proto snarled. "But he wouldn't—"

Proto stopped. There was only chaos in the hallway, filled with smashed bits of Batontons and other unfortunate drones that managed to get in Pharaoh Man's way. Shadow Man did not pause, and Proto struggled to follow, stepping over more than one unrecognizable mangled limb of some unfortunately Robot Master.

"Pharaoh Man can't do this," Proto said, aghast. "He's not that powerful."

Shadow Man did not reply.

"Answer me," Proto said. "Did you let him out of his prison?"

Shadow Man barely glanced back. "No. I was trying to convince him to return to it without violence, but you had to antagonize him. You had the girl's phone, and he knew exactly who it belonged to."

Proto hissed. He forgot about the phone, but it would make sense for the Cossack bot to figure out it was Kalinka's with a little snooping. "You told him about Dr. Cossack too, I bet."

"I did not," Shadow Man said. "You do not understand. Pharaoh Man is very intelligent. He's been escaping his imprisonment for years, spying on the rest of us. He's been waiting for this chance all that time."

"And you, I don't know, didn't even consider telling Wily this?" Proto asked, throwing his hands up in the air. They reached one of the hangers, and the wave of destruction stopped where one of the hoverbikes had been stolen. Not a single Robot Master was able to stop Pharaoh Man. "How did he do all this?"

"I don't know," Shadow Man said, whirling on Proto. "And no, I did not tell Wily. Pharaoh Man never indicated he was planning anything like this—and you and I both know what would happen to him if I told Wily. Or did you forget Ice Man and Air Man? Did you forget how they screamed?"

Proto studied him, clenching his good fist. "You wanted to save him," he said.

"I wanted to spare him," Shadow Man replied, frowning as deeply as he could. "Is that so difficult for you to understand?"

Proto broke the gaze first, looking back out at the open hanger door. "Do—do we go after them, or…?"

"Don't bother."

Wily's gravely voice matched the wildness of his bed-head as he strode toward them in a ratty pink bathrobe, looking at the destruction with disgust. He had a cup of coffee in one hand, so clearly he hadn't been in that much of a hurry. "The only way he can accomplish this is by overloading his systems for maximum output. It'll get him to the city, but only just."

"What do you mean?" Proto asked.

Wily snorted, sipping the coffee. "I figured he might try to escape, so I reconfigured his core. He was clever enough to take advantage of that, but it will be his undoing."

"What—what did you do, Wily?" Proto asked, trying and failing to keep the panic out of his voice.

"Hrm? I rigged him to explode," Wily said, taking another drink. "You'd think that would be enough to stop most Robot Masters, but no matter. Who besides the two of you is intact enough to clean up this mess?"

"He's got Kalinka," Proto replied, his voice strangled.

Wily gave him a dark look. "And that will certainly send a message, now, won't—What are you doing? Get back here!"

But Proto was already running, grabbing one of the hoverbikes and revving it up. He felt the ninja Robot Master leap onto the back, but it did not stop him from taking off at full speed, rushing into the labyrinth of rock and desert that made up the Badlands.

"If Wily told you to stop me, I won't let you," he snapped over his shoulder.

Shadow Man settled into the seat behind Proto. "He did," he said. "But he didn't say when I should stop you. We can track them using their heat trail."

Proto had a lot of questions he wanted answers to immediately, but he bit them back. "He's not going to listen to us and neither is Kalinka."

"If you can hit him in the neck, that might be enough to trigger a shutdown before his core explodes," Shadow Man said. "That was the only thing that got him to release you before."

"The neck that is reinforced by his weird headgear?" Proto replied incredulously.

"I don't have a better answer," Shadow Man said.

"I think you have a lot of answers you aren't willing to give," Proto snapped. He wanted to know exactly how long Shadow Man had been buddy-buddy with a Robot Master capable of snapping at any moment, but Kalinka was more important. She had no idea her long-lost brother was just as likely to turn on her as he was to have a critical meltdown. Wily's meddling ensuring no one within radius would survive the following explosion. He had to reach her before either of that happened.

It took hours to reach New York from where Wily's base was hidden, even at top speed (Proto should have taken one of the planes, but he hadn't been thinking. Just another long string of regrets—not asking Kalinka what she wanted GAMMA for earlier, not telling Wily about his deal with the girl in the first place, not pinning Shadow Man to a goddamn wall until he got some answers—that he could deal with later), but they had to catch up to them before that, according to Wily. They were gaining steadily, passing over small towns and mid-sized cities, but every passing hour was lost time. Every minute was a minute they were losing to prevent tragedy from happening, and it made Proto want to scream.

(Was this how Mega Man felt? How could his brother stand it?)

And then they were almost on top of Pharaoh Man's hoverbike, even though he should have had a steep lead on them. They were over some city Proto didn't recognize—Cleveland? Boston?—and it almost seemed like their target was slowing down, heading closer to the skyscrapers.

"We have to take them down," Shadow Man said, summoning one of his throwing stars with a flick of his hand.

"No," Proto said sharply, but the hoverbike ahead of them dived for a rooftop, landing with a lurch. Proto glanced over his shoulder to meet Shadow Man's eyes, but neither of them had to say anything. This had trap written all over it.

"Put that away," Proto hissed, landing his own bike on the far side of the rooftop. Pharaoh Man stood waiting for them, one arm around a shivering Kalinka.

"I warned you not to follow," Pharaoh Man said, his voice booming in the chilled air.

Proto slipped off the bike, both hands up. "This isn't a fight, Cossack. We're trying to help you."

"We?" Pharaoh Man said.

Proto glanced over his shoulder to find Shadow Man gone. When he looked back, a blinding shot was coming right at him. He ducked and rolled as the hoverbike exploded into pieces, taking a large chunk of the roof with it.

"Knock it off!" he snapped. "Kalinka, tell him to stop! He's going to overload his power core!"

"Just leave us alone, Proto Man," Kalinka said, sounding exhausted. "That's all you have to do."

"Kalinka—"

Pharaoh Man pushed the girl behind him and fired off another shot, forcing Proto to dive again for cover. He felt the roof shift at the impact. At this rate, the Robot Master was going to destabilize the whole damn thing, risking collapse. Where the hell was Shadow Man?

"Please, listen to me!" he cried. "Pharaoh Man isn't stable. Wily messed up his mind and his core! If he doesn't calm down, he's going to explode!"

"A trick," Pharaoh Man snarled.

Another shot Proto barely managed to dodge. At this rate, there would be no roof left for him to stand on. He had to get closer if he was going to get a decent shot at Pharaoh Man's neck, and he wasn't going to be able to fire back at all at this distance without risk of hitting Kalinka.

"I'm not lying to you!" The roof sank right where Proto stepped next, taking his foot with. Swearing, he stumbled, as Pharaoh Man's blaster zeroed in on his face.

Kalinka screamed, causing Pharaoh Man to turn toward her. Shadow Man had emerged from his darkness to grab her and pull her to safety. Proto wrenched himself free from the hole in the roof and surged forward, blaster charging and ready. But Shadow Man didn't know Kalinka, didn't realize she always had a trick up her sleeve—and when she jammed a weapon into his neck, shocking Shadow Man into collapsing, there was nothing he could do about it.

But Proto didn't care about that. Pharaoh Man was distracted, and a blast to his abdomen caused the Robot Master to stumble, falling to his knees. Proto had the second shot ready, he had Pharaoh Man's neck targeted. A short shot, limited power, just enough to trigger a shutdown. He didn't want to kill Pharaoh Man. The Cossack bot didn't deserve it.

Several things happened at once.

Kalinka surged forward, yelling at Proto to stop. Pharaoh Man jerked to the side, reacting to them both, throwing off Proto's aim—

And the roof underneath him crumbled, just as he fired off the shot. Proto hit the ground and scrambled forward, barely escaping falling into the hole forming behind him. Pharaoh Man had recovered quickly too, but Proto's searching hands found the weapon Kalinka attacked Shadow Man with—a pronged shock rod, similar to what she had hit Proto with in what felt like a lifetime ago. He tackled Pharaoh Man before the Robot Master could stand, and before the taller bot could regain his balance, jammed the rod into his neck, copying Kalinka's earlier move.

With a series of seizures, Pharaoh Man went stiff, and for a moment, Proto thought he had doomed them all. Then the light in the Cossack bot's eyes died, and he fell over, his systems off-line.

A hysterical laugh escaped Proto's lips as he stumbled back, careful to avoid the hole in the roof. Shadow Man was still out, but Pharaoh Man was down without destroying him, and Kalinka—

Kalinka.

Kalinka Cossack was lying in a growing pool of blood, her eyes wide and unseeing.