Chapter 1: Bad Dreams
In a dark and gloomy room of a rather dark and gloomy fortress, two strange figures stood at a large computer console, as mismatched as they were out of place. One of them—Dr. Wily, with his lab-coat, pink shirt, and wild hair—looked better suited to roaming the halls of some prestigious college, tormenting the freshmen. He would, that is, if the gleam in his eye was not so particularly cruel. Next to him stood an armored combat robot, clearly built for battle. He wore an oddly-bright yellow scarf around his neck, the black visor of his helmet unable to hide his bored expression.
"This is my best plan yet, Proto Man!" Dr. Wily cackled, his German accent doing his grating voice no favors.
The red-and-gray robot beside him snorted.
"That's what you said last time," he said, rolling eyes the mad scientist couldn't see.
The scientist turned around slowly, glaring at Proto. He took a step back, then swore at himself. Giving ground to Wily was something the Robot Masters did, not him, but lately, everything had been off between the two of them. Wily took his disobedience more and more harshly, and in turn, Proto just rebelled more. Something had to be done, but Proto just didn't know what.
Wily sneered at his Second-in-Command, taking pleasure in his discomfort. Proto had been nothing but trouble recently—and so received the punishments Wily usually reserved for the Robot Masters who failed him. Repair duty, cleaning duty, the mind-numbing job of watching the security cameras—it was obviously working somewhat, but not to the level Wily wanted. Proto Man's behavior had better change, and soon.
"This plan," he said slowly. "Is my best plan yet. If I can't get that blue dweeb by land, sea or air, I'll get him by ground. Underground, that is."
Proto merely frowned. "Haven't you already tried that?" he asked, keeping his voice mutual.
Wily grinned. "This time will be different. The Sonic Obliterator I stole while you were distracting your brother will do the job much better than any drill. I could collapse an entire city in seconds! Not to mention any opposition."
The old man yawned, his rant dying. "But now, I think I'll get some rest."
He turned to the door. Proto tried to follow him, and Wily whirled. "And where do you think you're going?"
"I need to sleep too, Wily!" Proto protested.
"Nein," Wily stated firmly. "You will stay here and guard my new weapon."
"But—"
"No buts. That is an order, Proto Man. I trust you'll obey it this time." Wily stalked off, mumbling about the need to sleep in certain robots.
Proto sat down in a chair angrily. It wasn't fair. He needed to sleep too. He didn't know why—Wily other robots didn't need to sleep—but if he didn't get sleep, he didn't function very well. In fact, he acted and felt pretty much like Dr. Wily, and the less he took after the old man, the better.
Proto glared at the Sonic Whatever in disgust. This puny thing was the reason Wily had him risk his neck a week ago? The battle with his brother had been to close, and as for what happened afterward…
He didn't even want to think about it. Proto fingered his scarf as he continued to glare at the device. He mentally listed every swear word in his rather extensive databanks, including some choice German ones he picked up from Wily.
Slowly, without realizing it, Proto lured himself to sleep.
# # #
"A sonic what?" Roll asked from her spot on the sofa. She, Mega Man, Rush and Dr. Light were in the living room of Dr. Light's house, which was connected to the lab.
Mega Man leaned forward from his perch on a table. Dr. Light frowned at him, but said nothing. He told Mega Man repeatedly not to sit on furniture not meant to be sat on. Mega promised not to each time, but did it anyway. It was yet another sign his robot children were something special, and irritated he might be at times, Dr. Light couldn't deny them of that.
"It's called a Sonic Obliterator. In fact, it's the Sonic Obliterator, the only one of its kind." Dr. Light replied. "Wily stole it during that little incident at the mall, but it was only discovered missing recently."
"Okay," Mega said slowly. "Some idiot made a weapon of mass destruction, left it unguarded for a while, and then expected it to be perfectly fine when they got back?"
Dr. Light sighed. "It wasn't meant to be a weapon. Despite the rather ominous name, the Sonic Obliterator was originally a designed as a mining tool. When created, however, it was discovered that it was too powerful for any use and—because of the uniqueness of the design—fixing the power output rendered it useless. The creator decided to place it in a special government facility until he had more time to work out the bugs. That was years ago."
"How do you know all this stuff?" Roll asked.
Dr. Light smiled. "It's simple. I made it."
# # #
Proto Man was surrounded by a thick bluish mist. He frowned as he studied his surroundings. His was in New York City, but it was deserted. There was no one he could see. The only thing that told him this was New York were the buildings, ghostly and strange. No cars, no garbage, no anything. There wasn't even graffiti.
Creepy, he thought. Nothing would change if he stayed put, so he started walking. He soon himself in front of a familiar-looking mall. Ugh. It was the same mall he fought Mega. The same one where he lost his scarf. He fingered it lightly, scowling. Whatever this was, he wanted out.
Proto stepped into the street, straight into the path of an oncoming car. He froze in horror. It was too close to dodge! It was going to—he threw his hands up, protecting his face. Any second now—
Nothing happened. He lowered his hands. It was as if the car was never there. Proto dropped his arms in disgust. Stupid, he thought. Must have been imagining it. Sometimes I think Wily's right. Human emotions and habits do get in the way.
"Proto Man!" cried a faint voice. Proto Man lurched toward it, unable to believe what he was hearing. It wasn't possible. Right in front of him was Mega Man fighting—
Him.
Proto shook his head hard, but the scene remained. It was him! This was the same mall, the same battle that had happened last week. He could barely see anything else but Mega, himself and the transparent outline of the cars they were fighting among. In fact, even Mega Man himself was a bit transparent, just enough to make him seem unnatural.
"No way," he muttered. "This—this is unreal!"
The scene kept replaying itself, from the moment Proto started fighting with his brother to the moment he got away, over and over again. Proto—the real one—stumbled forward numbly, unsure of why. His own double was not transparent like everything else. He was in full color.
Proto stopped finally when he was close enough to reach out and touch his ghostly brother. Something told him this was all wrong, somehow, though the scene never changed.
Mega Man pounced on the Proto double. As the fake Proto Man reared his fist back to hit him, Mega caught it.
That didn't happen!
Proto watched in horror as his ghostly brother flipped his counterpart on his back and aimed his plasma cannon right in his face.
"What's a matter, brother?" Mega sneered. "Surprised? You shouldn't be. I'm only giving you what you deserve."
Then he shot the pinned Proto Man in the face.
"No!" Proto cried. The smoke cleared, revealing circuits and wires where the double's head used to be. Mega Man stood up, looking straight at him. He was no longer transparent. At his feet, the remains of the destroyed double faded into the mist.
"Only giving you what you deserve," he repeated, aiming his cannon and firing. Proto cried out again—
—And landed on the floor. Jumping to his feet, Proto looked around, his panic fading. He sighed with relief. It had been a dream. He was still in Skull Fortress, supposedly guarding the Sonic Whatever-You-Call-It.
Proto sank into the chair slowly. It was a rarity for him to dream, but when he did, it was usually one where he woke up yelling, only to find he had no idea why. This one, however, stuck in his mind, like it had been burned into the back of his eyes.
Shaking his head, he glanced at the time. One o'clock in the morning. He sighed again. I have a feeling I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep.
# # #
Someone was shaking him.
"Wake up, you! We have work to do today!"
Proto opened his eyes to find Wily standing over him, scowling deeply.
"I… I fell asleep." Proto mumbled, expecting Wily to snap at him for it.
Wily merely blinked at him. "I expected you to. Now get up. Today is only the beginning. Soon, I will rule the world!"
The old man cackled as he grabbed the Sonic Obliterator and walked out. Proto followed as expected, smirking to himself. He was feeling better already. Sometimes Wily wasn't so bad after all.
And besides, this was going to be fun…
# # #
"Oh, this will be fun." said Mega Man sarcastically. He and Roll flew fast over the city, Roll on her Hover Speeder and Mega riding Rush.
Roll gave him a look. "You sound just like Proto Man when you say that."
"Don't even kid about that," Mega shivered. He narrowed his eyes. "He has one of the blackest hearts I know, besides Wily himself."
Roll looked at him sideways. She knew her brother had very strong feelings about Proto. One side of Mega hated him for all the crimes, cruelty and pain he had done or caused, but the other side of him cared very deeply about him. These two sides often conflicted with each other, but no matter what, it always ended in battle.
Even Roll herself wasn't sure how she felt about Proto Man. He was a criminal and a creep—but part of him really seemed to care about Mega, even when he was trying to kill him, and that too often seemed like it was a twisted joke to the visor-wearing bot. She just couldn't figure him out.
Roll quickly changed the subject. "Mega, Dr. Light wants us to be alert. There's no telling what Wily plans to do with that thing."
Mega Man groaned. "I wish he would just get it done and over with. The suspense alone may kill me."
Roll giggled. "Don't let Wily know that. He might just try it."
"Good riddance to him. And to my evil brother as well."
"Oh, Mega."
# # #
"So what's the plan, Doc?" Proto Man asked. As usual, he was piloting the Skulker. Wily's more unhinged moments did not make for smooth flying. "And why'd you leave the Cut Man and Guts Man back at the base? They're dumber than rocks, but they're useful rocks."
Wily began to laugh.
Proto frowned. "You know, that can get really annoying sometimes."
Wily glared at him. "I don't recall asking for your opinion. This mission requires… subtlety."
Proto eyed him sideways. "We're flying a modified heliplane with a giant skull slapped on the front."
"Don't confuse subtlety with lack of style!" Wily snapped. "As for the plan, I think our first target should be, oh, say the warehouse district of New York City? Not only can we prove to the world how serious this is, we'll be miles below the surface before that blue geek knows what hit them. First New York, then—"
"The world, yada, yada, yada," mumbled Proto.
Wily glared at him. "What's gotten into you lately, Proto? You're usually more… passive about this, except when it comes to your brother."
Proto didn't answer, looking instead out the Skulker's window. The dream he had last night was still bothering him, and he had little patience for Wily's little speeches.
Wily studied him for a moment, drifting off to his own thoughts. Proto Man is getting more difficult as time goes on. His free will has caused me more trouble than I ever imagined. If Proto Man becomes too much of a problem, I might have to do something about it. One way or the other…
Author Notes: So I realized - naturally by editing this last - that it's a direct sequel to Possessions, not merely loosely connected. _
So in case you'd like to, idk, read things in order, the series goes Possessions - The Blind and the Broken - The Gift - Duo Reasoning.
(Russian Roulette is a new series and not tied to this story in any way.)