Chapter Three
Of Cabbages and King
"SCORE!"
Rock jumped up and down like an idiot, waving his hands like a windmill and shouting his war cry to the skies. Blues just sat there, staring blankly at the empty screen in front of him, the words GAME OVER blinking seductively at him, mocking the prototype's failure. No…NOOOOOOOOOO!
"That's the last time I play street fighter with you," he grumbled under his breath, letting the controller drop out of his lifeless hands. Three years of a perfect record…gone…
Rock grinned evily, "You're just mad because you lost!"
Blues whirled around, bristling at Rock's cheeky attitude, "AM NOT!"
"ARE TO-OO!"
A fist fight was bound to erupt shortly, and Roll doubled her clean up pace. It would be a good idea to get out of the living room before furniture started to fly. Sighing, she checked the list of chores tacked to the bulletin board in the kitchen. Let's see…vacuum, dust, sweep, clean plasma generator, meals, dishes, clean main computer, check mail, fill out bills, stop by Auto's place and pick up a few things, and clean the third hall windows. At least I don't have to give Rush a bath…
Roll crossed off the vacuuming and dusting. A loud crash behind her helped her to decide that maybe getting out of the lab would be a good idea…
It was a sunshiney day outside, a light breeze to ruffle her hair and fluffy sheep-shaped clouds in the sky. All in all a perfect day to walk. Since Dr. Light didn't need too much from Auto today, she figured she could just make the trip into town on foot. Scribbling a note for the Doc and her brothers, she grabbed a pair of keys off the Rack. The Rack was huge board with hooks for keys that Rock had made a few years ago. It had over fifty notches, and almost every one had a set of keys for something hanging from the little hook. Grabbing the one marked 'House #6' she pushed open the heavy down and strolled out into the sunlight.
Out on the street, Roll passed Alson Manor, home to the wealthy family that dared live so close to Dr. Light's lab. The Alson's had long since learned to put up with the freak battles that happened every now and then on their neighbor's front lawn, and the occasional explosion, but when Bass was brought in yesterday, they decided that a long vacation would be in order. The stunning windows were blocked with drapes, and the magnificent gates were locked, and other than the caretaker of the mansion, the place was deserted.
Roll passed the giant structure, making her way down the long, empty road in front of her to the town. Humming to herself, she checked the list in her pocket and skipped along merrily, all in all making a scene that would cause Dr. Wily to barf up the burrito that he'd just eaten. Behind the girl, though, was an unexpected follower. Wreathing in shadows, it watched and waited. Soon…soon…
***
Auto didn't like Dr. Kalm.
He didn't know why, or even if there was a reason, he just didn't like him. The scientist had just rubbed him the wrong way at their first meeting or something. And ever since, Auto had been more than a little wary of the man with the shifty eyes. That was why when Kalm entered Auto's infamous store the green robot had looked up from where he was ringing up little Calinka Cossack's latest purchase, some robot parts for her science project. Eddie the flip top also waddled around from his usual haunt-aisle four.
"Well," boomed Auto's voice across the store, "there you go, Calinka, good luck with Sprint!"
"His name's gonna be Ran!," giggled the young commie as she skipped out of the shop, nearly mowing over Roll on her way, the robot had swerved left in the nick of time, avoiding a rather messy crash.
"Hi Calinka…bye Clainka," sighed Roll watching the girl run to her father's waiting craft, nearly losing the tall black hat twice. Smoothing her red dress, she nodded to Dr. Kalm and smiled at Eddie. Turning away from the two, she made her way past displays and shelves to the front of the store where Auto was uncharacteristically brooding. His face seemed to brighten when he saw Roll, though.
"Hi there, what can I do for you?"
Roll dug in her pocket pulling out a package of bolts and money, then the list of stuff that Dr. Light had given her.
"I hope I have enough," she frowned, looking at the nearly full page, "Oh well, if not then it's the Doc's fault."
Auto picked up the page with a bit of difficulty, his hand joints were in need of a good oiling, that was for sure, "Well, look's like Dr. Light's gonna try and build another one of his busters…"
Roll cocked an eyebrow, still counting bolts, "Really? I don't see why, it's not like Wily's back or anything."
Auto lumbered out from behind the counter picking up various items, glancing down every now and then at Dr. Light's list.
Roll leaned on the counter gazing at a few robotic's magazines lazily. She was jolted out of her thoughts by the sound of footsteps behind her, and managed to hit her head on an overhanging shelf when she whirled around. Dr. Kalm chuckled,
"Still a bit clumsy, I see?"
Roll hissed something under her breath, rubbing the sore spot on her forehead, "I'm okay…"
"What brings you down here, Roll?"
"Just picking up a few things for the Doc."
"Hmm?"
"Just working on another project."
Dr. Kalm wrinkled his brow, "Still fiddling with Bass, is he?"
"I don't know," she answered, feeling a little uneasy now, "I just live there."
Auto chose that moment to come back from his wanderings around the store, arms full of parts. Thank you…thought Roll. Saved by the robot.
"I got the stuff you wanted-" he started to say, before noticing Kalm, "Oh, hi Doc, haven't seen you in a while, hold on a sec, just getting this stuff for Miss Roll. That'll be all, right?"
Roll glanced at the list, then at the pile of equipment, "Yeah, looks good to me."
Auto rang up the items and handed the two brown paper bags to Roll. She slid the pile of bolts over the table and picked up the receipt, shouting a thanks over her shoulder as she headed for the exit.
"Ya know," she said to no one in particular as she left the parking lot, "There's something fishy about that Dr. Kalm…"
***
Mid 21XX, sometime before X's imprisonment…
Alia buckled under the weight of the column. Several wires sparked as her legs broke under the pressure. The pain…why…the pain…
Signas wasn't fairing any better, his right hand was crushed into uselessness and the arm cannon that he had been using long since destroyed. Another chunk of cement came splattered in front of the hapless huntress as the remainder of MHHQ came crashing down around the two. X fought on, though, he and Douglas being the only two in any condition to even walk, much less battle the hordes of Neo Arcadia drones. Why…
The dilapidated building was groaning under the pressure, slowly rolling to the side like the dying behemoth it was, Alia, Signas, Douglas, X, and countless other hunters still trapped inside. And still the drones pressed onward, lifeless red eyes glowing eerily in the night sky. Alia heard X scream but before she could get a good look at the azure hunter, another beam fell, blocking her view. It was only a matter of time before something hit her, or the structure fell burying her and the others like bugs in an avalanche.
Computerized voices shouted out commands, slowly circling around their remaining prey. Douglas stood alone and bravely as he could, one arm completely destroyed and his side skewered by a beam saber. Lifting his already malfunctioning arm cannon, he slowly began to charge. If he was going to go down, the hellions would fall with him. Not far away, the surrounded X caught on to the idea, unsheathing the glowing Z-saber.
"This ends here…"
And then her world went dark.
When Alia finally reopened her eyes and instantly regretted it.
Everywhere she looked there was blood. It was spattered on the walls, dripping in from the ceiling, running in tiny rivers from the broken walls. Almost as if the very building was bleeding.
Looking around, a very painful experience, she found that she had hardly moved an inch, though the thick support beam was no longer blocking her view and the heavy stone column was gone. Her auto repair systems were slowly fixing her leg as she lay there, like an army of miniature ants working to fix up the gaping wound. She had been moved into a more comfortable position, and was propped up against one of the stone blocks. By who, she didn't know. Douglas's unmoving body was not far away, the hole in his side just as terrible as ever, and a little ways beyond him lay a pile of dead drones. X was no where in sight.
Something moved in the corner of her line of vision, but as she turned to get a good look, a hand grasped the back of her neck. She didn't have time to scream before a thick, foul, wad of something was pressed into her mouth.
"Shh…this is for your own good, lady."
The voice was definitely male, and a little odd.
"That's right…hold still, this'll only hurt a bit. Okay, so a lot, but you'll thank me later."
Alia didn't have time to react before a searing pain jolted through her leg, causing her to bite down on the cloth, trying her hardest not to scream. After a few agonizing minutes it passed. Unclenching her fist, she dared a glance at her injured limbs. The hole was gone, and she could feel the tingling sensation of the auto repair. Whoever he is must have jumpstarted the repairs. Probably shocked me or something…
When a wound was bad enough, reploids would occasionally 'numb lock' the area, shutting off everything, including the auto repair system. She had seen several people resort to shocking themselves in order to get the systems back online. Alia had been lucky enough never to have experienced the treatment until now, and wasn't all too peachy about it.
"There, that wasn't so bad."
Yeah right…
He hummed a funny little tune to himself while tending to some of Alia's other wounds, keeping himself out of her line of sight. Every now and then she'd get a glimpse of brown, gold, and black, but other than that, her 'helper' remained much of a mystery. Carefully removing the gag, he pointed a gloved hand in the direction of Douglas, "Sorry, but I can't do anything for yer buddy over there. He's gone."
Alia closed her eyes. So Douglas was dead too. She managed to hack out her next question, "There…was another… Sig…nas."
The voice didn't reply for a while, "Tall, black and white armor?"
"Yes."
"I'm not going to sugar coat it, Hunter. He's dead. Vaporized. Your blue bomber was carted off with the zombies kicking and screaming, I'm pretty sure he's still alive. The building collapsed shortly after I showed up, and I barely managed to get you out. The rest of the Hunters didn't make it, at least as far as I know, and I've been patrolling this wasteland for a while."
Alia fought back the tears that wanted to fall. Shuddering violently, half out of pain and half out of grief, she tried to stand, but didn't make it more than an inch off the ground.
The same hand as before pushed down on her shoulder, effectively pinning her to the floor, "Hey, don't get any ideas. You're going to need more than auto-repair systems to get yourself back to full strength, and I'm no doctor."
"You've…got another thing coming if you t-think… I'm going to let myself be packed around by a…complete stranger. How do I know tha-that your friendly?"
"You don't, and you don't have a choice in the matter."
"At…least stop hiding…behind me…"
"Deal," agreed the raspy voice.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the room, and Alia's newfound alliance stepped out of the shadows…
***
Back in 20XX…
"Every other time…nah. Need a new song."
Roll walked along the road, the afternoon song shining down softly through the green leaves. The trip home had been uneventful so far, aside from some crazy bikers and an odd old convertible hurtling down the street at breakneck speed. And now she was in need of a new song to sing. But before she could think of another melody, a sound of a completely different nature pierced the air.
Four tones…five notes. And a flash of light to boot. With a flourish, the Scarfed Wonder appeared, in all his red, gray, and yellow glory.
"Roll, we've got a problem!" he shouted, grabbing her arm and disappearing once again, this time dragging her with him. Behind the spot where she once stood, twin glimmering eyes narrowed. Patience…soon.
By the time the dizziness had worn off she was once again in Dr. Light's lab, but now Rock was bedecked in full armor, his 'battle face' welded on once more.
"Thank goodness you're all right," Dr, Light smiled, relieved, "I thought King might have gotten you."
"King? Who's King?"
Blues glanced at his determined younger brother before turning away, "Our next pain in the-"
The rest of his sentence was drowned out by the sound of him warping away and the infamous whistle.
Wordlessly, Rock-no, Megaman, followed, nodding to Dr. Light and Rush, "I'll come back as soon as I can."
And then Roll's second brother-turned superhero disappeared in a flash, leaving her, the Doc, and Rush behind.
Roll turned to her father and gritted her teeth, "What. The. Heck. Is. Going ON!!"
***
It was King.
A maniacal insanely powerful robot bent on destroying everything.
A robot who nearly destroyed Protoman in a single blow.
A robot master who had created eight Robot Masters to join him.
A robot that needed to die in as many nasty and embarassing ways as possible. Most of them involveing whipped cream, underwear, and a certain blond robot chick who was building up a charming bloodlust.
Roll frowned from her position in the makeshift HQ. Dr. Light had left the monitors to her and gone off to help her decapitated brother while she kept as close of an eye as possible on Megaman. And Megaman was losing. After defeating the Green Demon powered by rage and rage alone, he had set off with nary a word to the next challenge. One by one, the Robot Master's fell, until now, at least. Running along the sandy dunes surrounding Ground Man's lair, he'd come across trouble with a capital T.
His sister watched helplessly from her side of the screen as he was pounded into the ground by a giant robotic snake, without help he would die.
Dr. Light glanced at the distraught Roll and scowled. Wiping oil onto a towel he made his way to the screen where Roll was sitting, fist's clenched and eyes shining.
"No…no…this isn't happening. I won't lose him too."
Roll glanced at where Blues lay in deep stasis, only half of his right leg finished. She would die if Rock came home in the same way, die and take King down with her. Glancing around frantically for something, anything that could help Megaman, she came across a quiet table. A table where one of Megaman's greatest foes, and possibly Dr. Wily's greatest creation lay sleeping. And a little idea slowly wormed it's way into her brain.
"Dr. Light…maybe we should get some help."
"You're absolutely right," frowned the doctor, "I'll go call Auto and-"
"No, some real help. Someone with skills right on par with what Megaman has."
Dr. Light slowly realized exactly what his third child was thinking, "If you're thinking about the black clown over there, you have to be kidding."
"I'm serious! Rock needs help and Bass-"
"-would probably make the problem even bigger," finished Light.
"But-"
"NO! Roll, you have no idea how much trouble that robot can cause! It's not just a simple issue of reprogramming him. . He's not like the other robot masters."
"And that's why he'll see that this King guy is as big of threat to Wily as he is to us!"
"Roll," sighed the doctor, "You're too nice for your own good. Bass will never change. And no, Roll, that wasn't ironic forshadowing."
"Fine..."
Dr. Light got up and turned away, hauilng himself up the stairs, "Roll, I'm taking Rush and going to Auto's to see if he can help, don't leave the Lab, all right?"
"Yeah…"
Turning back to the monitor where Rock was getting the cheese stuffing knocked out of him by a Godzilla reject, she listened to the slamming of the front door, followed by the sound of the old truck firing up. It seemed like only yesterday she and her brother's had taken the same vehicle to the Robot Museum. Wait…it was yesterday.
To her credit, Roll managed to keep looking at the Bass-shaped lump lying on the table for five whole minutes. But eventually, the magical thing known as 'rationalization' won out and more determined than ever she strode across the room to where Bass was sleeping like a baby. Pounding a few keys on the console, the all-too familiar digital voice announced that she had the correct code and that 'subject 004' was now being activated…
The figure stirred, mouth opening in a ferocious yawn that gave Roll a good look at Bass' fangs, a pair of canines that could easily sink into her synthetic skin and drain her fluids (not the most comforting thought in the world). Stretching like a cat, the monster let out a rumbling noise that reminded the paralyzed Roll more of a lion than anything. It was then, that Bass in all his demonic glory twisted lithe as an elf-
-right onto his side where he curled into a ball and went right on snoring.
Exasperated, Roll shook his shoulder, hissing at him to wake up, but all her efforts got her was a muttered 'five more minutes, Wily, then I'll go out and terrorize the populance…'
Roll came to a conclusion then-she was going to have to resort to desperate measures…
"Now where'd I put that foghorn…"
***
Another fanged creature sniffed at the bushes along side a lonely, but the scent was gone. Treble's simple mind came to the conclusion that his master's captors had teleported away. There was no way the robotic wolf would be able to track him now…
Sitting back on his haunches, he did the only thing he could-howl.
The sound echoed around the forest, wafting on the breeze on it's mission to penetrate every corner, finally drifting through the reinforced walls of LightTech industries.
***
Roll shivered at the sound. The haunting howl of a wolf…not what she needed to hear right now.
The noise affected more than just her. For behind DNR 002 the robot known as Bass finally opened one blood red eye-
"Treble?"
Roll whirled around.
Bass had awoken.