Road of the Warrior, Part Seven
Part Seven-Ambush

"Break Man, we have a problem." Doctor Cain had said. It sounded so normal, almost simple. He headed to the area Cain had told him about, prepared to face a small contengent of Maverick Reploids, dispatch them, and return home. He wasn't prepared for this-Dozens of Reploids, attacking humans and Reploids alike.
It was like a scene from his nightmares.
He could have called for back up. That would have been the sensible thing. But the others weren't ready for active duty this soon. He could easily handle these poorly constructed robots. It would just take more time, that was all. He jumped off of his jet bike and began fired at the Reploids. The first few were caught completely off guard, but they quickly noticed and began the attack. It was like bee stings, really. But Break Man knew that enough bees could kill a man.
"There he is!" a voice cried out from the crowd. All of the Reploids stopped what they were doing and attacked him. Obviously, he had been expected. He fired at each of the Reploids that came at him, but the massive group seemed like a hydra-Each time one went down, two more would take his place. Still, little damage had registered on his screens.
Then, suddenly, one weapon out of the barrage staggered him. He looked down to see a large boomerang wedged in his arm. The weapon was familiar, but that was impossible. He couldn't be one of them. For that matter, he couldn't be alive. Break Man fired again, taking down more of the Reploids with each shot. But then, every once in a while, another blow would stagger him. But he seemed to be winning. He continued to fire-It seemed like an eternity since he had begun-and the ranks finally began to thin. From behind them all, a female Reploid began to walk forward. Beneath her pure blue eyes were two red daggers, and a red dot was on her forehead. She appeared to be the leader.
"You must be Break Man." she said, walking forward. Suddenly, all the fire stopped.
"Yeah. And you must be Miss Universe."
"Witty." the robot shot back. "You have caused me a considerable amount of trouble, robot. I intend to repay it now."
With that, the robot fired a laser from her cannon. Break Man jumped out of the way, and fired. The attack sent the robot flying backwards.
"You'll have to do better than that."
"He will." Suddenly, a large pair of arms grabbed Break Man from behind. He recognized them, and the voice, instantly.
"Guts Man?" Break Man cried. "How..."
"I'd like to catch up on old times, but I'm afraid your time is up."
Break Man looked up to see the robot walked back towards him. She was badly damaged, but she was grinning widely. She walked over to Break Man, and laughed.
"It was almost too easy." she said.
"What are you laughing at? I'm still standing, aren't I?"
"Oh, that was the intention." The robot then put her hand on Break Man's shoulder. Suddenly, warnings inside Break Man screamed.
"Foreign entity detected in systems."
Break Man doubled over, then looked up at the grinning face of the Reploid.
"W...what are y...you?"
"It doesn't really matter now, Break Man." she said, "But let me assure you-You will remember the name of Sigma."

Mega Man down to where Roll and Kalinka were falling. Rush was running out of power, but he easily had time to take Roll to safety and return for Kalinka. He grabbed his sister out of the air and flew away from the chasm. Suddenly, he felt Rush lose all power. He looked back in horror to see one of the jet engines blown apart. Rush howled in pain, and Mega Man flew towards the ground. He spun around to make Roll face upwards, assuring she wouldn't be hurt in the impact. As he did, he saw Kalinka screamed, flying downwards into the pit. And he realized, with horror, there was nothing he could do.
He smacked into the ground hard, and he saw his clone smiling. It was obviously he who had destroyed his thruster. He then realized he was about to fire at Roll. No matter the cost, Mega Man told himself, no one else would die. He transformed his cannon into the Mega-Buster and fired at his clone. The blast hit its mark, ripping apart the right side of the robot's face. He fell to the ground, screaming.
"Kalinka..." he said, turning around. Her screams were no longer audible, but he could imagine them in his head.
"Bass!" Wily cried from his control center. "This wasn't supposed to happen!"
"I will destroy Mega Man at all costs, Wily!" Bass cried. He turned around in time to see Mega Man tackling him. He pummelled the robot viciously, and circuitry began to fly off of him. Mega Man didn't care. Bass had murdered a defenseless girl, and it was about time someone ended his reign of terror.
From behind, Treble knocked him off of his master. Bass jumped to his feet, and pointed his cannon at Roll and Break Man.
"C'mon, take your best shot. You've got five seconds."
Mega Man trained his cannon and fired. The blast soared towards Bass, but the robot ducked. The blast continued, and ripped through the glass of the control center and hit Wily dead on. He fell back at the controls, staring at Bass.
"Why?" Wily whispered.
"You were too weak." Bass shot back, then was forced back by a cannon blast. One after another, they forced Bass against the wall. Pieces of shrapnel from the wall ripped into his arms, pinning him to the wall. He looked up to see Mega Man's cannon, powered up for another blast. "You're mad because I helped you to kill Wily? He's always been a thorn in your side, Mega Man! You almost killed him yourself."
"He was almost my friend, once. And your father. And now you're going to pay for your crimes."
"You won't do it!" Bass taunted. "You're too weak. He who hesitates..."
Bass was silenced as a blast when off. He looked down to see Mega Man's cannon pointed at his chest, and the searing hole where it had once been.
"I'm through hesitating." Mega Man said, then walked over to Bass. "I won. Now give me the disarm codes."
"There are...no disarm codes...Wily was going to end it all...right now. And the best part is...he's got another missle aimed at the colony ships."
"Break Man, Roll," Mega Man said, ripping Bass away from the wall, "Take him to Doctor Light. He could be lying."
"What are you going to do?" Break Man asked.
"Stop that missle."
The two robots nodded. Roll ran over and hugged her brother.
"C'mon Roll," Mega said with a slight grin, "You're acting like you'll never see me again."
"Be careful, bro." Break Man said, slinging Bass's body over his shoulder.
"I will."
Tango and Rush gathered at Mega's feet, their eyes pleading for their master to take them with him.
"Go with Break Man and Roll." he commanded. "I'll be okay-Trust me."
The robots teleported away, leaving Mega Man almost completely alone. He heard a whimper from behind, and turned to see Treble.
"You want to help me?" Mega Man asked. The animal whimpered in the affirmative. Mega Man nodded, and Treble transformed, merging with his former enemy. Mega Man looked back towards the pit, and he could have sworn he heard Treble say something.
"I'm sorry."

As soon as Mega Man had left, the clone of Break Man had taken his master's limp body into the chamber he had ordered him to. It could even repair the damage the cannon had caused, or so Wily claimed. He laid his master into the capsule, then began prepping the machine.
"Break Man," Wily whispered, "My final creation...a clone of Light's first...ironic, isn't it?"
"What?" the clone asked.
"How all things...in the end...revert to Zero." he said, then closed his eyes. "In the computers...an upgrade for you...use it, and wait for me."
The clone nodded, and finished the activation procedures for the chamber.
"I guess we lost."
The clone spun around to see a tall robot with long white hair and white and gold armor.
"Alto. Where were you all this time?"
"Preparing, what do you expect?" she said with a grin. "Hurry up, we have to get you modified quickly. There's a lot to be done. That is, if we want things to turn out the way they are supposed to."
"And what puts you in charge?"
"I've seen the future." Alto replied smugly.