v1.3
Ring Man dropped yet another energy canister onto his foot and growled, "You know, it's improper to roll out of reach like that. If my hands weren't full, I'd chuck you into the next spike pit I saw! In fact, I'd make sure that at least three spikes penetrated that wonderful little metal outer covering."
"Oh, for crying out loud, Ring Man. Curse the canister and get on with it!" Metal Man groaned, struggling with holding his own seven energy canisters.
"I curse my canisters in my own way," Ring Man snapped in response.
Centaur Man rolled his eyes, thankful that no one had noticed them, otherwise he was sure that they would have been questioned to the extreme. It was all he could do not to trip over the canisters the three Kaisers kept dropping. It'd be one hell of a fiasco if my legs got tangled up...
They finally managed to make it to Metal Man's chosen room -- all of the Robot Masters were given rooms even though they were not supposed to be able to sleep; Centaur Man never understood it since Wily did not know any of them are alive; maybe it was so they would have a quiet area to go into "stasis" whenever their working energy was too low -- and they only dropped canisters two more times. Centaur Man had thought Ring Man was going to throw them all into the closest spike pit. Elec Man had warned him that Ring Man tended to have a temper when he wanted. The way he bounced back and forth between moods was unnerving.
Metal Man dropped all of the canisters that had survived the trip -- all three of them; he had started out with nine -- and locked the door behind them. Centaur Man had managed to keep hold of all but one of his canisters. Much to Ring Man's joy, it had rolled into one of the "bottomless" pits, and they had had to stop just so he could be satisfied by not hearing it hit the bottom.
"Come on," Metal Man muttered, fumbling for his teleporter after slapping the security camera so that it pointed at the opposite wall instead of right down at the trio, "We still have two more trips to make."
The room wavered and faded to that of the main computer laboratory of the Kaisers' chosen fortress. Magnet Man was at the computers, typing seemingly endless strings of code as he attempted to replace the old passwords and cryptograms, growling to himself. He muttered to himself as Centaur Man, Metal Man, and Ring Man stacked their energy canisters neatly against the wall, typing what he murmured, "Access main security..." The computer beeped an "access denied" klaxon at him. "Access main files..." Again, the computer beeped at him. "Access main program grid..." The computer beeped at him yet again. Magnet Man swore, "Piece of shit!"
An arm wrapped around his shoulders and someone leaned against him. Magnet Man bit back a scathing comment and gallantly ignored Ring Man's casual advance. The two were the most "humanized" -- as Elec Man often described it -- of the Kaisers, and understood their emotions better than the others, including lust. Sometimes Magnet Man regretted it.
"Having trouble?" Ring Man crooned.
"I can't get into the damned system," Magnet Man swore, resisting the urge to punch his fist through the monitor, "And I have to get in to install the last set of cryptograms..."
"Where's Elec Man?" Metal Man spoke after stacking the last set of energy canisters, "Has he gotten through spying yet?"
Magnet Man glowered. "That idiot?" he muttered, "He's talking with Crystal Man. Looks like he let Dr. Light and Rock figure out almost everything about him." The newcomers nearly froze. "Yep. He screwed up."
* * * * *
Crystal Man was half-glaring at me disapprovingly, but I was thankful for the fact that he hadn't screamed at me like Magnet Man had. Me, I couldn't take my gaze off the floor. I felt like a child who just got his hand caught in the cookie jar, except my mistake was a lot worse. I was sitting in a chair, hands on my knees and shoulders hunched. Crystal Man was sitting across from me, a table separating us, his arms folded over his chest and legs crossed casually. I felt like I had just been shoved into a bad detective movie.
"...so, how much do they have figured out already?" Crystal Man asked. He'd asked the same question twice already -- I guess he was trying to convince himself that I was joking or something. I wished I was.
"Dr. Light thinks I'm alive..." I answered as I had the last two times, "And Rock's inclined to believe him..."
The door cracked open behind me, but no one entered. Even without looking, I knew it was Ring Man, Metal Man, and Centaur Man eavesdropping. Magnet Man probably told them what I did the second they came back with their second-to-last load of supplies for the day.
Yippee.
"And how did this happen?" Crystal Man asked. Wow. A different question for once, but I still couldn't bring myself to look up at him. I could feel his held back anger and annoyance -- his voice was carefully hiding a growl in the back of his throat with each word he said. If our places were switched and he was the one who had messed up, would I have held back my anger? Probably not. Point for him.
"I got caught off guard when my communicator went off, and I jumped," I answered, still staring at the floor. "When I jumped, I banged my knees on the table and winced. I tried to hide it, but Dr. Light saw it anyway." The Voice was still snickering about it, and my knees still throbbed if I bent them the wrong way. I didn't think that I'd hit the table that hard, but apparently I did. Either that, or they're weaker than I thought. "I heard him mention that he'd been looking over the first army's schematics a few weeks ago, and he noticed that my wiring and internal circuitry was almost the exact same as Rock's." Okay, so that was a lame attempt at covering my ass and pointing out that it wasn't entirely my fault. Give me some sympathy, here.
( Give you sympathy? Yeah right. )
You know, I could tell them about you and say that you distracted me from my act.
( Heh )
Crystal Man nodded, eyes closed. I couldn't tell if he believed me or not. Probably not. "But they don't know about what we're doing here, right?" he asked. I shook my head. Crystal Man sighed, a great amount of tension leaving his shoulders. He rubbed his forehead, the fingers of his other hand drumming over the top of his helmet in front of him on the table. He would have looked perfectly human if it weren't for the fact that his hair was blue. Plus the fact that his skin looked rather silver-colored in the sunlight. I'd always found it odd. The rest of us looked perfectly human out of our armor. Ah, well. At least he wasn't fully pissed at me anymore.
Just really, really miffed.
The door behind me swung open and Metal Man, Centaur Man, and Ring Man yelped as they were either scattered or sent sprawled onto the floor. "Crystal Man!" Magnet Man barked, "You'll have to take over. I'm about ready to punch the god damned monitor in." Crystal Man rubbed his face, sighing and standing up, putting his helmet back on.
He looked straight at me, dark blue eyes serious. "I'm assigning Ring Man to the spy jobs around Dr. Light's place." I just nodded. I felt insulted, but it was a wise decision. Dr. Light and Rock knew almost nothing about Ring Man, not even what he looked like underneath his armor. Rock probably knew his voice, but Ring Man was one of the best actors. He could disguise himself better than I could. But while it would be a lot less dangerous, I'd miss being able to at least watch Rock, Dr. Light, and Roll, even if I couldn't talk with them.
Crystal Man left to take over for Magnet Man, and I sighed heavily, slumping. I felt like crap. I also felt like I was being watched.
( You are being watched, you dope. )
"Um...Elec Man?" I glanced over my shoulder at Metal Man and Centaur Man. Ring Man had left -- probably to make sure the supplies were stacked properly.
"What?" It came out a lot worse than I had intended -- almost a growl, but I was in a fairly bad mood. My pride was down the toilet, I'd probably near-jeopardized us, and I wanted to take a shower something fierce. I was starting to notice that I smelled a lot like the garbage I had slipped in. The fact that Centaur Man was visibly resisting holding his nose was proof of that. I found myself wondering how Crystal Man had put up with the stench.
Metal Man stepped into the room, sitting down beside me. His helmet and facemask was covering up most, nearly all, of his face. Only a bare trace of his pale skin was visible, but his fire red eyes always stood out, even among the plain red of his armor. Like candle flames undisturbed by even the slightest breeze.
( You're staring. )
Shut up.
"Centaur Man has something to tell you," Metal Man spoke, mercifully unaware of the fact that I'd been staring. Again. Either that or he ignored it. Probably the latter. Centaur Man fidgeted, hooves pawing at the metal floor nervously, skittishly, like a foal being approached by its owner for the first time.
"Um...um...I..." he
stammered, wringing his hands together, "I...I talked with Wily earlier
today..." I turned around in my chair, resting one arm against the table.
So far, I couldn't see why he was so nervous. He was the best actor out of all
of us. He could even force himself to stop breathing for up to two hours without
his systems overheating. "I...talked to him...about altering my body a
bit..." Now I started getting suspicious. Altering how?
"...exactly what do you mean by that?" I all but demanded. He visibly
resisted backing away.
He swallowed so hard that it had to have hurt before answering me, stammering, "A-About...r-replacing my e-equine body...w-with a b-bipedal one...to give me a bit more of an advantage..."
"You what?!" I didn't mean to yell. At least, I don't think I did. All I knew at the time was that one minute he was confessing a huge problem, and the next minute, he was cowering in the corner and I was at my feet, my chair having been knocked to the floor. I guess I stood up too quick. Metal Man was standing up, too, not sure whether he should try to calm me down or comfort Centaur Man. "Why?!"
"B-Because," Centaur Man started, his voice coming out in a squeak. He cleared his throat and tried again, "B-Because...I-I thought that...if I had a bipedal form...that I could be m-more useful. B-Be able to help out in d-different terrains..." He looked so pathetic that I forced myself to calm down. He already knew how nasty a mistake he had made, and my yelling at him wasn't doing any good.
"Did you even think of the fact that he'd have to look at your schematic and slice you open?" It was a perfectly logical question.
He shook his head, still wringing his hands together. "No...not until after...he'd already agreed to the...the operation..."
Metal Man spoke up, sighing, "Wily's drawing up a new schematic for his lower half now." I slumped back into a chair. I didn't need to hear this. I'd already screwed up enough, and now Centaur Man had made another problem. Just damned great.
"How the hell are you going to survive that?" I had to ask, "You'll either bleed to death or go insane from the pain."
"I don't know..." Centaur Man whimpered. Yay.
"Hopefully we'll be through with everything that needs done here before then," Metal Man said, "Then he can hide out here." I nodded and looked up at Centaur Man. He was visibly shivering even though he was trying hard not to, and looked almost ready to faint. He was scared enough already; he didn't need me yelling at him and making things worse.
I stood back up and sighed. "Go help Ring Man finish getting the supplies...and make sure someone tells him that he's in charge of the spy jobs on Dr. Light from now on." They nodded and left, leaving me mercifully alone.
( Aww. How will you keep yourself occupied now that you can't spy anymore? )
As alone as I could get, anyway.
* * * * *
Dr. Wily was muttering to himself as he drew and scribbled on pieces of paper only to end up ripping most of them apart and throwing them across the room. Magnet Man's eyes narrowed, and he slid closer to the doorway, pressed against the wall outside the room as he eavesdropped on Dr. Wily's ramblings.
"Centaur Man has been acting strange..." the scientist was grumbling as he drew and discarded yet another unacceptable design for Centaur Man's new lower half, "As if he's dreading this operation..." The scientist shrugged it off, busying himself with another drawing. Magnet Man grinned. So. Elec Man was not the only screw up of the bunch. Strangely enough, it was good to know. More idiots meant his task would be easier. "Magnet Man and Crystal Man have been missing..." Dr. Wily grumbled, tapping his pencil on the metal of the table. "As has Elec Man..." He looked over the drawing in front of him, tapped his pencil a moment more, and threw the piece of paper across the room. "I shall have to examine them soon..." Magnet Man nodded slowly. Dr. Wily was becoming suspicious so soon into the game.
But he won't have his hands on me.
* * * * *
What do you want?
( Little old me? )
Yes, "little old you"...
( To make your life miserable, of course! )
How did I know...
( Seriously, though. You should thank me. )
Thank you? For what? Trying to drive me insane?
( Why, for giving you your powers, you ingrate. Your ability to think for yourself. Your heart. )
...how are you responsible?
( We have our ways. )
"We"? Shit -- there's more than one of you?!
( Yeeesss...one for each of you. )
What are you? What do you want?!
( Can't tell you yet. As for the first question, you can call me Pathos if you want. )
...doesn't that mean "guilt"?
( In a sense, yes it does. Much like your guilt. )
...leave me alone...
( Heh. Don't worry. You've put up with me gallantly for eight years. You shouldn't have much longer to go if you cooperate. )
...why? Cooperate how? What are you talking about?
( I've already said too much. )
W-Wait...!
( Good night, Elec Man. )
* * * * *
My room was dark and silent -- just the way I liked it. My bed was usually nice and dry and comfortable, but right now the sheets were soaked with cold sweat. Damn it. Not only did the Voice ( still calling me that, huh? ) harass me when I was awake, now it was invading my dreams. Joy.
Someone knocked gently on my door and timidly cracked it open. Metal Man poked his head inside when he noticed that I was awake. "Are you okay?" he asked, stepping inside and closing the door behind him, "I could hear you tossing and turning from the other end of the hall."
"I'm fine...just a nightmare..."
( Owch. I'm hurt. )
"Do you want to talk about it?" I just shook my head. I was already on Magnet Man's shit list. I didn't need everyone thinking I was crazy because I hear voices ( Heehee... ). Metal Man tilted his head, confused and concerned ( AWW!! ), but didn't push the subject. I think he always has been one of the more considerate ones. Ring Man would have pestered me to insanity to get me to talk.
( And you would have eventually told him to get him to shut up. )
Sad, but true...
Metal Man shuffled his armored feet a little, unsure whether he should stay or leave, before he looked up and spoke, "Centaur Man, Ring Man, and I finished getting the supplies. Crystal Man's working on the computers on the base level."
"And Magnet Man?"
"Um...we...don't know where he is..." Great. "My guess is that he went back to Wily's to diffuse a bit of suspicion on his and Crystal Man's 'disappearance' over the past week."
"...if Wily spots him, I hope Magnet Man's got a damned good excuse." Metal Man nodded. I sighed and rubbed my face, standing up and retrieving my helmet from the floor. "I think the rest of us had better get back, too...he's probably getting iffy about us going missing without warning all this week..." Metal Man nodded again, and turned to leave. He was almost out the door when I called him to ask, "Have you and Centaur Man started planning the first attack yet?"
He turned back around. "No. He's too hysterical about the surgery right now. I was going to try sitting him down again tomorrow after he's had time to settle down." I nodded. It made sense. Centaur Man wouldn't be able to think straight under hysteria. "I'll stay here for the night and help out Crystal Man. I may not be as good at programming as he and Magnet Man are, but I can start repairing and rebuilding the Mets and other robots." I nodded again.
( The boy's good. He keeps beating you to the punch in assignments. )
And Magnet Man wonders why Metal Man's my unofficial second in command.
