Chapter 5: Top Of The Heap

"Blah blah blah, grump grump grump! You're too serious, Sigma. That's the problem with all of you, Mavericks and Hunters alike. You're too tense. Loosen up, have some fun, enjoy what you're doing. If nothing else, it'll unsettle your opponent." -Mercenary Reploid Dynamo, shortly before the Eurasia Maverick Uprising

"Hum de dum dum..." A dark figure sang as he sat down in front of his computer. "Time to see how my little friends are doing... what?!" He hissed as the screen lit up. Eight boxes showed his eight underlings. Seven were clear; the one showing Magnet Man was covered in static.

"Magnet Man is dead..." The figure growled. "That overconfident fool. It HAD to be him that Mega Man went after first..." He shook his head angrily. "Well, the fool probably deserved it. Still, now Mega can use his weapon..." The figure growled, his eyes lighting with hatred. "It doesn't matter! I'll kill him anyways! Kill! Kill! KILL!" Shrieking with insanity, the figure lurched off into the shadows, thinking madly.

It's only Magnet Man. That's no sign of failure. One of the others will kill him, and I'll be free to move in on Wily! I WILL have vengeance... vengeance for the wrongs done to me by those two! They MUST pay! That is what I have done all this for... that is what has dominated my life for all this time... I must succeed! Silent once more, the figure moved back to his computer, and sent off a comm signal...

***

"Hee hee hee hee hee!" Top Man giggled. "Oooh... an incoming call! I'll bet it's from the president!" Flicking on the vidscreen, he saluted sharply, his tongue flopping out. "At attention, milord Colonel Sanders! Elvis is ready for orders!" The dark figure scowled.

"Top Man, shut up." The happy grin on his underling's face faded. "How's your status?"

"Not baaaaad!" Top Man lowed. "A lot better than Dragnet Man! Didja order your Robot Master extra crispy? I call a wing!"

"I said, shut up." His commander growled again. "Just making sure. Out." The screen clicked off, and Top Man turned away, scowling.

"Ooohh, suuuuurrrre! Nobody's allowed to be insane except him!" Muttering to himself, the Robot Master walked down the hall. Top Man was unusual, even for a Spinstrike, which were notoriously erratic. They had a design flaw in their programming; one that only was made worse when the master had converted Top Man. Now, he was quite insane; he could even break his Master's Two Laws effortlessly. The master had told him to kill all the humans, but Top Man hadn't done it. What fun was that? No, he had kept them for whenever he was bored or frustrated... like now. It was so fun watching them as one part at a time was ground into a bloody froth, and hearing their agonized screams...

"Energen Crystals... okee-dokee!" Top Man told himself as he looked in on the valuable crystal storage. All the yellow crystals were still there. Closing the door, he opened the next and smiled at the terrified humans inside.

"HEEEEEEEYYYYY KIDS! IT'S TOPPY THE CLOWN!"

***

"EXTRA! EXTRA! READ ALL ABOUT IT! DOCTORS LIGHT AND WILY PLAN ULTIMATE ROBOT!" The newsboy shrieked as Dr. Light's car drove by. Inside, the doctor congratulated his friend.

"Excellent job, Donald. You've spread the word very quickly." Donald Richolds chuckled.

"Thanks, doc, but I can't take the credit. It was Ced."

"Cedric?" Dr. Wily asked quizzically. "How'd he do it?"

"Ask him yourself." Light told him, pulling up outside Froid's manor in the forest. "We're here." The Froid manor was built in memorial of Cedric Froid's father, the Dr. Seymour Froid who built the water purification plant at New Shirewick as part of the famous Second Rainbow. The plant was still in continuous, neccessary use, and royalties from it kept flowing in, allowing Cedric Froid to build and maintain the manor.

"Hey, guys." The doctor called, running out.

"Ced, you young rascal, how'd you get the newspapers to print that?" Dr. Wily asked, grinning. Cedric smiled angelically as he got into the car.

"I don't suppose you'd believe they did it out of the goodness of their hearts?" He suggested. Donald snorted.

"Yeah, right. We're not talking about abstract concepts here, Ced. If they've got hearts, then I've got morality."

"You're calling yourself immoral?" Dr. Light raised an eyebrow.

"I'm a politician."

"Point." Cedric agreed. "Okay, fine, I bribed the newsies."

"MUCH more realistic." Dr. Wily told him. "Burn rubber, Tom. We need to get there and make our request ASAP so we can start this thing."

"I'll tell you right now, guys, this isn't going to be easy." Donald warned the doctors. "Those guys at the UN are very careful about letting any of the materials you want out, and these amounts..." He shook his head. "And Al's history doesn't help either. Sorry, Albert, but it's the truth."

"I know, Don." Dr. Wily said sadly. "I do have a lot to answer for."

"Can I have another look at those plans?" Dr. Froid asked.

"Sure." Dr. Light passed them up. Froid scanned them.

"So, from what I can see, this thing is seperated into three layers. The titanium skeleton, the interior wiring and circuitry, and the outer armor and weapons."

"That's right." Dr. Light agreed. "We've planned to pack Gamma with as many weapons systems as it can possibly hold. The Energen Crystals should take care of power issues, although we will need all eight."

"Yeesh, no kidding." Dr. Froid said. "Flamethrowers, missile launchers, sub-zero blasters, electric pulsers, wristblades, incredible physical strength, tons of lasers everywhere... and the main cannon." He whistled. "Guys, are you sure about this? Think about what it could do if it fell into the wrong hands..."

"That's why we're going to encode a 'fourth law' into it besides the normal three, directing it to only take orders from the two of us by DNA scan." Dr. Wily assured him. "And we'll destroy the programming codes as soon as he's finished, so there will be no way to change him."

"We're here." Dr. Light announced, parking the hovercar. "Let's go make our petition."

***

"Urgah..." Rock groaned, slowly coming to. "Goddamit. Again with the nightmares..."

"Those always seem to pop up when there's a rebellion, don't they?" Roll asked him. "What was it this time?"

"I was facing down Wily's Alian Hologram Pod again." Rock said gloomily.

"Aaah."

"But the end was different..." He said, getting out of the stasis pod. "After the final blow, the hologram didn't die. Instead, it shifted into Dr. Wily, and kept shooting at me. I couldn't fight back... then it turned into Achilles... Heracles... all of them, one by one. Then Dr. Light... then you... the whole time, firing shot after shot at me, and I couldn't shoot back. Then, finally, when I was just about dead, it changed one more time."

"Into what?" Roll whispered. Rock shook his head.

"Myself. That's when I woke up." Grunting, he walked over to the upgrade capsule. "But enough talk. Give me the weapon so I can go fight the next Robot Master."

"Alright." Roll said, plugging the weapons chip her brother had taken from Magnet Man's corpse into the capsule. "The doctors are out; they're going in to make their request."

"On Gamma?" Rock said absentmindedly as he felt the familiar tingle of the weapons copy.

"Yare."

"Well, okay then." Rock said, stepping out and phasing into his armor. "Magnet Missile successfully downloaded. Let's see..." He pulled up a map of the eight attack sites, with Magnet Man's dulled out. "Hmmm... I think I'll go to the Eucalyptus Forests of Australia. They've got Spinstrike Models there, right?"

"Again, yare." Roll pulled up the computer files. "They were the easiest for our unknown assailant to corrupt due to a glitch in their programming. Very erratic."

"I'll be ready." Mega Man smiled at his sister. "See you later."

***

The eucalyptus forests of Australia were one of the biggest worldwide Treeborg reserves. One of the many casualties of World War III was 95% of the planet's arboreal population. One of the chief accomplishments of the Second Rainbow, the group of geniuses charged with saving the world, was creating Treeborgs. The Australian eucalyptus forests not only held thousands of treeborgs, but were also the only place on Earth where true eucalyptus trees could still be found, carefully being slowly brought back into the world.

"And all that is being endangered now..." Mega Man said grimly. If he didn't retake this area fast, the whole planet would pay the price. He was standing on a layer of glass which protected the trees. Similar glass-covered leaves were overhead, and he could see a wall ahead. It seemed this entire place was made of the leaves protected by glass and circuitry.

"Very well." Mega Man said, moving ahead. As he did, there was a rustling from the leaves below him. A Spinstrike.

"Top Man, he's here." It whispered into its comm. A high-pitched cackle came back out.

"Oh, phooey! I didn't have time to set out the mousetraps yet! Well, screw him! You hear me? SCREW HIM!" The Spinstrike blinked a few times, then shrugged and pressed a button on a small machine.

"What the-?" Mega Man frowned as he saw something in front of him. It was a very large bolt, hanging motionless in the air. Mega Man thought for a moment.

"I KNOW I've seen these before... wait... AH!" As his eyes grew wide with realization he dived to the side. Just in time; a nut the same size as the bolt blasted in, scraping the side of his head, and attached to the bolt. The two of them then flew down at the blue hero.

"Oh, that's REAL friendly." Mega Man growled as he shot it down. "Nutton Boltons. This guy probably thinks he's clever..." He stopped as he saw another Bolton waiting over a small rise. He smirked. "Not this time." Raising his buster, he shot it... and his shot fizzed out. "Oh yeah... they have a shield up until they join to avoid interference. How to activate it without getting tagged like last time..." Mega thought for a moment, then made a small jumb straight up, the top of his head barely coming to the Bolton's level. As he landed, the Nutton flew over and attached, and he blew the completed robot away. In this manner he made his way across, dealing with the hopping froglike Kerogs as well. At the end was an energy capsule that repaired the hits he had taken, and he climbed down a ladder.

"Maybe I should take a look at the-WHOA!" The ladder ended abruptly, and Mega Man fell a good fifteen feet. "Oof! I'll bet the boss thinks he's reeeaall funny..." Mega got to his feet and surveyed his surroundings. He was standing at the foot of a large staircase. At the top of it was-"A Komasaburo. Figures." Komasaburos were short-range transport robots of a sort; they constantly produced hollow tops which traveled straight out as far as they could.

"Of course, the lead Spinstrike's probably modified them to put bombs in their tops." Mega growled as he moved up the stairs. The Komasaburo glared down at him before releasing one of its tops, which he blasted into scrap. Another top, another blast, and he was at the top. Mega quickly fired several rounds straight into the hole in the thing's body that the tops came out of, and the robot collapsed. Mega climbed down the ladder behind it... and fell off an abrupt break again. Getting back to his feet, the little blue robot saw a barrier in front of him. "Hmmm." He tried jumping it and failed. "Well, this is great... wait." There was a small tunnel at the base of the barrier that looked just the right size for him to slide through. He got down on his hands and knees and looked in.

"Hm... a large weapons energy pod." He frowned. "But the only secondary weapon I have right now is my Magnet Missile, and that doesn't need refilling. I think I'll go up over instead. Rush!" He summoned the dog and jumped onto the barricade. Three small energy pods were there.

"...I don't need these either. Heh, figures. Well, onward." He climbed down another ladder. In the leaves behind the glass, the trailing Spinstrike spoke into his comm again.

"He's at point B, and he's in excellent shape."

"He's ship-shape!" The response came back. "Or shop-shape, or shit-shape! DEPLOY THE JACKHAMMERS!"

"Oof!" Mega Man fell off his ladder onto the glass again. "I'm getting tired of that happening..." Ahead, there were two straight halls, one on top of the other. "Hmm. I think I'll take the high road again." Another step from Rush helped him up. As Mega Man walked on, he suddenly heard a massive crashing noise from below.

"What the hell? Suddenly, I think I made the right decision taking this path... what the?!" Ahead, past a break in the floor, was a giant jackhammer being driven by a miner robot. "A Pickerman Bull?! I thought those had been discontinued!" Apparently they hadn't; the robot paced back and forth noisily. Mega frowned and looked at the gap in the floor.

"Well, I could drop down there back to the lower floor..." He poked his head down to look. He never saw the Spinstrike moving out of the leaves, walking through the hole in the glass, and kicking him in the butt. With a yelp, Mega Man pitched forward, and his hands barely managed to grab the edges of the gap. The Spinstrike disappeared back into the eucalyptus.

"Hey, what gives? Somebody kicked me..." Mega growled as he hung by his arms. "Good thing I managed to... to..." He stopped at the sight of the Pickerman Bull coming full blast. "SHIT!" Straining, the blue robot managed to pull himself up less than half a second before the attacker rushed by. Mega Man wiped his brow; robots couldn't sweat, but he felt like he was releasing bucketloads.

"That was TOO close. Looks like I'm taking the high road... at least I can take down the one up here without getting too close." He frowned at the P.B. across the gap. The only vulnerable part was the head of the driver; everything else was too armored. He could just use his buster, but that would take a while.

"Time to try out my new weapon..." Mega said as his colors shifted to red and grey, signifying his selecting the Magnet Missile. "Here goes." He fired off a single missile... which flew straight out, hitting the lower portion uselessly. "Huh? Is the guiding system malfunctioning? No, wait. It can't tell the difference between vulnerable parts. It just goes for robots. Hmph, easily remedied..." He jumped and fired again. The Missile flew out straight once more, this time hitting the enemy's head and exploding, destroying it. The Pickerman Bull fell forward, through the gap, and landed on the one below, crushing it. Mega smiled.

"Very nice. I like this. Hmm... now that the one down there's out too, should I stay high or go low?" He thought for a moment, then spied another low tunnel on the higher level.

"High. It can't have been easy getting that heavy lug up here; he must've been guarding something." He slid under and found another large energy pod. "Man, this guy's a pro at sticking these things where I DON'T need them. Dammit." Moving on, Mega climbed down another ladder. This time, though, he managed to stop himself from falling off when the ladder suddenly ended, and hung on by one hand.

"Hmm. Metools below." The Metool "hard hats" were the first robot designed by Drs. Light & Wily, and were highly popular. They were mainly a walking head with a plasma welder and a protective hardhat.

"Ten bucks says they've been modified to shoot plasma bullets instead of just welding..." Mega muttered to himself. They were currently in the "rest" position, completely covered by the hat. Any motion near them would set them off. Dropping down, Mega fired twice, wiping both out as soon as they raised their hats. Down another ladder and...

"Whoa!" Mega said, surprised. In front of him on a higher level was a giant robotic brown tomcat. As he stared, it growled menacingly and spat out something resembling a huge ball of yarn. The way it knocked Mega Man flat as it bounced across was definately unyarnlike, though. That jolted him back to his senses.

"Oh, that is so not funny..." Mega growled. He had heard rumors that Sennet had been developing a new warbot, the FDB-14 "Tom". It looked like the rumors had been true.

"Stupid cat..." Rock growled as he started firing while jumping the next yarnball. "First I have to fight giant robotic dogs in the Second Rebellion, and now this?" Finally, he blew the cat away and climbed down the ladder behind it, grumbling.

"What's next? Homicidal parakeets?"

***

"So, doctors." The speaker said smoothly. "Perhaps it is time you showed us these plans of yours?" The petition had been going on for an hour, and the balance of favor was pretty well divided down the middle. Thanks to modern technology, the entire United Nations committee appeared in the courtroom. In actuality, it was all a hologram; the only real people here were Light, Wily, Froid and Richolds. A similar hologram of those four was undoubtably appearing in the UNHQ. Dr. Light cleared his throat and pressed a button, causing the lights to turn off and a hologram of the blueprints to appear in the air. Dr. Wily stood up.

"Gamma is equipped with as many weapons systems possible to load onto him. Aside from his incredible physical strength, with which he may pulverize a tank with one punch, he will be equipped with wristblades, electric pulse blasters, flamethrowers and lasers on the arms, sub-zero blasters and missile launchers on the shoulders, plasma blasters and launchers in the head, lasers all around the waist, and the main cannon capable of vaporizing a small mountain. In terms of defense, Gamma will have multiple armor layers of the strongest alloys all over his body. He will also have the ability to extend a barrier of bubble lead around himself for underwater use. All of this will be powered by the energy core, which will utilize the energen crystals discovered by Sennet Robotics." Amazed murmurs filled the room as the people absorbed this. One man raised his hand. Darwin Vinkus was an old "friend" of the Doctors; a fellow member of the Second Rainbow, he had been the leader of the anti-robot half in the debates that had eventually resulted in the Second Rainbow's downfall.

"Doctors, with all due respect, I believe this robot is far too risky. What would happen if this robot were to fall into the wrong hands? Would anything be able to stop it?" Dr. Light nodded.

"These are reasonable concerns. However, we are already ahead of you, and have planned to make sure this never occurs. We shall ingrain the Three Laws into him, as well as another prime command that directs him to obey none other than ourselves, by DNA scan. Also, we shall program him so that ANY attempt to modify his code at ANY time will cause him to immediately shut down."

"And if he decides to become destructive by himself?" Vinkus inquired.

"He will not be able to. Gamma will not possess the intelligence of the Robot Masters."

"Well, very well, then." Vinkus nodded. "Next. WHY is this neccessary?"

"To stop the Robot Rebellions!" Dr. Wily growled. "As you all know, we have recently learned that they continue, even without me! How do we know there won't be a fourth, or a fifth, or even more Rebellions? Gamma will be needed to halt them!"

"Nothing personal, mister Wily..." Vinkus sneered. "But we still do not have any proof that you are not behind this again. Until we discover who IS doing this, you are still under suspicion." He frowned. "And besides, Mega Man seems to be doing an adequate job. Why can't he just continue?"

"He CAN'T." Dr. Light said pleadingly. "He's already done it twice, and each time has been hell for him! If it keeps up, he could suffer a complete mental breakdown!"

"Dr. Light, you talk like he was a human." Vinkus shook his head mockingly. "Mega Man is a robot. As such, there should be no psychological-"

"Mr. Vinkus, have you ever personally been in a war?" Cedric Froid interrupted suddenly, his face coldly furious. The man frowned.

"Well... no."

"Have you ever been in any kind of battle?" Dr. Froid asked.

"No."

"Then SHUT UP." Astounded murmurs filled the room. "You have no idea what kind of mental agony and torture war inflicts. Mega Man is a robot, yes, but he is a robot with mental capacity almost equal to a human! Far beyond a robot, and beyond even the Robot Masters! He suffers the repercussions of war as keenly as I do." He looked upon his opponent with scarcely concealed hatred. "You have never known what it is like; therefore, you have no right to judge those who have suffered it."

"Ahem..." The head of the council rapped his gavel. "I believe we have heard all that needs to be said. We shall now adjourn to vote on our decision."

***

"Damn cat." Mega cursed as he moved past the ruins of the second FDB-14. "Bad enough that they spew hairballs, now they have to give 'em robotic fleas." Grabbing an energy capsule to refill his energy, Mega climbed up a ladder and found himself in a room barely large enough for him to stand up in. The only exit was a pipe that he could slide through. "Hmph. This smells like a trap, but there's nowhere else to go..." Shrugging, he slid in. At the end was a room just as narrow as the first. Mega scratched his head. "Now where?"

With a resounding smash, a top bashed him on the head. Mega growled and hopped up to the ledge above him, which held another low pipe. Before sliding in, he fired a plasma bullet and smiled as he heard the top explode. On the other side, a Komasaburo waited on a ledge above the pipe. A few shots blew it into slag, and Mega continued on. Behind him, the spying Spinstrike activated its comm once again.

"He's at the great pit. As long as the tops are off, he'll never get across."

"But then, what fun is that, Bobby?" Top Man growled. "I wanna play with him! Activate the Tip Tops!" Sighing, the Spinstrike obeyed.

"Dammit!" Mega yelled, looking at the giant pit in front of him. If he fell down there, there would be no way out. He could see the door to the Robot Master on the other side, but... "Huh?" Below, in the pit, a hatch was opening, and out came a spinning top big enough for him to stand on, going straight up. Looking up, he saw another hatch in the ceiling beyond it opening as well.

"Oh well, not like I have a choice. Geronimo!" He jumped onto the top, waited for the second to come to his level, then jumped to it, and then to the next. In that manner he made it across and walked in the door.

"GREETINGS, MARS MAN!" A raucous voice shouted as soon as he entered the room. Standing in the center was a Spinstrike, its eyes rolling insanely. "MAY I INTRODUCE... TOPPY LE FOU!"

"You're nuts." Mega growled. The Spinstrike nodded.

"Yes, yes, I am! How very bright of you to figure that out! Here's your prize... hey, Vanna! Move it!" Reluctantly, another Spinstrike walked into the room behind Mega. The blue robot's eyes narrowed.

"You were trailing me the whole time, weren't you?" The second Spinstrike nodded, and the insane one cackled.

"Yes, Bobba is a very good servant! Here's your reward, Bob!" Laughing insanely, the Robot Master snapped his subordinate's neck with a swift kick. The unlucky underling fell over, lifeless. Mega's eyes narrowed even further.

"You kill your underlings for following your orders. You really ARE insane... but I'll destroy you." The Spinstike nodded, smiling. Mega frowned. "You're agreeing that I'll destroy you?" Another nod. "...Is Richard Nixon an iguana?" Nod. "That's what I thought. You're an idiot." Nod. "Stop it already!"

"Why?"

"Because I said so!"

"Why?"

"Because I did!"

"Why?"

"SHUT UP!" The blue robot finally screamed. Those two words caused the Spinstrike's smile to instantly fade into an angry frown.

"Very well, then. If you're going to be rude, I'll just kill you. By the way, my name's Top Man... like it'll do you any good." With those threatening words, Top Man suddenly launched three tops into the air. A moment later, they all crashed into Mega Man.

"Hey!" Mega yelled, firing back. With a smirk, Top Man started spinning in place, deflecting the shots with ease.

"Wheeee! I'm a spinner!"

"What the hell are you doing?" Mega Man asked, staring at the spinning fool. Suddenly, Top Man shot forward, smashing into him and flinging him into the far wall.

"AICH! That hurt!" Angrily, the blue robot turned and fired. Top Man took the shots, smirking. "What's so funny?" Calmly, the robot master pointed up. Mega looked just as the tops smashed into him again. "Dammit!"

"Aww... am I too fast for you?" Top Man asked as he started spinning again. "Well, at least your death will be fast too!" This time, though, Mega managed to hurdle his enemy as he shot forward.

"Nice try. Here, eat this!" Switching to the Magnet Missile, he fired off a few rounds. They homed in on the next line of tops and blew them out of the sky, hitting Top Man as well. Hissing, the Robot Master tried his spin move again, but Mega jumped once more and Missiled him again, smirking.

"Your weakness is your pattern, Toppy. Now that I know exactly how to dodge you, I can take you down easily." And he did just that, firing off Magnet Missiles and plasma bullets until Top Man finally screamed as his legs were blown off. Mega advanced, buster ready, and saw the smile on his opponent's face.

"Good fight, Mega Man, but he who laughs last laughs best! HA HA HA HA HA!" Top Man laughed insanely. He laughed and laughed and laughed.

He laughed until the final plasma bullet struck between his eyes, ending his robotic life.

"Hmm. This time was a lot easier. Seems like my old abilities are coming back... or maybe it was just that his insanity limited his danger." Mega Man talked to himself as he searched for Top Man's weapons chip. "Aha... found it. Now for those crystals..." There were two doors in the back of the room. Mega looked in one, closed his eyes and quickly slammed the door. "Wrong way. DEFINATELY wrong way. That must have been where he kept hostages... ugh. The Crystals must be in here." He opened the other door and smiled at the orange crystals glittering back at him. Collecting them, he warped away, leaving only Top Man's corpse in the room.

A few minutes later, the door to the outside opened, a whistle sounded, and somebody walked in. Somebody with brick-red armor, a yellow scarf, and a single blue eye.

"Humph." Break Man said, glaring around the room. "Looks like I was too late... blue boy got here before me." He walked past the corpse and checked the rooms before swearing angrily. "God-fricking-DAMN-it all. He took all the crystals." Kicking Top Man, he also warped away.

***

"So, Top Man has fallen as well..." The shadowy figure murmured with a smile. "Mega has fallen neatly into my trap. Mwa ha ha ha! Hee hee hee hee hee! Hohohohoho!" He frowned. "But still... it may not kill him. I should plan for that eventuality." His frown deepened into an insane scowl as he thought about the new information he had. It was a furious struggle; he had to destroy the Energen Crystals, but without them, there would be nothing to get Mega to come, since all the humans were already dead. Scanning his map, he suddenly got an idea.

"Talk about killing three birds with one stone! I can lay a trap to kill Mega, destroy the crystals, and make him face one of the deadliest of the bunch at an early time all at once! And that's all if he survives the Top Man trap!" Snickering, he opened a channel. "About time I did something with my territories aside from holding them..."

***

"Hey, everybody! I'm back!" Mega man called as he teleported in. Rush immediately tackled him and Roll smiled, looking over her shoulder from the computer.

"Hey, Rock. The doctors should be back soon." As if on cue, a car pulled up outside. Rock pushed Rush off of himself and went downstairs with Roll. The two doctors and Richolds came in, all grinning wildly.

"WE GOT PERMISSION!" Dr. Light whooped, hugging his son. "They gave us full agreement in building Gamma! Now all we need is a sponsor!"

"As a matter of fact, we may just have that." Roll said, smiling as well. "Come over here." She punched in a number on the comm, and a man's face appeared. He was as old as Drs. Light and Wily, but still held a full head of wild hair and a bushy beard. He wore a pair of sunglasses and a black robe.

"Ah, hello! My friends, my name is Olivier Xanthos. You may know me better by my nickname, Mr. X."

"The billionaire?" Richolds yelped.

"The same. I have called for a reason; I have heard of your 'Gamma' project, and I wish to sponsor it."

"You do?" Dr. Light asked quietly. "It will cost an incredible amount of..."

"Cost is of no importance to me." Mr. X said, waving his hand. "I will pay whatever is neccessary."

"Forgive me, but why are you doing this?" Dr. Wily asked. "What are your reasons?"

"My reasons? Well, Dr. Wily, consider it a favor to you." Mr. X said solemnly. "You see, I share a past similar to yours. I know as well as you do how hard it can be to atone for past sins."

"Nothing personal, Mr. X, but I doubt your sins were as bad as mine." Dr. Wily said dryly.

"Oh, I might surprise you." The billionaire said sadly. "You see, in my youth I was a weapons dealer in the Third World War." Everybody in the Light room gasped, choked, or had some other means of showing surprise. "I have repented that for many years now, and used my money to attempt and resolve my burden of shame. I can think of no better use for my wealth than to keep such a thing from ever occuring again."

"Thank you, Mr. X." Rock said. The billionaire nodded and ended the comm. Dr. Light slowly smiled.

"This is going faster than I had hoped... we may even be able to finish Gamma before the end of this Rebellion! Oh, speaking of which, did you get the crystals, Rock?"

"Yeah." Mega Man turned over the orange crystals. "I also got Top Man's weapons chip. Let's go put it in now." The group went up to the lab, where Mega Man got into the capsule. Roll inserted the chip, and they all waited.

"What's wrong?" Richolds asked after a while. "Nothing's happening!"

"I dunno..." Roll frowned. "Maybe it's..."

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!!!" Mega Man suddenly began shrieking at the top of his lungs, and smoke rose from the weapons capsule. Cursing in german, Dr. Wily pulled the plug and threw open the capsule. Mega tumbled out, motionless.

"Rock! ROCK!!!!!"