Chapter 8: School Of Hard Knocks

"What makes me think I'll succeed, Serges? Simple. The reason you and Agile failed was because you were simply too fancy, got carried away with pretty tricks. When it comes to pure power, you're outmatched. But not me. I've got more brute strength than X can ever dream of. And I'm gonna squash him into a little blue stain on the floor." -X-Hunter Violen, during the Second Maverick Uprising

"Fraggit... I'm bored." Hard Man grumbled to himself. Hard Man was a Smashbody, built to be the most durable robot Master in existence, possessing more armor and brute strength than even Lighttech's famous Heracles models. However, they were lacking in intelligence; even Hard Man, the smartest of his line, was considered a dunce by his colleagues. He was bored easily, and his hobbies were crude... and violent.

"Let's see here... I have a Metool, a Monking, a Wanaan, a Have Sue Bee, a lot of Chibees..." He trailed off. Before him lay a grisly collection; servant robots whom he had brutally squashed into mounds of metal with his Head Press attack. Pausing, Hard Man shook his head. He had HAD a lot of humans in his collection; unfortunately, the boss had made Hard Man throw them out. All that was left was the bloodstains. Hard Man thought for a moment, surveying his collection, then snapped his fingers. "A Pickerman Bull! I don't have any of those!" Lumbering over to the comm, he ordered one to come to his room, then sat back and waited eagerly for the violent destruction he knew would come soon.

***

"You three are all LUNKHEADS, you know that?" Roll muttered grouchily as she fixed up her brother. "Those two doctors work themselves into a state of exhaustion, come home and conk out, then go immediately back! And no sooner do we give you a huge repair job since you almost DIED fighting Shadow Man, then you come back looking like this!"

"Hey, it's not my fault Spark Man had charging abilities." Rock winced as she ripped off a small patch of synthskin that was damaged beyond repair and replaced it with new synthskin. "Believe me, it wasn't any fun for me, either. Those things hurt. A lot."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Roll said, standing up straight. "Just try to avoid getting critical damage this time, okay? Too many people have died by this Rebellion already." Rock smiled as he phased into his armor, got off the table and hugged her.

"Was that actual concern in your voice, sis? You'll ruin your reputation!"

"ROCK!"

"Kidding, kidding!" He chuckled, backing off before she whacked him. "Don't worry. I don't plan on dying. Especially not against Smashbodies... dumb lugs. Well, I'm off to Chile. I'll bring you back a monkey!" He teleported off, and Roll sighed.

"Alone again. This house is way too quiet when it's empty..." As if responding to her words, there was a temendous crash that shook the house. It came from the bathroom. A moment later, Rush ran down the suddenly flooded hall whimpering, with a furious (and soaking) Eddie in hot pursuit. Slapping her face, Roll gave chase.

"On the other hand, sometimes quiet is nice..."

***

Landing from his teleport, Mega Man surveyed the territory angrily. "Those idiots... look what they've done!" The lush jungles of Chile were all ripped away around the mine, leaving bare dirt and rock. It was a horrifying sight. "Somebody's gonna pay for all this..." The blue robot swore with his head bowed before surveying the terrain again, this time with an eye for enemy robots. A long, rough rocky plain lay in front of him leading into a cliff face. Aside from one large cave entrance on the ground, there were multiple holes in the cliff face above. "Wonder what those are for..." Mega Man began to slowly move towards the base. After a few steps, the sudden noise of a propeller filled his ears, and he looked up to see a large robotic bee holding a hive-shaped bomb overhead. Before he could fire, the bee dropped its load and zoomed off. The moment the hive touched the ground, it opened and five tiny bee missiles flew at him.

"Ack!" Mega was able to blast three of them away, but the other two hit him, knocking off 14% of his energy. Resolving to be more watchful of the bombers, he moved on. Several more encounters taught him that it was useless to shoot the big bees; even if he destroyed them, the hives still dropped. The hives themselves were too heavily armored to destroy, but if he was prepared, the five bee missiles were easily trashed. Mega soon found himself actually humming a little tune as he walked along. He can thus be forgiven for almost failing to notice the large green grating in front of him.

"Huh?" Braking quickly, Mega saw that the metallic green grating covered the ground all the way into the cave. He narrowed his eyes.

"I don't trust this." Bending over, he picked up a large rock and tossed it onto the grating. About a second later, a huge bear trap lunged out, clamped on the rock and retracted. Mega shook his head. "Looks like I was right." He smiled. "Too bad for those guys I'm faster now." Jumping onto the grate, he immediately lunged into the slide maneuver, flying all the way towards the cave. Behind him, he heard repeated metallic clanks as the bear traps snapped shut behind him. Once he was inside, the robot jumped onto solid ground, the last beartrap missing him by inches.

"Nasty little trap..." The hero grunted as he moves up the ladder. A brief altercation with a Hammer Joe later, he was on the next floor. At first, it seemed the tunnel was clear. Then he looked up at the ceiling.

"Monkings?" The robotic monkeys that had annoyed him back in the Yosemite Treeborg Forest during Wood Man's attack in the Second Rebellion were back, it seemed. Shrugging, he blasted at the nearest one. It immediately dropped off the ceiling and leaped towards him, trying to flatten him under its weight. Mega stood his ground, firing several times, then swore and dived to the side as it continued, undestroyed. As soon as it landed, it jumped towards him again. This time the blue robot was able to frag it. The other two were dealt with similarly, and Mega Man found himself facing what looked like a long elevator shaft going up. The elevator was gone, of course, and a shoddy metal ladder was in its place. He shrugged and began climbing. After a short time, he found a man-sized alcove. Shrugging, the robot looked in.

"Ugh... what the?" Mega groaned as he laid on the ground below. Stars were dancing in front of his eyes. Getting back up, he shook his head. For a moment, the robot saw a streak of red in the corner of his eye, but when he turned it was gone. Cudgeling his memory, he tried to figure out what had happened. He was climbing the ladder... he looked into the alcove... and a heavy metal shotput had slammed into his chest, knocking him back down off the ladder. Bingo. A sneakily placed Hammer Joe had suckered him. After making several colorful comments relating to the ancestry and habits of Smashbodys, Mega Man scaled the ladder again and blew the loser away with a flurry of Spark Shots. Behind him, though, was a gift that more than made up for it; a large energy pod that took him back up to 95% energy. The top of the ladder led to a single small room with a Monking guarding the ladder to the next floor. With a war cry, it bounded towards Mega Man... who calmly stepped to the side and listened to it fall down the shaft he had just climbed up. Smiling, the blue robot began to walk on, then stopped as he heard something else.

"...Cursing?" Frowning, he looked back down the shaft. Nothing but the crunchy remains of the Monking. He shrugged. "So I'm hearing things. Big deal. At least it's not Ice Man's virus again." The next floor was guarded by three big, bad Pickerman Bulls, which Mega had long ago learned to deal with. More importantly, though, was what they were guarding; a precious E-Tank. The blue canisters were basicaly a portable refill of energy for his generator, and very rare. It was definately a lucky find. Next were a couple of Metools, and then he finally made it out onto the top of the cliff.

"Ah, sunshine feels good..." Mega sighed happily. "Even if I'm surrounded by wasteland. I'm going to have to have a talk about that with whichever Robot Master's in charge here." His enjoyment of the sunshine was marred by a blow to the head that knocked him flat on his face. When he looked up, though, no enemy was in sight save a solitary bomber bee flying overhead. No, wait, there was a flash of red disappearing into the hole that led back down, to the command center.

"I'm getting a very familiar feeling, and I don't think I like it..." The hero growled. "That can wait, though." He looked around. Almost the entire ground leading to the hole was covered in the green grating that meant beartraps, and the bomber bee overhead was waiting. To go slow and steady would doubtless mean heavy damage. Therefore...

"BANZAI!!" Mega Man screamed as he dashed forward, running across the ground as if one of the Wilymachines was hot on his tail. He weaved around beartraps, flew under the hivebomb, and dived down the hole at the end.

"Hey, Mega Man." Break Man whistled familiarly and looked up from the floor job he had just finished. "Just got finished sealing the room. You know the drill. But this time, I'm afraid your precious slide won't be of much use." Looking at the floor, Mega discovered to his dismay that the cycloptic red robot was right; the terrain was incrdibly rough and hilly. The Slide wouldn't work here. A thought struck him and his eyes narrowed as he began firing.

"You've been following me for a while, haven't you? In fact, I'll bet you were the guy who bashed me in the head!"

"Give the man a cigar." Break Man said drolly, returning fire. Neither of them were crossing the dips and bumps seperating them, staying on their respective sides. "Why should I fight my way to the end by myself when you can do it for me? As for hitting you from behind, you can call it payback for dropping a monkey on my head." Mega smiled slightly.

"I thought that was you I heard cursing. Your pronunciation's a little off on sbadzda, by the way."

"Tell you what." Break Man replied easily as he suddenly ran towards the nearest wall, rebounded off it, and soared clear across the room, firing downwards. "The next Hungarian person I meet, I'll have them correct me. Until then, I'll just enjoy blasting at you."

"Gee, thanks." Mega Man retorted as he took a few hits and dove into a ditch to dodge the rest. Switching to Shadow Blade, he threw it backwards over his head at where he thought Break Man was, and heard a satisfying squawk. Turning orange and white, the hero jumped back out of the ditch to inspect the damage he had done.

"Heh heh... gotcha." Break Man snickered and pointed at the Blade embedded in his trusty shield before firing at point-blank range. There was a bright flash of light, and one robot fell back. The other smirked.

"Wrongo. I got you." Mega Man informed his opponent. "Spark Shot. Does wonders, especially when one is made of metal." He fired several more times, and Break Man writhed before raising both hands. Wary for tricks, Mega let him stand up.

"Okay, okay, I know when I'm whupped." Break Man laughed. "As long as you have those weapons of yours, I can't beat you, even without your slide." Picking up his fallen shield, the robot glanced at Mega Man, and his single eye closed momentarily before opening again in irritation.

"Man, do you know how annoying it is trying to wink in this thing? Adios, amigo, and make sure to whup that Smashbody. He's got it coming." He teleported out. Mega Man sighed as the floor collapsed.

"One of these days I'm going to have to ask him how he does that through the shields..."

***

"Mr. Richolds, how is the Gamma project proceeding?" Darwin Vinkus, the United Nations representative for Japan inquired. Donald Richolds flashed the cameras a million-dollar-smile before answering.

"Quite admirably if I do say so myself, Representative Vinkus. With the help of hundreds of Lighttech workers, as well as all the Lighttech Robot Masters that still reamin in existence under their employ, the robot is being constructed at a pace one would think impossible for a machine of its size. Already the titanium skeleton is done. The wiring is proceeding at an equally fast pace." He chuckled. "But then again, these are Doctors Light and Wily we're talking about! We already knew of their genius in robotics, didn't we?"

"Ah, yes." Vinkus concealed a sneer. "The same 'genius' that created the six robot masters who murdered hundreds in the first Robot Rebellion."

"And also created Mega Man, who STOPPED them." Richolds retorted. "Besides, the Rebellions were started by Dr. Wily, who had been driven insane by a teleporter accident."

"Dr. Wily..." Vinkus smirked. "We all know about that, of course. Tell me, Mr. Richolds, how do we know Dr. Wily won't do it again? In fact, how do we know that the Third Robot Rebellion which is going on right now is not being controlled by Wily behind the scenes? Isn't it rather foolish to allow a twice-convicted madman to build and control such a potentially dangerous weapon of mass destruction?"

"Doctor Albert Wily is as sane as the day he was born, Representative Vinkus." Richolds snapped angrily. "Doctor Cedric Froid's psychological treatment has cured him completely. There is absolutely no evidence on which to base your accusations, and if you keep them up, you may be sued for slander. Me and Dr. Froid still stand by Dr. Wily."

"Very well." Vinkus smiled unpleasantly, adjusting his spectacles. "Speaking of Dr. Froid, where is he? I believe he was invited to this little chat as well... why didn't he come?"

"Dr. Froid is sick. He caught a bug." Richolds replied shortly. Vinkus's smile widened.

"Oh really? Poor man. How... unfortunate that it should befall him at exactly this time. Do you think that you will be getting sick as well anytime soon, Mr. Richolds?"

"Not at all." Richolds shot back. "I'm the picture of health." Under his breath, the politician whispered "But you're the sickest person I've ever seen." The microphones didn't pick it up, but Vinkus's ears did, turning bright red.

"Very well. I believe we're done." The oily man grunted, walking towards the door. Richolds waved to the cameras one more time, then followed. Once they were alone in the hall, Vinkus turned, his smug demeanor gone. His piggish little eyes shot sparks.

"Just what the hell do you think you are doing, Donald? Do you actually believe this 'Gamma' thing will help you advance your career? You'll destroy Japan!"

"You've been watching too many giant monster movies, Darwin." Richolds said easily.

"Don't play dumb with me, Donald." Vinkus growled. "You know as well as I do the only reason you're siding with Light, Wily and Froid is because you think it'll boost your popularity! Well, you're walking the high wire above the tiger pit, you hear me?"

"My dear Darwin, something you must remember in life: not ALL politicians are as corrupt as you." Richolds patted Vinkus's cheek condescendingly, forcing himself not to flinch at the touch of the man's greasy skin. "Must be going now. Pressing business. I'm sure you understand." He walked towards the elevator, turning his back on the spluttering and howling representative.

"You can't play the noble act, Richolds! I know you too well! You'll never get away with this, you hear me? Never!"

"Sorry, old boy, don't know WHAT you're talking about!" Richolds gave his enemy a cheeky grin as the doors closed. As soon as they were shut, though, his face changed into a furious grimace.

Cretinous toad... we'll see who's the big shot in a few years when I'm sitting in your chair at the United Nations! Gamma is just the ticket I need to ride to the top. After I'm there, Wily can blow up CANADA if he wants to, I don't care. As long as I'm at the top, nothing else matters.

***

The sound of Mega Man's footsteps receding was the last thing Doc Man heard. His aural interpretation circuits cut out in a feeble attempt to feed more energy to his auto-repair systems. After a moment, his motor-control circuits cut out as well.

Desperate, Doc Man opened a radio link to his master.

Father, he begged. Father, please. I'm dying. Rockman has breached the third ring, and I'm going to die. Help me!

There was a long pause. Three minutes. Four. Ten. Twenty.

Then, You failed me. Now deal with the consequences yourself.

Doc Man would have wept if he'd had the capacity. Instead, he lay still, quietly waiting for death and an end to the pain.

He has abandoned me... my father has abandoned me... Doc Man realized. Mega Man is continuing towards him... they will fight... I must protect father... father abandoned me... I must protect father... father abandoned me... protect... abandoned... PROTECT... ABANDONED...

"AAAAAIIIIIEEEEEAAAAAOOOOOUUUUU!!!!!" Doc Man tilted his head back and released a shriek of pure, primeval agony as the module inside his head that contained Wily's First Law short-circuited. His robotic brain began to shake, as connections thrashed loose and modules exploded. Through the maddening pain, one thought surfaced; this fortress would be destroyed soon. Howling, Doc Man forced his blasted body to crawl towards a secret tunnel he had constructed without anybody's knowledge, even Wily's. Crawling through it, he fought the urges of his mind to just lie down and die, and continued towards the exit. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally saw the rays of sunlight. Only a few more feet, and he would be out of the fortress... two figures blocked the path.

One was a robot about four feet tall in blue armor. The other was an aged human with wild grey hair and mad eyes.

"Doc Man! You will die for your crimes!" Mega Man pointed an accusing finger at the cringing robot.

"Doc Man! You will die for your failure!" Dr. Wily shrieked.

"DOC MAN!!!" Together, their bodies swelled to gigantic size, fangs filling their mouths and claws sprouting from their hands. The first ogre ripped Doc Man out of the ground and began squeezing...

"AAAAARRRGGHH!!!" Doc Man jerked upward, clutching the sheets. He was in a pleasantly upholstered bed. Near him, a window was open, letting sunlight flood the room. Outside, it was a thoroughly plesant day in the forest; birds sang and small mammals hopped from branch to branch. Doc Robot glanced out, and his face contorted into a hideous snarl.

"HOW THE #(&$ DID THAT GET OPEN?!" He quickly shifted into a holographic guise. If any humans saw him in his true form, he would have to kill them, and that was inefficient. It'd be fun, yes, but also a distraction. Mumbling additional curses, the villain got out of bed and closed the window before heading off towards his underground lair.

I can't allow my cover to be blown... I must keep my disguise as a human, or they'll discover me. And then I won't be able to kill Mega Man and Wily! Oops... shouldn't have thought of that. Here comes the insanity again. Let's just hope I don't try to eat the doorframe thi... thi... this... thisthisthisthisTHISTHISTHISTHIS!!!

It was around an hour later when Doc Man's insanity faded into the recesses of his mind once more. His semirational mind reemerged, and found that his entire head was covered in peanut butter. Grimacing, he washed it off.

"Oh, I hate that..." He muttered bitterly, clomping off towards his lair again. "This insanity of mine is yet another reason to kill them... those pair of damned souls who fight each other endlessly, not caring about anybody who gets caught in their rains of death..." The mad grin which his face was locked into grew. "Well, one of those poor innocents is back, you so-called hero and villain. And he doesn't care about your pathetic little struggle... he's going to murder both of you. I still have four excellent generals under my command, little Mega Man. One of them will kill you. And then I shall personally rip Wily's still-beating heart out, and in his last moments of existence, make him eat it." The sick robot laughed. "After all, he ripped MY heart out the day he abandoned me. Who says robots can't understand irony?"

The laughter continued on for a long time afterward, growing steadily more maniacal, filling all the house and the tunnels beneath it with the sound.

***

"So the little kid has come here at last." Hard Man growled. "Well, nice to meet you, I suppose, although you won't be around here for much longer. My name's Hard Man, and I am the commander of this facility."

"Can't say the feeling's mutual, I'm afraid." Mega Man growled, observing his opponent. Smashbodies were big and blue, almost their entire bodies covered in armor so thick it hindered many of their movements. "And I think you'll be the one who's going to be going on a very long trip soon. After what you did to the jungles, I have no qualms whatsoever about making you pay."

"Heh heh heh... well, isn't that cute..." Hard Man chuckled. "Little Mega Man's an eco-hero, and I'm the big, bad eco-destroyer. But it's wrong. You'll make an excellent addition to my collection."

"Collection?" Mega snorted. "What the hell are you talking about? I didn't think a lug like you would know what that word meant. It's not monosyllabic."

"Oh, a joker, huh?" Hard Man smiled. "I'm very proud of my collection. If you want, you can take a look at it before I add you to it. It's that door there. Yeah, the one on the left." Alert for any signs of treachery, Mega walked over and took a peek inside the door... then gagged. Inside, around on the floor, were the crumpled corpses of many robots, lying in their own fluids. The floor was stained red all over. Hard Man laughed again at his reaction.

"Impressive, isn't it?"

"You're sick!" Mega Man yelled, slamming the door closed. Hard Man laughed even more.

"Oh, come on. Everybody has a hobby, right? It's a shame, though... that was only half my collection. My master made me throw out the others... said they'd rot."

"The othe...no." Mega Man's eyes grew wide. "Humans?!"

"You got it."

"You're disgusting." Mega Man spat out. "I'm going to destroy you right now, and nothing you can do will stop me."

"Oh, is that so?" Hard Man snorted, amused. "Well, you can certainly try. Here, I'll even let you have the first shot. Go ahead, choose any one of your cute little Master Weapons and have at me."

"If you insist." Mega Man's colors changed to white and orange, and he fired off a blast of his Spark Shock. The pulse of electrical power slammed into Hard Man's broad chest... and dissipated, doing nothing whatsoever. Hard Man grinned and extended his fists.

"My turn." The two fists suddenly detached, and rockets in the wrists fired, launching them towards the small blue hero. The first punch hit him in the stomach, making him bend over, and the second caught him on the chin, almost knocking him out. Mega Man fell to the floor. When he opened his eyes, Hard Man was nowhere to be seen. "Where...?"

It was only his instincts that saved him. Perceiving the threat at the last moment, he slid forward, as his massive foe smashed into the ground where he had been a moment before, head first. The brute had meant to crush him flat.

"I don't THINK so!" Mega Man yelled, throwing out a pair of Shadow Blades as Hard Man turned himself around. The blades flew straight and true... bouncing off his brutally thick armor, as ineffective as the Spark Shot. Hard Man found this quite hilarious.

"Oh, that's rich! You can't even scratch me!" He shot off his fists (which had returned to him boomerang-style) once more. Mega was able to dodge the first, but the second hit him in the chest, knocking him back. He scrambled to his feet and dodged the next Head Press.

The Top Spin is out of the question. All I have left is the Magnet Missile... He switched to it and fired one just as his opponent righted himself and turned. Come on, baby... come on... YES!!! The Missile exploded, and Hard Man screamed in pain as his chest armor broke, pieces of it flying everywhere.

"YOU SON OF A BITCH, I'LL KILL YOU!" Berserk, Hard Man fired his hands off again. Mega Man nonchalantly hurdled them both and responded with a pair of Magnet Missiles that slammed into Hard Man's arms, slagging them. The flying fists fell to the ground, lifeless. Hard Man stared at his totaled arms for a moment before jumping into the air in one final attempt to crush the little blue robot. Mega Man just stepped to the side before firing the rest of his Missiles upwards.

A rain of metal shrapnel covered the entire room, and the remains of the brute, arsonist and psychotic killer known as Hard Man that plunged to the ground were completely unrecognizable.