Chapter 9: Pacific Pincushion

"Oh, this is so dull..." Needle Man grumbled to himself. "There is NOTHING left to fight around here! I've killed so many of my subordinates, it's gotten boring. I need something new! Something challenging!" He blinked as the door to his room opened. Two more Pinheads came in, restraining a third robot between them. It was, amazingly, a Lighttech Guts Man model.

"Where did you find this?" Needle Man asked greedily. The Pinhead on the left chuckled.

"A boat came near here, with a human on board. He seemed to be a reporter. This was with him."

"Yes, yes, very interesting." Needle Man said impatiently. "What did you do with the reporter?" The other Pinhead snickered.

"He's all full of holes!" At that moment, the Guts Man's eyes flashed red, and with a roar he smashed the Pinheads into each other, then flung them across the room. He turned to Needle Man.

"Are you the commander?"

"Yes, I am." Needle Man smiled as best he could without a mouth. "And you may have the honor of fighting me."

"Yer damn right I will!" The Guts Man yelled. "Yer thugs killed my pal, I kill you!" He charged, and Needle Man jumped over him easily, firing off a spray of his Needle Cannon. The Guts Man grunted in pain, but kept going to the two Pinheads he had floored earlier. Picking one up in each hand, he flung them at Needle Man, flattening him. Berserk, the Guts Man ran over and grabbed his enemy in a bear hug, ready to crush the life out of him. Needle Man laughed.

"Fool!" The Robot Master bent his head forward, and his large spiked headpiece shot out on a long coil, impaling the Guts Man. The unlucky robot emitted a single gasp before expiring. Needle Man snorted and retracted his head spikes.

"That was as pathetic as the rest! Mega Man had better get here fast..."

These days, breakfast at the Lights' was a rare occurance. The doctors usually woke up, downed a pot of coffee each, then rushed off to the old warehouse where Gamma was being built. And Rock... well, that was obvious. Thus, all three males in the house were surprised to find Roll cheerfully setting the table when they descended the staircase.

"Morning, guys!" She waved. Before they could say anything, her cheery smile changed to a frown. "No. Don't even start. Today, you two are going to have a nice, normal breakfast. And Rock, we are going to have a pleasant conversation with them." Exchanging a few glances, the men sat down at the table as Roll served the food with only a few grumbles about burnt bacon from Dr. Wily. As was his custom, the wild-haired roboticist began reading the paper. After a few moments, he began chuckling quietly.

"I should have known."

"What is it?" Rock inquired.

"The usual. I'd think you'd be used to it. Ahem... 'Mega Man saves the day! Third Robot Rebellion failing! Three locations left! Evil mastermind still undiscovered!' That sort of thing. Bleah."

"Aah, ignore it." Dr. Light advised his friend through a mouthful of toast. "We all know what's really happening. Just forget what those brain-dead newsies are pumping out."

"Yeah, yeah..." Dr. Wily flipped through the paper some more. "Ho! What's this? Seems they finally found some information on that mail bombing..." Roll frowned.

"Did they locate the mailman?" Dr. Wily shook his head grimly.

"You could say that. He's dead. Apparently, somebody nailed him between Dr. Froid's place and ours that day. Been rotting in the forest around there for a week. Yeesh. Poor guy."

"Wait." Rock frowned as he thought. "That doesn't make sense. We saw him come here!"

"Which makes whoever did this a master of disguise. A rubber mask or something." Dr. Light told his son. "People have been doing that as far back as the twentieth century. You should know... you're the one who likes watching those old shows."

"This from a die-hard Runaway Five fan!" Rock retorted. Dr. Light sputtered for a moment, then gave up and stabbed at his eggs grumpily.

"The newsies are right about one thing, though." Dr. Wily said, discarding the paper (which hit Rush on the head). "This Rebellion IS going to be over with soon. Once Rock's collected all the Energen Crystals, we'll be able to use Gamma to bring down the mastermind easily."

"Would Gamma be able to trash one of your Skull Castles?" Rock growled. Dr. Wily snorted, ignoring the gibe.

"Of course! Hell, Gamma could trash the Pentagon! When me and Tom build an ultimate robot, we build an ultimate robot! Speaking of which, we'd better get going." He carried his plate over to the sink. As Dr. Light did the same, Rock walked over to him.

"Dad, could I have a word with you before you go?"

"Of course, Rock."

"In private." The robot added, looking at Dr. Wily. After a moment, he nodded, and the two of them left the room. Roll glanced at the german roboticist's sad face.

"What's wrong?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Dr. Wily mumbled. "He still doesn't trust me. That conversation is private because he doesn't want me hearing it."

"Don't take it personally." Roll smiled at him. "That's just Mega Man talking. In his heart, Rock knows that the enemy he knew is gone now... it'll just take him a while to shake it off. Rock may be a pacifist, but Mega Man doesn't forgive easily."

"What are you talking about?" Dr. Wily frowned. "Rock and Mega Man are the same person!"

"In body, yes." Roll explained. "But in spirit, Rock and Mega Man are almost complete opposites. In fact, I'd bet that's what my brother is talking with dad about."

"I don't know when it exactly started happening." Rock told his father. "It just... happened. I didn't even notice it at first."

"So... it's some kind of split-personality thing?" Dr. Light mused. Rock shook his head.

"No. Rock and Mega Man... it's always still me. It's a change of perceptions, really. When I'm Mega Man, when I'm out fighting... I just don't care. All that matters is getting the job done. It's like I'm a completely different person." He looked at the doctor. "You said that Blues was strange... do you know if he ever went through anything like this?" Dr. Light frowned, thinking back to the time he had spent with his first advanced robot.

"No... I don't think so. He was strange... but he never had anything like this. At least not that I knew about. But then again, he was never put through any kind of war. I'm sorry, Rock... I can't help you." Rock slumped over for a moment, then put on his helmet and straightened up.

"Ahh, it's okay, doc. I'll be fine. You and Wily just finish up that Gamma thingamajob. I'm off to New Guinea."

"Rock, his name is Albert. Can't you just accept that he's not your enemy anymore?" The blue-armored robot looked his father straight in the eye.

"When he proves that he isn't my enemy here, then I will accept it. Until then, I will fight on." He teleported away. Dr. Light looked up after the warp trail for a moment, then sighed and walked away.

Mega Man had never been to New Guinea before, and he knew next to too nothing about it. Thus, he wasn't sure how long the sprawling mechanicality of the surrounding area had been in place. Nevertheless, he didn't like it. The area was teeming with buildings. Mega groaned as he surveyed the area.

"Way too close quartered for my liking... huh? No way!" The blue hero couldn't believe his eyes. Amid the buildings, there was a clear path carved out for him down the middle towards the control center. Chuckling grimly, Mega Man set off.

"This Pinhead is either very cocky or very stupid... possibly both." Still, the path wasn't exactl easy; in front of him, it teemed with Hari Harrys, hedgehog warbots that fired off rounds of armor-piercing bullet spines in every direction. Sliding under the hails of fire, Mega Man dove down to the next level instead of staying around to fight.

"Now this is more like it..." The path ahead was now a wide area with cannon emplacements. "Easy." Blasting the cannons, he slowly began making his way across, then ground to a halt about halfway across as he passed an open hangar. Inside was some sort of gigantic robot, but all he could see was the yellow dome on top. Whatever it was, it appeared to not be activated.

"Investigating this thing is tempting, but I have a job to do. So far, this hasn't been too hard. Pinheads live up to their names when planning security, it seems; this guy seems to favor brute force." Moving past another hangar, Mega Man went underground.

"Me and my biiig mouth." Mega groaned. A small tunnel that he could only fit thorugh by sliding, and at the end of it, a mechanical press working. He carefully timed his slide to get through, then repeasted it for the next tunnel. After that, the tunnel at least was tall enough to stand in, but now there were multiple Needle Presses working side by side. Try as he might, the robot wasn't able to make it through without a very nasty hit to the leg. "On the other hand, maybe there's something to be said for brute force after all..."

Dr. Cedric Froid smiled and straightened his tie as he got out of his car. The guard in front of the warehouse shot his head up from his television, then relaxed as he recognized the doctor.

"Hey, Dr. Froid! Go on in." Nodding and smiling slightly, Froid walked through the door and looked at the project in front of him with wide eyes. Hundreds, thousands of workers-human, robot master, and lesser robots such as Metools-were all laboring on a single thing. A tremendous, vaguely humanoid mass of circuitry lying on the floor. The wires ranged in size from the thickness of a treeborg trunk to thinner than a strand of string. Therough the large hole in the chest, Froid could see a shining titanium-alloy ribcage. The doctor reluctantly tore his eyes away from Gamma and looked over to where Dr. Light was poring over a mess of blueprints. Nearby, Dr. Wily was screaming through a bullhorn. Froid chuckled at the way the german robotocist was stomping his feet and pumping his fist. As Froid walked over, Wily lowered the bullhorn and shook his hand.

"Ced! Glad you could make it. Gotten over that flu?"

"Pretty much." The younger doctor smiled. "I see Gamma is coming along well."

"We're finally almost done with the circuitry." Dr. Light sighed, looking up from his plans. "The least expensive stage of building, but the most complicated. If it weren't for everybody who's helping out, we never would have been able to get this done in such a short time."

"Yeah..." Dr. Froid ran his eyes over all the workers again. "Docs, their are thousands of humans alone here! They can't all be Lighttech!"

"A lot of the surviving Sennet employees have come down to lend a hand." Dr. Wily told him. "Seems they're really eager to have Gamma kick the ass of whoever's responsible for killing their friends. Plus, we've been getting a lot of support from minor robotics firms in Japan."

"I see..." Dr. Froid chewed on his lip. Dr. Light frowned at this.

"Something wrong, Ced?"

"It's just... look, guys, this is really risky! I'm still not comfortable with something with this much power being brought into existence, you know?"

"Yes, we know." Dr. Wily reassured him. "But we feel it's a neccessary evil. The Robot Rebellions are going to keep coming, and Rock can't fight them forever. Gamma will be able to defend the world."

"Hmmmm..." Froid looked at the robot under construction. "Where's the head? And why is there a big hole in the chest?"

"The head and the core will be built seperately." Dr. Light explained. "Me and Al go over every section of wiring ourselves when it's done to make sure it's exactly as we want, but the head and core are too risky to be built by anybody except us. Besides, we can't build the core until we have all eight types of Energen Crystals."

"I see..." Dr. Froid murmured. Suddenly, he bent over, clutching at his head. Dr. Light got to his feet, concerned.

"Ced! What's wrong?"

"Just... a bad headache." The psychologist shot him a wan grin as he removed his hand. "I... should probably be going now. See you... soon."

"What do you MEAN the new superbot wasn't ready yet!" Needle Man screamed at a cringing subordinate. "Somebody kill this idiot for me." Another Pinhead promtply executed the unlucky one, and Needle Man turned to his computer, his lust for violence temporarily sated. A few minutes later, he recieved a call from the boss.

"Everything okay, Needle Man?" The dark robot known only to himself as Doc Man asked. His general saluted.

"Yes, sir! Everything is a-okay! Mega Man is en route to his death!"

"Don;t get overconfident." Doc Man reminded him. "Remember, my revenge is the ONLY priority. Nothing else matters. I must have vengeance for what has..."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Needle Man cut his boss off in midrant. "Don't worry. The others were pathetic workers; it's no surprise they failed. I, however, have been a combat robot all my life, even before I was enlisted by you. He's dead."

"Yes, fighting is your strong suit, isn't it..." The psychotic robot mused to himself. "Not brains. That's why I can talk with you so freely. You don't go getting too nosy like Shadow Man or Spark Man would... if they were still alive." Needle Man bristled, raising his arms, both of which were permanent Needle Cannons.

"Are you insulting me!"

"And what will you do if I am?" Doc Man said calmly. The two robots stared at each other across their computer screens for several moments, neither blinking or breaking the other's gaze. Finally, Needle Man reluctantly tore his eyes away, and Doc Man laughed. "Exactly. You're a fighter, Needle Man, not a thinker. Never forget that. Now, go on outside and make one last check on your immediate surroundings. And when Mega Man gets here, remember... if you don't kill him, I kill YOU. Out." Turning away from the screen, Doc Man sighed and shook his head. Needle Man had BETTER do the job right. Mega Man is proceeding farther than I ever thought possible; over half of them are dead. And that blasted Gamma is nearer completion every day. It's enough to drive a robot crazy... no, wait, I'm already crazy, thanks to my dear old dad and that blue bastard. Oh, I'm going to enjoy killing him.

"Perimeter's secured." Needle Man grunted. "Now, I... I..." The evil robot froze and slowly began to shake as he saw his bodyguard. Someone was already here! An intruder had somehow managed to sneak past all the defenses to here completely unnoticed and REPAINTED his Bikki stomper without it attacking him! The head was now a brick red, and the visor had been outlined in black. Swearing fouly in binary, Needle Man destroyed it with a head-smash and called out another... which was repainted exactly the same! Cursing even more sulferously, he discovered that every Bikki he HAD was painted that way! With an aggravated sigh, he left the second one in its place and went back insdie. High above, on some thin metal scaffolding, a robot laughed softly to himself.

"God, I love this job..." Break Man declared.

Mega Man jumped onto a platform over a pit, and the Needle Press promptly shot out and hit his good leg. "#&$! Cheap shot!" Angrily, he moved back aboveground and dispatched a lone Hari Harry. As he was about to climb higher, an instinct made him turn around and look up. There, on a ledge that he would have missed, was another precious E-Tank. He grabbed it with Rush, and continued on, dispatching a pair of Hammer Joes. Above them was the entrance to the control center, guarded by a Bikki. The spherical crushers were heavily armored robots based off Lighttech trash compacters, now used to crush foes in millitary appilcations. However, they weren't that much use; besides being very slow, the most reinforced piece of armor, an eyeshield, blocked out their vision, and had to be raised for the Bikki to see. What was NOT standard issue was the brick-red paintjob with black rimming the visor. It looked rather familiar now.

"Dammit. Break Man's been here before me." Mega cursed as he waited for the Bikki to expose its eyes. As it did, he fired off the Hard Knuckle, a jet-powered heavy explosive. Two of them were all that were needed to bring the big 'bot down.

"Speaking of brute strength..." He smiled. As he was about to open the shutter, it opened itself, and Break Man ran out, firing over his shoulder.

"You heard me! Put those needles where they belong, pal! Yeah, that's ri-oh shit, HIT THE DECK!" Both robots dove to the ground as a furious storm of needle bullets whizzed over head. The shutter closed itself, and Break Man got to his feet.

"Today's advice: Never go after a Pinhead's ego. They're REALLY touchy." Mega Man surveyed him closer and whistled. The brick-red robot was leaking fluids from holes all over his body.

"Sheeez, Break Boy! You look like swiss cheese!"

"Thanks for sharing that with me." The red robot downed an E-Tank that he pulled from behind his shield. "Well, it's obvious that I can't beat the Pinhead, and I'm in no condition to fight you. This one's yours, blue boy. See you in the next round." He limped off towards the entrance of the complex, and Mega Man went into the control center. Pinheads are designed for warfare, so I'll want to use special weapons right off. The Top Spin's out right away, as usual, and he'll probably be too well-armored for the Spark Shock to do much, like Hard Man. Hard Man. I'll try the Hard Knuckle first; it packs more explosive kick than the Magnet Missile.

"About time you got here, shrimp." The Pinhead growled as Mega walked in. Dark blue, short and stocky, Pinheads had no real head. Their eyes were set into their chests, and they had a spiked crown on top. Both arms were permanent Needle Cannons. "Did you see a mouthy red robot run past?"

"Break Man." Mega nodded. "I think he gets his kicks by annoying people." The Pinhead shrugged.

"Well, it doesn't really matter. I'm gonna get rid of all that stress now by killing you." Mega Man raised an eyebrow.

"That's not too polite. Normally we at least have a semblance of civility before a duel."

"Fine, fine, fine. I'm Needle Man, and I already know you're Mega Man. Now die." Impatiently, Needle Man jumped into the air and began firing off Needle Bullets, Mega Man slid under them and fired off a Hard Knuckle. The heavy projectile flew straight and true... and was contemptuously kicked away before it could detonate. "Oh, please! You expect to hit me with such a slow attack? Maybe one of those other fools, but I am a combat robot! Pathetic!" More needles conveyed his disdain, and Mega Man was unable to dodge them all.

Damn, that hurt. So much for the Hard Knuckle. Time for the old fallback. Switching to the Magnet Missile, the hero fired off a pair. Needle Man cursed as they slammed into him.

"Bastard! I'll make you pay for that!" He leaped into the air towards Mega Man, ignoring the repeated impacts of more Magnet Missiles, then landed in front of his enemy and put his head down. Suddenly, the crown on his top shot out on a metal coil and slammed into Mega! Gasping in pain, the robot emptied the rest of his Magnet Missiles into his adversary, but it wasn't enough. Chuckling evilly, Needle Man kicked his victim off.

"Well, waddaya know. Suddenly, I'm feeling great!"

"We'll see how long that lasts..." Mega Man growled as he pulled out an E-Tank. Draining it, he smiled as he felt the energy refill, then frowned as it began seeping out through his wounds. An E-Tank gave him energy, but it couldn't repair major physical damage. For that, he needed to go back home for repairs. Which meant killing Needle Man.

"So, you're still alive? Well, I'll fix that." The evil robot snickered and shot his head out again, waiting for the thud of impact followed by the little blue robot's demise. But that never came. Mega Man had jumped the attack, and was now falling back down with something shining in his hand...

Needle Man shrieked in pain and rage as the coil connecting him to his spiked crown was severed by Mega Man's Shadow Blade. As he landed, Mega Man caught the coil and crown, and used it to bat away the storm of needles as he advanced upon the sobbing Needle Man.

"No... you can't it's not possible..." Needle Man blubbered. Mega Man's face tightened.

"Try me." Needle Man's speech was cut off as he was impaled on his own headpiece. His eyes grew wide for a second, then dimmed over in death. Shaking his head, the blue hero grabbed the weapons chip from his dead foe, collected the blue Energen Crystals, then warped out.

You call me a devil... but you... you are the one who doomed me to this cursed existence! Doc Man sighed and put down his copy of the ancient book, Frankenstein. The book intrigued him. It seemed to his shattered psyche as if the author, Mary Shelley, had somehow looked into the future. Doc Man identified to the monster of the book; like him, he had been abandoned by his father, and now lived of a life of violence, evil and death because of that act. And like the monster, he would never rest until his father was dead... Shaking his head, Doc Man rose from his reading desk and turned out the light. Much as he would like to read more, he had to go down to his basement lair and check up on his plans. As he entered the underground, the robotic maniac dispelled the hologram he always wore aboveground. As he continued down the winding passages, he ruminated. It was getting worse; his madness had always been restrained whenever he was in hologram. In a sense, he was shedding his own mind and losing himself in the personality of whoever he was imitating. That had kept the madness from touching him in hologram, and ensured his remaining undiscovered. But today, it had started to encroach on him while in hologram. His plans had to be completed soon, then, or he would be discovered, and all his effort would be wasted. His revenge... Snarling, Doc Man entered his control chamber. Now, with luck, Needle Man would have finally killed that bastard Mega Man. Shaking with hope, Doc Man turned on his moniter.

He howled in rage and frustation as he saw the dot representing New Guinea go black, smashing his fists into the keyboard.
What is going ON here? Mega Man is defeating them one by one! Now only Snake Man and Gemini Man are left! At this rate, he'll kill both of them too, and I'll have to resort to the desperation plan... Mega Man. It's all Mega Man's fault! Why can't he just die! He's not immortal, he's not a god! He's only a robot! A mortal, death-capable robot! By all rights one of them should have killed him! He can't win ALL the time! He WON'T stop the Rebellion! He won't! I won't let him! I won't let him... find me... no, no, stop! Don't shoot me any more! I'm already dying! Please, Mega Man, for the love of god, have mercy! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Shaking wildly, the robot known as Doc Man ran out of the control chamber, fleeing the horrors of his twisted mind. The doors slammed shut behind him, and the underground control center was dark once more, save for the glowing computer screen showing a map of the world with six dark dots and three light ones scattered across it.

The echoes of his howl, though, remained for quite some time.