Chapter 10: Why Did It Have To Be Snakes?

"Ssssshit." Snake Man commented on the current situation as he read the scans. Six of his compatriats were dead, and it looked as if he was next on Mega Man's hit list. Why, oh why couldn't Needle Man or Shadow Man have gone just a little further and defeated the blue hero? But nooo, they had to go and get killed, leaving Snake Man to face him down! Groaning, the serpent robot pushed his papers away from him and stood up. He needed to take a break. Snake Man walked outside his control center and stopped in front of a portion of the ground where lines of chalk had been drawn. He raised his right arm, and created four Search Snakes, tiny crawling sabotage robots. At his mental command, they lined up at one end between the chalk rows. Smiling wickedly, Snake Man opened a bin nearby and took out a severed human arm that had been "donated" from a former Sennet Robotics worker, and threw it to the other end. At his signal, the Search Snakes took off, racing for the arm at the end. When one of them crossed, sinking its jaws into the arm, Snake Man immediately strolled over.

"#3859! You won! Congratulations, my baby! Hey, 37! Camere!" A subordinate Serpos walked over, and Snake Man pointed at the race winner. "#3859 here won. Upgrade him to a Puti Snakey and integrate him with the complex." He bent over and picked up the Search Snake, crooning in its face as he gave it to the Serpos henchbot. "And if you do a reaaallly good job at that, I may even upgrade you to a Giant Snakey! Wouldn't THAT be fun? Enjoy your new life! Bye!" As the Serpos left, Snake Man turned and glared at the other three Search Snakes. "YOU I have no use for. Failures!" Snarling, he kicked them off the cliff, then went back inside. As soon as he had left, the subordinate Serpos dropped the Search Snake in its arms off the cliff as well. Shaking its head. it came to the sad realization that its masters circuitry had been scrambled when he was "changed" by the Grandmaster. Search Snakes were just mobile jaws, remote-controlled; transforming them into a robot Puti Snakey would be impossible. But it seemed his master could not grasp that. It was a bad situation, but there was no helping it. Shaking its head, the Serpos resumed its duties.

***

"You are such a loser, you know that?" Was the first thing Rock heard as he came to. Standing above him was Roll, hands on her hips as she glared down at her brother.

"What'd I do THIS time?" Rock sighed as he rose.

"What'd you do? Oh, I don't know, maybe almost DYING fighting that Pinhead boss!"

"His name was Needle Man." Rock remarked helpfully. Roll hit him over the head.

"I don't care if his name was Sewing Man! He almost killed you, you idiot!"

"I'm sorry." Rock smiled. "I'll try not to almost get killed any more when I'm infiltrating heavily-guarded complexes of murderous robots to save the world." She hit him again.

"Now now, cut that out, you two." Dr. Wily said as he walked in. "Roll, Rock can get himself beat up without your help."

"Thanks a lot." Rock grumbled. "How's Gamma doing?"

"Nearly finished." Dr. Light answered, appearing in the doorway next to his friend. "We're starting on the armor today. After that's finished, all that's left is the core and the head, which we'll be designing ourselves. On that subject, Al, I'll be coming in late today." The german robotocist frowned.

"Slacking off, Tom?"

"No, no." Dr. Light shook his head. "If Rock brings back some extra green Energen Crystals from the African mine, I'll be able to use the additional power to integrate the old Item-2 jetboard into Rush. I have to get it ready for that."

"Why didn't you do that with the black Crystals? Or any of the others, for that matter?" Roll asked. The bearded roboticist cleared his throat.

"Ahem. All eight types of energen crystals are subtly different from each other; it's not just the color. That's why we need all eight to power Gamma. Only the black and green types of crystals are compatible with Rush's design, and the black aren't compatible with the Assist Items-or what's left of them."

"I see." Rock nodded. "Well, the jetboard should be of more use than that minisub function. I haven't seen water once, not even in New Guinea!" Grinning devilishly, Dr. Wily filled a cup with water from the nearby sink and flung it into Rock's face. "HEY!"

"All right, that's enough." Dr. Light sighed. "We all have things to do. Al, go work on Gamma. Rock, off to the African mine." Mumbling curses, Rock changed to his armor and teleported away. As Dr. Wily walked towards the door, Roll held up a hand.

"Wait. There's something I've noticed that I need to talk to you two about."

"Hm? What's that?" Wily frowned.

"Sorry to be so blunt, doc, but when you were... insane... your attack sites were heavily-populated places, chosen for maximum effect."

"Yes, we know." Dr. Light said sadly. "So?"

"So, this time it's completely different. The mines are mostly very out-of-the-way places, particularly the one on the moon! Half of them didn't even have any human workers. Heck, this guy hasn't even made any kind of threats after they were conquered except the Vesuvius eruption! Whoever's doing this is after something completely different. It's as if the entire Rebellion was designed to lure Rock out so he could get killed in battle. But who would do that?"

"I'm not sure." Dr. Wily frowned. "Why didn't you bring this up while he was till here?"

"Because this is very strongly showing that you're not behind this after all, doc, and I don't think Rock's really ready for that." Roll looked down. Dr. Light nodded.

"Sad, but true. Is that all, Roll? We really should be going."

"Yeah, that's it." Roll nodded. "Just wanted to bring it up. Now get to work!"

***

The Energen Crystal mine in Africa was almost entirely underground, in a single massive cavern. Thus, Mega Man expected to see dark stone instead of the lush greenery of the African rain forests. However, the first thought that entered Mega Man's head when he arrived at the African mine was "What the HELL?" The entire complex, as far as he could tell, was one giant mass of mechanical snakes! Even the cavern walls were covered in metallic green scales.

"Serpos' have a decidedly odd style of interior decoration, it seems." Shaking his head, Mega Man began walking on, blowing away a few jumping 'bots that sprang towards him. Before long, one of the mechanical coils under his feet ended in a glaring head that immediatley began spitting plasma at him. A few shots wiped it out. A couple more of those later, he climbed up the ladder to the next floor. He was promptly ambushed by three snakeheads which all fired at once, knocking out a good 15% of his energy.

"Bad move." Mega Man growled, switiching over to the brown and white colors of the new Needle Cannon. The thing had a very high fire rate, as he had found out while fighting its previous owner; a barrage wiped all three out, and he continued upward.

"YAH!" Mega Man screamed and instinctively jumped as a plasma blast bigger than he was flew under him. The source of the shot was a snakehead the size of a minivan. As he landed, Mega began firing plasma bullets at it, but they didn't affect it much. It soon opened fire again, this time spewing three blasts. He was able to dodge two, but the third knocked off another 10% of his energy. Great. I need to pull out another weapon? But whichh one? Think, Mega. He's big, tough... the blue robot grinned. And unable to dodge.

:Have a knuckle sandwhich on me, pal!" Mega Man yelled, launching a Hard Knuckle. The dim-witted snake opened its mouth to fire once more, and the heavy explosive flew stright into its mouth before detonating. The entire head and a good portion of the neck was wiped out, clearing the way onward. The path led on, past a bizarre flying robot that dropped its own head as a bomb, and some more small snakeheads. There was also a large energy capsule which thankfully put his energy back up to full. Unfortunately, he was then assaulted by more head-droppers and some pole-vaulting humanoids at the same time, and in the confusion a lucky bomb knocked off 15% again. Grumbling, Mega moved upwards some more, destroying a pair of Hammer Joes. After the second one, the path forked with two seperate ladders leading up. Trying the one on the right led to a dead-end with some emergency storage boxes. One held a weapons capsule that refilled his Needle Cannon; the other a precious E-Tank. Mega gleefully grabbed them both before going back down and climbing the ladder on the left, which took him to another Giant Snakey. A pair of Hard Knuckles worked just as well as they had on its predecessor. Aa few vault-bots later, and he finally emerged out of the cavern into the bright blue sky of noon. As he passed by a grey tower, Mega heard several plasma shots followed by the hissing scream of a Serpos dying. Mega smirked.

"All right, Break Man, get out here." He called. A few moments later, the red robot stepped out from behind the tower, whistling and dragging a dead Serpos.

"Hey, you should thank me, blue-boy. This guy was planning on ambushing you."

"Yeah, and the thought of doing the same never crossed your mind?" Mega snorted.

"No! ...Well, not for long, at any rate."

"Yeah, whatever." Mega shook his head. "Well, we gonna fight it out?"

"I dunno." Break Man shrugged, firing behind him and blowing away a charging vaulter without looking. "That's gotten a bit old, hasn't it? And whichever one of us wins will be at a energy loss when facing the boss Serpos. I've got a better idea. A challenge for you."

"Oh?" Mega asked. Break Man nodded.

"Yup. My challenge: Fight the boss with only half of your special weapons. You win, I'll let you take the crystals without any argument. You lose... I get a weakened Serpos to fight. Well?" Mega frowned.

"Deal. But I get to choose which three."

"Fair enough." Break Man agreed. "Which ones?"

"The Magnet Missile, Shadow Blade, and Needle Cannon." Mega told him. "Let's get moving."

"If you don't me aking, why'd you choose those three?" Break Man asked as they climbed up the grey tower. Mega Man smiled as he blew away a ladder-crawling bugbot.

"Naw, I don't mind. The Magnet Missile and Shadow Blade are two of my oldest and most effective; one of them can usually get me out of a jam. The Hard Knuckle packs a punch-ouch, sorry-but it's slow, and Serpos are supposedly good dodgers. Nobody in their right mind would pick the Top Spin; it's fritzy, only halfway working, and completely unreliable. As for the Spark Shock... well, Needle Man just gave me more trouble than Spark Man did."

"I see." Break Man nodded as they reached the top of the tower. "Whoa! That don't look fun..." The door to the control center was embedded in a cliff wall with only a small ledge before it. Between it and them was a series of fans atop small towers that launched platforms that they would have to jump across. Flying through the air between the lifts were several nasty-looking missiles. Mega Man whistled.

"Well, this should be interesting."

"To say the least." Break Man grumbled. "Kid, when you've been around as long as I have, you'll learn that 'interesting' usually means 'deadly.'" He sighed. "Well, sitting around here and yawking all day won't do much. Let's get going."

***

"Sorry, sorry!" Dr. Light called as he ran into the warehouse, puffing. "I know I'm even later than I thought I would be!" Dr. Wily looked up from the screen of his laptop computer and smiled.

"It's okay, Tom. This part of the construction doesn't require nearly as much of our attention as the wiring; all we really have to do is check to make sure each piece of armor is on properly. The workers can handle the rest. Got everything you needed done?"

"Yup. The Item-2's restored and ready to be combined with Rush once we have the green Energen Crystals." He frowned and walked over to his colleague. "Whatcha got there?"

"You remember the eight Robot Masters I built for the Second Robot Rebellion?" Dr. Wily asked.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I still have the design notes back from my crazy days here. I figured maybe we could have them rebuilt as beneficial robots, liike the six Lighttech and the Sennet eight were originally meant for." Dr. Light shook his head.

"Al, you know the UN'll never stand for it. They won't let us make any more of the Lighttech six; there's no way bringing your eight into production will pass them." Wily sighed.

"I know. I was thinking more towards the future... years later, when everybody's forgotten about this. I know they're only robots, not as intelligent as Rock or Roll... or Blues... but I just can't stand the idea of having them exist only for bloodshed. I owe them more than that."

"Still got that guilt?" Dr. Light asked quietly. Wily nodded.

"Tom, I think that guilt is going to be with me as long as I live... and probably even after that." He shut diwn the laptop and stood. "But enough of the past. That armor section over there on the arm looks ready for inspection. Let's take a look, shall we?"

"Hey, guys!" A familiar voice rang through the warehouse as Donald Richolds walked in, heading towards the doctors immediately. "Looking good! I'm no techie, but even I can tell this is one impressive piece of circuitry!" He looked around. "Pretty nice operation you've got here. Bet the newsies are giving you trouble, though." Dr. Wily rolled his eyes.

"Oh, yes. I've got five of them trying to sneak in disguised as workers so far today. It's a hassle. You probably know about that; you're a politician."

"You got that right." Richolds flashed a million-dollar smile. "Hey, have you ever thought of letting one or two slip past?" Both doctors frowned.

"Why?"

"Well, if you let one or two get some info, it might pacify the rest." Richolds tried to explain. "Like throwing meat to lions."

"More like throwing meat to sharks. It'd just make them go crazier. Forget it, Don."

"All right, all right." Richolds held up his hands. "Anyways, I got enough to worry about. I'm going for reelection. Anyways, I was wondering..."

"If we'd speak up for you at a press conference or something?" Dr. Wily said sardonically. The politician smiled.

"Yeah. After all, I helped you out. It won't have to be too much; just say that we're still good friends and give a vague Gamma report. We politicians are a gullible breed, despite common belief to the opposite. Their imaginations will do the rest. Thanks, guys!" He left. Dr. Light looked after him for a moment.

"Sometimes I wonder if politicians are humans like the rest of us." Behind him, Dr. Wily's cell phone rang, and the german robotocist answered it."

"Yes? What did you find? ...What?! Damn! What about... nothing at all? Double damn! Sigh... okay. I'll be over as soon as I can get away." He shut off the phone and put it away as Dr. Light walked back over.

"What was that?"

"Oh, nothing. Shall we get to work?"

***

On the roads of Tokyo, traffic conditions could range frim slow to hazardously rushed, like anyplace else. The current day was "slow"; that is, except for the single car barrelling through at 90 MPH. As it zoomed by, it grazed another car, and the man inside stuck his head out, using some very interesting vocabulary. The speeding car ignored him. Finally, it pulled up in front of a house, and the driver ran out. Entering the house, he quickly slammed the door behind him, made sure all the windows were shut... then dropped the hologram disguising him.

"It's getting worse..." Doc Man muttered, cradling his head in his hands. "I almost lost it back there." About ten minutes ago, he had began to lose control over his hologram and become exposed. That would mean the end of his life... and a failure of revenge. Unacceptable. Through a surge of willpower, he had forced it back into place before anybody saw him and ran for the car, pleading a sudden emergency. But there was no denying that it had been very close. Too close. From now on, he would have to make sure never to go out for more than an hour at a time.

"I'm getting too careless..." Sighing, Doc Man moved his top-heavy form down the hall to the basement. As he walked down, he observed the furnishings with a touch of humor. Beautiful wallpaper... expensive furniture... fancy paintings... crystal chandelier... the previous owner of this house had believed in keeping up appearances. Doc Man, of course, had an entirely different meaning for that term. Human foibles were of new use to him other than an occassional laugh at how pathetic they were. It was really no surprise that a human had to be out of their mind to even think about creating him, the mighty Doc Man. And soon, that same human would lie dead at his son's feet. But what about after that? Could he really go on with his life ignoring those puny animals?

"No way. Not even slightly possible." Doc Man decided. Far better to continue his work. With his holographic abilities, he could impersonate anybody. Say, for example, the leader of a huge cult of Middle Eastern terrorists? Who had been rumored to possess nuclear weaponry? With that, he could launch a World War IV, one that would not stop until every shred of humanity-and the stupid, spineless robot slaves that served them-were dead. With Doc Man impersonating all the world's leaders, it could be done. And then... yes, then he could eradicate the animals, and the plants, and even microscopic beings! Until the entire planet was completely devoid of any life whatsoever, once more the cold, barren ball of rock it had once been. And on it, Doc Man, the single remaining creature in the galaxy, would be able to rule every inch of the planet completely, master of all he surveyed, with not even an insect left to oppose and defy him simply by existing. What a sweet victory that would be, yes...

"WHAT AM I DOING?!" Doc Man screamed suddenly, breaking out of the mad reverie that had held him. The insanity had trapped him again, and he hadn't even noticed... Shaking, Doc Man arrived at his underground lair. Time to sort all that out later, he decided. Right now, he had to concentrate on the task at hand. Namely, his revenge. Doc Man tried to frown, but his face was locked in an insane grin; the best he could manage was an evil glare over tightly closed lips. Things weren't looking too good on that front. There were only two Robot Masters left, and Mega Man was currently at the African mine. Plan A, the mail bomb, had failed. And it seemed Plan B, the Third Robot Rebellion, seemed destined to fail as well. Doc Man knew that he would not be able to try another Rebellion later on; his insanity was getting quickly worse, and eventually, it would betray him, resulting in his discovery-and destruction. Thus, if Snake Man failed to kill the blue brat, Doc Man would have to resort to Desperation Plan C while Mega Man went to fight Gemini Man, his last general. Or perhaps Gemini MEN would be a better term... Doc Man shook his head. Gemini confused even him, and that was hard to do. Even if he wasn't able to fell Mega Man, the general would definately hold the blue robot off long enough for Plan C to work. And then... well, he had already thought about that, hadn't he? Doc Man slowly began giggling, then chuckling, then screaming maniacal laughter. As the insane sound filled with the familiar sound of one whom sanity does no longer exist for, the robotic mastermind danced around with all the glee of a two-year-old with a lollipop, his struggle forgotten for the moment.

***

"Hello, what's this?" Snake Man hissed as Mega Man and Break Man walked in together. "Mega Man. And you must be the mysterious Break Man I've heard so much about."

"That'd be me, all right." Break Man nodded.

"Two against one isn't exactly fair, boys." Snake Man growled. Mega smiled and shook his head as his red rival leaned against a wall.

"Don't worry your snakey head, pal. We're fighting you one at a time. If you kill me, he gets his chance. I'll even go easy on you and only use half of my special weapons."

"Foolish move, boy!" Snake Man laughed. "Underestimating Snake Man will be your last mistake! Go, my pretties!" Raising both hands, he created a pair of Search Snakes which immediately began crawling towards their target. Undaunted, Mega Man fired off a Magnet Missile. It flew straight out and crashed into a wall. Snake Man emitted some hissing laughter.

"Fool! Serpos are immune to such seeking devices!"

"Well, isn't THAT nice." Mega Man growled, switching to the Shadow Blade. Those Search Snakes were getting close; he fired off a pair at them. The first snake was hit and sliced neatly in half, but the second one dodged and launched itself at Mega, latching onto his leg with the force of a bear trap. Yelping, Mega created another Blade and sliced the body off. This would prevent any further damage, but the jaws were still attached, making it painful to move that leg. Snake Man snickered and created another pair, then launched himself at the blue robot, jaws gaping. Mega smiled and jumped over him, firing several Shadow Blades. The good news was they slammed into Snake Man's back and head; direct hits. The bad news was they didn't seem to do much damage, not penetrating the layers of metal scales. The really bad news was that the path of his jump landed him right on top of the two Search Snakes, which proceeded to attack his feet. Growling, he decapitated them both with another Shadow Blade, then threw it at Snake Man, but the damage was done: he couldn't walk. His enemy deflected the blade with his arm, which landed next to Break Man. The red robot glanced down at it for a moment, then began whistling a funeral march.

"Shut up, you." Mega Man snapped. Snake Man laughed.

"Don't worry, Mega Man, that fool will be next. After I kill you and allow my little babies to feast on your remains, that is. Any last words?"

"Yeah." Mega Man looked up and smiled grimly as he changed to the brown and white colors of the Needle Cannon, satisfied at the look of surprise and horror on his reptilian enemy's face. "I'm not dead yet." Snake Man screamed and writhed as a shower of Needle Bullets fell upon him, piercing his scales through to the delicate circuitry. With a howl of rage, he flung himself forward towards Mega Man, ignoring the repeated damage being done to him.

"You've... discovered my... weakness... but you'll never... live to... tell about it!" Snake Man choked, coughing up a glob of liquid as he pinned his enemy. Clearly, he was already dying. "We shall die together... as I self-destruct! Now, DIE!" Mega Man cringed and shut his eyes, preparing for the fiery destruction... but none came. Slowly, he opened his eyes again to see a headless stump.

"A cowardly attack like that has no part in our bet." Break Man growled,dropping the Shadow Blade which had landed near him and kicking Snake Man's decapitated head. "You beat him. The Crystals are yours."

"I'd really love to, but I can't walk." Mega Man chuckled. His one-eyed rival groaned.

"Lord, do I have to do everything around here?" He picked up a box of green energen crystals from a corner and dumped them next to the inert blue hero. "Looks like there's some extras. Hope you don't mind."

"Not at all." Mega Man smiled. "Just a sec while I grab this bum's power." Reaching up with his good arm, he pocketed the Weapons chip in Snake Man's chest. When he looked back to Break Man, the red robot had Snake Man's head tucked under one arm.

"Think I'll keep this as a souvenier. I hope you can teleport by yourself, at least."

"Yeah."

"Then I'm outta here. See you on the moon!" Waving, the red robot teleported out, followed by Mega Man doing the same.