Peter Lorre, huh? Interesting.

I'm sorry for the lack of corniness; that was something that bugged the living crap outta me in the shows, so I removed it. (If you actually want 'dah corn', you might as well stop reading now. There are no puns or stupid jokes whatsoever in this story.)

And don't worry—another -Man will enter Rock's life...

...Eheheheh...don't worry, that's the only bad pun you'll ever see here...Promise!

Chapter Four

Protoman sighed as he walked up to his bedroom. It had taken hours, but finally every single Robot Master was repaired, rebooted, and already outside to wreck havoc with Dr. Wily. Well, now all he had to do was check on the twerp and then—

"Uh…Rock?" he asked as he stepped into his room. "Where are you?"

There were very few places to hide in his room, and one clean sweep told him Mega Man definitely wasn't here.

Proto swore under his breath and walked back into the corridor. "The idiot went outside, when I specifically told him…"

"STOP IIIIITTT!!" shrieked a familiar voice suddenly. Proto's eyes widened and he raced down the hall.

"Rock? ROCK! Where are you?!"

"STOOOOPPP!!!" the voice screamed again, and Proto ran even faster.

"Shut him up!" he heard someone say as he entered a garage. "Or else Protoman—"

"Protoman will what?" said Proto very, very quietly behind the two Robot Masters.

Mega whimpered as he stared in Proto's direction, his eyes wide and filled with pain. "P-Proto…I—I tried…"

"We—he was—he wandered down here, was all. We was trying to get him out and he was yellin' 'cause—'cause we was hurting him by accident," Guts Man mumbled.

Protoman stared coldly at the two, and both started shuffling their feet.

"Get out of here," he said very softly.

Both Robot Masters nodded feverishly and stumbled out of the garage, giving Proto a wide berth as though he would attack them at any minute. In truth, Proto was seriously contemplating it, and wondered if he should just turn around and blow them both to pieces right now. Mega Man was his responsibility.

"Big brother…" whispered a soft voice. Proto stopped looking in the two Robot Masters' direction and looked down.

Rock was draped over a couple of boxes, several new scratches and scrapes added to his face and body. He was also clutching his bad arm tightly, and Protoman could see that his left leg was bent at an odd and rather painful angle. Proto swore in German and scooped his little brother up.

"I told you not to go outside, twerp," he scolded as he carried Rock back upstairs.

"I—I didn't. They came in." Rock cocked his head as Proto started swearing in German yet again.

"What do those words mean?" he asked, and repeated a few of them softly.

"Ah…nothing you should know. And don't say them again, okay?"

"Okay."

"All right…well, I'm gonna take you up to the lab and repair you again."

"Will Dr. Wily help too?"

I doubt it, Proto thought to himself. It's bad enough to him that he's letting you live here.

"Mmm…maybe."

Proto carefully carried Rock up to a spare lab, and after making sure his brother was unconscious got back to work.

#######

Rock woke up in Proto's room, and found himself lying on his brother's cot.

"How ya feelin', Rock?" said Proto almost cheerfully. Rock moved his bad arm and leg and grinned. Before, they stung even if he just bent the limbs. Now they didn't hurt at all—all he felt was a slight itch.

"A lot better!"

"Good. I did some extra repair work, so it shouldn't hurt so much now."

"Yeah, it doesn't." Rock listened to his brother as he shifted around furniture, and cocked his head.

"What are you doing?"

"Arranging the furniture in my new room," came the cheerful answer. "Got some good stuff in a raid. And don't worry about the Robot Masters; I gave them some very specific orders not to hurt you."

"Really? Thanks!"

"No prob."

However, Rock noticed that Proto had stopped moving the furniture around. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"N...nothing. Just realized something, that's all."

"What?"

"I said nothing, Rock."

"O-oh. Okay."

Proto sighed and continued shifting the furniture, finally deciding on where to put his bed. He then moved on to his desk.

Rock sighed. "I wish I could help," he said softly. "I feel so…useless right now."

"Don't worry, we'll find use for you soon enough."

For a while the room was silent.

"Rock," said Proto suddenly, "I want to warn you about something."

"Warn me?" he asked, cocking his head.

"Yeah." Proto cleared his throat. "You'll probably hear people talk about a man named Dr. Light and a female robot named Roll soon on the news."

"Those names sound familiar…"

"That's because they work against us," said Proto quickly. "You need to remember this, Rock. If Dr. Light ever gets his hands on you, he'll destroy you. He hates us."

"Hates us? Why?"

"Because…because he didn't manage to capture us."

"What do you mean?"

"See, Roll is actually our sister. Dr. Wily built us, and Dr. Light was his assistant. Then one day Dr. Light went crazy and tried to kidnap us all to use us in an evil plan. You and I managed to escape, but he captured Roll."

"That's horrible! Can we rescue her?"

"No, it's too late. He's turned her into…a warrior 'bot, you see. You must stay away from both of them. Both would destroy or capture you on sight. Understand?"

Rock shivered. "Definitely, Proto. You won't need to worry about me."

"Good." There was an undertone Rock couldn't quite catch…a feeling of hope mixed with bitterness…but then the impression was gone as the desk moved to the left with a loud scrrak.