Ignore Drill Man's lack of a weird personality. I never saw him in the shows and besides, two corny Robot Masters are more than enough for me, thank you very much.
Chapter Nine
"Where're these stupid weapons supposed to be?" Proto snapped at Guts Man after he landed. Guts Man shrugged.
"That's why Dr. Wily wanted you to come. Cut Man and me can't find any!"
"Then why are we here?! There must be none if you can't find them!"
"No," said a new voice. Drill Man stood behind them, arms—drills?—crossed. "There is an unknown energy source here, but no one can locate it." One of Drill Man's drills whirled impatiently.
"Hmph. So the old man wants me to look for it. Figures." Proto turned to Rock. "Listen, you stay by the helicopter, okay? These idiots couldn't find their noses in a mirror, so I have to find it for them. This'll probably only take a few minutes." Smirking, Proto walked off, an irritated Drill Man following him.
Rock sighed and settled down into the helicopter's chair. He was just closing his eyes for a nap when he felt a huge hand grab his good arm and another cover his mouth. He tried to scream, but only managed to make a few muffled cries. Proto must be too far away to notice! he thought, panicked. He tried to scream again, tried to bite his captor, tried anything, but he simply could not get the arms to budge.
"Where should I put 'im, Cut Man?" snickered a horribly familiar voice. Oh, no, Rock thought. Guts Man again—
"I saw a nice place to…drop him off," said Cut Man, sniggering. "And it won't be our fault the dweeb walked off a cliff..."
As soon as he heard that he tried to scream for help, but no one heard him through Guts Man's hand. He was helpless.
Rock could hear Guts Man's and Cut Man's feet crunching on the gritty sand as they walked and felt a cold sea breeze. They were near the cliff mentioned now—Rock could hear the waves crashing below. Oh no, please, no!
"We should gag him," said a new voice. Rock tried to place it, and realized with horror that it was Drill Man.
"Good idea." Rock felt a strip of cloth being torn from his tee shirt just as Guts Man lifted his heavy hand from Rock's mouth. Rock opened wide to scream, but the wad of cloth was stuffed inside before he could make a sound. He whimpered as he felt the cool breeze again and the crashing of the waves grew louder. Guts Man held him by the head over the cliff, and snickered.
"Oops, I dropped him!" cried Guts Man as he let Rock go.
Rock tried to grab the cliff's wall as he fell, but couldn't get a purchase on any of the crags. The smooth sandstone was too smooth—there were no handholds for him to grab, nothing that would save—
Suddenly, his hand caught a ledge of sandstone. Rock grabbed with the other hand and realized it was an entrance to a small cave. Without a second thought he yanked the rest of himself in while the three Robot Masters above him shouted in fury.
"Someone go get him!" yelled Cut Man. Rock crawled further back into the cave and found it got deeper and deeper. Maybe—
He heard a drill roar above him, and involuntarily gasped, nearly choking on his gag. As he crawled he spat the rag out, then realized he was at the end of the cave, that he could go no further—
The drilling grew louder, and Rock knew Drill Man would be here soon with more direct methods of destruction. Panicking, he buried himself into the back of the wall, hoping, praying Proto would come in time—
Then his left arm burned.
It was a pain he'd never felt before. It was like his hand was trying to change, to morph, and there were gears stuck in the middle.
Rock moaned as the pain grew more and more intense, and with a loud scraping of metal his hand pulled itself into his arm to form a hollow hole. Rock had no idea what was going on—he only knew that now his left arm hurt even more, that an unbearable heat was growing, charging, ready to blast out at any moment…
"GOTCHA!" yelled Drill Man, dropping into his sanctuary. "Now you'll—"
But he never finished his sentence. Rock's arm exploded in sheer pain as a hot jet of—of—something—blasted out of the hole where his hand used to be. Drill Man fell backwards out of the entrance of the cave and down to the crashing waves below. The backlash from the blast knocked Rock backward, straight into the wall of the cave, which gave in under the force, and Rock fell down a new tunnel, screaming—