Chapter 13: True Motives
"You realize, of course, that you should never take things at face value concerning Maverick Uprisings. Or anything else, for that matter. When I first came to this place, I did not know that. Back then, I believed that whatever my superiors at the GDC said was correct. It eventually took a beating by Zero Omega to start me on the path to change. People often hide their true motives, their true reasons... and the more evil the person, the more hidden their secrets are..." -Signas, Commander of the Maverick Hunters following the death of Dr. James Cain, addressing new recruits at a general assembly before the Eighth Maverick Uprising
"Well, nothing in there..." Mega Man sighed, walking out of the second of the pointed corner towers, left of the one that he had fought The Cage in. Walking along the walltops was by no means a pleasure stroll. They were every bit as guarded as the rest of the castle, and there was the added of danger of falling off. A hundred-foot fall would be a severe threat to even a Robot Master. And there were still two more towers to check for the way onward. "The logical choice would be the one farthest away from where I came out... but Cossack's not like Wily in that regard. He likes to gamble. So who knows, and there's only one way to find out..." He set off again, jumping across gaps in the walltop that held steep ramps below that culminated in a long drop. Those were most definitely to be avoided. The tiny mobile cattle prods circling ledges and the armored plasma cannons stationed on them didn't help matters either. About the only good thing was, he was able to get some of his Drill Bomb energy refilled from the remains. At the end of the road, a huge road-paving robot awaited him, but he saw it coming easily, and it made a big target to be taken out from a distance. Stepping over the slagged hulk, Mega climbed the ladder up the side of the third tower and frowned. Betweeen him and the next ladder were two small ledges, each with a razor-bladed Gabyool robot that was immune to most of his weapons. Mega thought for a moment, then smiled.
"Bet I know what'll wash you away." A few doses of the Rain Flush melted both Gabyools away, and the blue hero was able to cross with ease. A moment later, he was looking inside the tower. Aside from a rather large missile battery, there was nothing inside. "Yup. It's in the one to the right of where I started... figures. Freakin' Cossack." Jumping back down to the walltop, he set off again, as the sun began to set. "I've been here for a while... it'll be night soon. Better hurry... the last thing I need is to arrive at my appointment needing sleep." He frowned; this walltop was almost entirely missing. "The hell? How do you cross here?" As if on cue, a shiny golden block materialized, hovering in the air above him. Mega stared. "Wily's disappearing block technology?! No, wait... this thing isn't going away. It's just sitting there, and... slowly rising? Dammit!" Without further ado, he jumped onto the block, which instantly began to sink under his weight. However, another one appeared a little further on, and he leaped to it. The first block, freed of his weight, shot off into the sky even as a third block appeared. In this manner, he made his way across to the fourth tower. There were airborne robots running-flying? Interference, of course, but they were easily shot down.
"Well, here I am..." He grunted, jumping off the last block and into the short tunnel before the entrance. There was a metal shutter at the end. "Aw, no... does this mean Cossack expected me to come this way, all the way around? Great... wait, if I had gone right to start, would I have even been able to get in? Probably not... so it's just as well I went around. Might as well get down to business, I suppose..." He walked in. The room in front of him had three ledges connecting the two side walls, one up against each of the other walls and one in between. The floor below was covered with deadly spikes. "Oh, this looks fun. Hm? Strangely, there were two more metal shutters on the wall opposite him. One at the top and one at the bottom. "What, is this some kind of 'choose your fortress guardian' thing? Yow!" He leaped forward as the part of the ledge he was standing on connecting it to the entrance collapsed onto the spikes. A moment later, the upper shutter opened, and a robot emerged. "Guess not..." It was vaguely insectoid, with two spindly legs holding up a spherical body. It had one red eye, and three plasma cannons on top. And it was walking on the ceiling quite easily.
"Did you have fun on the walls, Mega Man?" Dr. Cossack laughed over the speaker. The blue hero growled.
"Bite me."
"I take it that's a no. Oh well... at any rate, here are the last of my Fortress Guardians. I have dubbed them the Skeeters. Once you defeat them, you'll have a clear path to me... if you choose the right path, that is..." The speaker died, and the Skeeter sprang to life. Crawling across the roof until it was above Mega, it began firing plasma bullets straight down from the cannon on top of its body. Jumping to another platform, Mega began responding with plasma of his own. The Skeeter immediately switched to the two cannons on the sides of the first, firing down at him diagonally. Mega was forced to move again, and now the Skeeter was suddenly in motion, moving at him at double its previous velocity to try and slam into him while he was airborne near the ceiling. Mega hastily activated his Skull Barrier, but the Skeeter plowed through it like a charging bull through a glass window and knocked him to the edge of the ledge, just a breath away from falling onto the deadly spikes below. Rolling away to avoid the plasma, Mega nailed it with a fully charged Pharaoh Shot. The Skeeter, unfazed, fired at him from above again.
"Well, it can't work on everything... try some of this, then!" Pulling out a pair of Ring Boomerangs, Mega flung them both at the Skeeter's eyeball. They scraped up against it with a horrendous screeching, then broke through, raining crystal fragments. "And now, to finish this!" Leaping up, Mega fired a Drill Bomb into the socket, point blank. The Skeeter continued moving for a moment after the explosion... then, with a clatter, the feet detached from the ceiling and it fell onto the spikes. Mega smiled. "That was almost too easy... wait a second..." His smile disappeared. "Cossack said Skeeters, plural..." He spun around as the metal shutter below the one the Skeeter had emerged from opened as well... and another Skeeter came out, walking from spike-tip to spike-tip as if they were normal stepping stones. "Crud. It WAS too easy." The second Skeeter looked like an upgraded model; there were FOUR plasma cannons positioned around the sides of the top, and the one in the center had been replaced by a nasty-looking focusing crystal. "Oh, I don't like the looks of that... better take this one out quick. Ring Boomerangs and Drill Bombs seem to work well..." He immediately launched one of the latter at the robot, but the Skeeter put on a bust of speed, reached a wall... and immediately began walking up IT. Mega stared for a moment before it attacked with all four side cannons at once, bringing him back to his senses. Leaping towards another platform, both to dodge the fire and to get closer to his opponent, Mega threw two Ring Boomerangs, this time trying to slice through the weaker-looking legs. The Boomerangs struck sparks, but did not cut through. Beeping, the Skeeter moved up onto the ceiling, crossed it, then started down the opposite wall. Mega immediately leaped towards it... then tried to stop too late as he saw the focusing crystal power up. A moment later, a huge plasma blast smashed into him, knocking him back.
"Ugh... now I know what it feels like to get hit with one of my own charged shots..." Wincing, he got back to his feet and quickly through a Ring Boomerang at the Skeeter's eye. Too late; it was already back on the spikes below, using its side cannons again. Mega dodged and waited. The moment the Skeeter stepped onto the wall again, its eye was assaulted by a pair of the razor rings. Like its brother, its eye held fast for a moment, then shattered. "Gotcha! Game over, bug!" Mega triumphantly fired a Drill Bomb even as it fired its high-powered plasma blast one last time. The explosion as they met knocked Mega onto his rear. "Ow! I'm getting real tired of this happening..." When he looked up, all that remained of the Skeeter was a pair of legs still clinging to the wall and a pile of scrap below. Mega sighed and turned towards the shutters they had come in through. "High or low... which way do I go? The high path will probably take me to that huge center tower... and the low path down into the fortress depths. Where will Cossack be? No use using logic... he doesn't follow it in any sane way. Where would Wily be, then..." A moment later, he was hanging from the ceiling by his Wire and swinging towards the lower shutter. "If I'm right... I'm almost there. Just wait a little longer, Cossack... in a few minutes, we can sort this whole mess out between us for good."
"The snow's stopped..." The girl noticed as she came awake. "It's calm out... more peaceful... the skies are clear..."
"Yeah, it's a lot nicer." Proto Man agreed. "It's getting late, though... almost nighttime. It'll get colder then."
"But at least it won't be as cold as a night blizzard... right?" The girl smiled a bit impishly. Proto laughed.
"Very true, very true. You've got me there, missy... which means you've been hanging out with me for too long. That's what my sister would say if she was here, at least..."
"You have a... sister?" The girl blinked, slightly surprised. Proto nodded, surprised in turn, but he kept walking.
"Yeah... I haven't told you about her?"
"No... I knew Mega Man... Rock... was your brother... but I didn't know you had a sister too. What's... her name?"
"My sister's name is Roll." Proto told her. "She's younger than me too... actually, both her and Rock were activated at about the same time. Dad claims to have forgotten who was a few minutes or so ahead of the other... I think it was intentional to avoid likely squabbles if it ever game out." The girl thought about this for a moment.
"They... fight a lot, then?"
"We all do, all the time." Proto chuckled. "Roll's got a lot of fire in her... hardly a day passed when I was back there that she didn't have some new wisecrack for me and Rock. She doesn't have a buster, but that's probably a good thing... she's dangerous enough as it is. I honestly thought she was going to explode that one time me and Rock got the bright idea to egg and TP her room on Halloween. Not our best move."
"I'll bet..." The girl giggled. "You... sound like kids... my age."
"Oh, really?" Proto turned his head around and gave her an amused smirk. "How old would you say I am, missy?"
"Seventeen... eighteen..." She guessed. Proto laughed.
"I'm flattered... most people say I look around thirteen or fourteen. But they're wrong too. I'm only eight years old... around your age, like you said."
"You... but you're... like an adult!" The girl gasped. Proto's smile disappeared and he sighed.
"Well, to start, I was programmed with a lot of this... I didn't acquire it from infancy, like humans. The rest... spending more than half of your life wandering around the African Congo with no idea where you are, where you're going or if you'll ever get out, and no knowledge of what's happening to your family... it makes you grow up real quick. When I'm at home, with my dad and my brother and sister and dog... and suitcase... I can forget all of that, just relax and be happy with life. Be a kid."
"But when a Rebellion comes along..." The girl realized. Proto nodded, blasting a log out of their way.
"Yeah. When that happens, there's no time for goofing off... that's when I have to use all the experience of those years on my own. Rock's more the gung-ho hero... I'm the spy, the guy who sneaks around behind the scenes to learn what's really going on. That's how I found you, thank whatever gods there are for that... anyways, I think that's the real reason Rock hates Rebellions so much. They break into his peaceful life... as long as one's going on, he can't be a kid. He has to be Mega Man, and only when Mega Man's job is done can he go back to being happy."
"Do... you think I'll... be able to go back to... being a happy kid again?" The girl asked hesitantly. Proto turned his head to her again, smiling reassuringly.
"Don't be silly... of course you will. We're almost there, you know? Look, up ahead. You can see it now on the horizon if you look really hard... granted, sunset isn't exactly the ideal time for a lot of light, but still. In just a few minutes, we'll go in there and work things out between those two, and everything will be all hunky-dory. You might have to spend a couple months getting well, but when those are past, you'll be right as rain. It'll be fine... you'll see."
"But..."
"No buts, missy." Proto interrupted gently. "Now, how are you feeling? How's your head?" The girl thought for a moment.
"Still hot... but not too bad... better than it was before we got the hovervehicle, at least..."
"That's good. Now, once we get there, I'm going to assume that our entrance will cause all hell to break loose. It's probably going to be pretty exciting and all that, but I want you to stay as still as possible, you hear me? You're still in pretty bad shape, no offense, and I do NOT want you making it worse through any sort of physical activity whatsoever. Understand?"
"I'll... try to restrain myself." She flashed him a weary smile. Proto Man nodded back.
"That's my girl. Just take it easy, and I'll handle all the complicated stuff. No sweat. Hmm... and there goes the sun." He remarked as the last vestiges of light disappeared over the horizon. "I always preferred sunset and the night after it to bright daytime for some reason... not sure why, exactly. Programming peculiarity, I suppose. It's a beautiful night out, anyways... but with not so beautiful things happening just up ahead. We'd better get a move on... I can see some slagged sentry robots over there near the place, which means my brother's already inside. No time to waste... now, where did I put it again... know it's around here somewhere..."
"Put what?" The girl asked curiously. Proto grunted.
"We can't follow my brother the long way in... it's called the long way for a reason. It'd take too long, and we don't HAVE too long. But I know there's a shortcut somewh... aha! Here we go! Sorry, but I'm going to have to put you down now... gotta move all this junk away." He stopped in front of what looked like an ordinary snow-covered hill and gently set the girl down on a nearby rock, then began clearing the snow off of the hill as fast as he could.
"Is this shortcut of yours under there?" The girl asked.
"Yuuup. Been hidden here for a while, actually... I'm just glad that none of the robots or the man himself found it here and took it away. Just may be what saves him... let's hope it doesn't get that close, though. Here we go..." Proto finished with the snow, revealing that the "hill" was actually a large tarpaulin covering something... big. Without further ado, he pulled the tarp off. The girl stared.
"What... is THAT?"
"THAT... is our ride, Miss Kalinka."
From the back of one of the corner towers in a castle in northern Russia, a single, small blue figure emerged through a secret door onto a hidden outcropping of the wall. Before him, sunken in the walltop, was a manhole-like ground opening, leading down into who-knows-where. He stopped for a moment and shifted his gaze from the opening ot upward.
"Well, that's it for daytime..." Mega Man muttered, looking up at the night sky. "And it's a full moon out tonight, too... what are the odds? So it's to be a moonlight showdown... seems appropriate, even though there won't be any moonlight where I'm going, so that doesn't really matter... enough talk, Mega. Let's get this finished and done with... then you can talk to yourself." Sighing, he jumped down into the depths of the fortress once more. A pair of plasma cannons immediately greeted him, and were taken out as he moved down further. A gigantic road paver blocked the hall that he dropped down to, and was blasted apart by a Pharaoh Wave. Sliding past a few tiny mobile cattle prods, Mega went back up a level and destroyed a trio of lurking Batontons, then surveyed his options. "Let's see here. There's this ladder going up... or this wall that looks like it can be broken apart with a Drill Bomb. Should I... nah. Probably not. Could be a trap. Better just stick with the straight path." Climbing up the ladder, Mega found himself on the outer, defensive walltop. The whole thing was riddled with pits, and the only safe spots were tiny pillar stepping-stones. Mega shook his head.
"I don't think so. Yo, Rush!" Jetboarding across was a much safer route. Upon reaching the other side, Mega dropped back down into the fortress depths, destroying several metal-mask jetters that tried to block his way. A few narrow pipes patrolled by the tiny mobile cattle prods later, Mega was falling to another floor down. "Cossack's gotta be close." As if on cue to his words, he landed in the final stretch of hallway. A few cycling wheeled skulls were all that seperated him from the metal shutter with Cossack's insignia over it. "Bingo. I made it... you idiots are nothing." Indeed, the skull-bots were removed from the picture quite easily with only a few plasma shots, and the way was laid open. Mega Man walked up to it and stopped. "This is it, then. End of the game. For his sake, Cossack had better be ready..." He drained an E-Tank, returning him to 100% internal operations energy. "Because I sure as hell am. Time to end the Rebellions, once and for all." He entered the room.
"So, you have arrived." The familiar voice rang our of the darkened room. Mega stepped forward.
"Come out and fight, you maniacal madman!"
"As you wish..." From the shadows, a machine emerged. Hanging on a superstrong thick metal cord from the ceiling was a transparent plasteel dome. Below that, a heavily armored base with eight plasma cannons positioned evenly around its sides. At the bottom, a grasping mechanical claw. And inside the dome, holding the controls as he glared down at Mega Man with rage and despair, was Doctor Sergei Cossack. "I am here, little robotic Mega Man."
"Sergei Cossack." Mega glared back. "You have a lot to answer for... little human doctor. You brought back the Robot Rebellions. You plunged this planet into mechanical war once more, when it could have ended for good three years ago. All for your stupid, petty rationale. Do you have anything to say in your defense? Anything at all?"
"I have nothing to say to you, Mega Man." Cossack rasped. "I shall do my talking with this... the Falling Hand."
"Hmph... nothing to say. Very well, then... saves time, at least. I have nothing more to say to YOU, then." He charged his buster. "Only one question. Are you ready to go down?"
"If it comes to pass, than so be it!" The russian robotocist screamed, punching a button. "En guarde! To the death, Mega Man!" Immediately, the Falling Hand lurched into motion, three of the plasma cannons firing at once as the machine blasted forward along a rail in the ceiling it was dangling from. Mega fired back even as he dived to the side to avoid the blasts.
"Wrong... not to the death. To the end of this Rebellion, and of all your threats and nightmares!" Switching to the Drill Bombs, he launched a pair of the deadly piercing explosives. They flew straight at Cossack... and bounced off the plasteel before exploding in the air harmlessly.
"You are not thinking straight, Mega Man." Cossack observed, manuevering the Falling Hand so that it was above his robotic enemy. "Did you honestly believe I would leave myself vulnerable to a weapon I designed myself?"
"One usually doesn't have a choice in the matter." Mega responded, firing a pair of Dive Missiles up into the craft with similar success. "Wily never did, at leAUGH!" He dived to the side mere milliseconds in time as the huge claw on the Falling Hand's underside smashed down where he had been and clamped shut. Mega shuddered; he didn't want to think about what that thing would have done if it had succeeded in catching hold of him.
"Almost got you there, Mega Man." Cossack smiled dimly, trying again. "Keep your focus, or you'll never win..."
"Shut up." Mega snapped, giving him a dose of the Acid Rain, followed by the Flash Stopper. Neither seemed to be effective either. "Just shut up right now. I don't need battle advice from you... I've been through more than you could ever imagine. And you, YOU dump more on me, three years after it all finally ended... and now you have the GALL to try and give me advice?! You should tend to your own business... if you had done that from the start, neither of us would even BE here now!"
"Dwelling on the past will get you nowhere, robot." Cossack sighed heavily, moving the Falling Hand away to fill the air with plasma once more. "I have made my choice. You have made yours. All that remains is to see which one of our choices was the better one. Nothing more."
"Which one of our choices, eh..." Mega stood still, apparently deep in thought for a moment, before lunging forward suddenly, flinging a fully charged Pharaoh Wave. "That's easy, Cossack. My choice was to protect... yours, to harm. It's obvious which one will triumph in the end!" The Pharaoh Wave did no damage, but it was followed up by a pair of Ring Boomerangs, which sliced into the hull. "You see my point? Even this monstrosity can, and will, be destroyed. If you require further proof... just look at both of us! I'm going to bring this Rebellion to a stop forever, here and now... and you... you don't even seem to be caring about this fight!"
"Don't be so sure about your chance, Mega Man!" The russian robotocist reprimended his enemy. "Those stolen Boomerangs barely scratched my hull, and more important, you haven't been watching me! I have you now!" While Mega had been ranting, the Falling Hand had been edging close, until now, when it was right over and the claw was plunging. Mega smiled.
"Don't be so sure yourself." With a blue-white burst of light, the Skull Barrier was activated. This is a big freakin' risk... if this one's ineffective as well, I'm going to be in a lot of pain. Please work, please work, please ARGH!!! It hadn't worked. Punching through the force field, the claw clamped onto Mega Man and retracted, raising him up, before smashing him into the ground with the force of a major league pitcher's fastball. Mega Man slowly pulled himself out of the crater that had been made with his body and drained an E-Tank.
"Okay. Priority number one: No more of THAT." Shaking his head to clear the stars, Mega hopped to the side. "Better stick to my buster... nothing else seemed to work as well!" He fired a charged shot and jumped onto a portion of the ground that was raised higher than the rest. Cossack shrugged and pulled the Falling Hand a few feet closer to the rail above before returning fire with more plasma.
"How many more of those little life preservers to you have, I wonder, little robot? Hmmm?"
"More than enough to take you down, little human." Mega retorted with both words and plasma. Cossack's cannons were numerous, but all they could fire were small shots. They lacked the plasma charging of the focusing crystal on the more advanced Skeeter or Mega's buster. Mega's own fire was slower and only came one at a time, but it was hands-down more powerful and accurate, each one slamming into Cossack's Falling Hand and burning in more damage each time. Slowly but surely, quality was winning out over quantity. Mega Man was winning.
"Perhaps another dose of this, then..." Cossack brought the Falling Hand above Mega once more, but the blue hero slid out of the way of the descending claw, and it only grasped air (and another charged shot).
"Nice try, but I've got your number now." Mega informed his foe as he charged another blast. "Your claw can't catch me, and your plasma can't hurt me... not effectively, at any rate. You can't win this, Cossack. Make this easier on both of us, and give up now. There's no point in continuing."
"Wrong..." Cossack hissed, trying to catch Mega again. "You are wrong. There is EVERY point in this... it is simply that you can not comprehend it."
"Oh, give me a break." Mega rolled his eyes from the other side of the room, where he continued his attack. "Again with the stuff about me knowing nothing. Pharaoh Man said the same kind of thing... and you know what I did to him."
"I do not care what happens to me any more..." Cossack whispered. "I don't care any more. It's all gone away... this war machine is all I have left..." He fired plasma once more, but Mega dodged, an annoyed frown now appearing on the hero's face as he switched to the one Master Weapon he hadn't yet tried on the doctor, the first one he had acquired in this Rebellion.
"What's with you, Cossack?!" Mega shouted angrily, launching a mass of the jamming crud into the claw. "I thought you were mad at the world, mad at me! You think you could try a little harder for 'vengeance!'"
"I see you have learned how to focus the Dust Crusher, Mega Man." Cossack responded bitterly, with no signs of even hearing what Mega had said. "Tell me, did you enjoy taking Dust Man apart? Did you enjoy that act of agression?!"
"I NEVER enjoy this, Cossack!" Mega slid under the next swipe from the damaged claw and fired again. "Do you think I was activated for the first time with thoughts of rampaging, destructive madness running through my mind?! NO! But as far as the world's concerned, I'm the only one around who can stop this crap from happening!" Suddenly, the Fallen Hand plunged downward and succeeded in catching the small blue robot in its pincer a second time. Instead of throwing him to the ground, this time the claw tightened, attempting to squeeze him in half.
"You don't understand..." Cossack whispered at a barely audible level, even as he increased the pressure. "I'm not doing this for pleasure either..."
"So then why ARE you doing this?!" Screaming, Mega Man fell as the Ring Boomerang he threw sliced clean through the weakened claw, severing it entirely. With a mighty thump, the Falling Hand's namesake and its mightiest weapon hit the ground, useless. Cossack closed his eyes.
"I must..."
"Bull..." Mega Man closed his eyes as well and lowered his head for a moment... but when he raised it, there was nothing in his face but the fire of rage. "That's total bolshevik. You always have a choice to commit the actions you're performing... ALWAYS! When Wily died, it was finally over. I was finally FREE of the curse he'd given me... of being this... HERO..." He turned to the Dust Crusher once more, pointing his buster at the frozen craft, locked in place ever since the severance of the claw. "But no, you had to go and take that away from me, you goddamned maniac..." Cossack's eyes flew open in sudden, raw terror.
"Mega Man, no! My craft... if you strike me now, I will die!" That straight fact, and that alone, stopped Mega from firing at the Falling Hand. The shot of Dust Crusher streaked past and hit the wall behind the war machine. Mega stayed there, frozen as well, for several stunned moments before he spoke again.
"Then it seems we're at a stalemate, Cossack. If I fire at you again, you die. At the same token, you can do nothing more to attack me." His eyes still burned, but they held no immediate threat. Cossack nodded shakily, his own eyes barely visible through sweat-covered glasses.
"Then... I suppose we'll end up staring each other down."
With a familiar whistling melody, the ceiling exploded anyways.
"WHAT THE HELL?!" Mega Man and Cossack both screamed simultaneously, staring up at the explosion. A moment later, Melee Moth swooped down through the falling debris, a red and grey armored figure riding on its back.
"I love surplus!" Proto Man announced jubilantly, striking a pose with one hand while keeping firm hold on the Moth's back with the other.
"...Do you know who that is?" Dr. Cossack asked in a deadpan voice, staring at the spectacle. Mega Man nodded without breaking his gaze from the same, and spoke in a monotone that would have done the early twenty-first century game show host Ben Stein proud.
"Yes. That is my brother."
"I see." Cossack nodded back. Proto Man took in the situation and immediately signalled Melee Moth to stop, all humor instantly fading from his face, replaced by an incredible amount of weariness and relief.
"Man... got here just in time, I see. Good thing we took this thing... never would have got here if we had come in the straight way."
"We?" Mega blinked. For the first time, he saw that something-someone?-else was clinging tightly to Proto Man's chest, held safely between him and the Moth. She tugged on his scarf as the elder Robot Master nodded.
"Yeah, bro. We. Cossack... stand down. I've got your kid... Kalinka's no longer under his control." Cossack's eyes widened and filled with tears, hands sliding away from the controls.
"Ka... Kalinka?" The small human girl with Proto Man looked back, crying, as he jumped down to the ground and set her on her feet.
"Father?" Mega looked back and forth between them several times before losing it.
"Does ANYBODY want to tell me what the HELL is going ON HERE?!" He looked carefully at his brother and choked; wounds from heated battle lined his torso everywhere. "My god, what happened?!"
"Simple, bro." Proto sighed, slumping down onto his rear. "Cossack here was right about what he said. He DID have no choice but to call you in. He was under... orders... to do so... and being blackmailed to do so. By means of this pretty little package here... Kalinka Cossack, daughter of Kalinka Romanov and Sergei Cossack. His only daughter." Kalinka suddenly took in the situation as well, and she turned to Mega Man with a heartwrenching cry.
"Don't hurt my father!" Mega was too stunned by this sudden revelation to remind her that he couldn't; he simply stepped away, returning to his normal colors. Popping open the plasteel dome, Cossack pulled himself free of the Falling Hand and dived to the ground, openly sobbing as he pulled his daughter into an embrace that looked as if he would never let go. Looking at them more closely, Mega almost had a processor attack at Kalinka's condition. Dull, pale, thin, malnourished... she looked like a corpse already. Where she had found the strength to survive... Mega Man could not know. Noticing his brother's face, Proto Man nodded, clenching his fist and his teeth grimly.
"Yeah... we're just lucky your daughter has a lot of spirit, Cossack... that was all that's got her here now. I can't believe the conditions she was being kept in... it's inhuman... not even dogs deserved the torture she got."
"Is this true, Kalinka?" Cossack weeped. Kalinka looked into his eyes for a moment, then turned her head to her savior.
"No, father... he was wrong about what kept me alive. It wasn't my spirit... it was him. Blues saved my life, father... he saved it a million times over and risked his own every second of it. He is why I live... why we are here... oh, daddy... daddy..." And then she could say no more through her tears.
"But..." Mega Man finally erked out some words through his shock, his disbelief at finding that Dr. Cossack had been manipulated all along. "But then... that... but who... who did this..."
"Who..." Cossack murmured. His head came up from his daughter's shoulder and stared straight into Mega Man's eyes, into his soul, with bitter hatred that was not for him. "Who did this, you ask? The man who you failed to destroy at the end of the Third Robot Rebellion." It was then... at that precise moment... that Mega Man knew. Knew, beyond all doubt, beyond all denial, who it was, even though it defied everything he had believed for three years. He already knew, even as he turned around... even as a teleportation beam streaked through the hole in the roof, even as it hit the ground and formed into a human shape that Mega had thought was gone forever.
Dirty labcoat over brown slacks. Thin, gaunt frame. Wild white hair that Albert Einstein at his worst couldn't match splitting around a bald dome, with an equally wild mustache below. Sunken, insanity-filled eyes and a twisted scowl.
WILY.
"So you have betrayed me, Break Man!" Dr. Albert Wily, the maniac who had tried to conquer the world thrice before, spat. "Damned Advanced Robot Master... I should have known you would ruin everything! Pity that I never killed you when you first came to me!"
"Pity that WE can't kill you right now." Proto Man responded. "You deserve it a hundredfold. Consider yourself lucky that we ARE Advanced Robot Masters... because if it weren't for the First Law, I would blow a hole through your chest right this instant."
"Big words coming from a machine!" Wily laughed at this threat before turning to Mega Man. "Hello, Rock! Surprised to see me, after all this time?"
"You..." Mega Man growled, face twisting in undescribable fury. "You're alive... you lived... YOU did all this..."
"I know! It was a good piece of work, don't you think?" Wily cackled nonchalantly as if talking about a new robot design. "I loved how it turned out! The only flaw was at the end... but oh well, nothing's perfect!"
"You... you..." Words now failing him, Mega began to stalk towards the despised doctor, then suddenly ground to a halt as the First Law flashed across his vision in glowing red. Wily shrugged, the smile not leaving his face for an instant.
"Oops! Forgot something there, did you? You're still a robot, Mega Man! No matter what I do, who I BREAK..." He glanced over at Kalinka, who was now standing alone, staring at him in total terror. "You can't lay one finger on me. I've got another Skull Fortress for you, though! I'm sure your traitorous brother there will tell you where it is... but remember, even if you get to me... you can't hurt me. Makes the whole thing rather one-sided, don't you think? You can't hurt me... but I'm going to break YOU next, Mega Man!"
"He is quite correct." Another voice, with a thick russian accent, agreed. "You cannot hurt him, Mega Man... however, one thing seems to have escaped your notice, Albert." Dr. Wily turned around in surprise to see the speaker standing right behind him... and Dr. Sergei Cossack delivered an uppercut that would have knocked out an ox. "I. AM. NOT. A. ROBOT." Wily went flying, blood streaming freely from his nose, and with a scream of pure, feral hatred, Dr. Cossack dived upon him, murder written on his face. He didn't give the madman a single second of quarter; immediately, he began smashing Wily's head against the ground. After two impacts, the older man's fist snapped up and knocked Cossack away for a moment. A moment, no more; without any time for recoil, Cossack returned the blow, and they tumbled across the ground, bashing on each other in the oldest style of fighting known to man.
"Whoa!" Blues started to get up, driven by the first law, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. The red-armored robot looked up into his younger brother's eyes.
"No... let them go. Cossack deserves this..." Mega Man watched the two doctors grapple at each other with no emotion at all showing on his face. He was like a statue. "And besides... look at how they are. We wouldn't be able to pull them apart without doing damage to them ourselves... and with our robot strength, likely we'd have to hurt them more than they're hurting each other. That keeps the First Law off our backs." Blues stared at him for a moment longer before nodding and looking back to the fight.
"You... think... you can beat... ACK!" Wily's speech broke off as Cossack kicked him in the stomach. The younger man bared his teeth in a savage grin.
"I don't think, maniac... I KNOW." He followed the kick with an elbow to Wily's back, then spun away as Wily's fist smashed into his chin. Over in the corner, Kalinka Cossack watched, her face no longer showing terror, but determination every bit as savage as her father's.
"Get him, daddy..." She whispered as she watched her tormenter, the man who had sentenced her to a slow, tortuous demise, being mercilessly beaten to a bloody pulp before her eyes.
"Should we..." Blues started to say, the First Law starting to pop up again despite his brother's reasoning, but Mega waved him down.
"No. Cossack's got it under control. Look for yourself." Indeed, the tide of the fight was turning. Right at first, after he had recovered from the surprise assault, Wily had given as good as he had got with fists, feet and even teeth, the weakness of his advanced age balanced by the effects of Cossack's fight with Mega Man. His sheer insanity had offset Cossack's raw rage at first... but as the minutes dragged on and both men's injuries became more and more numerous, Wily began to tire... but Cossack showed no signs of faltering. Indeed, he seemed to grow only more infuriated with every drop of Wily's blood that he spilled. Growing desperate, the older man got a hand free and pulled a handgun from his labcoat pocket, but Cossack seized his wrist, threw Wily bodily to the floor, and pounded the appendage against the ground until the madman's fingers could not grip it any more. With one kick, Cossack sent the gun spinning away.
"You forced me to start this Rebellion..." Dr. Cossack whispered, pulling the despised maniac to his feet. "You made me your puppet..." He forced their heads together in a headbutt with a sickening crack. "You kidnapped my daughter..." His glasses fell to the floor, revealing bloodshot eyes focused in singular hatred of the man before him. "You almost killed my daughter..." His hands snapped around Wily's neck. "I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Teeth bared, he tightened his hold around the madman's throat. Wily's own hands grabbed Cossack's arms and tried with the strength of one in fear of his very life to pull them off, but it was to no avail; the younger, stronger man was forcing every last ounce of power his muscles possessed into throttling Wily, into killing him. This was too much for Proto Man; no matter how much he tried to resist it, he was forced to his feet, and with a sigh, Mega joined him. But as they began walking forward to stop the fight, their eyes suddenly saw something that made them run instead. Wily's left hand had let go and thrust into his other labcoat pocket, pulling out a device that Mega Man and Proto Man both recognized all too well. A teleporter.
"NOW!" Darting forward, Mega and Proto each grabbed one of Cossack's arms and pulled him off. A moment later, Wily vanished, streaming into the sky once more. Had the Robot Masters not grabbed Cossack, he would have been caught in the blast, his brain scrambled like Wily's... but he fell to his knees nonetheless and released a wail that shook the heavens.
"NOOOOOOO!!!!" And then he slumped forward, crying anew, a broken man who had been denied even his vengeance upon the madman who had ruined his life. Kalinka ran to him, and he remained there, silently sobbing into her hair. Proto Man just looked at them, his eyes filled with sorrow as well behind the shades. And Mega Man... his gaze was skyward, following the teleportation until it disappeared, hands clenching and unclenching spasmodically.
WILY.
