Rockman vs the Transformers
"Man, today of all days . . . "
Rockman rounded another corner, leaning into the turn to take it sharper on the Rush Cycle. This chase had been going on for a while now, since Turboman refused to slow down for anything. He had turned into his miniature car form almost as soon as he saw Rockman, and was making his getaway with a bag, no doubt full of stolen goods.
People jumped aside as Turboman and Rockman roared past, the latter doing his best to avoid crowds on his dog-turned motorcycle. Turboman took the opportunity a red light presented and shifted from the sidewalk and onto the busy street of Monsteropolis.
Rockman was forced to follow along side the Wily bot on the sidewalk, keeping hasty track of Turboman with quick glance in between cars while avoiding more people. This kept up for a few dozen blocks before Turboman disappeared from sight. Rockman cursed and wheeled around to find his quarry.
Turboman rocketed into a rather packed parking lot and, once he felt himself well hidden, turned back into his robot mode and looked inside the bag to insure that the contents hadn't been damaged.
He sighed. "Well, the apples will never be the same again, and the bread got a little squashed, but the eggs are okay," he thought. Why was it that no matter what he did, even if it was nice and law abiding, Rockman always assumed the worst. The blue hero probably though it was full of diamonds or something.
"This is why I hate doing grocery shopping," Turboman muttered.
The roar of a motorcycle engine brought him back to the moment, and he slowly stood up to look over the yellow car he was hiding behind. Sure enough, there was Rockman, looking around in the parking lot, his dratted dog idling beneath him.
Turboman crouched low again, barely able to see Rockman. "Why can't he just go AWAY?" Turboman hissed.
After what seemed like an eternity, Rockman left the parking lot, and Turboman breathed a sigh of relief. He sat down again and started sorting through the apples, discarding the ones that were really damaged and keeping the ones that looked like apples.
Suddenly the roar of the engine returned and Turboman looked up. Rockman was above him, having jumped the Rush Cycle off the yellow car. Rockman glared down at Turboman, who barely had enough time to transform and speed away before the inevitable plasma bolt slammed into the ground where he'd been sitting.
Turboman was two blocks away before he realized he'd forgotten the groceries, but he didn't feel like going back for them. Rockman had no doubt searched through the bag already and taken it back to the store.
It was a typical day in the life of a Wily bot, really.
Back in the parking lot, however, after Rockman was long gone, a voice spoke up.
"You okay, Bumblebee?"
There was a silence before a reply came.
"I have tire tracks on my hood, don't I?"
"Yeah."
"Son of a-"
"Did you see that other guy? The one who turned into the car?"
"You're saying that like it's something new and different, Wheeljack. We ALL turn into cars."
"No, no, I mean that he wasn't an Autobot OR a Decepticon. He was a native of this planet!"
There was another silence.
"So?" Bumblebee asked.
This got a frustrated sigh from Wheeljack. "So, if the beings that live here are capable of creating that kind of technology, imagine what else they can do!"
"Build toasters?"
"Hot Rod, bear with me, okay?" Wheeljack asked. "If we made some allies on this planet, they could help us rebuild the Ark!"
"So we could go home?" Hot Rod asked.
"Yes!"
There was another contemplative silence.
"And leave the Decepticons here to run amok?" Bumblebee asked. "Totally unopposed?"
"Er . . . Yes," Wheeljack admitted.
"Optimus wouldn't like that," Hot Rod said.
"Right," Wheeljack sighed. "We'll deal with the Decepticons first, THEN get some help to rebuild the Ark."
"Well, maybe we can get some help against the Decepticons too," Bumblebee said. "You saw the little blue guy. He was packing some major firepower."
"Yeah, but we don't know anything about him," Hot Rod said. "He could be the kind of morally bankrupt person Megatron likes. We have to find out more."
"Well, whatever we do, we have to report back to Optimus first," Wheeljack told them.
"Right," they answered.
A few minutes later found the yellow car, a white race car, and a stylish red car leaving the parking lot and heading north. Each vehicle bore the same symbol, that of a red, robotic face, somewhere on it.
In the meantime, a bunch of large robots with purple, angular symbols were generally beating up on Forte and the robot masters.
Forte had gone down first, stunned by both the lights and the size of the machine before him, Megatron had simply swept Forte aside with one hand, the black robot flying through the air and into the wall next to the hole with a painful clang. Flameman was pouring out fire to try and keep the behemoths at bay while Iceman and Cutman dragged the unconscious Forte out of the hole in the wall.
"We're NOT equipped to deal with this!" Iceman shouted over the roar of the flames.
"What was your first clue?" Yamatoman shouted back, placing himself between the injured robot and Flameman. "Where did Shadowman go?"
"Probably ran away," Cutman grunted, picking up Forte's legs. Working with Iceman, they managed to get him out of the hole and back into the cave. Iceman stood over Forte, and activated his built in Wily Band radio.
"Iceman to Skull Fortress, Iceman to Skull Fortress," he said, talking quieter now that the flames were muffled. "We have come under attack by an unidentified enemy inside the cave. Request the immediate assistance of a retrieval team and a general combat alert at Skull Fortress!"
While Iceman radioed for help, Flameman and Yamatoman backed toward the hole. The flames seemed to keep the large robots at bay, but Flameman was running out of fuel, and they had to leave quickly.
Cutman and Iceman began dragging Forte out of the cave as Flameman's fire died out. There was a momentary silence before the sound of warming laser cannons filled the room. Yamatoman grabbed Flameman and leapt through the hole with the silent robot before the laser beams turned the floor they'd been standing on to molten metal.
Shadowman, on the other hand, had managed to sneak past the initial group of enemies and was deep into what seemed to be a ship of some kind. He watched a few of the large robots move around below him as he clung to the ceiling.
"If the old coot wants the place investigated, that's what he gets . . . "Shadowman muttered. "Gives me the perfect excuse to LIVE for a few more minutes . . . "
Shadowman slipped into a large room (every room here was large to him) and managed to hide in the shadows as another robot walked by. Unlike some of the other giants Shadowman had seen, this one struck him as different somehow. While the others ran around preparing for combat, THIS one seemed calm, even jovial. He was cackling to himself, saying something about how his time had come . . .
A familiar, booming voice almost made Shadowman lose his grip on the ceiling. "Starscream, where ARE YOU?"
"Coming, oh mighty Megatron!" Starscream cried in an all-to-obvious mocking tone. Shadowman could understand a little why he might be disrespectful, since the ninja had to take orders from the brash, showy, and above all incompetent Forte.
As the robot identified as Starscream left, Shadowman looked around. He was now alone in what seemed like a computer room of some sort. Smiling to himself, he let go of the ceiling and landed softly on the floor, cracking his knuckles. It was time to do what he did best: Gather information.
Megatron, meanwhile, was shouting orders.
"Soundwave, deploy your team. They can fit through that hole, and I want those little beings captured!" Megatron raged. Soundwave, his loyal second-in-command and all around silent type complied. Soundwave transformed into his stereo configuration and unleashed six tapes, each one turning into a different robot.
"Frenzy . . . Rumble . . . Ravage . . . Pursue and capture . . . designated objective," Soundwave intoned. "Laserbeak . . . Scout immediate outside area . . ."
Two humanoid robots rushed out of the hole followed close by a black panther robot and a bird. Another bird and a larger humanoid robot were left behind. "What about us, Soundwave?" Squawktalk asked.
"Form . . . Squawkbox . . . and gather the . . . Constructicons."
Megatron laughed. "Devastator can dig us out of this pit and we can get to work finding some energon." He turned as Starscream entered the room. "About time, Starscream."
"Sorry for my tardiness, Megatron," Starscream said a bit sarcastically.
Megatron rolled his eyes. "Just let it be known, Starscream, that after a very long time, we have been reawakened by something. Something very foolish. We will show this pathetic mud ball that we are Decepticons, and that we shall rule over this entire planet!"
Iceman, Cutman, Yamatoman, Flameman, and the semi-conscious Forte were met halfway out of the cave by a Magnetman, Snakeman, Quickman, and Drillman. "We got your message," Magnetman told them. "What's going on?"
"There's some really big guys down there and they tried to squash Forte!" Iceman exclaimed, a little hysterical.
"A shame they didn't succeed," someone snickered.
"Who . . . said that?" Forte moaned, awakening.
"We've got company," Yamatoman broke in, staring back into the cave. Sure enough the sound of larger, heavy footsteps could be heard approaching.
Frenzy was the first on the scene, rushing headlong at the Wily bots without much regard for his own safety. Magnetman, however, was the first to respond, letting loose a trio of magnet missiles that sailed through the air and slammed into the robot. As Frenzy fell down, more from shock than anything else, Rumble arrived and began to pound the ground with his piston arms.
The robot masters struggled to retain their footing, Drillman having the easiest time. In response, the dirt-red robot fired a pair of drill bombs into Rumble's side. "What the-"Rumble began before the drills exploded, throwing him into the side of the cave. As the robots began to make their way out once more, Ravage leapt over the two downed robots and landed on Snakeman.
"GET HIM OFFA ME!" Snakeman cried, trying to hold back the panther robots claws. Cutman rushed to his side and severed one of Ravage's legs with a rolling cutter, helping his green ally to his feet. Ravage growled at them but could not really get up off the floor from where he fell without his leg.
"Let's get out of here!" Quickman cried, grabbing the groggy Forte and making a high speed dash for the cave mouth. The others followed in a disorganized fashion, always checking behind them in case there were more of their pursuers.
As the nine robots got out of the cave and into the sunlight, they heard a rumble below them as something HUGE tore through the cave, chasing them with a fury that even the Gutsdozer couldn't have matched . . .
The Constructicons had formed Devastator, largest and most brutal of the Decepticons.
Wily was listening to classical music in his office when his computer suddenly booted up and began to show information. LOTS of information.
"What in the world . . . ?" the scientist wondered, leaning closer to his screen and watching photos of some alien vessel pop up on his screen, one after another. Some of the photos had a computer screen with indecipherable text on it, while some showed large robots with odd designs, mostly taken from over head. Then, Wily spotted a small ninja star in the bottom corner of his screen and smiled.
"Well, well, well, it appears Shadowman has learned what it means to investigate . . ." He watched more pictures go by. "Still, I can't help but wonder what it all means."
His answer was not long in coming. A general alarm went up all over Skull Fortress, the lights turning a dull red and the windows sealing themselves off. Wily was taken aback by the sudden shift and sat there, slightly disorientated, before he activated the holographic displays on the windows. This meant he could see what was outside the window without the window really being open.
And he watched as a massive purple hand attached to an impossibly large green arm shot out of the cave, grabbed the earth, and pulled up a body twice the size of Gamma with an angry, roaring head.
"Well," Wily said to himself in a calm voice, "I can see its going to be one of THOSE days."