As soon as Rock stepped out of the teleporter, he noticed Roll at the side of the room. "Roll, what's happened?" Rock asked worriedly.
"It's Blues," she said, "His morale is in pretty bad shape. While you were gone, we got a message from another group of survivors."
Rock was confused. "Then why is he feeling bad?"
"His wife wasn't with them."
Rock was stunned. "His wife?" He asked in disbelief.
"I know," said Roll, "He never told Auto or I he was married either. The first thing he asked them was if she was with them, and they said they had never seen anyone like her." Roll paused to stop herself from shedding a tear. "I could just hear his heart break."
"I know the feeling," Rock muttered, the memory of Dawn flashing across his mind again. "Where is he now?"
"He's in his quarters. Auto's trying to talk with him, but I doubt he's going to get anywhere," said Roll with pity.
Suddenly, an idea came together in Rock's head. "Roll, can you still talk with that other band of survivors?"
"Yeah," said Roll, "why?"
"Nevermind why," Rock said quickly, walking past Roll and out of the room.
Roll rolled her eyes. "What's with everyone today?" She muttered under her breath, following Rock out of the room.
**********
As soon as Rock sat down by the desk and had his headset on, Roll flicked the switch to the radio on, and a crackling noise filled Rock's ears. "Hello?" A voice asked from the other end.
"Hi," said Rock, "You wouldn't know anyone in your group by the name of Dawn, would you?"
Rock looked sideways to see the look of connfusion on Roll's face. "Dawn," The voice muttered. "No, there isn't a Dawn here."
"Are you sure?" Rock asked. "She's got blonde hair, maybe five-foot-six, um," Rock paused to dig up his scattered memories, "green eyes, looks maybe, er, one hundred pounds. Have you seen her?"
"Sorry, I haven't."
Rock sagged. "Thanks anyway," He muttered before taking off his headset.
"Dawn?" Roll asked as soon as Rock put down the headset, "Who's Dawn?"
Rock sighed silently to himself. "An old friend of mine," he muttered.
Roll pulled up a nearby chair and sat down beside Rock. "That's who Marie reminds you of, isn't she?"
Rock nodded. "I wish I knew if she were still alive," he muttered.
Roll put her hand on Rock's shoulder. "The most you can do is have faith," she said.
"Or I can destroy Masterframe," said Rock. "Where's Auto? You said he was with Blues, right?"
"Yeah," said Roll as Rock stood up, "Why?"
"I'm going to take out another target."
********
Rock found himself at the heavy iron doors of the gigantic building within a flash. Quickly taking cover behind a small heap of discarded scrap metal, Rock held the side of his helmet close to his ear. "Roll, can you still hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Rock."
Rock peeked over the scrap heap at the building in front of him. "So this is the sub-zero storage hold," Rock muttered, looking at the giant doors.
"This is it," said Roll. "Are you sure that attacking it without any warming device is a good idea?"
"Don't worry about me, Roll," said Rock, looking at his arm cannon, "I've got some 'fire' power."
Rock heard Roll groan. "Just be careful, all right?"
"I'll try my best," said Rock, standing up. Locking his sights at the doors and charging his arm cannon, Rock said, "Time to paint this place red-hot!"
Rock unleashed the massive charge of energy upon the doors, blowing them wide off their hinges. Rock wasted no time at all in dashing through the doors, firing his cannon at anything that moved across his path. The large, dim room was anything but cold, a fact that Rock noticed as soon as soon as he found himself leaping over all sorts of crates and boxes, demolishing every piece of machinery in his path. Spotting another shutter directly ahead of him, Rock willed his feet to give him a short burst forward, sending him speeding at the shutters. He came to a screeching halt, only inches away from the heavy shutter as it quickly slid upwards, letting Rock slip underneath.
Rock was met with a bitter cold, and as soon as he turned around, the shutter slammed down once more, sealing him inside. Quickly wrapping his arms around him, Rock wished he was back in the incineration plant as he looked at the room around him.
Icicles dangled from the wide vent tubes that ran along the high ceiling, and frost covered the walls and floors. Hundreds of boxes, containers, and crates lined the walls, blanketed in a sheet of ice. As soon as Rock took a step forward, he slipped on the icy floor, narrowly managing to keep on his feet. Seeing nothing but a straight path ahead of him, Rock grit his teeth in the face of the bitter cold and pushed himself forward, gliding on the icy floors.
The instant he crossed the threshold to a long corridor, Rock heard the familiar buzz of airborne drones swarming from behind him. Gaining as much speed as he could on the slick floor, Rock quickly spun around, sliding backwards on his heels as he let loose a furious storm of cannon fire at the swarm behind him. The small, bat-like robots that chased after him were shot down in flames, crashing to the ground as more and more of them rushed in on Rock. Rock kept his arm cannon blasting away, shooting down messes of the drones as their number steadily grew, quickly gaining ground on Rock. Rock steadily began losing momentum, and bit by bit, Rock found himself quickly slowing down. Just as Rock spun himself around to gain more velocity, a large crate that blocked his path caught him unable to stop, sending Rock crashing into and spilling over the crate and onto the floor on his face. As Rock still skidded along the icy floor, he tossed himself over onto his back, locking hs eyes on the quickly approaching swarm of drones, and let his cannon run wild. Suddenly, a flash of metal zoomed past his eyes, and a heavy crash filled the air. Rock lifted his head to find himself skidding away from a closed shutter, with the sounds of hundreds of drones smashing into it on the other side. Rock snickered cruelly to himself, still skidding along on his back in the oddly quiet room.
Suddenly, Rock slid headfirst into something tall and sturdy, halting him immediately with a jolt down hs spine. Rock looked up, and saw the face of a stocky, blue-armored robot staring back down at him. "Slipping in for a visit, are we?" The Virtuloid asked with a hissing voice.
Rock scrambled back to his feet, and almost fell down again. The blue Virtuloid snickered quietly, watching Rock try to keep his footing on the sleek ice. "So I suppose you're the dreaded Blue Bomber," he said as Rock finally found his balance.
"And you're Chill, aren't you?" Rock guessed.
"Bravo," said the Virtuloid, "How'd you know?"
Rock rolled his eyes. "Ground ran an ore mine, Lightning ran a power plant, Hydro ran a waterfall dam; I've got you guys all figured out."
"Strong and clever," said Chill, "Shame that I've got to destroy you."
Rock's footing slipped again, nimbly able to keep himself standing. "Bring it on."
Chill suddenly bolted off his feet, gliding above the icy surface at Rock with full speed ahead, planting his shoulder into Rock's chest. Rock was sent spinning on the ice, struggling to keep himself standing as Chill came to a sharp halt on the other side of the room, quickly spinning around to aim the cannon-like adaptation on his arm at Rock. With a flash, a short, wide sheet of ice sprouted out of Chill's arm, sharp and pointy like a small sword. Chill locked his eyes on the sprawling Rock, waiting for him to regain his footing. As soon as Rock managed to stand steady on the ice, Chill bolted forward again, whipping his shoulder across his chest at Rock, slashing his icy sword into Rock's left shoulder. Rock yelped as he fell to the floor, grabbing his wounded shoulder as Chill came to another smooth stop. Chill quietly chuckled as he watched Rock slowly climb back up to his feet, clutching his aching arm. Rock gasped when he saw frost begin to gather around the gash, feeling a freezing numbness begin to slowly spread through his arm. Before Rock knew it, Chill had charged at him again, swiftly dragging his blade across Rock's chest. Rock weezed and collapsed to the floor again, immediately feeling a stinging cold seep into his body. "If you think that hurts now," Chill laughed, "In a few minutes you won't feel a thing."
Rock winced and hunched over onto his knees, gritting his teeth to bear the numbing cold spreading through his body. Just as Chill wound back his arm to slash at Rock again, Rock lashed his arm cannon out at Chill, unleashing a massive blast of flames. Chill nimbly weaved to his right, almost avoiding the firey assault. The flames licked Chill's left arm, leaving a scorched streak on his armor. Chill winced and cradled his wound, with Rock finding an ounce of warmth from his cannon's flamethrower. Rock quickly clambered back to his feet again, and unleashed another massive stream of flames at Chill again. Bearing the stinging in his arm, Chill dove to his side, letting Rock's flamethrower blast into the icy walls, scorching them totally black as Rock's flamethrower chased Chill around the room. As Rock kept pumping out the stream of fire after Chill, he felt his frosty, frozen wounds begin to slightly warm, once again feeling movement in his left arm.
Suddenly, his cannon coughed and sputtered, and the massive torrent of flames suddenly shut off. Rock breathed tiredly, feeling the energy from his flamethrower completely deplete. Chill came to a screeching halt, quickly looking around the charred room. Without another word, Chill charged at the defenseless Rock again, slashing his icy blade wildly. Rock quickly floored himself, narrowly avoiding Chill's slash. It was only when Chill sharply pivoted on his heel again that Rock noticed the two small vents on Chill's chest, and a gentle breeze was slowly being sucked inside. And with a sudden yell, Chill's vents blew out a vicious gale, blowing Rock clean off of his feet, pinning him against the wall with the violent, bitterly cold current. Rock tried to move his limbs, but the fierce wind kept them anchored to the wall, his armor steadily frosting over. Chill slowly advanced on him, keeping the vicious wind blasting upon him as ice began to form around Rock's body, freezing him to the wall. As soon as Rock's whole body was covered in a thin sheet of ice, Chill quietly laughed. "Let's see how long you last," Chill snickered, willing his chest vents to close.
Rock struggled in vain to power himself out of the icy casket, but the thick icy casing kept him firmly in place. Rock's wounds began to freeze much more quickly, stabbing him with a freezing pain as it spread through him again. As his insides froze and his vison hazed, Rock willed his cannon to give even just a spurt of flames. Nothing came, and Rock continued to freeze against the wall. Rock held what was left of his breath, and forced his body to shoot his flamethrower. A slight tremble shook within the casing, and Chill was suddenly stunned. Pushing himself to go further, Rock mentally screamed at himself to fire his flamethrower, and he immediately felt his armor begin to heat. A sharp crack echoed all over the room, quickly followed by many more. Chill hastily opened his vents again, blasting more icy chills upon Rock's casing. Even with Chill's wind vents blasting as savagely as he could get them to go, Rock's icy prison suddenly shattered into millions of tiny pieces, falling to slush upon the ground. Rock aimed his flamethrower at Chill before his feet even hit the ground, unleashing a blast of flames at Chill again. As soon as Chill dove out of the way, Rock willed his weapon formats to switch, and quickly shot forth a blast of water at Chill's feet. The water froze upon contact with Chill's armor, fusing Chill and his legs to the floor. Chill struggled and fought to break himself free, but another fierce blast of water from Rock's cannon coated his body, freezing him solid. "Thanks for the idea," said Rock, knowing that Chill was glaring angrily back at him. Placing his cannon to the side of Chill's frozen head, Rock willed his flamethrower to activate again, and a short blast of flames quickly charred Chill's head black. Rock planted his hand on Chill's blackened shoulders, feeling his system immediately download Chill's weapon program.
"Get ready to warp me out soon, Roll," said Rock, holding the side of his helmet to his ear, "I'm gonna' give this place one hot remodelling."
"It's Blues," she said, "His morale is in pretty bad shape. While you were gone, we got a message from another group of survivors."
Rock was confused. "Then why is he feeling bad?"
"His wife wasn't with them."
Rock was stunned. "His wife?" He asked in disbelief.
"I know," said Roll, "He never told Auto or I he was married either. The first thing he asked them was if she was with them, and they said they had never seen anyone like her." Roll paused to stop herself from shedding a tear. "I could just hear his heart break."
"I know the feeling," Rock muttered, the memory of Dawn flashing across his mind again. "Where is he now?"
"He's in his quarters. Auto's trying to talk with him, but I doubt he's going to get anywhere," said Roll with pity.
Suddenly, an idea came together in Rock's head. "Roll, can you still talk with that other band of survivors?"
"Yeah," said Roll, "why?"
"Nevermind why," Rock said quickly, walking past Roll and out of the room.
Roll rolled her eyes. "What's with everyone today?" She muttered under her breath, following Rock out of the room.
**********
As soon as Rock sat down by the desk and had his headset on, Roll flicked the switch to the radio on, and a crackling noise filled Rock's ears. "Hello?" A voice asked from the other end.
"Hi," said Rock, "You wouldn't know anyone in your group by the name of Dawn, would you?"
Rock looked sideways to see the look of connfusion on Roll's face. "Dawn," The voice muttered. "No, there isn't a Dawn here."
"Are you sure?" Rock asked. "She's got blonde hair, maybe five-foot-six, um," Rock paused to dig up his scattered memories, "green eyes, looks maybe, er, one hundred pounds. Have you seen her?"
"Sorry, I haven't."
Rock sagged. "Thanks anyway," He muttered before taking off his headset.
"Dawn?" Roll asked as soon as Rock put down the headset, "Who's Dawn?"
Rock sighed silently to himself. "An old friend of mine," he muttered.
Roll pulled up a nearby chair and sat down beside Rock. "That's who Marie reminds you of, isn't she?"
Rock nodded. "I wish I knew if she were still alive," he muttered.
Roll put her hand on Rock's shoulder. "The most you can do is have faith," she said.
"Or I can destroy Masterframe," said Rock. "Where's Auto? You said he was with Blues, right?"
"Yeah," said Roll as Rock stood up, "Why?"
"I'm going to take out another target."
********
Rock found himself at the heavy iron doors of the gigantic building within a flash. Quickly taking cover behind a small heap of discarded scrap metal, Rock held the side of his helmet close to his ear. "Roll, can you still hear me?"
"Loud and clear, Rock."
Rock peeked over the scrap heap at the building in front of him. "So this is the sub-zero storage hold," Rock muttered, looking at the giant doors.
"This is it," said Roll. "Are you sure that attacking it without any warming device is a good idea?"
"Don't worry about me, Roll," said Rock, looking at his arm cannon, "I've got some 'fire' power."
Rock heard Roll groan. "Just be careful, all right?"
"I'll try my best," said Rock, standing up. Locking his sights at the doors and charging his arm cannon, Rock said, "Time to paint this place red-hot!"
Rock unleashed the massive charge of energy upon the doors, blowing them wide off their hinges. Rock wasted no time at all in dashing through the doors, firing his cannon at anything that moved across his path. The large, dim room was anything but cold, a fact that Rock noticed as soon as soon as he found himself leaping over all sorts of crates and boxes, demolishing every piece of machinery in his path. Spotting another shutter directly ahead of him, Rock willed his feet to give him a short burst forward, sending him speeding at the shutters. He came to a screeching halt, only inches away from the heavy shutter as it quickly slid upwards, letting Rock slip underneath.
Rock was met with a bitter cold, and as soon as he turned around, the shutter slammed down once more, sealing him inside. Quickly wrapping his arms around him, Rock wished he was back in the incineration plant as he looked at the room around him.
Icicles dangled from the wide vent tubes that ran along the high ceiling, and frost covered the walls and floors. Hundreds of boxes, containers, and crates lined the walls, blanketed in a sheet of ice. As soon as Rock took a step forward, he slipped on the icy floor, narrowly managing to keep on his feet. Seeing nothing but a straight path ahead of him, Rock grit his teeth in the face of the bitter cold and pushed himself forward, gliding on the icy floors.
The instant he crossed the threshold to a long corridor, Rock heard the familiar buzz of airborne drones swarming from behind him. Gaining as much speed as he could on the slick floor, Rock quickly spun around, sliding backwards on his heels as he let loose a furious storm of cannon fire at the swarm behind him. The small, bat-like robots that chased after him were shot down in flames, crashing to the ground as more and more of them rushed in on Rock. Rock kept his arm cannon blasting away, shooting down messes of the drones as their number steadily grew, quickly gaining ground on Rock. Rock steadily began losing momentum, and bit by bit, Rock found himself quickly slowing down. Just as Rock spun himself around to gain more velocity, a large crate that blocked his path caught him unable to stop, sending Rock crashing into and spilling over the crate and onto the floor on his face. As Rock still skidded along the icy floor, he tossed himself over onto his back, locking hs eyes on the quickly approaching swarm of drones, and let his cannon run wild. Suddenly, a flash of metal zoomed past his eyes, and a heavy crash filled the air. Rock lifted his head to find himself skidding away from a closed shutter, with the sounds of hundreds of drones smashing into it on the other side. Rock snickered cruelly to himself, still skidding along on his back in the oddly quiet room.
Suddenly, Rock slid headfirst into something tall and sturdy, halting him immediately with a jolt down hs spine. Rock looked up, and saw the face of a stocky, blue-armored robot staring back down at him. "Slipping in for a visit, are we?" The Virtuloid asked with a hissing voice.
Rock scrambled back to his feet, and almost fell down again. The blue Virtuloid snickered quietly, watching Rock try to keep his footing on the sleek ice. "So I suppose you're the dreaded Blue Bomber," he said as Rock finally found his balance.
"And you're Chill, aren't you?" Rock guessed.
"Bravo," said the Virtuloid, "How'd you know?"
Rock rolled his eyes. "Ground ran an ore mine, Lightning ran a power plant, Hydro ran a waterfall dam; I've got you guys all figured out."
"Strong and clever," said Chill, "Shame that I've got to destroy you."
Rock's footing slipped again, nimbly able to keep himself standing. "Bring it on."
Chill suddenly bolted off his feet, gliding above the icy surface at Rock with full speed ahead, planting his shoulder into Rock's chest. Rock was sent spinning on the ice, struggling to keep himself standing as Chill came to a sharp halt on the other side of the room, quickly spinning around to aim the cannon-like adaptation on his arm at Rock. With a flash, a short, wide sheet of ice sprouted out of Chill's arm, sharp and pointy like a small sword. Chill locked his eyes on the sprawling Rock, waiting for him to regain his footing. As soon as Rock managed to stand steady on the ice, Chill bolted forward again, whipping his shoulder across his chest at Rock, slashing his icy sword into Rock's left shoulder. Rock yelped as he fell to the floor, grabbing his wounded shoulder as Chill came to another smooth stop. Chill quietly chuckled as he watched Rock slowly climb back up to his feet, clutching his aching arm. Rock gasped when he saw frost begin to gather around the gash, feeling a freezing numbness begin to slowly spread through his arm. Before Rock knew it, Chill had charged at him again, swiftly dragging his blade across Rock's chest. Rock weezed and collapsed to the floor again, immediately feeling a stinging cold seep into his body. "If you think that hurts now," Chill laughed, "In a few minutes you won't feel a thing."
Rock winced and hunched over onto his knees, gritting his teeth to bear the numbing cold spreading through his body. Just as Chill wound back his arm to slash at Rock again, Rock lashed his arm cannon out at Chill, unleashing a massive blast of flames. Chill nimbly weaved to his right, almost avoiding the firey assault. The flames licked Chill's left arm, leaving a scorched streak on his armor. Chill winced and cradled his wound, with Rock finding an ounce of warmth from his cannon's flamethrower. Rock quickly clambered back to his feet again, and unleashed another massive stream of flames at Chill again. Bearing the stinging in his arm, Chill dove to his side, letting Rock's flamethrower blast into the icy walls, scorching them totally black as Rock's flamethrower chased Chill around the room. As Rock kept pumping out the stream of fire after Chill, he felt his frosty, frozen wounds begin to slightly warm, once again feeling movement in his left arm.
Suddenly, his cannon coughed and sputtered, and the massive torrent of flames suddenly shut off. Rock breathed tiredly, feeling the energy from his flamethrower completely deplete. Chill came to a screeching halt, quickly looking around the charred room. Without another word, Chill charged at the defenseless Rock again, slashing his icy blade wildly. Rock quickly floored himself, narrowly avoiding Chill's slash. It was only when Chill sharply pivoted on his heel again that Rock noticed the two small vents on Chill's chest, and a gentle breeze was slowly being sucked inside. And with a sudden yell, Chill's vents blew out a vicious gale, blowing Rock clean off of his feet, pinning him against the wall with the violent, bitterly cold current. Rock tried to move his limbs, but the fierce wind kept them anchored to the wall, his armor steadily frosting over. Chill slowly advanced on him, keeping the vicious wind blasting upon him as ice began to form around Rock's body, freezing him to the wall. As soon as Rock's whole body was covered in a thin sheet of ice, Chill quietly laughed. "Let's see how long you last," Chill snickered, willing his chest vents to close.
Rock struggled in vain to power himself out of the icy casket, but the thick icy casing kept him firmly in place. Rock's wounds began to freeze much more quickly, stabbing him with a freezing pain as it spread through him again. As his insides froze and his vison hazed, Rock willed his cannon to give even just a spurt of flames. Nothing came, and Rock continued to freeze against the wall. Rock held what was left of his breath, and forced his body to shoot his flamethrower. A slight tremble shook within the casing, and Chill was suddenly stunned. Pushing himself to go further, Rock mentally screamed at himself to fire his flamethrower, and he immediately felt his armor begin to heat. A sharp crack echoed all over the room, quickly followed by many more. Chill hastily opened his vents again, blasting more icy chills upon Rock's casing. Even with Chill's wind vents blasting as savagely as he could get them to go, Rock's icy prison suddenly shattered into millions of tiny pieces, falling to slush upon the ground. Rock aimed his flamethrower at Chill before his feet even hit the ground, unleashing a blast of flames at Chill again. As soon as Chill dove out of the way, Rock willed his weapon formats to switch, and quickly shot forth a blast of water at Chill's feet. The water froze upon contact with Chill's armor, fusing Chill and his legs to the floor. Chill struggled and fought to break himself free, but another fierce blast of water from Rock's cannon coated his body, freezing him solid. "Thanks for the idea," said Rock, knowing that Chill was glaring angrily back at him. Placing his cannon to the side of Chill's frozen head, Rock willed his flamethrower to activate again, and a short blast of flames quickly charred Chill's head black. Rock planted his hand on Chill's blackened shoulders, feeling his system immediately download Chill's weapon program.
"Get ready to warp me out soon, Roll," said Rock, holding the side of his helmet to his ear, "I'm gonna' give this place one hot remodelling."