As soon as Rock appeared back into the shelter, he was immediately greeted with Roll's smiling face. "Rock, you're... you're incredible!" She gushed.
If Rock's heartbeat could go over a single beat per minute, he would have blushed. "Thanks, Roll," he said sheepishly, stepping out of the coffin-like teleporter machine and taking off his helmet. Roll immediately threw her arms around Rock's shoulders, completely ignoring the stench from Rock's sweat-matted hair. Rock kept his hands off Roll, immediately remembering Dawn and feeling compelling sense of faithfulness. "Where's Blues?" Rock asked. "He knows that I've taken out all six targets, right?"
Roll released him, and kept smiling. "He does," she said, "and he's waiting for you in the briefing room."
----------------------
Blues' usual solemn face was now hard as a stone. He kept looking at Rock as he spoke in a commanding tone so forceful and stern that, for a moment, Rock thought he was a completely different person. "And now that you've dismantled their main operations," Blues continued on with his briefing, "Now's the best chance we have to take the fight to Masterframe itself, and end this whole ordeal for good." Auto rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation. Roll rested her head in her hand on the table, wearing a dreamy, watery smile, staring into space. Although Blues was fully aware of their lack of participation, he did not let himself care, focusing all his attention on Rock. "Now let me make this clear, Rock," Blues ordered, "there will be no allowances for careless mistakes or failures from this point on. Is that clear?"
"Crystal," Rock murmured.
"Good. We already know the location of the Virtuloid HQ, and that's where we're sending you. Just like your last missons, we need you to level the place completely. But there's a catch."
"What?" Rock asked.
"We don't know exactly where Masterframe is located. If there's any information that can tell us where it is, it will be in the Virtuloid base. That's why we're sending you there in three sub-missons."
"Sub-missons? Like what?"
"Your first objective is to find and destroy their teleporation matrix systems. That way, all Virtuloids will no longer be able to teleport to or from Virtuloid HQ. Your second misson will be to find, interrogate, and destroy only if necessary, this Alpha character. Based on those conversations you've had with Marie, whoever this Alpha is, he must be a very important figure to the Virtuloids. With the matrixes destroyed and Alpha dealt with, you should have no problem in destroying the base, but not before you collect the information on Masterframe's whereabouts. That is your third misson. Any questions?"
"None," said Rock. "So, I guess I'm going on misson number one right away?"
Blues nodded. "Godspeed, Rock."
Rock appeared with a flash in a tight, dark alley. Taking a quick peek out into the streets, Rock's eyes bugged when he saw the ruination around him. What used to be towering buildings and endless streets were now heaps of rubble lying on a wasteland. Wreckage and scrap was strewn about as far as he could see, chilling him to the bone. Pulling himself back into the shadows of the alley, Rock pressed the side of his helmet closer to his ear and whispered, "Roll, is this what's happened to the whole planet?"
"As far as we know, yes," Roll replied. "Directly north of you is Virtuloid HQ, and up at the peak of the tallest tower is the teleportation matrixes. Can you see it from where you are?"
Rock peeked out from around the corner of the alley, laying eyes on the gigantic spires of a heavily fortified stronghold, not even ten meters away. "Yeah, I see it," said Rock, hiding in the alley again.
"You'll need to find your own way up there," said Roll, "and you'd better do it quick. This is the only time of day when most if not all Virtuloids are away hunting, so this is the best chance of leveling the place we'll ever get."
"Got it," said Rock, morphing his hand into a cannon and stepping out of the alley, "here I go."
"Go where?"
The voice from behind him nearly made Rock jump out of his skin. Quickly whirling around, Rock's arm formed into a cannon, aiming it in the face of the Virtuloid behind him. "Marie?" Rock stammered, watching Marie yelp with surprise.
Rock lowered his cannon, and let it fall to his side. "Sorry," Marie wheezed, trying to calm herself down, "did I startle you?"
"Yeah, a bit," Rock muttered, forming his hand again. "Are you heading back to HQ too?"
Marie shrugged. "May as well," she said, "Everyone else is looking for the blue bomber."
Shit, Rock thought to himself, Now I might wind up killing her too.
"Marie, why aren't you out there helping too?" Rock asked. "That is part of your duty, isn't it?"
"Just taking a short break to recharge little," said Marie, "My power reserves are running a little low."
Rock breathed a sigh of relief. "Shall we go together?" He asked playfully, hooking his arm towards Marie.
Marie laughed, and pushed Rock's arm straight again. "We're still on duty, you clown," she said with a smile, walking to the giant gates of the stronghold with Rock close behind.
Rock's own smile soon turned to a jaw dropped from dismay, upon seeing a tall archway in the middle of the gates, complete with sensory modules, cameras, and various detectors of all sorts lining the threshold. Rock stared at the ground, ready to morph his hand into his cannon and let the carnage begin at any moment. Marie stepped underneath the arch, passing without hindrance. Rock set a steady foot through the threshold, clenched his fist, and moved the rest of him through.
Nothing happened. Rock stopped, halting Marie in her tracks. "Why'd you stop?" She asked innocently.
Rock looked around the courtyard, eventually spotting a slender Virtuloid leaned up against the wall beside him, reading a book of some sort. The Virtuloid looked up from the pages, gave Rock a little nod hello, and went back to reading. "Wasn't sure what that thing was for," Rock muttered quietly under his breath, catching up to Marie.
"The carbon-dioxide detectors?" Marie snorted, "we've got those all over the HQ."
Before Rock could reply, he suddenly remembered that breathing converted oxygen into carbon-dioxide. And he was also reminded that he no longer needed to breathe. "Yeah, I knew that," Rock murmured sheepishly, "I haven't been here in ages."
"But you took Lightning back here, right?"
"I- I handed him off to someone else on the way," said Rock quickly. Then, he added, "I wanted to see if I could still catch the blue bomber."
"Oh," Marie shrugged. Rock and Marie stepped through the doors of the towering stronghold, and into the sprawling lobby inside. Rock had never seen such gothic beauty in his life, even if the tiles on the floor and stucco walls and ceilings looked a little odd. "Well anyway," said Marie, heading towards one of the many doorways in the lobby, "it was nice to see you again," she said.
As soon as Marie vanished down one of the many corridors, Rock morphed his hand into his cannon, clenched his teeth, and muttered, "And I hope I don't see you in here again, either." With that, he charged his cannon with as much power as he could, and dashed down the first hallway that caught his eye.
As Rock ran down the winding corridors, he could hear the hum of approaching patrol drones come his way. Not feeling like standing around to attract attention, Rock kept on charging through the hall, powering up his arm cannon. At the first sight of the floating drones, Rock unleashed the pent-up energy, plowing a hole through the approaching swarm. As more and more flocked in from all sides, Rock decided to try out his newest weapon. Switching weapons format, Rock activated Storm's weapon drive. Aiming his cannon at the thick fog of buzzing drones speeding towards him, Rock fired his cannon, letting loose a mighty blast of wind. The violent gale blew the drones and swept them back, sending them colliding into the walls, ceiling, floor, and even each other. Blast after blast of windstorms, Rock had completely cleared the hallways of the flying robots, also leaving the corridor in a mess as well.
At the end of the hall was an elevator, which Rock entered by shooting the door apart. Before he could press any button, the elevator car moved upwards on its own, and after a minute of steady ascent, the car came to a halt, and the doors before him opened. The sight of a gigantic, open room was the first thing that met him, with a brightly glowing light source sitting atop a group of pilliars. Soon, another swarm of airborne drones swooped down upon him from the ceiling. Leaping out of the elevator car, Rock kept his weapon set on Storm's wind blasts, shooting gusts and gales left and right around him. From electric bursts to energy blasts, the drones were relentless in their attacks, chasing Rock around the circular room in one giant swarm. Knowing he would be running forever, Rock abruptly turned on his heel, leapt into the middle of the swarm, switched to Chill's ice sword, and slashed away wildly into the heart of his aggressors. Landing roughly on the other side, Rock switched weapons format again, and let Burn's flamethrower lick the rest of the drones with flames. The room finally fell silent, and Rock immediately focused his attention on the bright light in the middle of the room. "Roll, there's a bright light on some kind of set of columns here," He said, "Is this the matrix?"
"That's it, Rock," Roll cheered, "destroy it!"
"No need to state the obvious," Rock smirked, switching back to his normal cannon and cahrging it up to full power. Once his cannon could hold no more enrgy, Rock unleashed it all with a roar upon the brightness. With a piercing whine and a shattering boom that floored Rock, the room suddenly fell dark, lit only by small, dim lights lining the ceiling. "Done," said Rock, "Now how do I get out of here?"
"Sorry, I don't have any data on their HQ," said Roll, "You'll have to find your own way out."
Rock looked around the dim room, and found what looked to be another one of the heavy metal shutters. Walking towards it, the shutter opened when he neared, and Rock quickly crossed under before it came rushing down again. On the other side, Rock stood stunned, amazed at what he saw before him.
The gaping pit before him seemed to have no end. Taking a peek below, Rock saw that the bottom of the chasm was lined with hundreds of thousands of large, sharp spikes, each looking a deadly as they did painful. A droning hum filled the air, and Rock noticed a block hovering in front of his face, floating right above the pit. Almost as suddenly as it appeared, the block vanished, and another appeared behind it. That soon vanished and another tok its place. "I get it," Rock murmured aloud to himself, "It's like the blocks from the incineraion plant." Rock waited for the first block to reappear, and leapt upon it as soon as it did. Rock took a leap forward, landing on the next block as it materialized. Hopping from block to vanishing block. Rock took a guess and leapt forward, and as he began to fall, he realized he made a mistake.
Rock double-jumped upwards, lucky to land on another block. Before he could jump off again, that block vanished too, leaving Rock scrambling to leap in mid-air onto another block. As soon as he landed, Rock leapt forward on impulse, hearing the sound of a block forming on the other side. Air-jumping backwards, Rock landed on the block just before it disappeared, managing to bolt off it and land on another. A string of blocks appeared before him, forming a crude bridge, stretching towards the other side of the pit. Taking his cahnces, Rock leapt onto the first block, and dashed across the rest. Looking behind him, Rock could see the blocks he crossed over vanishing quickly. Wehn Rock looked back ahead of him, he yelped when he saw another line of blocks appear above the bridge, threatening to block his path and leave him to fall into the spike pit below. Rock dashed once more and dropped to his hips, skidding along the block bridge and underneath the block ceiling. He bolted to his feet as soon as he was out the other side and sprung into the air, lucky to land on a newly-formed block. And just when he saw the edge of the platform on the other side, the block beneath his feet vanished. Rock air-jumped again, flying over the long gap between him and the platform.
Rock sailed through the air, watching the spikes pass below him, and over the edge of the platform. As soon as Rock landed on the solid floor, he collapsed to his hands and knees, thankful to be able to stand again. The last block disappeared, and all Rock was left with was the platform he stood on and the iron shutter on the wall in front of him. Taking a deep breath, Rock approached the shutter, and it flew up to let him pass.
The room inside was pitch black. Before Rock could turn back, the heavy shutter crashed down behind him, sealing him in the room. Rock squinted into the darkness, able to make out the walls and ceiling around him. As he ventured into the middle of the darkness, he heard a rumbling from above, and he felt the floor begin to tremble. And with a sudden roar, the ceiling collapsed with a crash, and a giant streak of yellow dropped down with such a heavy thud that it nearly shook Rock off his feet. The monsterous blob of yellow that towered above him quickly sprouted two small legs, two massive arms, and a piercing single red eye in the middle. The yellow monster took a single glance at Rock before shooting a quick energy blast straight at him from its eye. Rock nimbly dashed above the floor, dodging underneath the shot and charging his cannon. Rock unleashed a massive blast at the midsection of the monster, only to have it completely absorbed into the monster's skin, creating no more than a few ripples in the beast's gelatainous body. Rock came to a screeching halt, amazed at the yellow monster's invulnerability. The beast's body began to shake and wobble, and Rock watched as the yellow monster's body began to divide into pieces.
Suddenly, what was once the foot of the monster came sliding towards him, coming close to smashing into Rock's shins had he not leapt to the air in time. The knees of the monster came flying through the air at him, whirring past his face. The hips, hands, arms, everything came flying at him, with Rock dancing and jumping all over trying to avoid them. When the last bit of the yellow blob had flown past him, Rock followed it with his eyes behind him, and his jaw dropped when he saw that the beast had reformed on the other side of the room. As the yellow monster opened its eye again, Rock charged his cannon, and decided to aim for the eye, the only wide open target he could find at a glance. The blob's eye fired its energy shot, with Rock sliding underneath, popping back up to his feet, and firing his fully charged blast into the monster's eye. The blob responded with a piercing shriek, and the eye recessed into the blob before the body began to divide again. Hand, shoulder, and everything else of the jellylike monster's body flew at him again. Rock leapt over the feet, slid under a knee, dashed beside the stomach, and sprung over the hips, only to have the elbow of the monster come flying right into his face. As Rock was sent tumbling down, the other knee came speeding towards him, smacking him in the small of his back. Rock hit the ground hard, moaning as he picked himself up again. By the time he was at his knees, a shot from the blob's eye hit him in the back, knocking him back up to his feet. Rock spun himself around and fired off a semi-charged blast from his cannon, only seconds too late before the eye sunk back into the malleable blob's body, leaving Rock's shot to sink inside harmlessly. The blob began to divide again, and Rock readied himself to slide under the pieces once more.
Instead of the pieces flying though the air, the beast's body suddenly collapsed into a tidal wave of yellow, completely catching Rock by surprise, knocking him down immediately. As the yellow monster reassembled itself on the other side of the room, Rock recollected his senses quickly enough to spring up, whirl around, and blast another shot into the blob's eye. The monster wailed again, splitting up and rushing to the other side of the room again. Jumping, sliding, and dashing this way and that, Rock weaved between the flying blob bits and charged his cannon to the highest charge it could handle. As soon as the yellow monster eormd behind him, Rock shot out his cannon, aimed it right for the middle of the eye, and unleashed the roaring blast of energy inside his arm. The blast hit the monster's eye dead center, and the beast froze. After a short silence, the blob's arm creaked, moaned, and fell off at the shoulder, hitting the ground with a watery thud. The other arm was quick to follow, and the rest of the blob gushed into a giant puddle of thick slime. Rock leaned up against the other wall, taking a deep breath and trying to steady his racing heart.
Suddenly, the slime puddle roared and surged upwards, forming a badly deformed arm and eye, reaching up and slamming down at Rock, missing by a few feet. The floor collapsed, and Rock yelped as he and the yellow blob plummeted into the darkness below.