When Rock came to, the smell of soot and ash invaded his nostrils like a blowtorch. The instant he opened his eyes, all he could see was nothing but black all around him, and suffocating smog hung in the air. Coughing and hacking, Rock saw the charred, burnt remains of the yellow monster lying all around the dark room, lit only by the hole in the high ceiling above him. Rock groaned and rubbed his head, feeling the fumes from the ashes beginning to give him a headache. Stumbling through the darkness, Rock was surprised to find the remains of the familiar iron shutters on the wall, charred and cracked. Rock pushed the shutter, crumbling in a heap of burnt scrap and revealing a flash of light from the outside. Rock covered his eyes and stepped out, dropping out of the doorway and to the floor below. The giant room before him lay in ruin, with garbage and scrap metal covering the floors and walls, like a bomb had gone off seconds before, leaving a gigantic crater in the middle of the floor. Bodies of Virtuloids lay everywhere scattered amongst flaming wreckage and shrapnel. Rock looked to his left and saw a large sign lying broken on the ground reading, "DANGER: High Air Pressure Network." Rock looked back over his shoulder at the closed shutter. "That blob must've been quite explosive," he muttered before dashing out of the room.
The long gaping corridor before him stretched ahead for as far as he could see. Deciding that now would be a good time to try out Auto's speed boosters, Rock sprinted down the hall, gaining speed with each stride. Before Rock knew it, he as running at double the speed he could have ever remembered reaching, and just as he was a few meter away from a sharp left turn in the hallway, a rumbling in his knees quickly elevated to what felt like an explosion, and Rock was suddenly swept off of his feet, careening in midair around the corner and darting through the adjacent corridor like a spear. Rock's joyride was interrupted by the sight of quickly approaching floating drones, their eyeball-like bodies beginning to swarm towards him. Rock readied his cannon as soon as he saw them, charging it to full power before unleashing it into their ranks.
The cannon blast pierced a hole in the cloud of drones, with Rock zooming though it as they reformed and chased after him. Spinning around in midair, Rock charged his cannon again and let out blast after blast at the flying eyeball robots, shooting only a few down before they began to gain ground on him, with more and more starting to appear from seemingly out of nowhere to replace the ones he destroyed. Just as the chasing drones were about to touch his feet, a flash of metal shot down from in front of him, slamming down and cutting the corridor in two, separating him from the drones. The sounds of hundreds of the eyeball robots crashing into the iron shutter were welcome sounds for Rock, feeling his knees begin to stop trembling. Before he knew it, Rock was decreasing in speed, and was stumbling onto his feet in seconds, coming to a clumsy halt right in front of another shutter. Rocks looked back at the iron shutter behind him, and then at the shutter in front. "Nowhere else to go," Rock muttered, placing his hand on the shutter and watching it shoot up as he trekked underneath.
The shutter came down behind him, trapping Rock inside a small room. A large, capsule-like machine stood at the far end of the circular room, just big enough to hold someone inside of it. The furniture looked like someone had thrown them against the walls, intentionally trying to clear up an open space. As Rock cautiously ventured towards the large chamber, a deep voice from behind him said, "I've been expecting you."
Rock whirled around to see a tall, all gold-clad figure standing behind him, holding a massive metal sword slung over his shoulder, even larger than he himself. "You-" Rock stammered, "You must be Alpha!"
"You've been quite the thorn in my side, bomber," Alpha sneered. He swung his sword off of his shoulder, standing it on its wide tip on the floor. "Wrecking our facilities and destroying my officers- I know what you're up to."
"Then I guess you're not going to tell me where Masterframe is, are you?"
Alpha brushed his fiery red hair out of the way of his dark visor that covered his eyes. "The only thing I will tell you," he said as he wound his arms back, poised to strike with his massive blade, "is that your fight ends here."
Rock wasted no time in shooting a quick blast from his cannon at Alpha's chest. With a single swing of his sword, Alpha skillfully deflected Rock's shot off, sending it crashing harmlessly into the wall beside him. Alpha bolted off of his feet, charging at Rock and taking a wild vertical slash. Rock was a split second away from having his arm chopped off had he not weaved to his right when he did, leaving Alpha's massive sword to plunge into the ground. Alpha jerked on his sword twice before he was able to free it, giving Rock enough time to unload a charge into Alpha's chest. The semi-charged blast was only enough to make Alpha flinch, his golden armor not even showing so much as a blemish. Alpha slashed at Rock again, chasing him around the room with wild swings. Rock switched his weapons format to the first that came to mind, held his right-hand cannon out and fired. A thick blade of ice sprouted from his barrel, stopping Alpha's heavy sword. Alpha snarled at the thought of having a much more dangerous weapon being wielded against him, while Rock breathed a silent sigh of relief. Quickly stepping backwards, Alpha distanced himself from Rock, slung his sword over his shoulder again, and glared at Rock's stolen weapon. "So you can steal abilities," Alpha mused.
"So? What of it?" Rock sneered back.
"I just find it amusing that you're forced to rely on our own weapons to destroy us. Without us, you'd never survive."
"Hey, all's fair in love and war," said Rock with a snappy grin, "Now are you going to tell me about Masterframe, or do I have to beat that information out of you?"
Alpha arched his arm and readied his sword. "Come see if you can."
With that, Rock and Alpha charged each other, with both of their respective slashes stopping dead in the air against the other blade. Rock wound his arm back again and slashed violently at Alpha's chest, missing by only inches as Alpha nimbly leapt back, returning Rock's swipe with a strike of his own. Alpha's massive sword combined with his overpowering strength easily knocked Rock's arm to the side as it struck Rock's ice sword, leaving Rock's front wide open for an attack. Alpha took his chance and thrust his giant sword like a spear at Rock's belly. Purely on instinct, Rock swerved to his left, avoiding Alpha's attack. The weight of Alpha's sword carried him stumbling forward, leaving Rock with the opportunity to strike. Rock wound his arm back again, placed a mental target on Alpha's back, and took a wild slash. Chill's blade whipped across Alpha's back, tearing a frosty gash in Alpha's armor. Alpha yelped and arched his back, feeling chills run through his body as he struggled to recover from the shock of being struck from behind. "Too slow!" Rock taunted. Alpha only swiveled around, slashing viciously at Rock, again knocking Rock's arm to the side. Before Rock could recover, Alpha had already regained his balance, had wound back his arms, and swung with all the strength he has at Rock's chest. Just as Rock could control his arm again, Alpha's sword came slashing into Rock's right shoulder.
Rock gasped and yelped in unison when Alpha's sword cut into his armor. Whatever flesh was left in Rock's shoulder to begin with was torn immediately, starting to bleed profusely. Rock clutched his shoulder and winced, feeling a paralyzing numbness seize his whole arm. "So, the rumors were true," Alpha mused and Rock struggled to cope with his agony, "you are part human after all." Rock did not reply; he only let his right arm dangle limp as his hand replaced Chill's blade again. Grimacing and bearing the pain shooting through his arm, Rock's left hand sunk into his forearm, and a new ice sword sprouted out again in its place. As soon as Rock took a defensive stance, Alpha charged forward and swung his sword with a reckless abandon upon Rock's. Rock's blade was knocked aside again, and Alpha again tried to skewer Rock through his gut. Rock managed to sidestep Alpha again, which was exactly what Alpha was expecting. Instead of following through with his thrust, Alpha spun around and wildly flung his sword across Rock's injured shoulder, slicing open another deep gash that sprayed the room red. As Rock howled in agony, Alpha stepped back, prepared to strike again, and swung.
Through the crippling pain that ran though his shoulder, Rock somehow found the foresight to skip backwards, narrowly avoiding the edge of Alpha's sword tearing into his chest. And without wasting a second, Rock raised his left arm high and slashed downwards violently upon Alpha. The icy blade had gut a gash into Alpha's wrist, beginning to frost over immediately. Within seconds, Alpha's hand was completely frozen solid, leaving him struggling to hold up his heady sword with just one arm. Not waiting for the pain in his shoulder to worsen, Rock slashed at Alpha's wrist again, cutting deep and leaving crusts of ice in the wounds, freezing Alpha's arm completely. Alpha roared in surprised horror, too occupied with the freezing sensation running though his body to notice Rock stooping low, stabbing Chill's blade into Alpha's left thigh. Alpha screeched as he fell to his right knee, powerless enough to allow Rock to yank out the ice blade from his leg and swiftly plunge it into Alpha's chest.
All that Alpha could manage to do before his insides began to freeze up in a bitter cold was moan quietly before Rock withdrew Chill's sword from his body, collapsing face-first on the floor. "Now, tell me about Masterframe," Rock ordered, deactivating Chill's sword.
"You think you can destroy Masterframe?" Alpha weakly sneered. "You may have killed me, but you don't stand a chance if you try to destroy it."
"And why not?" Rock asked.
Alpha turned his head, and a rusty creaking echoed through the room. "Through that door," he said, looking at another iron shutter, "is my personal database. Once you see what Masterfrme is," Alpha paused to snicker, "you'll have your second thoughts about attacking it."
"What do you mean?"
Alpha sneered. "See for yourself, why don't you?" he dared. "But before you do, do you see that chamber over there?"
Rock glanced at the slim cylinder again. "Yeah?"
"That's an auto-repair machine," Alpha wheezed. "If you plan on attacking Masterframe, then trust me, you'll need it."
"How so?" Rock asked, getting irritated.
Alpha was silent and still. Dead.
The ripping pain in Rock's shoulder worsened, and he could bear it no longer. Rock walked to the small chamber, slid open the lightweight door, and steeped inside the hollow interior. As soon as the door slid shut again, Rock's body was met with an intense electrical charge. Every nerve and circuit in his body trembled and felt like they had caught fire. Almost as suddenly as it had began, the current stopped, and Rock was left stunned silent as the chamber door automatically slip open again. The first thing Rock felt as he stepped out of the chamber in a daze was the pain in his shoulder completely gone. He raised his arm and looked at where Alpha had lacerated him, and found not so much as a scratch on his armor. His fingertips still tingled as a small yet oddly soothing electrical charge still ran through his body. Rock could not believe what had just happened- he had never felt so refreshed and healthy in his short memory. Stepping over Alpha's body and heading towards the shutter, Rock took a deep breath as the shutter flew open, stepping over the threshold, and hearing the shutter slam down behind him.