Rock slid his hand underneath his chest armor, and pulled out the small, slim case. "It's still in one piece," he said, walking down the dim hallway towards the metal shutter at the end. "The computer that's got Masterframe's info is just behind that shutter in front of me. Are you sure you can still beam me out of there?"
"Auto says everything's fine," said Roll, "Just get that data downloaded and we'll pull you out."
Rock breathed a heavy sigh of relief. "About time I had an easy misson," He muttered, juggling the disc case as he approached the shutter. The shutter flew up, Rock crossed into the small, dull room ahead, and the shutter came crashing down again. There was only one small running computer sitting on a small desk in the far corner of the room, complete with a small chair. Rock plopped into the seat, fed the disc into the CPU, and began searching anything on Masterframe. After a minute, Rock found what he was looking for. "Roll, I've found where Masterframe is," he said, "I'll have all the data copied in no time."
"That's good to hear," Roll sighed. "As soon as you get back, we'll start planning f- oh shit, Rock! Hurry!" Roll suddenly screamed.
"What?" Rock gasped, bolting off the chair. "Roll, what's happened?"
"Marie!" Roll screamed back. "She's headed right for you, Rock!"
Rock pounded on the keyboard, wishing for the download to go faster. "Almost done," Rock breathed, "How much time do I have?"
"Try fifteen seconds!"
"Shit!" Rock cursed, just as the disc ejected from the CPU. Rock fumbled with the case, accidentally dropping it in his hurry. He snatched the case up off the floor, and plugged the disc back inside just as the heavy shutter flew up again.
Marie now stood in the room, frozen on the spot with a stare set on the disc in Rock's hands. "Rock, what are you doing?" Marie asked.
The blank stare of surprise in Marie's eyes told Rock that his charade was up. "I-" Rock stammered, "I'm stealing the data on Masterframe."
"All this time," Marie muttered, "you were working for the humans!"
"No, Marie," Rock muttered back, "I am human."
The shutter behind Marie came slamming down again. The look of disgust on Marie's face told Rock all he needed to hear. "But- you just walked past the CO2 scanners! You can't be human! You just can't!"
"I don't need to breathe."
Marie was stunned silent. Rock took a deep breath.
"From what I was told, I died over four years ago, and a pack of human survivors built this armor and my weapons into me, modelled after the old Megamen designs. You've probably figured it out now, but it was me behind the attack on the factory. I destroyed the ore mines, the power plant, the dam, everything. I destroyed anything and anyone that stood in my way."
"I can't believe it," Marie murmured. "You killed them all. And you just used me for information, didn't you?"
Rock hung his head, and sighed deeply. "I did."
Marie's right hand clenched into a fist, and her left morphed into a cannon. "You low-life, disgusting fleshbag," Marie hissed. "I'm going to rip you apart."
Rock quickly snuck the disc case underneath his back armor. He readied his own cannon, and glared back at Marie. "I don't want to fight you," Rock said, "If I could level half of his building, I c-"
A quick blast from Marie's cannon cut Rock off as he dove to his right, letting the blast demolish the computer. Rock knew the talking was over, and he returned Marie's shot with a blast of his own. Marie skillfully leapt over Rock's shot, bolting off of her feet as soon as she hit the ground, flying through the air with a speeding kick that smacked Rock in the middle of his chin. Rock was floored immediately, landing clumsily on his back before rolling back to his feet. Marie kept her cannon aimed at Rock's head, watching Rock pick himself up. "Don't try to imtimidate me," Marie snarled. "Did you assume I was just another pile of bolts?"
"The thought had crossed my mind," Rock muttered, rubbing his swollen bottom lip. Rock switched his weapon format to Lightning's system, and pointed his cannon back at Marie. Without a word more, Rock unleased a crack of thunder from his cannon, forcing Marie to jump backwards, startled by the dazzling bolt of lightning. "Lightning, Ground, Chill, I've stolen all their weapons too. Still want to fight?"
Marie said nothing; she only fired another quick blast at Rock, shooting herself ahead as well. Rock leapt over the blast with ease, but was again caught with Marie's stiff kick to his jaw. Rock was knocked onto his back again, using his body's inertia to roll himself back up to his feet. As Marie charged in on him again, Rock switched weapon formatsm shot his cannon up at Marie, and unleashed a roaring fireball at her face. Marie yelped and jumped back, startled long enough for Rock to change weapons again, giving Marie a quick zap from Lightning's weapon. As Marie stood there stunned and shaking, Rock switched back to his normal cannon, And began charging his cannnon to full power. Before he could release the blast, Marie's body had recovered from the paralyzing strike, kicking her foot up at Rock's chin again. With a nimble leap backwards, Rock dodged Marie's attack, firing his cannon into her chest. The roaring energy surge blew Marie backwards, sending her crashing to to floor. As soon as she stumbled back to her feet, Rock shot another quick blast into her shoulder. Marie collapsed onto her knee. "Okay, stop it, Rock!" She wheezed, placing her hand on her chest.
Rock stood still, watching Marie huff heavily. Rock cautiously walked over towards her, and said, "I didn't want to hurt you, bu-"
The sudden flash of energy that shot from Marie's cannon would have hit Rock square in the chest, had he not slid on the floor underneath the blast. "Damn!" Marie cursed, springing back to her feet.
"You-!" Rock blurted out, glaring angrily at Marie.
As Marie leapt back to her feet, Rock sent an evergy blast crashing into her chest, followed by a torrent of water. Marie was sent head over heels onto the floor again, soaking wet and starting to tremble. As Rock approached her again, Marie bolted back up, throwing a wild kick at Rock's face. Rock dodged underneath her foot with ease, jamming his cannon into her side and unleashing another blast of water into her ribs, sending her skidding across the room on her face, stopping when she hit the wall on the other side. Again Marie collapsed, falling over onto her face. "Ow, please stop!" she begged, propping herself up onto her hands and knees. "Okay, you win, alright?"
Rock glared at her doubtfully. "You're not just going to try and cheapshot me again, are you?" Rock growled.
"No, I'm really hurt," Marie moaned, cradling her side across her stomach. "You've really damaged me very badly this time."
Marie began to tremble, and Rock found himself believing her. "You've seen the repair pod in Alpha's office, right?" Rock asked. Marie nodded. "If we can yet you out of this room," Rock began, letting his mind wander, "then I'm sure it's got enough charge left in it to-"
Another shot roared from Marie's cannon as his mind snapped back on track, clipping the edge of Rock's shoulder armor as he slid to the floor again. "Dammit," Marie hissed, "Why won't you stay still?"
Rock felt his blood start to boil. "All right, Marie, now you're pissing me off," Rock hissed.
Marie was back to her feet in a flash, firing off cannon shots wildly with reckless abandon. Rock tried his best to weave between and dodge the blasts, but the sheer number of speeding energy bolts were too much for him to handle. After being hit by six shots to his chest, Rock stumbled over onto his back as the last of the shots zoomed over him. Rock propped himself onto his knee, just to have Marie rush in on him again and plant her heel onto his nose. Rock was knocked over his head and onto his stomach to the floor, feeling a wide trail of blood leaking from his nostrils. As he groggily picked himself up, his head was spinning too much to see Marie aim her cannon straight for the middle of his chest and firing. The blast plowed into Rock's collar, sending him reeling backwards as Marie dove forward, thrashing her leg out at his jaw and connecting with another violent kick. Rock felt his teeth crack against each other as he crashed onto his side, spitting out a tooth. As Marie wound back her leg to kick Rock in the gut, Rock shot his cannon up and blasted out a bolt of lightning, stunning Marie in place again. As Marie struggled to move against the paralysing surge running through her body, Rock found the time to pick himself up, and recollect his scrambled senses. By the time he had put his head back on order, he felt a sharp pain shoot though his shoulder. As Rock stumbled to keep his balance, he saw Marie retract and prime her leg again for another kick, setting her sights on Rock's head. Marie struck, with Rock throwing his arm up just in time to hook Marie's foot above his shoulder. Marie squeaked with surprise as she hopped on one foot, too surprised by having her leg caught to notice that Rock was already charging his cannon. Without a single word, Rock shoved the barrel of his fully charged cannon into Marie's chest again, unleashing its fury directly into her.
Marie landed hard on her back, followed by a sharp shriek. Marie rolled over onto her side, trembling and convulsing, struggling to get up on her knees. "Rock, I can't take any more," Marie moaned, coughing in between her groaning. "I give up... just stop, please?"
Rock snorted. "You think I'm stupid enough to buy that again?" Rock snarled, starting to charge his arm cannon.
"No! Please!" Marie begged, holding her hand out at Rock, as if trying to protect herself. "I can't take any more! You'll kill me!"
"Where have I heard that before?" Rock hissed, feeling his cannon approach full power.
"Rock!" Marie begged, "I'm not lying this time! I swear! I can't take any more damage!"
"Damage this!" Rock roared, thrusting his cannon forward and unleashing a massive energy blast at Marie's chest. The giant blast tore a hole through Marie's body, spewing gears and pistons out the other side. Marie fell with a limp thud onto her back, and lay motionless.
Rock kept his cannon aimed at Maire's torso, half-expecting to hear more of her pleading. A minute passed with absolute silence, and then another, and then Rock realised had happened. "Marie!" Rock gasped, dashing to her side.
Rock knelt down at her shoulders and cradled her head in his arm. Rock could see her struggle to keep her eyes open, and a weak smile was strewn across her face. "I don't blame you for not believing me," Marie whispered weakly, "I would have done the same... thing."
As Marie's hair dangled between Rock's fingers, he could not help but imagining Dawn in Marie's place, feeling like he had lost another friend. "I should have listened," Rock muttered under his breath, running his fingers through Marie's hair under her head.
Rock kept stroking Marie's hair as Marie wheezed, trying to comfort her as she lay dying. "Rock," Marie asked, "You weren't just using me for information, were you?"
Rock stroked Marie's hair some more. "No," he said at length, "I wasn't."
"Why?" Marie asked again, "Why did you say I was cute?"
"You," Rock murmured, taking a deep breath, "you remind me of someone. Someone I knew a long time ago."
Marie sighed uneasily. "Another human?" She wheezed. Rock nodded. "What was... her name?"
"Dawn," Rock replied blankly.
Marie weakly chuckled. "That's ironic, Rock," she grinned, "my name's really not Marie."
"It isn't?" Rock asked.
"No, Marie is just what everyone calls me."
Rock bit his tongue. "Then what is your real name?"
Marie closed her eyes, took a deep sigh, and whispered, "Eve."
Marie's body loosened, and Rock felt Marie's head like a dead weight on his arm. He held her to his chest and sobbed.