Chapter 7

The True Nature of the Threat


"Quick, Roll! Call an ambulance!" Dr. Light ordered.

"No!" cried X. "Do that and they'll haul him off to jail soon as he's recovered."

Rock looked slightly bewildered. "And that's bad how?"

X looked his younger self right in the eyes. "Look, Rock. Things're going weird right now, and Wily probably has part of the answer. We also don't want anybody else to know, and the authorities would record any conversation you had with him."

Rock sighed, before grabbing the system scanner from off a table and adjusted it to read human signals. "I hate it when you're right. Anybody here know how to put humans back together?"

X, Zero, and Iris all raised their hands. "All part of the job," Zero said grimly.

Rock nodded before dashing out the door in order to help his injured nemesis.

Bass grit his teeth as he looked at the image of the comatose scientist lying in the grass and cursed. "Why can't my life ever be simple? Just this once..." Bass stopped as he felt an arm wrap around his waist and looked down see Roll. He simply put his arm around her shoulder and stood there silent as he watched Rock dash toward Wily.

*************

Rock ran as fast as he could, and as he was a robot capable of speeds far surpassing humans, it was unsurprising that he reached Wily's comatose form within moments. Wily was facedown. Before Rock could turn him over, a voice from behind stopped him. "I did a quick scan. There's no other 'bots in the area."

Rock turned to see his brother, once again dressed as Protoman. "Don't you have anything better t' do than stalk the house?" he asked.

Protoman shrugged. "Not really. You gonna check Wily out or what?"

Rock nodded and turned his attention to the unconscious scientist. He turned him over, and barely managed to swallow a curse before it could escape his lips. Rather futile, as Protoman uttered a profanity vile enough for the both of them.

Wily's shirt had a near-perfect hole burned into it, and underneath...

"Erg," Protoman muttered. "If I could barf, I think I would."

"You 'n me both, bro," Rock agreed. He scanned Wily with his scanner and whistled. "Wow..."

"What is it bro?" Protoman asked.

"This wound was created by a plasma blast. That'd explain why the wound's already cauterized..."

"Hold it bro," Protoman interrupted. "Plasma? Did you say plasma?!"

Rock nodded grimly. "Yeah, but this wound is way too shallow. Doesn't even penetrate to any of his internals. A plasma bolt with any sort of power behind it should have..."

"Gone right through to the other side," Protoman finished. Rock nodded. Protoman sighed as he removed his shield from his back. "Well, we aren't going to solve anything standing here and talking about it. Let's get him inside and patched up. He'll be able to answer all our questions when he wakes up."

Rock nodded again. "Right. Let's get moving."

Protoman and Rock gently picked Wily up and placed him atop Protoman's shield, and, using the shield as a makeshift stretcher, transported him back to Dr. Light's lab.

************

Hours later, Wily's wounds were cleaned and dressed, and he was resting peacefully. And, according to Iris, would probably be awakening sometime withing the next day or so.

Rock entered the game room where the other robots currently were. Bass and Roll were watching a movie, X was playing a portable video game and Zero and Hadrian were engaged in a game of table tennis. Rock collapsed in a vacant bean bag chair and rubbed his eyes. "This is so frustrating!" he said through clenched teeth. "We have no idea what's going on here, Wily's the answer to it all, and he's down and out for who knows how long! This is completely new to me, and believe it or not, I don't like new experiences."

Zero shook his head, as he returned Hadrian's serve. "I think it's more you don't like feeling useless. Believe me, I can relate. But what choice do we have?"

Hadrian grinned as he sent the ball back to his opponent. "Well, we could just raid Wily's current base. We do have somebody here with an intimate knowledge of the place..."

"No good," X replied. "We don't even know if the threat came from there in the first place. We don't know if the Space Node is even still there. We don't know who-or what-caused us to come here. There's too many unknowns to just charge in recklessly guns blazing. I don't like it any more than you do, but I think now would be the time to err on the side of caution."

At that moment, Dr. Light and Iris entered the room. "Hey, Doc," Hadrian greeted. "Any news?"

"Albert is still resting peacefully. He's more than stable, and will be just fine given enough time."

"How 'bout the wound?" Rock asked. "Any reason it's so minor?"

Dr. Light held up a small skull-shaped object. "Recognize this?"

Rock looked at the object quizzically. "Sure. It's that wacky belt buckle Wily's taken to wearing. So?"

"Albert's put a kind of emergency escape unit in this buckle that was designed to teleport him away from a fatal hit the moment of impact. It's powerful, too. Designed to teleport him to Earth from the Space Node. Unfortunately, he made a slight error in his calculations and the plasma bolt actually got to him before he teleported away."

Rock winced. "Owch!"

"So when's he gonna be able to talk?" Hadrian asked.

Dr. Light shrugged. "Not until morning at least. The wound wasn't fatal, but it was pretty darn close. Albert was in a lot of pain for an extended period of time. He almost went into shock. He needs to rest."

X sighed. "I guess if that's what we have to do, but the sooner we fight out what's going on, the better."

"I second that," Bass agreed.

Zero made a dive in attempt to volley the ping pong ball back to Hadrian, but missed, giving the winning point to his opponent. "Well, I guess the most we can do is head to bed, but we should have one of us at Wily's bedside, just in case."

Iris nodded. "Yes, but it should probably be someone from this time period. He probably won't be in the best mental state when he wakes up, and the sight of one of us might send him off the deep end."

Rock stood up and stretched. "All right. I'll take the first watch. I don't think I'll be able to get much sleep tonight anyway."

************

Sigma sighed with satisfaction. He finally managed to crack the program, and it was just what he was looking for. Schematics, power output, location-it was all here. Now all he had to do was send a team of Robot Masters to the planet, unearth the pod buried there, and bring it back. Sigma chuckled. Zero, I may not be able to own your future self, but in your current state...the Age of the Reploids will begin now!

************

It was two in the morning when Dr. Wily awoke. Roll was the one on watch, when Wily suddenly cried out in seeming pain and fear. Roll put down the romance novel she was reading and ran to his side. "Doc!" she yelled. "DOC!!!"

Wily awoke with a start and almost panicked again when he saw Roll. "It's okay, doc. It's okay," Roll said in a soothing voice.

Dr. Wily calmed down, as Rock, Hadrian, X and Zero charged in. Wily seemed relieved to see them all, especially Zero. "What's goin' on here?" Rock asked.

Wily had trouble talking, but he was able to say what he had to say. "It was...it was...Sigma. H-he somehow managed to...to infect my...my computer. H-he tried to kill me. He now has control of th-the Node..." Wily slipped into unconsciousness.

Everyone was silent for a moment after that. X was the first to speak. "Sigma! If he's here, and in this time period, then there's only one thing he'd be after."

Zero nodded grimly. "Me."