Rock stared in amazement at the gigantic screen staring back at him. "I should have brought some popcorn," he said, taking time to glance around at the theater-like briefing room and taking a seat in the middle row.

"Well pay attention," said Isaac sitting down beside him as the lights went out, "because we don't have time for an encore."

The screen flashed, and Rock soon found himself looking at a picture of a power plant. "Hey, isn't that the same place I fought Lightning at?"

"That it is, and guess who's gone bezerk again?" said Isaac. "The Mavericks have secured nine locations, and of those nine, the power plant is the most vital. This facility must be taken back before the others. Are we clear so far?"

"Sure am," said Rock, stroking his neatly trimmed goatee. "So what are the other targets?"

"The national spaceport, cargo warehouse, the Reploid police division department, lightning diversion tower, commercial airport, railway control center, wildlife preserve, and the master media library."

Rock whistled. "Quite the list," he said.

"And it gets worse," said Isaac. "With these facilities, they intend to use their assets as vectors to spread the Maverick virus across the globe, and shut down the power grids to any counter-operative facilities, including this one. So far they haven't cracked the code system to shut down the intended grids, but it's only a matter of time before they do.

"Wait, if Lightning runs the power plant, wouldn't he know the codes?"

"Failsafe protocol," said Isaac quickly. "The memory banks that contain vital security information are deleted upon first detection of viral infection. You should be relieved."

"Believe me, I am," said Rock. "So, how long did this all take?"

"Forty-two hours," said Isaac. "By the time Jay confirmed the resurgence of the virus, their numbers had already increased. The built-in defenses were obliterated with relative ease. Unfortunately, they brought their own defenses along with them, so don't expect to just walk in and out."

"Wasn't in the first place. So, where's my armor?"

Isaac stood up as the lights flooded on again. "Right where you left it."

-

As soon as Rock had stepped into the teleport chamber, he found himself inside the power plant, looking exactly the same as it had last year. "Alice, are you there?" Rock asked.

"The anti-jammers are working fine, Rock," came Alice's voice in his ear through his helmet, "we shouldn't have a problem communicating, unlike last time."

"Good," said Rock, "It's always great to hear your voice."

Alice giggled. "You can flatter me later, Rock, but let's just get this job done, okay?"

"Alright," Rock sighed, "let's rock!"

The vibrating in his arm cannon was a welcome feeling as Rock charged it to maximum power, charging down the hallway. A small engine-like drone floated into view, and was quickly blasted back out. So far, so good, Rock thought to himself, recharging his cannon as he leapt over a chasm. Two more of the same drones swooped in on Rock, looking to ram themselves into him. With one quick hop into the air, Rock skidded along the floor on his side, zooming underneath the drones and flipping back up to his feet, whipping his arm around and unleashing a volley of blasts behind him. Without so much as dropping a bit of speed, Rock continued his mad dash down the main hallway, eventually coming to a screeching halt at a dead end. "Huh, I don't remember this being here," Rock muttered, looking at the chute-like drop before him.

"Well since you trashed the place," Alice hummed, not needing to go any further.

"Point taken," Rock said, boldly jumping down into the chute.

"Wait a second Rock," said Alice, "did you just come to a disposal chute?"

"Is that what that this was?" asked Rock as he fell.

"Tell me you didn't just jump in there."

Rock winced. "Okay, I won't. Why?"

"Rock," Alice breathed anxiously, "keep your cannon charged."

"Why don't I like the sound of that?" Rock muttered to himself, quickly heeding Roll's advice as he dropped out the other end of the chute.

The sight of what seemed to be thousands of flying drone machines was the first thing that greeted him, and they immediately began to swarm forwards. Running backwards as he shot frantically into the wall of menacing Mavericks, Rock remembered Storm's whirlwind weapon, and willed his systems to switch to the format. Aiming dead center into the sea of drones, Rock fired. Nothing but a single standard energy blast shot from his cannon, shooting down but one of hundreds of the drones quickly gaining on him. Cycling through the weapons he thought he had acquired a year ago, Rock was surprised and horrified to discover that all he was capable of was his lone arm cannon. As the drones came within sweeping distance, Rock pivoted on his heel and just decided to run for his life. Spotting an opening on the ceiling at the dead-end ahead of him, Rock leapt onto the wall, launching himself up into another chute, bounding from side to side upwards as he charged all the energy he could pack inside his arm cannon. And as the hundreds of drones struggled to cram themselves up the compact chute after him, Rock aimed his cannon into the center of them and firing.

The explosion that followed launched Rock out of the top of the chute, bouncing his body off a wall and a few feet down the following hallway. Dazed and woozy, Rock picked himself up wearily and stumbled down the corridor, suddenly hearing something heavy slam down behind him. Rock's vision uncrossed as he glanced over his shoulder to see that a large iron shutter had just cut him off from the rest of the hallway. "Oh great, not these things again," Rock complained, banging his fist in futility against the shutter. Sighing and shaking the fog from his head, Rock stared at the other shutter ahead of him. "Alice, is this where Lightning's holed himself up in?"

"Judging by how much interference I'm getting," said Alice's static-riddled voice, "it must be."

Rock sighed, charged his arm cannon, and walked towards the shutter. "Time to have a little chat with my old pal."

As soon as Rock approached the shutter, it flew up into the ceiling, allowing him a few seconds to pass underneath before it came slamming down again, trapping him inside the room beyond. "Well well," came a familiar voice, "if it isn't the Blue Bomber again."

Rock looked around the room, trying to spot Lightning in the near complete darkness. "Hey Lightning, long time no see," said Rock, "how's the other guys I blew up last year?"

"Fine, I guess," came Lightning's voice again. "Hopefully they've come to their senses too."

"Come to their senses?" Rock asked, "You mean being infected, don't you?"

"Either works."

Rock rolled his eyes. "You know, I'm sure we've got a lot of catching up to do, but I've got a lot of work ahead of me, Lightning. So since I know you're not giving up this place without a fight, why don't you just show yourself already and get this over with?"

Rock's request was answered by a surging blast of power slamming into his back, knocking him face-first onto the floor. "Fine," said Lighting, emerging from the shadows and stepping into the more well-lit center of the room.

Still feeling the power surge tickling his fingertips, Rock sprung back to his feet, and whirled around to glare eye-to-eye with Lightning. "Alright then," he said, charging his arm cannon, "let's rock."

Rock let loose a fierce blast of energy, but Lightning's superior speed allowed him to easily sidestep the blast, extend an open hand towards Rock, and unleash a crackling lightning bolt, zapping Rock square in the chest. Rock stood paralyzed on his feet, shaking from the charge of electricity surging through his body. Once he was finally able to move again, Rock instinctually leapt up into the air, and double-jumped for good measure, watching another speeding lightning bolt sizzle underneath him. As soon as he landed again, Rock coiled his knees and pushed off against the floor, zooming across the room with his leg armor's hover-dash function, stopping just in time to point his arm cannon into Lightning's chest and firing a fully charged blast. The point-blank blast blew Lighting into the air and against a wall, and Rock wasted no time in charging at Lightning again. Lightning suddenly crossed his arms, and flung them spread-eagle with a mighty scream, unleashing a fierce wave of electricity upon the entire room, flooring Rock in an instant. As soon as Rock sprung back to his feet, Lightning planted his palm on Rock's left shoulder, and let a massive current of electricity channel though Rock's body. With Rock's left side totally paralyzed, Lightning sneered and said, "There's no way I'd let you beat me three times, Bomber. Where's your drills now?"

Mustering all the strength he could into his right leg, Rock wound his foot back and grinned weakly. "Who needs drills," he murmured, swiftly jamming the toe of his foot armor into the ground, "When you've got pointy boots?"

The surge of power running through Rock's body immediately ceased, and soon Lighting was staring down the barrel of Rock's arm cannon. "That's no fair," Lightning whined before Rock fired directly into Lightning's face, blowing his head clean off his shoulders.

Rock collapsed to his knees and breathed a long sigh of relief. "Whew, hey Alice," Rock groaned, sore from all the electrical abuse, "I'm done. Tell Jay to get the teleporter ready."

"Good to hear," said Alice. "With Lighting no longer in control, that'll shut down any Maverick plans to take the power grid offline. So what happened to Lightning?"

Rock snickered. "You could say he couldn't keep his head on."

"Good," said Jay's voice inside Rock's helmet, "I was hoping for something like that. Rock, would you mind bringing Lightning's head along with you?"

Rock scooped up Lighting's severed head in his arm. "Sure, but why?" he asked.

"You'll see," said Jay's voice as Rock vanished in a flash of light.