Roll groaned as she again pulled at the chains shackling her to a stone pillar. She had been chained up for about three hours now, and her wrists were starting to get sore.
The blonde-haired robot girl couldn't believe her horrible luck. Megaman and Protoman were out training, Dr. Light and Auto had gone to get groceries and the pets had fallen asleep. This left the Light household almost completely unguarded, save for Roll.
The next thing Roll knew, Robot Masters had invaded the house and started stealing parts. Roll tried hiding from them, but was quickly spotted. Quick Man reasoned that using her could lure Megaman into a trap, and the others agreed with him. Thus, poor Roll was taken hostage, but not before one of the other Robot Masters wrote a note and left it behind.
The Robot Masters had drawn straws to see whom the unlucky one to guard Roll was going to be. It ended up as Stone Man, whom took the blonde robot girl to his 'zone', which was some sort of ruins in the desert.
If Roll had been organic, she would have been sweating buckets about now. The blazing hot sun was draining her energy supply rapidly, completely exhausting her. Stone Man, on the other hand, was accustomed to the heat and was unaffected.
Roll really hated being the 'damsel in distress' and wished that Dr. Light had made her more of a fighting robot. That way, she would have stood a chance against the invading Robot Masters and maybe even avoided capture. But because she was merely a house-cleaning robot, she was easy prey and was unable to fight back.
Roll paused from trying to break free of her chains as she looked at Stone Man, whom was standing on a stone a ways away, looking out amongst the desert.
"Hmm…Where IS that blue freak?" Stone Man asked aloud. "He should be here by now."
"You seem confident, Stone Man." Roll narrowed her eyes. "But you won't win. Megaman will destroy you without any effort at all!"
Stone Man turned. "I don't think you're in the position to talk back, lady." The large robot said, folding his arms.
"So what!" Roll cried, thrashing against the cuffs around each of her wrists. They didn't budge. "You and the others don't stand a chance! Megaman's beaten you all before! Now he's got Protoman and Duo helping him!" She breathed heavily, starting to lose more energy. "Face it, rockhead! Big brother's going to take you down!"
"You should be thankful that I'm not allowed to destroy you, shrimp. If I was, you'd be in pieces about now." Stone Man said, turning back to the desert.
Roll, in spite of her condition, smirked weakly. "Did I just strike a nerve there?" She asked. "Yeah, that's it! You know you're no match for Megaman! You know he could mop the floor with you! You just don't want to admit it!"
Stone Man spun around, his eyes flared up in anger. He leapt at Roll and landed right beside her. The large robot gripped Roll's face with his right hand.
"If I break that pretty little jaw of yours, maybe you'll shut up." Stone Man seethed.
Roll's eyes widened in horror as Stone Man grasped her face around the mouth, two of his fingers at the arena where her jaw connected to the rest of her head. No Robot Master had ever brought physical harm to her, so seeing Stone Man willingly doing this scared the poor girl out of her wits. Stone Man slowly applied pressure to his fingers, bringing severe pain to Roll's jaw. Roll screamed in pain, but all of her shouts went into the rest of Stone Man's hand, quieting them.
'He's really going to break my jaw!' Roll's thoughts screamed. 'Oh, no! Someone, please help me!'
"Hey, bricks-for-brains!"Stone Man's eyebrows raised at the sound of the familiar voice and turned around. In doing this, he let go of Roll.
Roll also recognized the voice, but not the way Stone Man did. 'That's not Megaman, and it's DEFINITELY not Protoman.' Roll thought. She looked around Stone Man to see the newcomer.
The newcomer stood on the stone tablet that Stone Man had previously been standing on, a determined and angry look on his face. If the shining, black armour didn't instantly give him away, the unique look of his helmet did.
"Bass?" Roll and Stone Man asked at once.
"What're YOU doing here?" Stone Man asked suspiciously.
"Isn't it obvious, has-been?" Bass folded his arms. "I'm here to take you out of commission and get that blonde out of here!"
"What do YOU care about her, fish-face?" Stone Man asked, narrowing his eyes. "If you had cooperated in the first place, you could have kidnapped her and used her to get your long-awaited fight with the blue bomber."
Bass seethed. "All I want is a FAIR, EVEN fight with Megaman!" He shouted. "In kidnapping his sister, I would have an unfair advantage! The last thing I want is Megaman not fighting at his fullest!"
"But that still doesn't explain why you're actually HELPING him." Stone Man countered.
"Wily keeps getting in the way of my fight with the blue bomber!" Bass continued. "His stupid plans keep coming up and he always needs me to help stall for time! Well, no more! I'll take you down and go on to destroy Wily! That way, when I fight Megaman, it will go completely uninterrupted!"
Stone Man stroked his chin in thought. "But why did you come HERE? You could have gone to fight one of the others." Suddenly, the stone robot came up with something. "You like her, don't you?"
Bass' eyes snapped open. "WHAT!"
"You like her." Stone Man jerked his thumb in Roll's direction. "Oh, man! That's rich! Wily's so-called 'best creation' has fallen in love with the sister of his sworn rival!"
Roll looked at Bass in surprise and suddenly saw him breathing heavier than ever before, his teeth clenched, his fists balled and his eyes narrowed in pure hatred.
"YOU DIE JUST FOR THAT!" Bass screamed, lunging at Stone Man.
Roll watched Bass fight Stone Man and cheered the black robot on. "Keep going, Bass! Yeah! Kick his head in!" She cheered, remembering that Stone Man had almost broken her jaw earlier.
Needless to say, Bass obliterated Stone Man. The stone robot lay on the sandy ground in about thirty pieces as Bass finally calmed himself down. The black-clad robot stepped over the broken pieces of Stone Man and walked over to the pillar Roll was chained to, the claws of Slash Man (whom he had defeated earlier) appearing in his hand.
Approaching the pillar close enough, Bass swung his arm with the claws, slicing through the chains keeping Roll bound to the pillar with ease. In three swings, Roll was free. The female robot quickly ran over to Bass and threw her arms around him.
"What the!" Bass said in surprise. "What do you think you're doing!"
Roll quickly pulled away. "Sorry, but I couldn't help myself." She replied shyly. "I'm just so glad someone finally came to save me. What I'm surprised at is that it turned out to be you."
Bass turned his head away. "I told you. I'm only out for a air fight with your brother. You being kidnapped puts him at a disadvantage, and I want an even playing field."
"Well, no matter what the reason is, you still saved me." Roll said. "Thank you very much. You actually came at just the right time."
"How so?" Bass asked skeptically.
"He was actually about to break my jaw when you arrived." Roll explained.
Bass was silent for a few seconds. "Well, don't get used to this heroism coming from me. It's a once in a lifetime thing."
"Eh, who knows? Maybe you'll change one day." Roll said. "I would certainly love it if you did."
Again, Bass remained silent for several seconds. "You'd better get out of here. Dr. Light is waiting for you return."
Roll's eyes widened in realization. "Oh, he must be so worried about me!" Roll turned to go, but stopped herself and looked at her rescuer again. "Oh, and Bass?"
"What?" Bass asked coldly.
Roll pressed her lips against Bass' cheek for a quick second, then pulled away. "Thanks again for saving me."
With that, Roll backed away and warped off, back to the Light household, leaving Bass standing amongst the broken pieces of Stone Man.
As soon as Roll was gone, Bass spun around and gave Stone Man's head a hard kick. "You think you can get away with trying to break her jaw?" Bass asked. "Well, think again!"
Bass sighed. He couldn't believe how close that was. Stone Man had found out Bass' secret feelings about Roll, but he didn't think Roll quite bought it. His secret was safe, if just for the time being.
A few seconds more and Bass warped away, towards the location of his next opponent.
END
