And Rhythm it was. Rhythm blinked her eyes, teleporting was so strange. To think robots used to do it all the time. Rush gave a small woof, bringing Rhythm out of her dazed state. She smiled and gave the robotic pooch a pet.

"You've done this a lot, haven't you?" she asked. Rush simply grinned. Rhythm looked around, according to the most recent news stories, there was a Robot Master hanging around the abandoned construction site. Rhythm took a deep breath and stepped forwards.

"Meg- Rhythm?" her dad suddenly said through the com system, nearly making Rhythm jump. She shook her head, a little upset at herself for being so jumpy.

"Y-yeah?" she stuttered.

"Are you okay?" her dad continued. Rhythm nodded

"I'm alright, just a little jumpy. Teleporting feels a little weird." she explained. The sound of her dad chuckling came through her helmet.

"You'll get used to it, don't worry." he assured her. Rhythm smiled.

"Okay." She looked around, the visor was so her dad could see what she was seeing, even at home. "The construction site looks even worse than it did." Rhythm mumbled, not through her headset. She started walking towards it. One part of her was full of fear, she was going into a derelict old construction site that now housed a dangerous Robot Master that possibly wanted to destroy her. On the other hand, she was able to actually go in and take a look around. The 'Do not enter' sign had been on the white, now destroyed, fence as long as she could remember. She stepped nervously over the smashed picket fence. Rush bounded ahead of her, obviously more used to eerie destroyed construction sites than her. He looked back at her expectantly. Rhythm sighed.

"You win, boy." she whispered, picking up her pace. The site was really quiet, old dirty construction helmets lay scattered around, and the huge construction machines hung around at odd angles. The whole place was like a forest that had just been destroyed by a hurricane. Rhythm kept walking forwards, Rush didn't want her to slow down one bit. He seemed so confident, meanwhile Rhythm was a nervous wreak. She turned on the com system again.

"Dad?" she asked.

"Yes?" Rhythm looked around.

"Were there lots of places like this when you were Mega Man?" she asked. Rhythm heard her dad sigh.

"Yes, sometimes they were even worse than this." he replied. Rhythm looked at an exceptionally huge chunk of concrete.

"Did you ever find people?" she asked, a little scared.

"Sometimes, but normally they were alright. The Robot Masters still have the 'do not attack humans' somewhere in their programming." Rhythm's dad said. Rhythm smiled.

"So that's why you don't have anger issues." she teased.

"Very funny, Megan."


Later, after walking past destroyed construction work after destroyed construction work, Rhythm found the first Robot Master. He was in what looked like an abandoned apartment foundation, and reminded her of a traffic cone in his coloring. Rhythm made a shushing motion to Rush, then started sneaking up on the robot. She was doing pretty well until she stepped onto a loose cluster of dirt. Rhythm skidded down the slope into the foundation. She landed with a jarring crash onto the bottom. Rhythm heard Rush barking and assumed that he was racing down to help her.

"Who might you be?" a very deep voice asked. Rhythm looked up, the Robot Master was staring right at her. Rhythm gulped, and shakily stood up.

"Rh-rhythm." she stuttered. She tried moving more but she was frozen to the spot with fear. The Robot Master rolled his eyes.

"Is there something wrong with your processor? Because you look like you damaged it in the fall." he said sarcastically. That snapped Rhythm out of it.

"Did not!" she snapped. The big robot laughed loudly. Rhythm took a step back, she didn't get this guy.

"That's more like it, little miss! I knew that you were a fighting robot, probably hot off the furnace." the big robot exclaimed. Rhythm took another step back, brushing against Rush. She looked at him, he seemed just as confused as she was. He barked, getting Rhythm's head back into the game. Rhythm nodded and faced the robot.

"What's your name?" she asked. The Robot Master pointed at himself.

"Caution Man, I was based off the muscle of the original Robot Master line, but enough about me, what about you? Are you like that Mega Man guy I've heard about? Fighting for peace or that whatnot?" he asked, pointing at Rhythm. Rhythm took a deep breath, letting her anger fuel her determination.

"That's right, and either you stand down, or I'll have to make you." she announced, trying to look strong, not sure that it looked right. She clenched her fist, feeling her weapon, named the Rhythm Buster, take its place. Caution Man grinned.

"I was hoping somebody would defy the Doc, that would mean I would get to really fight. Round one!" he exclaimed, quick as anything getting into a battle pose. Rhythm raced around to the other side of Caution Man, firing the Rhythm Buster with little success. She had next to no practice with it, just a couple of shots to understand how it worked. Now, practice was over. Her shots had to hit their mark or she wouldn't have a chance. Rush raced in every so often, driving Caution Man closer to Rhythm. Yet only about two percent of Rhythm's shots actually hit Caution Man. The big orange bot laughed. "A newbie, huh? This is gonna be too easy." he said, firing a huge cannon at Rhythm. Rhythm backed up as quickly as possible, avoiding the powerful, bright, traffic cone? Rhythm just stared at it.

Caution Man fired a couple more of them, all of them missing. Rhythm didn't get it. What would traffic cones do? A lot as she found out in the next couple of seconds. The tops of the cones suddenly started pulsing with energy. Rhythm ran away from the circle just in time. A charge of electricity coursed around the triangle of cones. Rhythm ducked behind a boulder, Rush quickly catching up.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Caution Man exclaimed. Rhythm had to think fast, Caution Man would find her quickly. She stole a quick glance at him, he was definitely burly, but he seemed to rely on those traffic cones to get in close, which indicated he was incredibly slow. Rhythm grinned, she had a plan. She looked at Rush, he was quietly growling at Caution Man.

"Okay, Rush, I need your help to trip Caution Man. I've got a plan." Rhythm told him. Rush nodded, and leapt forwards. Rhythm dashed out from behind the boulder, making some cover fire around her. Which wasn't really too hard to do with her apparent poor aiming.

"Work a little harder at your aim!" Caution Man exclaimed, turning around. Rhythm focused as hard as she could, she aimed as carefully as she could, moving her hand a little closer to her side. More of the shots hit. Caution Man looked like he was starting to feel it, but his grin showed he was still pretty confident he could win. "That all you got?" he asked, Rhythm forced a smile onto her face.

"No, actually." she said with as much confidence she could manage. Caution Man looked surprised, but reacted a second too late, just as Rhythm had hoped. Rush charged into Caution Man's legs, tripping him, and making him land flat on his back. Rhythm ran up as quickly as she could, letting her Rhythm Buster charge up. Just as Caution Man started propping himself up, Rhythm let the shot fly. It rammed into Caution Man, making him topple. Rhythm breathed hard, watching Caution Man short out. He gave a confident grin.

"If I'm right, you'll be like that Mega guy, and bring me to whoever built you to get reprogrammed, right?" he whispered. Rhythm wasn't sure what to say.

"Once this whole thing is over, hopefully." she whispered back. Caution Man nodded.

"I want to do something with my strength." he admitted just before coming offline. Rhythm backed up, Rush coming beside her. The fight sunk in, everything she had seen and heard sunk in. She had spoken to a robot who wanted to fight her like he was a real person, and reacted in a way that he had believed that she had been a robot as well. And she had won. Static buzzed through her helmet, breaking away to her dad's voice.

"Megan! Are you okay? We lost contact, what happened?" he exclaimed. Rhythm nodded.

"I'm fine, and guess what, I found Caution Man and beat him!" she exclaimed in a rush. She heard a squeal of surprise in the background, probably made by Roll.

"You did it, Megan! You really did it!" her dad exclaimed. Rhythm smiled, embarrassed.

"Rush helped me," she started explaining, before remembering something. "Dad, Caution Man said something about wanting to be reprogrammed. Why would he want that?" Rhythm asked.

"Some robots don't quite like what they're doing, they want to try to do something else. I wouldn't want to be programmed to do something I didn't want to do. It feels just awful." her dad explained. Rhythm nodded, half understanding.

"What happened?" she asked, wondering about her dad getting reprogrammed.

"It's a story for another time, right now, you need to finish your story. Have you gotten Caution Man's weapon yet?" Rhythm's dad asked. Rhythm shook her head,

"Not yet, should I do it now?" she asked.

"Yes, all you need to do is touch his weapon." Rhythm's dad said. Rhythm took a deep breath, preparing herself, and touched Caution Man's weapon. Instantly, all the information about it raced through Rhythm's head. The weapon was called the Caution Burst. Rhythm took a step back.

"I've got it."