"There are some things that are unthinkable: there are some depths that not even demons would believe other demons would stoop to"
-Good Omens Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Dr. Light was resting in his hotel room in Olive, feeling uncomfortable about what had been bequeathed to him during that day's Will Reading. The event was an disquieting affair as the list of belongings was read off to the attendees. As the beneficiaries were read from the documents and the materials were dispersed, he and a colleague of his were left.
The colleague was Dr. Eric Grey, who worked for the EOS Corporation. He was also one who had loved Heather, but they had a nasty break up due to her decisions of her now missing son. The last belongings to be given out were the deeds of Heather's car, her house, the guardianship of her son, her finances, and a large box that was sealed with a special lock.
All that Dr. Grey got was Heather's finances. It was a rather modest sum of money but gaining the wealth did not satisfy him. He especially wanted to be the guardian of her son. But the law was the law and Dr. Grey had to accept his lot.
Dr. Light was given the rest, but there was an unusual condition. The lawyer told him that Dr. Light must keep guardianship of the materials until they could be bequeathed to Heather's son. The box contained the final part of Heather's Will, and the key to the lock was in the possession of the son.
Dr. Light grew ever increasingly worried about how he would try to find Heather's son. All previous attempts by the authorities had failed and searches had been fruitless.
It was nearing midnight, and the day's processions exhausted him. As he dressed into pajamas to go to bed, the thought he saw a bright green flash in the forest outside of his hotel window.
Tomorrow morning would be when Dr. Light would start to head for home.
-[+]-
The sun had started to rise as the rain continued to fall from last night. Bass had fallen asleep on his desk chair while Rhythm was resting in the bed. It was a rather peaceful night but at the crack of dawn, Bass's slumber was interrupted with the rattling of metal coming from Rhythm. It began quietly, but soon grew to a unsettling scraping of materials.
"Urgh…" Bass complained as he began to get up out of his chair and walked to Rhythm "Rhythm?" He asked as he poked the robot.
O-O-Owwwwwwww…i-it hurts…
Bass scratched his head as he looked at Rhythm's tablet. According to the transcription, the frail robot began feeling pain about half an hour ago.
"Rhythm? What's wrong?"
Rhythm then slowly began to open his eyes, which were watering. With his non weaponized arm, he held on to his arm cannon gently.
S-something is w-wrong with m-AHHHHH!
A painful but quiet screech emitted from Rhythm's Met mouth as the robot gripped on to the cannon.
I-ITS UNDER THE SKIN! I-ITS UNDER T-THE-GRAHHHHH!
Bass covered his ears as he made his way to his desk to get a screwdriver to open up the arm cannon, but it was welded shut. Rhythm's pain caused him to writhe on top of the black blanket.
MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP!
Bass banged on the side of the arm cannon to no avail.
"R-Rhythm, do you trust me? C-cause this will hurt a lot, but only for a brief moment."
Rhythm frantically nodded, and Bass put his foot against Rhythm's torso and grabbed his arm.
"One….two…three!"
Bass pushed his foot against Rhythm and pulled the pained arm away from the body, causing the arm to begin separating from the shoulder.
WAHHHHHHHH!MAKEITSTOP!
Bass grit his teeth as he readjusted himself to finish the crude amputation.
"One…" Bass took a deep breath as he tightened his grip "Twothreee!"
With a firm yank, Rhythm's arm detached from the body and sent Bass flying into his desk.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh….
Rhythm's pain subsided as Bass got up from where he landed with the detached arm in his hand.
"Has...has the pain stopped?" Bass meekly asked.
Rhythm quietly nodded, his wires poking out of his arm socket and sparking slightly.
"I'm gonna take this limb to the lab... take some time to recover…"
Rhythm nodded as he used his other arm to put on his headphones to listen to music.
"There's something inside me that pulls beneath the surface
Consuming, confusing
This lack of self control I fear is never ending
Controlling
I can't seem
To find myself again
My walls are closing in"
Bass dashed into the lab and took out an Rotary Tool to open up the back of the arm cannon, trying not to cut the wires underneath. After cutting out a rectangular panel, Bass began examining the original circuit board that was underneath. The wiring inside was all fresh due to the repairs and recognized his and Rock's handiwork, as they fixed the component together. However, upon further investigation, he noticed there was a red wire that he didn't recall installing. It connected itself to the CPU of the weapon, and the other piece was hidden away in the cannon. Bass shook the cannon part and heard a rattling that he hadn't heard before. He then pulled on the read wire, and it started to come out, taking the device it was attached to along for the ride.
Upon reaching the end of the wire, he found a Bluetooth enabled device with a familiar logo on it that read "Dr. W".
"DOCTOR ALBERT W. WILY!"
Bass stormed out of the lab, ran to Dr. Wily's bedroom and kicked the door in. The scientist was at his desk, analyzing a status screen on his computer which had a large red alert that read TEST FAILED-CONNECTION LOST. The scientist was still in his pajamas as well, though when bass entered it looked like the scientist was caught with his pants down.
"Bass!" Wily shouted! "Er, good morning! S-surprised to see you up so early!"
Bass shook the extracted part from Rhythm in front of Wily's face "WHAT IS THIS?! WHAT IS THIS?!"
"I-It's a tracking component, f-for Rhythm's safety!"
"Rhythm's safety my foot! I SAW YOUR LAPTOP SCREEN, YOU WERE TESTING SOMETHING IN RHYTHM!"
"How did you find out then?!" Wily retorted "Were you working on fiddling with his cannon to make him a weapon?!"
"Your little test was hurting Rhythm! Whatever you did was affecting him negatively and made him scream not only on his tablet but also made metal components in him squeal!" Bass fired back.
"Well how was supposed to know that?!"
"Maybe if your bedroom wasn't soundproofed you would have heard! And what were you intending to gather from this test?! RHYTHM ISN'T MADE TO BE A WEAPON!"
Dr. Wily scowled at Bass. His subterfuge was discovered and his defense was shot down.
"Fine then, what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm gonna fix Rhythm's arm and reattach it before Mega Man and Roll get here. You better get dressed... and you will not say A WORD about what you did nor will you try to pin it on me, alright?"
The scientist silently nodded and began to dress as Bass left the bedroom.
"One more thing doc," Bass spoke as he stood in the door frame "How did you even install that thing?"
"I put it in when I was testing the cannon" Wily admitted as he took his PJ top off "I installed it when you weren't looking."
"When no one is looking" Bass echoed "Your most common tactic."
Bass left Wily's bedroom and returned to his own, find that Rhythm was curled up on the bed and was lying on his armless side.
Are you and Dr. Wily done f-fighting?
Bass nodded "We are. I gave him a good dressing down and ensured that he wouldn't meddle with your internals. We'd better get to the lab. I have to reinstall your arm before Rock and Roll arrive."
Rhythm nodded, and Bass helped the one armed robot out of the bed and the two traveled to Wily's lab. Rhythm laid down on the worktable and Bass placed the removed limb next to Rhythm as he resealed the removed panel.
"Rhythm? what would you do if we can't find out who immured you?" Bass asked as he grabbed an acetylene torch from off the wall.
I would still search for the answer.
"Would you be obsessed with finding the answer?" Bass asked as he began welding the panel shut.
Not really, it would be along the lines of...a hobby.
"Wouldn't you already have a large amount of hobbies? You already have a lot of potential from what I've been able to determine."
What's wrong with multiple hobbies? Doing is one thing, enjoyment is something completely different.
"It's just that you want to do so much! Do you ever worry you can't handle it all?"
N-not really no, but I'd like you there to be with me when I do these things… I don't want to be l-lonely with these e-endeavors.
Bass smiled "I'd love to do things with you… no one wants to be lonely. The lone wolf wants to find a pack that appreciates him."
Bass finished sealing up the panel and then took a grinder to remove the welding slag that had accumulated on the arm. After the metal was smoothed, Bass began to reattach the arm.
"Mega Man and Roll should be arriving soon… don't tell anyone about what happened this morning."
Suddenly, a chime came from the front door.
"Speak of the angel" Bass commented "DOC?! CAN YOU GET THE DOOR?!"
"Alright! Alright! Alright!" Wily grumbled as he passed the lab with a mug of coffee in his hand.
When he opened the door, he noticed that Mega Man had a large smile plastered on his face and Roll was wearing a worried expression.
"He's been like this all morning, I have no idea why…." Roll explained.
Dr. Wily looked at the blue bot and cocked one of his bushy eyebrows "The heck? Is your programming out of whack?"
Mega Man shook his head as he entered "Nope! I just happen to have good news! I told Dr. Light about our situation last night."
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Dr. Wily exclaimed "W-What did he say?! It obviously was something good if you happened to be this ecstatic about it!"
"He was a little bit upset that I worked behind his back" Mega Man explained as he made his way towards the lab "He lauded my precautions and is actually curious about our project."
"Our project?" Wily asked as he scratched his bald head .
"Well since we worked on Rhythm so much together" Roll explained "this is technically our project."
Dr. Wily shrugged and he joined the two robots as they entered the lab. Rhythm was lying on the lab table, Bass was cleaning of some tools, and Mega Man and Roll were none the wiser about what transpired that morning.
"So," The doctor spoke as he put his mug down "are we ready to finish up the head?"
Mega Man and Dr. Wily got to working on reassembling the head. Roll and Bass wanted to assist but they soon discovered that four people working on the head collectively crowed the view for everyone. Bass and Roll collectively shrugged and decided to lean agains the wall near where Rhythm was sitting.
Roll sighed "Gee, it sure is boring around here…."
"Tell me about it" Bass remarked "Working on Rhythm has been pretty much the longest time I've stayed at Wily's lab within the past year."
"Well what do you do when you're not here?" Rock inquired.
"I go to my hideout and relax there most of the time. Treble is there if you were curious about him."
"You have a hideout?!" Roll asked, prompting nods from both Bass and Rhythm.
"Yep" Bass answered as he brushed some dust off his shoulder pad.
"How did you even get to acquire such a place?" Rock asked.
Y-yeah Bass, I was w-wondering about that.
"Well theres no way I'm going to a real estate office and purchase a place and transport it to the middle of nowhere. It's a small prefab place like you can get some of the flat pack furniture stores. It's kind of like an apartment that has been removed from the building itself."
"Well how did you get the money to pay for such a thing? I mean, does Dr. Wily give you an allowance or something?!"
Bass shook his head "He'd never do such a thing. When I was first built, Dr. Wily created me to be entirely dependent on him. My personality however clashed with this intended plan."
That still doesn't e-explain how you got the money for your h-hideout.
Bass unashamedly grinned "If you look at my wanted poster, I'm wanted more for being an associate of Dr. Wily."
R-really? W-what have you done?
"Robberies, car theft, dirty deeds to acquire personal wealth..."
Roll frowned and crossed her arms "Any assaults or muggings?"
Bass shook his head "I only get into fights if someone tries to fight me first. I don't go out to pick fights, robots come out to try to fight me."
Because you're one of the s-strongest, right?
Bass nodded "Yep, that's exactly the case. Even when I put these robots in their place, they still come back for more. The only time I'll seek out a fight is if the robot claims to be actually stronger but won't prove their mettle against me, or if their name begins with 'M' and ends with 'Ega Man'."
"Then why aren't you trying to fight me now?!" Rock shouted from across the room.
"I want an audience, alright?!" Bass bashfully replied "I want people to see that I was able to defeat you! I want it to be a grand spectacle of a fight. I want it so that there would be irrefutable evidence that I won and came on top."
Rock just shook his head and continued working on Rhythm's head "When we're done, I'd like to look at your head, Bass."
"And why is that?" Bass harshly replied.
"I want to see if you have a screw loose."
Roll and Rhythm chuckled a bit while Bass rolled his eyes.
"Very funny…" Bass groaned "Well at least we shouldn't worry about putting Rhythm's head back on."
A-actually Bass, I-I am very w-worried about having my o-original head b-being put back on.
"Rhythm's right" Roll said with a nod "When putting the Met on Rhythm's head, we narrowly dodged a bullet as his power hit a critical low. We don't want to leave this to chance. What should we do?"
Bass and Roll scratched their heads, while Rhythm started scribbling on his notepad for ideas. He drew the top of a torso, and approximation of the two heads, his own and the temporary one. He connected the temporary head to the torso, and then rubbed his head with the eraser of his pencil.
H-how about we attach a second pair of wires to my t-temporary head so that the o-original head is first c-connected to the temporary and then my body.
Bass and Roll looked at the rough image and considered the plan.
"How about we start a set of wires extending from the original head" Roll began, erasing the lines that represented the wires "and attach those to the torso before we remove the temporary one?"
T-that might work… b-but we'll need to test it first, just incase.
Roll smirked as her gaze turned towards Bass.
"Really?!" Bass complained "Why me?"
"Because Rock is busy with Dr. Wily" Roll spoke "And there's no way he's gonna allow my head to be to tinkered on by a Wily bot."
Bass groaned and rolled his eyes in defeat "Fine, but we'll need to find a head to put on my shoulders, what are we gonna use?"
Well… In the junk room I saw this s-strange white thing that kind of looked like a giant head, from a LEGO minifigure…maybe we should try that.
Bass nodded, and made his way to the junk room to find the test cranium that Rhythm first noticed.
As Roll and Rhythm prepared tools for the experiment, Dr. Wily and Mega Man were finishing up the reassembly of Rhythm's head. The internals were fixed, but they didn't replace the damaged right eye nor gotten rid of the scar that was underneath it. Eyes were expensive, and replacing Rhythm's skin would also be a costly endeavor.
"I don't have the money to fix the ascetics of this robot" Wily remarked "Besides, the scar adds a bit of character."
"That or 'I'm weak, please don't hurt me'" spoke Mega Man.
"That's the sad thing isn't it" Wily solemnly replied "no matter what we do for Rhythm, he will never be the exact same robot he was before what happened to him. His voice box notwithstanding."
Mega Man quietly nodded "After all the fighting you and I have done, it can never be the same as when you and Dr. Light made the first robot masters."
Wily nodded as well "That's true, but I must ask something."
"And that is?"
"How does it feel to be working on a robot with me?"
"To be perfectly honest, I'm rather enjoying it" Mega Man replied "It's because it's reminiscent of the stories Dr. Light told me about you before you lost your head"
Dr. Wily chuckled "How appropriate that we are working on one."