Chapter 6: Rock

Disclaimer: I do not own Mega Man.

The command center was putting everything into the skills of its elite networkers to try and encrypt any of the messages that were found on the net while Commander Eva looked over the massive task force. Most of the operators were working on trying to make another robot with the help of Dr. Light, the leading engineer being Dr. Naomi Hunter, the professor from the previous Pride Man project. This would be Pride Man's successor, a robot that was developed from the blue prints of Mega Man, oddly named Rebirth with the same weapons only the system would be something else that would be developed from the plasma energy coils that were developed in Mega Man's system. The project was having great success though it did seem that Dr. Naomi was looking at ways to counter many plasma based attacks as if to develop something to fight against Bass.

Everyone noticed that there was a bordering obsession with the engineer and the prospect of defeating Bass out of feelings of revenge for the original Pride Man. It wasn't probably just the fact that Bass defeated Pride Man it was the fact that he had actually been able to do it so easily, as if the robot was trash and then criticized it. If there was one thing that Dr. Naomi Hunter never took well it was criticism, especially when it came from a robot built by the infamous Dr. Wiley. If anything, that was what all the hatred was traced back to, her strict teacher and superior, Dr. Albert Wiley, who had been very harsh in his judgment of her work, even going so far as to openly condescend her in the work place. That built up hatred had made Bass's comments all the harsher just by him being created by Dr. Wiley.

"Dr. Hunter, are you alright," asked Light as he looked at her very intense glare at the blue prints for Bass that she had kept on her computer for later points when she could get her revenge on him. Reluctantly, she had agreed to help with Bass's weapons system, trying to find some way to increase his left eye piece that had ever been as functional as the right causing Bass to have a problem with depth perception. It was odd when one thought about it, the only thing preventing Bass from defeating Mega Man was the problems at firing that his creator had never thought to fix, instead trying to compensate for it with his rapid fire buster.

"Yes I'm alright just looking over at the problems with the left eye," replied Naomi as she started to rub her eyes while thinking of how to fix it. Any other robot would have had a very easy system to fix, but with Bass there were specific decisions that had proven to be more complex than even Mega Man's eye pieces. "Right now his right eye could spot a target at a distance of three hundred meters and hit a bulls eye, but the fact that is eye sight is modeled after a humans own abilities, the left eye throws him off by being non operational so it takes longer for him to completely zero in on a target. The only thing I could think of is to have the distance split between both eyes so that each eye has equal capabilities, but to do this we would need to design a new system to replace the current eye mechanism."

"I think we can write that up in time for it to be ready when he gets back," said Dr. Light as he started flipping through the channels and found that there was something else in the files, something that looked like a virus. "May I ask just what exactly this would be?"

"Oh this is a virus that I designed to render most Robot masters with Wily encryption useless," replied Naomi as she started open the page and showed the schematics and coding for the virus. "Originally I thought we could capture Bass and inject him with this virus so that he could spread to the other Robot Masters through contact. Since Dr. Wily used different encoding for his robots, the only ones affected will be the dangerous Wily bots."

"But not every Wily bot is working for Adamus, at the time you couldn't have known where Bass stood in allegiance," argued Dr. Light in an attempt to see what the true purpose was.

"We decided that it was worth the sacrifice and now would be the perfect time to implant the virus into him. I've been over his encoding and there is a chance that his codes might survive the outbreak, plus we would have ended a war and saved lives."

"It is still unethical while he still has a choice and to do so would open the realm to misunderstandings that would lead to a dark place. It is better to stop such thoughts before they manifest in a harmful way."

"Alright, I'll just take it out of the chip encoding," replied Dr. Hunter as she started to go back to the chips codes, waiting until Dr. Light was gone to start searching for a good place to place the virus. "I will not let you be a threat after this war is over so even though I may be arrested for this, I'm going to give you this virus. It won't affect you until a later date, but when it does, the war will be over."

Bass dashed from side to side to avoid the gusts of whirlwind that were being blown at him, but he was unable to get a clear shot of his target because he was dodging the attacks. With his shot being very powerful and the two Light bots being in the area, Bass had to be very careful with his aim. Normally a wild shot would easily gain him victory, but without them he would have to think a bit. Ducking down, Bass aimed his buster arm at Air Man and fired the shot right into the mouth of the Robot master, sending it flying through the wall. The impact left a loud sound of the ringing of metal and the crunch of different plastic parts. Bass just stood up and brushed himself off before heading for the air craft that would take them all out of there.

"Took you long enough," said Proto Man as he stood in the door way, but Bass only gave him the finger before walking towards the cockpit. "You've got some new tricks up your sleeve, but you should really learn how to think in situations where you can't use rapid fire."

"Perhaps next time I'll just shoot and not worry about what I hit," spat Bass as he plopped himself right into one of the seats of the sonar readers. "Just get this thing flying before they send another hunk of metal for me to scrap."

"Could at least say please," grumbled Roll as she activated the pulse jets in the wing and then the tail jets to push the air craft on the run way. The motorize wheels sent the plane into its run while the jets added to the momentum of the plan ensuring that it would overcome the slope and shoot it straight into the air.

"Plot a course for the base, I want to see if anyone could point me into the direction of the next useless fort that Adamus has built," ordered Bass as he sat back in his chair and closed his eyes.

"That is a good idea to go back and get some support," remarked Proto Man before Bass scoffed at the idea.

"I don't need nor want support, I just need someone to tell me where I can find what I want," declared Bass before adding with a smirk, "or at least show me who to ask."

"Incoming transmission from Doctor Light," said Roll as she started to patch intot eh communicator.

"What do you want old man," asked Bass, his face now more alert than before with a mask devoid of any emotion.

"As kindly as ever I see, Bass," replied Dr. Light before clearing his throat. "I've been looking at a new eye system that should clear up all the visual problems and targeting problems that you seem to be having due to the improper function in your left eye. This new vision chip will decrease sight in your right eye while giving your other eye the ability to function and give you the ability to target enemies. "

"Well something to improve my ability to fight, you are more useful than my moronic creator," said Bass with a smirk at the thought of getting one more weapon in his arsenal against the blue dweeb and to make it sweeter, it was being designed by his own creator.

When Bass opened his eyes, he noticed how his view of the room had change when compared to the view before he had the chip implanted into his system. Things that he thought were closer were actually farther than he had seen before and he was able to see every detail into a better definition. If he wished to do he knew that he could shoot the wings off a fly without killing it. He put his hand out before himself and started to get a good look at it, noticing the polished black metal that almost shined like the sun. Everything was seen from a new perspective, something that he had been missing before, including the ability to see the beauty in such things that other Robots would find beautiful. Before everything seemed to be horribly misshapen, but now everything was the right proportion now. A bit too much for Bass because he soon found himself being overcome with a sense of lust that he had not known about before, something from the emotion programs that made him feel something of an ache.

What was even more shocking was the object of this new lust, Roll, the sister of his very enemy, the one robot who was weaker than the original Robot Masters that Wily used. There was just something in the way that she looked, even past the fact that she was a part of what was considered cute or beautiful. There was a sense of determination in her eyes that gave him a certain feeling whenever he saw it, that it was the way she would argue when most would just cower from him that made him crazy. He couldn't quite place it, it was probably something that was taken from another robot that was meant to be a companion to Roll if she felt lonely or wished to date like normal girls would. Bass was more determined now to beat Adamus so he could find his creator and destroy him in a blast of plasma for giving him a hand-me-down function from some nameless robot.

"So then Bass how do you feel," asked Dr, Light as he started to put a light into Bass's eye to see if there were any noticeable irregularities.

"My emotions chip must be acting up," grumbled Bass, a bit annoyed by his new found feelings that were driving the once unemotional robot crazy.

"That's an odd thing for you see a part of the flawed program called on the emotional chip so when we started to take out the chip your emotion chip was freed of the strain. I believe that this was the reason why you have been very determined for destruction because of the strain."

"There is one problem with your theory, I'm still a violent robot Master."

"I hoped that was the cause of that but I guess it was merely development," said Light as he started to hold a chip. "You see the chip you have is a chip I used to simulate the human emotion in every bit of complexity with something to build off of, though it seems that it also has an echo of another conscious on it."

"You mean my mindset it based off of someone else's, maybe a soldier," asked Bass as he looked at the visual chip with the W on it.

"Well not a soldier parse, but probably someone who was used to combat," said Dr. Light, trying to find the best way to say things. "You could also be a personality that was implanted to a computer chip because of a possible death, but the main thing is that you'll be feeling more emotional awareness than before. Now this only gives you some emotions but it seems that the feeling will die down momentarily."

"Well then tell me one thing, old man," said Bass as he leaned in forward. "What's the next target?"