Wily Ga Taosenai

by GrimMoody

The third story of my between Classic and X series quintology. It's the beginning of the robot apocalypse, and many friends, new and old, will be forever lost.

2. The First Fallen

www. youtube. com/ watch?v=wlDWXv-cIh8&feature=related

It had been five years since the death of Dr. Light.

Roll, equipped with her spider-bot assistant Dub, flew in helicopter mode over the Californian landscape. It had been Bass' idea for Crystal Bot to build her lab in the far north part of the large state, but Roll figured that Crystal would have tried to hide her lab in any case. Crystal, though social in most cases, was very private when it came to her scientific progress. The housekeeper-bot knew how this was. She sent a narrow beam, heavily encoded signal to her destination.

" - Sona-chan, it's Roll, and I'm almost there! - "

There was no response, and Roll frowned. Did it always take her friend this long to confirm her entry? This pondering distracted Roll for a moment, and she barely noticed in time when a voice from behind her started yelling.

"Get out of the way!"

Dub quickly pulled Roll away from the robot coming in at missile speed behind her. It was Bass; or rather she assumed that the purple blur passing her by was Bass merged with his trusty wolf. But unfortunately, this change in trajectory sent Roll right in the path of another blur, this one more brown than any other color. With two screams, Roll and Crystal Bot collided and fell to the ground.

"Roll-chan, are you okay?" Crystal Bot asked, giggling.

When Crystal stood up, Roll could see two little bird-like wings on her back. Also, the parts of her armor and dress that were normally green had changed into a lighter brown. But only one moment later, the wings seperated into several pieces, reforming themselves into twenty-five pipies and letting the tech-bot go back to her normal colors.

Dub, though a bit shaky, pulled Roll back to her feet. "I'm fine." the girl-bot in red replied. "Wow, those wings were really cute!"

"I know, aren't they?"

Bass set down nearby, his landing perfect as he de-merged from Treble. He grinned. "Looks like I win the race."

"No fair!" Crystal Bot complained. "You used Roll as an obstacle!"

"I didn't throw her in your way. It's her own fault." Ignoring Roll's scowls, Bass went on. "Hey, how can you fly with those small wings? You shouldn't be able to generate enough lift like that."

Crystal smiled proudly at the 25 birds that surrounded her. "It wasn't about lift and thrust, Forte-kun. Bruce and the Clefs were specially engineered to use some of Gravity Man's anti-gravity generators. I was testing in our race to see if that would use less fuel and help you be more efficient."

"And?"

She shrugged. "It did, but it's not really worth the cut in speed and maneuverability."

"In other news," Roll interrupted. "Hi! I'm here!"

"Eeeee!" Crystal Bot immediately threw her arms around her friend. "Roll-chan's here! I haven't seen you since Kalinka's wedding! You haven't been to the lab before, have you?"

"I have." Roll answered. "But that was when you guys were in England and I was doing some work for Team 5. They didn't want you to come back to a messy lab."

"Yeah, people say it's mine, but it really belongs to my team." Crystal Bot nodded as she pulled a round, metal object from her pocket. "But okay, let's go in, shall we?"

Roll had been right in the middle of a blink when Crystal had been pressing buttons, so when they appeared right in the middle of a room in what seemed like an instant, she almost jumped out of her metallic skin. They had teleported into a large, mostly round room, one designed to record the serial numbers of any robot that entered and potentially prevent them from entering the rest of the lab. The translucent ceiling not only served as a door to allow aircraft to land inside, but also had a greenhouse-like result on the potted trees that grew in the entryways to the four different sections of the lab.

"You really have an open, liveable look to this place, Sona-chan."

Crystal Bot giggled. "Oh yes. It's designed to be like nature because nature is pretty. I'm even going to get a couple of guinea pigs as pets. I will name them Mungo and Jerry! Well, if I don't stop traveling, that is."

"So you're going to do experiments on them?"

The tech-bot was instantly horrified. "No! Why would I do that to a poor guinea pig? I might have been a bad guy, Roll, but I never was a meanie. Honestly, perform experiments on a guinea pig? Who would do that?"

Roll decided against clarifying the issue. She watched as the mechanical birds Crystal employed flew away, all in different directions. Bruce, however, still stayed on his mistress' shoulder. Because Crystal Bot had rarely ever referred to her lead pipi as Clef (though that was technically his alternate name), she had decided to name the other pipies "Clef 1", "Clef 2" and so on.

"Alright, you." Here the tech-bot referred to Bass. "Go on to the lab and get that armor off. Me and Roll will get your new armor together in a minute."

"Oh, so I'm helping, am I?" Roll teased.

"Yes, please!" Crystal Bot went on. "You're drafted! Today I'm giving Forte-kun a complete internal reconstruction to celebrate the end of his probation!"

"Thank God it's over with." Bass muttered as they all went to the main laboratory past the north door. "I'm sick of all that legal crap I have to put up with to get from one country to another."

"What are you going to do now?" Roll asked him.

"Whatever I want." he replied simply. "Dr. Imahara hired me for some security work for an exclusive robotics convention in Okinawa, but after that I'm going to check out those countries I was restricted from earlier."

"Dr. Light would be really proud of you, Bass." Roll said, her voice dropping a level. "You're really getting along in society now."

"Yeah...I guess..."

The mention of Dr. Light tempered Bass' mood, and for a moment he seemed almost sad. But he went ahead of the girl-bots, and by the time he sat down in the chair of one of Crystal Bot's automated machines, his mood had returned to its usual confident range. Treble had his own customized automated machine, but he first went over to the table next to Bass' so that his armor could be removed as well.

Roll didn't like this part of the lab as much. It had too many tools hanging from the walls, and that somehow went against Roll's design ethic. But it wasn't her lab, so she let it pass.

"Alright, grab me some wrenches, Roll-chan! Yolshimhi hapshida!"

Bass couldn't help rolling his eyes, but refrained from commentary as Roll handed Crystal Bot the appropriate tools for taking off Bass' chestplate.

"So, Roll-chan, what are you doing now?" Crystal Bot asked. "Last I heard you were working in a nursing home."

The Light-bot cringed, wondering why Crystal had to mention that. She hadn't done that much with herself in the past five years, and she was ashamed to admit it. "Oh, well, I quit that job recently, right before I called you. It didn't seem like a good fit somehow."

"Oh, I understand that!" Crystal Bot said, though a sour Roll doubted that. "It's so scary working for people who are gonna die soon! I like my job a lot better!"

"That's horrible to say. It's a really important job, and it really helps people."

"So why'd you quit then?"

Roll wasn't certain that she knew the answer to that. "Well...I don't know...I guess it's just not what I'm looking for right now. This whole freedom thing can be confusing."

"It's not as bad as being owned." Bass snorted as Crystal Bot finally pulled off his chest armor and started working on his arms. "We technically still belong to Cossack."

"So what's Rock doing now?" Crystal Bot curiously asked. "Same old, same old?"

"Pretty much." Roll answered. "He's been trying out all these new things lately, though. Like tennis and art collecting...he even started reading this philosophy book that just came out. I wouldn't be surprised if you knew about it, it's a bestseller."

For some reason, Crystal Bot began to giggle. "Oh, what's it called?"

"Robotics: Futile Questions for the Mechanical Future. I tried to read it once, and it's sort of depressing. But the author, Ben Foster, really does sound smart. Maybe if I get to the end it will turn out happier, but what I was reading really questioned Dr. Light's motives for making robots in the first place."

"Oh...so the author sounds really smart, huh?" Crystal Bot giggled even louder. "That's because he's Forte-kun!"

"Darn it, Sonata, you weren't supposed to tell anyone!" Bass groaned.

"Relax, it's just Roll. Besides, you sold a lot of copies! You should be really proud of yourself. The publisher was saying that it was some of the most intruiging stuff he'd ever seen."

"You wrote it?" Roll was astounded. "But you...you really sounded human...and as if you didn't agree with Dr. Light's work."

"One, I was trying to sound human, and two, I wasn't disagreeing with Light, I was questioning him. You know, for philosophy or whatever. And Dr. Light always said that people should examine their own motives." Bass was getting tired of the conversation, and he glowered at Crystal Bot. "See, this is why I didn't want you spreading anything around. I don't want to have to put up with all this."

"Oh hush. Roll won't tell anyone. Hehe, I made up his pen name, Roll-chan! And I made up a human name for you too. You're Lara Hikari, and Rock is Lan."

"Hikari?" Roll tried it out. "Japanese for 'light'? I love it!"

Putting Bass' arm plating on the table next to Treble, Crystal Bot started to remove his buster components, along with the energy crystals that enabled his double busters. "Honestly Forte, I'm surprised you don't have mice in here or something. You're all dirty and nasty on the inside."

"That's what happens to fighter-bots, Sonata. Or did you want me to leave you in the rubble when that building collapsed in Seoul?"

"Oh, hehe, I just wanted to see the implosion when they knocked down that old building."

"And there was the time Asan's silicon valley got attacked by Nitro Man and Turbo Man. I think protecting their economy is a little more important than staying clean."

"You set them on fire when I was at Seoraksan!" Crystal Bot squealed. "Tell me that story again."

"You heard it already."

"Roll didn't! Tell it again!"

While the story was supposedly for Roll's sake, she barely listened. She wasn't very interested in fights, but that wasn't the main reason. Crystal Bot seemed completely happy just listening to Bass describe his exploits, though she obviously had to have heard them plenty of times. She even laughed along at her favorite parts, and this only encouraged Bass to tell more, livening up the story with (exaggerated) details. Roll watched them happily conversing and held back a sigh. Treble added parts to the story, but Roll didn't understand his bark code, making her feel even more alien. As friendly as they were being (or perhaps only tolerant in Bass' case), she still felt lonely, smiling only out of manners as she handed the appropriate tools to Crystal Bot.

Several pipies brought in replacement parts for Bass' internal components, and Dub automatically went to help bring them to the automated machine.

"Okay, Forte-kun!" Crystal Bot said. "You've got to go get cleaned up once the rest of your armor is off, but it's going to take a while for your new armor to get done."

"Are you kidding?" Bass started. "You've been working on them for more than a month!"

Rolling her eyes, Crystal Bot addressed Roll. "See how he is, Roll-chan? I'm over here putting as much work into his armor as katana-makers would in Japan and all new internal supports made in micro-gravity, he then he whines about how long it takes!" Sticking her tongue out, she continued, this time to Bass. "They'll be done and installed on you by evening tomorrow. Besides, you're going to be pretty busy with getting basically everything else replaced. Roll-chan, will you get Mr. Grumpy-Butt over here some books from the library?"

Roll giggled. "Okay. What haven't you read already, Bass?"

"Anything in the stack next to my chair."

The red girl-bot left as Crystal started removing the last piece of her boss' armor. As she went back to the entryway and chose the western door. That wing was only meant for Bass' library, and as she entered in, it was obvious that the place had filled up with even more books than before. Two new bookcases had been installed already, and there was room for at least four more in the early hall. Roll liked the main part of the library the best. It was huge, and there were two stories worth of shelves jam packed with books of all different kinds.

Most of the western wall wasn't even a wall, but a vast bright window that let in sunlight, especially now that it was drawing near evening and the sun was just beginning to set. Outside was nothing but trees and mountains. Though the window looked like glass, it wasn't, but some sort of plastic polymer that acted like a big two-way mirror, but from the outside no one could tell that it wasn't a wall.

Roll went up to the window happily, but frowned a bit as she reached the platform that was before it. The only thing on there besides a stack of books that stacked above Roll's head, was a plush red chair, obviously Bass'. That platform could easily have held several more chairs, but the girl-bot had to remember why the room was so large: it had to fit Bass' ego.

And that was the reason she didn't like the room. The bigness of it all, especially since there was no one else, made Roll feel even more lonely than before. She almost spitefully pulled out a few of the more interesting-looking titles, giving a stubborn "hmph" as her emotion caught up with her. The grand design of the lab made Roll jealous. Not of the building itself, but of Bass and Crystal Bot. They had lives, places in society and work they could call their own. And they weren't alone.

But once the bitterness was released, it wouldn't stop there. Roll felt just the same way about her brother, ashamed as she was to admit it, even to only herself. Mega Man was always off saving the world, earning another reward, and Auto's job went right along with that. But Roll...in the five years that had passed since Dr. Light had died, what had she done with herself, other than go from job to job without any real sense of belonging? What did life hold for her, and why couldn't she find it? Without Dr. Light...what could she possibly do?

"Dr. Light would've loved this place..." Roll said to echoing room, mumbling miserably. "I wish he could have stayed here. Though I don't know what I would have to do to get him to move here. Vacationing in Florida was pretty hard to convince him to do..."

A tweet sounded from one of the bookcases, and a pipi flew over. It landed on her shoulder and nuzzled her cheek, tweeting again.

"Aw...you're so cute. Which Clef are you?" Roll smiled and stroked the bird down its wing and noticing the number on its talon. "Clef 13? Could you go get Dub for me? I have a feeling that I'm going to need to get more books than I can carry all at once for Bass."

It sang a note before flittering off to do what it was told. The housekeeper-bot sighed, slowly lugging her stack of books in the same direction. She would have to be sad later. For now she could at least talk to Crystal Bot, and maybe the tech-bot would have some idea of what she should do with herself. This thought made Roll feel a little better. If nothing else, she would be spending a little time with her good friend Sona-chan.

As she went back to the northern branch of the lab building, a beeping sounded to her right. It was a communications panel, and a green flashing was going off next to the wide communications monitor. Shuffling the books to her left arm, Roll reached for the button. Clef 13 reached it first and pecked at it with his beak. Light flashed across the screen, and an image of Wave Man appeared.

"Ah, Roll, I didn't expect to see you there." The marine robot mentioned, though his face was too covered by his helmet plating for him to appear very surprised. "Please direct Crystal Bot to the comm. It is very important that I speak with her."

"Right!"

Roll scurried over to the main part of the lab and called out. "Hey, Sona-chan! Wave Man is a on the line, waiting for you!"

"Okay! I get it over here!" Crystal Bot's voice sounded out from somewhere behind various monitors and machines.

"Bass?" Roll called out again. "I've got some books for you! Dub's bringing you some more!"

" - Thanks. - "

The housekeeper-bot almost jumped. Bass' voice was right next to her, and as she turned, she did jump. A mechanical, vaguely humanoid figure was reaching out, and all she could see was a pair of red eyes and a mouthless set of fangs. The books scattered all over the floor, and Roll shrieked. This only made the man of metal bars and wires to laugh, and Roll scrambled behind an automated machine.

" - Hahahaha! - " Bass' voice kept up the laughter. " - Come out, Roll, it's just me. You already knew Sonata was changing out everything that she can while she has a chance. You've never seen the insides of a robot before? You're such a wimp. - "

She nervously peeked out the side of the machine, noticing some resemblance to Bass...or he was at least just as tall.

"And she didn't take out your fangs...?"

" - My new ones aren't finished yet. - "

Skeleton Bass, done aggravating Roll for the time being, picked up the books. He pulled himself on a counter near one of the lab's few windows (also designed to look like a wall from the outside), and began reading, going into a more or less meditative state. Crystal Bot reappeared as he did so, looking a bit sad and anxious as she reapproached.

"Well, it was going to happen eventually." Her tone made Bass look up from his book. "I'm being recalled back into Team 5. Wave Man says I can finish what I'm doing with Forte, but before the week is out I have to be back at the space station. Aw, and I really wanted to go see Dr. Imahara. He's so cool!"

Bass grimaced as Roll spoke up. "Really? It seemed like you were going to stay Bass' partner forever."

"Wave Man did say I'd get recalled at some point, and it was fun while it lasted! But Forte-kun will be the strongest ever when I'm done, and I'll still upgrade him if he comes by the station. Aw, you'll miss me, won't you Forte?

" - No. You're annoying. - "

"Heehee, you're such a tease." Crystal laughed, waving away his comment before turning back to Roll. "I'm sorry, Roll, but I'm going to have to get a lot of work done in a lot faster time than I was expecting. I know you wanted to hang out this week..."

Roll just smiled cheerfully, looking very accomodating. "I understand. But, uh, you don't need help with anything?"

"Well...not really. Most of my materials are already made, and most of what remains is just installing it."

The red girl-bot nodded. "Alright then. I better head back to Monstropolis then. Rock will be waiting for me."

Dub came in, putting more of the books on the counter next to Bass before going over to his master and lifting one of his claws to tap her on the shoulder.

"Okay, little guy, let's let these guys get to it."

Dub made several computer worbles and beeps as he crawled onto Roll's back. Four of his legs became straps, and the other four retracted so that he could be worn as a simple backpack.

"Forte, come over here and get into the automated machine while I send Roll off." Crystal Bot said. "Bruce, you set the machine to go, okay?"

" - Oh, you're going to get the bird to work on me? - "

"Relax, you dork." Crystal Bot started pushing Roll along with her to the center of the lab. "All he's doing is pushing the start button. Now shoo!"

The metal framework that called itself Bass plodded towards the automated machine as Bruce and three of the Clefs got it started. Crystal Bot and Roll went out into the center room one more time, and the tech-bot handed her friend a small, spherical object.

"Here, you can have one of my teleportation devices. Let me transmit you the instructions...done! This'll help you get around quicker. Come see me when I'm back on the space station, okay?"

Roll nodded with a smile. "Okay?"

And Roll kept on smiling until both she and Dub teleported. Once the innards of Crystal Bot's lab had become the hangar bay of Light Laboratories, the girl-bot's facade dropped completely. She rubbed her eyes automatically, exhaling in melancholy. Dub beeped and looked at her curiously as he stepped down to the floor, but she didn't acknowledge him. Instead she barely paid attention as she walked further into the lab. It was just so frustrating. She had been hoping that staying with Crystal would at least distract her for a while, or maybe they would even include her on their travels. But now...nothing. Crystal Bot probably hadn't even needed her help in the first place, especially if it was faster just to send her away once she had to rush and complete Bass' restoration.

On her way outside, Roll passed by Auto in the main lab and paused. "Hey Auto, is Rock home?"

The goofy green robot looked up from his welding (Roll wasn't sure what he was trying to build). "No, he's out at work. Need something?"

Roll forced herself not to scowl. Mega Man was always on patrol, or at a job, or something for the police. "I guess not. Auto...oh never mind."

Auto was probably too busy to want to keep her company. Ever since Dr. Light died, both Auto and Rock had been more and more absorbed into their jobs. Roll just wished that she had something to get absorbed into. Noticing that her little green spider-bot was still following her, she turned around.

"Dub...go clean something, okay?"

The spider-bot made few noises and obeyed. As much as she appreciated Dub, Roll wished she had a more friendly, or at least more emotional robot assistant. Rush was out of the house, and a quick scan told her that Beat was as well. Roll couldn't stand it anymore. Looking around at the robotics technology was just too much. So she promptly left the house, going out into the sunny air and leaning against the wall.

Roll closed her eyes, thinking of the times when she used to serve Dr. Light. Her creator had always been wonderful, with cheery advice and stories. Even things that bored her were fun when Dr. Light described them. As much as the cheery sunlight on her face fought against it, her mouth's edges turned downwards. But she had sobbed enough in the past for her creator, and none of that grieving had ever brought him back. Resisting, she grappled with her feelings, forcing them down and out of her mind. It didn't work. She sighed and opened her eyes again.

"...Proto Man!" Before the aforementioned robot could do anything, Roll's arms were around him. "You have really good timing!"

Her big brother smiled, a little overwhelmed. But it was Roll, so he let her hug him for a minute. "How are you, sis?"

Roll nervously turned her toe in the grass. "Oh, I'm...okay. I'm just in-between jobs right now. But you do interesting things. What have you been up to lately?"

Blues didn't answer. He often told his sister stories of what he did - innocuous ones, and only if he had the time - but for now that wasn't his purpose. "I have some news for you, Roll. Kalinka is pregnant."

"Oh! How wonderful!" Roll squealed. "But why didn't she call me?"

"I wanted to be the one to tell you. And I also noticed that you're unemployed right now. Kalinka wants you to come and help her with the pregnancy and keeping her house in order. In fact, she insists on having you." Proto Man pointed to his left, and there next to the lab was his Proto Jet. "Come on, I'll give you a ride."

Roll could hardly contain herself. She jumped up and gave Proto Man another quick hug before running off to the the jet. Dub was summoned, and the green spider-bot came out to his mistress' side. Proto Man, happy for her, followed at a slower pace as his little sister asked him question after question about Kalinka. How far along was she? Was she already having morning sickness? How did her husband feel about everything?

She might want to pause between questions if she really wants me to answer her. An amused Proto Man thought as he opened the hatch to his jet and lifted his sister inside. But then again, it didn't matter to him. As long as Roll was finally out of her depression, he would be glad. She had always thought that no one knew that she had never really recovered from Dr. Light's death. But Blues knew. He could see it. He also knew that she would be much happier to be working in a situation where life was going to begin, rather than end.

Crystal Bot still liked her little brown wings. Maybe they were too small and harder to use midair, but they were still cute. Which was why she flew with them to Monstropolis instead of asking Bass to take her. She knew he had wanted to get back to Japan early so that he would be ready to protect Dr. Inafune's projects, and in fact she had wanted to get back to Monstropolis before Team 5 expected her. There was something she wanted to do first.

So she landed in the street, happy to be alone in the big city. Downtown Monstropolis was crowded that day, and shoppers were busily going from store to store. It was tourist season in late spring, and would be well into the summer. Fall generally brought more people interested in business, particularly robotics. Crystal didn't mind crowds. To her they were moving scenery, each blending into a fascinating city landscape.

A couple of people grimaced in her direction, but she ignored them. They had probably witnessed her short episode when she had been made a mechaniloid by Wily for a short time, and she had very nearly killed both Bass and their hero Mega Man. As much as she had been considered harmless by her ethics agent, Tim Reyes, the people were less quick to forget. But Crystal Bot just ignored them.

Crystal Bot was surprised that she had seemed to forget as well. Albert Wily had never been kind to her...not really. Though for years he had pretended to be her father, he had actually murdered her true creator, and went on to delete her personality and send her to fight their greatest enemy. She had barely survived. And after that he tricked her and tried to steal her back into his service. It had failed, but nonetheless it was strange even to her that she was going to the robot museum even still.

Thankfully, since it was later in the day, the museum itself wasn't too crowded. It would probably be closed in an hour or so. Crystal Bot wandered past the displays, noticing the broken corpses of Teams 1 and 2 as she went to the back. Team 1 had been eliminated a long time ago mostly by Bass when they had both rebelled against Wily, and Team 2 had fallen the same day of Wily's fatal heart attack. She tried not to giggle as she passed Heat Man, admiring the job the museum curators had done on his repair work. After being chewed up by both Rush and Treble, it was a miracle the zippo lighter-bot was recognisable at all.

It wasn't hard to get somber as she approached the gravestone. This one wasn't like ordinary gravestones, which would have been very creepy in the museum, but rather a sloped diagonal panel with deeply etched-in words: "Dr. Albert Wily - 19XX-20XX". The rest of the room was filled with Wily's robot master designs, a short biography, and a monitor for showing a video on his life. It wasn't on.

"Hi, Grandpa." Crystal Bot began quietly, sort of wanting to touch the gravestone, but at the same time afraid. "Um...I'm sorry I didn't go to the funeral. Bass...didn't want me to go. And to be honest, I didn't really want to either...funerals are creepy. And no offense, but you were a bad guy. It was just...really weird to see a bunch of good guys trying to get some sort of closure."

"And...oh Grandpa, Forte-kun's doing really well. He helped a lot of people last week when their bus drove off a cliff, and before that these guys tried to blow him up, but he survived! And just this week I made him some really nice armor, the best I've ever done. I wish you were here. You'd be so proud of him..." Her voice trailed off, knowing that she was lying, but hoping somehow that if Wily came back, he really would take pride in his most rebellious creation. "And um, I'm doing good too. I'm gonna go back to my team now, and I'm gonna work with them at the space station. Team 5 together again. You'd be really proud of them too. They're really helping science."

If she had been human, at this point tears would have started welling up in Crystal Bot's eyes. "Grandpa...I miss you...I know you weren't really my dad, and robots don't really have family anyway...I just want you to know that I forgive you, okay? For everything. I wish you had told me sooner about your heart condition. I would have taken care of you, despite everything. You know that."

Glitching, she really did touch his grave this time. Whatever she had been expecting to happen, didn't. It was just like touching a flat stone. Relieved, she sighed and continued. "I miss you, Grandpa. Rest in peace and all that stuff, okay?"

Crystal Bot sniffed and looked around. There were few people in the place, and probably no one saw her speak to the grave. She was a bit ashamed of speaking to someone who wouldn't hear her, but all the same, it felt appropriate. As she casually strolled out of the building, she began to feel better, thinking that when the anniversary of his death came up the next year, she might visit again. Shuddering, she instantly changed her mind and picked his birthday.

The tech-bot checked her internal chronometer. It was almost time to meet with Charge Man at Dr. Light's lab. Crystal didn't feel like teleporting straight there, especially since she had learned of Roll's new job, and that she wouldn't be home. Being in town for a while would be more fun.

But before she left the robot museum, Crystal passed by the front reception area. A delivery bot was there, and he had a huge crate with him. Crystal Bot wondered who it could have been. Only the most well known machines got a place in the museum. But then again, the crate was pretty large. Most robots wouldn't be big enough to fill it. The only one Crystal Bot could think of that would was Frost Man, but she knew that Frost Man was still on the loose somewhere, according to Japan's police report that had come out in the past week.

Maybe it's a display or something.

Crystal Bot just had to look. The lid of the crate had already been opened for one of the museum workers to inspect the contents, so it would be simple to get a quick peek. The girl-bot surveyed for witnesses, and seeing none, she promptly crawled up the side of the crate and peered inside.

Maroon.

Everyone heard the scream. Crystal fell to the floor, letting the lid slam back down as she crumpled into a ball and started glitching uncontrollably, not caring in the slightest that she was making a scene.

"Crystal Bot? You're not supposed to be here!"

She didn't want to look or respond, but as the heavy footsteps of another robot approached, she let her crying be interrupted long enough to recognise her comrade. "Stone Man...it's...it's him...it's..."

Stone Man immediately picked her up off the floor and held her, hugging her tightly in his large arms. She sobbed into his shoulder as humans and robots alike gathered to the commotion. Wave Man approached them slowly. Never before did he hate his leadership over Team 5 than at that moment.

"You weren't supposed to find out this way." he said. "I'm sorry."

Crystal Bot didn't answer. She just clung tighter to Stone Man, crying only harder as she realized that one of her closest friends in the world was now no more.

"Gravity...Man..."

\\\\\\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- And so the first victim of the robot apocalypse is Gravity Man. So sorry, buddy. Let's do that character profile.

======Gravity Man

"Yet the earth does move."

Good Point: Devoted researcher

Bad point: Unsocial attitude

Like: Physical science

Dislike: Cosmic space

Has anyone ever noticed that nobody in Team 5 besides Stone Man is really that social? Star Man likes the emptiness of space, Wave Man prefers being alone, people avoid Napalm Man, and now this guy has an unsocial attitude. I imagine that the only thing holding the team together is their shared history of being mocked. In any case, up, here's another. Gravity Man has always liked science, which was really the main source of the conflict between him and Crystal Man. This was only made worse when Wily chose Crystal Man to be in charge of Team 5, and made him into a technical assistant, leaving Gravity Man to his work of researching scientists and stealing their data for Wily's work.

Though Gravity Man was fairly bitter about it, Crystal Man's sudden death turned his attitude around. Gravity Man was the only member of Team 5 who got to see the upgrades that Crystal Man had made for them before Wily deleted everything, and once he saw what his late team leader had made for him he changed his tone. He even ended up being very close to Crystal Bot as they worked together under Wily. After Team 5 chose to leave Wily, Gravity Man served as the space station's technician, and he had been happily working there until his unfortunate death.

- Finding a song for this chapter was hard, but here it is. Maybe adding a soundtrack is weird, like Anmynous said, and quite frankly, finding something for this chapter was difficult because this wasn't as exciting as later chapters will be. But listening to certain tracks really inspired me for this part of the story, which I've had in mind since Okkusenman. Well, if you don't think it works, then well, just check the music if you want. In any case, the song is Memories of Blue. Seems to work.

- Yolshimhi hapshida means "let's do our best" in korean. Seoraksan is a mountain in east Korea, Seoul is the capital, and Asan is a southwest city known for its industrialization. I like Korea. Can you tell?

- Robots have mouths, lips, and vocal cords more or less similar to humans' so that they can speak audibly. Naturally, when Bass' face is removed, he can only speak in transmissions.