Mega Man was on the job, but much less eagerly than usual. For once he was glad that Roll had left the lab. The sight of Crystal Bot grieving would definitely have been too much for his sister. Thankfully Jewel Man had arrived, and the shiny girl-bot was in his arms, unable to decide if she wanted to be furious or depressed. She just stiffly leaned on her "stepfather", her brow furrowed in hate as they sat together on a workbench. Charge Man and Stone Man were also there. They looked at Mega Man with expectancy, willing him to avenge their loss.

"Alright, Wave Man, tell me what you know." the bomber said. "Maybe there's some sort of clue left."

"Very well." Wave Man's gargly voice was more solemn than ever. "There is little to tell. He was not on the space station when it happened. Gravity Man had gone down to Monstropolis to retrieve some supplies, and he was being monitored the entire time by Star Man. He met no one unusual, and accessed only normal computers that most robots would use on a daily basis. And in an instant there was nothing. We immediately lost all contact with Gravity Man, and that was when we sent Star Man and Gyro Man to search for him. They found him in an alley in Monstropolis...well, you saw his physical condition at the museum."

"Is there anything that can be done to fix him?" Crystal Bot asked, getting up from Jewel Man's side. "I haven't gotten a look yet. I can fix him. I've got to!"

"Show her the scans." Wave Man told Auto. "She has to see it."

Auto nodded. Crystal Bot apprehensively got up from her seat and approached the monitor as the green repair-bot started pushing buttons. The damages flashed on the screen. Though robots like Mega Man and Jewel Man wouldn't understand what they meant, Crystal Bot knew exactly what was before her, and her face fell as her false optimism faded away

"He was attacked..." she slowly murmured, almost hypnotized by the detailed images she saw. "By more than one person. Robots, not humans. You can tell because humans would use special bullets, and he's got some punch hits that a human couldn't do. And they...they beat him up pretty badly. Gravity Man was outnumbered, and he's not the best of Team 5's fighters. Those brain scans there show that someone was trying to hack him. He's got my anti-virus program, which attacks hackers. So whoever did it will have data damage."

Though she had been doing well enough to keep herself together, Crystal Bot shook painfully as she glitched. But she shook her head and persisted. "Every anti-virus program has its weaknesses, and hacking past one is a matter of time, no matter who programmed it. I think...I think whoever was hacking managed to get pretty far. What was left of Gravity Man's brain showed that he did a program termination -- his whole mind was deleted, and there's no reversal for it. He's Team 5's main programmer and technician, so if anybody got hold of that information, it would be bad. He probably killed himself so they wouldn't get it."

Wave Man shook his head. "I am vaguely familiar with how your anti-virus program works. It would take even expert programmers a great length of time to get around it. Gravity Man was gone for just short of a day when Star Man lost contact with him. He at least would have tried to escape or contact us before it came to that, unless things were too difficult for him."

Crystal Bot didn't answer. She just stared at the floor, refusing to acknowledge anyone. Jewel Man approached, and she even refused to look at him.

It broke Mega Man's heart to see her like that. "The police are already doing a full investigation. They'll have witnesses' testimonies, and from there I'll be able to figure out what happened. And he was in the city, so there's bound to be a security camera that caught something. We'll find out who did this, Crystal."

She glanced at him slightly. Catching sight of his pitying eyes, she immediately grimaced and turned away, but nodded to acknowledge what he was saying. Mega Man wished he could get through to her.

"So what do we do?" Charge Man asked Mega with determination. "This is an attack on Team 5! We can't let them get away with this!"

"We also can't charge in when we have no suspect." Mega Man replied, scratching his head in confusion. He was starting to get the feeling that this whole situation was way beyond him. "I'm going to have to check what the police have to be more sure of what's going on."

"Whoever did this did it against our team for a reason." Wave Man said. "My only guess is that the remaining robot masters have collaborated to strike us in revenge. I don't see why anyone else would be motivated to hurt Gravity Man."

"Was he researching anything important?" Mega Man asked. "Something that was potentially profitable or dangerous? Or maybe he found out something that someone wouldn't want him to know?"

"He researched anything and everything." The team leader's answer was simple. "But everything we do is legally required to be known by the government. I can have a summary of his latest work sent to you."

"Good. Please do." Rock nodded. "I really hope that this can be dealt with simply, but until then, Team 5 should stick together. Don't go off the station alone. I'll report everything I find to you."

"Are they going to come after Crystal Bot?" Stone Man, suddenly worried, asked. "She's our full time tech now, so they might try to hack her if they couldn't get to Gravity Man."

The girl-bot immediately looked up in defiance. "I'd like to see them try. Forte-kun trained me! And he'd even come kick their butts himself!"

"Don't forget us!" Charge Man held up his fist and turned red, looking like he was going to shoot his coal. "None of those robot masters will stand a chance!"

"Whoa, hold on." Mega Man tried to keep them calm. "We don't even know that it was the robot masters, and even then we don't know the motivation. For now we just have to figure things out. I'm on my way to the police station to see what they can tell me. For now you should just tighten security, especially at your lab, Crystal."

"Are you kidding?" she commented in a sour tone. "My lab's security is ridiculous. This is me we're talking about."

"He's only trying to help." Jewel Man said.

"I know, I know." The exasperated tech-bot answered. "Look, I've got a lot of work to do at the space station. I better get up there. There's a lot I need to get used to. I've been with Forte more than I've been with my own team these past years...and now..."

She clenched her fists tightly, shuddering. But with a forced breath, she got herself together, trying to be a little dignified. Jewel Man only frowned. He firmly took Crystal Bot by the shoulders, forcing her to face him.

"Crystal, I don't want you to be angry." he explained. "You shouldn't be bitter either. Don't change from the sweet girl that I know into something ugly, no matter what happens, alright? Don't let anyone take away your happiness and spirit."

Her quivering lips betrayed her resolve, and she buried her face into Jewel Man's chest, glitching helplessly. "I love you, Jewel Man Ahbohjee."

Charge Man and Stone Man gathered around the two shiny-bots, and the three guy-bots began to talk amongst themselves. Wave Man, his face more grim than ever, turned to comment one last time to the exiting bomber.

"Get to the bottom of this, Rock." he said, his voice deepening almost to a threatening tone. "We cannot let them get away with the death of Gravity Man. We will not stand for it."

"I'll do my best." Mega Man answered, sounding as heroic as he always had in the past. "We'll figure this out, you'll see."

The bomber turned away and grabbed his helmet, placing it firmly on his head over his wavy black hair. He strided out the door with an air of confidence, signalling for Rush to meet him outside. But the instant that he had walked out of the lab's door and closed it behind himself, Mega Man stopped. Just for a moment he collapsed against a wall, covering his face with his hands. Glitching just once, he shook his his head in fear. He had no business trying to give Wave Man hope, not when he had little of his own.

What am I supposed to do? Dr. Light...I need you more than ever....

Mega Man sniffed. Gravity Man had been his friend as well, and it tore him up that he was gone. This was the first time that he had ever lost a robot friend, and he couldn't help but wonder at how Dr. Wily had kept all of his robots alive even though Rock had defeated them all at one point (or more than one point in some cases) or another. But there was nothing that could be done for the maroon tech-bot.

No, that's not true! I can get to the bottom of this and make sure that this never happens again! Come on, Rock! Everyone is depending on you!

----

"Thanks for all your help!" Dr. Kenneth Imahara said as the last of his robots put all of his experiments on the shipping freighter. "If you don't mind, I'd like to hire you for just a bit longer. I'd feel better if you came along to Monstropolis with us."

Bass nodded automatically. He wasn't really paying Dr. Imahara that much attention. The Japanese port was a very distracting place, and it was his job to keep his eyes open. Robots and humans alike were everywhere, packing or removing various cargoes from various ships. Surprisingly, teleportation hadn't replaced a lot of traditional shipping, as teleportation had its limits, especially for mass quantities, non-robots, or living cargo. Fishing boats littered the more southern part of the port, but this part was purely commercial. The early morning in Japan was lovely, and undisturbed by baddies. He quietly let out a breath.

"Are you alright?" the human scientist asked as they both boarded the boat. "You've been a bit distracted since yesterday."

"Eh, I'm fine." Bass never got used to people asking him that. "It's just that one of my technician's friends was killed a couple of days ago and I'm probably going to have to check on her when I get back."

"Do you need to go right away? The freighter will take some time."

"Ugh, no." the dark robot rolled his eyes. "Crystal Bot's too sensitive. She needs to toughen up. I'll get there when I get there."

"How sympathetic."

"Eh, she'll get over it."

As they reached the deck, Treble barked at them both. The dog sniffed Dr. Imahara first, then barked happily at his master, reporting that all was safe on the boat. Bass reached down and scratched Treble's ears before he and the doctor moved on, and the wolf went back to expecting everyone who got on board. Dr. Imahara started speaking to the captain of the boat in swift, flawless japanese, making sure that all of his experimental equipment was packed in tightly and safely. Bass wasn't listening to the conversation, but he could definitely tell that the sailor was getting annoyed at the scientist's questioning. For someone with such a young, childlike face, Dr. Imahara could certainly be insistent.

Bass started going around the ship, looking for anything suspicious. He wasn't expecting to find anything, but it was his job to make sure nothing went wrong. After all, this was Dr. Light's second cousin in-law. Kenneth was the principle human heir of Dr. Light, and many people were expecting him to take on Dr. Light's role as the leading brain in robotics technology. In fact, the doctor was now moving to Monstropolis, the capital of all robotics, to get to work on his own line of androids. Imahara was no Light, but then again, no one was. Bass doubted that anyone with Light's genius would show up in the next three hundred years, at least.

The black and gold robot started to wish that a Wily-bot would show up. He was in the mood to punch something in the face.

Rock better find Gravity Man's killer...

-----

It was a normal evening for Splash Woman. The mermaid-bot sat on the rocky outcropping as she always did, watching the waters around her and looking out into the distance to see if anything became visible in the lighthouse's beams that shone from the cliff above. It had been days since Dr. Imahara's freighter had left its port, and like always, she tracked it. Splash Woman cheerfully slapped at the waves with her tail. Contentedly putting down her trident, she pulled out her ocarina and began to play.

There it was. That sound of the waves on the rocks behind her. She had heard the lapping of water all her life, and Splash Woman knew when the waters were being disturbed.

"You can come out now." she said, her sing-song voice tainted by annoyance as she immediately picked up her trident. "Don't think I can't see you there."

"Ahoy yerself, Love." Pirate Man spoke up, not letting her tone bother him as he walked out of the water and to the rocks nearest the merrow-bot. "And I weren't sneakin' up. I wish ye'd get on with yer playin'. A sea shanty as haunting as that is somethin' that could keep a bot in good spirits for months on the high seas. Sad now that there's no more time for it."

Those last few words were a bit cryptic, so Splash Woman's lips twisted in doubt as she aimed the sharp blade of her weapon, ready to strike quickly if her enemy made any sudden moves. "I'm on the job now, Pirate Man. I don't have time for your mischief."

Pirate Man laughed heartily, and began to go to the rock closest to the Light-bot. "Harr. It's been many a year since you and I began our rivalry. I must say, yer a sight more lovely to an old sea-dog's eyes than that Dive Man, Love."

"Stop calling me that! We're enemies! Now don't come any closer!"

The insistant girl-bot did finally manage to chip Pirate Man's humorous nature a bit. "Arr, listen for a mite, would ye? I just want to have a word."

"Fine, talk." she answered curtly, without lowering her weapon. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to tell ye a thing or two..." The uncouth robot sombered a bit. "That ye've been a right fine lass, a sassy daughter o' Neptune like no other. A right beauty of the deep. Aye, the most fun I've ever had in me sad life was to fight you, lass, and I wish it would be an eternity for us to go on."

Splash Woman couldn't help but be exasperated. "You endangered human lives just waiting for me to show up! You even once locked Jewel Man in a treasure chest and all I had was a stupid map to find him by."

"Aye," Pirate Man's voice took on a dreamier tone as he stared out into the ocean. "Twas the days, those were. I'll miss 'em. Hm, look there. It be the very vessel Dr. Imahara is on."

The merrow-bot looked to where he was pointing, and indeed it was. She was always told the names of the vessels, and had been careful to find out which one bore the doctor. But then she grew suspicious.

"How do you know that?"

Pirate Man didn't answer. He exhaled slowly before he began to talk. "I wanted to be the one to tell ye, to lay eyes on ye one last time, Love. And whatever happens, know this: I was against everything from the very beginning. Though lonely have I been on the seas, I still have a master's word to go by. But just so yer aware, I was never agreed about it." he sighed before continuing. "Aye, that's the life of a robot."

"What....what are you talking about?"

"I'm talking about fate, dear lass." Pirate Man lifted his claws. "Though me master was stuck on his own ways, he let me have one last thing: to be the one to fight ye, Love. And if ye get out of this alive....think well of old Pirate Man."

Screams broke out on the deck of the freighter. Splash Woman was shocked as robot masters jumped down from a skull shaped aircraft onto the deck. She could distinctly see Aqua Man, Plant Man and Yamato Man doing their best to get the freighter to sink. Immediately she went to dive into the water, but found a metal claw holding her back.

"Nay, lass." Pirate Man said with dark insolence as he leaned close over her shoulder. "Don't forget I get to duel ye first."

He flung her on the large boulders, and she her tail cracked as it hit. But that didn't stop her. Shooting out her splash trident, she managed to get a hit or two on him before he jumped down, pulling her beneath the waves. There the fight continued, but it wasn't long before the very determined Splash Woman had him cornered. She slashed only once, and Pirate Man's head was seperated once and for all from his body. Wasting no time to muse over his fate, Splash Woman surfaced to get a better look at the ship. Though perhaps if she had looked, she would have noticed the two metal poles in the water.

The freighter didn't seem to be in too much trouble. Though the fight was still going on, Dr. Imahara's robots were doing a fairly good job at keeping the Wily-bots in check. The shredded remains of Aqua Man fell from the side of the boat, and Splash Woman smirked as she remembered that Bass was on board. But she wasn't going to let him do all the work. She started to send out a transmission to Mega Man to let him know what was going on.

Suddenly she swung around. Her trident slashed into something that had been flying through the air. Determined and alert, Splash Woman snapped her trident around, searching the water and air for any sign of another attacker. But she saw nothing. Taking a risk, she quickly grabbed the object before it sank, allowing herself to examine it with one eye.

An arm? Where did this come --

She never saw the other one. It grabbed her by the neck and snatched her out of the water so quickly that she lost hold of her trident. The arm she was holding pulled itself out of her grasp and went flying back up to the side of its master, but the other one still had a firm grip on the merrow-bot.

"You!" she exclaimed.

Trying her hardest, Splash Woman tried to send out another transmission, but she suddenly found that her communications were down. Unarmed and trapped, she tried to pry the fingers of the strange flying arm from around her neck as her captor laughed. Then, all at once, the struggling stopped.

"What am I doing in the air?" Splash Woman asked with uncertainty. "What am I doing? Who am I? And....wait, who are you two?"

Splash Woman fearfully widened her eyes, realizing that her data was being destroyed slowly. They wanted her to know it was being done. And just before it faded out completely, a massive electronic current went through her body, sizzling her circuits. The arm flung her out into the ocean, and Splash Woman's body sank down to the sea floor, lifeless.

The arm went down once more.

"I get....Laser Trident! Heeheeehahaaha!"

"Come on, let's get out going. There's a little more we need to do before we leave."

"Idley by we cannot stand! We must continue with the plan!"

"That's doesn't quite rhyme, you know."

"It's an assonance. Muaahahaheeehee!"

---

Now that Aqua Man was out of the way, Bass began firing his double busters at Plant Man. The hot plasma tore through Plant Man, easily ripping him to shreds. Though he could hardly have done much damage to the dark robot himself, he looked like he was heading for Dr. Imahara's cabin, where the Japanese scientist was currently holed up. Bass went over to Dr. Imahara's cabin and pushed the speaker button.

"Everyone alright here?" Bass barked.

Dr. Imahara, safe behind the heavy, bolted door, answered, "Everything's fine. We haven't even been bothered yet. What about my experiments?"

Bass was trying to sense out the locations of the enemy robot masters, and he barely heard. "It's fine, Treble's got it. I'll be right outside your cabin, so don't worry about --"

"What? Your dog?" Imahara's furious voice crackled as it came through the speaker. "I have million dollar equipment on this boat!"

"Treble is a better fighter than any of those idiots. I know how they are. And besides, you're the only one who knows how your experiments work, so stealing them won't do any good if they can't get you."

"Look," the scientist said. "I hired you to protect my life's work, so that's what you'll do! I have guards!"

Bass scowled, thinking that the doctor was very lucky that the dark robot now had the three laws installed. He didn't want to bother with the annoying human anyway. He checked the password lock and then ran off, thinking hateful thoughts about his occupation. He snarkily ordered guards on several of the rooms, hoping that it wouldn't be obvious which was the doctor's.

" ---- Treble, what's the situation in the store room? ---- "

Treble replied in his coding, informing his master that none of the masters had harmed any of the sensitive equipment on board. He also replied that besides Aqua Man, the robot masters that had been attacking the shipping boat were all but one of the remnants of Team 6: Plant Man, Yamato Man, Knight Man, Centaur Man, and Flame Man. Bass ran to where Dr. Imahara's store room, only to be stopped out in the night air by an armored master with a free swinging mace.

"It has been a long time, traitor." Knight Man spoke in his deep, noble voice, lifting his mace arm above his head. "And it is long time that I brought you to your end."

"Ha!" Bass laughed. "Thanks, I needed that. That's the funniest joke I've heard in a while. You don't really think you'll beat me?"

"No..." he admitted with some reluctance. "But it is not my place to question my orders."

"Orders? Wily's dead, you moron."

A sudden movement alerted Bass that someone was behind him, and he swung one arm back, taking aim at Yamato Man. Surprisingly, the trickster behind him didn't seem to be trying to stab him in the back (or had been detected too early). Instead he waved to Knight Man.

"Let's go, Knight!" Yamato Man said. "We're done here!"

"Hey, wait!"

Bass tried shooting at the two Team 6 robots, but they teleported out far too quickly. Moreover, they had scrambled their teleportation codes. Tracking them was out of the question. Bass swore loudly.

"They're all gone!" One of the Imahara-bots ran towards Bass. "We were fighting Centaur Man on the bow, and he just teleported out."

"What about Flame Man?"

"I think your wolf got him."

"Eh, okay. Go check and make sure that all of Imahara's crap is still on board."

"Right."

Bass was less than enthralled with what was going on. The robot masters hadn't been on the ship long at all. What could they have stolen? Bass thought things over in his head. Centaur Man had still been on the deck when he teleported out, so he couldn't have done much. So was Knight Man. Plant Man and Aqua Man had gone down quickly, and with Treble guarding Imahara's equipment and fighting Flame Man, that left only Yamato Man's actions unaccounted for. Even then, there was barely any time for Yamato Man to do anything serious. But Bass started running anyway, getting the feeling that he had done something stupid.

And he had. As he went down into the cabins, he saw casualty after casualty amongst the Imahara-bots. Most of them only had mildly serious injuries, as if hit while an elusive enemy passed them by. Bass ignored them as he went on to his real destination. The password panel to Imahara's cabin door was smashed. As Bass pulled the slightly cracked door the rest of the way open, he noticed a yellowish vapor escape. Inside were all five of Dr. Imahara's guards, each completely unharmed, and completely terrified. One of them wordlessly showed the black and gold robot an empty canister.

Nerve gas. Of course Yamato Man would have something up his sleeve.

\\\\\

- Well finally! I put Splash Woman in....right before she dies. How lovely of me. Well, to make it up, I'll do her character profile. Notedly, Splash Woman doesn't have a Mega Man and Bass data disc, so I'm making this up. While we're at it, let's get Pirate Man, who does have a disc.

======Splash Woman

"I'm here to help!"

Good point: brave

Bad point: can't walk

Likes: karaoke

Dislikes: bad guys

Splash Woman to me has seemed a lot more grown up than Roll. She is mature, professional, and matronly. She has a voice like a song and is an expert at rescue missions. However, if MM9 is any indication, homegirl isn't much of a fighter, though her weapon does do the most damage to Mega in-game. Pirate Man, on the other hand, is a mischevious guy, not at all professional. He's a trickster, and of course collects gold and whatever other treasures he can get his hands on.

Splash Woman is of course an ocean hero, and she works with the coast guard. She's done little else besides play her ocarina or sing on special occasions. She loves her job, and lives for it. Very little changed for her when Dr. Light died, except she became the property of her boss, Admiral Tim "Tin Man" Hathers. You will never hear mention of that human in my stories ever, most likely, but lol, I felt like making it up anyway. Splash Woman admires him as a leader, and is happy to serve him.

======Pirate Man

"It is useless to beg for mercy!"

Good point: Fearless

Bad point: Scoundrel

Like: Money-making

Dislike: Fair negotiation

Pirate Man was made by Wily to be a distraction for Dive Man, who was beginning to trouble the Wily-bots once he was reprogrammed for good after MM4. Pirate Man was always very independent, and he never liked having to share his booty with the boss, so it wasn't hard for King to sway him. Once he rebelled, he expected to be scrapped, but surprisingly Wily still allowed him to live. However, he went through extensive reprogramming, and his AI was changed so that now he stores the treasures he finds for Wily, rather than keeps them for himself. He is also unable to speak or think about rebellion, and doesn't carry as many of the free-will extra programs that the other robots do so that they can be flexible with their orders for smart thinking.

This caused Pirate Man a lot of bitterness, but once Splash Woman was built, he cheered up considerably. He loved goading her, and was outright joyful when Wily took control of her during MM9. Pirate Man refuses to forgive Mega Man for defeating her and having her reprogrammed back as a good guy. But either way, Splash Woman was always a little creeped out by him, and rejected his efforts to get her to join him. He loves their rivalry, and loves pranking her. It doesn't even bother him that much if she defeats him unless she gets away with some of his treasure.

- Merrow is the gaelic word for mermaid. Being both Irish and pretentious, I prefer this word. :D Oh yeah, and Ahbohjee is "father" in korean, if you missed my other stories.

- Bah, I give up! I'm not going to do the whole soundtrack thing. Certain songs did inspire me to write later chapters, but not these ones, and it's really difficult to find songs that match. I'm just working on logic here. But, because I still want to share some depressing songs I found, here's another that comes from an album of remixed MM1 songs: It's a remix of the Cut Man theme, and I just love it. www. youtube .com /watch?v=vB6X2xftiZk