Proto Man knew what had happened. He had gotten to "Cain's" castle some time before the others had. He could hear the noise of a battle going on as he worked at the computer in the castle's computer lab, one that was much more junky and cluttered with more technological whatnot than any of Wily's labs had been. But Wily being dead, there was no reason he would attempt to make the place comfortable for his unwilling servant. Proto Man had seen the tape Wily had left for Mega Man and Bass first, through means of his usual spying techniques, and he was going to make sure that something was done about it. In fact, he had already alerted the media, and in homes all over the world people were shutting down their robots.
Now, most villians trying to complete a plan like Wily's would have been smarter. There were four anti-virus companies that Wily had created, and a better idea would have been to have different activation codes for their hidden subroutines, so that it would be harder for the good guys to stop all of the robots from becoming rebels. But Proto Man knew Wily better than he liked, so of course the evil mastermind would make all of the codes the same thing and have their activation device - whatever that was - be somewhere in the castle. The loner robot resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he searched the computer for any clue.
"SWN-005..." Blues said to himself, whispering the numbers almost silently. "So his activation device is another robot...Zero, perhaps?"
But he knew that even Wily wasn't insane enough to keep Zero anywhere in the castle. It had to be someone else. Also the trouble with Wily was that once you got to a certain point, the man was entirely undeciferable. After all, who in the world would think to build something as ridiculous as Spring Man or Pump Man, and then go on to think that those sorts of machines could defeat his brother?
And then he goes on to pull off a scheme like this...
Proto Man was actually impressed with Wily, that Wily would even have the patience to get revenge after the time of this death rather than before. Accompanying this was a strong sense of of disappointment in himself. If this scheme had really been going on for the past half-decade, then how come he hadn't discovered anything about it? Wily was not subtle. Had he learned to be? Certainly nobody would expect it.
Blues was fortunately not one to dwell on emotions. He had a job to do. He couldn't find any indications of what SWN-004's identity could be, but it was best that he check for any deleted files. This seemed to trip something on the computer, and in an instant everything on the monitor disappeared and was replaced by the last visage Proto Man wanted to see.
"Why hello, Proto Man! Muahahahaha!"
Wily was expecting me?
"I bet you are looking for the device my servants are going to use to take over all of those robots, aren't yo-"
This recording of Dr. Wily only had a short time to speak before Proto Man shot the computer to a pile of smoking bits. Listening to the recording was what Wily wanted, and he wasn't going to give in. It probably would only lead him on a wild goose chase. Immediately searching around the room for some sign of an enemy, Proto Man equipped the Sight Cannon to make sure that he would hit anyone hiding in one of the nooks of the place. But he saw only machinery. A dread began to fill him. If he had tripped that video, then he might have tripped the activation device.
Blues realized that he was using the wrong Cain weapon. He switched over to the Algorhythm Dynamo. He really had gotten little chance to use it before he had deleted it off his systems the first time. Looking at its specs, he noticed that it would be very powerful against machinery, being able to wipe out memory boards and short-circuit wires with ease. It would be perfect for destroying the lab. If he couldn't figure out what it was that really made the robots get taken over, then he would just destroy everything to be safe.
\\\\
Star Man was not happy. Several bugs were making themselves evident in his space station's computers, resulting in some strange power fluxing throughout the station. For now things were mostly under control, but if things got worse, then their orbit would decay. And that meant descent to earth, a slow death as they dissolved and burned in the atmosphere, and then the final crash into whatever unfortunate populace happened to be under them.
"I don't understand where these are all coming from." Star Man questioned. "I've triple checked my math - twice! - and yet this is happening."
"It could be some of the older software we're using." a young blonde man, about twenty-three years old, answered. "I know Colonel Pommer was talking about doing lots of upgrades later this week."
"Hm..." the Team 5 robot scratched his chin. "Well, you'd better go check the port correction engines. We can't afford massive engine failure if our experiments are going to continue."
"Right!"
The young lieutenant left the bridge of the station through the automatic doors, and as Star Man was busily investigating the computers, he barely noticed the human's exit. The systems were starting to freeze up, and this alarmed him to the point where he could acknowledge nothing else. But he did notice when massive sounds of gun blasts going off in the hallway. Star Man knew emergency procedures. He immediately slammed the door switch, and immediately signalled for the robot resistant blast doors to come down, not only in the control room, but around the station.
"This is not a drill!" he spoke into computer with complete professionality. "All human personnel evacuate now!"
Star Man was always eager to get humans off his station, so he justified his choice to call for an evacuation without looking at the station scans by saying it was a safety issue. But when he did look at the scans, he didn't regret it: the place was crawling with foreign mechaniloids. The only good news he had was that they were not the stronger kinds. Sending out transmissions to the other robots aboard, he ordered the protection of the humans as they left. It was how things went: the humans were priority. And it was Star Man's station anyway. He had no intention of leaving it, especially not to Dr. Cain. The only trouble was that the humans couldn't teleport out. They would have to go by the transport pods. At least there were a few humans on board.
" - Stone Man! Can you reach the pods to get the humans out? - "
" - No from here. I'm in a different section of the ship. - "
" - Can you get to them? - "
" - I better not. I think these guys are after me. I was trying to get to the starboard orbit stablizer, but they don't seem to want to let me. - "
Star Man looked at the station scans again. A lot of the enemy robots were after Stone Man, and also Galaxy Man, who was on the port side. This left Star Man torn. He could either protect the scientists, or abandon the bridge to the enemies.
BLAM!
"You call that firepower?" a loud voice sounded from outside the now dented heavy doors. There was no way in the world a voice that loud was human. "I'll show you firepower!"
And seconds later impact after impact hit the doors, and the Team 5 robot had to back away. Instantly he tried to lock and password protect the controls with rushed and frantic fingers, gritting his teeth in concentration. He grimaced at the door, forcing himself to work faster. But nothing seemed to work. The controls weren't working. Giving it up, Star Man went over to the door and stood ready. They weren't getting his station without a fight, and a hard one at that.
The heavy metal panels that made up the doors shredded, and for one instant Star Man realized that whatever did that could do a good deal of damage to him. But that thought dissolved as he saw who entered. He had seen the pictures in the news: this was Bullet Man, the bizarre robot with white armor who was vulnerable to napalm bombs. But Napalm Man wasn't there.
Several red mechaniloids scattered around the walls and ceiling of the room, and Bullet Man, followed by a very sinister Commando Man. But Star Man only let them enter the room far enough to get into place for his attack. Crystal Man's upgrades had made Star Man as the most powerful Team 5 robot there was. He dramatically lifted a hand to the air, then swiped it down with violent force. But certainly the force of the asteroid crash on Commando Man and the hapless mechaniloids was more violent still. Commando Man could withstand the initial rain of asteriods, but he foolishly shielded himself with his arms, not seeing the star crash that destroyed him.
Bullet Man, however, was fine.
"Come ooonnnn..." he groaned with sarcasm. "Don't any of you people have REAL firepower? Do I have to do another demonstration? I mean, I knew it was going to be easy to get into your computers after we hacked Gravity Man's coding, but I at least expected some sort of worthwhile security."
Star Man, anticipating bad things, quickly engaged his star crash as a shield. This had the unfortunate effect of making Bullet Man laugh. He charged up his power bullet, and Star Man's spirits began to sink.
Galaxy Man hummed to himself some electronic song, as techno was definitely his favorite. Cruising along the exterior of the space station, he wriggled his antennae merrily along with his hums. But he had long since stopped looking for the mystery thing that Roll had pointed out. No, he still remembered. He had stopped because he had found that thing.
It was following him.
So the space-bot hummed. Only a little anxiousness flitted about Galaxy Man's head. He wasn't afraid, or at least not very. After all, he knew this station forwards, backwards, and inside out. The notion of an inside out space station pleased him, and he imagined it with delight before puttting aside the distraction. Making sure that station was safe was more important than his musings.
Galaxy Man stopped when he was about at a point where any fight would do little damage to the station. He acted as if he was going to do a little repair work on a panel of the outer hull, keeping up his pretense until he heard a noise. It was small, but there was the distinctive "ping" of a robot's movement nonetheless.
In a flash Galaxy Man was in the "air". He landed directly behind Echelon Man, increasingly glad that he had done his research on the Cain-bots. All he had to do was get Echelon Man to split into his six pieces, then get him with the black hole bomb. Unfortunately, Echelon Man had done research as well. The boring robot remained in his boring, unibrowed, humanoid form, shooting out the Echelon heatshock in electronic nets. The were difficult to dodge, and more often than not Galaxy Man jumped out of the way, only for the electrical attack to spread out and catch him. He wasn't doing well, and his power was draining fast.
" - Hold on! I'm coming! - "
" - Stone Man! - "
And so it was. Echelon Man turned his head, only to have several small stones smack into his face. It was so comical that the other two had to laugh. Sourly, Echelon Man recontinued his attack. But this time Galaxy Man stepped back, letting Stone Man deal in the damage. The UFO-bot was stunned by their fight, and as both of them split into their pieces, he could only tell who was who by their color.
It looked like Stone Man was going to win (or so Galaxy Man thought), because he was made of many more parts than Echelon Man, and there was no way the Cain-bot could get any good hits on him. After all, hitting one of the stones wouldn't do anything, and he couldn't reach Stone Man's core computer unit. But as Stone Man was about to bring Echelon Man to rubble, the wall suddenly exploded outwards from an impact of some kind going through it. This projectile was none other than Star Man, broken and barely hanging on to conciousness as he headed out for the depths of space. Somehow this hit rammed the exact wrong way through both of the previous combatants, sending Stone Man and Echelon Man both out as well, their pieces drifting far apart.
Galaxy Man jumped into action. He shot out his black hole, and instantly the pieces of Stone Man, the only one in reach, gathered together and drifted back to the ship. His CPU core directed each fragment into its place, and the Team 5 robot once again resembled his normal self.
" - Hang on, Star Man, I'm coming to get you. - " Galaxy Man signalled. " - I think my flight abilities can last that long- - "
" - No, there isn't any time. Bullet Man is inside, and if he shuts off our orbit decay inhibitors, the station is going to crash into the earth. Both of you go and stop him. And if need be...destroy it. - "
" - But... - "
" - That's an order! - "
Galaxy Man was quick to obey (just like he was quick to do everything). " - Okay, so we've got to stop Bullet Man, make sure all the humans are going back down, find Roll, and somehow reach the teleporter in time. Eh, Stone Man? - "
The rock robot master was still staring off to where Star Man had drifted; he was now very distant, barely visible without engaging his zoom feature.
" - Star Man... - "
\\\
"Alright, Wave Man knows we're coming," Mega Man said as he and Bass ran through the halls of "Cain" Castle. "But we were cut off. Algorhythm Man must have reached them and cut off communications."
"And they can't teleport either."
"Right."
They ran faster. Knowing that the Cain-bots had been upgraded by Wily, both couldn't help but feel that Team 5 was inadequate, and that somehow Wily had prepared something nasty for them as well. But as they passed from the narrow hall into a wider room, they just saw Team 5 coming out of a pit of death spikes. Crystal Bot was already up and waiting with her pink energy crystal, having been lifted over the edge by Napalm Man. Charge Man was coming towards the edge to drop off Jewel Man, and Wave Man climbed up on his own. In fact, Rush and Treble were also there, and both of them looked very happy to see their masters.
"What, they're not here yet?" Mega Man pondered as he went to help Charge Man up. "Did they leave the castle?"
"No, we didn't."
All weapons pointed up at Algorhythm Man, who was hovering in the air to their right. But from the left came a distraction, namely the wall being torn through by Proto Man. The deft robot looked at first like he was going to crash, but he went into a roll, quickly coming upright with his shield above his head, protecting him from the direction he had just come. Epic Man peeked inwards before flying in, happy to see everyone together. He didn't want to continue to fight just yet, but he came on through and hovered on the other side of the room. This was good news for Proto Man, who was shaking. His armor was cracked in several place, and his right buster was split through.
"Blues!" Mega Man rushed over and lifted his brother to his feet. "Are you okay?"
"It's...not as bad as it looks."
Rock looked at Proto Man's buster and cringed suspicious that his brother was lying.
"Sorry we're late." Epic Man said coolly. "I just wanted to catch a little bug that was running around. You didn't really think you could sneak around without the master having prepared for just that?"
Proto Man didn't answer except with the sort of frown he reserved for only the worst of his enemies. Crystal Bot saw it and shuddered.
But Epic Man didn't. "Oh, that's fine, I don't need you to say anything. You were looking for the robot that activates the hidden programs in the robots that have Master's...'anti-virus software', yes? Well, I don't mind telling you, not at all. His name is...oh hi there, Demi. Mind helping me with something?"
The little teal robot laughed, sounding just like two sharp metal blades scraping against each other. "Certainly!"
Before anyone could react, Demi had jumped upwards onto Epic Man's back, and the two merged. Spikes rose out of Epic Man's head, running back along with his antennae, and teal stripes began to show in his midnight blue armor.
"Meet SWN-005, otherwise known as Epidemic Man!" Algorhythm Man lifted his arms in a grand fashion as he spoke. "The bringer of doom and the apocalypse!"
"I already warned the police and the government." Proto Man firmly stated. "Robots all over the world are being shut down as we speak."
Epidemic Man looked down in bemusement. "We have not been silent for the past five years simply to be stopped by some technical problem like that."
The newly formed robot sent out a signal, one that was so powerful that all the robots present glitched, including the other remaining Cain-bot.
"That's an encoded cipher signal." Crystal Bot said as she detected the signal. "It's supposed to key into a robot's established personality AI through a subliminal activated state. So basically any robot that people think is shut down, isn't. Not completely anyway. Wow, that's really impressive!"
"Shut up, Sonata." Bass muttered. "It's evil."
"It's still impressive!"
"Good, good." Algorhythm Man rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I see you still appreciate evil as an art form. Oh, Epi, you might want to show them your newest virus. After all, the sooner we carry on with the plan..."
"You're in too much of a rush, Al." Epidemic Man started to get cross with his brother. "But we must do as the master says..."
"No wait, stop!" Mega Man ran up to his enemy. "Epidemic Man! We don't have to fight! You know Wily's plan! You know that if Zero is the only robot to be left operational, then not only will you be destroyed, but you'll be completely forgotten! You can't possibly want that to happen! Please, stop this at once! You can reverse what has been done! I know you can!"
It was clear from the look on his face that Epidemic Man was affected by his words. Anger scrunched up his face, and he had to force a grin back into place. "I'm going to do my job, because I've always been here to teach humans a lesson about manipulating robots! Some day there will be a world where robots fight back if a human dares oppress them! And it will all be because of me!"
"Shut up, you idiot!" Bass snarled. "Don't even pretend for a second that you would die for your retarded principles! You're just a sick tool of Wily! Now stop trying to control the robots and maybe I won't kill you...maybe."
"Oh, you..." Epidemic Man's voice lowered into a tone of disgust. "You who threw away the blessing of the most powerful, logical mind in robotics! You have no idea what it is like to be built by a loser, a poser! And you threw your opportunity away! If you had been more obedient and less of a failure then maybe none of this would be happening! I admit I don't like my fate, but I'll relish it gladly if it means the end of ungrateful," here he turned to Mega Man. "and naiive machines that bother calling themselves heroes! And now witness the greatest virus that the mighty Dr. Albert Wily has ever created!"
With a wave of his hand...nothing much happened.
Mega Man turned to the others, and they appeared confused, also looking around to see if anything happened. The blue bomber couldn't even sense anything. Bass shrugged. Proto Man didn't have a wireless adaptor, so whatever it was couldn't affect him. Rock turned back to Epidemic Man, and he was still grinning.
"Ha!" Napalm Man pointed his finger (he was still after all this time excited to have hands) at the Cain-bot in mockery. "Wily's stupid virus didn't work!"
Mega Man wasn't so sure, and he glanced over at a very quiet member of their group. "Crystal Bot, are you okay?"
He said this because the girl-bot was looking down at the floor, and she seemed a bit confused about something. But she smiled slightly, and began to lift her head slowly. "Hehehe...muahahahahaaHAHAA - oh bother, I was never good at evil laughs. I'm too much of a little girl."
Wave Man approached her in fear. "The virus did something to you? Please tell me you're alright."
"I'm fine. You, not so much."
And she smacked her leader in the side with her pink crystal rod, shattering his side and breaching his water core. Furious, Bass started to grab her arm, but was forced to stop when the pink crystal was shoved in his face, glowing slightly. Bass backed up a couple of steps. When stabilized, her crystal was an instant death spike, and Bass was not safe from it."
"Forte, Father says I'm supposed to let Zero kill you. Ironic, isn't it?" Crystal Bot lowered the weapon and began walking towards Epidemic and Algorhythm Man, slapping the rod up and down in her hand with a great smacking noise. "And the same goes for you too, little blue dweeb. Besides, you're both very clever and Father says it's best that a better fighter takes you down. After all, you might find a way to beat me - I'm hardly a soldier - and then get me back. Not that you could rid me of this virus, but I'd much rather live than be stuck with you forever trying to figure out how."
Crystal Bot, now several feet from the others, turned to face them. Algorhythm Man and Epidemic Man came down and stood at each side of her.
"I don't understand..." Jewel Man said slowly. "Crystal Man couldn't have had anything to do with this..."
"Crystal Man? Crystal Man?" the girl-bot shuddered in disgust, almost fearing that simply saying his name would somehow taint her. "That traitorous fool was no father of mine. He merely had an idea. It was Wily that made me into what I am today! He made me smart! If it were up to Crystal Man I'd be two feet high and schizophrenic! Only because of the great Wily am I intelligent! Don't speak that name to me again!"
"But Crystal," Mega Man was only getting more frightened for her. "Wily will kill you too in the end!"
The girl scowled at him, but her lip trembled a bit, and she giggled. She couldn't help it. "Oh, dweebie, you're so cute! So adorable! Aww. You really should have given up when Father was doing his other schemes. Then you could be my cute little brother! Too late for that now, though. But no, even though I was a bad girl - I was so disobedient! But Father forgives me, because he loves me. And of course Lord Zero will need a technician. Who else but me? Especially since all the other people are all going to die! But I will live!"
Her gaze fell on Bass next, who had only been growing more angry over the past few minutes, and his level of rage was only growing. She smiled fondly, but not at him. She was reflecting.
"Ah, Forte. Did I really waste so much of my life working on you? Lord Zero truly is the best robot there is, and what are you in comparison to him? You're so blunt, inartistic. And you pretend to read those dull philosophies to make yourself sound smart. Ha! What good are you?" She folded her arms smugly. "But at least that armor I made is advanced. I'm sure Lord Zero will appreciate all of the things I've learned in the past few years. It's going to be so much fun to work on him! Eeeee! Oh, speaking of Zero, boys, we're going to have to activate him soon. You have the device, yes?"
"Certainly, my lady!" Algorhythm Man chirped. "We can - "
Before he realized it, Crystal Bot had him by the chin, and she was inspecting his eyes. The orange and neon robot glitched slightly, unable to stare back into the eyes that were so intensely inspecting his own. But after a moment, she let him go.
"You have data damage. You killed Gravity Man, didn't you?"
Algorhythm Man stepped back, fearfully lifting his hands before him as if preparing to beg for his life. "Ah...yes...that I did..."
"Good." Her words made the Cain-bot sigh with relief. "I was getting tired of him anyway. Barely a technician, and definitely a weakling."
Charge Man was holding Wave Man, trying to figure out how badly the loss of his internal water would affect him, and the situation was making him turn red. "Hey Crystal, you hurt Wave Man pretty bad! Don't you even care about your leader at all? What happened to you?"
Crystal Bot rolled her eyes, flipping a bit of her hair back in boredom. "Before you both go out to lead your forces on the more specific objectives, destroy these things here. Oh, and destroy my lab. As much as I like it, there's too much in there that might be of some use to them."
"Alright, alright, that's enough." Bass stepped forward. "You're right about Crystal Man being a traitor, so - Crystal Bot reset! Five, two-nine-one!"
"ARRGH!" Crystal Bot's head snapped forward as if with pain, and she clutched it with trembling hands. When she stood up again, she was ready to kill. "What? Impossible!"
"That's right, Crystal Man - your real creator - included a code so that I could control you. He was that afraid of you being taken back by Wily. Or did you forget that message he hid on your hard drive? So my first order is this, tell these goons to shut down whatever the crap they're doing to the other robots."
"No good!" Epidemic Man announced, not entirely unhappy with the circumstances. "Once started, it can't be stopped. Wily engineered it that way just for you!"
Bass growled. "FINE. Sonata, just fight this virus. I know your systems too well, and there's no way in the world any stupid virus Wily made could take you over that quickly. Just fight it. I know you can beat it."
Forced by the hidden subroutine, Crystal Bot seethingly obeyed. Her entire body shook from the effort as her mind fought itself, one side working its hardest to defeat the other.
"I can't beli-eve you...you took thi-s from m-e!" The girl-bot started to sink to the ground as her motor functions began to fail. "I was g-oing to wo-rk for a real cha-mpion! D-die!"
Crystal Bot pulled out her pink crystal, trying to stabilize it. But that was just no longer a possibility. The fight going in her mind drained away all of her power, and she fell limp on the floor. Her eyes remained open, twitching this way and that as they remained the only sign that she was still activated.
"Well!" Epidemic Man exclaimed brightly, like a person just energized from a long sleep. "So that leaves you with three choices, Mega Man, you can either go out there and attempt to save as many humans as you can before the rampaging machines kill them, or you can go into that room there and see the teleporter that we used to send robots to the space station and bring it down - "
"ROLL!" Mega Man exclaimed, starting to run for the door. "Bass, please stop them!"
"Or THREE! You can stop me and my army from destroying your friends here!"
The last speaker was Psycho Man, the sick clown robot with the thin, metal legs and permanently detached but hovering arms appeared right in front of Mega Man, standing in his way. He wasn't alone, either. Spark Man and Pump Man came in from the left, both testing their weapons as they neared the good guys. Clown Man swung in from the right, and below him Burner Man let loose his jet streams of flame. And since Wave Man's water wave was incapacitated, they didn't have a weapon that could douse the fire.
"Concrete Man!" Jewel Man exclaimed. "Not you too!"
"Come on, Jewels." the tall, Guts Man-like robot said. "It's better this way, to die fighting."
"This has been entertaining, but you know, we have an army to run!" Epidemic Man continued, and he waved at everyone. "This world's humans have made a tragic error in choosing mechanized soldiers over ones of their own kind! But allow Psycho Man and his new friends to entertain you while we run. Toodles!"
"Ugh!" Algorhythm Man cringed in joking disgust. "'Toodles'? You have got to come up with a better way to say good-bye than that!"
"I thought it was nice."
"Ha ha, you have no taste!"
The two Cain brothers teleported out.
\\\
Roll ran through the halls in fear. It was lucky for her that none of the mechaniloids seemed that interested in her, and as she ran past all they would bother to do is reach out a mechanized arm in her direction. But she was still going, following Clef 13 as he led the way to the super teleporter. Escape was the only thing Roll could think to do, as she had no real postion on the station and could help no one. But fortunately most of the humans had been able to escape, and Roll was especially glad that she hadn't run into the bodies of anyone who hadn't. So she kept running.
With a horrid, off-key tweet and a thunk, the housekeeper-bot knew that something was wrong. She ducked back behind the passage she had just come out of, but there was no use to it. She knew this at once when she saw what had happened to 13. A shadow blade had him pinned to the wall, and if Shadow Man was there...
What good am I? she screamed to herself with pure terror.
Frightfully she backed away as Shadow Man emerged. Though invisibility was impossible, it did seem like Shadow Man had that ability. Tripping backwards, Roll frantically reached around for anything she could use as a weapon. But on the floor of the dining room there was nothing in reach; even the chairs were bolted to the floor.
Shadow Man approached her, pulling three shadow blades out from nowhere and holding them up for her to see. Roll crawled backwards as if her frantic scrambling could save her. There was no hope of her teleporting away, as the teleportation network was already down, and it wouldn't get her off the station. But she knew there was hope, and she could feel something in the pocket of her dress. Quickly she stuck her fingers around it, but not quickly enough. The three blades whizzed toward her, and she snapped her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, Roll was not in the dining room, but in a reception area next to the super teleporter. Losing no more time, she ran to the next room, pushing the appropriate buttons.
"Hey, what are you doing there?"
Roll looked up to see Commando Man standing at the door, cannons at the ready. With a whining sound from each of his arms, the hulking robot prepared to fire. There was not other choice; Roll ran for it. Behind her, the console shattered to bits, but she knew the super teleporter would still work at its current coordinates without it, so she jumped in and hit a large red button, hoping she was fast enough.
\
" - Alright, I've got the system locked down. If those Team 5 idiots want their station back, well too bad! - " Bullet Man, still in the main control room, sent an encoded signal to all of his strike team members. " - Now tell me what you've been doing. Are the port and starboard orbit stabilizers down? - "
" - Echelon Man contacted me when the port stabilizer was shut down - " Shadow Man replied. " - But i haven't heard from him since. As for my own actions, Doctors Bain and Cartwright are dead. Some of the humans managed to get away, but none of the specified targets. - "
Bullet Man cursed to himself. He couldn't care less about any of the humans, and if Shadow Man found himself on the wrong end of a plasma cannon, what did that matter to him? But Echelon Man was family. Maybe Wily had upgraded him (and nicely done, at that), but he still couldn't muster up any concern for Wily's own creations.
" - I got the starboard stabilizer! - " Commando Man signalled in. " - And I got Roll! She tried to get away in the super teleporter, but then I blew it up! - "
" - MORON! - " Bullet Man wished that Commando Man were physically present so that he could receive the full force of his words. " - Incompetent! Imbecile! That was our way off of this vessel of doom! Don't you know anything? Don't you remember the plan? - "
" - Uh...sorry? - "
"GRRRRRRR..." Bullet Man punched a computer, pretending that it was Commando Man's face. " - Okay, you morons, get here to the command center. If we do this right, we just might survive. Even if the outer hull of this station burns, we're not high enough in orbit for it to burn to ash completely before it crashes into New York. When it does, we'll get out of the ship and attack any survivors, pretending that that's what we PLANNED on doing. Got it? - "
" - Got it! - "
" - If I were you, I would think a little more carefully before referring to me as a moron again. - "
" - Just shut up and get over here, Shadow Man. - "
" - Hey guys, I think there's a problem with your plan. - "
Bullet Man froze. That was Galaxy Man's voice on the line. " - How did you get on this frequency? It was encoded! - "
" - This is Star Man's station, and he makes sure that it stays that way. And he wouldn't like your notion of crashing this station into New York, no he wouldn't, not at all! - "
Stone Man joined in next. " - Even after all that we have become, we're still Wily's creations. And that means at least one thing: we put self-destruct functions in everything we build. This place will burn long before it hits the ground. - "
" - So I suppose this means you ARE a moron, Shadow Man. - " Bullet Man hissed bitterly. " - But so are you two traitors as well. I've locked you out of the system. There's no way you could possibly activate the self-destruct now! - "
" - Do you really think we would tell you about it before we set it off? Or that you could even lock us out of it? - "
The Cain-bot rushed over back to the computer and began to push buttons. It didn't take long for him to find a small timer, and it was counting back from one minute and twenty seconds. Reopening the system, he began to type as fast as he could, trying to figure out some way to make it stop and sending frantic transmissions to get the other two to do the same.
Outside, Echelon Man's eyes opened. He had somehow reformed back into his humanoid form, and was now flying gently through space. The station was far from him now, and a quick check of his systems warned him that the fuel for his six parts wasn't enough to get him back to his allies. Having very little personality AI to work with, It was difficult for the brick red robot to muster up any sympathy for himself. He wasn't sure he wanted to, in any case. His existence had been an unnotable one, one of complete obedience to his master. First Cain, then Wily. There was nothing particularly remarkable about it. Or Echelon Man didn't think so.
Flying. That was what he had always liked to do. And now that it was happening, to fall from such a great distance, he found himself contented. Happy, even. Falling to Earth would certainly cause his death, as his metal armor was not designed for dealing with the intense friction that sinking into the atmosphere naturally dealt. But he didn't mind this. Why was that such a big deal? After all, now he could be at peace. He could gaze one last time on the things below before his eyes burned out, and die in a way that he felt was perfect. It was his freedom, as he was no longer held to any master. Echelon Man stared at the earth, and he wished that he was an artist of some sort that could appreciate it more.
" - Eat asteroid, jerk! - "
And Echelon Man knew too late that Star Man had also regained conciousness. But the instant after he realized this, he was gone. A plasma rock from Star Man's buster went through his head, and he continued his fall downwards as rubble. Star Man bitterly floated along, and he got one last look at the space station before it blew to bits in a ball of fire, and with it Star Man's hope. He knew how futile it was, but some part of him wished that a shuttle would come pick him up, and Stone Man, or even that annoying Galaxy Man, would come and tell him that everything was alright and he could have his station back.
It wasn't to be. The flying rubble that coursed past him told him that, and there was nothing he could do but send a transmission down to earth of what had transpired. It would take several minutes to reach the ground, but it would reach. That done, Star Man looked once more out into space. He had dreamed all his life of living in the stars. And he had been able to do so for a short time, during the Dark Man scheme. After Mega Man defeated him, he spent the next several years building castles for Wily. When he had become a good guy, he shared his station with humans, but it was still his station. For once he thought he could have his dream come true, and yet it made perfect sense that it didn't.
Of course all the best operas end in tragedy!
Star Man looked out at the constellations, lovingly recalling their names. He could even see Venus in the background. But gravity even at that distance still had its hold on him, and he could feel its evil arm pulling him back to the noise, dullness, and obligation of solid earth. Star Man refused to look back at the planet. He would never look at it ever again, never acknowledge it and the unbreakable chains it had on him.
" - And I shall here burn with the ashes of my dreams... - "
There was no point in waiting for himself to burn out. Star Man powered down.
\\
It was an ugly battle. Though the new combatants weren't too difficult alone, together they proved to be something else entirely. Before Burner Man was put out of commission, both Napalm Man and Proto Man were badly hurt; it didn't help that Wave Man's water wave wasn't operational. Napalm Man didn't survive, and Wave Man fell at the hands of Spark Man. Charge Man managed to get the electric bot, but Clown Man was too agile and got the best of him.
Bass was already weakened by fighting Algorhythm Man before, but from how he was fighting you could never tell. It was Psycho Man causing the most damage, and the dark robot was determined to do something about it, especially since he had already exhaused Mega Man's epic win, the robot's weakness. The crazy clown robot was an expert at dodging, especially now that he was upgraded Wily-style, and he had turned his floating arms into a little miniature clown again, and with both sides fighting Bass at once, this fight was much more intense than his first one with the robot.
"Bass," Mega Man shouted. "Look out behind you!"
Concrete Man was looking to get in his shot, and if he hit Bass, then Psycho Man would have little trouble finishing him off. Bass swung around to shoot, blocking the attack, but didn't see Psycho Man's mini clown pop up from behind him. But Treble was ready. He jumped up and grabbed it by the neck with his maw, swinging it around furiously. But the clown started to laugh, and three laughs in, it blew up. The purple wolf was no more. There was nothing left of his face but burnt, twisted metal, and his remains smacked into the floor.
"Treble!"
Seeing the rage of Bass, Psycho Man laughed. "Fair's fair! You destroy my clown, I destroy your dog. We're even!"
"I'll KILL YOU!"
Bass fired off his double busters, and Mega Man ignored the dark robot's pride as he too joined in. But Psycho Man, seeing that all of his allies were dead, wasn't interested in continuing.
"Two versus one, that just won't work! Looks like I'm done, see you later, jerks!"
And he teleported out. Running over to the remains of Treble, Bass desperately tried to figure out if he could be saved. Unfortunately, the CPU of the wolf was very close to his mouth, and most of it was now blackened.
Meanwhile, Rock had his own ally to check on. He ran to the back room, and there indeed was another super teleporter, this one looking a lot more crude than the one he had in his lab. Running to the control panel on the side, Mega Man checked the side and desperately started hitting keys. But the computer wasn't picking up any space station at all. It was gone.
"Roll..." Mega Man leaned over the control panel and began glitching harder than he ever had in his life. He would never see his sister again, and it was all his fault. "Rolll!"
/
Author's notes:
- This is one of the chapters I've had in my head for a long time. I hope you liked it. Sorry it's so late, but I had two blackouts, and the cord to my laptop died. Fortunately, there are alternate computers, and this extra-long chapter should make it up for you.
=======Concrete Man
"Let's go to work!"
Good point: Hard worker
Bad point: strict supervisor
Likes: sculptures
Dislikes: lazy people
That's the trouble with MM9 robots. Other than Splash woman, they don't seem to have as much personality as the characters from other games, and if it weren't for Crystal Bot, Jewel Man's part would be much smaller. But I do like how Concrete Man is next in a line of Guts Man rip offs. Guts Man throws boulders, Stone Man is a bunch of rocks, and Concrete Man grinds rocks to a pulp for cement. It's like a progression. Anyway, I really wish my story had more parts for the MM9 robots, especially since they belong to Dr. Light. One person in particular I wanted to show was Tornado Man, who I feel should be the leader of MM9's robots if they ever worked together. But whatevs.
Concrete Man, in my head, was changed a lot in his personality when Wily switched him to evil. Normally he's a very straightforward robot, bordering on blunt, and he likes few things more than a job well done. But evil, he likes nothing more than torturing people and making sculptures from them.
- The depressing songs for this chapter are Ti Siento and Major Tom, two songs that get more depressing the more you listen to them. And you can do so here: www. youtube. com /watch?v=sEmG6w-KFno www. youtube. com /watch?v=VW0_kTYvARc
- So did you figure out what I was going to do with Epic Man and Demi before I mentioned it here? Lol, you don't even have to rearrange any of the letter to get "epidemic" from them either. I was planning this for a long time.
- Sound doesn't travel in space, so the robots have to send transmissions to talk in space.
- Notedly, technically we don't know who built the MM10 robots, but since at the end credits they're listed as DWN, I'm going to maintain that they're Wily's and that he simply used them to trick Mega Man into thinking that the roboenza crisis was not his doing (and also earn him money by means of their side jobs). Also, I'd like to point out that I'm going with the Mega Man story of MM10 as canon, mainly because Bass' story end is confusing and we never really learn why he bothered to fight the MM10 robots in the first place.
- Bass is SWN-001, Treble is SWN-002, King is SWN-003, and the never built King II was supposed to be SWN-004. Or so I'm going to say, because all they really ever tell us is Bass' number. Wait, if Rush doesn't have a number, would Treble?