When Rock came in, he had to force himself to look at Proto Man's body. He kept trying to see a sign that it was some sort of fake, but it was his brother. He knew it. Treble had bitten his leg a long time ago, and the replacement metal they had used to fix it didn't quite match Proto Man's other leg. Mega Man lowered his head, sobbing over the table as if his power core would break in two from all the grief.

"He destroyed the activation device." Bass' voice cut the quiet. "He saved some of his memory data on a disc, and from what Auto can tell, it's impossible activate Zero now. Remotely, anyway. Also, not even the Cain-bots knew where he was hidden, so for now Zero's out of the picture for now."

"That's good..." The words caught in Mega Man's tightening vocal actuator. "Was there...anything else?"

Bass was doing his best to be comforting (or to simply be less awkward), so he attempted to keep from the snarl he so much wanted to do. It really helped only a little. "Not really. There was old stuff about Cain Castle...and how it was a trap. And then there was the invasions of the safe territories with the Armoroids. All that there is left is to kill us, then destroy Monstropolis and this lab."

Rock looked up at his sister. The poor girl was huddled on one of Dr. Light's old lab chairs, despondently avoiding meeting the gaze of anyone in the room. Walking over, Mega Man pulled up a chair for a moment, sitting by her as he placed a hand gently on her shoulder. She had barely known Proto Man before, and now he was gone. The brother and sister sat there sullenly as Auto started to check Rock's buster, equally sullen. A beep sounded at a computer, and Auto went over to it, waving Crystal Bot away to acknowledge he would handle it. However, as soon as he got to the computer, he looked over in her direction again.

"I found Jewel Man..." he said solemnly. "He's dead."

That chilled the air. Rock could sort of see the monitor of Jewel Man's broken remains behind Auto, but he like everyone else, tried not to look. Instead everyone's gaze went to the shiny girl-bot.

"What is everyone looking at me for?" the indignant Sonata, getting more angry the harder she worked to keep her grief under wraps. It didn't work. "Jewel Man's a butt. I hate him and I don't care! I DON'T!"

With that, she ran out of the room, wheezing through gritted teeth as she failed to force away her sobs. Roll got up and tried to go after her, but a dark hand pulled her back.

"Let her go." Bass muttered. "There's no talking to her when she's like that."

Bass dropped Roll's arm, and she uncertainly drifted a few steps away. Bass didn't seem to want to stop her, so she went after Crystal Bot anyway. Bass was being distracted by Mega Man, who was suddenly standing next to him.

"What do you want?"

"Come over this way a minute."

So Bass followed the blue bomber over to the side of the room, expecting that Mega Man was strategizing or wanted to show him something on the computer. He folded his arms expectantly. Mega Man, however, was starting to look adorable again, with his large, sad eyes. Being entirely immune to the concept of "adorable", Bass gritted his teeth in annoyance.

"Bass, you know we need to get rid of those last three Cain-bots." Mega Man began. "They're the ones in charge of all of this, and we've defeated the Wily-bots before, the ones that are still left."

The dark 'bot knew all this, and began impatiently wondering what the point of this was. "Yeah?"

"I'm going to have to face Epidemic Man, sooner or later."

"I'll get Algorhythm Man. If that idiot wants to fight me, then so be it."

Rock shook his head. "Bass, please let me finish. This isn't about that. Wily upgraded Epidemic Man, and I don't want to make any assumptions. Please promise me this: if I don't make it back, please protect Roll. She's not strong..."

Bass was stunned. "What the crap? You wanted to talk to me about this?

"She's my sister." Mega Man said plainly. "And I'm going to give all I have in this next fight. With all that's happened, I can't guarantee that something won't happen to me. I have to know that she'll be safe."

"You're not going to die, Rock." Bass growled. This new nonsense was getting on Bass' nerves, and his eye wandered to find something more important to do. "You're going to kill the bad guy and come back like you always do."

"Stop it, Bass!" Mega Man's sharp tone caught the dark robot's attention. "This is not the time for pride, on anybody's part! Please, I couldn't stand it if something happened to her because I wasn't there to protect her! She can't manage on her own...not with the world like this. You've got to watch out for her! Promise me you'll keep her safe if I die."

"Rock..." Bass was starting to get angry. "You're going to make it back."

"Promise me!"

Dumbfounded, Forte stared down at the blue robot in wonder. He simply couldn't believe what Mega Man was demanding of him, the pure intensity of his grieving eyes, Bass was convinced the bomber was sincere. But what did it matter that Mega Man wanted this? Rock wasn't going to die, Bass assured himself. He was too lucky. He had to be, or else Bass would have defeated him already long ago...and then Bass' pride fell flat. A pinching feeling inside him made itself known, and Bass sighed.

"Okay, I promise. Now don't cry about it."

"Thank you, Bass."

Mega Man breathed out a simulated sigh, more relieved than Bass understood. But the dark robot just shook his head. He was about to walk away when Mega Man spoke up again.

"If something happens to you, do you want me to take care of Crystal Bot?"

It was a stupid question, and Mega Man realized this the instant Bass circled around. The hideous glare he wore...was actually a lot weaker than it usually was. Something in Bass was wrong, and for one second his permanent arrogance wavered.

"Crystal Bot can take care of herself. Eh, except when she does something stupid. Just don't let her do stuff like that."

"Alright, I promise!"

Seeing the dopey, relieved grin on Mega Man's face only annoyed Bass further.

"Darn it, Rock, look what you're doing to us." Bass growled, showing the viciousness he was feeling. "By saying crap like that you're assuming you're not going to make it. You're dooming yourself already. I'll tell you what's going to happen: we're going to go out there, kill the bastards, and stop this crap before it goes any farther. Then we'll meet right back here when they're all dead, and you'll see that I'm right. Got it?"

"Got it." Mega Man smiled.

This lecture didn't temper Mega Man's happiness any. In fact, it was strengthened him to know that he had such a confident ally. He saw Bass' doubts, and he saw his fears. But he also knew that there was no robot in the world more determined than Forte. Algorhythm Man was doomed.

"Auto, what do we know about Epidemic Man's or Algorhythm Man's locations?" Mega Man asked as he returned to the others.

"Nothing so far." Auto answered.

"And is everyone evacuated from Monstropolis?"

"The army's here. Since Hanson Mechanics had their own custom anti-virus, there are a few robots left there, and I think since they know Wily has it out for this place they want some sort of last stand. They think they can capture one of the Cain-bots."

Mega Man nodded. "It makes sense. I'll lead the operation myself. It's better that I handle Epidemic Man anyway. According to these plans there isn't much else left. I'll contact whoever's in charge with what we know."

Before he got to it, the blue bomber took a look around at the others. Crystal Bot had returned to the room again, and was absentmindedly patting Rush, trying to gain some comfort by scratching behind his ears. Roll was still sitting alone to the side, barely paying attention to anything around her. Auto was still going about his work, trying not to think too much about what was going on. Bass was quiet, looking at Mega Man as if he was waiting for something.

He didn't have to wait long.

"Everyone, please listen to me." the blue bomber began. "I know that things have never been this hard for us, and it looks bad even now. But this isn't the end. It's not over at all. We still have the works of Dr. Light, and we still have Mega Man X. No matter what Wily planned, he won't win. He can't. Not with us here. We can put a stop to this once and for all, and it will be the end of Wily's influence forever. All we have to do is take care of Algorhythm Man and Epidemic Man, then the rest will be easy. No one's going to destroy robotics as long as we stand up for justice. So take heart. Things are going to get better from here."

The little speech had only a small affect on Bass, but it counted. Bass had always been annoyed by the optimistic banter of Mega Man, and he figured that it would end with this "apocalypse", but no, there it was. He thought that it was all just happy-go-lucky rhetoric, and yet here in the darkest of times, the retoric was still there. It actually impressed Bass.

"Hey, Forte-kun." Crystal Bot tried to get his attention. "I meant to tell you before you left again about how I upgraded your teleporter."

Bass stared dully at his technician, and she fidgeted uncomfortably. "Eh, well, I sorta merged your normal teleportation system with one of my new devices. Your teleportation is now stronger, and you can teleport away a robot that doesn't have a working teleportation circuit. Algorhythm Man might be able to stop it, I dunno, but he won't know about it until you use it, so...it's something..."

Bass blinked, still staring at her a little incredulously. Crystal Bot lowered her head. It didn't work for a distraction, but Bass had to give her credit for trying.

"I told you to do that years ago."

"Yeah...it's sorta complicated. Didn't figure it out until now."

"Eh, thanks. Hey, what's the status on your teleportation devices anyway?"

"Uh, Rock has one, oh wait, Algorhythm Man messed that one up. Roll accidentally smashed one, and since I merged the other one with your systems, that leaves one I have that still works."

"Good to know."

"Alright," Mega Man looked up from the screen he was sitting at, powering it down as he spoke. "Bass, the military's calling for us. We need to go."

"Yeah, yeah."

"Bbashya!" Crystal Bot said with a genuine smile barely covering the genuine hatred she felt for the Cain-bots. "Kill 'em dead, Forte-kun! Oh, and you better back up your memory now, okay? That's what I made your secondary systems for."

"Bbashya yourself." Bass replied. "Just keep your eyes open monitoring me, okay?"

"I will!"

Mega Man went over and gently patted his sister's shoulder. "I've got to go. I wish I could be here for you, but things will only get worse if we don't stop the Wily-bots now."

For just a moment, Roll thought she hated Rock. Here he was, going off again into danger right when she needed him the most. She didn't want to be alone, waiting in the lab while he went off with his heroic duties. She didn't want him to die, and she swore that she would never forgive him if he did. It was bad enough in the old days when he would fight the robot teams, but now they were without the cheerful countenance of Dr. Light, or the hope that Proto Man was out there, ready to help.

"I understand, Rock."

-t-

When the battle against Monstropolis came, Mega Man wanted to be ready. He for once wanted to have the home field advantage, for the Cain-bots to have to guess what was going to happen next. The humans had gotten their last, greatest anti-robot cannons and lasers out, as well as the few robots that had belonged to scientists and didn't have mainstream anti-virus programs on them. And as badly as the fight had gone to save Dr. Cossack, at least several Armoroids had been destroyed. But the main focus to getting ready was to attract the attention of the Cain-bots and get them to show up at the right time.

And that was why Bass was wandering around the robot museum. The place was long since unpowered, and walking through the dark halls with the corpses of dead robots all around filled Bass with a sense of bitter dread. He still didn't understand the point of not recycling them, especially since any of the robots could simply be stolen again. But he shook it off and went on. The real purpose of this was in the back. Bass didn't know how the Cain-bots would find out he was doing this, but if this was Wily's plan, then they would find out. So he approached the grave of his creator, buster ready.

The headstone was even creepier in the museum than it would be in a graveyard, despite the fact that it had been modernized to fit within the futuristic theme of the place. This didn't shake Forte. He stood there for a moment, entranced by his own hatred for the man. During Wily's lifetime, Bass had scorned and underestimated him, and he was paying the price for it now.

"Why couldn't you just give up?" Bass hissed at the display. "I was happy! Now look at all you've done! Is it this important that you prove you're 'better' than Dr. Light? Who cares?"

Bass didn't know why he expected some sort of answer. There was nothing, of course. Yet somehow that only made him more angry. He engaged his double busters and tore through the stone. He didn't care about the dust and the rubble flying all about him, he just kept firing until there was nothing left but a crater and a hole in the wall. And then he fired some more.

There aren't going to be enough remains to bury you anywhere else...bastard...

But he didn't feel any better than before. He stood there, seething and staring at the mess of plaster, metal and dust that he had made. It wasn't enough. Wily had torn his life apart, and it wasn't good enough to destroy his grave or his bones. None of that erased the mistakes he had made, the failures he'd had rescuing the poor saps that worked in sentient robotics. It couldn't restore the way things were, or bring back his broken lab, his books, and his dog. It couldn't stop the fear that constantly told him that he was useless. And it certainly didn't stop his lip from slowly twitching, opening wider to show off the growing scowl.

"GGGGRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Forte's hideous cry echoed off the cold walls, as did the multifarious buster shots that tore into display after display and shredded everything it hit. Bass just couldn't destroy enough. He hated his creator most of all for one thing: not being alive so that he could die at Bass' hands. Bass knew that this was Wily's perfect revenge. Wily got exactly what he wanted, and he wasn't alive to suffer consequences. And that only made Bass madder.

But there was no point in going on and destroying the museum itself. That did no good. Soon enough the invasion force would come, and then he would have his chance to tear down real bad guys.

"Y'know, I thought we were the ones that were supposed to be destroying history."

Bass snapped around to find Algorhythm Man cautiously, but not unamusedly, coming out from behind a smashed display of Bubble Man. Bass fired off two shots, but Algorhythm Man dodged these, jumping over to the top of the Fire Man display (which was miraculously still standing).

"Don't you want to talk?" Algorhythm Man seemed somewhat more insane that night, and if Bass had been calm enough to notice he would have seen the fatalism in his eyes. "I can tell you all about Wily before he died."

"Screw you!"

But again the Cain-bot jumped away with grace. "You see, Dr. Wily knew how badly I wanted to be the one to kill you. But no, he had to leave you as the bait for that stupid, ugly girl-bot he invented. 'Pinnacle of my creations'...the putrid thing. Balderdash!" Bass next hits actually smacked into Algorhythm Man's glowing chest, but the Cain-bot still managed to stagger away out of his next barrage, and he continued. "But Wily was not ungracious. He made me not offensively strong, but defensively! I can dodge, and my impact armor is excellent!"

It was fortunate for him that this was the case, because the crystal busters were firing what they could at the orange and neon robot, and finally he decided to actually return fire at Bass. Not that those few shots did much good other than distract Bass for a moment.

"And that's not all!" Algorhythm Man said. "The amazing thing is, Wily changed his mind! He told me that I could be the one to destroy you, if I succeeded, that is. After all, you're merely his first draft: error ridden and rebellious. You're not good enough to be destroyed by Master Wily's masterpiece!"

That comment earned him another barrage of double buster shots, but Algorhythm Man hopped away, getting more and more out of Bass' sight as he ran back through the halls of the museum. "To that end, Wily concocted a marvelous plan! Even you'll admit it's clever! And there's a LOT of collateral around...hee hee..."

That did it. Bass' rage was growing to its full, frightening potential, but he forced himself to stop and think. He could hear the noises of a battle going outside, and he realized that he hadn't been paying enough attention to his surroundings. Remembering Crystal Bot's latest upgrade, Bass began to think of a plan. He just needed to catch up with Algorhythm Man first...that robot was fast! He ran after the Cain-bot, hoping to catch him before something terrible happened.

Suddenly the sound of a huge weight falling rang out, and there was a groan in the distance. Bass ran up, surprised to see Algorhythm Man half buried under the carcass of a large maroon robot that somebody apparently had time to put on display before the whole apocalypse had began.

"Heh. Thanks, Gravity Man." Bass said as he reached under and grabbed Algorhythm Man's foot.

Bass teleported out, glad that he could take the Cain-bot with him. They reappeared somewhere in the deserts of California, a place that Bass knew to be completely empty for miles. They could fight here without hurting anyone else. Bass wasn't about to let Algorhythm Man have the opportunity.

"Oh, a new teleporter, eh?"

Using his close proximity to Bass to jump up and grab him by the neck, Algorhythm Man hacked Bass' systems, tearing in and eliminating his teleportation field generator. But before he could do anything else, Bass promptly ripped him away and fired. The battle was begun. But as they continued to fight, Bass had to admit that Algorhythm Man's armor was ridiculously annoying, despite the number of shots he was getting in. Offensively, Algorhythm Man was terrible, but the tedium of wearing him down was unbearable.

"What is that crap?" Bass snarled. "Half-met armor or something?"

"Precisely!" The Cain-bot seemed delighted that Bass noticed. "You see, with my special weapons having to fly here instead of Monstropolis, you've bought yourself a bit of time. You're a Wily-bot, so naturally you're strong, so not just anything will take you down...not even myself, I'm afraid. But I don't have to beat you, per se, but just hold you here until the nukes land. Now that you can't teleport, well, it's that much simpler, isn't it?"

"WHAT THE HELL? You made NUKES?"

"Ahahaha!" Algorhythm Man laughed heartily, and Bass at once heard tones of Wily mixed in. "Oh no, no, nothing of that sort. We merely stole them. After all, there are a number of little fascist countries that had hoped to better their standing in the world. The pathetic beings! Now I have their weapons, and my mechaniloids are flying them in now! You see, you can't escape the fate Master has laid out for you, Zero or not!

"You can't possibly want this!" Bass yelled. "Don't you want to live?"

"Of course I do!" the Cain-bot snapped back. "But I got what I asked for...revenge against you! I only wish...perhaps I should have told Epi..."

Bass stared at him like he was the dumbest thing ever, an expression he hadn't used since he had been forced to stay in Skull Castle with the robot masters. "You're programmed to not be able to run away, aren't you? The only way you can keep me here is die yourself."

"I said, I'm getting what I want! Dr. Cain is dead, but now all I can do is avenge his dignity by destroying you! What good is freedom if I haven't done that?"

It was sickening to hear those words. Bass knew that Algorhythm Man was not merely upgraded, he was corrupted. He was another insane slave of Dr. Wily, Cain-bot or not. Bass almost felt sorry for him, but instead he just shot him again.

-t-

Roll walked away from Auto's monitoring station. The fight in Monstropolis was getting to hard for her to watch, and she was surprised that she had remained there for so long. But even though she knew he was strong, Roll couldn't bear to watch her brother fight so many. She had been planning to leave the lab and try to distract herself with something else, but she happened to walk by Crystal Bot's monitoring screen, and saw a glimpse of the desert on the monitor. Where in the world had Bass gone? Why wasn't he at the battle with Rock? She stood behind Crystal Bot at the computer control panels, listening in terror as she heard the conversation between Algorhythm Man and Bass.

" - Sonata! - " Bass signalled the monitoring station. " - You're still monitoring me, and you heard what this idiot said, right? - "

"I did...oh, Forte-kun, how are we going to get you out?" Crystal Bot fearfully spoke into the computer's microphone.

" - Shut up! - " Bass fired off more shots as he continued the transmission. " - It's more important that we kill this guy, and I think it's too late for me to just run, otherwise he wouldn't have said anything. You've still got that one teleporter that isn't messed up, right? - "

"Um, yeah!" Roll quickly brought it to Crystal Bot from the place it sat on the table. "I've got it!"

" - Good. I have to be quick killing him, so I'll stabilize the energy crystals in my arm busters to create instant death spikes, and then- - "

"Forte, no!" Roll covered her mouth in shock as Crystal Bot went on in almost anger. "How do you even know how to do that? You can't handle that kind of energy going through you! You'll die!"

" - I said SHUT UP! - " Bass dodged a few more colored pellet shots from his enemy. " - You taught me a bunch of technical crap about this kind of stuff, remember? I just had to do the math. Now how long can I maintain the energy before it kills me? - "

"Uh...anywhere from one to five seconds..."

" - Crap, I'll have to be quick. What's the chances of you being able to repair me from that kind of damage? - "

"Assuming I can get all the right parts, 53.6%"Crystal Bot sounded like she was going to cry.

" - That's good enough. Once I kill him, you can teleport here and get me before the nukes land. He won't be able to stop you then. Got it? - "

"Yeah...I got it."

" - Sonata, remember what I always tell you: anything to win. Say it. - "

Crystal Bot slowly leaned forward into the microphone, reluctantly speaking. "...Anything to win."

" - That's my girl. - "

Bass cut the transmission. It was a lot easier to fight without a weepy girl-bot in his ear. So now all he had to do was quickly lure Algorhythm Man close enough to grab him and stabilize the crystals in his arms. The thought of it was a bit frightening even to him, but he steered his mind to strategy. He tried to think of Algorhythm Man's weakness, and cursed as he realized it was the psycho pulse: another close range weapon that wouldn't bring the enemy any closer.

"Those stupid powers never turned out to be useful...wait, I'd bet anything that Wily made it so that he doesn't have a vulnerability to the pulse. If he's heavily armored, it shouldn't work anyway. I'd also bet that this guy thinks I'm an idiot and that I won't realize that. So he might risk getting close just to make me look stupid.

Bass equipped the psycho pulse, and sure enough the spiteful Cain-bot's dissolved, and he got too close. Activating the pulse, Bass grabbed Algorhythm Man's arm.

"What a fool! Don't you realize that armor this thick - "

" - is a great conductor for death spike energy!"

The dark, gleeful smile on Bass' visage actually lasted for a second after he activated his energy crystals, but as the pink glow encompassed the two robots, he began to scream along with Algorhythm Man. With a bright flash, the two robots fell apart, and Bass' metal body slumped back into the dirt, an expression of absolute horror on his face as the smoke rose from his busters. Algorhythm Man's neon panels stopped glowing, and he two was a smoldering ruin.

"That's my cue."

Crystal Bot forced herself to remain strong as she spoke to Roll. After all, Bass was going to be alright, most likely. But Roll was beside her at the computer screen, and had witnessed the entire horrible thing. She was still shaking, and Crystal Bot was starting to wish she had made Roll stay in a different room. There was no helping it, so Crystal Bot just picked up her teleportation device, winking at Roll before she activated it.

The scene was even worse witnessing it in person, and seeing the horror that death spike energy wrecked on the metal bodies was terrifying. The fact that one of them was someone Crystal Bot cared deeply about made it worse, and she gasped at the sight. Kneeling to inspect his face, she smiled faintly, trying to scrape up any hope she could muster, as if being optimistic could help him somehow.

"Well, let's not waste time. Come on back to the lab, Forte-pahboyah-kun." She gently reached under his neck with one arm as she reset the coordinates on her teleporter device, pressing the return button. "You're so silly, mister."

Nothing happened.

Mystifyed, Crystal Bot looked again at her device, taking away her other hand from Bass so that she could check its power level. She figured she might have to drain some of her energy to recharge it. But the power level was fine. Only when the creaking laughter grew loud enough did Crystal Bot understand. She looked down at the broken body of Algorhythm Man. As dirty, smoke-stained, and broken as he was, the robot was still managing an evil cackle, and the slightest tinge of an evil red glow remained in his dim eyes. And he was still managing to interfere with her teleporter. They were trapped. The now useless device fell from Crystal Bot's hand.

"Oh, why are you so evil?" she screamed.

But it was useless. The sound of aircraft engines was in the air, and there was nothing left for the girl-bot to do but snatch up Bass' body and start running, glitching as the horrible, dying laughter chased her away. Trying her hardest to focus, Crystal Bot realized that there was nowhere she could run in time to escape the blast radius. It just wasn't possible.

" - Sona-chan! - " Roll's frightened voice called over the line. " - Please tell me what to do! How do I get you out of there? Don't you have a plan? - "

" - Shut up, shut up, shut up! - " Crystal Bot's voice cracked as she sent the transmission. " - I'm trying to think of something and you're freaking me out! - "

Despite the rush and the worry, Crystal's mind was still working its hardest for a solution. Crystal Bot paused, pushing Bass further up over her shoulder. In the distance she could see a small town, but decrepit. Engaging her zoom told her that the place was dirty, rotting, and long since abandoned. Then it occured to her that this was a place that Bass had often gone in the past to be alone, especially when he wanted to concentrate on writing his book. Crystal Bot never understood why he preferred this dank old shanty town to linger in, but that was beside the point at the moment.

" - I know what this place is! - " Crystal Bot exclaimed. " - It's an old ghost town from a gold rush two hundred years ago. But nobody lives here anymore 'cause there's no more gold. - "

" - But how will that help? - "

" - Where there's a mining town there's a mine. It's should work like a rudimentary bomb shelter...maybe. It'll probably collapse, but you record these coordinates and have Rock or somebody come and find us. I'm gonna cut the transmission now, but you do what I said, okay? Just get the computer to target in on my coordinates, then come dig us..zttt...zerrt...twonk. - "

"Sona-chan!" Roll shrieked into the computer's radio. Not only was she losing audio contact, but the computer was not able to pinpoint Crystal Bot's location either. In fact, everything except for visual monitoring was off.

"Of course he would do that!" Roll gawked at the computer screen as this realization sank into her like a poison. "The Cain-bots planned it this way so we could...see them...die..."

But Crystal Bot was oblivious to all of this. Hoping that Roll knew what she was doing, she ran scans of the area. She hadn't been there often, and it was going to take a few seconds to find that mine. But after a perilous scan Crystal finally found it, and it was thankfully closer than she had formerly believed. Running underground past old mine carts, over old railings, and ducking under broken support beams, Crystal Bot took Bass further and further underground.

She knew about the dangers of nukes. There was the explosive blast itself, but the growing feet of dirt above them would help...to an extent. Then there was the alpha and beta radiation, which would do little to no damage to a robot at all - it was the radioactive part of the nuke that would slowly cause cancer over time in humans. Sonata figured that Roll would understand this better and be sure to quarantine the area.

But no, the very worst part of the nuke for them would be the gamma radiation: the instantaneous blast of electronic energy that would act as a massive EMP wave. This EMP wave would be no joke. All robots were protected against some degree of electromagnetic pulses, but not at this level. It was too strong, and it would suddenly wipe away all of the memory on any computer nearby - on any robot nearby. As Crystal Bot ran further in the dark, she tried her hardest to remember how deep it was she needed to be for the EMP to be worthless. It was fifty, or maybe sixty...feet? Yards? Meters?

She simply couldn't remember. And it didn't matter anyway. She had come to a rock barrier, and there was no way to go any deeper. Fingering the wall for any weaknesses proved only a waste of time. So Crystal gently sat Bass down on the floor, and she sat beside him, leaning on his shoulder like a child. She allowed herself to glitch a couple times as she turned up her auditory sensors, trying to hear what was going on outside the mine. She wasn't sure, but it seemed like the planes were getting quieter.

"They're passing us by, Forte!" she delightedly tugged at his arm. "They got messed up somehow!"

Listening more, Crystal was getting more certain that the planes were departing. But that didn't matter anymore. A piercing whistle cut through the air, and the very sound of it made Crystal Bot jump with fear. She immediately turned down her auditory sensors. She didn't want to know when it was going to happen. Instead she clung tightly onto Bass' arm, knowing that it would be easier to find them if they didn't get separated. She clung on tightly.

"We're going to survive this, Forte-kun..." Sonata whispered faintly. "I promise."

She closed her eyes. She never noticed when the bomb hit the ground, or when the roof of the man-made cave collapsed down on them. Instantly the EMP cut through her mind, wiping it clean. All there was left was two metal things deep into the dirt, cut off from all else that existed.

Roll couldn't see this, but her view was undoubtedly worse. The sattelites that allowed the monitoring systems to work only showed the outside of the mine, and Roll could see the shockwave as the blast tore through the barren dirt and the aged cabins. She turned off the monitor, sinking to the floor. She was still sitting there, hours later, when Rock came back. He looked terrible, but there was still a smile on his face, a faint one, as Auto helped him over to the repair table to have his armor replaced.

"That was some fight," he croaked, sore-sounding as he sat down on the table. "But I think...I think a lot of the Wily-bots were destroyed. Monstropolis...but never mind. Robots all over the world are shutting down, and the last Wily robot masters were taken down right here. All of them at once...attacked Monstropolis."

If it were possible for a robot to be exhausted, that would have been Mega Man. Ever the optimist, he was just happy that things were cooling down, that the worldwide destruction was lessening, dimming. Things were going to get better.

"Bass..." he croaked. "Bass, where are you? Roll, is he in an automated machine?"

For the first time since he had come in, he noticed where Roll was. She looked at him, and she couldn't have looked more sad if she'd had actual tears in her eyes. There was no need for her to say anything. The faintly upturned corners of Mega Man's mouth sank, and his head hung down.

Bass had broken his word.

\\\

Author's notes:

======Dub

"Zzzrt! Tweep-click-peep!"

Good point: helpful

Bad point: a follower

Likes: cleaning

Dislikes: mean people

Forgot him, didn't you? I did too - I should have mentioned in the last chapter how he too died on the island. I talked about him defending Roll, but didn't mention hide nor hair of him anywhere else. Couldn't think of an appropriate way to put it in this chapter. Oh well. That's why people edit their stories.

Dub is a good robot assistant, and he was built specifically for Roll to help clean the house and help her be more mobile. He is very attentive, and always listens to her and tries to clean things up to her standard. He hates arguments, and especially hates it when people hit him. He's very innocent, and because Crystal Bot is not very good with AI, he's not as intelligent as other robot assistants and he has less personality. But Dub does his best to learn, and Auto has upgraded him to a point where he understands Roll very well. He doesn't have the ability to learn on initiative, but he is a patient listener, something Roll always appreciated in him.

- My boyfriend and my dad know all about nukes, and they're the ones that told me about all the radiation and whatnot. True story of their destructive power. I'm surprised we don't learn this kind of thing in school, from the teachers, anyway. High school guys can tell you all about rudimentary weaponry.

- For those of you who haven't read my other stories, bbashya means something like "fighting" and is a Korean cheer, and pahbohyah means idiot.

- This is a chapter I've had in my head since Okkusenman, and I hope you enjoy it. For the song, I'm doing Sixteen, a rough song that's about the end of the world. This song is one of my favorites ever, and I hope you enjoy it. www. youtube. com /watch?v=35qLiHOVGyg