Roll had no clue why Mega Man wanted to see the footage of Bass' and Crystal Bot's death. She begged him not to watch, but all he did was compromise by loading the footage from the computer directly to his head so that she wouldn't have to see it on the monitor again. But that wasn't Roll's worry. She didn't want her brother to have to see it at all. Why would he want to?
"I have to know..." was all he would answer.
And he hadn't spoken since. He bore the repairs given him by Auto patiently but grimly, and once he was as satisfied as he could be with the work, he went over to a computer and activated the microphone so that he could send a transmission. He cleared his throat.
"Epidemic Man, come in. This is Mega Man."
Both Auto and Roll jumped, but Mega Man waved them away, assuring them he knew what he was doing.
"But how do you know what frequency he's listening to?" Auto asked. "He might not be in range, either."
"He'll be listening." Mega Man explained. "He's still programmed to find all the sentient robots he can and make sure that they're dead. It may take a while, but - "
" - Mega Man? I can't say I was expecting to hear from you. - "
Rock stiffened, but leaned towards the microphone again and responded, "I want to challenge you to a fight."
" - Oh? What do I get if I beat you? - "
"It's a battle to the death."
Roll gasped, mouthing "no" as Epidemic Man responded. " - Ah, I see. You just want to be rid of me. Well, I want to be rid of you, so I accept. And since you made the challenge, I choose where it's held. - "
Mega Man cringed. This could be bad. "Alright, where?"
" - Monstropolis. Meet me there in an hour. Is that to your liking? - "
"That'll work."
" - See you then! Oh, and Mega, you never answered a question of mine. - "
" - Yeah, what's that? - "
" - How about those Yankees? - "
Mega Man shut down the comm link, wincing. "He thinks this is some kind of joke!"
He rubbed his brow and sighed deeply. He had never liked fighting in his life, but now this was worse. He had actually challenged someone? But it was necessary. He had to do something to make this last war end, and how else was he going find Epidemic Man?
"Oh, Rock," Roll stammered. "Why...why did you..."
Rock hugged her tightly, as if he would never let her go. "I love you, Sis. That's why. I have to stop this...I have to."
"Promise you'll come back...please..."
But Mega Man said nothing. He squeezed her once more, then shook hands with Auto. Rush approached him, wagging his tail encouragingly as Mega Man reached down and scratched him behind his ears. Roll warmed. This was Rock, the champion robot of the world.
Oh please, let him come home safe!
-t-
Epidemic Man was sort of happy. He had had a lot of fun in the battle against Mega Man, though he had always remained deftly out of sight. There had been so many fresh robots for him to corrupt; he was glad that Wily hadn't had his special "anti-virus" program on all of them. And now there were still plenty of soldiers in the Monstropolis remains. The city had been torn apart, and it now resembled the other major cities that the robots had hit: it was a smoldering wreckage as far as the eye could see. And as far as the nose could smell, apparently. Epidemic Man, like all robots, couldn't smell, but he got the sense from all the apartment gas heaters he had rigged to explode during the last battle that breathing wasn't exactly an easy task for the black-clad special ops still hidden in the ruin.
Yes, they were there, and yes, Epidemic Man could detect them.
Heh, the frail humans. They are so fortunate I'm not after them this morning.
Epidemic Man wasn't sure if this though cheered him or chilled him. There were many complex variables to it. After all, today he was going to face down Mega Man. He wanted this more than he wanted anything else, but at the same time he was afraid. Many robots had stood against Mega Man, and all had lost. These were not mere weakling robots either, as many people had assumed before the apocalypse had began. Needle Man, Elec Man, Quick Man...the list went on so long. The very thought of fighting this champion filled Epidemic Man with the kind of fear that doesn't frighten, but the kind that only intrigues and pulls you deeper into the danger. It was a delicious fear. The Cain-bot even licked his lips for good measure, grinning as he mused over all the upgrades Dr. Wily had given him.
Ah, the good Dr. Wily. He has been a...worthwhile master...
Epidemic Man had been about to say "kind", but of course this was by no means true. Wily was not kind to anyone: not innocents, his allies, and even his own creations. And Wily had not been kind to him. Not in the end. Sure, Epidemic Man was striking out against the people he hated so much, but his brothers were all gone. He was ironically cheerful about it. They had all sold their souls to robotic's devil, and were they really expecting that he wouldn't collect once he got what he wanted?
He shrugged, vaguely wondering why the humans didn't bother fighting him.
Impudent things. They are so very narrow-minded that it is a miracle they don't strike now and call down their own deaths prematurely.
He wondered if he really could beat Mega Man. Again, he had to smile. He wasn't very afraid, though he knew the risks. All he wanted now was some peace and freedom, to wander around what remained in the earth. And to aggravate some third-world countries that had never gotten robots. He hoped that there were some tribal cultures left that still hadn't heard of them. Now they would be entertaining.
Epidemic Man knew in the end he would die. If not by Mega Man, then by Zero. Wily had very wisely shown some scans to the Cain-bots before he had died, and Epidemic Man was definitely afraid of Zero. If he had ever to fight Zero, he would try his hardest for pride's sake, but the fear he had for the red monster was not the alluring kind. It was the "start running for your life and don't stop until your legs give way" type. There was no way he could possibly beat him. Epidemic Man shuddered. But he had to focus on what he was doing. He was going to fight Mega Man.
Hooray for me!
Epidemic was both stunned and curious why the bomber hadn't thought of making the challenge before. Wasn't it the most obvious thing to do? If it hadn't been for how Wily wanted things done, he would have accepted such a challenge on day one. As Epidemic Man was glad he had chosen Monstropolis for it. There were buildings still standing, cars still untouched, and even a few of the streetlights were still working - or they would be if it wasn't daytime.
"Ah, there you are, Mega Man. Right on time."
It indeed was the innocent face of the blue bomber; his bright blue eyes stared up at Epidemic Man as the latter sat atop an overturned tank.
"So Mega, do you like what I've done with the place?" the Cain-bot asked mildly, the harsh sting of his sarcasm barely there. "I pride myself in being an excellent urban designer."
"I don't want to hear it!" Mega Man exclaimed, tears in his voice if not in his eyes. "What you've done is wrong, and I'm ending it now! You've killed so many...doesn't it bother you having done so much evil?"
"Evil?" Epidemic Man asked, hopping down from his seat. "Why, all the evil that has ever existed on the earth has come from humans. How in the world would killing them prevent evil? You're a bit two-dimensional, little Blue."
Mega Man shook his head, his determination unwavering. "No one did anything to deserve what you did to them! And you've done so much worse."
"Whatever. I really don't care."
"Then what do you care about? What could possibly make all this worthwhile?"
That was a real stumper for Epidemic Man. Things had gotten plenty out of hand. He had lost all of his brothers, and he had no one to repair or maintain him. But still he grinned, if only to annoy Rock. It was one of the few pleasures he had left.
"It's a bit late for that kind of thing, now isn't it?" he answered, casually checking the sharpness of his claw. "I couldn't possibly go back before everything and change it all. Now, I believe we have a fight to get under way, don't we?"
"That's right, we do." Mega Man already had his buster ready. "And then this will be over."
"It will be, will it? Then let's hurry up and get it over with."
Mega Man didn't feel like the fight was fateful. He already had his super armor equipped, and it could still be equipped even when he was merged with Rush. The EMP wave that Epidemic Man still sent out was therefore pretty much useless, and it was very handy that Mega could still fly for the fight. Those challenges being met with, the last weapon that Epidemic Man had was just his torpedoes. Mega Man was expecting the most epic battle that he had had in all of his fighting existence. This, however, was challenging as just another robot master. Definitely not an easy robot master, but not impossible. All the same, he could sense that Epi was toying with him. Mega Man wasn't foolish enough to take this for granted.
"Why do you bother with these people, Mega Man?" Epi asked, dodging a charged shot. "What's it worth to you? Get some sort of kick out of it, or something?"
Mega Man had to wonder why Epidemic Man was so interested. "I do it because I care about people. Because I believe in justice!"
"Okay, but what do you get out of it?"
"I get the satisfaction of knowing that there is peace enough for everyone to enjoy life." Mega Man let loose a charged shot, and it plowed through Epidemic Man and knocked him to the ground.
"Well, you certainly failed at that!" Epidemic Man was not upset, he just got up and kept going, firing a faster torpedo. "There is no peace now! And all of your special friends are gone. Heh, did you catch Bass' death by the way? That was splendid! Got his little crystal-girl too!"
"Don't talk that way about him!" Mega Man dodged the torpedos, shooting one before it could smash into his armor. "Bass was a good robot and a great fighter! You don't have the right to say anything about him!"
"Hm, well, it was a bit annoying that I could not enjoy personally torturing him myself. Now Proto Man...that was another matter entirely...heh heh..."
Mega Man gasped. "No..."
"Oh come on, Mega Man!" Epidemic Man deftly dodged Rock's next shots. "You know I killed him. He wandered like a fool into my home. What else was I supposed to do? It was self defense! I hardly see how a red armored robot with a bright yellow scarf could be stealthy enough to escape my sight. Ha ha, though I suppose the continual forced power flunctuations I forced on him were a bit more...indulgent than self-defense would require. He barely lasted twenty minutes, the lamentably weak thing."
"HOW DARE YOU!"
Now, for most fighters, they more impassioned they got, the worse their fighting performance was. But it was just the opposite with Mega Man. Epidemic Man began to see how much danger he was in. He was having more and more trouble keeping the blue bomber at bay, and definitely regretting mentioning his brother. Mega Man was flying in closer and closer, and pretty soon Epidemic Man's ranged weapons would be worthless. Mega Man closed in-
CRUNCH.
Mega Man stopped. He couldn't move. A green plasma sword had cut straight through his helmet; it was now embedded into his CPU, with the hilt in Epidemic Man's firm hand. The booster from his Rush adaptor cut out, and he fell to the ground with a sick, painful sound.
Epidemic Man was stunned. He stared down in shock at what he had done, and slowly hovered to the ground to Mega Man's body, still holding onto his plasma sword. Carefully kneeling, ready to bolt if necessary, he reached out his left claw and poked the blue bomber. Rock's head turned, and the frozen look of despair in his eyes was enough to break anyone's heart.
But Epidemic Man wasn't equipped with one of those.
"Hee heh HA AHA HA! I don't believe it!" Epidemic Man shouted as loudly as his vocal actuators would allow - very loud, in fact. "YES!"
Mega Man's armor glowed, and Rush de-merged from his master, barking in rage as he jumped straight for Epidemic Man's neck.
"Oh no you don't, dog!" Epidemic Man slashed through Rush's body, killing him in seconds. "Nothing will stop me now, for I HAVE DESTROYED THE INVINCIBLE ROBOT!"
Epidemic Man allowed himself several more cheers before he calmed a bit, trying to think of what he should do next. There were still several humans around, and they would likely fire soon. But this didn't bother the still elated Cain-bot. So he cut off Mega Man's head, removing the helmet hoping he hadn't damaged it too much so that he couldn't hack into it. Then he flew upwards into the air, where he could be seen by all.
"Humans of Monstropolis, HEAR ME!" Epidemic Man announced with a merry snarl. "I have bested your champion, and I am now the greatest robot that exists! You will all now serve me or die! And just in case you think there is any hope left...ha ha...focus your satellites at this location!"
And he flew off.
-t-
Auto and Roll had seen the entire thing. Roll stood there, numb, sinking to her knees. The worst thing in the world had happened. Up until this point, Roll had been hoping that things would end. After all, Epidemic Man was the only enemy left, and with him dead she could go back to taking care of Kalinka, and life could somehow persist in all of the death and destruction it had faced. Auto would be fine, Mega Man...would be fine...
But that future was not going to be. Roll knew it now. Every last hope she had believed in had failed her. It was all a lie. There was no future.
"Roll!" Auto's sharp voice quickly got her attention, as did the fact that he was getting his bazooka. "Those coordinates Epidemic Man sent out were for this lab! If he can hack into Rock's mind then he can deactivate several of our security measures and just walk in! Get to the second basement now!"
Crying as if she would break, Roll ran past the repair tables and automated machines, heading downwards into the first basement. But even as she did, she could hear a devastating crash as a wall burst in, and she ran downstairs to the sound of Auto's bazooka and the sickening sound of tweets. Some of them were the Clefs, Crystal Bot's last remaining pipies, and one of them had to be Beat. Roll didn't dare listen anymore. Soon enough she was downstairs trying her hardest not to hear the destruction above.
The first basement was a collection of files, spare parts, and prototypes of different technologies Dr. Light had been trying to build. Roll ran past them all to the far end of the room, where the part of the floor could be lifted up to the secret, second basement. She would have to be fast -
THHOOMMM!
Roll's scream was completely drowned out by the sound of the roof collapsing down. It hadn't come from above her, but only a short ways from behind. Even so, there was no escape now. Epidemic Man, the cause of it, had come down along with, blithely looking around for more things to destroy. If Roll tried to get into the second basement now, then he would find out how to get to Mega Man X. So she just huddled in the corner, behind an old bookcase, and hoped that the Cain-bot hadn't yet seen her.
But he had. He walked up, brushing back a bit of her hair. Wondering what was going on, Roll fearfully peeked over her shoulder. And that was when Epi grabbed her by the throat and pulled her upwards. She cried out weakly, tugging uselessly at his strong hand as his evil face showed exactly how much he enjoyed her fear.
"So...Lara Hikari, is it? Or Roll Light, rather." he mused, not in any particular rush. "How are you?"
Her whimpering grew louder, and she sobbed rather than reply, wishing she could think of something that would hurt him as much as he had hurt her.
"Okay, that was a stupid question, I admit it." Epidemic Man shrugged. "Poor thing, dealing with the loss of your brothers, your friends, and that Auto fellow all in the space of a week."
Hearing about Auto, she wept harder, giving up the struggle to free herself. What good did it do?
He ran his hand through her hair meticulously, causing her to shudder. "Aw, there there, now, sweetheart. I'm not going to kill you."
"You're...n-not? I...I don't believe you!"
"But really, it's the truth!" Epidemic Man placed her back on the floor, gently even. "Haven't you suffered enough? I'm not completely merciless."
Roll shivered like a ghost, unable to speak.
"Ah, now that's hardly polite. Now what do you say?"
The words struggled to come out of Roll's mouth. "Th..thank you..."
"You're welcome!"
Epidemic Man jumped upwards, disappearing into the upper floor where Roll couldn't see. The girl-bot shook violently as she collapsed, finally releasing her agony with weeping. She really was alone. Where could she go? What would she do with out Rock? So many questions filled her head, but all she could do was cry. She looked upwards, hoping for...well something. At the very least, one last pipi so she wouldn't be alone.
Roll wasn't alone, alright, but there was no pipi. Epidemic Man was standing there on the edge of the hole he had made earlier, his gleaming smile full of poison.
"I did say I wouldn't kill you." he said. "And I won't. But all the rubble from the building collapsing certainly will!"
He blasted the remains of the beams and tiles overhead, and Roll could barely scream one last time before the beams and tiles left her buried in the rubble. But Epidemic's laughter and rampaging didn't stop with Roll's screams. He blasted and shredded the laboratory until there was nothing left standing to fall on top of the last Light sibling.
It was just as she had suspected. There was no future.
-t-
Roll woke. Everything was dark, but her body had managed to restart. Several of her systems were cut off, as she was running in low power mode. But there was enough power for her to turn on some light. She could only see part of what was around her, though there was little of that to see. Beams, computer parts, plaster from the walls, and other various whatnots had her pinned down. She tried to move her legs, but it was no good. She looked down to find that both of her thighs had been severed through when she had been crushed.
How am I still alive...?
She powered down the light. What was the point in looking at anything? Instead she used that power to turn up her audio, trying to hear something. Maybe someone would find her and dig her out.
Who am I kidding? she spitefully scolded herself. Who's going to find me down here? Who would even look?
Roll lay there a moment, dizzily pondering her next move and trying to see which of her limbs still worked. Left arm, okay...right arm, stuck, but not broken...and fortunately her head had been protected. The beam to the right of her head had fallen before the one that was now lying across her vision. Roll shuddered to think what would have happened if the first beam hadn't been in place.
There was some noise in the rubble, a quiet noise. Roll engaged her light again, but barely managed to see the tail of something before it slunk away. Pouting and very frightened, Roll almost cheered once she heard a voice coming from outside of the ruin. It seemed so far away.
"Please, someone help me!" she yelled. "I'm trapped under here! Hello?"
"I see you! Hold on, I'll get you out!"
"Thank you so much!" Roll called out before she noticed something odd.
"I see you"? I can't even see out of this wreck and he can see me? How strange...
It took much longer than Roll had expected for all the junk to be removed, but eventually strong arms hauled the last I-beam off of her, and she was able to see the clear night sky, full of stars.
"You really look like crap, Roll."
Roll's rescuer carried her away and placed her on the nearest ground clear of rubble. Roll looked up to thank her rescuer, but instead just gasped.
"Snake Man?"
It was him, from his distinctive armor, search snake buster that left him with only a left hand, and especially unique helmet, complete swinging tail. Snake Man rolled his eyes as his search snake slithered up and holed up back inside the Wily-bot's buster. "Calm down. Sheesh. I'm not going to hurt you."
"But...why did you help me?" Roll wished with all her heart that her legs were intact.
"I don't have anything else better to do." Snake Man replied. "The Cain-bots didn't destroy a lot of the news stations, so pretty much everyone who could was able to see Rock's fight with Epidemic Man. I thought it was a trick at first, but now..." he looked out over the remains of Light Laboratories. "I guess it wasn't."
Snake Man said this not as if he was sad or angry or sympathetic, but just indifferent. Indifferent with a touch of fatefulness, and a small sigh. He just calmly folded his arms, pausing for a minute to look around.
"Oh hey, I brought back your brother." Snake Man said. "I guess you can't repair him now, though."
Roll turned where the Wily-bot pointed to see Mega Man's body lying in the grass. He was sprawled out, limp, and still missing his head. The part of his neck that had been severed by the plasma sword was melted together, and there were many dents and spark scorching where he had been hit by Epidemic Man's torpedoes. Roll covered her mouth and began weeping and glitching as if she could never stop. She looked to Snake Man for support, but he was walking away
"Please don't leave me!" Roll begged. "I can't stand being alone!"
Her teary voice made Snake Man cringe, but he turned around anyway, thinking. In the end he returned, sitting next to a battered and leg-less Roll with a heavy sigh. He held out his hand.
"A truce." he said. "Between the robots of Wily and Light."
"Truce..." Roll replied, a little confused. But she shook his hand anyway. "How did you...I mean, aren't you part of the apocalypse?"
"No. That was due to your brother." Snake Man seemed willing to answer. He stared at the night sky as if his story was written there. "Years ago when he and Bass destroyed the last Skull Castle, all of the robot masters scattered. I was lost, and with Wily arrested there was nowhere to go. I ended up stranded in Australia. Wily was going to escape prison sooner or later, so I figured I'd find something worthwhile down there before I returned to everyone else. Wily...he wouldn't like it if I came back with only excuses as to why I didn't help him get out."
Roll knew that was an understatement.
"But then I got distracted by poachersss...sssstupid idiotssss." Snake Man hissed. "Those animals were legally protected, and they had no right to trap them! You wouldn't believe how many people thought that they could get away with it! Not on my watch! So, I stayed and protected the wildlife. I couldn't go back after that. If I told Wily I had left him for nature, then he would have lost it. And once he died, there was no reason to go back at all. Australia is nice, or it was...there were a lot of robots down there."
The snake-bot kicked at a chunk of plaster before continuing. "I thought about going back, once, only Freeze Man found me one day and told me not to. He tried to explain why, but there was some sort of failsafe on him that wouldn't let him say what it was. So I didn't."
"I remember Freeze Man..." Roll spoke up reluctantly. "He attacked Monstropolis alone one day for no reason. Rock told me that his last words were that he wanted a good pose in the robot museum."
"That was what Freeze Man always wanted." the Wily-bot replied gruffly. "To live as free as he could, then spend forever as a key display in the museum. Freak. But not too bad a guy. He must have told the others I was dead, because no one ever came looking for me after that."
"How did you escape the apocalypse?"
"Easy, I hid. I am a snake, you know." he took pride as he spoke, grinning. But that grin faded. "Eh, but it's hard when the humans started searching for me too because they thought I was in on everything. It's easy to hide from humans or bots, but both at the same time is tricky. But when you have skill, you have skill!"
"Yeah, and you're humble, too."
"Shut it." Snake Man snapped, reminding her that he was not a nice person. "Let me have my pride. It's not like I have anything else right now."
Roll found herself slightly jealous. She didn't even have that.
"Naturally, when I heard what they said was going on, I didn't believe it." Snake Man continued, losing more of his temper. "Wily wouldn't do that to us! We're his robots! His legacy! He couldn't have wanted us to all die...that was Dr. Cain! He was the one who tried to make us die with the rest of the miserable robots! Wasn't it?"
Roll was silent, expecting Snake Man to just go on. But she looked up, realizing that he really wanted to know. Of course, with her being the sister of the hero, she would know what Dr. Wily had intended for his creations. And she did. She had heard what had happened, despite her best efforts to ignore as much as she could: Wily wanted his own creations to be destroyed even more than he wanted the others to be. They were failures in his eyes, setbacks and goofs every one. The girl-bot looked into Snake Man's eyes, and she pitied him. He, for some demented, pathetic reason, wanted to be liked by his creator. But Roll couldn't bring herself to lie.
She looked down at her hands. "You knew Wily better than I did. If you say he didn't want to kill his creations, then I can't tell you any different."
"Right." Snake Man affirmed, forcing away any doubts. "We are magnificent machines! If it weren't true, then I wound have survived this long! It was stupid Cain trickery that got the rest!"
He wasn't looking in her direction, but she smiled at him anyway. He was so sweet, and a little sad. Roll decided she wasn't so jealous of his pride anymore.
"So what do we do now?" Roll asked. "Is there somewhere we can go that's safe?"
"He'll find us. He found me twice already." Snake Man glanced disdainfully at Roll, his eyes full of judgement. "And if he found me again, I couldn't escape dragging you around. And I can't win fighting him. Especially not if he can beat Mega Man."
The Light-bot allowed her depressed gaze to look at her brother, though she painfully turned away again, closing her eyes.
"Hey, I know! Where was that big guy that was around a while back...uh, the alien...Duo! Yeah, Duo. Couldn't we get him to handle it?"
Roll shook her head. "He left Earth right after the evil energy was dealt with. And even if we knew where he was, we don't know how to contact him. Hey, what about King? He did survive being defeated by Rock and Bass. We got a letter from him-"
"No good." Snake Man didn't bother letting her finish. "Dr. Cain killed him a long time ago and then used his parts to figure out how to build robots."
"Oh...well I can't fight him, so we're going to have to hide until the army does something about it." Roll gave up.
"I told you, that's not possible."
"Yes it is. Do you have an energy pellet or E tank? My teleporter isn't powered enough to work right now."
Snake Man pulled out a couple of small pellets, obviously reluctant to share. But he held out two in his hand, and she quickly took them and ate them. She felt her power level rise, noticing that there was a power leak somewhere. That could be dealt with, she guessed (hoped).
"Alright." she said, switching her finger into a zip drive so that she could plug it into Snake Man's neck. She was surprised he let her. "Teleport to these coordinates. We'll be safe there."
Snake Man looked at the numbers curiously, noticing that they weren't very far. He let Roll teleport away before going himself, and he found himself in what looked like a vast storage room. Bookshelves were full of things varying from discs and tools to bottles of unknown liquids and diagrams of strange machines. Much to Snake Man's delight, there was a whole cabinet full of E tanks and loads of energy pellets. Large pillars held the place up. There was also a strange thing on the wall that the Wily-bot didn't recognise. It was a large, circle-shaped space in the wall, and it was lined with some sort of machinery around the inside edge.
"Roll?"
"I'm over here!"
Snake Man found the girl-bot trying her hardest to get onto a rolling chair, and for convenience's sake he lifted her up onto it.
"What is this place?"
"It's a secret bunker under the lab." Roll answered. "It holds all of Dr. Light's work notes and blueprints of lots of his inventions. It's a spare lab for emergencies. Epidemic Man doesn't know about it, so we'll be safe here for a while."
"So what's that?" Snake Man pushed her chair so that Roll could see the thing in the wall.
"That's where Mega Man X is kept." Roll said this only little louder than a whisper. "In 25 years he'll wake."
"Who?"
Roll looked up at Snake Man, confused. "Mega Man X. He's a new, complex model of my brother, and he's supposed to be more intelligent than any robot created until now. You didn't know about him? Wily's known for a long time."
"He didn't tell us everything." Snake Man harumphed, not wanting to talk about it. "But if he's so smart, why don't we just wake him up now? He can take down Epidemic Man."
"That can't happen. Mega Man X is so smart that if we set him loose before all his morality standards were set, then he could turn out an even worse villain than what we have now." Roll recited what Dr. Light had always told her, then anxiously started twisting her hair. "Besides, I don't know the teleport code to get into there, or any of the security codes either. Rock never told me because he didn't want someone to kill me just to find out."
Snake Man started, and he swung the chair around so that a stunned Roll was facing him. "You mean to tell me that Rock knew the codes?"
"Well, yeah, but-"
"No buts!" Snake Man stuck an indignant finger in her face. "Epidemic Man has his head! If he can hack into Rock's mind then this place isn't safe at all, and neither is your precious Mega Man X! It's just a matter of time before he hacks into Rock's brain and figures out about this place, no matter what kind of anti-virus he uses! These supplies would keep Epidemic Man battle-ready for a long time! We don't have a choice. We have to kill him now. By trickery, if nothing else. Think! What kind of weapons do you have down here?"
Not waiting for a reply, Snake Man started rummaging hastily around the bunker to see what was available, making a fine mess in the process.. Roll's spirits sank even further, and that wasn't just from being yelled at by a robot she would have considered an enemy less than half an hour ago. She looked to the teleporter in the wall, biting her lip as she thought of her youngest brother. She hardly knew him, and if Epidemic Man found them, she never would. But she loved him. X was the only brother she had left.
Roll closed her eyes, desperately searching her mind for some solution to her problem. Finding nothing in her recent memories, she started searching through her older files, scanning every time she remembered getting a security briefing from her blue brother.
"Don't be too upset at yourself." Rock smiled. "It wasn't too long ago that I let sent a broken robot to the labs thinking that he was a friend...yeah, that was a learning experience to say the least. Bass ended up wrecking the entire lab. I'm just glad you weren't there that day."
Roll remembered when her brother told her that. He was trying to reassure her after they found out that Crystal Bot belonged to Wily. Dr. Light had recieved lots of new information from Gravity Man after Crystal Bot, Bass, and Team 5 had become good guys, so she skipped forward a bit further, hoping that she would find something helpful there. And she did, but it wasn't what she expected, nor even wanted. Pushing herself from bookcase to bookcase, she went past the storage area to the three automated machines that were kept in the hidden lab, then went past them to the computers (getting around on a rolling chair was a lot more complex than Roll thought).
She searched the computers that lined the far wall, and to her surprise and faint dismay she saw that what she was looking for was still there.
"Snake Man...I found someone who can help us..."
He emerged from the storage cabinets and peeked out at Roll, then curiously walked up. "Who's that?"
Roll lowered her head, taking a deep breath. She didn't like what was before her, but it had to happen nonetheless.
"Crystal Man."
\\\\\\
Author's notes:
======Mega Man/Rock
"I'll protect the world!"
Good point: Sense of justice
Bad point: Reckless behavior
Like: Animals
Dislike: None
Japanese CD data:
Good point: Strong sense of justice
Bad point: careless
Like: Animals
Dislike: Things that disturb peace.
Ah, Mega Man. He's actually the hardest character to write about. This is mostly due to us playing from his perspective, and so we think more about the personalities of the robot masters rather than the protagonist. Ironic, ain't it? But as we all know, the little blue guy is cute, naiive, and innocent. I like how he's reckless, as that means he'll often do things without thinking them through, or say something awkward through his innocent nature. Y'know, what I'd really like to see is a fic that really gets into Rock's behavior. Unfortunately, this one is not it.
I love Mega Man. To me he means innocent adventuring, the kind that nobody really shows in movies or video games anymore. I love those adventures, where the open protagonist meets new people and has amazing swell times in a brand new world. I love how he never thinks of darkness, and has a pure mind and pure motive to just help people. We need more heroes like that, with a pure love, a pure heart, and a whole mind.
And then I killed him. Yeah.
- So yeah, I was going to put up the author's notes right up in the middle of this chapter, that way you'd think it was shorter than it really was, but apparently the guidelines don't like that. So I shall be good. I've been trying to keep this story at fifteen chapters, just like how Okkusenman turned out, and I think that choice really killed my suspense here. It would have been funnier if I just made it look like Roll was dead, but you know from my intro Roll survives a bit past this. Haha, I'm too entertained by you guys being tortured by all the deaths. I'm talking to one reader in pms, and she's trying as hard as she can to get me to make Bass and Crystal Bot alive again. Please continue making reviews of this nature, as it makes me laugh. Not for nothing am I GrimMoody. Muaahahahaha!
- Okay, now this was really the chapter that made me want to have a soundtrack. This one is Clubbed to Death, a song that really makes me feel the mood of this chapter. www. youtube. com /watch?v=0RudpFzGLbo It's kind of a common song, so I'm also going to share a link to a really decent remix. www. youtube. com /watch?v=29-5Ka2gj_M