Snake Man stared at the plans on the computer with astonishment. He never realized that Crystal Man had done anything like this. In fact, most of Crystal Bot's origin story was news to him, and he silently contemplated it without interrupting as Roll explained everything to him about Crystal Bot, the secret upgrades for Team 5, and the unexplained provision of weapons upgrades for Roll herself. The long gone crystalline robot had even provided programming settings for the automated computer, so that they didn't even need a tech-bot to perform the upgrades on Roll. That is, provided nothing went seriously wrong. Neither Snake Man or Roll had the proper background (or now, the proper parts) to create these sorts of upgrades on their own. They had to hope that the automated machine could do its work without needing outside influence.
"Crystal Man really left this for you?" Snake Man wasn't sure what to make of it. "Wow...maybe he really could see the future."
"I doubt it." Roll bitterly shook her head. "If that were true he would have saved Crystal Bot and not me."
Roll looked uneasily at the upgrades. Sickness, a new one and different from before, filled her. This was not what she had wanted for herself. By no means did she want to be turned into a fighter-bot. She had always had Rock to fight for her, and secretly she had been very happy that Team 5 became good guys. She thought that they would put a stop to anything Wily did. But that didn't happen. Now she was staring her fate in the face, hatefully wishing that someone (did Dr. Light or Auto do it?) hadn't put Crystal Man's gift in the second lab. Why would they do that? Did they want to be able to examine it while they were working on Mega Man X, or something else below?
Roll couldn't escape it. It was all around her now. A thought that had been haunting her for longer than she knew about it finally made its way to the surface of her thoughts, and it made her quiver. She had been letting everyone else fight for her, and she had remained behind. What had Roll ever done besides sweep the floor or dust the blinds or do the dishes? Guilt flooded her mind, confusing her. She protested it, telling herself that she had always been there to take care of Dr. Light. She wasn't the defender of the earth. No one could expect her to be.
The guilt remained unhampered, and it made her glitch. Roll knew her weakness. She knew that she was far too afraid of fighting, and now she was too afraid of what would happen if she should fail. This fight would be worse than any other her brother had fought. When Rock had fought the Wily numbers, he had always a home and a family to come back to, and a grateful world that cheered him on all the way. But what did she have now? X needed a quarter of a century to awaken, and even then he would barely know who she was. The world was a mess, and humanity was facing the largest crisis it had ever met with in its entire history. Decades of being dependant on robots, the great devastation done to them and their cities -
"Ssssstop that! Now!" Snake Man grabbed the rolling chair she was still riding and turned it so she could see his angry visage glaring down at her as he lifted his hand as if he would strike her. "Don't you dare cry! I'll kill you if you cry!"
Even more frightened than before, Roll stiffened, forcing down her emotions as she tried to breathe normally. It wasn't easy to do with Snake Man staring her down, his relentless glare showing that he was by no means a good guy. It made her want to cry so much harder. But she managed to stop, to control her breathing. Snake Man relaxed.
"Good, that'ss better." he said, a firmness still lurking in his voice. "Don't you ever cry. Not for a second. Rock is dead and so is everybody else, and you whining about it isn't going to help. You're going to get those upgrades, then use them to kill that sssssstupid Epidemic Man. You're NOT going to get out of it and there is NO OTHER OPTION, so you're going to do it and you're going to like it! Underssstand me?"
"But...but I-"
"NO BUTSSS!" Snake Man roared. "There are no alternatives! Not now! It doesn't matter what you want anymore! Do you want more people to die? Because they will! I'd kill Epidemic Man in a second, but no, I have to rely on pathetic you! You're not going to fail me now! I want that bastard dead, and if you have any brains than so do you! Now get into that automated machine, and for the love of crotalus, DON'T CRY. Got it?"
Roll nodded, trying her hardest.
"Ssssay it!"
"Y-yes, sir!"
This made Snake Man smile a bit, in a nasty sort of way. "Heh, good. Now come on."
Snake Man pulled her out of the chair and carried her to the automated machine. Laying her down, he fastened the necessary straps to her arms and started loading the upgrade program into the machine. Roll looked up at the screen that still held the upgrade data, and she frowned.
"I'll have to lose one of my hands to get this upgrade." she noted.
"That's not so bad, once you get used to it." Snake Man lifted up his own right arm, which was nothing more than a search snake buster. "You'll do fine."
"I hope so." Roll wriggled her fingers one last time, sadly waving them goodbye. She sighed and looked down. "Um, but what about my legs?"
"I'll have to dig up some sort of ssssubstitute." Snake Man hissed a bit with irritation. "Maybe there's a robot that was killed somewhere but its legs are still okay. I'll have to find you a helmet too. I'll do that while your upgrades are going. There will be a lot at Monstropolis, probably."
Roll was silent. She didn't like the idea of stealing from the dead, but she didn't want to say this out loud. So she just lay there. Thoughts of the past came unbidden to her mind, but she pushed them all back. If she dwelled on them too long, then she might cry. She believed Snake Man when he had threatened her. Looking for a distraction, Roll noticed a blank monitor to her right, probably a spare one. She could see her reflection in it.
"Wow, I really do look terrible."
"I told you. Now power down."
-t-
Roll's eyes opened, though it took a moment for her mind and vision to clear, and for a moment, everything seemed foggy to her.
"...Then I reflected that everything happen to a man precisely, precisely now. Centures of centuries and only in the present do things happen; countless men in the air, on the face of the earth and the sea...the author of an atrocious undertaking ought to imagine that he has already accomplished it, ought to imposed upon himself a future as irrevocable as the past...the future already exists..."
Whose voice was that? Where was it coming from? It sounded like...Crystal Man? She just wasn't sure.
"Snake Man, did you say something?"
"Yeah, I said to try and stand up. I need to make sure that those legs work."
Roll inwardly huffed at Snake Man's impatience. She was still feeling dizzy, but she didn't feel like confronting him about it. So she obediently got atop the legs she now had, realizing that she was now taller. Much taller. Roll blinked and examined herself, lifting a foot to see if she could recognise it. Much to her shock, she did.
"This...these are Bass' legs! Crystal Bot had some spare ones for him in the lab. Or these are the ones he had at first, but she had to fix them..."
"We lucked out." Snake Man said as Roll's eyes inquired. "I wanted to go to Monstropolis to find parts, but Epidemic Man was there. I managed to get out of there before he saw me, but there was no chance that I was going to be able to get anything from there."
"But, Monstropolis? What was he doing there?"
Snake Man glowered in a way that accused her of not grasping the obvious. "The army was still there, trying to fight him. It wasn't going well."
Roll stepped back with a shudder, trying to cover her mouth with her hand. But as she lifted it she saw that it was too late. It wasn't her hand anymore. It was...a something.
"That's an energy sword generator." Snake Man informed her with perfect calm. "Your brother got owned because he didn't have a close range weapon, and I'm not letting you get killed by the same thing. He's going to know it's a weapon, but there's nothing we can do about it. Now the other arm."
Roll picked up her left hand, finding that her wrist was now round like a fighter-bots; she had an internal buster. But not just any buster...it was the Mega Buster. Rock's. She knew from the instant she saw it that it had been his.
"Epidemic Man is an idiot." Snake Man's anger was thankfully not directed at Roll, though she did tremble at it. "Anyone with any sense would have stolen or at least destroyed the Mega Buster. But so much the better for us. It's yours now. It's a little dented, but it'll work fine."
The girl-bot was speechless. Her brother's buster. Now hers. The numbness of it all froze her thoughts, and she couldn't even interpret the feelings inside of her as she gazed at the weapon now installed on her arm. She didn't have that much time to do it anyway. In only a second, Snake Man had rammed something with a dark visor over her head, and got started tying something around her neck. Confused, Roll tried to push the helmet off so she could look at it, a difficult task now with only one arm. And Snake Man swatted her arms down anyway.
"Don't bother looking, it's Proto Man's helmet." he said impatiently. "Now hold still while I get his scarf on. You're going to at least look like you know what you're doing. There. Now take the Proto shield - take it, I said! Hold it on your left arm. You'll still be able to shoot if you hold it on your left. We have to keep your sword arm free. You are so luckly none of that was damaged in the lab's collapse."
Roll swallowed. The tough armor and Mega Buster should have comforted her, but it only made her wonder if she, of all robots, had somehow learned to feel literally pain. Those heroes had given their lives to save the earth, and now they were still giving. Would it ever be over. Snake Man was starting to get annoyed at her, so Roll quickly chased away her sad thoughts.
"Okay, you had a power leak. I patched it up, and it should hold." Snake Man dropped a box in front of her. "I'm not letting you go out in that ugly dress, and this survived, so dig something out and get dressed. We want Epidemic Man to overestimate you. If he realizes that you're weak, then you're screwed no matter what. But if he thinks that you know what you're doing, he apply strategy to you when there isn't any. He'll overthink himself. Don't just stand there, open it up!"
Roll pulled off Proto Man's helmet, lovingly placing it on the automated table before she went to the box. It was one of those impact-resistant, weather proof cargo box, and this particular one was red, and the lock was a classic, bronze-ish lock in the shape of a heart, and it had "Roll" engraved on it. These were Roll's fancier clothes, though Roll doubted that any of her regular ones would have survived. Roll didn't know where the key was, but the lock was simply for decoration anyway. She snapped it off, then started going through her clothes as Snake Man went off to get some E tanks.
The trouble was, these were Roll's fancier things, some of which she hadn't worn in years. It felt odd for her to rummage through them with a buster arm. The longer sleeved ones wouldn't work at all, and none were practical. Fortunately, there was a red and white tennis outfit, and it would work. She pulled it out of the box as Snake Man returned.
"Okay, take as many of these as you can hold." he ordered. "I wish Eddie was around, but that guy got shot and we're going to have to deal. Find something?"
"Yes." Roll held up the dress.
"Eh, good thing all three of those guys could change colors in their armor. You look tacky, so hurry up and fix it."
Roll did, and the blue of the Mega Buster and the grey and black of Bass' legs turned to a red and white color scheme, and Roll would do the same to Proto Man's helmet once she put it back on. She wouldn't have changed Proto Man's scarf's color if she could: it was defiant yellow, and it would stay that way. That done, Roll glanced over at Snake Man, grasping the dress hesitantly.
"Um...Snake Man...could you, uh, turn around for a while?"
He facepalmed. "Roll, we're both robots..."
"Still...would you please?"
Roll had been raised with certain principles, and she wasn't about to compromise them. Snake Man didn't care enough to object.
"Fine!" the snake-bot stomped off to the other side of the lab. "Be modest and waste time!"
As soon as Snake Man was out of sight, a relieved Roll pulled off her tattered red dress, then she quickly pulled the tennis dress over her head, hoping Snake Man would stay away long enough. He was right, though, it was odd that she would have such privacy issues. And there wasn't even anything to see. But she didn't care. Roll hmphed and tilted up her nose, thinking that if he hadn't been a Wily-bot then he would have better morals. She pulled the scarf out through the neck of the new dress, and she gently placed her old frock with her more fancy things, considering it more valuable than any of them.
Roll wished that she had a hair tie. She ran her fingers through her hair, regretting even more the sword generator in her right arm. She stared at the ugly thing. It looked like her arm had been severed by a metal bracelet, and it took Roll a minute to realize that this circle around what was once her wrist was actually her fingers. They had been bent and manipulated, covered by glistening platinum. The inside of it was an energy cavern, something she only knew the name of because Auto had spoken of it once. It would produce a limited range of energy perfect for a temporary sword. Roll tested it, and a red beam shot out three feet from her arm, making her jump.
"Hey, Roll, are you done over there already?"
"Yeah, I'm done!"
Roll shut off the beam, grabbing her (her?) helmet and putting it on as she walked over to her last ally. She didn't like him, but at the same time, a part of her clung to his existence for comfort. He was rude, mean, and had threatened to kill her, but all the same, he was the only person - the only friend - that she had left. If he could be called a friend. Roll desperately wanted to be able to. For now she just tried to listen to all the advice Snake Man was trying to give her, hoping that she wouldn't forget it all the instant Epidemic Man showed up.
Snake Man looked at her up and down, as if trying to guess her potential. "Eh, anyone afraid of someone who looks like you has to be a wimp, but at least you look professional. How is your battle AI?"
"Uh...I don't know...I've never had it before."
The Wily-bot gagged. "Ugh...I'm depending on this girl-bot." he sighed. "Look, I know how much you hate this and don't want to, and if we had some way of upgrading my AI instead of yours, we would have done that. Just...just don't embarrass me out there, alright?"
"I'll try not to. And Snake Man..."
She paused, not sure if she could continue. He would think what she was about to say very strange. Then again, he was staring at her with some sort of expectation, so she figured that she might as well finish. The worst he would do was laugh at her.
"Snake Man..." she tried again. "Please, don't leave this lab."
The Wily-bot's eyes widened considerably as she went on. "I know that sounds weird, but I don't want anything to happen to you out there. I want someone to survive this. You'll be safe here in the lab, and I couldn't stand it if something happened to you. I want Wi-" she was about to say "Wily's scheme", but she reconsidered it and quickly reworded. "I want this scheme to be a failure. And that can only happen if a sentient robot lives. I doubt I'll make it, winning or not, but...please don't die."
The green robot stared at her, puzzled. Roll anxiously wondered if he was trying to think of some way to mock her, or if he genuinely did think it was a kind gesture. But his answer wasn't either.
"Go." he said with a perfectly unreadable face. "Don't waste any more time talking to me."
-t-
And so now Roll was standing out in the middle of Monstropolis, watching the truck in the distance burn as the ashen wind lifted the scarf around her neck. The transmission was sent, the AI checks were complete, and Roll knew how her beam sword worked. She sorely wished that she had time to practice, though Snake Man said he wouldn't have been a good fighting partner for her anyway. Not when she had to fight her destroyer.
Roll closed her eyes, shuddering.
Epidemic Man...
She opened her eyes. she was going to have to be very watchful. For the battle she had chosen an area of the city that was the flattest, where none of the formerly tall towers would block her way. Still, there were several buildings still standing, though blasted through with only a few cracked windows left intact. It was gloomy. Roll found herself trying to think of better days: of shopping, playing soccer with Rock, talking with Crystal Bot about having a band, flying in the Proto jet, finding out Bass' true, kind nature that day in the library...and that one last vacation with Dr. Light.
They're all gone. she thought, hating every last pleasant warmth in this cold world she now lived in. What good is it to think of them?
But Roll realized that Mega Man wouldn't want her thinking like that. She was a Light-bot, and everything Mega Man had done with his life and with the Light legacy told her why it was good to think of those days: because it reminded her what she was fighting for. And what she was fighting for was all of those moments, that they would one day happen again. That one day people would be able to smile again, to work for science and for peace and just for straight out fun again. Things would be like that again, for humans if not for herself, Roll promised herself. She smiled as she thought of Snake Man. She hoped he would let her be his friend.
The gloom reasserted itself, nonetheless lightened from Roll's cheery thoughts. But the gloom did not go away, and Roll could sense it telling her that time was decreasing. Her doom was as inevitable as the next sunrise, and to think of a future of being anyone's friend was pointless.
Roll shrugged it off. She was as prepared as she was going to get, and now she wanted to say goodbye. She looked down at "her" legs, feeling a bit awkward using them. She reached down and touched the thigh gently.
"Thank you, Forte." Somehow his Japanese name seemed more appropriate for the moment. "Thank you so much for letting me use your legs. I feel a lot better knowing that the armor will be strong. I never knew you that well, but I like to think that I knew enough to see how kind and just you are. You're a good robot, Forte. Don't let anyone tell you any different."
Next, she reached up to the scarf around her neck, the helmet on her head, and she used her energy sword generator to tap the shield on her left arm. "Thank you also, Blues. I wish we could have spent more time together. I wish a lot of things, but...thank you for your armor and your scarf. I feel more confident with you protecting me."
Finally, Roll faced the Mega Buster, and that was when her heart struggled to be calm. "Rock...Rockman...you were the best brother a sister could have! I miss you and your silliness, and...I love you. Thank you for inspiring me to keep going, even when I don't want to! Even when the only thing I want most in the world is to run and hide! Thank you for being here, right now...when I need you the most."
And she smiled, almost wanting to laugh. Everyone was there with her. The world's three smartest and strongest robots were all helping her, and as long as she fought for justice and peace, she knew she would win.
"Thank you, everyone!"
Roll had to focus now. Snake Man had told her to be as focused and intimidating as she could be by being mysterious and silent. She could manage that, she hoped. So she straightened, standing dramatically in the ruin, her red and white armor defying the damp grey atmosphere simply by being bright.
It didn't take much longer. After a minute or two, Epidemic Man appeared, flying in the distance. At first he didn't seem to notice her, but after a moment she could see his glance and subsequent terrible smile told her that everything had now come to its terrible, grim point. Roll banished all emotions from her thoughts, trying to hold onto what Snake Man had told her as the evil teal and blue robot landed in front of her.
Be mysterious...be mysterious...
All of this nearly threw itself out of her head as Roll heard his terrible voice again. "Hello there. Just who might you be?"
"Your worst nightmare."
Roll regretted this the instant she said it, and it produced a very bad reaction in Epidemic Man. He laughed.
"Oh really? If I was not a robot and actually had nightmares, I'm certain I would be afraid of you, honey." the Cain-bot mocked. "But I was rather enquiring about your name."
The girl-bot inwardly cringed. She hadn't thought of a name. Why hadn't Snake Man told her to think of one?
"My name is Proto Bot."
Roll was getting better at acting. Though she thought the name was the silliest thing she had done yet, her face showed none of this emotion, as cold as stone. Thinking of Proto Man's self-control helped a lot. Sadly, Epidemic Man too seemed to think the name was silly, though he did also look like he was taking her seriously. Or else she was just bad at telling people.
"'Proto...Bot'...eh, not that catchy, I must say." he grinned sideways. "And yet you're here now in defiance of me."
"My creator's specialty is not in names, but in fighter-bots."
Roll was very surprised when this got a reaction out of Epidemic Man. He was obviously trying to hide it, but the very notion of her having a creator - a creator referred to in present tense, no less - seemed to disturb him greatly. Roll had to wonder what she had done. But if there was something disturbing about it, far be it from her to not use it to her advantage.
"Ah..." he asked. "What is your creator's name, then? Maybe I'll recognise his expertise."
"His name is Crys..." Roll paused. She couldn't say she was built by a robot. That would only make her look weak. "Chris Tillman."
"Very well. Then this Chris-Chris Tillman shall be next on my list of killings," Epidemic Man said haughtily, staring down over his nose at Roll. "After I kill Mega Man X."
"Who?"
Of course "Proto Bot" created by "Chris Tillman" would not know who Mega Man X was, but Roll herself felt a wave of dread as she heard Epidemic Man speak the name. An even greater dread hit her like a wall when Epidemic Man threw something on the ground between them, and Roll picked it up, knowing she would regret it. For a moment, she couldn't tell what it was, but as she slowly turned it around and over, she knew what it was. It was Mega Man's severed head, still cracked from the plasma sword blow, and yet most of the inner workings of the head, exposed through the cracked metaloid skin.
"For someone made of Light-parts tacked together," Epidemic Man's grin was growing more evil, though Roll wasn't looking at him. "You sure don't know anything about them. They have this super robot named Mega Man X, and he's supposed to be the next generation hero of the planet. I've been looking for him, you see, and despite all of those cute little anti-virus programs in his head, I prevailed! Ha, I only give viruses, not accept them! Now I know exactly where to find him, and what codes are best to make my victory that much easier. They even made it so Mega Man X is asleep for decades! I can take as much time as I like! Your champion has failed you! Ha, you yourself remain the only thing delaying me."
Trying her hardest to stay in character, Roll numbly pretended that she didn't care, dropping Rock's tattered head aside and staring straight into the eyes of her enemy. Any moment she felt like she might burst into tears...she needed help...and poor Snake Man, she had told him he would be safe and to stay in the lab, but he would die because of it. She could feel her lip trembling...
"Don't you dare cry! I'll kill you if you cry!"
Remembering Snake Man's words turned her grief into hate. At first it was hatred for Snake Man, for daring to say such a thing to a poor girl. But Snake Man wasn't the one who deserved her hatred. In fact, she was suddenly glad he had said that to her. All of that rage found a deserving victim in Epidemic Man, worthy of her wrath, and all the preparations that had been made for this very moment. It was then that Roll learned that there was a time to hate; hatred, while dangerous, had its place in life. And this very place, which had seen so much brokenness, death, and devastation, was the right place for hate. It cooled away all the mourning that Roll had wanted to much to indulge, leaving nothing but the seethingly enraged Proto Bot, just waiting to unleash her power. She was afraid for her life; afraid she was going to fail. But she was not afraid that she was going to run away. And that was what mattered.
This made Epidemic Man...well, Roll wasn't sure. It was almost as if he liked it, but wasn't sure. Roll didn't care anymore. She was now X's last defense, and he was going to live. She swore it. She also swore that Epidemic Man was going to die.
"Well, come on, then."
And the battle ensued. Blocking off the first two torpedoes with the Proto shield, Roll immediately dove in with her energy sword and started the close range battle. Epidemic Man seemed enthralled by this, reveling in the viciousness of her attacks. If Roll had been paying attention to her emotions (she was rather busy) then she would have been surprised at her own brutality and fearlessness. It didn't even phase her when Epidemic Man snatched the Proto shield out of her hands and flung it into the distance. She just fought all the harder.
But that didn't mean she was skilled. The battle AI was doing as good a job as it could, but that alone wouldn't work too well without experience. Epidemic Man quickly kicked her in the gut, and she flew back several feet. She could barely get back up before several torpedoes were headed her way, and she froze. How was she going to dodge them? Without even knowing how, Roll found herself out of the way, and the two missles crashed harmlessly into the concrete remnants of some ruined wall.
That's right! Bass could always dash!
Delightedly she tried it again, succeeding. Roll ran to Epidemic Man, acting as if she would charge at him, but at the last minute she just turned away, letting her sword run through his side. It was a perfect hit, and he swore terribly as she passed him by. Roll would have laughed if she could, but that was when Epidemic Man stopped playing nice. He roared, flying upwards into the air and sending out an EMP wave.
And it did...nothing.
Stunned, Roll realized that Proto Man's helmet had activated. Not only had it blocked the data-erasing wave, but it was now scanning Epidemic Man. And then everything made perfect sense. Not just the fight itself, but the entire robot apocalypse, and why Dr. Wily would have upgraded robots not his own and let them be in charge of destroying the world: Epidemic Man was overclocked. Not just a little, but a lot. He was filled with more power devices and battle AI then one simple body would allow. And it was slowly killing him. Fighting or other activities helped, but Epidemic Man had been overextending himself for a long time. His power core was overloaded, and the proper shot would end him.
That didn't diminish anything from Epidemic Man's plain skill, and Roll had spent too long dwelling on this information. He dove after her, using his plasma sword to knock away her energy sword so that he could tackle her, punching her with his own fists. Then his sword reappeared, and he drove it down violently.
With a mighty crash, a green missile smacked straight into Epidemic Man, and he was left at the mercy of Snake Man and two search snakes, which had found places on Epidemic Man to latch their fangs. Shocked, Roll ran forward to help him out, but Snake Man hadn't lied earlier: he was a terrible fighter. With a vicious snarl, Epidemic Man ran his claw over Snake Man's face, and was able to stand up again, his hand grasping the offensive Wily-bot by the neck.
"Fool! You should have fled while you had the chance!"
Epidemic Man promptly stabbed Snake Man through the gut and flung him aside, removing first one search snake from his antennae, and the other from his leg. Both ended up stomped under his feet. But that was a mistake.
"Snake Man, no!" Roll cried out.
"What? That voice...you can't be - "
Roll had had the time to charge the Mega Buster, and she let loose an electrical wallop that was unmatched in any robot since Mega Man. It smacked into Epidemic Man, who had left himself open far too long. His body sparked and sputtered as he struggled to get up, and his plasma sword refused to engage. The power was overwhelming him, and his coolant system couldn't work hard enough. He was overheating. Proto Bot was coming closer...
"You?" he spat as he spoke. "I was defeated by...Rr...Rrrrr..."
"That's right." She stood over him, closer to tears than he realized. "Know this: as long as evil exists, there will always be a Light-bot to stop it. ALWAYS."
She blasted him again with the Mega Buster. She was tempted to just let him melt and die slowly, but that really wasn't in her nature. That and she didn't want him to have the chance to do anything more than he already had. It wasn't about revenge: it was practicality. She stabbed him through the head. No one was going to get the codes to X's chamber.
Once his head was removed from his body and Roll was absolutely certain he was dead, she disengaged her energy sword and went to find Snake Man. The claw to his face had destroyed his eyes, so he was lying there, weakened and glitching. Roll kneeled by his side, and he heard her movement.
"Did we get him?"
"Yes...yes we did."
"That's good...that's real good..."
His voice was faint, fading away as he did as well. Full of tears, Roll grabbed him and tried to hold him up.
"Please don't die, Snake Man!" she wept. "Please don't! I know you don't want me to cry but I can't help it! Please don't die...please don't..."
Snake Man smiled a little, and for a moment, it looked like he was trying to say something. But mortal damage had been done to his power core, and whatever it was, it was left unsaid. Roll laid him down, glitching.
She looked up at everything, then stared at the sky. There had been some satellites working not too long ago. Epidemic Man had said so himself. Would they have seen what had happened? She hoped so. Sniffing, Roll stood up. What was there left to do? She had no one left to save. No family to return home to. Maybe she could find Kalinka again. She had to know that Kalinka was alright. If she wasn't then -
"Oh!"
An alarm went off in her head. It was a warning. The power leak that Snake Man had patched up before had come undone at some point during the fight, and now it was worse than before. It was going faster, and the E tanks in her armor would only last her half a day, if she was lucky. She could feel her innards mixing with other innards that were not the right parts. A sudden drainage of oil and coolant fluid made its way down her neck, seeping through her port drive. She was not going to last long like this, and there was no one in the world left that could possibly repair her. The scientists...Wily had done his evil job well.
I...I'll never get to see Kalinka's baby...I hope it will be cute...
These and other depressing thoughts filled her mind and weighed her down. She couldn't bear to look at her brother's head again, and what did it matter anyway? That was not her brother; her brother was gone forever. So Roll just went over to Snake Man, and she laid herself down nearby, looking at his slashed but somehow peaceful face.
"I wish..." she whispered. "I wish there was a heaven for robots. You could come too. Rock would love to have you with us..."
It was so weird to her. It felt like everything running through her mind was nonsense. She recalled how Bass had said the junkyard was like purgatory, and they it was possible to get recycled there. This was a peaceful thought. She hoped that she could be made into a car. Then she could travel. Unless she was owned by a sedentary person. That would be terrible.
"I'm so silly, aren't I?" Roll continued speaking to Snake Man, despite the fact he couldn't hear her and he certainly didn't know what she was thinking. "Thank you, Snake Man. I appreciate you helping me. You...you're a good robot."
There was no answer, and after a moment, she reluctantly stopped expecting one. It was then she noticed that all of this silliness had been a distraction from her own death. She had to face it now, even more certain than before the fight. But she had won. That made it at least a little less painful. Roll expected that at any second she would start bawling her eyes out, glitching away the last remnants of her power core.
That time never came. She was filled with a calmness that couldn't be outdone. She realized that she was completely diffident about it: she didn't care that she was going to die. What good was it for her to live? Her brothers were gone, Auto was dead, Crystal Bot and Bass were irretrievable, and the world was a shambling mess of what it had been before. There was only a little sadness for X, as she wouldn't be there for him, to meet him once he woke. That was the only pain, and it wasn't a big one. She knew he would be fine, and that he would protect the earth. She trusted...well, she wasn't sure what she trusted. All she knew was that she was tired, and she didn't want to think anymore. That took too much effort. And now that she had no one left, death was by no means bitter. It was just the end.
"I did good...didn't I, Rock?"
Roll whispered these words, then nothing more. It was all over, and there was no sense in just letting her power drain to empty, feeling death as it came. She shut down.
-t-
The reporter grasped the microphone, sending out a double signal that could reach both radios and TVs. She hoped that there were people still alive and able to listen.
"This is Cindy Caldwell, reporting in for Monstropolis Times. I'm here in downtown Monstropolis. Once a beautiful city and tourist attraction, it is now the site of this war's most devastating battles. But that war has ended today, thanks to a mysterious new robot called Proto Bot. She defeated the last Cain robot, Epidemic Man, but she and the last Wily robot, Snake Man, were both lost in the process. While searches are still going on, there are now believed to be no sentient robots remaining in the world today. With the world's greatest robotics scientists dead, it looks like the dream of Dr. Thomas Light, the dream that became a nightmare, is now effectively over.
"The U.S. army is now coordinating the search and rescue of any humans stranded or lost in the country, and what mechaniloids we have left will be aiding in the search. Also, any human settlements that may be cut off from the rest of the world, please send a message through the frequency 23.9, so that the army can take your names and reassure your loved ones that you are still alive. That's frequency 23.9.
"Good luck, and may God save us all."
Cindy shut down her transmitter, wishing that she didn't sound like a reporter every time she spoke. This was a time of emergency, and here she was sounding like she was reporting the evening news. She looked at the now decrepit city and shuddered. What had humanity done to itself this time?
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THE END
Thank you for reading.
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Author's notes:
- I hereby dedicate this chapter to Mungo Jerry because I gratuitously killed off all the robots. Congrats. So, it's over you guys. Did you guys have any expectations for how this story was going to end? I've had it in my head since Okkusenman, so no, none of y'all influenced it any. :P Well, lol, you guys did kinda kick me in the pants and help me really focus for this chapter. I'm really glad that you feel that this is a place where you can call me out when I'm bogus. It actually didn't take me long to write this, but I definitely did do a better job than last chapter. I'm really happy with it.
- Crotalus is the latin word for "rattlesnake". Snake Man says it up there as a substitute for "for the love of Pete". Lol, it's a favorite word of mine.
- The quotes up there are three from Dr. Yu Sun, from the story The Garden of Forking Paths. The story itself was weird as crap, but I love those quotes. They're fun things to think about. Yup, Crystal Man left them in the program for them to pop up when Roll used his upgrades.
- The depressing songs for this chapter are going to be two, and yeah, I don't think this gimmick worked as well as character profiles, but oh well. Did you at least like some of the songs I put up? The first for this chapter is the most epic Snake Man remix ever. Normally I don't even like it when people remix them, because usually said mixes stink, but this one is really worth listening to. www. youtube. com /watch?v=eH7NXFQ0FIw Now this next one is the one I've had in mind for this scene all along, because it just makes me think of Roll fighting. She's afraid, but she knows there are worse consequences if she doesn't. It's the UNKLE remix of F.E.A.R. www. youtube. com /watch?v=-UBFQ3EHHtw
======Snake Man
"You can't hide from me!"
Good point: Green robot
Bad point: Elusive idea
Like: Toad Man
Dislike: Slug
Snake Man. Ah, Snake Man! One of my favorite robot masters from as a kid. I remember watching my brother play his level - I stank and always just watched him play. But Snake Man is one of the most popular robot masters ever. He's so cool! I liked the Mega Man cartoon episode where he and Mega Man switched bodies. That one was a lot of fun. His like and dislike are based on the Japanese rock-paper-scissors, which is instead snake-slug-toad. And just like paper somehow magically beats rock, slug mysteriously beats snake. I wish they had done something different with his dislike.
Anyway, in my head Snake Man does whatever he wants to do. He is neither very social or particularly shy, but he's not always fond of being around people. He's obesessed with nature, and he loves plants. He also loves animals, especially the ones that most people think are weird, bad, or otherwise not interesting. Snake Man especially loves insects. He's very passionate about it, and as few people share his interest to the extent that he does, this does prevent him from being as close to others as he could be. He varies between being happy to be alone and wishing that other people would recognise him.
Snake Man has lots of ninja skills, and if it weren't for Shadow Man or Bass, he'd be the most stealthy Wily-bot of all. However, his stealth usually pertains to escape rather than slight-of-hand, and if confronted he prefers a direct fight. Unfortunately, he's not a great fighter, as any of us who have seen the game know. Hence the escape skills.
Also, he was very loyal to Wily. Team 3 was created by both Wily and Light, but he believes that it's Dr. Light's fault that he is so weak: if he had been built purely for combat, he would have been much stronger. He never once questioned Wily's orders over the years, and while he inwardly knows Wily's cruelty, he had always assumed that everything Wily did was for the betterment of his robots. Only when the apocalypse started did Snake Man have to question this belief, and the realization that Wily only cared about himself was the reason why Snake Man was able to choose to ally with Roll. That and he hates Dr. Cain's robots.
As much as I think it's sort of lame for Snake Man to hiss, I added it to his anger anyway because that's something Wily would do. He wouldn't skip anything simply because it was cheesy. That's why he's our favorite mad scientist. Or maybe not so much after reading this story, anyway.