There was a stage, and on it were four red, comfy chairs. There was also a microphone and a podium in the center, where a dark blonde stood adjusting her glasses and hoping nobody noticed the rather uncomely size of her nose. She cleared her throat, and put on a big smile.
"Hi everyone! Welcome to the Bonus Features show!" she exclaimed. "I'm GrimMoody, the author of the Okkusenman trilogy, and I'll be bringing you deleted scenes, and also questions for our character guests! Come on out, everyone!"
GrimMoody peers into the backstage area, hoping someone will come out. She starts to get impatient, but then she realizes something.
"Oh wait! I killed them all! Hee hee, silly me! I forgot. Oh well, we'll just have to bring somebody back from the dead so that they can be on the show! I'll bring back the classiest, funniest character, one of my very favorites: Top Man!"
With a flash of sparks and smoke, the brilliantly orange robot appeared, and he spun in a graceful circle until he completed it with a clever bow.
"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen!" Top Man straightened as he spoke. "Or morning, midnight, or afternoon, whenever you might be reading this. I am Top Man, the most magnificent dancer of all the Wily numbers!"
GrimMoody stared and blinked at him for a moment. "Wily really regretted building you, didn't he?"
"You don't have to rub it in!" Top Man huffed and sat down. "There are more important things in the world than fighting, you know. What is life without art?"
"I'll give you that one there, Toppy." Grimm conceded. "Well, let's get you introduced. Tell us a little about yourself."
"Alright!" he smiled at the camera. "I am a member of elite Team 3, DWRN-021. My interests include Shakespeare, Irish and Norse lore, theatre productions, and experimental, artistic plant growing. Few people know this, but I was actually designed to go to other planets and discover resources for the robot Gamma."
"Wait," Grimm wrinkled her brow. "You're supposed to go to other planets? How? A lot of planets are rocky, and going around on wheels can't help then. The rest of the planets are gaseous, so you'd need like a rocketpack or rocket shoes or something to move around. Skates? And why don't you have any sort of metal detectors or underground sensors? You'd need that if you're tracking down metals and such."
Top Man glared at her, mad at her for interrupting. "That's what my wikia page says, alright?"
"Didn't it used to say that you were made to entertain children?"
"I don't know..."
"Heh, well, I guess it fits with you being so random. Look at your level! I mean, usually the robot masters have baddies that match the nature of the master, but come on, flying screws and giant cats that throw yarn? And what's with all those plants in the walls?"
"I get enough jokes about 'weed', thank you oh so very much." Top Man was bemused. "Now are you going to let me speak or not?"
"Sorry, sorry! Hey, tell us about your team. What are they like?"
The orange robot relaxed a bit, but sighed. "Oh, they...well they weren't much of a team, most of the time. You see, our leader was to be Shadow Man, but he had no interest at all in leadership. He just didn't care. It started a very bad precedent. Snake Man decided that he was going to do whatever he wanted as well, especially after Gemini Man tried to take control. Hah, that guy is better at controlling his clones, but we have minds of our own! Thankfully Gemini Man gave up on it. The rest of us tried to be more united, but it never worked. Magnet Man should have been our leader from the beginning, but unfortunately he never really knew what he was doing. Needle Man was so pushy, and Hard Man never thought I was tough enough. In the end, only Spark Man and I cared at all about having a united team, though he scorned me, and that was the end of that. We only worked together after that to prove our strength to the other teams."
GrimMoody went over and sat in another chair, putting her legs up over the armrest as she stretched out. "Wow. So you were like the whipping boy until the next team was built?"
"Quite. It was frequently said that I should have been on Team 5. However, things did look up once Toad Man was made." Here Top Man managed a laugh, but not a mocking one. "Oh, the poor thing. I mean, I knew Dr. Cossack wasn't the genius Dr. Wily was, but come on. All you have to do is shoot him to make him stop attacking? Please."
"Okay, so did Team 5 make things even better for you?"
GrimMoody pointed her finger at him, and instantly a small table appeared with a lovely teacup and saucer and a pitcher of fresh E tank tea. Top Man delightedly reached for it, mixing two weapons energy pellets in.
"Good heavens, not at all." Top Man quite happily told the story of his unhappiest years once he had a sip of the tea. "Ah, quite good, thank you. No, it's sad, actually. I had so wished to be thought of for my achievement of the spinning greenhouse, but once they came along, I was constantly grouped with them, and none of my own team defended me. Oh, it was quite horrible. Gyro Man was the worst, and for a long time he believed that our positions should have been switched. However, I got them all to stop."
"How'd you do that?"
"Simple, I started making my own energy pellets." Top Man winked. "They are organically based, you know, and it turns out that a spinning greenhouse is just the thing to provide adequate source materials. Why, they should have expected it of me, and even Dr. Wily applauded my efforts. That shut everyone right up, and Shadow Man said that I deserved my spot on Team 3 for my smarts. Vindication is sweet!"
"Well, we've been chatting it up for a bit." GrimMoody stretched and yawned, sitting up in the chair. "Mm...okay. It's time for a deleted scene! Auto, put it on up!"
GrimMoody stretched back out on the chair's armrests, looking up at the projector screen at the back of the stage. She didn't notice at first that Top Man was trying to get her attention.
"Oh, yeah dude?"
"I'm afraid that you killed Auto off too, dear."
"What? This means I have to get out of my chair, doesn't it?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Dang it..."
GrimMoody mumbled and grumbled all the way back to the projector. Finally the lights cut dim, and the deleted scene began to play.
===chapter 3
"Very well." Wave Man's gargly voice was more solemn than ever. "There is little to tell. He was not on the space station when it happened. Gravity Man had gone down to Monstropolis to retrieve some supplies, and he was being monitored the entire time by Star Man. He met no one unusual, and accessed only normal computers that most robots would use on a daily basis. And in an instant there was nothing. We immediately lost all contact with Gravity Man, and that was when we signalled Auto to come and find him."
Crystal, though she tried not to, audibly whimpered as she buried her face in Jewel Man. Mega bit his lip, sorry for her.
"Well," he went on. "I spoke to some witnesses once Auto contacted me, and from what they said he was accessing an ATM, and while he was still logged in he just cut off without warning and collapsed. The ATM is still under investigation, but so far they haven't found anything suspicious about it. It even has Global Anti-virus installed."
"Gravity Man had my latest anti-virus programming..." Crystal Bot protested. "
=====Chapter 4
Roll liked the Polovstiansky's house. It was surprisingly normal for a robotics scientist's home, other than being grandiose. Having grown up in a home without a mother, Kalinka had rarely ever had the chance to live in a place she could decorate herself, and a more feminine, homey way. Dr. Cossack's lab came straight from old sci fi movies, but this place could have been featured in a housing magazine. Roll happily went over to the kitchen, with its large, marble counters and all the latest appliances.
On the way there, Roll happened to glance sideways and almost jumped out of her plasticine alloy skin. No matter how many times Roll saw Skull Man standing there in the hall, she never got used to it. He was still Kalinka's bodyguard, which Dr. Cossack had insisted go with her when she married. The girl-bot shuddered, but calming herself down a bit, she managed to speak to him.
"Hello, Skull Man. Detect anything unusual today?"
"No."
Roll politely waited to see if he would say anything more, but even after only a few days of knowing him, Roll knew that Skull Man's conversation skills were lacking and just went on by to the kitchen. Roll decided to fix some fresh pasta salad. It wasn't long before Kalinka joined her, but the human was wrapped up in a cell phone conversation
- chapter 4
"That...that must have been the data kill device in his head, just like Plant Man and Aqua Man and the others..." Mega Man said. "How horrible that Dr. Cain is forcing all of the robots to die just so that we won't know what's going on."
"I have Hard Man's CPU." Skull Man offered the small device to Mega Man. "It might work."
"Thanks." the blue bomber took it somewhat cheerfully.
"Okay," Kalinka said as she began to use what little knowledge she had of robotics to check and see how badly damaged Gyro Man was. "So it is Dr. Cain? How do you know this?"
"It's sort of a long story, but he's the one responsible for the death of Dr. Imahara, Splash Woman, and Gravity Man. From what we've seen here his robots appear to be in charge." Mega Man answered. "I think he reprogrammed the remaining robot-masters to follow him. He always was a good programmer. Roll? Are you alright?"
"I...I'm fine." she stammered. "I've never been that close to being attacked before..."
"It wasn't that bad." Kalinka said. "But Alyosha...they might go after him next!"
"Pharoah Man is on his way with a transport, but I'm not going to leave you until he gets here." Mega Man assured her. "We don't know how many robot masters are still out there, and if they want to capture you that badly, they'll try again. Don't worry, the lab he works at will have more security measures than your house. Gyro Man, you'd probably better teleport back to my lab."
"Fine." Gyro Man gave his short, ill tempered reply as he pulled out the round teleportation device Crystal Bot had given him.
"As handy as those things are..." Mega Man said. "Are they legal?"
Gyro Man managed a chortle. "Well, there's no direct law against them. Don't complain. They did help us get here quick enough."
"Then use them to find Alyosha!" Kalinka was starting to get angry. "I will be fine! Skull Man is here!"
"We can't take that risk." Mega Man shook his head.
"Then get Bass! He still belongs to my father so he needs to get over here and help my husband!"
Mega Man hesitated, but in the end decided to contact Bass anyway. If he was lucky, then Tim Reyes was done with the investigation. Knowing that his own personal communicator was well out of range, Mega Man went to the wall. While the monitor was gone, thankfully the computer was still operational enough to send out a stronger signal.
Roll wandered away from the group.
GrimMoody went back on stage and sat back down. "Okay, so these I showed all at once, because they're basically lamer versions of what I had up there already. For the first one, there was more plot involved. Having 'Global Anti-virus' exist was just pointless, as was the whole ATM scene. All the reader basically needs to know is that they lost contact with Gravity Man, and they found him dead later. Adding frivolous details only makes your work that much more annoying to read, because the reader will assume it has significance, but in the end it doesn't. As for the other two, they were just first drafts that needed more emotional impacts. While it was hard to write better versions of them, once I got it, the end results were a lot more fun.
"Oh, hey, Top Man." GrimMoody sat up. "How would you like to be the host for a bit?"
"So you would like me to ask you questions?"
"Yeah. People might what to know what inspires my work."
"Isn't that a bit self serving?" Top Man reluctantly put down his tea, raising an eyebrow. "How do you know people want to hear you talk about yourself?"
"Just ask the dang questions on the notepad." GrimMoody pointed her finger again, and a notepad reappeared in his hand. She then leaned back into her chair, happily relaxing with her eyes half-closed.
Top Man shrugged, biting his lip slightly. "Very well then, *cough*HACK*cough*."
The author opened her eyes. "Wow, you don't sound good, Top Man. Are you okay?"
"I assure you, I am just fine, GrimMoody *cough*isaHACK*cough*. Oh, excuse me! Just a bit of throat glitching, you know. Happens from time to time. Now onto the questions!" Top Man casually flipped open the notepad and began to read from it. "Alright, where did your inspiration for this story come from?"
"That's a good question!" The author chuckled. "I wish I knew. I was just watching a bunch of Mega Man perfect runs on the internet, and it just brought me back. That and some Bass AMVs. I dunno...the X series was such a departure from classic that it kinda freaked me out. I watched let's plays of all the X series games, and well, there had to be a bridge between the two. The spirit of classic is just so darn different. Heck, if Inafune had his way, the Zero series would have been even worse than they were, because it would have been the real X behind everything going on, rather than Copy X. Heck, someone should write a fiction about it. I would, but I don't like X or Zero series."
Getting a little too absorbed in the part, Top Man casually rose to his feet and skated over to the podium, standing and asking the next question very much like a TV show host would. "Ah, and which robot masters would you say are your favorites?"
"Ha, you dork. I bet you're expecting me to say you, right?"
Top Man skated around the stage, twirling and doing a graceful figure eight around the two chairs on his side of the stage. "Why, I hardly think an insightful artist such as yourself would not recognise my remarkable talent."
"Pssht. Flatterer." GrimMoody waved him off and turned to the camera. "Well, my first favorite is Crystal Man, because I loved his theme music as a kid. And he's shiny. Second favorite is Bass, which is surprising because I never played any of the games he was in as a kid. He's just so darn fun to write! I identify with his struggle for significance. After that, I'm not really sure what the order is for the rest I like: Snake Man (whose theme is quintessential Mega Man), Fire Man (my grandpa's tv we played MM1 on made his theme glitch like awesome), and Dust Man (he's sad, his theme rocks, and he was designed by the same guy as Crystal Man), and Top Man. Top Man might be easy to beat and his level makes no sense, but heck, I like the level making no sense. And he has a pwn theme. And I love making Mega Man dance with the top spin. It's cute!"
Top Man happily spun around, skating over to GrimMoody and kissing her hand. "Why thank you, my lady! I shall now demonstrate my new triple axel double spin with a flip! I have just perfected it for your viewing pleasure!"
As he began to spin and skate, GrimMoody clicked her lips. She didn't know any skating or dancing terminology, so it would be vain to attempt to describe the magnificent technique of a skilled person like Top Man. That and despite the presense of a camera, this is still a written fiction. He could do whatever stunts he wanted, but since no one could see them, oh well. GrimMoody stepped down off the stage.
"Eh, good time for another deleted scene...bah, that scene is like the others...ah, this one'll work..."
===chapter 5
So the lone, red robot walked through the side area of the Monstropolis East Harrison Robotics Factory, dodging the workers and security guards. This wasn't a difficult task for him. Hiding from humans was like breathing to him, and he had to admit a strange thrill to be avoiding the glances and the questions of the humans. But today his mood kept him from enjoying it. He had heard about Gravity Man, as well as Dr. Inafune. While he didn't know all of the details about the attack on Kalinka's home, he knew that it had happened. And that made him ill. He promised himself to check on her once his work here was done. He had been watching the place for days, and he knew that something had to hit the fan soon.
This was Monstropolis' main robotics factory. Though on any given day it produced mostly mechaniloids, specialized scientists often came in to develop the more intelligent robot masters that went on the market. Though these were growing increasingly popular, the low number of scientists able to create them kept the sentient robot population likewise low. Still, this place was the main producer of robots in America, and if what Proto Man had learned was correct, this place would be a prime target for the new activity of the remaining Wily-bots.
Proto Man's smile was wry. Wily-bots were hardly smart enough to be subtle. As the screams started, Proto Man contacted the police. He had already informed them
Now that Bass was finally in Moscow, he realized that he wasn't sure where Alyosha worked. He had decided to go and make sure Dr. Cossack's son-in-law was safe, as he had heard that Kalinka was already on the way to her father's heavily guarded laboratory. Bass had called Dr. Cossack paranoid for his security measures before, but this time he was grateful for every single mechaniloid between the lab and the Wily-bots.
"Okay, so the first part is actually the same factory that I later turned into Miyamoto Mechanics," GrimMoody said as she went back on the stage. "It started off being in America, but I really meant the scene to just be a time to learn more about Proto Man and then transition on to him going to help Kalinka. One, it would make more sense if he were closer to Russia, and two, the scene I was describing started turning into something that was going to require more attention than I wanted to give it. Hence, this became Japan, and the Japanese anti-robot force cleaned up the bulk of the mess. The last part with Bass was just him going to find Alyosha, but his sudden appearance in the way I rewrote it was just more interesting. That, and I don't think Bass would criticize Cossack for being too secure. It just seems out of character - what are you doing, Top Man?"
"What am I doing?" he repeated in a shrill, hasty voice as he stood there, in the way of GrimMoody reaching her nice comfy chair. "Why, I am protesting this rude, and unfair action! Here I am trying to grace you with my most magnificent dance yet, and you cut me off with a deleted scene!"
"Oh, speaking of which, I have a really good one!" GrimMoody hastily turned the the camera. "You guys want to see it don't you? Yes? Well then, I better put it up!"
"How DARE you - "
====chapter 6
Proto Man was almost at the lab, and inwardly thanked Auto again for building his jet. It had been a very useful gift, especially for someone who traveled as much as Blues did. However, the ship itself had no weapons, and Proto Man was reluctant to add any. He didn't want to attract too much attention to himself, for one, and also the ethics of it bothered him. Though most people doubted that the mysterious red robot meant anyone any harm, he still didn't want to give anyone too much reason to be concerned.
He noticed that he was in teleportation range, and Proto Man switched the jet to hover mode and slowly lowered it to the ground. It was the summer season in Russia, and for once the mountainous plains were clear of snow and ice. Proto Man was able to land without any trouble at all. The front of the jet lifted, and the robot jumped down to the ground, only to find himself face to face with a red and yellow Cossack-bot, who looked like he had seen better days.
"Blues!" Ring Man exclaimed as he limped closer to the Light-bot, his torn right leg screeching all the way. "What a coincidence! I can't believe I found you!"
Proto Man couldn't believe it either. His lips narrowed a bit as he silently let the robot continue.
"It's so horrible, poor Alyosha!" Ring Man said. "Something happened to Bass. I'm not sure what it was, but I think he got a virus or something! He attacked Kalinka's husband! I tried to stop him, but I just can't! I'm not strong enough! Please, Proto Man, you've got to defeat Bass! I don't even know if Alyosha is still alive!"
Proto Man was stunned for a moment, and his lip lifted quizzically.
"Please, Blues, you've got to hurry! There's not much time!"
Considering for a moment, the wanderer gave in. "Alright. I'll put a stop to this. You go back to Dr. Cossack's."
But before he went anywhere, Proto Man shut the jet and pushed some buttons on the side. The jet teleported, going upwards in a zip of red light.
"Do you know Bass' coordinates?"
Ring Man nodded eagerly and sent a transmission. "There you are! Thank you so much!"
"Anything for Kalinka."
And then Blues disappeared, becoming his own red streak as he teleported out of sight. Once Proto Man was gone, Ring Man straightened and dusted himself off. His eyes gleefully narrowed as he stared at the point in the sky where the teleportation remnant had gone out of sight.
"Proud of yourself, no?"
"Give me at least a little credit, Epic Man. I did get rid of him." Ring Man neared the spiky Cain-bot as normally as he ever did, showing his limp to be a fake. "Who do you think will win, Bass or Proto Man?"
"I think I will win, in the end." Epic Man answered smoothly. "Now get back to your creator's place and destroy it. And him. Go."
"Aren't you coming?"
"No. I've got a little surprise of my own to work on. Soon the little blue guy and his friends will know the true meaning of our master's work."
Epic Man was in a good mood as he watched Ring Man teleport out. This sort of havoc was always something that he wanted to wreck. All of his siblings were glad to be a part of it as well, and it left the group feeling more united than ever.
All those foolish old schemes were for nothing. Epic Man lifted a fist into the air as if rebelling against reality. This...now this is what real devastation means!
"Okay, well, I didn't include this scene for a few reasons, though I really like it." GrimMoody steadily ignored the glaring robot behind her. "I like how it shows Epidemic Man interacting with a Wily-bot, and sadly, I wish I had included more of these scenes. But really, this story was about the good guys. Anyway, for this scene, adding the whole 'Bass could be a bad guy' thing was just weird and distracted too much from what I wanted to go on. It was better to just focus on the actual battle against Dr. Cossack. And besides, how did Ring Man know where Proto Man was going to land? Why did PM land? Where did he teleport his ship? It just added to many loose ends that had to be dealt with."
"Like the one where you interrupted the most beautiful skating routine ever made?"
Thinking quickly, GrimMoody made a face before turning around. "Er, you see, I can't have you dance in the middle of the show. We need to get the other things out of the way, so that we can best enjoy your talent. For the sake of flow, of course. You know how it is with flow, right?"
"Flow?" Top Man tapped a finger lightly against his chin. "Ah, but of course! Forgive me, I do get ahead of myself sometimes!"
Top Man settled down back into his chair, and GrimMoody went to hers, happily resting her sore feet. "Okay, let's ask our guest a little more about life as a Wily-bot. How did you help in Wily's operations?"
"During operations, mostly as a distraction." Top Man poured himself more tea. "Perhaps pretending I had become good and put on a show somewhere. Mostly I would fight humans, as well, fighting really isn't my thing, so fighting robots would be a mistake. I did spend a lot of time in the robot museum, but from day to day I was mostly in charge of budgeting. Wily would rather work on machines than bother too much about financial planning."
"So who were your closest friends?"
The Wily-bot took a sip of tea, smiling a bit. "Ah, despite my weaknesses, I had many. Once people got to know me, that is. I was often in the company of Team 1, as Elec Man wanted me to write an epic about him. I actually started it, would you like to hear a bit of it?"
"Really, we don't have the time - "
Top Man stood up regally, clearing his throat as he went into his story mode.
"The wise but blind man in a dark place
Has put the mask down on his face
With a flip of the switch he came alive
Electricity beckons, electricity thrive!
Greater than creator
Darker than the night
Flashing through black clouds with his fury bright
Much more mighty than known by Dr. Light."
Top Man spun around just once, then stiffly bowed to the camera. Looking up a bit, he addressed GrimMoody. "You're not clapping."
The author leaned against her arm and snorted, rolling her eyes. "Fun fact: 'storytelling' is listed as Top Man's bad point."
"What?" Top Man put his hand on his hips. "I'll have you know that the Wily numbers loved my stories. Eh, most of them. The ones with taste. If you don't like it, then I just won't tell you any more!"
"Thank God."
"Hmph. Fire Man wanted me to write him an epic also," Top Man continued as he huffed and went back to his chair. "But that was more to show that he was in fact not a redneck, as he was for some reason often portrayed. But to answer your original question, I believe my closest friend was Shade Man. He often invited me to tea at the mansion he guarded before Mega Man defeated him. Even the authorities knew of Shade Man's good taste: the didn't destroy his mansion lair. I believe it's the mayor's house now - the thief! Perhaps I could have been friends with Star Man, but they tended to stick mainly to themselves. And my team didn't want me associating with them anyway. Something about damaging 3's reputation."
"Okay, so those are the people you like." GrimMoody stretched and straightened. "So who don't you like?"
"At first it was just Guts Man - bit of a dull one, he is - and Burner Man was not at all appreciative or understanding of my arts. But those were simply robots without any artistic understanding. Now Team 8, I couldn't stand one of them! Never was I more happy than when Tengu Man followed King, because I knew from then on Wily would never rebuilt him! I always hated that arrogant fellow! Clown Man? No better! He constantly mocked me and ruined several manuscripts I was working on. Aqua Man was an unseemly sort, but at least he left me alone. And Search Man? Ugh! He and Grenade Man can go jump into a pit! Frost Man was an utter dunce, and he thought he could write poetry! Spring Man and Astro Man were half decent, I suppose, but they defended the rest of their miserable team, the strange things! Hmph!"
Top Man brushed his shoulder off as he was brushing the all away. "It won't do to think of them. Ah, I would like to try being the host again, if you would let me." He picked up the notepad again. "It will get my mind on better things. Alright, Grimm, which of the Mega Man games had the best music?"
GrimMoody cringed. "Crap, that's hard. I dunno...MM1 had the wonkiest music, and it was awesome and completely different from all the other games'. MM2 was like the soundtrack of an adventure movie, and it had some good songs on there, especially Quick Man's. But if MM3 was the soundtrack to a movie, it'd be one where everyone is having this great techno party, but then they realize at the last minute that they have to go save the world: all the robot masters have party music going on, and it doesn't get that serious until the Wily stages. That one is definitely a contender. MM4 is fun, and Dust Man's pwns. Actually, that whole game was fun as mess. Now, a lot of people think MM5's was lame, but forget them: I loved it! It had this relaxed tone that makes me think of fun times. Napalm Man's makes me think of going on a car trip through California. Uh, I never played the others as a kid, but I have listened to their soundtracks. 6 is cool, 7 is mostly meh besides Shade Man until you get to the Wily stages, and 8 lost the Mega Man feel entirely. While I liked some MM8 songs, they just didn't sound like Mega Man. 9 brought it back, and 10 had some great tunes as well."
"So? Whose do you like best?"
"Eh..." GrimMoody thought about it hard. "Well, for me it's really between 1, 3, and 5. But I'm going to say 1, because it set the standard for the games, and it just sounds so wonky and fun. But y'know, all Mega Man music is great. If you have a different opinion from me, that's fine because you really can't go wrong with any of them."
"So, any regrets about your writing? Other than killing me off in the first story after only two appearances, of course."
"Shut up, Toppy. Well, I regret a couple of things. In Okkusenman, I had Auto being very serious and emotionally absent. That was mainly due to my not being familiar with him, or even liking him. But no, Auto is goofy. The story didn't spend time around him, so I had no time to develop any real characterization. Also, I didn't have a good grip on Mega Man at first, and a few of the things he says in the first story really don't match his true nature. Well, on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, maybe, though no puns."
"I quite liked that cartoon." Top Man chortled deeply, winking at the camera. "It portrayed my dashing charm. Pity the rest of the episode was so miserable. Robots eating and going to college? We don't need food and any knowledge we require can be downloaded. Hm, and as cute as Roll is, I'm afraid that love is quite out of the question. Oh, I interrupted, didn't I?"
"No, it's alright. You're a guest on the show, so you can talk." GrimMoody shrugged. "And yeah, that episode was pretty dumb. I mean, they capture Mega Man and they could destroy him, but then they shove him in a closet and say they'll deal with him later? Stupid. Anyway, I don't know if the readers can tell this, but Okkusenman had the most preparation and planning. I was just thinking about it more. See, what happens with a lot of writers is they'll have a good beginning or end in mind, but there are parts they don't automatically have inspiration for. It's a thing that kills writers, especially noobs. And towards the end of Okkusenman, my inspiration was more scattered and I really had to focus more on the practical parts of the stories. How Many was especially hard, other than the first chapter. Though that got easier towards the end. For Wily Go Taosenai, I had inspiration, but no organization. But I accomplished what I wanted, which was to get reviewers pumped up about how insane Wily's scheme was. I mean, in the X series, all robots were reploids, and not the original kinds, so what happened to the others? I was so happy when I came up with this plan."
"But how do you know there were none?" Top Man asked. "Perhaps there was a survivor or two that never caught the attention of the reploids?"
"Doesn't it say somewhere that nobody had robots until Dr. Cain found X?"
Top Man simply shrugged. "I only know what you know about the X series, because you're the one that let me know it. Oh, don't you think it's about time for another deleted scene?"
"Alright." GrimMoody got up from her seat and stretched. "I better go get the projector going then."
The orange Wily-bot stared at her from behind. "You're the author. Can't you just make a remote magically appear from nowhere?"
"Oh...hee hee..."
"Huh," Top Man muttered under his breath. "You'd think an author as lazy as her would think of that right away."
"What was that?"
"Oh nothing, I'm just looking forward to more deleted scenes!"
======Chapter 5
Bass had been keeping close tabs on what was going on in Russia. Despite his ongoing avoidance of ever fighting Mega Man again, he knew that if something happened to Dr. Cossack, his threat to kill Rock was still very valid. Sitting in the lab while suspicious politicians decided whether or not he was falling back into his evil ways was hardly his cup of tea, to say the least. And besides that, the dark robot did not like War and Peace. He slammed the book down, inviting a look from his technician.
"What are you looking at?" Bass huffed. "Get back to work and figure out how to get rid of the data kill virus."
"Don't talk to a lady like that, Forte." Crystal Bot stuck her nose in the air defiantly. "You know better."
"And you know better than to boss me around." Bass hissed, glaring at her. "Now get back to work."
The tech-bot frowned, but went back to her computer screen. She didn't like Bass' glare. "Sheesh. I'm just worried about you is all."
"Worry about yourself."
Auto was not used to working around arguing people, but he tried to help anyway. "Just ignore him, Sona-chan! You're doing a great job with the virus busting!"
Crystal Bot giggled and looked back at the black and gold robot. "See, Auto-kun appreciates me!"
Whatever affect Crystal had intended for this statement to have, it only made Bass' expression dissolve even further into a mass of silent threatenings. The girl-bot quickly turned to her monitor again and began typing hastily, nervously hoping that she hadn't made Bass too mad. But there was really little way of getting the dark robot any angrier. He fidgeted in his chair at the side of the lab, seething. If Mega Man didn't report soon what was going on, he wasn't sure what he was going to do.
"Eureka!" Auto exclaimed. "I think I've got some data left over from Flame Man's CPU!"
"Eeee!" Crystal Bot squealed and went over to look at Auto's computer screen. "Let's see it!"
"Give me a second..."
This is maddening! If I have to sit here while everyone else is doing something, I'm going to lose it! Bass fumed. Screw this, I'm out of here.
"Sonata, when Reyes comes back, tell him that Dr. Cossack ordered me to go back to Russia." Bass stood up and made sure that he had one of Crystal Bot's teleporters with him. "Because he still legally owns me and all that crap."
"That's a lie, isn't it? He didn't really order you, did he?"
"I could answer that question, or I could let you have plausible deniability."
"Okay," Moody happily twirled her shiny new remote in her hand. "This was basically the result of the huge trouble I had with chapter 5, trying to figure out what angle to show what was going on with Bass getting impatient and leaving. While this scene is okay, it was kind of redundant for the purposes of the story. And it's pretty meh. Heck, I don't have a lot of deleted scenes that are good enough to show here. Why don't I get a couple more over with?"
Grimm clicked the remote again.
=====Chapter 12
"And you," It took Roll a horrified second to realize that Bass was talking to her, and she was no less terrified once she realized it. "You look like a human, so you need to go check on Dr. Cossack."
"He's...he's on one of those islands..." Roll said slowly as the dark robot stared her down. "It's not legal for a robot to go there."
"No duh, Roll. That's why you've got to go. Everyone thinks you're a person, and the only people who would know would be Cossack and Kalinka." Bass yelled back at his technician. "How many of those teleporter things do you have left that still work?"
"Just a couple now." Crystal replied, wishing she had made more when she had the chance. They were complicated machines. "Algorhythm Man now knows how to break them, so if you use them he's either got to not be around or not know they're there."
"Algorhythm Man would attack Dr. Cain?" Roll asked, getting more fearful all the time.
"The doctor's one of their objectives." Bass said. "They're not going to stop until either he's dead or they are. I want you to check on him just in case. Cain-bots can't track that teleporter."
Roughly snatching it from Crystal Bot, Bass brought the little round item over to Roll, who took it uncertainly.
"I...I don't know if I can..." Roll uncertainly stared at the item. "Rock wouldn't like it."
"If you think you're just going to stand there while the rest of us try and stop all this crap that's going on." the dark robot leaned in closer to her
Dive Man hated his job sometimes. Not only was he starting to get seasick again, but he wasn't anywhere near his master. He didn't even have a clue where Dr. Cossack was. As a rule, no robot was allowed to know where any of the specially protected anti-robot shelters were. Dive Man understood that he couldn't risk falling captive to the virus and letting them know where his creator was, so he just dragged himself out of the water and into one of his hidden caverns in the cliffs against the sea. He hadn't been to this one in a while, but he needed an E tank and a sit down, and this would certainly help. He reached for the light switch.
The aqua-bot shook his head and rubbed his eyes, hoping the seasickness would pass soon. Once he opened them, he forgot all about it. His cavern was filled with shining gems, gold, and numerous golden artifacts. Much of it was appropriately packaged in wooden treasure chests, each bursting open with shining jewelry and strings of pearl. The light shining from the valuables glittered like nothing the Russian robot had ever seen before.
"Guh..."
Stunned, Dive Man looked around, not touching any of it. A tattered, time-worn sheet of paper stuck out easily in the shimmer of the goods, and Dive Man picked it up.
"Dive Man,
I know you hate me, and aggravating you was one of the prime joys of my sad existence. This may come as a shock, but I never hated you much. There was just so much more that deserved my wrath than you. I'm writing this now because of someone I despise more than I could anyone else. Wily. Now that he's dead I'm a free robot again, to a certain extent. When alive the madman forced me to give him everything I found. Every quest for treasure was a bitter one if I could not fill my hoard with it. Now that I can (before someone finds out), I've decided to depart with it. I don't much expect I'll survive what plans Dr. Wily laid out for me, curse upon him, but it can't be helped. I hand this over to you to send along to your lass Kalinka, as I know she favors the shine. I'd rather it go to her than to Wily's plan. Spirited lass, she is. Never told you I met her during the King rebellion, did I? Stopped me from stealing her mother's pearls all by her lonesome! If I was owned by a lass such as she perhaps I'd have turned out to be a better soul. Perhaps I'd be a saltless landlubber like yourself!
Aye, I've too much to say with no point to it. This is my will it is, and I'd like a final word before Wily follows through with his evil. I hope you find this in time, but that might not be the case. I've had to wait years for the opportunity to deliver my booty to this cave, and I know you not often get to these parts. Wily's done rebuilt the Armoroids, lad. It's a part of his plan to take down the non-robot shelter islands that he knew Cossack would get to. Cossack knew the master too well, from what I hear. And he's overprotective of that lass of his, at that. You know it better than I. Included with this letter are some scematics to the Armoroids. Get your scientists or whatever to do something with them, if you can.
"Oh, how terrible!" Top Man exclaimed. "Bass ordering Roll about? Why would he do that? He would be more likely to ignore her because she's weak."
"Don't forget Crystal Man's upgrades." GrimMoody pointed out. "But yeah, that's basically my reaction to the idea, now. I thought it would add some good drama, but one, I focus too much on Bass, and two, it was an opportunity better used for going deeper into Roll's character and showing Crystal Bot a little more. Heck, CB barely did anything the second half of the story, so it was good that she could encourage Roll to go to check on the Cossacks. Yeah, looking at the scene now, I really hate it. As for the second one, I actually like it. I was trying to show some of Dive Man's nature, but stopped because it ended up showing more about Pirate Man - the writer of the letter - than Dive Man. I really should have given him a better part. Also, we already know that Pirate Man was against the apocalypse, so having him leave his riches to Kalinka was kinda unnecessary."
"Pirate Man never liked Wily." The dancing robot spoke up, setting aside his tea. "He was always angry at Wily for taking his treasure, and this got much worse later, as Wily got obsessed with money. He needed it for making his fake anti-virus companies, I suspect."
"Well, why don't we go on to more questions?" GrimMoody said. "So, Top Man, for your part, how did you feel about your part in my trilogy?"
"Why are you even asking me about that?" the miffed robot asked. "You show me slamming into a wall, being mocked by Bass, then in the only other scene I'm in is my death scene. And I would like to point out that both of these scenes happened in the first story, so that I didn't even make it to the apocalypse!"
"Did you want to?"
"Eh...never mind. Still, you could give me more screen time than that!"
"Aw, that's why I invited you to the show." GrimMoody smiled. "You're so funny! Heck, even besides that, even your short time showed how cool you are. You did get Bass to get Spring Man to the repair station for you."
"Ah yes," he cleverly smirked. "That was some fun! And, when Dr. Cain spread that virus of his among the robot masters at the beginning, I did escape it! No one can fault my masterful evasion."
"Oh hey, there was something I was meaning to ask you about." the author started playing with her hair. "What happened with the Wily-bots when Team 5 and Bass left for the good side?"
"If you can trouble yourself to remember, I was in fact dead by that point." Top Man huffed. "I don't know one way or another."
"Oh yeah, right." GrimMoody smacked her forehead. "Okay, that means I'll have to bring back someone else. And that someone will be...Aqua Man!"
Top Man's face immediately transmogrified into that of a grotesque tragedy mask like someone would find in ancient Greek plays.
"Haha, just kidding. Fun fact: I am nearly as repulsed by Aqua Man as everyone else is. Y'know, does someone out there actually like him? I wonder...anyways, I'll bring back...I dunno, how about a Team 10 person? We don't really know them that well, so it would be cool to hear from one."
"I quite like Sheep Man's design, myself." the orange robot suggested. "Why don't we let him come? Seems a right smart fellow."
"Alright, let's get 'im in."
GrimMoody stands up and flicks both of her hands. Instantly Sheep Man appears, and he stands there confused for a moment. Seeing a chair on the stage and the camera, he uncomforably sits down, not settling until Top Man handed him another cup of E tank tea. Sheep Man politely declined any weapon energy pellets to sweeten it. He took a sip and relaxed.
"Um, so what are we doing?"
"Welcome to the Bonus Features show, Sheep Man! Tell us a little about yourself."
"Ah, well I am DWN-077," Sheep Man answered politely. "And I'm the electricity and internet robot for Team 10."
"Before we get to the question I had in mind," GrimMoody began. "Answer a few things for us first. Like, who built you, what it was like being a Wily-bot, how your team got along, and who the leader of it was."
"Oh, okay. Well, I understand why there would be some confusion to who built us. We did have normal jobs for a while, Team 10, that is. I was a sheepherder - you really think that Sheep Dog Man would have been better suited - and then I worked for a circuit board manufacturer. Thing is, we were plants by Wily all along. That was probably the primary reason why I could never stick around to one job. It's so boring around normal people! I could hardly wait until my master allowed me to display the beautiful mouse icon mechaniloids he designed - a stroke of genius! I loved my fortress, but it was a pity I got to spend so little time there before Mega Man defeated me. I could have been the most unstoppable Wily-bot ever!"
"Those disappearing spikes were pretty creative." GrimMoody agreed.
"They were. I so loved being a creation of Wily! Those silly Light drones going on and on about their boring daily tasks! You would never catch me living like that! What a yawn! I might as well count Light-bots rather than sheep if I have insomnia...er, or I would if I actually slept. Our team had very similar opinions. I do feel sorry for Blade Man, though. He really liked his job. It got to the point where I had to tell him that if he kept up the roboenza act he could steal all the swords he wanted. Our leader was Nitro Man, and I feel he did a good job, for his part. We worked so hard to beat Mega Man...erg, if it weren't for Proto Man's and Bass' help, we might have done it!"
Here GrimMoody turned to the camera. "I would just like to point out, that in my universe, Bass was only involved with the fighting of the robot masters. He didn't actually go to Wily's castle. Since the whole thing was a set up to make Mega Man have the virus and to force people to submit to Wily, Bass would have to pretend in the beginning that he actually cared about getting parts for the cure. I do this because I always found the Bass story ending kind of stupid, as it doesn't really explain why Bass was fighting Wily when he could have just tried again to fight Mega Man. If they make a Mega Man 11, they need to make Bass an enemy again. He might hate the robot masters, but he'd rather fight Rock. And they could have been more creative with Proto Man, but since he's fighting alongside Rock it at least makes sense. What would've been could would be that the plot changed according to who you played. Like if you're Mega Man, you fight Bass. Or if you're Proto Man, you steal the cure machine. Or if you're Bass, you fight Rock but end up at the last minute sparing him because of something Wily does."
"What I like is how you barely even mention any Team 10 robots at all!" Sheep Man hissed, a crackle of electricity sizzling across his wool. "We are magnificent robots!"
"Uh, well, you have to remember that you guys didn't appear until I was in the middle of How Many. Plus, I had too many robots to characterize as it was anyway." GrimMoody said. "And you can calm down now, mister. I'm the dang author, and if you threaten me I'll punish you worse than I did the other guys when they 'killed' me."
Sheep Man huffed with irritation, but sat back in his chair and stopped his complaining.
"That's better. Now, why don't you answer what I was asking Top Man: what happened when Bass and Mega Man tore up the last Skull Island?"
"That? Well, it's like Snake Man said: everybody scattered." Sheep Man shrugged. "It took a while to meet up again. Team 10, of course, got out fine and was the first to get back together. We didn't know what to do with Wily arrested, and because the doctor's plans were messed up, we didn't have anywhere to go. About that time, Team 2 stepped up and collected the remaining masters. A lot of us did escape the good guys, and Team 2 had already figured out how to communicate with Wily. From there, it was simply bust Wily out of jail and move on with things."
"But you had no Skull Castle." Top Man pointed out.
"We had Cain's hideout. Not all of us could fit there, but many of us, Teams, 7, 8, and 10, were sent out to be distractions so that the other teams could work on what Wily was doing with Dr. Cain. That's how we lost Commando and Strike Man." Sheep Man bowed his head. "I'll never forget them. They died so bravely...the US got Commando Man, and poor Strike Man was torn apart near London. And let me tell you, Pump Man had a bad time there. You could barely recognise him. We were repaired for the apocalypse, but he was still the first to go...we were in charge of getting Europe, though, and I made sure that those pompous Brits paid for it!"
"I'm getting more and more grateful that I wasn't a part of this apocalypse nonsense." Top Man stuck his nose in the air. "Destroying the culture of a rich civilization is a shame!"
"Yeah, and that means there wouldn't be any more Dr. Who." GrimMoody added.
Top Man's face contorted again, becoming a foul demon mask as he glared at Moody. "That's not rich culture."
"Says you."
"Honestly, it's a wonder someone like you managed to create Crystal Bot." Here the orange robot smiled. "Such a sweet girl-bot. How did you get inspired for her, anyway? I think that was one of the questions I was supposed to ask you."
"Well, it came from this other story idea I had. It was where there was this Nintendo hologram console, where ordinary people would play, and they would get a random character to play the hologram game, which was a combination of a bunch of classic titles. There was a guy being Luigi, another being Geno, and this girl would come in and randomly get Crystal Man, even though she wanted to be Samus Aran." GrimMoody laughed. "Oh man, the look on her face when she saw she got a dude. But when she transformed, it was a girl version. Everyone knew she was girl, but all the characters in the game called her Crystal Man anyway. I love that. I almost wish I had the inspiration to finish that story. From there, I thought about it more and more, then she had a plot."
"What's wrong with the both of you?" Sheep Man snapped. "Crystal Bot was a stupid traitor and she deserved the terrible death that she got! Now stop fouling our conversation with her name!"
"And how did you die then?" Top Man retorted. "Got shot to death by the British army for your trouble, right?"
Sheep Man muttered something then hastily took a drink of tea.
"I'm sorry, what was that?"
"Answer 'im, Sheepo." GrimMoody's seemingly indifferent voice was flavored with the ever-so-slightest hint of a threat.
"I got killed by the data-kill virus, alright!" the fluffy robot shouted, upsetting his tea all over the floor. "I completed my objectives, then the data kill virus erased my brain! Happy?"
"Quite." Top Man smiled with a smug air.
"Wipe that look off your face! I lasted longer than you!"
"Oh?" The spinner-bot casually studied his nails, as if they ever needed maintenence. "I was destroyed by the second most powerful robot in the world. And who were you destroyed by? Your own master, because he wanted you out of the way so that Zero could be the only sentient robot left. I think I know which death you would prefer."
Sheep Man jumped up, smashing the intricate tea cup under his foot. "THAT'S IT! WE'RE FIGHTING NOW!"
A large wheel suddenly appeared above his head, and he immediately knew for its signature appearance that it was the rebound striker. It was already spinning rapidly, and Sheep Man could almost feel it falling down on him and grinding him to bits.
"That's...cheating..." he whimpered.
"I'm the author. I get to cheat." GrimMoody, in an almost bored manner as she pulled out the remote. "Now sit down. I'm going to play my other deleted scenes now, and you're going to chill out, mm'kay?"
"Yes...ma'am..."
"Good boy."
=====undetermined chapter
"Rock is home."
Auto's voice jolted everyone out of what they were doing. Everyone looked at each other, uncertain. Bass' bitter glares jumped from person to person. Auto paused only a short time before going back to checking Proto Man's body, and he refused to acknowledge anyone else's presense. The mention of Rock only made Crystal Bot cry harder, and was struggling to keep finding out the possible locations of the robot masters. Bass only made eye contact with Roll, who immediately turned away.
"Crap," Bass muttered. "This means I have to tell him, doesn't it?"
With a new, special hate for everyone else in the room, Bass stomped off. Teleporting in an out of the lab was impossible now, for security purposes, so Roll could see out the window when Bass approached the one brother she had left. Poor Rock looked mildly happy as he walked up, and seeing Bass, he said something that Roll couldn't hear. She guessed he was probably talking about what he had been doing.
Bass' stony behavior puzzled Rock and cut him short. Mere seconds later, horror and despair so filled her brother's innocent face that Roll almost couldn't bear to watch. But her gaze couldn't leave the scene.
=====Chapter 13
"Forte-kun?" Crystal Bot asked, approaching cautiously as she wasn't sure what kind of mood he was in. "What will we do after this is over?"
It was a good question, and Bass gave it a second of thought. "We'll have to build you a new lab...and...I don't know. Probably you'll have to teach people how to build robots or whatever."
Crystal Bot pursed her lips, pouting a bit. "I'm not good with AI. I think Auto's going to have to do more of that."
Seeing how disappointed she was, Bass was tempted to roll his eyes. But he didn't. The poor girl just wanted to be of some use.
"Well, there's going to be a lot of rebuilding to do. You can help out with that, I guess."
She brightened. "Okay! But don't worry, I'll still upgrade you! With all this bad stuff going on, I've got lots of ideas! But I guess I'll have to get the robotics parts manufacturing companies back up and running before I can really do a lot of that. Wow, it'll be fun, and there will be jobs for people!"
Bass just grinned, proud of her. He was glad that she survived. And after this, he would let her have her fun with building. For a while. Bass wondered if he was the only one still thinking about Zero. But since there was no way to wake him, the best thing to do would be to make sure all of the scattered survivors around the world knew better than to mess with any inactive robots.
"Roll-chan, what are you going to do when this is over?"
The housekeeper didn't want to think of that. She really couldn't. But she put forth effort only because Crystal Bot walked over to her, and she didn't want to drag her friend into the misery she was in. So she managed a fake smile and made a guess.
"I don't know...I'll probably have to help injured people."
"Well, once the bad guys are gone, you can help Kalinka again." Crystal Bot suggested, not really fooled. "She'll need you."
This was a small comfort, though Roll couldn't get the image of the nursery they had painted for the upcoming baby out of her head. They had worked so hard on it, and Kalinka had been so happy...and then it was all torn to bits by the robot war. Gloomily Roll sank further down into her chair. She didn't want to look at anyone, or have anyone try to comfort her. She wanted to close her eyes, and open them to find that everything was alright again
Left with no other option, Roll squeezed her eyes tightly. Wanting so very badly for things to be better, she held them shut tight, fearful if she wouldn't get her wish. But as she opened them again, all she saw were her moody companions. She looked up at her brother, who was now gazing down at her tenderly, like a father. Roll sniffed.
"Where did GrimMoody go?" Top Man asked.
"Who cares? I'm just glad the rebound striker is gone." Sheep Man looked upwards nervously.
"How do you know that she just didn't make it invisible?"
"Guh!"
The animal-bot cautiously got up from his seat, lifting his arms to feel upwards just in case he accidentally bumped into it. He tried to go over to another chair on the other side of the stage, when Top Man interrupted.
"How do you know it's not following you right this very moment, and you just can't see it?"
Giving a frightened shriek, Sheep Man started running around the stage in a panicked manner, not even caring that Top Man was laughing his butt off at him. About this point, GrimMoody returned from backstage, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Mwo-ehyo?"
"GET IT AWAY FROM ME! PLEASE MAKE IT GO AWAY...!"
"Sheesh, I get up for one second for coffee, and this nonsense happens." GrimMoody shook her head. "There's nothing chasing you, Sheepo."
"Really?"
"Really."
Sheep Man glared over at Top Man, who feigned ignorance as he pulled out a handkerchief and casually blotted away the spot of E tank tea on his lips. GrimMoody just rolled her eyes and went back to her chair. Sheep Man did the same, thinking about all the ways he was going to make Top Man blow up.
"Wow, those deleted scenes didn't take long, huh." she noticed. "Well, okay, the first is the first draft of Bass telling Mega Man that Proto Man is dead. I actually liked it, but for the purposes of the plot it was just easier to make Mega find out differently, and it ended up being more dramatic. For the second, that was some inane musings. My first drafts of uncertain chapters tend to be inane, and while it would have been cute to do a conversation like this, it just didn't fit in the scene. Especially when I was right about to knock off Bass and my OC."
"You really don't have any more?" Top Man was disappointed.
"'Fraid not. I didn't have many with this story. It's a lot more direct than the others. I focused more on getting it right. Let's see what else I got in here...I have these two quotes in my notes for this story, but I have no clue where I meant to use them..."
The screen in the back turned white, and two quotes appeared. "And when you see those senators...tell them I said you're welcome." as well as "Team 5 looks to you as an example. Don't lead them astray."
"Ah yes," Grimm remembered. "The first is Bass talking to Tim Reyes about being suspected as being a part of Wily's scheme. Y'know, I really should have accentuated that part of the story more. It would be funny if Bass was totally suspect, and Rock was told to kill him. Of course, Bass is trying not to fight Rock, so he'd have to control himself and force himself to just let Mega Man shoot him, but then Rock would know that Bass is still trying to be good. Then Bass would end up being nuked by the army because no one believes Rock, and Crystal Bot would try to teleport them out, but that's when Algorhythm Man steps in and gets them all killed. Bah! Why did I think of that only now? Whatever. I like this better. It's more important the way it happened."
"That second quote sounds like Proto Man." Top Man pointed out.
"Ah, yep it is. That's him lecturing Bass. I never really needed that quote, but I kinda like it." Moody's lips twitched. "Bah."'
"That's all? That sucks." Sheep Man scorned her. "You suck."
"Shut up. As it turns out, I have some behind the scenes footage of Dr. Wily's apocalypse planning. Auto, hit it!"
"Moody...the remote..." Top Man facepalmed.
"Oh! Yeah...hehe..."
Wily looked horrible. That was the short of it. Cut Man had been around for a long time, and while he had never seen a young Wily (though his master had claimed to be quite the looker in his day), he had seen the downward spiraling of his master's health. There were more wrinkles, and the pinkness of his skin had faded ever so slightly into a matted grey. Cut Man knew what the problem was, and it wasn't merely old age. It was hardly surprising that the one organ that would go wonky on Dr. Wily would be his heart.
"How are we doing on those distraction viruses, Dr. Cain?" Wily pronounced the "doctor" with great, mocking emphasis. "I hope we won't be needing any more...motivation..."
The disheveled wreck that was once a human sat up from his desk, where he had been bent over, practically burning his eyes out at the computer monitor as he intensely worked. He looked around his large office, noting that it looked much smaller with so many Wily-bots inside. The sight of his own robots only brought a groan to his lips and heaviness to his heart: they weren't his robots anymore, and from the glaring smile on Epic Man's face that beamed from Wily's side, he could tell that they were enthused about it.
"It's coming along." Dr. Cain rubbed his eyes. "The data kill virus is ready, as well as several others. I've finished programming the coding for ArmorCore 'Anti-Virus', and that leaves Hitentshi Firewall. I...I need sleep, Wily."
"No, you need to work."
The dull, bloodshot eyes of Cain could barely tear up. "If I die your stupid scheme fails."
Wily gruffly folded his arms. "It's not a stupid scheme, it's brilliant! If you had any sense then you wouldn't be in this position, would you? Heh. Alright, you whiner. Cut Man, if you please."
"No, please, I don't need an injection, I'm exhausted enough - gggarrrakk!"
His voice sounded uncannily like the sound of a glitching robot as a malicious Wily pressed his favorite button on his new remote. Electrifying Dr. Cain was so much fun. Giving up after only one pulse, Nikola laid his aching head on his desk as Cut Man injected him with a sleep serum. He was out of consciousness in seconds.
"My poor, poor creator." Epic Man hissed in an entirely non-pitying way, his breath sizzling on his teeth. "He just had to put that chip in his brain."
"It makes him no better than a robot!" Wily quipped, not caring how his remark against robots irked the leader of the Cain-bots. "But as I was saying, there's going be a need for you to be flexible in my plans. I won't be here to watch you, so you're going to have to do your best."
"My best is more than enough, now!" Epic Man cheerfully ran a diagnostic again just so he could look at all the beautiful AI and fire power that Wily had given him.
"Good." Wily's tone grew more serious. "Now pay attention, there's something I want you to remember something."
Epic Man listened intently, following behind Wily as the scientist tried his hardest to continue. There was obviously something weighing heavily on his mind, and Epic Man was actually eager to find out what it was. He enjoyed every part of bringing about the end of the world, and being so close to the madman was almost like a dream come true for the Cain-bot.
Wily's voice was a bit sudden. "If by some miracle they manage to kill Zero, your orders are to leave Bass alive. Kill everyone else, but he and Crystal Bot can go free."
"What?" the Cain-bot's voice got a little shrill from the laughter that forced its way out simultaneously. "Fish? Whatever for? He won't have your ends in mind, that's for certain."
"That doesn't matter!" Wily's scolding made Epic Man shrink back. "He's my robot, and the second best thing I ever made. And it doesn't matter what he believes. As long as he is the only robot remaining, I am still father of the robots! You'll just have to take down X yourself."
Epic Man wasn't sure he liked this idea. "Well, if they somehow kill Zero after we've already killed Bass, can I live?" he half joked.
The grin on the evil doctor's face sinister and ironic. "Heh. You know your part, Epic Man. You're just a servant, and you are NOT my robot. Do you understand?"
The failsafe programs locked into Epic Man's head activated, and he soured, his spirit falling. Wily had upgraded him and he was going to finally do some damage to humanity, but no, he was still not Wily's. As much as he had wished it ever since his villainous creation, he was not the possession of the world's most evil scientist.
"I understand."
Algorhythm Man went over to his creator, blinking curiously. He had never known Dr. Cain to not be in charge, and it was weird to see him like this.
"Dr. Wily, was it really necessary to inject him?"
"Yes it was. You remember the time when he pretended to be asleep and tried to run away. For his own sake it would be better if I didn't have to send Nitro Man after him. Next time he might break more than a leg, so there shouldn't be any next time."
"Oh."
Algorhythm Man didn't complain. He couldn't. So he just let Wily walk on with his brother as the former lectured the latter on the variables of his plan. Algorhythm Man wished that Epic was looking at him so that he could see him scowling. But if Wily noticed, that wouldn't go over well. Trying not to show his irritation with the both of them, the neon robot went to go find a blanket for his creator. It was the only thing he could do.
"And Epic Man, about Dr. Cain." Wily continued. "Make sure you keep him in line. Don't let him even think of trying to destroy what I've planned."
Algorhythm Man shuddered.
"Okay, so this is a scene that I couldn't really fit into the plot," GrimMoody explained. "But I consider it canon to my universe. No matter who was running things, it was always Wily's show. Also, here's a deleted scene that was actually from How Many, I'm just putting it here because this is where it fits better. I've been planning this story out a long time."
It was quiet. The building was peacefully quiet that night, other than the sounds of traffic passing by. And it was getting later, so those were few. Yet one thing stood out, a single window on the building's lowest floor.
Inside, a midnight blue robot stood over a frenzied human, a balding man who had obviously been avoiding the sun for the past few years. The man fearfully looked up at the machine, who only smiled frightfully back. The man scribbled at his paperwork with a new fervor, afraid for his life.
"There, it's done!" The man finally said. "The report doesn't mention the loss of Dr. Wily's brain, and I've deauthorized any further investigation into the autopsy results. I've done what you wanted! Now please let me go! I swear on my life I'll never tell anyone about this!"
This pleading entertained Epic Man. "That was the deal, wasn't it?" he slowly teased the agonised medical man. "File the papers, then get out of here."
Thanking the Cain-bot repeatedly, the man quickly stuck the papers in their proper place in the file cabinet and ran off, his shaking hands reaching into his pockets for his keys. The sooner he was away from that robotic monstrocity, the safer he would feel.
"Oh, Mr. Gander?" Epic Man almost sang. "Where are you?"
"I'm sorry! I'm almost out the door, please just let me go, please! I did everything you told me to do!"
Epic Man quickly caught up to Dr. Gander, grabbing him by the back of his jacket. "Silly human. If you hadn't said anything, then I might have thought you were gone already."
Dragging the unfortunate man outside, Epic Man jumped in to the air, flying over to a nearby street, one that was still fairly busy at 10:30 at night. "Okay, Gander, do you swear on your parents' graves, the Bible, money, or whatever it is you treasure that you will never again speak of what happened?"
"YES! For the love of God, yes!"
"Okay."
With that, Epic Man threw him in front of an oncoming eighteen wheeler, turning away and refusing to watch the demise of the man he had manipulated. "I believe you, Mr. Gander...now."
Algorhythm Man, who had been waiting patiently outside the building the entire time, spoke up to his brother. "So that's it then?"
"Oh yes, it certainly is. You know, I'm very grateful to Master Wily for removing those troublesome three laws from our minds. I have no clue what Cain was thinking when he gave us those. If he was to be a true villain, you'd think that would be the first thing he would eliminate.
Algorhythm Man couldn't agree more. "Certainly, Epic. So where to now?"
"Now we wait. There are still many preparations to be done. Let us give the little heros some time, so that when we finally do strike, they'll never see it coming!"
"Ugh. Just, ugh." GrimMoody grimaced, shrinking back into her chair. "I felt really bad writing this. For one thing, I don't like killing that guy. So basically the point of this was just to establish that Wily's brain had been preserved. However, I had no real plans for Wily showing up in the robot apocalypse, I just wanted to allow for theories that suggest Dr. Weil, or Vile or whoever in the X series was Wily, without contradicting any of them. Mystery is good. However, this scene here really raises too many questions. I'd basically have to include some parts with Wily, and to be honest, I didn't want to. It's better to leave Wily's fate to the imagination, so if you have any theories about it, heck, why not let me know what they are? You should enjoy your theories, because I don't want to bother them. Hence, this scene got the axe."
"Good gracious! That's terrible!" Top Man scooted his chair further away from the author.
"Ha, I guess I can't tell you my exploits during the apocalypse, then." Sheep Man snickered. "You'd probably faint if you heard them."
The Team 3 machine scooted his chair back the other direction. "Moody, I believe we made a mistake on which robot to include. Mind disposing of him?"
"Nah, you do it."
"WHAT?"
"I said you do it." GrimMoody repeated. She lifted her hand in the air and spun it around. Instantly all the tea, tea cups, chairs (besides the one she was sitting on), and podium all disappeared, and the author's chair scooted over to the side of the stage. "There you go. Now fight."
Top Man cracked his fingers. "Very well then. I shall have to do my best."
"As if you could beat me!" Sheep Man snarled.
Immediately the Team 10 robot rose and broke off into his four clouds, shooting down his lightning from each of them. Top Man did a fair job dodging them, though it didn't look good for him. Sheep Man laughed as he returned to his normal form to recharge the attack. Top Man threw out his tops, and as Sheep Man tried to dodge them, Top Man spun towards him, smacking right into his side. Instantly the younger robot poofed outwards, his arms and legs clunking to the ground as his cloud body dissolved into the air.
"You heard it here first, folks! Or er, saw." GrimMoody announced. "Sheep Man is weak to top spin!"
"Well...what do you know?" Top Man gleefully clapped. "How handy!"
"What say we wrap this up, eh? How about a word for our reviewers?"
Top Man nodded. "I'll do better than that. I saw what hideous torture you subjected Queen Sunstar to in the last Bonus Features. I shall now remedy that terrible, terrible rhyme that you forced Bass to write her. Ahem -
"Starlight brilliant, so mighty, so fair
Dancing down and bringing life to the air
Your very presense warms the cold hearts of men
Oh come down, bright wonder! Come down again!
Queen Sunstar, my one love."
GrimMoody stared at him, her lips pulling back in utter disgust. With a might TWACK she dropped her head into a double facepalm, as a crowd of magical sweatdrops appeared around her hair.
"No, Toppy. Nooo...NOOOOOOOO..."
"You don't have to be so rude." Top Man huffed. "I think it's quite lovely."
"I think you're quite full of yourself. And I'm going to be sick. Please try not to woo my reviewers."
Top Man very disobediently spun for the camera, winking. "Ah, I know miss Sunstar would love to write a story about me. As I would love to be in them."
"I'm gonna die of cornyness sickness. And on that 'happy' note, let's talk about some reviewers. First of all, Sunstar, UGH, I am so sorry. Really, I am -"
"I'm not!"
"Shut up, Toppy! Anyway, thanks for all your reviews, Sunstar. I really appreciate it. And no, I'm trying to keep this story as canon as possible to the main series, and they said that Zero did not destroy the Classic robots, so take that up with them. And thanks to the floating robot heads, Clzh and Clzh-X. You guys are always entertaining. Guys, I have to say that I hate the term 'Cataclysm'. It sounds too Bob and George. Wow, your review sounds like you're recommending me on some internet review site. Aw, I feel all mushy. I have to say, seeing that huge review made me feel all fluffy on the inside. You guys are great. I don't really care for your new name, but eh, that's me.
"And Mungo, heck you've been with me since near the beginning, haven't you? I so appreciate it. But alas, I shall not be getting into the humans' fate after doomsday. I'm just not inspired for it, and you've got to work with your inspiration. Teribane, Lalalei, Josunurashima...y'all are cool. And Jade, I was so happy when I saw your review on Okkusenman. I'm really glad that you can enjoy my story without being familiar with classic. Fanficguy, Anmynous, ProtoChan, Aile-chan, Tylterra, FicReader101...thank you. You make all of this worthwhile. Heck, and Distant-Moon, I know I haven't seen you since Okkusenman, and I think you're still mad at me for not making this a Bass/Crystal Bot story, but that's not how I roll. Thanks for your reviews too. Oh hey, Toppy, anything you want to say?"
"I think that it's ironic that the only story where the reviewers mention Roll is the one where she's not alive to see the review. Pity." Top Man frowned. "But ah, for my part, I would like to thank Tylterra for her compliment in the Okkusenman reviews. I hope she sees this.
Tylterra, so lovely, so wise
Tylterra with ever perceptive eyes - "
"No poetry."
"But - "
"NO POETRY!" GrimMoody shuddered at the prospect. "I'm about to throw up. Guh...ungh! You're way too gross about it. But what you're good at is dancing. The stage is still clear, so why don't you go ahead and show us what you wanted us to see earlier?"
"So it's the end of the show then?"
"Yep."
"And...what happens to me afterwards?"
"Well, it's the robot apocalypse, so you're dead."
"No! That won't do!" Top Man quickly posed. "Here I shall perform my eloquent dance for you, and if you do not see that it is the most lovely thing you have ever seen, then I shall accept my fate. But if you indeed accept my interpretive dance plea for my life, please send me to another game! I'll go to Mario Kart, or Donkey Kong Country, wherever you like!"
With that, Top Man started his most magnificent dance yet. And two seconds later, he blew up.
"Bah, they don't call me GrimMoody for nothing." the author addressed the camera. "You know, early on I had in mind this really weird scene where Bass and Top Man got into a competition to see who was more charming, and Crystal Bot was the judge. Bass won by default because he wasn't spouting creepy poetry. And that about does it for Bonus Features! Thank you everyone for reading! Love you guys, bye!"
As the lights in the theater dimmed, GrimMoody waved and waved harder until nothing could be seen. Then there was silence. And then a loud thunk, skid, and random non-expletive from the author.
"Fudge monkeys!" she squealed. "Stupid chair!"