"No."

"How about this one?"

"No."

"Him?"

"You already showed me that one."

"how about this?"

"He's dead."

"We can steal the Triforce and bring him back..."

"No we won't cause I said so."

Ridley was not making this very easy for the poor lab pirate, but at least he had calmed down enough to do some goon shopping. Unfortunately, he had a very narrow list: Bowser was too incompetant, Kraid hated his guts, Ganon was dead and would just kick his ass, Dr. Wily could make some damn good robots, but he wasn't smart at much else.

"Don't we have anything that like... finds people and just kills them at the press of a button?" Ridley asked

"Those are called mercenaries, sir."

"No, no... I mean like... you just see someone, and then you make them die. And nobody knows how to protect themselves, or who will be next. I want something like that."

"Well sir, the Skedar claim to have been ambushed by weapons like that, but..."

"No, no no..." Ridley shook his head, "Let's not involve Skedar and Mayans.. ...eh, don't worry about it... how bout anything involving space and time? Those are always fun to screw with..."

"Nothing, sir."

"You sure? I thought I remember something coming out of the ground near Trann, back in '99..."

"A mere anomaly, Totally unpredictable." The pirate commented. "It disappeared in minutes."

Ridley sighed. "Hey... what if Doctor Wily can make something like that? Yeah, he's screwed with time before, maybe he can make something..." Luckily, Doctor Wily was one of the few villains out there who didn't despise Ridley.

"Sir, I really don't think-"

"That'll be all, Curly."

Max didn't want to piss Samus off anymore than she probably was, but he was a little confused by the destination, as he realized a minor error in consistency of fiction. "Uh, do you mind if I ask you a question?"

Samus didn't respond.

"Um, okay... it's about Doctor Light... I thought they lived somewhere in Japan?"

Samus quietly answered. "Yes."

"So, wait, you know where that is! As in Earth!"

Samus quietly repeated. "Yes. As in your homeworld."

Max was more than a little perplexed. Mega Man? Living in his world all this time, and yet he never heard anything about Doctor Wily's attacks or Mega Man's victories? "...and what are they doing here?"

Samus shrugged. "They moved." She obviously didn't want to speak much, but she wasn't angry. She just had to lock herself up in her own mind for a little bit, hence also putting the suit on. It was her rock, her place to hide when she couldn't deal with the world, or didn't want to. Max sensed this, and gently put his hand on her jetpack.

"Don't touch me, please."

Max apologized and took his hand off.

"Samus?" Max asked, "Um... do you think... I could go back to Earth sometime? someday?"

Samus did not respond as they approached Light's secluded laboratory. After recieving permission to dock, she entered the hangar through the ceiling door.

"Samus..."

Samus opened the door and stepped out. "Not in my ship, you won't. Now let's get to the test." Samus met Doctor Light outside and greeted him.

"This is Max Walker, the replacement for Kevin. ...are the robots ready?"

Doctor Light nodded to the masked hunter and motioned the two of them into a big lounge, with a TV, couches, tables, a few games, and so on. Inhabiting the room were the initial eight robot masters: Cut Man, Guts Man, Ice Man, Fire Man, Bomb Man, Elec Man, Roll, and Mega Man.

"Ah! Hey!", Cut Man responded. "We've been waiting for you!"

Light smiled. "Walka, Cut man and de othas ah going to engage in some wight battle with you and Samus. The weapons aw toned down a bit, Cut man won't cut yo awm off o nothing, but you'w have to keep fwom kiwwing yosewf. You undastand wight? don't faww in da wava"

Samus looked straight at Doctor Light. "Oh, uh, I wasn't planning on joining him or anything..."

Light shook his head. "I undastand why not, but on de otha hand, if we had a twaining accident and Max was killed, it would come back on da wobots, wike a dog you gotta put to sweep. They awn't easy to webuild!"

"What about Max? Don't you care about his life?"

"I cawe enough ta ask you ta join 'im."

"I... alright..." Samus admitted defeat and sat down next to Elecman and Gutsman.

"Eh, Don't worry", Gutsman told her. "We won't hurt him. It's against our prime directives to hurt people. Besides, after what happened with Doctor Wily that first time, the thought of it scares me."

"That's right... you were all reprogrammed to kill and destroy..."

Max piped up. "Actually, not Rock and Roll."

Samus looked at him confused. "What? Not Rock and Roll? God I hate lyrics..."

Max and some of the robots burst into laughter. "No... No... Rock and his sister! They weren't effected. Just the other six. Mega Man busted them all up and sent the bodies back to Doctor Light."

"It wasn't funny," Samus sneered, and she morphed into a ball. Max held her to make her feel better, but she layed a bomb, so Max dropped her and ran from it. it discharged in the air, hitting nothing.

"Is evvybody weddy?", the good doctor called. "Then wets get to wowk!"

"Sir, can't we just ask him to make a time travel robot?"

Ridley sighed. "No. He'll just ask why he should, and then he'll probably make it a cheap-ass robot to spite us. That's how Wily rolls: predictably. Now, you remember your part, right?"

The lab pirate, who we'll now call Curly, sighed. "yes, sir..." And he ran off ahead.

Ridley knocked on the large metal door of Wily's castle and waited for a response. All he got was a "Go away." Ridley tried again. "Look Wily, I'm not going away till you come out here!"

"Wrong answer", Wily sneered back, and out of the hangar high above, Wily's mechanical dragon flew and headed straight for Ridley.

"My god, is that his idea of a robot dragon! How does that thing even fly with those gimpy wings?" Ridley of course was no stranger to having robotic parts in his past. "got an awful lot of dead weight though in that belly of his... ...hehehe..."

Ridley grew a wicked smile on his face and screamed at the metal monstrosity. "Hey! Down here! You know, with a face like that, you could do children's television! "Love Puffs" sounds like a great name!"

Enraged, the dragon charged towards Ridley, who continued to insult the lesser (in awesomeness only) dragon. At the last minute, Ridley peeled out of the way, and the dragon crashed straight through the door.

"Thanks, Puff. I owe you one." Ridley said as he walked across it's face getting in.

"What in the hell did you do to my door!"

"Hey don't blame me that your cheap-ass robots don't work right."

Dr. Wily gasped as he realized what Ridley was talking about. "My dragon! It's ruined! Do you have any idea how much this will cost in spare parts? That was one of my advanced security units!"

Ridley shrugged. "Not advanced enough I guess... now let's talk business."

"Fine", Doctor Wily said under his breath. "What do you want?"

"Doctor, I understand you have some experience in... ...time travel."

Wily started laughing. "Yeah, but let me tell ya you aren't missing much."

Ridley raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?" He peered his head down the hall as he saw two robots talking to each other, and a third figure just barely run off to whence he came.

"Hey, Centaur Man!"

"Oh, hey Flash Man..."

"You can stop time, right?"

"Yeah, so can you... why do you ask?"

Flash Man's face lit up. "I was just thinking... what if we did it AT THE SAME TIME?"

Centaur Man looked intrigued. "Hmm... let's find out!"

Doctor Wily's eyes widened, and his mustache drooped. "..what..."

"Ready?"

Wily ran as fast as he could down the hall. "No, you idiots! Stop! If you do it at the same time, you could..."

"1... 2... "

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Wily shielded his eyes at Flash man's bright flash of light. When he opened his eyes, Flash man and Centaur Man were nowhere to be found.

"This is just as I feared... A complete time-stop repel! Likely, one robot has been propelled into the past, while the other robot has been propelled into the future! Now what'll I do?"

Ridley smiled. "Guess you'll have to make me that time traveling robot so we can go find them!"

Wily knew, somewhere deep down, that Ridley and Curly set this up to happen. "I hate you..."

"That's okay", said Ridley. "Most people do."