Chapter 2

Chesapeake, Virginia- One Year Later

Being a super being was beginning to prove annoying, as Protoman tried desperately to fend off the large hunks of steel being hurled his way. His mastery of Shroud's magnetic field control was not as easy as he imagined. Tron was relentless, she sat inside the massive, black mech, continuing her assault.

"Send them back." She said from across the hangar, large mechanical arm pointing to the debris. "We have to start again."

Protoman shook his head, "There won't be much left of me if we do. Give me repair time, Tron, shit."

"Wily's officers won't let you go back to the lab for repairs when you are coming to kill them." She said, flatly. "I'll slow it down until you get into a rhythm, though. Fair enough?"

Scott nodded, "Thank you, yes." He said, extending a hand, sending the metal chunks sliding back to his sister's feet, before crouching back into position. "Magneto made this shit look easy." He muttered.

"Magneto is a fictional character, Scott." Tracy shouted as her machine picked up a large pipe, "You have a real responsibility." She added, throwing the object like a javelin.

He threw his hand up, feeling the magnetic field extending from ports of his gauntlets. Imagining them as an extension of self, he reached out catching the pipe mid-air, tossing it to the side as he dashed forward. The pieces came hard at him, prompting him to draw his hilt, batting them aside with the ejected baton. Scott put his right arm up, creating a polarized shield, protecting his flank as the debris bounced off the seemingly thin air. Getting close to Tron, he ejected the other end of the baton, creating a steel staff. He jumped for where she sat, switching hands to grab Rush, who pounced to intercept him, and toss him aside magnetically.

Tron's mech switched it's colossal hands out for rotating machine guns, zeroing in on her brother, who quickly grasped the machine, pinning it to the floor. Protoman's feet landed firmly on the mech's shoulders, as he swung the staff, stopping milimeters before Tracy's face. "Point." He said, proudly.

Tron smirked, pointing to his left, where a servbot had crawled out of the machine's forearm port. The small soldier had a sizable hand cannon zeroed in on the side of his temple. "Point." She said, mocking him.

Washington, D.C.- The White House

Gutsman sat at his desk, staring at Quickman's face on the holo display. "How much of a gamble are you willing to take on this droid's reports?" He asked.

"How many times have I been wrong, General?" He replied. "My scout droid says that there is a massive power source leading to The Wraith's old hideout. Someone is there, and doing something big, Sir."

Guts stroked his goatee, Shroud had supposedly destroyed that compound, so if there were power generating there, it had to be a Rancor. "Comm Gyroman, have him meet me three miles out, at the harbor. I want to handle this for myself, if it is what you think it is." He said, standing form his chair.

"You're...going personally?" Quickman asked, baffled.

"Yes, Quick, I am." Guts replied, pulling out the steel case, slamming it on the desk. "When I get my hands on the bag of flesh that killed my brother, he will know why Lord Zero named me Gutsman."

Chesapeake, Virginia

Tracy and Scott sat aboard The Phantom. They had moved all their things into the ship, once Tracy had gotten the power activated. Roll was right, it was just too strange staying in the house since the attack. "So you're trying to tell me," Tracy said, eating her noodles and pointing her chopsticks at Scott, "that there's a holo older than the holo the argument is about, where the green guy doesn't even pull his blaster?" She asked.

Scott nodded, "That was a remastered version, as they called it. In the original recording Greedo didn't ev..."

The sentence was cut short, as the motion sensors from the north side buzzed loudly. Their heads snapped to the camera feed where whatever had set them off was moving quickly, for the emergency hatch.

Tron immediately made a dash for her Engineering Bay, as Protoman slipped on his helmet, drawing his hilt. The very shaft that Tron had used to escape years ago, was now filled with flying assault drones, resembling skulls with propellers. Approaching the ship, Protoman emerged, giving all of them a smug grin.

"Toys." He said simply, before ejecting his staff and maneuvering his way through the swarm, batting down the drones with ease.

A group of more than a hundred of the skullcopters surrounded him, opening their mouths, charging fusion bolts. Scott eyed them, raising his left hand, then bringing it back down, sending them crashing hard to the floor. He smiled at the circle of destruction he had caused, before being rudely interrupted.

"Well, that's interesting, now ain't it?" A voice said, from the hangar entrance. Gyroman stood in the doorway, clad in a grey nanosuit, trimmed with dark green lining. His matching gauntlets bore "V" shaped shafts on the wrists, each with openings on their tips. His helmet resembled Protoman's, aside from the black and green tint, and steel Valkyrie wings arcing back from the sides. He was flanked by dozens of alpha-class security bots, followed by an eye-widening sight.

Gutsman brought up the rear of the convoy, wearing his red gauntlets and boots, and his yellow and silver helmet, only showing his eyes. A wave of guilt and shame washed over him, and quickly turned to anger. "Bring me his head." Guts said plainly to his subordinates, who wasted little time closing in on their target.

Protoman was quick to deploy his shield, deflecting the volley of bolts, before hurling it forward, sending it bouncing like a pinball into the crowd. "So that's what that's like." He muttered, pulling it back magnetically. Firing off fusion discs, he charged headlong into the surviving crowd, bashing them aside. Proto was determined to reach their leaders, which quickly dawned on him, was not the best course of action.

Gutsman caught the end of the flailing staff with ease, as Gyro deployed a long, rectangular blade swiping for Proto's spine. Their quarry was quick though, planting a foot on Guts' thigh and launching himself into a backflip, avoiding the blow. Gutsman released the staff as his armor sprung into place, narrowly intercepting his comrade's razor to his stomach. The blade broke in two, but Gyro wasted no time transmuting two more, dangling from steel chains.

The android's weaponry, however impressive, was impractical. In a close-quarters melee Protoman easily avoided the swinging cutters, diverting them magnetically to cause harm to the remaining security droids. Once within range, Scott deployed his baton and weaved his instinctual pattern: Rib, rib, head, knee, turn. Gyro's thrashing could not keep up. He turned desperately to get a hand on his attacker, but was forced to retreat back. Small blades deployed from the back plating of his armor, spinning furiously as they lifted him away from danger. He threw a straight blade directly for Protoman's skull, which was stopped short, when the android raised his left hand.

Gutsman, disgusted, had had enough of the spectacle. Scott Bonne standing with his hand out, suspending the blade and holding Gyro in place infuriated him. He calmly walked up behind the android, wrapping an armored elbow around his neck, throwing him over his hip, to the floor. With Protoman still in the chokehold, struggling to get free, he leaned down to him and whispered, "I hope killing a fellow brother was worth it, Bonne." Guts tightened his grip, "Because I hear having your head pulled from your body is a painful process." As the General wrenched at Scott's neck he felt a sudden and intense heat on his back, causing a rush of extreme pain. He released his hold, letting out an angered scream as the armor sprang to cover his entire body.

Robbie stood holding an industrial torch, three times bigger than him. The hulking android spun on him, this was when his programming reminded him that he wasn't designed for battle. The servbot turned to run, but Gutsman had already caught him in his tracks. "Gyro." He called over his shoulder, looking the servbot up and down, "Finish the job here, I have some research to tend to regarding this interesting small being."

"As you wish, Sir." Gyro replied, descending back to the ground and approaching the floored Protoman. He transmuted another large straight blade, gripped by a ring, "This time we can assure that you stay dead, Bonne."

Protoman lifted himself to his knees, laughing. "Congratulations, mighty Gyroman, you just killed yourself." He said, continuing to laugh as the android looked on confused. "I'm assuming your General informed everyone that he had dealt with me at The White House. How do you think King Wily will take it that his Second in Command lied to his face?" Proto spit out red fluid, giving Gyro a serious look now, "And how do you figure Gutsman will keep him from finding out?"

Guts stood, still gripping the servbot, staring intently at Gyro. "Don't let him mess with your head. Finish this." He said.

"You're gonna try and kill me. He's right!" Gyro yelled, "Once you saw who it was, you had no intention on leaving here with me!"

"Gyro! Get your shit together and finish the job!" Guts screamed.

"Hey, I got an idea!" Tracy's voice called from The Phantom, "How about we start with you putting my fucking robot down." She stepped out in her colossal mech suit, "Then we can just see who kills who here."

Guts dropped the servbot, raising his armored foot to smash it when the impact hit his chest like a wrecking ball. The fist was the same size as him and was launched from the arm of Tron's machine like a rocket. She was quick to rush toward his rolling body, bashing crates and machinery aside as she chased him. He quickly armored up to deflect the heavy automatic fire from the machines shoulder mounted guns. Moving close for a brawl, the two hulks locked into each other, desperately trying to rip their foe to shreds.

Gyro made a quick effort to execute Scott in light of these events, but was stopped mid swing and found himself paralyzed. Protoman jumped to his feet, holding out his left hand, and drawing his baton with his right. He landed four devastating blows to the android's head, before the building shook violently. "Tron! The ship!" He screamed, watching his sister fling Gutsman away like a small animal.

The two boarded The Phantom with panicked haste, as Tracy jumped from her suit, manning the controls. In seconds the aircraft was smashing through the bay doors and vanishing into the distance. Protoman looked out the viewports, watching the leagues of assault ships coming down on their former compound. "Guess we are officially nomads, Tron." He said solemnly. Tracy only looked back to him, shrugging nonchalantly.

Gutsman walked through the wreckage, his anger immeasurable. He came to where Gyroman lay, still gathering his senses. "They got away?" Gyro asked, looking up at the General. Guts nodded. "You're gonna kill me, aren't you?" He added. This time the General said nothing, picking up the large razor and separating Gyro's head from his body.

When the hoards of support droids flooded in, Guts met them at the opening, ordering the area all clear. He commed Quickman as soon as they were gone. "General," Quick greeted him.

"We need to talk." Guts said simply.

Quickman grinned and nodded, knowing he was safe from the Gutsman at his current distance. "Indeed we do, General." He said, slyly.