Bass still sat. He'd been sitting on the edge of that cliff for hours now. True, it wasn't much of a cliff. The drop where his legs hung over was sheer, but only went down about thirty feet. Nothing for a robot. That word was a pretty apt description of the entire scene, actually: nothing. Or nothing much. The place was barren. Not much but sand and more sand about as far as the unzoomed eye could see. Of course, the ghost town directly before him provided a little scenery down below. The old shacks with their crumpling roofs and long since broken windows were at least more interesting than the open expanse of dirt.

Or at least Bass seemed to think so. He'd been staring at it aimlessly for hours. The way was partly blocked by another building, but Bass could make out about half of the local, dead bar. The bell hanging in the steeple of the church hadn't rung for a hundred years, and it looked it. The name of the little would-be town was painted on a little sign, and this sign was still nailed to what was left of a fence. However, years of blowing sands and beating sun made it too faded to see from this distance. Bass didn't bother engaging his zoom feature.

Bass didn't bother doing much of anything. He sat there, staring intently at the town but not seeing it at all. He silently leaned back, resting his hands on the dirt behind him. His left hand accidently tapped against a small metal urn. Without thinking, he quickly set the thing back. Bass sighed. There was no point. The urn was empty. Not sure what to do with it, the dark robot picked it up, examining it as if he hadn't seen it before. It was a simple metal thing, stainless steel. It was more or less in the general vase shape, with a mere round cap to cover the top.

He shrugged. He didn't have any more use for the thing. Bringing it forward past the edge of the cliff, Bass dropped it down below. There under Bass was the open shaft of the town's old mine, big and gaping. The urn landed beside the rail tracks leading into the shaft, and finding itself on a slight incline, slowly rolled away into the mine, only pausing once as its metal top banged against a piece of the wooden barrier that hadn't already come off. The urn spun once, but then continued its journey into the darkness before it. Bass never saw the urn again.

That was how Mega Man found him. His blue teleport beam landed only a few feet behind the dark robot, and though Bass didn't turn around, Rock still hesitated. This was Bass' quiet area, so he'd been told. The dark robot always came here to think, and though Mega Man had known this for several years, he had never dared to actually come here. True, many robots had been here earlier, but even then Mega Man hoped Bass would come back to the lab.

Still, Bass must have heard my teleport. Mega Man figured. If he's not telling me to go away, he must be fine with it.

That seemed to be the case. Bass said nothing as Mega Man went around to his left and sat himself down on the cliff's edge as well. Bass acknowledged Mega Man with a casual look, but said nothing. Mega Man too was quiet. The desert sands was made conversation seem as desolate as the scenery around them. Finally though, Bass spoke. It was just getting too awkward.

"So, you're back."

"Yep."

"Eh. How's Australia?"

"Pretty nice." Mega Man answered, leaning back a little. "We get there, and of course all Roll wants to do is shop. I managed to get her to stop doing that long enough to do some touring. We saw an opera...went hiking...stuff like that." Mega Man glanced at the dark robot, knowing Bass probably wouldn't care about that kind of thing. That wasn't what Rock came to say, in any case. "I know you didn't want me around for the funeral."

"Yeah," Bass grew quiet, caught up in a small bog of melancholy. He heaved a hefty sigh. "But you wouldn't want to come anyway. It wasn't even a real funeral. Team 5 showed up, and some of the Wily-bots Auto fixed already. It was pretty awkward. Wood Man tried to say a few words, but how the hell do you say something nice about a guy nobody likes, even when he's dead? Besides 'it's so nice he's dead', I mean."

"I guess there's no way you could have had a normal funeral for someone like Wily." Mega Man said. "Is that why you had him cremated?"

"Not really. Sort of, I guess. I didn't know what else to do with him. I could've put him in the robot museum or somewhere, but...it didn't seem right." Bass stared out into the expanse of sand. "I like it better this way. He's gone for good. I don't have to think about him anymore. I don't know...it just seems right. Here, this stupid little ghost town is. People came here two hundred years ago because they thought there was gold in this mine." Bass kicked the side of the cliff for emphasis. "But there was none. It was just a scam. Like Wily; you think he's smart or great or whatever, but...he's not really."

From the way Bass seemed to soften as he said this, Mega Man wondered if Bass was, if just a teeny tiny little bit, sad. Was that regret in his eyes as he watched the sands? Was Bass wondering if he'd made the the right decision? Rock could only guess. He tried not to stare too much. Still, whether Bass regretted it or not, what was done was done. The dark robot simply kept staring to the east.

That's where the ashes must have fallen. Rock thought. I guess he really did want Wily to be gone. I can guess why...

It was strange to think that was all that was left of his greatest enemy. Nothing more than a few ashes somewhere out in all that sand. A sadness, unbidden, welled up inside him. Wily truly was gone, and perhaps only a week or two the wind would blow away all evidence of the man. As much as Wily had tried to be immortal, he was gone. Mega Man wasn't sure why this idea made him so sad. A little wish suddenly popped up in his heart.

"I almost wish I had been at the funeral." Mega Man said, softening his wish a little to not offend Bass. "I never really had any closure with Dr. Wily."

"Closure? Since when does anybody get that with Wily? Just believe me when I say it was awkward. It was just a bunch of the Wily-bots there, and none of us knew what we were doing. Heh, Crystal Bot tried her hardest not to cry." Bass let the faintest whiff of a smile decorate his face. "She thought I would be mad at her if she cried."

"Would you?"

"Eh, I'd get over it." Bass' smile grew. "Ha, it got a lot easier for her when Burner Man let loose the waterworks. Rock, you've never seen anything as hilarious as that. It was so hard not to laugh. Gyro Man actually did, and Wave Man had to smack him to get him to shut up."

Mega Man winced. "I thought I told Auto not to repair Burner Man."

"Eh, yeah. I hated fighting that guy." Surprisingly, Bass also winced a little, laughing a bit. "But no, Dr. Imahara actually wanted Burner Man to live. He said he actually liked the guy."

"What?" Mega Man scoffed. "So says the person who never had to fight him!"

"Hey, he's your cousin or whatever." Bass smirked. "Don't complain to me about it. Besides, you promised he could live."

"I know." Mega Man rubbed his head. "I didn't think he would take the deal! But that's what I get for assuming. Oh well, no robot should really go to waste. The REA isn't going to let Burner Man get into too much trouble...I hope."

"Who knows? Hell, Wily must have been smoking something strong when he built that guy." Bass stretched his arms. "Eh, you'll just kill the guy when he goes crazy, like you always do."

"I'm not so sure about that."

That got Bass' attention. He turned to Mega Man with a confused glance. The bomber couldn't help but smile at him.

"I'm a lab-bot, Bass. I can't fight forever." It was Rock's turn to stare out into the distance. "I was always meant to be a scientist."

"So? What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say that I'm tired of this. I'm tired of always being gone from the lab and not knowing what's going on with my sister. I'm tired of Auto doing all the work and I fill out a few papers when I find the time. I wasn't built to be a fighter-bot. But you were."

Mega Man peeked over at Bass, but soon turned his head completely. He just had to see this. Bass sat there on that cliff, completely frozen with his face as hard as a statue. And his doubful eyes froze also, on the cusp of either hoping for something he never dared believe in or getting really angry.

"...What?"

"I want you to replace me, Bass. I'm done. I want to spend my time in the lab again, and have a legacy in something other than fighting. Besides...I'm beginning to think you're stronger than me."

The dark robot's eyes grew so large that Mega Man feared that they would pop out of his head. A question lingered in Bass' eyes, but he was too caught up in his zombie-like stupor to say very much. Mega Man chuckled. He understood.

"Don't look at me like that. You know you are. Especially now that Crystal Bot got a look at Zero's schematics. She's probably got half a dozen upgrades ready for you by now. Auto's a good, hard worker, but he's better at building things that construct rather than destroy." Mega Man breathed out a puff of air. It sure looked like Bass was listening. "So, I want you to take my place and protect the world. It's a lot of pressure, but I believe in you."

Bass blinked a few times, and for a moment remained silent. After a minute of contemplating and trying to form sentences, Bass finally settled an uncertain expression at Mega Man. He shook his head.

"No way." Bass sighed. "I can't. There's no way in the world I'm going to sit here in Monstropolis and get cats out of trees for the cops the way you do."

"I got to see a lot of places." Mega Man said. "Though I guess I did stay here a lot of the time. But you won't have to worry about that. The main reason I had to stick by Monstropolis is that Dr. Light lived here, and Dr. Wily hated him so much. All of Wily's schemes involved Monstropolis in one way or another. Then of course Dr. Cain had to come here, because Monstropolis was the capital of robotics. But those doctors are all gone now. Japan is getting really competitive when it comes to robots, and other countries are getting better as well. So there's no reason you'd have to stay here. You can go where you want."

Just as it seemed Bass was about to agree, he paused. "Rock, you know I'm still on probation, right?"

"Yeah, but the change isn't going to happen right away. I have to get people used to the idea of me retiring. Besides, I've already spoken to the REA. Most of the officials I spoke to like the idea, and they're going to chage your probation into more of a trial period. But that's only if you want to, of course. You can take some time to think about it. I won't be announcing the change for a few weeks, at least."

"Even if I say yes now?"

That gave Mega Man pause, but in the end a bright smile grew on his face. "Well, yes. I want to give it some time. At least until more of Monstropolis is rebuilt, so that no one will think I'm abandoning them right when they need me. People can be pretty sensitive sometimes."

"I guess I should think about it some...oh hell, who am I kidding? Of course I want to. I hope this means the REA is going to cut me some slack on all that paperwork and crap I have to do to go to different countries. I want to do some exploring before my five years is up."

Bass grinned at Mega Man for a moment, but stopped as soon as he realized what he was doing. He immediately frowned and turned away, directing his glare at the empty little town down below.

"You know, Rock...this doesn't mean anything." he muttered. "We're not friends, or anything like that."

With the dark robot looking away, Mega Man didn't bother hiding his merriness. With a narrow, mischevious little smile, he made his answer.

"Of course not." he said. "We're brothers."

Bass' horrified expression was sour enough to curdle a dairy farm, but Mega Man just laughed.

"Oh, come on, Bass, you know how Dr. Light always saw you. He always saw the best in you. It was like you weren't a Wily-bot anymore because Dr. Light pretty much adopted you. And that makes you my brother."

Sheepishily Bass remembered, and his eyes softened as he thought of those last weeks with the doctor. Dr. Light had been so kind to him, even when he was the doctor's enemy and Light had no reason to be. Dr. Light had in fact called him a son directly, and thinking about it, Bass wondered what Dr. Light had said on the subject to his own creation. Bass glanced at Rock, who was focused on the ghost town out of politeness - but still with that mischevious smile, darn him.

"Oh crap," Bass facepalmed, laughing despite himself. "I just knew there was a downside to this!"

Mega Man's grin got bigger. "And this means Proto Man is also your brother."

Still laughing, Bass swore, and his nasty word echoed on the cliffside. "Argh! Roll I can handle, but Proto Man? Oh crap...you know, Rock, Proto Man is weird as hell. When I was about to take Wily's body to be cremated, he stopped me to look at the body. Like he wanted to make sure Wily really is dead or something."

Mega Man shuddered. "Ugh...that is weird. I can understand it, though. After what Wily did to him, I imagine he'd want to make sure."

"I guess. Heh, I wouldn't put it past Wily to try and trick everyone into thinking he was dead. His body was too nasty to be fake. I mean seriously, you've never seen a dead person nastier than that. His skin got all-"

"Bass, I really don't want to hear this."

"...Pastey and sort of green, but his eyes turned this nasty shade of red, because they were bleeding for some reason..."

"PLEASE stop-"

"They didn't embalm him correctly and the blood started trickling out of his nose-"

"SHUT UP!" Mega Man held his hands tightly over his audio recievers. "Stop talking, stop talking, stop talking!"

Bass slapped his knee. "Ahaha! You're almost as bad as Crystal Bot, you know that?"

"You're awful." A grinning Mega Man tempted fate by removing his hands from the sides of his head. "I guess I should expect that sort of behavior from my immature little brother."

"NO. Absolutely not." Bass snorted. "Call me that again and see what happens! It sounds like you want to know all about Wily's autopsy report."

"Gah!" Mega Man immediately shot his hands up again. "Shut up, little brother!"

Luckily, before the conversation could plunge to even lower depths, the two robots were interrupted. In fact, they were still laughing when another teleport beam, green and cyan, landed behind them. It was Crystal Bot, and the girl-bot shyly approached Mega Man and Bass.

"Hi, you guys." she turned to Mega Man. "Hey, Rock-kun, could you excuse us? I need to talk to Forte."

"Alright." Mega Man nodded, drawing up his legs from the cliff's edge so he could get back to his feet. "I said what I needed to say. I'll see you guys when you get back."

And so Mega Man set his teleport coordinates for the lab, trying his hardest not to call Bass his little brother in front of the technician. As funny as it would be, it just wasn't worth it. So the blue bomber teleported away, and Crystal Bot curiously turned to her boss as he also got up from the side of the cliff.

"Forte, what were you guys talking about?"

Before Crystal Bot knew what was going on, Forte snatched her up, swinging her around with a massive, boisterous cheer. The girl-bot practically squealed with laughter herself, catching his infective happiness.

"What...what's got into you?" a still giggling girl-bot said as the dark robot finally put her back on the ground.

"Sonata!" Bass merrily slapped his hands on her shoulders a little harder than necessary, but he was excited. "You are going to be the technician for the world's greatest hero, you know that?"

"What?" Crystal Bot's eyes lit up with excitement.

"It's true. Rock's retiring, and that means when my five years are up, I'm taking his place. And since Crystal Man is back in place in Team 5, you're coming with me. No, don't object. I said we're going to explore the world together when Zero is gone, and so let's go!"

The happiness drained a little out of Crystal Bot's face, and uneasy doubt replaced it instead. She sighed and stepped away from Bass' hands, letting them fall off her shoulders.

"Forte, that's what I came to talk to you about." the girl-bot said sadly. "You know I'd love to go with you, but I can't. It's my father. I can't just rebuild him and then go 'hey, I'm your daughter, I'm going to leave and travel with Forte now, see you around'. I need to spend more time with him again. He's my dad, Forte, and we haven't even really met. Besides, Team 5 is still my team, and I have to consider how they feel about it. I've barely been on the space station at all since we left Wily, and well, Dr. Cossack's already transfered his ownership of me to Mr. Briggs." With anxious eyes and a stuck out lower lip, the girl-bot continued, hoping Bass would understand. "Oh, Forte, it won't be so bad! I'll still make upgrades for you, and if you ever need to be repaired, you can just come back to the station and I'll fix you right up!"

Bass frowned, but hardly seemed as upset as his technician. He disappeared into his mind for a moment, only the moderate nodding of his head indicating any of his thoughts. Finally he emerged from them, not at all upset. He gave his technician a small smile, and she brightened a little.

"Alright, I can deal with that." Bass said. "I could use some time away from you. You're annoying."

"Hey!" Crystal Bot stuck her hands on her hips, the very picture of indignance. "That doesn't sound like someone who wants to be upgraded!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking." Bass lightly cuffed her cheek. "Anyway, I'm still not staying here much longer. I'm going to spend the rest of this stupid probation going where I can and doing what I want. And as soon as those five years are over, I'm going to come back. After that, you're coming with me. I don't care who objects. They're just going to have to deal with it. Also, get to work on a lab. Going to the Light's and then teleporting to space is too complicated. You need a place of your own to work."

"Y'know, Forte, we're totally on the same wavelength!" Crystal clapped her hands delightedly. "I was just thinking that! I've already got plans drawn up, and land picked out, and everything! I even put a library in there just for you! Oh, but it's not going to take you all those years to come back? You're not going to visit any? Maybe bring me back something nice from Korea?"

Bass guffawed. "I see how you are. Eh, maybe if you build me a nice upgrade, I'll come back occasionally."

"Is that all I'm good for?"

"Yep." Bass patted her on the head. "That's all!"

But Crystal Bot knew he was joking. She twisted up her lips in fake contempt, folding up her arms to complete the image. "You're really lucky, I'm such a nice person, Forte. Not everybody would put up with all this teasing."

"I know, I know." As he said this, Bass suddenly became serious. He smiled warmly at his technician, and his eyes said all the things he was too stubborn to say. As for his words, they said as much as Crystal Bot needed to hear. "Yeah, I know I'm really lucky to have you around."

And Crystal Bot smiled back.

-t-

Bass couldn't find her in the lab. He hadn't been back for very long, but if Rock was home from Australia, so was Roll. But where was she? She wasn't digging around in the supply closet, cleaning the lab, or organizing the storage rooms. Bass even snuck a look into Roll's room, but saw nothing more than Roll's new furniture and the flowers on the walls. Bass was quick to get out of there.

He eventually found her, surprised to see that she was in the back yard.

Sincw when does Roll get out of the lab?

Bass looked around, but the small vegetable garden was closer to the house, and Roll was too far off to be tending it. Bass wondered why robots would need the veggies as he approached Roll, who stood staring at every inch of the back yard, it seemed like. Bass took a quick glance around himself. The backyard was the same as it always was: stretches of grassy fields that went off past the Lights' property out to the right, where their neighbors kept some cows. To the left was the forest, also uninterrupted by civilization. Very pleasant, very Light. Roll looked back and forth at both, then up at the sky every so often. Was she looking for something?

"So how many years has it been since Rock last let you out of the house?"

Roll turned around. Seeing him, she smiled. "Oh, hi, Bass. Um, what are you talking about, him not letting me out?"

"You're staring at everything like you haven't seen the sun in ten years." Forte replied, coming alongside the girl-bot. "What are you doing out here?"

For a moment, it looked like Roll grew the slightest bit uncomfortable. But she caught herself, letting a smile smooth out any questionable expression.

"I'm just out enjoying the day. Rock doesn't keep me penned up in the house, but it still feels like I don't see the sun sometimes. I can't spend my whole life cleaning things, you know."

"I guess." Bass folded his arms, pretending for a moment that he found the sights of the backyard as interesting as Roll did. "Y'know, Roll, you really impressed me the other day."

"Really?" the curious girl-bot asked. "When was this?"

"Well, when you and Rock were in Australia, I took the liberty of watching some footage from your monitoring systems." Bass explained, taking a moment to check his fingernails. "I saw the fight between you and Zero. It didn't have any sound, for some reason, but I was still able to see you. You lasted almost twenty seconds out there against him. This might sound sarcastic, but I'm actually impressed with you. Not bad for a maid."

Roll sheepishly grinned, only embarrasment behind her smile. She rubbed the back of her neck. "Um...yes. I just couldn't stand on the side while so many robots fought against Zero and died. I must look like a complete wimp to anyone who knows how to fight, so of course he would underestimate me. I thought...maybe...that since he couldn't be intimidated by me, I could take advantage of that and destroy him."

"Dang." Bass chuckled. "That sounds almost logical. Too bad it didn't work. But what I really want to know is this. When I was watching that footage, the move you were trying to pull off on Zero looked an awful lot like a move I made up to fight against sword robots. So. How does cute, sweet little Roll know a sophisticated attack like that, hm?"

Roll gasped, sputtering as her lips moved wildly in hope for an answer. Bass patiently waited, growing only the more amused as Roll struggled for an answer. After a moment, the housekeeper-bot, nervously clinging at her hands, managed to speak.

"Um...uh...well, as it turns out." Roll squirmed. "I, um, watch videos of you."

Bass lifted an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Yeah. I...I really wanted to learn how to fight!" Roll did her best to be earnest. "I don't like being so helpless all the time. You have no idea what it's like to be the little sister of a great hero, but everyone thinks you're just helpless! I don't like feeling that way, so I've been watching videos of you to help learn to become a better fighter. Even though I had an energy sword instead of a buster, I really learned a lot!"

"Wait," Bass wrinkled his nose. "You've been watching videos of me..."

Roll cringed, growing antzy and uncertain. She tried her hardest to think of some logical explanation. How could she tell him the truth? Was it even right? How could he possibly react to "I learned to fight like you because you trained me in the old future that doesn't exist anymore"? From the look in his eye, Roll already knew that Bass wasn't going to let her dodge the question. To be Bass is to be stubborn.

"...Instead of your brother?"

Roll blinked. She calmed down at once, sort of, and her answers came to her more simply. "Well, yes. I couldn't ask Rock to train me, otherwise he'd get upset and tell me not to fight. You're an expert on fighting, so I watched you."

What ensued was one of the most interesting moments in Roll's life. She got to watch as Bass' eyes grew wide, and he just stood there, completely out of it and staring at the mysteries of the universe. His lips pulled in, and then all at once grew out and curved upwards. Spiteful joy made his face shine, and Bass just couldn't stop that awful grin from getting bigger and bigger. He lifted two joyous fists into the air.

"His own sister...his own sister would rather be trained by me!" Bass looked like he might explode from happiness. "I can't believe it! Ahaahaha!"

Roll winced, gazing back at the house with a pained expression. "Um, don't tell Rock, okay? I don't want him to know about it."

"Sure!" Bass oozed. "Of course I won't tell him! It'll be our secret! Yes! This is great!"

"By Cathartidae, Roll, what have you done?" A hissing chortle interrupted the dark robot's celebration. "Bass' head is going to get so big he's going to fall over and hurt himself."

"What the hell? Snake Man?" Bass cheerily and correctly observed the sudden arrival of the snake-bot, who bore most of Fire Man's remains in his left arm. "Here Roll, let me dispose of this bastard for you."

"Oh no you don't." Snake Man retorted. "Roll hersssssself invited me here, so you can put that thing away."

"What, is this true?"

By the time Bass had turned to Roll, she already half answered his question by reaching out for his buster arm to hold it back. The girl-bot nodded at Bass quickly.

"Yes, Snake Man is a guest of Light Laboratories." Roll said. "He's going to be protecting Australian wildlife, so I offered to upgrade him."

"And Fire Man too." Snake Man added. "If you want me to be able to get my animals through winter, you better fix up my 'assistant' too."

"What?" Bass snorted. "Does Rock know about this?"

Roll winced again, ready to blush. "Um, he will in a minute..."

"Bwahaha! What else doesn't he know about?" Bass' merriment would not be restrained, and he grinned deviously at the girl-bot. "The secret life of Roll Light. Sounds like a great novel."

"Hush, you." Roll turned to her guest, smiling apologetically to Snake Man. "Why don't we go inside? Auto's been pretty busy lately, but I didn't think you were going to say yes so quickly."

"Yeah, let's go." Snake Man rolled his eyes at Bass. "I wasn't going to come, but one night I had this...thissss...eh, dream I guessss. I was broken down, nearly dead, and there you were. Except it wasn't you. It was a robot with your head, but it had Mega Man's buster and Bass' legs. I mean, how ssstupid is that? I figure if I'm glitching that badly then I better get a repair as soon as possible."

"That does sound pretty odd." Maybe this was just the way Bass heard it, but somehow Roll's tone didn't seem entirely honest as she answered Snake Man. "I don't know what would cause that sort of glitching."

"I hope Auto does." Snake Man let himself be led to the back door. "I don't want my memory scrambled."

"So what happened to your numbat?"

"I dropped it off at a zoo before I left Australia. It should be fine there until I get back."

Bass was ignoring the conversation between the other two robots. What did he care about Snake Man, glitching, and numbats? He still reveled in the knowledge that Roll preferred learning from him. The delicious thought tantalized him. In the space of only a day, both Rock and Roll had told him that he was the greatest robot now on the earth, even if they hadn't said so with their words. Bass couldn't stop grinning! So it took him a moment to notice that Roll was again speaking to him.

"Please wait a moment, Snake Man." Roll left him at the door and quickly approached Bass. "Um, Bass...Bass?"

The dark robot turned to find the girl-bot standing behind him with a question in her eyes. It didn't take long for the question to find its way out.

"So Bass...I was wondering." The girl-bot shyly asked. "Could you...maybe you would be willing to finish training me? There's still so much I have to learn about fighting."

"What? Hell, no. Of course not."

This startled Roll. "What? Why not?"

"Because it'll have to be a really screwed up day on this earth for me to have to teach you to fight." Bass retorted. "Besides, who wants to put up with your brother's whining about it? Not me, that's for sure. Go be a happy maid or whatever and leave the fighting to the fighter-bots. Any don't try to copy me anymore. Dr. Light didn't build you for fighting, and you're just going to have to live with that."

"Aw, you're no fun."

"You bet I'm not." Bass winked. "Now got get Snake Man the hell out of my sight before I shoot his pretty little face off."

"Sssscrew you, Bassss!"

"Oh, don't listen to him." Roll quickly paced back over to Snake Man. "You know how disagreeable he is."

"That'sss for sssure."

The green robot glared one last time at Bass before he and Roll disappeared back into Light Labs. Bass didn't watch them. He was just in too good of a mood, and most of his attention span was occupied by the lovely thoughts of being earth's next robot hero. The dark robot imagined all the ways he was going to be better than Rock: he wasn't going to be so naiive, and he would make sure that nobody ever reared up their ugly heads like Dr. Wily ever did. He knew all of Wily's tricks, didn't he? In any case, it wasn't long before Bass too headed back inside the lab. He didn't want to stay there for much longer, but there was still the matter of the legal papers he had to send in to the REA to gain permission to travel.

So, where should I go first? Hell, I should probably go to Korea. I'll pick something up there for Sonata. She'll like that.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Another late entry. Oh well. I'd rather have a better chapter than one that's perfectly on time. I had to rewrite this one a couple of times. Man, writing something as massive as this fanfiction has been a great trip. I'm so glad that I did this. It's made me so much better as a writer, even if I can't really profit directly from this writing. Y'all have had so many good things to say about me, and though I know there are several areas where I need to improve the series (particularly this fifth story), I still felt like I've written something really good that people can enjoy. As a writer, there's really no better feeling than that. Thanks you guys, for your support. It really means a lot to me.

Character profiles! Oh hey, if there are any characters you want me to do profiles of that I haven't so far, let me know. If I have done a profile for that robot master before, I'll either point you to the chapter where it's located or write an expanded version for you, as some of the robot masters could use a little more backstory than what I put there.

In any case, two more!

=====Tornado Man

"Can you paint with all the colors of the wind?"

Good point: Daring

Bad point: Extremely passionate

Likes: Autumn

Dislikes: Lightning storms

Tornado Man was created by Dr. Light around the time of MM8. He's a very useful robot, and his primary job is to do wind-tunnel testing for new aircraft designs or weather experiments. He also serves to stop or control dangerous storms. Tornado Man very much enjoyed both of his jobs. He loves playing with the wind, and will sometimes go out of his way to exercise his powers. He'll sometimes go play with children and sweep their toys into the air. If there are no children with kites around, he'll even play with leaves to satisfy his cravings to play. Of course, this gets him in trouble with neighbors in the fall, meaning he has to clean up all the stray leaves when he's done. Tornado Man once got in trouble with the city of Monstropolis for littering too much.

In any case, Tornado Man's life before MM9 was very happy. Tornado Man is very good natured, and thus gets along with his coworkers very well, however, when they found out his expiration date was coming up, the entire aerodynamics department of his company protested and attempted to get him freed. This attempt failed, and Tornado Man was doomed. The wind-bot actually would have been more accepting of his fate had his coworkers not protested, but after their petition he decided that he very much wanted to live.

Hence his gullibility to Wily. Unfortunately, Tornado Man was programmed to be very accepting of others, and also did not know the full impact of Wily on modern society. He thus was tricked. Also unfortunately, Tornado Man's personality ended up making him the defacto leader of Team 9, even though they weren't meant to be a team and were sold to various corporations. In fact, most of Team 9 hadn't met each other until they found out they were all expiring together. It was by Tornado Man's urging that they all agreed to allow Wily to reprogram them and free them from arbitrary expiration dates. They figured since Wily had failed to take over the world eight times by that point, he had already given up. Very obviously they did not know Wily that well.

Tornado Man became very foul when he was reprogrammed. His pleasant love for playing with his wind powers became an almost Burner Man-like obsession with wind, and he angrily attacked everything in his path that came near him. He actually was Wily's favorite at that point and proved to be terrifying to the general populace. Not so much to Mega Man, though.

When he became good again, Tornado Man was horrified to learn what he had done. Knowing that much of the incident was his responsibility, Tornado Man immediately confessed to the REA that he had urged the others to allow Dr. Wily to reprogram them, asking that they be let off because it was all his fault. The REA, however, was very merciful. They knew that it wasn't the robots' fault what they had done when they were reprogrammed, and so they ended up allowing all of the robots to live and get new jobs, provided that they never gathered together again without the expressed permission of the REA. Tornado Man was very grateful, and immediately resumed his best behavior and his old job.

And so Team 9 contacted each other from time to time, and they consider themselves good friends. They gathered together once more to help Mega Man and Bass destroy the last Skull Castle, but generally live out their separate lives. Many of them, Tornado Man included, went to go fight Zero in Monstropolis. Tornado Man, as expected, did Zero little harm. He was badly damaged in the fight, but has since been repaired by Auto and Dr. Imahara. He's now back at his old job, but has since petitioned Auto for upgrades. He knows that Auto got to look at Zero's body, and thus knows the best ways to upgrade robots so that they could defeat Zero again, if they had to.

=====Frost Man

"Frost Man! Destroy! You!"

Good point: Everything hefty

Bad point: Stoutness

Likes: Sorbet (rock candy)

Dislikes: Chilblain

In case you're wondering, chilblain is a sort of ulcer that happens in extremities like your feet when they get too cold. Often mistaken for frostbite, it's a possible sign of connective tissue disease. You have to wonder why a robot would be worried about this.

Frost Man was made with parts left over from Clown Man's machinery, though very few can tell by just looking. Frost Man is obsessed with all things snowy, and enjoys making ice sculptures and just generally playing with snow. He designed much of his fortress himself, judging that if Mega Man was going to die when he faced him, then he might as well have fun on the way. Of course, Mega Man didn't quite think the snowboarding segment was as much fun as Frost Man claimed it was, but that served Wily's purposes well enough. Blizzard Man at least enjoyed the segment, and he and Frost Man were the closest of friends. Actually, Frost Man got along with most of his Wily compatriots, other than ones like Elec Man that made fun of him for not being very smart.

Frost Man was being built during the latter half of the MM7 scheme, and like most of the Team 8 robots, he wasn't completed to the best of Wily's intentions. Wily wasn't feeling very satisfied with Team 8 in general, and he planned on taking a little longer to complete this team than he usually did. However, the falling of the evil energy on his island interrupted his plans, and he was forced to use substandard robots - or that was his excuse when he lost. The evil energy made Frost Man a lot more hateful than he usually is, and Frost Man was intent upon destroying Mega Man. He even practiced on his large set of Mega Man ice sculptures, as you see when you enter the boss battle.

After being defeated by Mega Man, Frost Man was part of the robot museum until Okkusenman. He stayed at the last Wily castle until it was destroyed, and was badly injured by Magma Man at the end of it. Like many other robots, he was captured by Signal Man and shanghai'ed into Dr. Cain's service. However, it took quite a bit of time to get Frost Man in order, and there was little the poor fellow could do until he was sent out against Mega Man and Bass in chapter 9. It's a poor way to reward a loyal robot like him. Frost Man thus has a case of cabin fever, and longs to be out in the snow again. And he still hates Mega Man.

Fortunately for him, he was one of the robots offered freedom if they would join up with those fighting Zero. Unlike most of the other robots, Frost Man actually survived his encounter with Zero. At the time Frost Man launched his ice wave attack at Zero, Zero was distracted by activity done by the Monstropolis' soldiers sent to contain Zero. Thus Frost Man got away scot-free, and has spent the last few chapters lending his strength to the construction crews trying to put Monstropolis back together again. He also generates snow and icy wind from time to time so that the human workers can keep cool. The humans appreciate him, and thus Frost Man is making lots of friends and feeling very appreciated. He's starting to think that maybe being a good guy isn't so bad.