The Other Side

Roll followed Proto Man to her room, trying to ignore all the dirty looks the other bots were giving her and mentally ticking them off in her brain so she could relay to Dr. Light who was on base and who wasn't. A few of them she'd seen too often, a few of them, she seldom saw at all.

"Now you might feel weird about attacking Mega Man. The doc understands that."

Roll leaned back on her hands as she sat on the bed and narrowed her eyes at Proto Man. Though it was probably pointless, since he couldn't see it.

But he smirked anyways and Roll scowled.

"But you gotta understand your working for us now. You kinda don't have a choice."

"Hey! Don't give me that look!" He said, raising his hands in a mock placatory gesture. "I'm not the one who got caught. That was all you sis." He snickered.

She bristled at the word sis. It was one thing for Mega to use that word, but she never wanted to hear it coming from him. She definitely didn't recall him ever acknowledging her as his sister.

But then, haven't I always been stuck in the background? Or treated as a nuisance? When have I ever really been acknowledged by anyone? She wondered bitterly. Maybe now was a chance to show what she was made of.

"So," Proto said conversationally after the awkward silence, "I'm sure you're dying to see what you can do right?"

"I might be a little curious." She said, crossing her arms and trying to imitate his sneering tone and nonchalant manner and failing miserably.

"Yeah you're curious all right. C'mon! Let's go play!"

"Ooh!" She growled and stomped after him.

They reached the triple steel room that Wily kept for training his new robots and Proto locked the door and took a shot.

"Hey! What'd you do that for?" She snapped as she scrambled out of the way.

"You gotta learn to think on your feet here."

"Oh you mean like you do?" Roll taunted as she finally, tentatively tapped into her weapons system. "I guess that'll be a good way to get my butt kicked huh!"

"Whatever you say sister." He said the word in the same, sneering, falsely affection tone that he used whenever he called Mega Man brother.

"Don't call me that!" She snarled. "What do you care anyways? You never called me sister or anything at all since the first day we met!"

She took a wild shot at him and Metal Blade came soaring out.

"Hoo hoo!" Proto Man hooted. "Sounds like someone has a lot of repressed anger!"

"Shut up!" She snapped as more Metal Blades flew towards him, forcing him to duck out of the way. Than she flinched at the venom in her own voice.

She sighed and slumped against the wall.

"I guess your right." She murmured. "I've always been angry about getting left in the dust."

"Hey, I'm a battle bot not a shrink bot." He grumbled, but walked over to her anyways.

"Let me put it this way sis," He said with one hand raised in the air, "the only reason your gonna get left in the dust now, is if you let it happen."

Could I really make a new start here? Could I really become a powerful robot master? She wondered and then mentally shook herself out of the traitorous thoughts. Well, I've still gotta convince Wily that I'm on his side, until we take him down and I'm definitely gonna keep all this neat programming no matter what, so I might as well learn how to use it. She thought as she stood up and got into a fighting position.

Proto Man took a few steps back and grinned as she accessed Pharaoh Man's Pharaoh Shot.

"Now we're talking!" Proto Man said as the two engaged in a fierce battle that she and Mega would never have engaged in.

After they had both nearly exhausted their energy, Roll reflected somewhat guiltily that if Mega was the kind, overprotective brother, than Proto Man was the wild, rebellious brother, the one who pushed and challenged her to grow, even if it was by provoking her. She suddenly wished, if only for a second, that things could have been different and she could have had both.

Roll was still marveling at her surprisingly wide range of abilities as she checked up on herself.

"Whoa. It's like I'm several Wily bots in one." She breathed.

He put his arm around her shoulder, to annoy her more than anything else and he knew that she knew it, because she scowled at him.

"Well yeah, but you've got your own style too. You can do things some of us can't do. You can start earthquakes, create sound-based shockwaves, fire off titanium bullets, use small-scale, hurricane force winds, even though you can't hit the broadside of a barn."

"Don't be a jerk." She grumbled, shoving him irritably into a passing bot.

"Hey! Watch it!" Air Man grumbled.

"Sorry." Roll replied automatically, before realizing just who it was.

They glared at each other. "What is she doing here?" He asked tersely, weapon at the ready.

"Hey relax! She's part of the team now." His easy smile was still there, but there was something, something in the tone of his voice just shy of menacing.

Both Roll and Air Man blinked in surprise.

Air Man studied her and than Proto Man for several minutes before saying, "I'll believe it when I see it." And stalked away.

Roll went to her room. It had been a long, confusing day for her and she was too low on energy to try and sort it all out tonight.

Dr. Light frowned as he got the next transmission from Roll. It listed the known bots at the base and informed him that she would be staying behind until they could catch Dr. Wily unawares and put him behind bars for good. He was very troubled by all this and no matter how much he told himself to trust in the both of them, the ominous feeling deep in his gut was telling him that things were going to go terribly wrong before they got better. If that is, they got better at all.

"No! I mustn't think like that! Everything will turn out alright in the end." He told himself. Than sighed, "Oh what have we gotten ourselves into?"

Someone else sat up late that night, worrying about her. She'd be practically defenseless against a lot of the stronger robots and what if he'd wiped her memory clean and reprogrammed her completely. She'd never really be Roll again. What if he had to fight against her? He wasn't sure he could bring himself to do that!

With the excitement of her fight against Proto Man worn off, Roll tossed and turned as she realized that she would have to fight against Mega Man and Rush. How could she bring herself to-to do that! What if Dr. Wily's programming was strong enough that she had no choice at all. What if she couldn't hold back even if she wanted too? Would she even feel anything at all if she hurt them? All this worrying would do her no good. She would just try to take things as they came, one day at a time. She told herself as she finally switched into hibernation mode.

"Well?" Dr. Wily demanded as Proto Man came into report.

He smiled.

"She could use some training, especially target practice. But it's gonna be real interesting working with her. Heh heh. My sister-in-battle. Never saw that coming from little miss goody-goody."

"Humph. Just make sure she is ready Proto Man and keep a close watch on her."

"You got it." He acknowledged. "So who's going with us on this little trip?"

"You'll be leading Cut Man, Metal Man, Air Man, Snake Man and Elec Man."

He put his clasped hands in front of his face in a meditative pose.

"I gotta say doc, I don't think too highly about all your choices."

"It's necessary." Wily said dismissively.