Mega Man: Blue Bomber Chapter 4: A Cut Above the Rest, a mega man fanfic

-Chapter 3-

A Cut Above the Rest

Construction Site - Shortly after the fight with Guts Man

As the workers headed out, the foreman turned to Rock. "Thanks again for saving our butts, uhhh..."

"Mega Man. And it's no problem, sir."

The Foreman nodded, then headed out. Mega Man watched as the humans left, then turned to Guts Man's defeated form.

"I'm sorry," he said solemnly before teleporting away. Little did he know, he was being watched.

"No way...how'd he lose so badly?" Cut Man whispered from behind the stack of girders he was hiding behind.

"Cut Man!"

The blade-headed Robot Master yelped as Dr. Wily's shouts blared through his built-in communicators.

"Yes, Dr. Wily?" he replied.

"What's going on out there? Are you and Guts Man finished at the construction site yet?"

Cut Man hesitated. "Well…yes, sir,"

"Good. Now, hurry up and get back to Skull Castle. We need Guts Man to help with construction."

"Ummmm...about that, sir. That's not going to be possible."

"...Why?"

"Well… would you believe Rock has defeated Guts Man as well?"

Once again, Wily laughed. "Oh, that's even funnier a second time! Rock beating Guts Man?!"

"Sir, this isn't a joke. He blasted the Mettaur and used Bomb Man's Hyper Bomb to blast him into decommission. He even took his OS Chip."

He opened the larger robot's chip slot to confirm.

"I'm afraid without him, construction on the castle will be…significantly delayed."

Cut Man braced himself for his master to go into an angry tirade, only to be met with an eerie silence.

"Dr. Wily?"

"So what you're telling me is that two of my Robot Masters have been beaten - one of them being our main powerhouse - by some random, nobody helper bot!?"

Cut Man swallowed nervously. "Y-Yes."

"And you just stood there and let it happen!? Why didn't you step in and do something!?"

"I-I had my own work to take care of! By the time I got back, the battle was already over!"

Cut Man winced at Wily's furious roar of a scream, followed by several, loud banging noises. When the noise stopped, all he could hear was the doctor panting heavily, no doubt attempting to regain his bearings.

"Cut Man?" he began calmly.

"Yes, Doctor?"

"Is your part of the plan ready?"

"Yes, sir! I am ready to begin at your command!" Just then, Cut Man perked. "In fact, I may have an idea to make it even better."

"Good."

The Lighthouse

The following day found Rock sitting at the table in the kitchen, silently fiddling with an energy can. He just stared at it, frowning, his eyes half-lidded.

"He's been sitting there like that all morning." Auto remarked as he and the others watched from behind the doorway. "It's starting to creep me out."

"He seems so sad and... dead," Roll mused. "What's wrong with him, Daddy?"

Dr. Light sighed. "I was afraid he'd react like this. He's at war with himself."

Auto raised an eyebrow. "Whaddya mean?"

"Rock is a gentle, loving soul, Auto," the doctor explained. "He and Roll were built and programmed with my peaceful ideals in mind. Yes, he elected to fight to help others... but he's still going against his nature."

"But it's not his fault!" Roll objected. "Dr. Wily reprogrammed all those robots to be bad! If he hadn't done that, Rock wouldn't have to fight and be saddened like this!"

"I know," Light told her. "But I don't think Rock sees it that way. Regardless of the circumstances, he's still going against his original programming; everything that he is. For robots like you, that's… it's literally unthinkable."

Roll's expression steeled before she entered the kitchen, spinning Rock's chair around so he was facing her, startling him.

"Whoa! What the!?"

"Rock!"

"Huh?" Rock blinked as he found himself staring straight at his sister's serious face. "Roll!? What are you...!?"

"Listen to me," she began. "I know how you're feeling. But, you're not a bad robot. You wouldn't care who you hurt if you did."

Rock looked down, still in his funk. "But Roll...I..."

Just then, a loud, blaring sound echoed through the building.

"The Robot Master alert!" Dr. Light shouted as he pulled out his smartphone and opened up an app. "It's Cut Man, he's taken over the old sawmill. He's destroying the machinery and attacking the workers!"

Upon hearing Dr. Light's words, Rock's personality seemed to completely change. His depression immediately gave way to steely, solemn determination. "I'm on it."

As he stood up, Roll grabbed his wrist

"Rock, look at me." she pleaded.

Rock pulled his arm free.

"I'm sorry, Roll. I have to go." He suited up. "And it's Mega Man now."

"Rock!" Roll cried as he warped out. She sighed, slumping.

"Rock…what's happening to you?"

Sawmill

Rock warped outside the building, looking up.

"Dr. Light, I've arrived. Have you located Cut Man?"

"Based on his scanner, he's holed up in the upper parts of the mill."

Rock nodded. "Alright."

"Be careful. His Rolling Cutter is made of the same material as your armor. It'll cut through anything."

Rock nodded. "Understood."

With that, he ran to the mill.

-X-

Inside, several workers ran about in a panic as Cut Man threw his blades every which way.

"That's right, humans!" he gloated. "Run and scream and wet yourselves in fright! Makes it more fun for me when I make paper dolls out of you!"

Hearing the whirring of machinery, he saw some humans trying to escape via a log loading platform.

"Oooh...a stealthy getaway scene, eh? Well..." Noticing they were right over a still-active saw, he pulled the blade off his head. "I'm afraid I'll have to cut it short! Rolling Cutter!"

He threw the blade, which sliced through the metal holding the platform. The workers barely had enough time to grab hold of the railing before it opened up, leaving them dangling over the spinning, buzzing blade.

"Quick little things," Cut Man said with a chuckle. "Look at you, dangling and hanging around like little loose threads." His mouth curled upward into a rictus grin. "I hate loose threads!"

He threw another Rolling Cutter, slicing up the platform even more.

"For the love of God, why?!" one of the workers pleaded. "Why are you doing this?!"

"Why?" Cut Man chuckled darkly. "Because it's fun! Now hurry up and fall so I can have more fun! Chop-chop!"

He tossed several more cutters at them, each blade barely missing, but quickly whittling away the hapless humans' courage. But as Cut Man readied more, a plasma shot hit him in the back, knocking him down.

"That's enough, Cut Man!" Mega Man shouted, his buster smoking.

Cut Man looked over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing as he saw his attacker. "You..."

"It's the blue robot from the news!" the first worker cried.

"Oh man...he's not friends with that slicer-bot, is he?" the other asked worriedly.

Cut Man rose to his feet, turning to face Mega Man.

"Shoot me in the back, will you?" He dusted himself off. "Coward."

"You're the one picking on defenseless humans!" Mega Man readied his buster. "How about you try picking on me?"

"Heehee...gladly." With a flick of his wrists, Cut Man conjured two Cutters from his hands. "Let's see if you can cut the mustard!"

He threw the blades at Mega Man, who ducked behind a machine for cover.

"Okay, Guts Man was weak to Bomb Man's weapon. So maybe Cut Man is weak to... Worth a shot." With a nod, he closed his eyes. "Accessing MEGA System... Weapon File... Super Arm!"

Cut Man watched as a bright light flashed from behind the machine, only for Mega Man to rush out from behind it, his armor now brown and white. However, Cut Man was more focused on his arm. Instead of firing his Mega Buster at him, he was…reaching for the ground.

"What is he doing?" the Robot Master wondered, only to get his answer when his opponent pulled a huge hunk of earth from the ground…with one hand. "Oh…" Cut Man's eyes shrunk. "That's what he's doing. Crap!"

With a mighty roar, Mega Man hurled the rock at Cut Man, forcing him to hop out of the way to avoid being crushed. Unfettered, Mega Man ran forward, pulling out another chunk of rock as he did before tossing it too. This time, however, he aimed for where Cut Man was going, striking him square on the torso, knocking him over.

"Agh! Damn…" Cut Man let out, as he attempted to get up…only to freak out as a third rock came flying at him. "Double damn! Rolling Cutter!"

Cut Man sent his blades flying at the rock, slicing it in two, causing the halves to land harmlessly beside him.

"Whew! Talk about cutting it close." Cut Man quipped. "If you can't do better than that, Rock, you're gonna lose!"

"I can do better than that."

Cut Man froze, slowly looking up to find Mega Man right in front of him, holding a bigger rock over his head.

"It's over, Cut Man," the blue robot said. "There's nowhere you can go. Nothing you can do."

Cut Man's breathing hastened as his optics darted around the mill, desperately trying to look for a way out of the rock and hard place he'd gotten stuck between. It wasn't until he looked upward that he found it, and he grinned.

"Don't be so sure."

Before Mega Man could ask what he was talking about, Cut Man threw another Rolling Cutter upward…into the platform the two workers were dangling from. The ballistic scissor blades sliced through what little remained of the frame.

"Help!"

"I'm too young to die!"

Mega Man gasped as he looked up and saw the helpless humans hanging on by a thread.

"Well, what's it going to be, Rock?" Cut Man asked. "Defeat me or save the squishies? You can't do both."

This time, it was Mega Man's optics that were darting back and forth. Cut Man needed to be stopped, but if he wasn't careful, he risked destroying his CPU, and by the time he took the time to aim properly, at least one of the workers would fall and be sliced in half by the saw. But, if he saved the workers, Cut Man would get away and hurt more people later.

"Better hurry," Cut Man mocked. "The clock's ticking. The saw's buzzing. The cable's about to give!"

Rock scowled, dropping the boulder and running for the workers. "Hang on!"

Cut Man grinned as Mega Man ran off, stealthily slipping away.

"Fool." he chuckled darkly.

-X-

The workers attempted to hold on for dear life. Finally, one slipped, closing his eyes and bracing himself... only to feel a hand around his wrist. He opened his eyes to see Mega Man clutching onto a cable with his free hand, holding him aloft with the other.

"Don't worry!" he cried. "I've got you!"

Mega Man swung off to the side, allowing the worker to jump off before repeating the process with the other.

"Are you two alright?" he asked as he hopped down, getting nods. "Good. Go get somewhere safe. I need to go after the one who did this."

"Yes sir!"

As the workers took off, Rock slowly turned around, his face a mask of cold anger.

-X-

Meanwhile, Cut Man was fleeing through the forest, chuckling to himself.

"I can't believe it! I actually managed to give him the slip! Now, I just need to..."

He perked, narrowly ducking a thrown boulder.

"Leaving so soon?"

Cut Man slowly turned to see Mega Man holding a softball-sized chunk of rock, tossing it up and down in his hand.

"Wh-What the...!? H-How did you find me so quickly!?"

"You shouldn't have brought innocent people into this, Cut Man." Mega Man said, calm but cold.

"Now now, Rock…" Cutman smiled nervously. "Can't we discuss this like reasonable robots?"

He secretly prepared a Rolling Cutter as Rock glared at him, readying the rock in his hand.

"Rolling Cutter!"

Cut Man threw the blade. At the same time, Rock threw the boulder in his hand, which collided with the cutter and snapped it in half.

"Nice try, but rock breaks scissors."

Cut Man took a step back before running off with a scream. "Help! Dr. Wily!"

"You're not getting away!" Mega Man grabbed another large rock.

"Help! Rock! Crazy! Someone!"

Cut Man was stopped in his tracks by a large rock landing right in front of him. He kept running around, trying to find an escape, only for more rocks to block him off, boxing him in.

"I… I'm trapped! No!"

"Yes."

Cut Man turned to see Mega Man aiming his buster at him. The sight of the blue bot readying a shot must have made Cut Man's CPU glitch out, because something had caused his memory files to open up automatically, playing back every moment since his activation in rapid succession. Finally, he felt the Charge Shot tear through his metal frame. His audio sensors picked up a loud crunching noise. Then, there was only darkness. Darkness and silence.

He stood there, a hole in his stomach. A hole that left his upper half unstable, causing it to fall off with a sickening, metallic screech before his lower half joined it. Rock looked down at the fallen Robot Master before resting a hand on his head.

"Rolling Cutter download complete. Weapon acquired." Mega Man looked down at Cut Man's bifurcated form, watching as oil pooled at his feet. "Dr. Light… I've defeated Cut Man."

"Good work, Rock. Get his IC chip and come back."

Rock nodded, letting out an affirmative grunt as he opened up Cut Man's head and took out his chip.

"I'm really sorry about this."

With that, he teleported away with Cut Man's remains.

The Lighthouse

In the lab, Dr. Light was working on something.

"Hmmmm... Alright, let's try now."

Dr. Light activated the device, causing a beam of hard light to suddenly shoot out and knock over a series of test tubes on the table, breaking them.

"Oh...whoopsie, too much power."

Just then, the teleporter went off. He turned to see Mega Man appear with Cut Man's body in tow.

"Ahh, Rock! Welcome home! I was just...good heavens!" he gaped at the sight of Cut Man's bifurcated form.

"Hello, Dr. Light," Rock greeted emotionlessly. "I'm back."

"Rock, you..."

"Doc!" Auto came running in with Roll in tow. "Is everything alright!?"

"We heard screaming!" Roll said. "Are...Eeek!

"Holy schmoly!"

Roll gasped, covering her mouth in horror at the sight of Cut Man.

"Rock…" Auto began, "Did you do that?"

Rock slowly nodded. "His cognitive circuit is intact. He can be rebuilt."

"Th-That's true… S-Still...jeebus kid. That's..."

"Rock, are you...?" Roll began.

"I am fine, Roll," Rock replied. "Another Robot Master has been stopped."

"You are certainly not fine, son." Light insisted.

"Cut Man left me no choice. I..."

"Not just that. The way you're behaving right now. You're acting like...like..."

"Like a robot!" Auto blinked. "Errr...well… like a regular robot! It's not you, Rock."

"But it is Mega Man," Rock replied matter-of-factly.

"But...you are Mega Man, Rock."

"No." Mega Man shook his head. "Rock doesn't do things like this."

"You're spoutin' crazy talk! Putting on a blue suit and using a Buster doesn't make you a totally different person!"

"Rock is a helper robot. He doesn't fight or hurt people. Mega Man is a fighting robot. He...I..."

Roll strode up to him, grabbing his shoulders and making him look at her.

"Rock, listen to me."

"Roll, I..."

Roll put a finger to his mouth, silencing him.

"Rock, I know how you're feeling. But, you're not a bad robot. You wouldn't care who you hurt if you did."

"It's Mega..."

"No!" Roll shook her head. "Your name is Rock Light. It's the name Dad gave you, and your modification doesn't change that."

"But..." Rock's eyes turned to Cut Man's body. He looked visibly ill at ease. Just then, the Robot Master alert goes off.

"Aww crud, already!?" Auto exclaimed.

Dr. Light looked at the news. "Elec Man's been spotted in the city. He's tearing up Central Square!"

Rock pulled himself away from Roll. "We'll continue this discussion later."

"Rock, wait!" Roll cried as he headed for the teleporter.

"Rock, hold on!" Light cried. "You just got back!"

"I haven't sustained that much damage, and the Robot Masters won't wait for me to get repaired," Rock downloaded the coordinates, grabbing an E-Tank. "I'll be back."

He stepped into the teleporter, warping away.

"Rock!" Roll ran to stop him, but it was too late.

"Rock…"

Author's Note: