Mega Man had a third nightmare that night.

Though totally obscured by shadow, the figure seemed to be watching him smugly from across the field of flames. "You're curious about me, aren't you?" the shadow taunted. "Just accept your defeat, and I'll stop bothering you."

Still unable to move, Mega Man glared back. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"

The shadow chuckled. "Isn't it obvious?"

As though a dim light had appeared, reluctantly pushing away the shadow, the figure slowly began to come into focus, a band of light sliding across a visor—

Gasping, Mega Man forced himself awake, launching into a sitting position and startling Rush, who had been curled up at the foot of his bed.

No—the shadow couldn't be Proto! It made no sense that he was having bad dreams about Proto, he was family!

…But then why did the figure look so familiar?

Am…am I going crazy? Mega Man wondered.

He looked around his room, at the dark bookshelves cramped with worn chemistry books, his desk piled with notebooks, his carpet slippers on the floor, Rush still staring at him with cocked ears, the waning moon visible through the gap in his window curtains—everything seemed normal.

Mega Man patted Rush's head, reassuring him, then ran a hand through his hair to steady himself. No, he wasn't going crazy…it was still just a dream, but Mega Man had been undeniably tense lately, and felt his imagination was definitely starting to play tricks on him, perhaps inspired by his conversations with Roll. But Mega Man still stubbornly maintained that Proto Man wasn't the root of his stress…

Besides, lots of bots have visors, Mega Man thought, settling back into his pillows. Heck, even I do.

With this practical thought, Mega Man began to calm down, finally drifting into a normal sleep untroubled by shadowy nightmares.

Punk stalked noisily out of his apartment and down the creaking stairs that lead outside. He didn't care if his human neighbors or landlord saw or recognized him. He was done pretending to care about the rules—he had never liked them anyway. He kicked open the door at the bottom of the stairs, knocking it loose from its hinges.

It was the middle of the night—the back alley deserted save for a couple of rats scrounging for scraps in the dumpster. At the sight of Punk, the rats gave frightened squeaks and hid. Meanwhile, Punk drank in the darkness—the purple energy burning like a warm fire inside his chest, sending a wild, prickling current from the tips of his fingers to the toes of his boots.

First, Punk went to 'settle his debt' with the gangsters. After trashing their drones, their human leaders cowered before him, offering him anything he wanted in exchange for mercy.

Punk left them to cower, feeling smug. Too easy. They'd never dare to bother him again. No one would. He felt better than he had in a long time—finally free to do whatever he wanted.

Yet as the sun rose, gleaming brightly off windows and sending its pale rays into the streets, a restlessness began to settle into him, the energy in his chest still building, itching to be used. There was still something Punk had to do. He thought back to the two that had messed up his bank robbery—the superhero, Mega Girl, and that busybody brainiac in green.

Punk chuckled ghoulishly to himself, transforming into a spiked ball and crashing into the ground. He'd wait until mid-morning…then he'd strike.

Still excited about her first successful adventure as Mega Girl, Kalinka had shown up early to Quint's laboratory with Beat, wearing a pink button-up blouse and denim skirt. While sitting on the edge of her desk, she had proceeded to nearly talk Quint's ears off about future plans, barely letting Quint say more than 'Mmm-hmmm' at intervals. Quint didn't mind. He liked hearing her chatter while he worked—Kalinka was so much smarter than she liked anyone to know, and it was a pleasant change from his usual solitude.

A musical tone sounded from Kalinka's macrame purse—something like a sugary pop tune heard in malls.

"That's my phone," Kalinka announced, taking out a boxy flip phone with an antenna attached. "Hi Daddy!"

The phone was on speaker, so Beat and Quint could hear both sides of the conversation.

"Kalinka—are you safe?"

"Yeah, of course I am, why?"

"I just got an alert from the police—there's a dangerous criminal robot on the loose in Los Angeles. Where are you?"

"I'm…with Quint! In his lab!"

"…Really? You're with Quint?" Dr. Cossack sounded both relieved and intrigued. "Does that mean you are doing scientific work together? You were always so good at it—"

"Daaaad, don't be so embarrassing!"

"Alright, alright! I'll leave you alone," Dr. Cossack's voice was bursting with pride. "Well, you'll be safe there while the police handle the rogue robot. I'm very busy today, but I'm in my office if you need me—"

"Don't stay there too late!" Kalinka lectured, knowing Dr. Cossack's work habits all too well. "Remember what I told you about working too hard! Love you Daddy, byeee!"

Kalinka hung up, then spun toward Quint, her face shining. "A rogue robot is attacking? Could be a job for Mega Girl!" she mused. "Hurry Quint! Turn on the news!"

Quint blinked, not expecting any sort of 'superhero' work so soon, but turned to his computer to pull up the local news.

Footage from a helicopter displayed a street only a few blocks from Citadel Headquarters. The palm tree-lined six-lane boulevard was devoid of its usual congestion as a large spiked ball ricocheted from building to building as though inside a giant pinball machine. A second later, the spiked ball came to a halt in the center of the destruction, unfolding itself into a familiar robot in spiked red armor while laughing ghoulishly.

"Oh no, that's Punk!" gasped Beat.

Catching sight of the news helicopter above him, Punk leaned backward and shouted upward, his voice booming in deep reverb, "Hey! You so-called 'superheroes'…you know who you are! I want a rematch! The longer you make me wait, the more I destroy! I mean it this time!"

Then Punk folded up into a red spiked ball again and began running over a line of parking meters, bending them flat into the concrete.

Kalinka frowned. "Punk's attacking again? I was afraid of that…we'll have to stop him! Again."

Quint hesitated. "But…you just told Dr. Cossack you were in my lab—"

"Yeah, but I didn't say I'd stay here. C'mon! It's our fault Punk is doing this—like, more your fault than mine for provoking him, but still our responsibility."

"I—fine," Quint relented.

Though he didn't like deceiving Dr. Cossack like this (he shuddered to think of the look of disappointment on Dr. Cossack's face if he found out) something about Punk's new attack seemed off. He was eager to investigate himself.

Proto Man had been asleep after a long night of piloting when his communicator began beeping.

…Since Proto Man was a heavy sleeper, it had actually been beeping for two minutes before Proto Man finally roused enough to roll over and answer it.

"Proto! Come quickly!" Dr. Wily's voice was as excited as a child on Halloween.

"Why? Wha's happen'n'?" Proto Man mumbled blearily.

"Just come now!" The transmission ended.

"Musta found Bass," Proto Man grumbled to himself, getting up. "Finally. I'll go blast the little termite for waking me up at this stupid hour."

Proto Man found Dr. Wily in his laboratory, where he was dancing excitedly in front of his supercomputer, his white lab coat whirling around him.

"Uh…what's going on?"

Dr. Wily turned to Proto Man, grinning wildly, his hands outstretched dramatically. "I have just received the most exciting reading on my new Global Extraterrestrial Radiation Scanner!"

"Your what?"

"My Global Extraterrestrial Radiation Scanner—" Dr. Wily lowered his head, a sinister shadow creeping into his face as he smiled with every crooked tooth, "—It can scan the entire planet for powerful sources of alien energy!"

Proto Man yawned. "Alien energy? I thought you were looking for Bass." Then, a sudden thought jolted him awake like a shock of electricity. "Wait…don't tell me that titanium abomination is running on alien energy."

Dr. Wily's grin soured. He dropped his hands down to his sides. "Bass is not an abomination nor is he at his true potential—But yes, you might as well know. Bass is very unique—for not only is he powered by plasma like you and Mega Man, but also a new type of energy that I discovered, developed from a sample of the green alien energy I recovered from the crater at Red Gulch—all that remains of the meteorite's power! I've dubbed it 'Bassnium', and it is one of the most powerful energies on Earth!"

The pieces were coming together into a Frankensteinian mess. Red Gulch. Alien energy. Dr. Wily's lack of grieving after Snake Man's death. His secrecy around Bass's construction. Bass's strange behavior…

Proto Man stalked over to Dr. Wily, his voice low as though speaking in a graveyard. "Doc…What—or should I say who—is Bass really?"

"If you're asking, then you already know."

"…Holy shit! Holy shit. Doc!"

"What? I am a genius!"

Proto Man shook his head in disbelief. "I know you're a mad scientist, Wily, but this is…well, I don't know what this is," (He wanted to say an 'insult to the memory of an insult to robotics' but stopped himself just in time). "Now I understand why he's such a pest!"

"He is not a pest—he is just confused about who he is."

"Gee, I wonder why that could be? Is it because he's a literal abomination to science?"

"Bass is not an abomination!"

"Alright, alright…but seriously Doc, you're just giving me more reason to take down the little monster. If he was wise, he'd know better than to show his face again."

"We don't want to destroy him," Dr. Wily reminded Proto Man, fists clenched.

"Yeah, sure, whatever…" Proto Man replied dismissively. "So…you've found him?"

"No. It has been nine hours since my batontons lost track of Bass (Of course, he is programmed with unsurpassed stealth and cunning, so this is not surprising). So, I have resorted to more drastic measures." He patted his supercomputer. "My scanner is only strong enough to detect powerful sources of alien energy, but if Bass taps into his alien power, we'll know, and can find him."

"Sound swell, Doc…but if your new alien energy detector didn't find Bass, then what did it find that made you dance a merry jig?"

"A different type of alien energy," Dr. Wily pointed to a black screen with a glowing topographical map of the world on it. A purple dot was flashing over Los Angeles. His eyes flickered over to a second screen, which displayed a complicated assortment of graphs, data, and digital meters. "It's incredible! Such readings! Why, I haven't seen anything like this since…since…the shrink-ray crystals! The island! Lotos! This could be just what I need to fuel my next plan!"

"Uh, well don't jinx it by bringing up those missions," quipped Proto Man. He looked at the map thoughtfully. "Kinda close to Citadel Headquarters…maybe something got loose from their lab?"

"I don't think so—but we must hurry and snatch it up before someone else does!"

Dr. Wily was already barking orders into a communicator for Cut Man and Guts Man to get the Skullker ready while stuffing his pockets with a radiation detector, the Reprogramming Raygun, and printouts from his computer.

Proto Man hesitated, knowing Dr. Wily was expecting to accompany him to Los Angeles. If Proto Man had one trepidation about joining in on another crazy adventure, it was that he might run into Mega Man again.

Ever since the night of the New York gubernatorial election, Proto Man had been trying to put Mega Man out of his mind—specifically, that terrible moment when Proto Man had thought Mega Man had died, and that it had been Proto Man's fault for being careless—

Stubbornly ignoring that this event had left a mark, Proto Man looked back at the purple dot flashing innocently on the screen and decided he would go on the mission after all. Why not? Might be fun—and it was best to keep an eye on Dr. Wily when he was messing around with alien energy anyway. Perhaps this would even make Dr. Wily forget he was searching for Bass, which would be a big bonus. He made a brief com call to Elec Man to explain what Dr. Wily had planned.

"Alien energy? Like at Red Gulch?" Elec Man inquired.

"No, more like Lotos."

"….."

"I'm sure it's fine."

"….."

"What could go wrong?"

Elec Man sighed. "I'll be there in five minutes, don't leave without me."

"…Wait, you want to come?" Proto Man asked, surprised.

"Yes. I think you are underestimating how dangerous alien energy is, and you need someone sensible around you to keep you from doing something stupid."

"Pshh, you've been flying around in jets we've built ourselves, how could this be any more dangerous than that?"

"Our jets have state-of-the-art safety systems—Wily's plans do not."

"Aw, worried something will happen to your pilot?"

"...Don't flatter yourself, Light."

Elec Man hung up on him.

"…I was kidding!" Proto Man snickered to himself.

Prime-Double-Zero was indistinguishable from every other robo-officer on the California State Police force, other than his serial number inscribed on his badge, which read '100'. He reported to Chief Fictus—or, at least, that was what the rest of the police force thought—in reality, Prime-Double-Zero lead a double life of impersonating both Prime-Double-Zero and Chief Fictus—but his real name was Fake Man, and he was not a police officer at all.

Blending it with the other robo-officers, Fake Man was headed to the scene of Punk's attack. Yet it wasn't Punk who interested him (he didn't think much of ex-robo-fighters, and Punk had always been too small time of a criminal for neither the police nor Fake Man's true employer to take special interest over any other rogue robot). Instead, Fake Man was on the lookout for the mysterious pink 'superhero' he had seen on the news the day before…

One way or another, he'd nip this new problem in the bud, then return back to Sacramento before nightfall.

After changing into their armor, both Quint and Kalinka quickly slipped out of Citadel and over to the block that was under attack while Beat stayed behind as lookout.

The entire area had been evacuated and barricaded, making the boulevard resemble an improvised robo-fighting arena, its asphalt all scared and torn up. They could see the remains of the few robo-officers who had stepped into this 'arena' mangled and strewn about, the rest had been guarding the perimeter while whispering strategies into walky-talkies when Kalinka and Quint had crept by. The news helicopter was buzzing at a safe distance—Quint hoped it was too far away to get clear footage of himself and Kalinka, but still kept close to the buildings and out of its line of sight, just in case.

Ahead, the red spiked ball was busy leveling traffic lights, stop signs, and an abandoned tow truck.

"Alright Punk, we're here! Stop destroying things!" Kalinka shouted at the spiked ball.

The spiked ball swerved around in a hairpin arc. It shot like a cannonball toward them, jumped an overturned police car, then unfolding midair as Punk landed with a sharp clang on the street in front of them. He laughed ghoulishly. "No, not Punk. I don't like that name no more, I'm Hellrazor now."

"…Huh?"

A strange gleam flashed in Punk's eyes as he stood with one foot on an overturned construction barrel. He seemed different—an aura of menace clinging to him like a shadow, a slight bass reverb to his voice.

Quint immediately began scanning Punk with his visor. "I…I don't believe it!" he exclaimed to Kalinka.

"What?"

"He's infected with evil energy!"

"'Evil energy?'"

"The purple alien energy I told you about!" Quint snapped a little impatiently, for he had just explained this to her a couple of days ago. "It's like a virus, and Punk is now its host. Oh, this is very, very bad! But how did it happen?"

"Never mind, look out!"

Punk—or Hellrazor, as he now called himself—had started throwing his spinning blades (Screw Crusher, according to Quint's visor). They whirled toward them at incredible speed liked spiked frisbees—much faster than the day before. Kalinka executed a perfect pirouette, neatly dodging the three that had headed for her, while Quint dove to the curb, feeling a soft whoosh as the blades just missed his shoulder.

Quickly standing up again, Quint drew a blaster. Back at the bank, he had been shooting Punk with a grade of plasma power similar to what Mega Man and Proto Man used. Now he switched to quintessence—alien energy to fight alien energy. It had worked before back when Dr. Wily's robots had been using green alien energy. Quint opened fire.

Hellrazor dug his spiked boots into the asphalt, the impact of the ultraviolet blasts pushing him back—but otherwise, didn't seem seriously hurt. "Now you're fighting, Brainiac—but your watered-down version of evil energy won't be enough against the real deal, now take this!"

Hellrazor folded up into a spiked ball and sped forward, forcing Quint to drop his assault and retreat backward.

Not good—it appeared quintessence wasn't quite as strong as the raw evil energy it was derived from. Kalinka and Quint stood back to back as Hellrazor circled them in a red blur.

But Hellrazor wasn't in a particular hurry to destroy them. He stopped spinning and unfurled from the spiked ball again, a wicked glint in his eye as he stalked slowly closer. "Yo, Brainiac, I shall enjoy turning you into a scrap heap. And you—Mega Girl—sorry, but you gotta go too. Sorry…orders are orders."

"What do you mean 'orders are orders'?" Kalinka asked sharply, holding her ground. "You said you were programmed to reject rules and authority, so why are you taking 'orders' to destroy me?"

At Kalinka's words, Hellrazor stopped still in his tracks. He seemed agitated, his eyes darting from side to side. "Stop! You're…trying to confuse me!"

"Punk, who's orders are you taking?" Kalinka demanded again.

"I—I—can't! I—I—must!" Hellrazor convulsed, then in an abrupt personality shift, laughed ghoulishly. "I'm Hellrazor now, archenemy of rules, establishments, and figures of authority—and that includes superheroes like you!"

A burst of purple flames briefly engulfed Hellrazor, his eyes flashing yellow. As though burnt, the spikes on his armor suddenly turned pitch black, several new spikes sliding out of his pauldrons, each growing longer and deadlier as Hellrazor gained several inches in height.

Kalinka took a hasty step backward. "Yech! What's happening to him?" she asked Quint.

"Mechanical mutations," Quint responded grimly, still scanning Hellrazor with his visor. "The evil energy is reconfiguring his body to be more alien while transmuting his armor into a metal unlike anything on earth."

"Now we're talkin'!" Hellrazor crowed, his glowing yellow eyes turning upon them. He made an upward sweeping gesture with his hands. "Now check this out!"

The ground rumbled—similar to when Punk had been tunneling as a spiked ball on beneath Stiletto Street, yet Hellrazor was above ground. As the rumbling grew louder, Kalinka and Quint braced themselves, not sure what to expect. Then, with a horrible cracking sound like ice breaking on the surface of a frozen river, cybernetic vines began bursting up from the asphalt—similar to the type wild roses had, but large as firehoses with red skin like Hellrazor's armor and black thorns crackling with purple energy. They began crawling up the buildings, which creaked and buckled, the bricks cracking. Soon, a school, a police office, and a government building were engulfed in the thorny vines and looked on the verge of collapsing.

As Kalinka gaped at this new obstacle, Quint looked up to the sky. With dismay, he noticed the thin, wispy start of a hazy purple cloud appearing just above the skyscrapers—

Wham.

Something heavy and spikey crashed into Quint with the force of a bullet train. Hellrazor had hurtled into him—the street shot away as Quint went airborne.

"Quint!" Kalinka cried as Quint went sailing in a smooth arc above the skyscrapers then out of sight. A second later, they heard a distant crash. Kalinka winced on his behalf.

"Whoops, guess I don't know my new strength," Hellrazor chuckled, dusting off his hands. "I'm going after him since he's the more annoying of you two…" Hellrazor hesitated, then glanced at Kalinka out of the corner of the gap in his armor. "Oh, and Mega Girl—you can't defeat me, so take my advice—get out of this while you still can."

With a small shrug, Hellrazor folded up into the spiked ball, then crashed into the ground, leaving behind only a giant molehill tunnel.

"Sh-shit," Kalinka muttered, stamping her foot before sprinting after them.

Proto Man twisted restlessly in his seat. Though it wasn't a long trip to Los Angeles, he was beginning to feel bored. The Skullker seemed slow and cumbersome compared to a jet. He was completely tuning out Dr. Wily's long and nonsensical monologue on all his ideas for the new alien energy he had found, his mind instead listing through different design absurdities present in the Skullker's flight structure.

Idly, Proto Man wondered if Elec Man was doing the same thing, but when he glanced back at Elec Man (who was standing with Cut Man Guts Man in the space behind the flight deck seats), he noticed Elec Man was completely engrossed with typing on his handheld computer. Elec Man's narrowed eyes flicked back and forth from its notecard-sized screen to Dr. Wily's radiation data on the Skullker's flight deck monitor, his expression like a cryptographer puzzling over code.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" Proto Man whispered curiously as Dr. Wily continued to ramble on.

"Cross-analyzing Wily's radiation readings with the data set I took from the incident with the meteorite." Elec Man wrinkled his nose. "I haven't looked at these since you kidnapped that random scientist at Red Gulch."

Proto Man couldn't help but smile. "…You and I both know you know Dr. Cossack's name."

Dr. Wily noticed Proto Man and Elec Man were whispering to each other, shot them the same look a teacher would give two students caught talking during class, then took in what Elec Man was doing.

"You're wasting your time! I already have all the data I need from my Extraterrestrial Radiation Scanner," Dr. Wily informed Elec Man happily.

Elec Man rolled his eyes and resumed his work without comment.

Finally, the Skullker descended toward Los Angeles, whose smog seemed slightly denser and purpler than usual. Near its downtown lay a trampled-looking patch of semi-destruction that spanned several blocks, ringed with the flashing lights of police cars. Strange gigantic vines were creeping up the remaining buildings like a nest of worms.

"There! The source of the evil energy!" Dr. Wily announced, pointing to a spikey red ball that was busy leveling what looked like a statue of a former mayor. "This is exactly what I'm looking for! We must recruit this incredible specimen and use his alien energy to take over the world!"

"According to your intel, his name is Punk, rogue robot, formally a National Robo-Fighter." Proto Man smirked. "Always thought robo-fighting was bogus—this'll be a cinch."

The Skullker landed on a leveled patch nearby. Dr. Wily leaped eagerly out, flanked by Cuts Man and Guts Man. Proto Man strolled slowly after them, but Elec Man remained behind to continue his analysis (while grumbling to Proto Man how stupid this all was).

"Punk!" Dr. Wily called, smiling his oiliest of smiles. "I am Dr. Wily, famous tactical mastermind and the world's greatest roboticist. Your destruction here is most impressive. I have come with a proposition—join forces with me, and with your power and my ingenious ideas, the world will be ours!"

The spiked red ball paused its destruction and unfolded as Hellrazor turned to squint at Dr. Wily.

Hmm…that's an interesting idea… mused the slippery voice in the back of Hellrazor's mind—the voice from the shadow on his apartment floor.

Hellrazor didn't agree with the voice. He had definitely heard of Dr. Wily and how he reprogrammed robots to serve in his own selfish ambitions. "The name's Hellrazor, and I don't take orders from anyone, you second-rate fascist dipshit! And soon your robots won't either!"

Several spiked cuffs materialized in Hellrazor's hands. He threw them at Cut Man and Guts Man, the cuffs snapping around their necks, wrists, and ankles. With a purple flash, ripped leather outfits appeared around their armor.

"Now everyone do whatever they want!" roared Hellrazor before breaking out into his ghoulish laugh.

Joining in on Hellrazor's laughter, Cut Man and Guts Man immediately turned on Dr. Wily.

"That's right, we won't take orders from no one!" hooted Guts Man.

"Yeah! Down with the system!" joined in Cut Man, clacking his head sheer.

Dr. Wily scrambled backward. "Ack! What are you two idiots doing? Get back!" he cried, his voice rising in pitch.

He whipped out his Reprogramming Raygun and waved it desperately at Cut Man, Guts Man, and Hellrazor—all of which only laughed harder. At this, Dr. Wily gave an undignified, panicked squeak. He had expected Hellrazor would need to be reprogrammed—what he had not expected was for Hellrazor to be both immune and capable of taking over his own robots instead!

"P-P-Proto! Help me!"

Shaking his head with a small smirk, Proto Man drew a blaster and stepped in front of Dr. Wily. He could have predicted this—something similar had happened with Lotos, right before—right before—well, the end of that mission was strangely murky, but it hadn't ended well. "Go back to the Skullker—I'll take care of these wannabe punks," he said lazily.

As Dr. Wily fled, Cut Man and Guts Man rounded on Proto Man instead.

The slippery voice from the back of Hellrazor's mind spoke up again. Hellrazor…new target. That jerk with the scarf…go wreck him up.

"Don't tell me what to do…" Hellrazor muttered back. All the same, he began advancing on Proto Man as the voice compelled, hating and resenting it all the while.

Kalinka ran down the broken sidewalk. She still had no clue where Hellrazor was, and Quint wasn't answering his communicator (which wasn't good), yet she could hear the sounds of a battle ahead, and ran toward it. It sounded like it was coming from one street over—

She stopped short. There, at the end of a short alley, yellow scarf streaming gallantly behind him, his red and gray suit gleaming in the sun like a knight's armor—was the masked hero. He had just fought off two dorky-looking robots (an orange one with a pair of sheers on his head, and a larger hulking one with a square jaw, both wearing tacky leather outfits)—and was now facing Hellrazor.

Kalinka's heart skipped a beat. It's him! He's here!

…Well, no duh the masked hero was here! This had become a bigger problem than before, but surely the masked hero would stop it!

She heard Hellrazor's ghoulish laugh echo down the alley. He had just thrown a set of spiked cuffs at the masked hero—but the masked hero batted them out of the air with effortless suavity.

Hellrazor stopped laughing. "What the…why aren't my cuffs affecting you? Something's weird about you…"

"Yeah, not my style—I'm rebel enough without 'em," the masked hero replied with a smirk.

Kalinka clasped her hands in admiration. He's so cool!

At this point, Hellrazor lost patience, transformed into the spiked ball, and hurtled toward her masked hero—the hero dodged, then both were out of sight.

This was it. The opportunity Kalinka had been hoping for. She had to go meet her hero! She began running toward the alley to help out—

"Stop right there! You're under arrest!"

A robo-officer had jumped out from behind a newspaper booth, blocking her path.

"Oh yeah? For what?" Kalinka demanded. The robo-officer wasn't L.A.P.D., but California State Police with the serial number 100—Prime-Double-Zero.

"Vigilantism and operating as a rogue robot." Prime-Double-Zero glared suspiciously at her from beneath his peaked cap, then asked in a low voice, "…Who are you?"

Kalinka snorted. She was well acquainted with the California State Police—they sometimes rescued her when she had been kidnapped, true—but mostly they interfered with her fun, like what Prime-Double-Zero was attempting to do now. She flashed him a dazzling grin. "I'm Mega Girl—pretty protector of justice, friend of the innocent, and enemy of evil-doers everywhere! Now if you'll just let me through—" she said, attempting to squeeze by while eagerly craning her head over his shoulder, hoping to catch sight of the masked hero again.

Prime-Double-Zero shifted to block her again, his cold, expressionless face looking absolutely unamused. "I don't think so, you're not going anywhere."

Kalinka heard a rumbling noise below their feet. She quickly leaped away—Prime-Double-Zero was not so lucky. Red vines burst from the ground. One snagged around his leg and blaster arm. Prime-Double-Zero struggled, but found himself rooted firmly to the spot. Kalinka took the opportunity to duck past him down the alley.

"Hey, get back here!" Prime-Double-Zero barked after her.

"Sorry, gotta go help stop a bad guy, bye!" Kalinka called back with a wink.

But when Kalinka reached the street where both Hellrazor and the masked hero had been battling, neither were still there.

"Oh! Where did he go?" she whined in disappointment, turning on the spot.

Hellrazor alternated between throwing spinning Screw Crusher blades and transforming into the spiked ball as he chased after Proto Man.

Proto Man welcomed the challenge, firing back while avoiding every attack. "Listen, buddy…whatever your problem is, you should know, I'm the Red Bomber, I'm undefeated. You can join our team, but if you fight me, you're not going to win!"

Though the electric blue bursts of plasma fizzled harmlessly off his spiked red armor, Hellrazor was nonetheless annoyed by Proto Man's over-confidence coupled with his infuriating evasiveness, like trying to catch a shaft of light.

"You talk tough, but you're no match for me. Now hold still—"

Crackling with evil energy, Hellrazor reached out a hand—the white glove becoming black, the fingers fusing into three spiked claws, a surge of purple flames engulfing Proto Man.

Proto Man had no time to even cry out—his face surprised as felt first a suffocating rush of the purple energy surrounding him, then an answering flare-up within his power core, like a flash bomb exploding in his chest. His vision momentarily filled with blinding cyan light, then he fell face-first into the broken asphalt, unconscious.

Hellrazor wheezed with the exertion of this powerful attack, dropping his new three-digit hand to his side.

Heh heh heh, stupid earthling, The voice inside Hellrazor jeered. Can't even handle a little alien energy spike! Finish him, Hellrazor.

But before Hellrazor had stepped toward Proto Man, a black blur with a golden harlequin mask darted in front of Proto Man, a brilliant arc of electricity flashing from his outstretched hands toward Hellrazor.

Hellrazor stopped advancing and chuckled. "Doesn't even hurt! You're just a skinny load of static!"

But the Thunder Beam (normally extremely effective against non-alien energy powered robots) had been just a distraction. After passing through Hellrazor, it hit the bottom of a scaffolding next to a building that was being repainting, causing a small explosion and dumping several cans of slime green paint onto Hellrazor's head and into his eyes.

"Hey!" Hellrazor spluttered, scrabbling at his face. But by the time he managed to wipe paint from his eyes, both Elec Man and Proto Man were gone.

"Argggh!" Hellrazor shouted in frustration. His body burst into purple flames, drying and disintegrating the rest of the paint. He grew a few more inches taller as more spikes sprouted from his armor.

Who the frick was that? muttered the voice, his fun spoiled.

Hellrazor pounded the side of his head. "Shut up, you! I'm tired of chasing that mouthy loser—I'm going to go turn Brainiac into metal mulch instead."

Hellrazor transformed into the spiked ball, then crashed into the ground.

Mega Man and Roll had gotten dressed for the day and were on their way out the door for a trip to the aquarium when the emergency satellite scanner started beeping.

Dr. Light came rushing out to get them. "Mega, Roll—Dr. Wily's Skullker has been spotted in Los Angeles! There are reports of a dangerous robot on a rampage!"

"Bass?" asked Mega Man with a sinking feeling.

To his relief, Dr. Light shook his head. "No, not Bass—but do be careful, Mega Man! This robot is wreaking havoc! The police are powerless to stop whoever it is."

"Sounds like they need us then," said Roll. She cast Mega Man an apologetic look. "Sorry…this isn't turning into the relaxing day it was supposed to be!"

"It's alright," Mega Man answered. Truthfully, he felt restless again, and fighting Dr. Wily's robots actually sounded good—so long as Bass wasn't there! "Don't worry Dr. Light, we're on the case."

"Thank you, but do be careful, both of you!"

"We better take the air raider, it'll be faster—" said Roll. "I just hope we get there before Wily destroys L.A.!"

Careful to stay away from any other nosey robo-officers, Kalinka continued her search of the ruined, cybernetic vine-infested city block. Though she had not caught up to Hellrazor or the masked hero, she had heard distant battle, but then all had gone quiet. She worried about what that might mean.

Her anxiety rising, she turned at the next intersection, then burst into a huge grin. "Quint!"

Quint had been creeping cautiously down a narrow side street. Though he looked a little battered, he otherwise seemed alright, and was likewise relieved to see Kalinka. "Sorry…I crashed into a concrete parking structure and was knocked offline." He rubbed the back of his helmet ruefully, then craned his head upward. "Shit…the radiation cloud is getting worse!"

"Radiation cloud?" Kalinka murmured, for the first time noticing the dark, storm-like haze swirling above them.

"Yes! They form when there is a high concentration of loose alien energy!" Quint murmured, pacing frantically. "This is very, very, very bad!"

"Chill out! We'll figure it out!" Kalinka told him earnestly, grabbing him by the shoulder.

"There you are!"

They both jumped as Hellrazor suddenly crashed into the sidewalk in front of them. With a flash of purple energy, his entire left arm mutated into a long flail. He lashed out at Quint, the arm coiling around him like a python, lifted him off the ground, then flung him into the lobby of an IRS office.

"Hey, stop that!" Kalinka yelled, punching Hellrazor. But the purple flames protecting Hellrazor were too strong—her suit's forcefield flashed, then she too went flying into the IRS lobby.

Quint crawled across the tiled floor to Kalinka's side. "Are you okay?" he asked in a shaky voice.

"Yeah…" she grumbled, annoyed at gracelessly landing on her face.

Quint shook his head. "This robot is too powerful. We should run. If you get hurt, Dr. Cossack will murder me!"

Kalinka promptly stood up, dusting off her armor. "No Dad wouldn't! But we can't tell him, it's like I said before—he'd get so stressed out, it would be bad for his blood pressure. It might kill him. Besides, we've got this covered! Punk can't so much as bruise me in this suit—though if he scuffs it up he's in big trouble."

"You're sure you're alright? No broken bones or a concussion?"

"Nah."

Though Quint still looked worried, he glanced back outside at Hellrazor who was blazing with purple fire as the ground rumbled again, a fresh thicket of vines snaking up the buildings. The street became darker as the purple cloud above grew thicker. "Hellrazor's using his new alien powers to cause paranormal distortions, in this case creating those vines—that's the cause of the radiation cloud."

"Totally weird! How do we stop it?"

"Well, I theorize the paranormal distortions should become neutralized if we stop the evil energy's host."

"So we need to like get rid of the evil energy inside Punk."

"It's not that simple. There's no known way to separate alien energy from its host once they've bonded!"

"We can't just kill him!" Kalinka, aghast.

"…I don't think we could if we tried, look!"

Hellrazor's mechanical mutations were spreading. His bladed mohawk grew into a long set of black razors which could flex like the crest of a cockatoo, his spiked pauldrons flared out like the hard forewings of a beetle, his feet whirled into sharp drills, his anatomy rearranging into something both spikier and more geometrical as his form became taller and leaner. For a moment, Hellrazor wobbled unsteadily as he adjusted to his new proportions, like a giant puppet. If Punk had been intimidating before, Hellrazor was several levels beyond—a brawler compared to a demon.

At the same time, ten-foot black spikes began erupting through the asphalt around him in a radial wave, each crackling with purple energy.

"Ack! He's getting worse!" Kalinka told Quint as they were forced to scramble out of the lobby to avoid getting skewered.

As Mega Girl and Brainiac retreated behind an overturned bus for cover, Hellrazor hunched over, wheezing. He felt winded and sore, like he had just fought eleven consecutive cage matches in a row without a warmup, yet he could feel evil energy coursing through every wire, coaxing his circuits while purple flames marched along his armor like a searing massage.

That's it, you're doing awesome, buddy! prodded the voice cheerfully. Now finish them…

For a moment, Hellrazor didn't budge, becoming vaguely aware that the voice was bossing him around again. He didn't like to be bossed around, especially not by condescending disembodied voices! Why was he listening to it? Was this a form of reprogramming? He tried to fight it.

"Rgggh, get out of my head, get out of my head!" he shouted, shaking his body back and forth vigorously.

Fine, fine, I'll stop backseat driving, yeeeesh! the voice replied. It seemed to be growing softer. …Just don't blame me if you don't like the full reality of your situation~

"What? What's that supposed to mean?" Punk stammered, coming back to himself. Then he looked down at his hands. Oh—oh no. Oh no."

One had become a three-digit claw, the other had melded into a heavy solid mass like the head of a spiked mace, attached to his body by a metal tube long enough to trail the ground. The ground was much further away than it should be, his feet had become drills, his limbs were spindly and weird like an insect's, and long black spikes stuck out of his armor at every angle like a reverse pincushion. It was all wrong.

Punk gave a startled grunt and staggered backward. "No, no no no no…this can't be real," he moaned, his voice still garbled and hellish as he took in the changes. "Nooo!"

Hellrazor had stopped attacking, and appeared to be panicking, as though realizing that he was beginning to resemble something between a humanoid aphid and a sea urchin. Then, with an anguished cry, his glowing yellow eyes flashed, the purple flames flared, and he transformed into a spikey red ball and began knocking down a DMV.

"This is terrible!" Kalinka told Quint as they peered over at him from a safe distance. "He doesn't really want to be this way!"

"I…I don't know what to do," Quint replied, feeling squeamish. "We can't even call for help—the radiation cloud blocks communication!"

Quint demonstrated by activating his communicator, which let out a staticky hiss.

"…Perhaps just as well…" Quint added dismally. "I am only aware of one robot who may be of assistance against evil energy, but that would cause a serious breach in international law, not to mention lead to awkward questions…"

Kalinka wasn't quite listening, her face lighting up with an idea. "Wait…maybe we can contact someone! Back at your lab! You said you were trying to make Contact with friendly aliens!"

"…Yes…" Quint hesitated. "I was getting close to a breakthrough, but—"

"C'mon! It's our only option! How else can we stop this—stop him?" Kalinka questioned, pointing at Hellrazor.

"Alright," Quint relented. "We'll try!"

With a regretful glance back at the fresh wave of destruction Hellrazor was causing, they retreated back toward Quint's laboratory.

To be continued…