"Zis es not going my vay!!" Dr. Wily screamed out at the night. "Light, you need to get a lezzon in handvriting!"

Wily's new robot just stood there, like it had been for the past eight hours. Not a single wink of the eye, or a twitch of the lip to show the scientist he was headed in the right direction.

"Perchance zese planz were just preliminary, not vhat Light was veally going to vuse..."

But they were. Dr. Light had every intention of building a reploid, and he was trying his hardest to make his dream a reality. But something had been holding both of the scientists back ... something so complicated no one thousands of years in the future would understand it.

Wily looked over his lifeless creation one last time before hitting the hay. What was it? ... All other kinds of robots would have been hopping around in glee by now ... but this is not just any robot, Wily reminded himself. I have given her everything a human needs to stay alive...

Wily sadly turned his back and walked down the long hall to his bedroom in Skull Castle. A peaceful night's rest might help him, but then, he has already tried everything he knows of.

A few hours later, Gemini Man lightly tapped on Wily's bedroom door. "Wily? You asleep?" After a few moments of silence, the shiny robot decided to interrupt Wily's sleep. He opened the door, and walked over to the large Victorian bed.

"Psssst! Wily! Protoman has something to tell you..."

Gemini Man had learned from experience not to wake Wily abruptly. Wily stirred and muttered something about an artificial heart. He opened one eye and beheld Gemini Man with an urgent look on his mouthless face. "Protoman wants to see you! He says Light has a new robot, and he's planning on attacking in a few hours!"

"Vhat? A new robot? Let me guezz ... vone of zose creepy 'Helpers,' vight?"

"No, he said it was very urgent! Must be big ... and bad!"

"Okay, okay, I'm goin'! It had better be real big--and bad--or else I'm going back to bed."

Protoman was waiting outside the front door of Skull Castle. He was tapping his foot and staring at the ground. He obviously did not want to be there. Wily stuck his head out of the open doorway.

"Vell, vhat did you get me up vor?"

"Okay, Wily, you're lucky I'm giving this service to you. Look up."

Wily did as he was told. "Vhat? Vhat? I don't zee anything!"

"You can't? Look harder!"

Wily squinted at the sky. After several seconds, he could just make out a tremendous shape, as big as the sky itself. Protoman noticed Wily's expression change.

"That is the shadow of a cloaked fortress. It's part of Light's 'Wily elimination program.' Want me to help you destroy it?"

"Yez! Yez of courze! I'd be glad vor any help you could offer me!"

"Okay, here's the scoop. That thing is essentially a battleship on land with a cloaking device. You can make it decloak by spraying it with gamma radiation. This will disturb the shield of radiation already surrounding the ship and overload the cloaking system. Light was not going to attack until morning. If you catch them by surprise, you should win. What robots do you have built?"

"Gemini Man, Gravity Man, Shade Man, and Jupiter. I was also in the middle of building--"

"That's great! Millions of Gemini Men, a guy that can turn that things upside-down, and two guys that can fly! Here's your battle strategy: Have all four of your robots draw as near to the approximate position of the fortress as possible, and then unleash your gamma radiation." Protoman grinned internally as he said the word 'unleash.' Wily was sure in for a surprise! "You will be able to see it immediately. Have Gemini Man surround it with each of his clones firing rapidly, and have Jupiter and Shade Man fly up to the pilot's seat and blow it up. It's currently vacant, but no one will be able to control the fortress after it's been destroyed."

"I've got you! And you vant me to vuse Gravity Man to livt it up in ze air ... and drop it! Yez!"

"Be careful. I gotta get back into bed before Light suspects anything. Bye, now!"

Wily snickered to himself. How he got the better of people!

"Unleashing radiation ... prepare to duplicate!" Wily commanded Gemini Man.

Everything went by command. The robots had already been warned not to sit mesmerized by the land battleship. Shade Man and Jupiter flew up to the top of the contraption, and Gemini Man duplicated like he had never duplicated before. One thing was wrong with this picture, though, but Wily was too busy commanding his robots to notice.

"Jupiter and Shade Man, FIRE!!! Gemini Men, FIRE AT WILL!!! Gravity Man, Level Two is good! FIRE!!!"

Everyone fired, and in one trillionth of a second, were vaporized. Wily wondered what had happened.

He looked up to the view screen to see ... Skull Castle!

"Vhat? Impossible!" Wily did a scan on the twin skull castle, but the results were negative in every way possible.

"Good God! Vhat es zat thing?!?"

It took several hours for Wily to figure it out. It was a mirror. A two hundred foot temporal mirror.

"Aaaaaarrrrrrggghhhhhh ... I hate that bioroid!!!"

It was a typical day at Dr. Light's lab. Rush was helping Roll play Mega Man 7, Dr. Light was working on one of his projects at his lab table, Eddie and Auto were engrossed with helping Jazz get an extra life, and Mega Man was playing Shooting Gallery in the Entertainment room. Jazz grew impatient.

"Jeez, people! Can we pick up the pace a little?"

"Sorry, Jazz!" Auto responded. "Mega Man's extra lives are incompatible with your current shield system. You are a very accomplished fighter, can't you do without?"

"No! Better safe than sorry, Light says. Here, allow me--" Jazz grabbed the project away from Auto and began tweaking. He didn't know much about shield innards, though--the thing blew up in his face.

"Yow! Guess this was worthless! Thanks for your time, though..."

Dr. Light grinned. Jazz was his best creation yet. Although his fighting ability was no better than Mega Man's, he possessed powers that the world had never seen. Some called him a reploid, but Light did not think it was a good name. "A real reploid would not be at my lab right now," he was fond of saying. One problem with being alive was that all known energy sources were incompatible. Just ask Jazz.

"Hello, fellow robotic typos!" Protoman yelled as he walked in.

"I'm not robotic!" protested Jazz. "I'm a biomechanoid!"

"Biomechanoid, bioschmeckanoid," said Protoman. "You're still a son of Dr. Light, so you're robotic!"

"Biomechanoid!"

"Robotic!"

"Hush!" Dr. Light screamed over the commotion. "Protoman, why do you have to constantly harass Jazz?"

"Uhhh ... dunno, it's kinda fun, I guess. Sorry, Doctor! Now, what I was going to say--" Protoman glared at Jazz, "--What are we going to do today? Wily seems to be in remission, heh heh, so why don't we take a trip to Dr. Cossack's? Jazz hasn't met him, I don't think."

"Splendid idea, Protoman! We can leave as soon as I finish what I'm working on." Auto was instantly at Dr. Light's side.

"And what would that be?"

"Try energy shields."

"But I can just make them--"

"No, no, quadrapolar energy shields! Recall Jazz's little problem?"

Jazz looked toward Light, then Auto, then back again. Then he lept up in the air.

"YES!!!"

Roll looked at Auto, who looked at Rush, who looked at Eddie, who looked at Protoman, who looked at Mega Man.

"What, what?? Don't tell me I did that when you first gave me an energy shield...?"

Dr. Light smiled. "Yep."

"Oh, man!" Mega Man ran to his room to escape the laughing crowd.

Jazz grinned and walked over to Dr. Light to receive his present. He touched it, and it melted into his hand. Jazz now had an extra life, and could be a lot more up-front in battle without worrying about being destroyed.

So, who is Jazz, anyway? He's Reploid Prototype 1, and he is completely alive. He is Dr. Light's first success at building a living machine, although he is not a true reploid. He uses quadrapolar energy, which means his heart pumps blood that is charged in a square--very difficult to manufacture, and impossible to ionize directly. He must use quadrapolar energy, and is therefor incompatible with every energy pellet on the planet.

He is built by the same design as Mega Man and Protoman. His main color is gold (Mega Man's is navy blue) and is secondary color is yellow (Mega Man's is light blue). This gives him a very "bright" look, which often startles people. Every other characteristic about him is identical to his brothers'.

"Now, everyone, are we ready to leave for Cossack's Citadel, or not?" Dr. Light asked.

"Yes!" everyone answered in unison.

Wily had just finished making rounds of his castle to make sure nothing had been miffed by the sudden onslaught of gamma radiation when he heard a female voice.

"...father...?"

The evil scientist stopped in his tracks. That was the specially created voice for his new creation! He spun, to see a fully functional reploid.

"Is that you?"

"Uhh...yes, it es me, Doctor Albert Wily. Eh...what es your name?"

"Allegra."

"Very good, very good ... run problem scan--full status."

Allegra was still for a moment, then blinked. "No problems found."

"Very good! I guezz zis meanz ve might az vell bring you to life. I'll vrun a complete check later. Allegra: Initialize perznality."

"Run."

"Vhat es your name?"

"Allegra--you gotta problem with that or something?"

Wily couldn't have been happier. He had just built a prototype reploid. "YEEEEEZZZZZ!!!!" Wily leaped skyward. "Ve can begin teaching you vright avay!"

A few hours later, Wily had taken the young reploid back to the work room and begun basic lessons of life. Now that she was alive, she was alone in every way--nothing Wily could do would influence her except right out school lessons.

What does she look like? That question is growing monotonous, but here I go anyway:

Allegra's main color is black and her secondary color is dark gray. Her eye color and hair color differ from Dr. Light's original design--her eyes are a light hazel and her hair is dark red. Her hair hangs down to her waist and comes out of a specially-made opening in the back of her helmet.

Because of the free-willed nature of reploids, Wily has researched the topic thoroughly and come up with a simple way around the problem: teach the reploid only what you want it to know, and it will grow around that. For Wily's purpose, this is easy. Reploids' free will drives them to do exactly what Wily wants them to do: destroy humanity because they are superior. And indeed they are; can you imagine living life with metal armor, or a steel heart? You would be practically invincible! Wily believes that this is the future of reploids.

After several days of teaching, Wily had found that Allegra could learn faster than any human. What if you never forgot any fact you were exposed to? Wily taught her simple things about Dr. Light and his crew, so she would know who they were. She was preprogrammed with fighting abilities.

Allegra needed someone to try her abilities on, besides just dummies. Dr. Wily decided to try a direct frontal attack on Dr. Light's lab. Allegra and Wily boarded the Skulkar, to find it didn't work. Something had totally destroyed its batteries. Wily reasoned that it was the sudden blast of gamma radiation to Skull Castle's shields. Many things around the castle didn't seem to work. The same thing that paralyzed most of the castle's systems had brought Allegra to life!

After thinking for a moment, Wily ran back into the castle to get a replacement battery. The new battery would not come on-line until someone turned it on; this is why the replacements were not damaged by the blast. Wily inserted the battery and powered it up. All of the Skulkar's systems came on-line instantly, and the pair were ready to go. The doors in the huge room opened, and Wily started the Skulkar's hover blades. Then he activated the jet engines, and it flew outward into the day at around forty miles per hour.

Twenty minutes later, the Skulkar had arrived at the hill that separated Dr. Light's lab from the Palace of Power. Dr. Wily ran a scan of the lab.

"It's empty! Light zure picked a great time to take zhore leave!"

"Maybe they went to Dr. Cossack's," Allegra suggested.

"No vay! Ze mozt probable plaze would zertainly be ze Palace of Power." Wily parked the Skulkar, and the two got out. Allegra shrugged and ran up to the door. There was a small button that she identified as a doorbell. She pushed it, and a tremendous chime noise rang through the halls inside. After several minutes of no response, Wily had just about caught up, and Allegra had grown impatient and thrust her hand forward to open the door forcefully. What she was not counting on was a shield.

"Yow! Why didn't you tell me about that?!? Guess this was worthless!"

"No, my child, not vorthless ... I believe they vill be charging out to attack us any minute. Look!"

The entire N-Team, minus Mega Man, emerged from a side door and began zapping, arching, whipping, and shooting everything they had. Wily had not expected this much resistance. He showed that fact by screaming and running for the Skulkar. Allegra, on the other hand, saw this as target practice.

Kevin Keene, aka Captain N, zapped Allegra. He was right on target.

"Yow! You're gonna pay for that, you little videogaming urchin..." Allegra charged her blaster, which had only now appeared. For a while, it had looked as if she didn't even have one.

She let out a Level 2 blast right through Kevin, who disappeared.

"Yes!"

Meanwhile, Simon and Kid Icarus had snuck up from behind. Simon wrapped his whip around Allegra's legs, and she fell over. Intentionally. Kid Icarus hovered over her.

"Looks like Wily's latest try at making a robot--" Icarus was snatched out of the air, cutting off his remark. Allegra jumped to her feet, and jumped again, over to the location of the Skulkar. She still had Icarus in her hand.

"Yez! Prisoners! I'm zure Light vill veally like zis!" Wily yelled in joy. Simon ran as fast as he could to try and catch the Skulkar, but he was unsuccessful. Wily took off and headed back to Skull Castle, leaving Kevin, the Princess, and Simon wondering what had happened. "Did I do good?" Allegra asked Wily.

"Yez, you did very, very good!" Wily congratulated Allegra. He could see that he had something very important.

"Can't we go to Cossack's Citadel? I'm sure Mega Man is there!" Allegra begged Wily.

"Okay, I guezz ... I'll uze zis cage to keep Icarus at bay." Wily took out a specially-made cage for times like this and stuffed Icarus inside. Icarus was not happy.

"You cannot keep me in here-icus! Mega Man will come help me out!"

"Bah, shut up, you vittle bird! Mega Man is doing no zuch theeng!" Wily tied a gag around Icarus to keep him from yelling, should the battle spread into Cossack's front yard.

Wily landed the Skulkar fairly close to the Citadel. He told Allegra to run up to the gate and do just as she had before. Wily opened a visual link to the castle.

"Greeting, vacationing goodies! I have a vittle surprize vor you here--" Wily grabbed Kid's cage and showed it proudly, "--And I'm zure you like it! Ha ha ha!!"

Dr. Light's face appeared on the screen. "What? Oh! No! This is terrific!--" but corrected himself, "--Terrible! Protoman, Mega Man, you must stop Wily before he hurts our friend. Go! Now!"

Protoman displayed a broken look. "Doc, really? Who cares! I mean--"

"Protoman! Kid Icarus is our friend! Do you recall all the times he saved us?"

"Yeah, brother!" Mega Man responded. "I like that guy, and Wily has taken him prisoner! I don't know about you, but I'm going to try and save him, no matter what trap Wily's got in store! Come on, Rush, let's sizzle some circuits!"

Rush barked loudly and followed behind Mega Man. Auto shoved Protoman out the door behind them, and Beat followed him. Eddie ran along behind in case someone needed a recharge.

Once outside, everyone looked around. No sign of any attacking robots. Protoman was the only one that knew why. All that could be seen to confirm Wily's presence was the Skulkar, parked several meters away. Then, out of nowhere, came a hard-to-follow robot. It was black and gray. Mega Man stopped dead in his tracks. A sensation he had never felt before came over him. Protoman and the rest of the group passed right by him.

Protoman charged his blaster to Level 2 and fired at Allegra. Allegra jumped out of the way and returned the shot with one of her own Level 2's. Protoman jumped out of the way as well, giving Auto to blunt of the blow. Auto reeled back, revealing Beat. The standard procedure was to let Beat distract the enemy, while Mega Man on Rush flew in from ground level. Rush recognized this immediately and transformed into his Jet setting. Mega Man was still staring.

Protoman wondered where Rush was and turned to see Mega Man's dumbfounded expression. He looked between Allegra and his brother. "Yeah, she's a chick, but forget it! Blast her! She's got Icarus, remember? And she can't possibly be alive, you can't build a living machine!"

Just as Protoman said that, Jazz jumped over the gate to join the fighting. Light had unwittingly locked it, trying to keep Wily out.

"You can't build a living machine? Nonsense! Whoever said that's a loony! Look at me!"

The fighting stopped, so that everyone could look at Jazz. Then, it resumed, with Allegra recognizing Jazz as a bigger threat and closing in. Jazz lept up in the air and released a Level Four blast he had been saving. Allegra did likewise, and they collided in the air. A tremendous explosion threw everyone off their feet, except for Jazz.

"What, that a little too much for ya'll? Try this--" Jazz charged up to Level Seven, while Protoman and Beat kept Allegra from copying. Mega Man was still standing there, paralyzed. Rush tried to help by licking his face, but it didn't seem to work. Just as Beat had finished knocking Allegra off her feet once again, Jazz let out the blast. It tore right through the Skulkar, which Allegra had fallen behind. Wily was thrown from the blast, and Kid Icarus escaped, but not without his gag. "Mumph-icus!" Icarus begged.

Icarus flew over to Jazz, who undid the gag. Allegra had just gotten up from behind the smoking metal frame which used to be the Skulkar. Jazz covered Protoman, while he approached Mega Man. "Yo, brother, you still there...?" When Protoman got no response, he grew angry and blasted Mega Man in the face.

"Yow! Did you--oh yeah, that's right. Thanks, brother, I needed that!" Mega Man responded. "Now, to get ahold of Wily..." Mega Man jumped on top of Rush Jet and they flew off after the escaping Wily. Allegra fired at Jazz, who had been trying to whistle to Beat. Her shot was actually successful, and it knocked him to the ground. "Yow! Something like Level Three..." Jazz moaned from the ground.

"Yep, Level Three!" Allegra responded. Then she was smacked by the swooping Beat. "Not one of you bird-brains again!" Allegra screamed. She reached upward like a striking snake and grabbed Beat. "Aha! A replacement!"

"I don't think so!" yelled Protoman as he pegged Allegra with a bunch of Level One bursts. Allegra was stunned, and dropped Beat. Beat chirped loudly, and landed on Protoman's shoulder. Allegra suddenly turned towards Mega Man and yelled, "I'll be back!" just as she teleported out.

Doctor Light's smothered voice called out from the security gate he was somehow unable to unlock. "Great job, team! What was your last energy reading on that female robot?"

"I dunno..." Mega Man responded. "I do know that Wily got away. He had a teleporter hidden in his coat."

"I could really care less!" Protoman yelled triumphantly.

Auto, who was just getting up from being knocked over, answered, "Something was preventing me from getting a good lock on her. All of my readings were askew."

"What is the problem with you all? I got it easy every time I checked it, it was something like five energy units left when she retreated," said Jazz.

"It appears that Allegra is incompatible with every one of you--everyone except Jazz. She is probably running off of quadrapolar energy," Light called out from behind the giant gate.

"Quadrapolar? Why? Why would Wily use that crappy energy unless--" Auto was cut off by Mega Man.

"She was a reploid."

Dr. Cossack had just come outside to find out what all had happened. He was in the middle of a hard-to-follow philosophical conversation when Wily had come calling. He hadn't noticed everyone had left until the battle was over.

"What happened out here? If I had more of a front yard, I would be worried, but I don't, so oh well," Cossack babbled. He was fond of using many commas.

"We just had a historic battle," answered Light, finally freed from his gate problem.

"And why would that be, was it a new enemy, or perhaps a new robot, eh?"

"Yes, a new kind of robot. Wily has somehow managed to build a reploid. How he got ahold of my plans for quadrapolar energy, I may never know..." Protoman stopped petting Beat and perked up at that question.

"Bass has been real quiet lately, you would suppose he somehow got into the Lab and stole them? I know I haven't seen him..."

"Yes, yes, I suppose so," answered Light. "We must go to Skull Castle and destroy Allegra. Maybe Dr. Cossack here could help us break into the Castle's computer system and delete the plans...?"

"Of course, I would be glad to help you, I've done it before, I'll do it again, just give me access to your computer system, my good Doctor, and it'll be easy as pie! He who hesitates is--I mean, we should move quickly, Wily is probably making more robots as we speak!" Mega Man, who had been playing fetch with Rush, suddenly turned and looked at Cossack quizzically.

"What did you say?"

Cossack gave Mega a irritated look, then repeated every thing he had said, but leaving out the 'I mean.'

"Maybe not," Mega responded, "but I'm beginning to wonder just how quiet Bass has been--until now."

"Nonsense! My friend Dr. Cossack would never betray us! Isn't that right?" Light sometimes thought Mega Man was unnecessarily cautious.

"No, certainly not, friends to the end, remember what Wily did to my daughter?" Cossack answered.

Protoman glared at his father and for the first time in his life, thought Mega Man was onto something. But, he did agree with Cossack in that they should hurry, and so dropped the subject and followed everyone into the Light Transport Vehicle.

Dr. Wily opened his closet of deactivated robots. He was looking for a part of one very old robot that he had used before there were any living machines in the world.

"Aha!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "Ze Time Ztopper!"

"Why the heck would you want that? Mega Man and the crew are invincible to that, the only possible use would be to distract them...! Okay, maybe you're smarter than I thought! You're going to refit it to use quadrapolarized gamma radiation, right? And freeze that Jazz character right in his tracks, as well as Mega Man and Protoman and all their little friends!"

"Allegra, you zimply ztun me. If every one of my robots was that smart, I wouldn't need fifty of zem, I'd only need a handful. If only I could vind a better vay to make reploids..." Wily began work on the Time Stopper immediately. Of course, Flash Man also had to be refitted to use it, so the process took a little longer than the two had thought. Too long.

"Wily! Look! It's Light on the scanners ... and it looks like he's brought along his entire fighting force! Complete with Jazz!"

"No!!! I'm almost done ... you go out and head zem off while I vinish Flazsh Man."

Allegra reluctantly left. She had full life, but she couldn't stay long with Jazz, Mega Man, and Protoman triple-teaming her.

"Look who's here to greet us!" said Protoman as the specially-made transport vehicle landed. Allegra was charging full-speed at the airship, trying to catch as many people inside as possible. Dr. Light shoved everyone out the door, and raised the shields.

Jazz charged forward to meet Allegra and the two went one-on-one. Mega Man was stunned by how evenly matched they were. Light seemed to be thinking the exact same thing, and his voice appeared in Mega's helmet.

"Notice how every move one makes, the other can block ... if it weren't for Jazz's extra life, they would be completely matched, most likely destroying each other at the same time."

"Well, I'm not gonna let that happen," Mega responded, not sure who he was referring to. He charged into battle, with Protoman following behind. Rush and Beat circled around and joined the two.

Mega Man hopped on top of Rush Jet and charged at Allegra. Protoman charged his blaster as high as it could go and let off a tremendous wave of welding plasma at Allegra. This sent her flying, as well as the continuous stream of rapid-fire from Jazz and Mega Man. Just as Rush was swooping in for another round, Allegra jumped skyward and got onboard. Mega Man was stunned. (Again!) Allegra grabbed him and threw him overboard. Rush did not notice anything, because of the minimal change of weight. She took control of Rush and charged at Protoman.

"Whoa! This looks exciting--" Protoman yelled as he jumped out of the way of a charge from Rush. Rush, by now, had noticed that something was amiss and looked backward. He visibly flinched. Nothing like this had ever happened before. He was a fully robotic dog with minimal intelligence, so what now? He didn't need to do much, though.

Jazz and Protoman rapid-fired at Allegra, trying to peg her off the out-of-control flying dog. Mega Man was just getting up, to be knocked down again by Rush. Protoman found it hard to target the fast-flying jet dog, and so whispered something to Jazz and crouched on the ground. Jazz powered his blaster to Level Ten and Beat distracted Allegra. Allegra became obsessed with trying to shoot Beat out of the sky.

Jazz gave Protoman the thumbs-up through the blinding light of his charged shot, and Protoman lept into the air. He caught Allegra by her leg, and dragged Rush down to ground level. Jazz aimed carefully, and let out his blast. It knocked Allegra off of Rush, and right into Skull Castle's shields. She was electrocuted for a good minute for being thrown back onto the ground. Finally.

Jazz was out of breath from his out-of-proportion blast, but took an energy reading on Allegra nonetheless. She read one-half unit. Jazz grinned and yelled the news to everyone. Mega Man, who had just gotten up again, collapsed when he heard that.

Allegra lifted her head and looked toward Skull Castle. Nothing. This seemed like it had taken hours, but still no Wily and rescue robot. She didn't recall if she had an extra life or not, but still, suicide seemed like a good option, whether to get full life again or just to escape from Dr. Light.

Auto, coming out of the transport with Dr. Light, helped Mega Man up. Protoman walked over to his brother to see how he was taking all this. He knew being knocked off Rush at a height of a few thousand feet was bad enough by itself. Jazz walked over to Allegra. "So, wanna join the winning team? You seem to be--ahem, slightly outnumbered."

Allegra felt a reassuring presence, like someone there to help. A message, sent by Wily. He was ready. Allegra struggled to her feet, and looked Jazz in the eye. "No way!"

"Okay, but this means I'll have to kill you. Sianora, weirdo psycho typo peep from heck!" Jazz charged his blaster. Mega Man lept in the way. He had to get there before Jazz released that shot ... he didn't know why, but he just knew he couldn't let Allegra die.

As he was nearing Jazz, time seemed to slow down, and then stop completely. Mega Man was stuck millimeters from Jazz. Jazz's blaster stopped charging at Level Three.

Protoman saw Mega dive, and so tried to stop him. He had just began to run when he saw Mega Man freeze in mid-air. He felt himself slowing down, then to the point of not being able to move.

Doctor Light felt a high-pitched ring in his ears. He fell to the ground in pain. Auto saw the scene unfolding before him. He bent down to check out Doctor Light, but only made it halfway. Beat had been perched on Protoman's shoulder, and Rush was running to catch Mega Man, like Protoman. Eddie was still in the Light Transport Vehicle.

Everyone was frozen solid, and Dr. Light from pain. Then they heard a triumphant voice.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!!!! Think you can destroy my master creation, eh? Vell, you've thought wrong! Look at you all! Frozen solid!!!"

Flash Man appeared behind his master. "It's been a while, Mega Man! I'm back--in a flash!"

"Please, Flazsh Man, ve don't need any of your ridiculous comments," Wily warned his creation. He was astonished at how primitive regular robots really were, compared to Allegra and Jazz. Wily threw Allegra an energy can, complete with the letters "E-Q." She promptly used it.

"Gee, Wily, don't you think we should rescue Bass?" Allegra asked.

"Yez, take Flazsh Man and have him re-time him," Wily answered.

Allegra grabbed Flash Man and dragged him over to the Light Transport Vehicle. She blasted open the door, and told Flash Man to unfreeze Cossack. Flash Man did so, and Cossack turned to see Allegra.

"My, that took long enough! I hate being a human!"

He took a small control panel out of his lab coat, which read, "[COSSACK]." He punched a few buttons, and turned into Bass. "Much better. What are we going to do with the Light crew?

"Probably kill them. Wily can't reprogram Protoman or Mega Man, and Rush and Beat are useless without their owners, so--" Allegra answered.

"But what about Jazz?" asked Allegra.

"Fry him too! We can't convince him to join our side, that's obvious. You get Mega Man, Protoman, and Rush; I'll get Beat, Auto, and Dr. Light," answered Bass.

Allegra, Flash Man, and Wily had been fitted with a anti-Time Stopper device to prevent them from being frozen as well. Flash Man was also equipped with a microwave uplink to the Castle power system, so the effects of the Time Stopper would never wear off. The metal minions gathered their assigned enemies and went into Skull Castle. The Light Transport Vehicle was left outside to rust.

It was several hours before Mega Man and the gang were unfrozen, but to them it seemed like seconds. Allegra and Bass had thrown them in a holding cell. "Say your final words; in a few hours, you'll die!" reminded Bass.

Dr. Light had a serious migraine from the grate on his ears, but he could still think.

"I'm going to try and contact Tango."

"Tango?" Jazz interjected. "Wasn't he asleep?"

"We've been gone for several hours. He should be awake by now," Light responded. "Protoman, can you help me build a simple transmitter? That light up there should have enough raw parts."

"Yeah, sure!" Protoman agreed. He ripped the light off of the wall and gave it to Light. The two made a great team. Mega Man wondered if this was what it was like before he was around.

They finished in record time. Light tapped into Wily's communications net and sent out a collect call. At the Lab, the receiver buzzed.

Tango was asleep, being a robotic cat, but by the fourth ring was disturbed enough to answer. He catwalked over to the monitor and clicked the Receive button. He heard Dr. Light's troubled voice.

"Tango, if you're there, we need help. We're trapped inside Skull Castle. If possible, alert the N-Team. They should help you get inside. Time is of the essence. We will be executed in some manner in a few hours. Please hurry!"

The transmission went dead. Tango put on full speed and rushed over to the Palace of Power. Once there, he replayed the message and meowed for them to help. Kid Icarus was dying to get revenge on Wily.

"I'll rock those robots-icus!"

Mega Man whispered, "Someone's coming!"

Everyone made themselves look casual. It was Bass.

"It's a great time to--"

Bass was cut off by a barrage of arrows. He hit the deck.

"Die-icus!"

Captain N zapped the bars of the Light company's jail cell into oblivion, and they were all free. They ran down the hall toward the center of Skull Castle, not noticing they were trampling Bass.

After a good minute, Light called for everyone to stop. His scanners were picking up a strong signal--something very potent was near. Rush put his nose to the floor and began sniffing. He stopped next to a large closet, then looked at Mega Man and barked.

Something was in that closet, and Dr. Light was worried about what it would be. Perhaps a trap set up by Wily...? Jazz grew sick of the waiting and ripped the door open. What was inside stunned Mega Man almost more than the sight of Allegra.

"Master Weapons! Millions ... okay, maybe fifty-seven of them, and all for my taking!!" Mega Man ran forward, but was stopped by Dr. Light's warning voice.

"Come now, Mega Man, we have here two other individuals who would like to get their hands on those as much as you," said Dr. Light. Jazz and Protoman nodded.

"Okay, but each of us get to pick one, and I pick first!" responded Mega Man. He picked the Metal Blades (as if he would pick anything else!). Jazz picked the Crash Bomber, and Protoman picked the Ballade Cracker. This went on for a while until all the weapons were picked. Each person got nineteen weapons. What a load!

After all the weapons were picked, Light still read a ultra-high energy source coming out of the closet.

"So, the weapons were not what lead us here after all...??" Light wondered.

"I think Jazz should walk in there and blast whatever is away," said Protoman. "Besides, some of Wily's Guard Joes should be here any second. If someone is going to do something, do it now!"

"Okay!" said Jazz, smiling. He rapid fired, and the shots came straight back at him. He shook his head, and fired the Hard Knuckle at the wall. The entire side of the hall collapsed, revealing a broken energy generator. Mega Man reeled back.

"I'll bet my memory chips--no, that's getting old. I'm willing to bet that that was the energy generator for Flash Man."

"Very good, my son!" Light congratulated. "I believe it was ... I'm reading high quadrapolar runoff, as well as high amounts of gamma radiation ... so that's why my hair is falling out! Let's get out of here!"

Everyone ran down the same hallway, now with only one intact wall. The castle seemed to stretch on forever. After what seemed like hours to the bioroids and minutes to Jazz, they reached a tremendous hall. It was completely bare; no robots, humans, or Allegra in sight.

The room was the size of the Vatican. A great place to do battle. Was Wily going to try and attack them here?

A blinding flash lightened the dark hall considerably. Light screamed in pain, but thought fast and yelled for everyone to freeze in their current positions.

Allegra, Flash Man, and Bass came running out, eager to blow them away. Allegra ran right past the "sleeping" Tango, and up to Mega Man. Protoman and Jazz weren't facing the two, so they had no idea what was going on. Bass walked up to Jazz, and began charging his blaster.

Tango opened one eye and looked around. No one was looking at him! He crept up behind Bass. Bass was just about to fire when Tango changed into saw mode and went bouncing around the tremendous room. Flash Man turned around just in time to be sawed in half, and Allegra was kept busy trying to dodge the buzz saw cat. Bass's charged shot went into the ceiling, causing a huge chunk of cement to fall on top of him. He short-distance teleported and appeared right beside Mega Man.

"Even now that Flash Man is dead, his effects won't wear off for years thanks to the Castle's power system! Die Mega Man!!!" Bass charged up another shot, and Mega Man lunged at him and rapid-fired. This gave everyone the signal to begin fighting.

Tango's energy was drained by this point. Jazz jumped forth and knocked Allegra to the floor. Protoman took on Bass.

Protoman raised his welding shield and blocked a flurry of shots from Bass. Bass charged up his blaster, and fired the moment Protoman let down his shield to see what had happened.

"Now I'm mad!" Protoman yelled and slid towards Bass. He pegged Bass with a flurry of his own plasma, only Bass didn't have a shield to block it. Protoman then lept into the air and charged a shot of his own. Bass looked into the air, but could not see Protoman. He had disappeared! Then, he was hit in the face by a Level Five welding plasma blast, and began to wonder if he was any good any more.

Protoman swung back down through the opening in the ceiling Bass's shot had made, and looked around. Bass had disappeared! After wondering how adaptive Bass really was, he walked over to Jazz, to be hit in the face with a Level Five weapon plasma blast, and got really, really mad!

Bass climbed out of the opening in the floor Tango had made and ran at Protoman. Protoman blocked with his shield, and Bass tripped over Simon's whip.

"Man! This is unfair ... I'm outta here!" Bass teleported out.

"NO!!!" Wily yelled from his command center two rooms away. "You must stay and vight!! Zey von't vin if you do not help zem!"

Bass walked in. "No way Wily, that Protoman guy is too hard, and don't ask me to fight the entire N-Team!" Bass was badly damaged, and Wily soon gave up trying to get him to return to the battle.

Mega Man, Protoman, and Jazz unleashed all of their Master Weapons on Allegra, but none of them worked. The only weapon that even made a dent was the Gemini Laser, which Jazz had.

"Ha!" Jazz yelled as he flanked Allegra, rapid-firing Gemini Lasers. Jazz's power system did hold one advantage; the ability to supercharge weapons. He could run both Master Weapons and his life energy off of his energy quadrapolarizer, making him have, essentially, infinite weapons.

The room was soon a net of Gemini Lasers. The N-Team, Dr. Light, Mega Man, and Protoman escaped into a storage room at the end of the mammoth hall.

After a few minutes of nonstop Gemini Lasers, Jazz grew tired and fired less. Light saw this and threw out some energy, but then remembered it was incompatible with Jazz.

"D'oh!" Light yelled in frustration, banging himself on the head. "I wonder where Dr. Wily keeps his energy for his robots ... I believe he has quadrapolar energy cans! Maybe I can find it on my scanner..." Light took his ever-ready scanner out of his lab coat pocket and scanned around. "Looks like it's at the other end of that huge hall! I hope those lasers have dissipated. We're going to have to cross the hall. Mega Man, go out and help Jazz fight Allegra, and especially, cover us while we escape. Move!"

Mega Man reluctantly crept back into the hall. He could cover his comrades well, but he wasn't sure about fighting Allegra. Something inside him said it was the wrong thing to do. Something Jazz apparently didn't have.

"So, you wanna fight me, do ya!?" yelled Jazz as he dodged a superpowered shot.

"Yeah! You haven't noticed that by now?" answered Allegra as she dodged Jazz's returned shot.

Everyone was halfway down the hall before Allegra noticed them, and even then, they were too far away to catch. She didn't know what they were trying to do.

Upon arriving in the storage room, all the group could see was powerups. "So this is how Wily gets all his energy for his robots!" exclaimed Protoman. "Now, let's see if we can find a quadrapolar energy can..."

Everyone soon grew discouraged. The only way to do this, apparently, was to have Protoman wade through the energy, absorbing it all, until he got zapped by an incompatible piece. Protoman was not thrilled, but did as he was told anyway.

The energy was much more dense than Dr. Light had thought, and Protoman was soon at absolute full life. The energy he absorbed would now be wasted.

About halfway through the middle of the room, Protoman was jolted by something he had stepped on. He dug through the pile of energy, absorbing it all the way, until he found what he was looking for.

"Aha! A quadrapolar energy ... pellet?? Man! This is going to take forever!"

Protoman preceded to wade through energy like he was mowing a lawn, soon collecting enough energy to power Mega Man for a few millennia. Energy tanks were also plentiful, but no tanks that read "E-Q."

After about five minutes, Protoman had finished his monotonous task and had found twenty-two quadrapolar energy pellets, one very large chunk, and one empty energy can. He had absorbed 953,379,835,856,264,154,986 terawatts of regular energy, and collected some 2,386 energy cans. Quite a bad percentage, but something to work off of!

Dr. Light used his energy tongs to cram the quadrapolar energy into the empty energy can, and then seal it. Jazz was about to get quite a recharge! But when the team returned to the battle room, Jazz was gone. Dr. Light thought for a moment, then began to scream. "Allegra!! You killed--"

"How observant. Yep, that was really pretty easy, thanks to the recharging capabilities of those lasers he was so stupidly firing at me!" Allegra responded.

"You mean they ... were actually recharging you? It looked like they were hurting you!"

"Sure, it stings, but hey, it's a weapon! What did you expect!?"

"Hmmm ... those lasers were, basically, condensed gamma radiation. You don't suppose--" Allegra cut Light off again.

"--that gamma radiation creates quadrapolar energy as a byproduct of combining with titanium! Yeah, yeah, I'm the smartest thing that ever hit this planet..."

Dr. Light ran up and hugged Allegra. Mega Man covered his eyes. Protoman made disgusting noises. The N-Team prepared to leave. Dr. Wily ran into the room and hugged Allegra as well.

"You are a genius! I vill make millions of reploids ... billions! Zey vill be ze new rulers of earth! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!"

"I don't think so, Wily, you're coming with me!" interrupted Mega Man, grabbing Wily and handcuffing him. Allegra was not finding all this amusing.

"Wait a second ... whatever happened to Jazz?" Protoman suddenly realized.

"I killed him, remember?" answered Allegra, pulling free of Light.

Dr. Light remembered this, and began to scream once again, only to be interrupted, once again.

"--I'm not dead, you imbeciles! Remember, Light, you made me an extra life!"

Dr. Light was ecstatic. He ran over and hugged Jazz. Allegra made disgusting noises.

Mega Man was growing afraid. Was Dr. Light going to kill Allegra?

"Hey, Dr. Light, what are we going to do with Allegra?" he asked. Everyone turned toward Dr. Light.

"Hmmm ... probably ... oh no, I wasn't thinking about that! There really is no moral solution to this problem..."

That was what Mega Man was waiting to hear. He threw the quadrapolar energy can to Allegra, who teleported out, leaving Wily for the prison guards.

"Why ... why did you do that?" mumbled Light. That would have been his last choice of something to do.

"I dunno..." Mega Man blushed.