NOTE FROM THE MAINTAINER: Please try to wrap up this story pretty soon. At this point we will start Episode 2. Try not to extend this book much longer because I am going to wrap it up very soon. Thank you. Dr. Light maintainer of Interactivity Dept. --- CHAPTER ONE doclight@bitsmart.com --- Bass ran for all he was worth, but it was no good. He fired shots backwards at his pursuer, but all his shots missed and Mega Man shot back with deadly accuracy. "You can't win, Bass!" Mega Man said. Bass knew he was probably right. Mega Man had him pretty well pinned down, but Bass had to try and get to safety. "Shut up, Mega Man," said Bass. Bass felt a little bit cold, and he realized in dismay that one of his companions had been Freeze Man. As his lower body turned to ice, Bass attemped to shoot Mega Man again, but his blind shots came nowhere near the blue bomber. "If YOU don't shut up," said Mega Man, "then the entire state of New York will hear your cursing." Bass didn't let Mega Man's comment stop him. His Plasma Cannon was frozen in the ice; it was all he had left to do. "Okay," said Mega Man, "let's see what we can do here." Mega Man didn't have a chance to do anything. Bass managed to break the ice, and called in Treble. They morphed together and he flew off. Mega Man just looked up and smiled. He didn't mind a bit. "You failed again," said Dr. Wily, his monstrous voice echoing through the room. Bass was on the intercom screen, and he did not look happy. "Yes, Doc," said Bass, "Mega Man defeated me once more." Bass' face was very grim. "No matter," said Dr. Wily, "I have another job for you anyway. There are some mines in the state of Oregon, where you can find some diamond. Diamond is unbreakable, even by Plasma. I could steal the stuff out of wedding rings, but it would take too long. I want you to take Guts Man, Hard Man, Stone Man, Drill Man, Crash Man, and Grenade Man and get the diamond. There is a small colony there, but the area is fairly remote. You should be able to overrun the colony easily. Get as much diamond as you can, and then come back. I have made Drill Man's drills into diamond, so he should be able to cut it. Go now, Bass." "Yes, Dr. Wily," was Bass' reply. --- CHAPTER TWO chameleo@webspan.net --- Bass flicked the intercom off with a scowl on his face. "Now he makes us work in a mine, for stupid DIAMONDS?! Sheesh, the old coot must be losing his marbles...or what's left of them...." Bass chuckled at his own joke and slunk off to find Guts Man and Drill Man. Bass figured he'd need those two the most. Guts Man was in his quarters, staring at the wall. Bass walked in without knocking, and said in an annoying, mocking tone, "Hey Gutzy, wakey wakey! Quit staring at that awful wallpaper!! We have a job to do!" Guts Man shifted his stare from the wall to his superior and grumbled under his breath. Bass simply grinned and motioned Gutzy to come with him. The two set off to find Drill Man, who was working in the garden, planting some trees under Wily's command. Unbenoticed to them, a pair of visored eyes were watching their every move. Protoman squatted in a tree, hidden by the leaves. "What are they up to at this time of day?" He thought. Protoman watched as Bass, Gutzy, and Drill Man walked out of the garden and back into Skull Fortress. Proto gave a quick check of the grounds, and teleported out. Back in Dr. Light's lab, Mega and Rush were roughousing, and it seemed like Rush was winning. He had Mega pinned to the ground, and was licking him all over his face. Mega didn't seem too phazed, in fact he was laughing hysterically (!!). Proto teleported in, startling Light and Mega. Proto grinned and helped get Rush off Mega, who was trying unsuccessfully to wipe all the slobber off his face. Proto clutched his scarf and glared at Mega with visored eyes. "What? Whaaaat?! You think I want your scarf for a towel?!" "You probably would." "Would not!" "Would too." "Not." "Too." "ALLRIGHT you two!! Stop arguing!" Light shouted, who was extremely annoyed at the two brothers. Rush had stuck cotton in his ears, and was "sleeping" peacefully. Proto turned to Light, still clutching his scarf, and said "I think Wily's up to something again...I was spying on Skull Castle when Guts Man and Bass came out and got Drill Man." Mega whirled around at hearing "Bass". "What happened after that? Did they head for the city???" Mega asked, his eyes growing dark. "No, they went back into Skull Cas-" before he could finish, Mega was out the door. Bass and his group of merry Robot Masters were off to Sherwood...wrong story *ahem*. They teleported out a millisecond after Mega had dashed onto the scene. --- CHAPTER THREE cohaagen@usaor.net --- Mega Man saw Bass, Guts Man, and Drill Man teleport out just moments after he had arrived on scene at Skull Castle. Mega said out loud, "Darn, I'm too late!" Moments later, he realized that saying this so loud was a mistake, because something began to creep up silently behind him, and, before he realized it and turned around, he was lying on the ground, completely unconscious. He woke up tied to a large boulder, and he saw Stone Man and Grenade Man arguing in front of him. Stone Man yelled, "I'm the one who knocked him out! I'm gonna roll him off this cliff!" Grenade Man said, "No! I'm the one who saw him outside the castle first! Let me blow him up!" The two kept on arguing until they saw that Mega Man had come to. Grenade Man said, "All right, tough guy, let's let Mega-Dweeb decide his fate!" Stone Man retorted, "That's fine with me!" He pulled out a coin and handed it to Mega Man. Mega Man still had some flexibility with his hands. He said, "What do you want me to do with this?" Grenade Man said, "What do you think, stupid? Flip it! Heads, I get to blow you to smithereens! Tails, and Stoney over here gets to roll you off this cliff." Mega Man hesitated for a moment, and flipped the coin into the air... --- CHAPTER FOUR richterca@geocities.com --- The coin landed tails. "Ha, told ya!" said Stone Man. He started to push the boulder when suddenly, from a distance, there came a loud whistle. "What's that?" said Grenade Man. Then Protoman leapt out from behind them, blaster blazing. Within seconds both Robot Masters were in pieces on the ground. "Thanks bro," said Mega Man, "I was almost toast." "Yeah, this time I saved your circuits." Protoman replied. Mega Man and Protoman teleproted out. --- CHAPTER FIVE chameleo@webspan.net --- About half an hour later, the group of Robot Masters arrived in the small miner's town. It was basically deserted, exept for the occasional stray dog or dust devil. Bass lead the group around, although he had no idea where the mine was. There was a loud clang, and Bass whirled around to see Guts Man face-first in the settling cloud of dust. Something sparkled in the bright sunlight behind Guts Man. Bass ignored the robot, who was sitting up by now, and stared wide-eyed at the corner of what seemed to be a large, colorless stone. "A Diamond..." he muttered. Treble went to work, digging frantically. About 15 minutes later, Treble limped over to Bass. His left forepaw was covered in scratched, and was bleeding circulatory fluid a bit. "Dang, that Diamond must have some sharp edges..." he mumbled. He called to Drill Man, who was chasing a dust devil around stupidly. Bass's face distorted into a scowl, and a shot rang out. The ball of white Plasma struck Drill Man squarely in the chest, taking him off his feet. Luckily, the shot was only a level two, but it was still powerful enough to topple Drill Man. He sat up and groaned, "Why'd you do that for?!" "Because I need you for something, stupid." "Oh....well, what is it?" Bass's insult didn't quite set in. Bass beckoned Drill Man over to where he and Treble were, and pointed to the area where Treble had been digging. "Blow that jewel out of the hole, OK??" That last OK sent shudders down Drill Man's spine. He chucked two Drill Bombs into the area, and dashed out of the way. Bass and Treble did the same. KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!! --- CHAPTER SIX doclight@bitsmart.com --- "You idiot!" said Bass, "You blew up the diamond! That wasn't how Doc said to get the diamond! He said to CUT the @#$% thing!" "But you just said..." Drill Man started. Bass didn't let him finish, "Now he have to find another diamond. In fact, we need to find every diamond there is, so nobody else, particularly Dr. Light or Mega Man, get a hold of it. Think you and Guts Man are competent enough to just FIND a diamond, or should Treble stand guard by himself?" Drill Man looked blankly at Bass. "Treble, stand guard," said Bass, answering his own question. Guts Man, Drill Man, and Bass looked around. They didn't see anything. Then they found another huge diamond. It was too heavy for even Guts Man to lift. "So what do we do?" asked Drill Man. "Dr. Wily enhanced your drills with diamond coating. You can cut the diamond." Drill Man was hesitant to do this after Bass' last order, but he chose to anyway. Drill Man began cutting. Within ten minutes, the diamond was in half and Guts Man could carry one of them. Guts Man teleported out with the diamond and assumedly despoited it at Skull Castle. He teleported back in within a minute. "Bass, Doc said that he can make everything he needs from that, but we should get the other diamonds so Light doesn't have a chance to." Bass smirked, "Keep looking, guys. Guts Man, get that diamond." "Why don't I look and I get the diamond?" asked a voice from behind Bass. Bass whirled around, "Mega Man!" he exclaimed. --- CHAPTER SEVEN cohaagen@usaor.net --- Back at Skull Castle, Search Man was in his quarters, chuckling to himself. He thought, "Ha! Doc Wily's gonna love this!" He was staring down at a small device with two blinking lights on it. One light was red, the other blue. "This was the best idea I've ever had, bugging Mega-Jerk and Proto!" he said. Just then, there was a knock on his door, and Shadow Man walked in. "Hey, Search, what're you up to? You've been in here for days!" Search Man said, "Well, I know I can trust you with a secret. I've got Mega-Dweeb and that traitor Protoman bugged!" Shadow Man said, "Really? How'd you manage that?" Search Man laughed and said, "Heh. Those two idiots, Stone Man and Grenade Man set me up without even knowing it! They had Mega Man tied to a boulder, and I was monitoring the outside of the castle, so while Protoman was hiding, I bugged him too!" "Oh, this is rich!" Shadow Man said, doubling over with evil laughter, "Now we've got them for sure! Where are they now?" Search Man looked down at the monitor on his device and said, "They're in Oregon. Hey...isn't that where Bass went?" --- CHAPTER EIGHT protoman@dragonfire.net --- Mega Man leapt Bass's shot perfectly, and landed behind him. Bass was too quick, though, and dashed to Treble. Mega Man began charging his blaster as Bass said, "Treble, combine!" Bass leapt into the air and landed on Treble, combining into a familiar glider. Bass dove at Mega, but Mega let off his charged shot and impaled Bass, who groaned. By now, Drill Man and Guts Man has realized that something was amiss. They grunted. Then Guts Man picked up a convenient boulder and heaved it at Mega Man. He also leapt ten feet into the air and crashed back onto the ground, knocking Drill Man and Mega Man to the deck. Bass was not pleased. He showed this by screaming a curse in Guts Man's direction. Guts Man muttered, "Sorry, boss." Mega Man hopped onto the just-arrived Rush and jetted out of the way of a flying drill. He swooped around Bass, missing a few large purple beams. Bass charged his particle shower attack and Gutsy heaved a boulder in Mega Man's general direction. Mega Man swerved on Rush to avoid a swarm of drills which exploded seconds later. However, in doing this, he came right into the path of the boulder. Needless to say, that did not feel good. --- CHAPTER NINE ghost_dude@hotmail.com --- As Mega Man was hit by the boulder, he dropped speedily to the ground below. He fell and hit his back, which drained him partially. "Huh, huh, huh...the blue-dweeb fell!" Guts Man exclaimed. "Yeah, but where's his dog???!!" Drill Man wondered. "Arrrr.....whoof!!!!!!!!" Rush yelped as he flew towards the robots. "WHOA!!!!!" Drill & Guts Man yelled as they were knocked 10' in distance. "Hey!!!!! Robo-Lassie!!!!," Bass yelled, "here, take some PLASMA!!!!" Then, Rush fell also. "Hey, where'd Mega-Dweeb go???!!?" they all asked. "Up here, Robo-Dorks!!!!" Mega Man yelled. The Robo-Masters looked up and saw him swinging from a pipe. Then, Mega Man swung and kicked the trio in the faces. --- CHAPTER TEN cohaagen@usaor.net --- After Mega Man kicked Bass, Drill Man, and Guts Man to the ground, and as he landed, he felt something stick into his back. He fell to the ground as hydraulic fluid quickly leaked out of him. He could barely turn his head in such a contorted position, but he managed to, and he saw Shadow Man and Search Man behind him, both looking rather smug. "Oh, great," he muttered to himself. Rush attempted to fly into the two robots, but Search Man sent out a homing missile which almost instantaneously collided with the hapless robot pooch. Rush's flight path was interrupted, and he weaved and swerved until he hit the ground. Search Man said, "Okay, everybody OUT! Mega Man is OURS!" Guts Man, who had stood up by this time, had had about enough of this. He ran over to Search Man and brandished his fist at him. Search Man laughed and said, "Oh, it looks like you three have done a great job here! Ha! I've had Mega-Nerd bugged the whole time! Look!" He held up his device and showed it to Guts Man. Guts Man looked at it and scratched his head. Search Man said, "Oh, you idiot! Look! The blue blinking light is Mega Man, and the red one is Protoman!" Protoman had been silently watching from a distance up until this point. He decided that he would not be able to take on this many Robot Masters, but at least he did know that he was bugged. He did an external diagnostic scan of himself and found a small homing device planted on his back. He was in a tree, so he found a bird and planted the device on it. The bird flew away. Search Man, however, was more concerned with Mega Man and his dog right now. He said, "Look, WE caught him! You guys couldn't capture him if your lives depended on it! Look at him, his systems are almost completely down!" Search Man was right. Mega Man had lost almost all of his power. Shadow Man picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. He said, "Come on, Search, let's go collect our reward!" Search Man grabbed Rush, walked over to Shadow Man and they both teleported out, laughing maniacally. Guts Man pounded the ground repeatedly in a wild fury. Bass said, "Stop it, you idiot! We're in a valley! You'll cause a land..." Bass did not get the chance to finish, because, at that moment, a rather large boulder fell on top of the three robots. --- CHAPTER ELEVEN doclight@bitsmart.com --- "Dat hurt!" said Guts Man to Bass. "It probably hurt the rest of us more than it hurt you, you fool!" was Bass' indignant reply. "Well, our job wan't to get Mega Man, it was to hunt for the diamonds," said Drill Man, "so maybe we should FINISH OUR JOB!" "It's a thought," said Bass. "Yes, it is," said Drill Man. Protoman decided that recovering Mega Man was more important, at this time anyway. He quietly teleported out and back in near Skull Castle. Search Man and Shadow Man were talking outside the stronghold. "So, we give the Blue Bomber to Doc, btu then what? I mean, what do we do after that?" Shadow Man asked. "Demand a reward," Search Man answered. "What reward? We're robots!" Shadow Man reminded him. "Oh, yeah," Search Man admitted. It didn't matter. Protoman charged his Mega Buster and fired, knocking Shadow Man backwards. Search Man saw Protoman and fired some Homing Sniper missiles, but they deflected off Protoman's Ultra Shield. Protman fired on Search Man, knocking him out. He snagged both their weapons and grabbed Mega Man. He took him to Dr. Light's lab where he was reactivated, along with Rush. Mega Man, Rush, Protoman, and Beat were at the mine in Oregon again. The homing device was removed and the four were ready to attack. Treble had been "deranged" and the rest wouldn't stay long enough to get any diamonds. Protoman had given Mega Man the Homing Sniper, keeping the Shadow Blade for his own use. Protoman fired Shadow Blades at Bass and Drill Man, and Mega Man fired the Homing Sniper missiles on Guts Man. They were down really quick, and they weren't happy. --- CHAPTER TWELVE ghost_dude@hotmail.com --- The team made their way down into the cave. They quickly found a whole pile of "diamond". But, Rush accidently ran into it, and came a sound of metal hitting against metal.The team searched the walls for a passage while forgeting about Wily's bots. "That little Mega-Jerk!!! I'm gonna crush him....like, uh....a crushed thing!!!" Guts Man said. "Wily didn't give ya' alot of brain power, did he?" Bass exclaimed. "Heh, let's find those jerks and drill them to scrap!!" Drill Man said. Back where the team was, they found the secret door. They went inside to find a robot factory!!! They looked around and saw that diamonds were being made into robots. "Must be one of Wily's schemes." Protoman said. "Raaaaaa...." Rush growled, and went to chew on one of the robots. Two minutes later, Rush came back and had oil leaking from his jaw. "Whoa...Nice battle-wounds, Rush. Ha-Ha-Ha-HA! Let's see what plasma can do..." Protoman snapped. They shot at the robots, and the plasma bounced back. "What the?..." Mega Man asked. "That diamond sure is tough....Hey!!! Bro, got any more missiles?" Protoman asked. "Yeah....enough to blow this place sky-high!!" Mega Man said. "Hey dweebs!!!!" Guts Man shouted from behind. "Don't you guys EVER get blown to pieces????!?!?!" Protoman asked, sarcasticly. --- CHAPTER THIRTEEN cohaagen@usaor.net --- Mega Man was getting kind of angry about Guts Man's constant tauntings and wondered if he really ever did get blown to pieces. In a wild rage, he decided to find out. He fired off three Homing Sniper missiles in succession, and they all collided with the diamond as Guts Man dove out of the way. As they converged with the diamond, however, something happened that wouldn't have happened had the diamond been a normal one. There was a high radiation count in the area due to government experiments a few years prior. Protoman picked up a reading and tried to warn Mega Man to get out of there, but it was too late. There was a gigantic explosion which sent Mega Man, Protoman, and the Robot Masters flying off in separate directions. Mega Man landed on a distant island, his blaster badly damaged. Protoman landed in the middle of a jungle with a large gash down his right leg, and Bass, Drill Man, and Guts Man landed in a large snowdrift in a subarctic region. --- CHAPTER FOURTEEN doclight@bitsmart.com --- "Great! Just great!" Bass exclaimed, throwing his hands up and smacking the bottom of Guts Man's mouth. "Why didn't we check for radiation? Why didn't Doc know about it anyway? #@$%& diamonds, why do we have to get DIAMONDS?" "No matter," said Dr. Wily, who was beeping in over Bass' comm-link, "the diamonds there are destroyed and I have enough to enhance you. Come home so I can upgrade your armor." "We'll be back shortly, Doc," said Bass, "depending on how long it takes me to find Guts Man and Drill Man in all this snow. May take days." "Use your scanners, idiot!" said Dr. Wily. Mega Man, Protoman, Rush, and Beat had all teleported back to Dr. Light's lab where Eddie and Auto helped repair anything that was damaged. Roll cleaned them up a bit and polished their exteriors, and they were ready for another dirty battle with Dr. Wily. Dr. Cossack was there, as well as his daughter Kalinka, talking with Dr. Light about the stolen diamonds and how they would no doubt be used. "The diamonds will most certainly be invincible to Mega Man's arm cannon, so Bass and his crew will be hard to defeat," said Dr. Cossack. "Yes," agreed Dr. Light, "but he won't do anything on their heads, for fear of tampering with digital input circutry (seeing, hearing, etc.). No, Dr. Cossack, their heads will not be coated, and so if Mega Man aims well then he'll still have a chance. In the meantime, I asked you over so we could figure out how to design something that will pierce diamond armor." "I'm sure it's possible," said Dr. Cossack, "let's get to work. In the meantime, Mega Man should go and try to snag any diamond that Dr. Wily hasn't used yet so he'll keep as much advantage as possible." "I'm on it," said Mega Man. He teleported out. Protoman mirrored his exit, and Beat flew out the door, headed for Skull Castle. --- CHAPTER FIFTEEN ghost_dude@hotmail.com --- As the brothers made it back to the cave in Oregon, they saw some Diamond-Joes, who were like regular "Joe" guards, but had diamond coating. "YAAAAAA!!!!" the brothers yelled as they shot the Joes in the heads. "Hey bro! Ya' know, those Doctor's heads aren't big enough for their brains!!!" Proto exclaimed. "Yeah, but look!!!! The hills!" Mega Man shouted and they looked The hills started to glimmer in the Sun. It was DIAMOND!!!!! Meanwhile, at the "frozen artic", Bass was digging everywhere to find Drill & Guts Man. "Uuugh! Are you going deaf, Bass?! I said, USE YOUR SCANNERS!!!!!" Wily shouted. "Ohh....okay....how do the sensors work again? Ohh....okay....he, he.... an "On" button!" Bass excitedly said. In ten minutes, he found them. "Now, how do we teleport out?" Bass asked. "Uugghh....here..." Wily said and teleported the "Masters" out. At the dig site, Proto and Mega Man teleported 50 lbs. of diamond to the doctors. "Okay. This is enough. I'll get working on your diamond armor for you. --- CHAPTER SIXTEEN cohaagen@usaor.net --- Back at Skull Castle, Dr. Wily was furious. He was getting quite angry at Mega Man and Protoman for constantly beating up on his robots. All of the Robot Masters were currently being run through an assembly line, being coated with diamond armor. Dr. Wily had added some special synthetic alloys he had been researching to make their new armor extra-tough. He had also gained some inspiration from Search Man's recent attempt to track Mega Man and Protoman. He borrowed some stealth technology from his and Shadow Man's basic design, effectively making all of his robots undetectable by any type of radar or heat scanning. In addition to this, they could also, by use of a special adaptor belt, turn themselves invisible at will. Wily rallied all of his robots together inside Skull Castle and informed them of his new plan. "This day will mark our triumph over Dr. Light, Mega Man, and Protoman! With your new enhanced armor and stealth adaptability technology, you will be nearly indestructible! I'm going to split you off into groups to attack. Fire Man, Heat Man, Pharaoh Man, Flame Man, Turbo Man, and Sword Man! I want you six to find Mega Man and his dog and teleport far away with them to fight them. That way, they will be split off from Protoman and will have to fight all of you on their own! Air Man, Gravity Man, Gyro Man, Wind Man, Cloud Man, and Astro Man! You six will do the same with Protoman. Guts Man, Crash Man, Hard Man, Napalm Man, Slash Man, and Grenade Man! You will ransack Dr. Light's lab and bring him to me!" The robots cheered, turned themselves invisible, and teleported out. --- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN doclight@bitsmart.com --- Dr. Cossack laughed, quite amused with himself. He now knew exactly what Dr. Wily's plan was and exactly what to do. And, since he had used visual bugging, he even knew exactly how to duplicate the Robot Master's enhancements. He had discussed it with Dr. Light. Dr. Light petitioned the United States government for the necessary diamond, which the government freely granted under the circumstances. Dr. Light gave Mega Man a total coating of diamond. He managed to do so completely without disturbing the wiring for digital input. In other words, Mega Man was invincible to anything--almost. Dr. Light duplicated all of Dr. Wily's enhancements and then some. He had perfected an addition to Mega Man's Plasma Cannon so that it could pierce diamond. By putting diamond into the plasma mix, it could crawl through diamond alloy. It would be slow, but effective. Aiming at the head would be better, but not necessary. He purposely did not make Mega Man invulnerable to scanning, though, becuase he wanted Dr. Wily's robots to find them. However, he put diamond coating on his lab coat and also carried a diamond plamsa cannon. Dr. Cossack did as well. They kept a now-enhanced Beat with them, as well as Tango. The only people that could not be turned invisible were Dr. Light, Dr. Cossack, and Roll. Roll he hid away so he wouldn't have to worry about her. Now the match was again in their favor. "Okay, Mega Man and Protoman. If at all possible, I want you two to stay together. You'll want it. The diamond coating will protect you for a long time but not forever. Eventually even it can be penetrated. Don't split up if you can help it." "We're ready, Dr. Light," Mega Man said. "Good. Let yourselves be found, and good luck," Dr. Light said. "Dr. Wily is going to ransack this lab, so we're going to keep Beat and Tango with us this time, okay?" Dr. Cossack asked. "Fine," said Protoman. "Here goes nothing," said Mega Man. --- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN cohaagen@usaor.net --- Dr. Wily cackled to himself in Skull Castle. He had anticipated that Dr. Light would try to spy on him and find out what he was up to. His sensors picked up the bugs that had been planted there. He informed all of the Robot Masters secretly and gave them a fake speech about their next step. When he saw that the probes were gone, he gave them the real speech. "All eighteen of you will still be attacking, but not in the same places. I want all of you to attack Dr. Light's lab. Mega Man and Protoman will be out looking for you, so that they can team up against you. Before you attack the lab, I am going to unleash my newest weapon on them. It's a matter-disruption beam, and it will effectively disable their teleporters and Rush's morphing capabilities will be greatly reduced. I will wait until they are too far away from the lab to help Dr. Light, disable their teleporters, and then you will go to the lab, destroy it, and bring Dr. Light back to me. Mega Man and Protoman will be too far away to get there in time to help. Now, when I give you the signal, go." Dr. Wily went over to his main computer console and brought Mega Man and Protoman up on the monitor. He mounted his gigantic matter-disruption cannon, and waited for Mega Man and Protoman to stray too far from the lab... --- CHAPTER NINETEEN chameleo@webspan.net --- Mega Man and Protoman had no idea what was really going on. They stood out in the open for about 5 minutes, and started wandering away from the lab. Mega Man was a little bit uneasy. "Why do I have a sudden feeling of impending doom???" he mumbled, but loud enough for Protoman's audio circuits to pick it up. "You're being paranoid, bro." Protoman said in a warning tone. His scarf flapped lazily in the light breeze. "Yeah...maybe you're right...it's just that I feel like something awful is about to happen..." The unknowing Mega Man and Protoman teleported simultaneously about 5 miles away from the lab. Wily laughed aloud, and pulled the trigger, grinning ear-to-ear. He watched in glee as the beam of pure energy pummeled towards the doomed lab. Mega Man and Protoman landed, but they still didn't know what was about to happen. Mega Man whirled around as soon as he caught sight of the beam heading towards Light's lab. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" --- CHAPTER TWENTY doclight@bitsmart.com --- "We're too late!" said Mega Man. "We can teleport to the lab," said Protoman. Dr. Wily pulled the switch on his matter-disruption beam, as he cackled loudly. "Protoman, duck!" called Mega Man, seeing the blood red laser beam coming toward them. Protoman did so, and the beam missed. "Oh, that @#$%& Mega Man! He saw the beam!" Dr. Wily hissed. "Quick," said Protoman, "let's get outta here!" "Concur," said Mega Man, and the pair teleported out. They arrived back at the lab to see eighteen Robot Masters ransacking the area. They were tearing through everything, looking for Dr. Light. One Robot Master was taking heavy damage by Beat, but it wouldn't do any good. There were seventeen Robot Masters left. Mega Man knew Dr. Light's hiding place and nodded at it. Dr. Light saw Mega Man and nodded back. Then Mega Man shot a warning plasma shot into the air. All eighteen Robot Masters saw him and began to attack the pair. "This is suicide," Protoman muttered. --- CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE chameleo@webspan.net --- "Well, let's hope this isn't suicide. We'll need to live in order to beat them." said Mega Man, jerking a thumb towards the Robot Masters who were rapidly coming closer to attack. Protoman gave Mega Man an icy, visored stare for his lame attempt at humoring the situation. A brilliant flash of light gave the brothers a shock, and a flame whizzed past Mega Man and lit up Protoman's scarf. Protoman yelped in surprise and stomped on his scarf in an attempt at vanquishing the flames that were rapidly charring the yellow fabric. After the flames were finally stomped out, Protoman picked up his scarf. The visible part of his face twisted into a scowl, and he shouted in rage. Protoman shot a look at Mega Man, who had his jaw slack. "What are you DOING?! Catching FLIES?!" Protoman snarled. Mega Man quickly snapped out of it, and they dashed to attack the Robot Masters. --- CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO clarycat@msn.com --- "I can bet my memory chips on seven," Mega Man stated. The robo-craps machine whirred for a brief instant. "Snake-eyes, everybody loses! Hee-hee-hee, play again!" it bubbled. "What? Who are you?! Where am I?!!? WHO am I???!!!!!!" "Ah! Oh...only a dream!" Mega Mna grumbled, re-activiating. He sat still for a few moments, then realized where he was: right in the middle of Skull Castle (!!!), probably in a lab and temporary holding room judging from the monitors and the cage he was in. "Well, forget this place," he thought, as he tried to move around. The last thing he saw before blacking out again was the overhead laser cannon that had blasted him going back into a neutral position. As Mega Man re-activated again, he heard voices somewhere in the background. "grmhr..." "Protoman and Dr. Wily?" he wondered. "I'll work for you," Protoman was saying submissively, "as long as you let him go." "Fine," said Dr. Wily in response, "just don't make me fight him or Dr. Light...ahh, but what would be the point of releasing him when I could have both him and you?!" Dr. Wily said as he cackled insanely. "Wha..." said Protoman, realizing his trap had not worked. Dr. Wily took a small raygun from its hiding place in his coat pocket at shot it at Protoman, and Protoman passed out. The next time he awakened, he was in a twin cell next to Mega Man's. He heard Dr. Wily mumbling. "...lab defenses...full scale attack..." "Psst," Mega Man whispered, seeing through the bars that Protoman was awake, "you awake?" "Yeah," replied Protoman softly to avoid Dr. Wily's hearing him. "I took a look at your cell before passing out," said Mega Man, "and the motion sensors on the laser cannons are primitive. If you move slowly they won't see you and you can knock them out!" "Laser cannons?" asked Protoman. One hasty explanation and about three minutes of slow motion later, Mega Man and Protoman were free. The burst into Dr. Wily's lab, and to their horror they saw him addressing an assembly of robot masters: Elec Man, Metal Man, Shadow Man, Shade Man, Centaur Man, Plant Man, and Doc Robot. "The robot drones," said Dr. Wily, "will easily be...AH! MEGA MAN! ATTACK THEM!" The robot masters, lead by Doc Robot, were walking toward the pair. --- CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE doclight@bitsmart.com --- Mega Man and Protoman sprang into action. Mega Man slid toward Doc Robot, knocking him flat on his face while Protoman hit him with a quick plasma blast. Protoman blocked a Shadow Blade with his Ultra Shield, and proceeded to throw it to Mega Man, who threw it at Shade Man, who was swooping toward him. The Ultra Shield knocked Shade Man's wing off balance and he fell right on top of Doc Robot, who proceeded to throw him off his body and into the wall. Doc Robot merged with Metal Man, and then began to hack Metal Blades at the pair with blinding speed. What Doc Metal was not looking for was Protoman's stray Ultra Shield, which proceeded to come crashing toward Doc Metal and finally conked unto his head, throwing his final Metal Blade off course, and making it hit Elec Man. He attempted to fire another Metal Blade, which proceeded to curve back by the air of Shade Man's wing and hit Doc Metal. Anyone who knows the science of Metal Man knows that if Metal Man gets hit by his own weapon he explodes. Doc Metal was no exception. He exploded in a burst of flame, Elec Man was a bit to close to the fire and he was caught up in the flame, and became mere ashes. However, Shadow Man, Centaur Man, Plant Man, and Shade Man were coming toward the pair at blinding speed. Mega Man and Protoman didn't have a whole lot of time left before they had to kill four more masters before they were killed. "Hey, where did Dr. Wily get off to?" said Protoman. "Oh, terrific," said Mega Man.