A hush filled the night. And Protoman was doing his best to keep it that way.

Tiptoeing past Mega Man's bedroom, he peered in. His brother was a light sleeper, but no match for the sneaky Protoman. Soon, the "Blue Bomber" was going to wake up and find quite a surprise waiting for him...

Now, this could be a problem... Protoman thought. The lab's door opened by sliding into the wall. On the other side of the door was a force field. It wasn't reccamended to open the door while the field was on...not unless you wanted a screech to raise the dead. Protoman couldn't deactivate the force field so he had to find some other way out.

Several hours later and out of ideas, Protoman stared at the ceiling. All of a sudden, his brain sprang back to life. That's it! he screamed (in his head). The skylights were locked shut, but the control panel nearby opened them. Protoman touched the button very lightly, and the skylight swooshed open. Now, to get up...maybe I can climb the monitors! This was not an easy task. The monitors were stacked on top of one another in such a way that there were no handholds. For a human. But Protoman could latch his metal fingers onto just about anything, including control knobs.

Standing on top of the display, he still had to jump about five meters over and two meters up to get to the skylight. Leaping out across the room, he grabbed hold of the edge of the skylight, and flipped backwards over the force field. Flying through the air, he righted himself just in time to land on his feet outside the lab. Perfect! Now, for the Palace of Power...

Protoman climbed the hill that separated the lab from the Palace of Power. Whipping out the special piece of plastic he had brought along, he pressed a few buttons. The display read, "Ready." Typing in a special code, Mother Brain appeared. A clone of her, anyway. The hill was soon covered with fake enemies of all sorts! Protoman commanded them to march down the hill, and they did, smacking into the force field protecting the Palace. Grinning, Protoman teleported away. That ought to disturb their sleep!

Dr. Cossack had given Protoman access to his castle, so he had chosen it as the place for his getaway. Cossack, as usual, was working at one of his projects, even though it was 3:00 in the morning.

"Well, hello there Protoman!" Cossack greeted the visitor.

"Right back at ya! Can I help you with something?"

"Why, yes! Thank you! I'm trying to make a teleporter to jump subdimensions. I've just about got it, but it seems something is disturbing the signal on the other side."

A few hours later, the sun was rising and the team of night owls hadn't yet figured out what the trouble was.

"Well, I'm going to bed. Tell Kalinka I'm sorry about this."

"Okay, but I think she understands how important this is to you."

Protoman flopped down in a chair. He really wished he could stay to see Kalinka, but he had to be back in bed before Dr. Light and his crew got up. Before he could press the "lab" button, though, the security alarm sounded. Rushing to see what it was, he ran right into Dr. Wily.

"What the...oh, hi Dr. Wily! What are you doing in here?"

Protoman and Wily weren't exactly on friendly terms, but they weren't bitter enemies either.

"I've got to get my hands on ze device Cossack's vorking on!" Wily said in his German accent.

"Uhhh..." Protoman stammered. He didn't really know what to do. He didn't want to lose Wily's trust, but he didn't want to betray Cossack either...

"I can't allow you to do that." He decided against Wily.

"Just try and stop me!" Wily declared as about fifty of his robots appeared behind him. Protoman recoiled.

"Uhhh...no thanks! I'll just leave and say I wasn't here to stop you...there's just one problem. You see, my teleporter won't work."

"Vat's vecause I zet up a scrambler field outzide ze complex. Here..." Wily said, taking a remote control out of his lab coat. "It should be gone now."

Protoman didn't wait a second. Pressing the button for the lab on his teleporter, he was instantly beside his bed.

"WHAT!?!?!?" Protoman yelled at the top of his lungs. He was standing in-between a rather colorful sign that said, "Exit" and another that said, "Play." Before he could do something, Wily and the machine Cossack had been working on appeared beside him.

"Vhat...vhat heppened?" Wily wondered. Then he came to his senses. "Yes, yes of course! Ze scrambler vield vas disturbing ze teleporter's signals! Vhen I removed it, ve vere sent here..."

"And my teleporter caused it! Why, I oughta wring your neck, Wily..."

"NO! I know vere ve are, and I think I know a vay back..." Wily began working at the machine. "No, no, there are some parts mizzing. I think I know vere to vind zem, though." He pressed a few buttons on the machine. Both figures disappeared, leaving Protoman alone.

"Well, that's just great!" Protoman exclaimed. "Leave me behind!"

"It's okay." a squeaky voice said. "You aren't alone."

Protoman turned to see a bee. Only it wasn't a normal bee; it looked like something he had heard Kevin the Game Master talking about... Then, four more figures appeared behind the bee. One looked very familiar.

"Sonic the Hedgehog! I know you!" Protoman recognised one of them. "But...isn't your hair supposed to be spiky? And blue??"

"No!!" The figure exclaimed. "I am not Sonic! I'm Mighty the Armadillo!!!"

"Mighty the Armadillo? Never heard of you, you new or something?"

"I'm not new, just no one's heard about me until now." Mighty walked up to Protoman and smashed him with his fist.

"Yeeeeeeow! What're you doin'!" Protoman screamed in pain. Mighty's fist hadn't caused any real damage, just rattled him up a bit. Protoman was too strong for that!

"My, aren't you tough! I like you! Welcome to Carnival Island!"

"Carnival Island? Is that where we are?"

"Yes," an oversized crocodile wearing headphones said. "I'm Vector the Crocodile. You got any CDs?"

"No, I don't, and I'm more concerned with getting home right now than listening to music! I've got an appointment with innocence in five minutes!"

"Oh, I think you're gonna be here a lot longer than that. I don't know much about the mechanical thingy that was just here, or that guy, but I do know anything mechanical has to be made by Robotnik. What I don't understand is why he would want to bring you here," said an individual who changed colors rapidly from purple to green to yellow to blue to red and back to purple again. He later introduced himself as Espio the Chameleon.

"Shut up! You don't sound very welcoming, you oversized piece of jello!" Protoman insulted Espio. He knew he wasn't going to like this character.

"Why, I oughtta..." Espio shouted, coming closer to Protoman with fists clenched.

"All right, break it up!" the shadow at the back of the crowd emerged. "The mate's been brought here against his will by Robotnik, we need to at least question him! Oh, by the way, my name's Knuckles the Echidna, guardian of the Floating Island and everything surrounding it!" Knuckles said in his thick Australian accent.

"But he...he...called me an oversized piece of jello!" Espio pretested.

"I don't care if he called you George Foreman! Break it up!!!" Knuckles's strong leadership shone through and Espio backed away.

Protoman soon learned to live like the Chaotix team, fighting the evil Doctor Robotnik's minions. They were all very similar to Wily's creations.

One day, the team was called to a small uprising of mechanical Badniks in the Marina Madness zone. Protoman, this time, was invited to come along.

"Now this, mate, is called the energy line, and this is called the receiver ring..." Knuckles explained how to use the ring tether. One team member held one ring, while the other held the opposite one. In-between the two rings an energy line formed. The line worked just like a rubber band; the two team members could snap around to reach three times their normal speed!

Knuckles guided the way through the Botanic Base zone to the Marina Madness zone, their target. Protoman admired the huge vines and titanic palms. Nothing like this was ever seen on Earth!

Marina Madness was the place for the sea-loving inhabitants of Mobius to come on weekends. One ship was big enough to hold a crew of at least a thousand, if not ten thousand!

Knuckles gave the end of his ring tether to Protoman. He gave the other tether he had brought along to Mighty and Vector. (Charmy and Espio were playing checkers back at the Command Center, the place Proto had been warped/teleported to.)

"Now, hold still!" Knuckles called to Protoman. He was straining to run further and further away. Soon, the energy was a tight as it could be. "When I count to three, run as fast as you can! One...."

Protoman braced himself. He, unlike Knuckles, had been programmed with all of the physics behind all of this before he was turned into a bioroid and gained free will. He estimated, if he timed this right, that he would attain speeds of up to two hundred miles per hour!

"Two..." Protoman watched the ships in the bay to his left rock up and down. It reminded him of Cossack's harbor, and he was suddenly struck with a strong sense of homesickness. This had never happened before.

"Three!" He began to wonder if he would ever see Kalinka again. Then he was pulled forward at two hundred miles an hour, and forgot everything on the subject.

"Run, run, darn you Protoman, don't drag!" Knuckles shouted. Protoman put his hydraulics into gear. He had soon pulled ahead of Knuckles.

And within two minutes, they had traversed the entire Marina Madness zone, leaving Vector and Mighty behind.

"Way to go!" Knuckles and Protoman high-fived. While Knuckles was in the process of asking Protoman about his legs and everyone had forgotten what their real purpose was, a shadow slowly melted over the scene.

A few minutes later, Protoman had unsuccessfully tried to explain simple hydraulic principles to Knuckles and the two were starting to get chilly. "The place sure is getting dark! I didn't think the days were this short!" Protoman said, referring to the fact that on the Floating Island and nearby Carnival Island, the days were only two hours long.

"No, it's not supposed to be another hour before the sun sets..." Knuckles stopped in midsentence.

"What, what?!?" Protoman demanded.

"Stay very still...don't move until I tell you..."

Knuckles very slowly and carefully turned his head upward at the sky. Sure enough, it was Robotnik in his flying battery, aimed at destroying all of Marina Madness!

"Now, when I say, 'now,' jump as high as you can! Let's see what those hickups can do!"

"That's hydraulics, and--"

"NOW!!!"

Protoman clicked his heels together three times, and leaped up in the air. Knuckles, hanging onto his own ring, was pulled up as well. He caught onto a ramp switch and pulled Proto up.

The ramp slid open, and they leaped inside. And saw a swarm of Buzz Bombers!

"Well...Hell-O! You look like you're hungry! Care for some welding plasma? Hot off the stove at three thousand degrees C!" Protoman jumped above the mechanical wasps and blew them away. Robotnik had been trying to conserve his resources by rebuilding the Flying Battery out of cheap aluminum. Unfortunatly for Robotnik, Protoman's welding plasma went straight through it....leaving a tremendous hole in the ship!

Knuckles turned white. His sharp claws could surely break through that thin material, but not vaporize it!

"You sure want to leave? I'm sure Robotnik would just love it if you--"

"No! Great place to visit, but I would hate to live here! No offense, but I like my world better."

"Okay...but if you change your mind, be sure and tell me. That thing that Doctor Wily brought may not want to bring you back."

"This is main cabin. Shhhh..." Knuckles warned Proto. After several hours in the large ship, they had made it to the front.

"When I count to three, charge forward and start blasting!" Knuckles whispered.

"No way! I'm sick of this counting stuff; why don't we just go in and take some prisoners? I don't really want to blow away the warping teleporter!"

"Okay. You go and bring Robotnik back to me. I want to personally throw him out the window! Wait a second...did I ever tell you what he did to my family? Did you know that there are no echindas on Mobius besides me? He--"

Protoman charged up his blaster and kicked down the door. Robotnik was inside, working on the warp-teleporter with Wily. Or, at least, it looked like Robotnik. Red mustache...six hundred pounds...wierd glasses...it all checked out. Protoman grabbed Robotnik by the coat and threw him back to Knuckles, who prepared to throw him out the window. Or do something worse.

Meanwhile, Protoman had handcuffed Wily and finished fixing the warping teleporter. "Bye Knuckles! Pleasure working with you!" Protoman yelled as he hit the "on" button on the machine. Some smoke rose out of it, and then it fell over at Proto's side. Somewhere, sometime long ago, he had seen this...his thoughts were interrupted by Wily's laughter.

"Couldn't learn, could you? Vat isn't ze veal warper! I put in somewhere far from here for zafe keeping!"

"Blast you, Wily! See if I ever help you again!"

"You can't do anything to me. You need me to tell you where the warping teleporter is!"

"No, I don't!" Protoman flung Wily through the windshield. He plunged to his death.

"Blimey! Why'd you do that??" Knuckles came in through the collapsed door.

"Don't worry. He's going to be fine. I told Charmy to save him before we left."

Knuckles looked enraged. "Why wasn't I told about this?!?"

"You might have given it away." That didn't help. "Okay, so you wouldn't have, but I just wanted to be safe. Let's crash this thing and then go meet Charmy. He should have the information we're looking for."

Knuckles still didn't understand, but he went along anyway--

--after throwing Robotnik out the shattered window and pointing the ship at the ground. Knuckles grinned uncontrollably as he kicked the huge killing machine into mach ten.

"Hi guys! I got it!!" Charmy yelled, waving Wily around in the air. He sure is strong for a bee, Proto thought.

Protoman took the unconscious Wily from Charmy and listened to what he had to say.

"Robotnik is very good at miniaturazation! Seems the real one is right here in Wily's lab coat!"

Knuckles reached inside the coat's pockets, ripping them up in the process. Sure enough, it was there.

"It's this small??" Protoman exclaimed in disbelief. But sure enough, it worked. Protoman and Wily were in Cossack's castle again. Protoman thought he saw Knuckles giving the "Live Long and Prosper" sign to him before he de-materialized.

It appeared to be early morning, the same time the two had left. I wonder how much time it has been since we left... Protoman thought. Possibly a few days.

Protoman left Wily's unconscious form in Cossack's castle for him to deal with. That way, Protoman wouldn't get all the blame from Wily for ruining his plans.

At the lab, the skylight was still open. Protoman wondered just how lazy Doctor Light really was. He had just climbed into bed when an alarm went off.

No...not after all that! Protoman grogily thought. I was ready to go to bed!

Mega Man was up in a flash. His arm melded into a type 1 plasma cannon even before his blue battle suit appeared around him.

"What's the problem, brother? Does Mother Brain think she can try a night attack and win?"

"I guess. And she's probably right." Protoman answered his brother. It was at times like this Protoman really hated be a superhero.

Mega Man, Protoman, Rush, and Beat charged over the hill to see a squadron of at least a hundred thousand of Mother Brain's followers. This looks even worse than the fake attack I set up just before I left! Protoman thought to himself. He wondered what Doctor Light had thought of that!

Beat swooped in from the sky, right on top of Mother Brain.

"OH! That's gotta--" but Protoman was cut off by something very strange. His jaw dropped. Beat had...gone straight through her?? Something didn't seem quite right here. Surely Mother Brain wouldn't let her hologram lead an attack...?

"Just a second, Rock. Does this seem at all similar to another attack on the Palace a few days ago?" Protoman asked.

"What? There hasn't been an attack on the Palace in months! What are you talking about?"

"Okay, have I been gone at all in the past few days?"

"Brother, I think you should have Doctor Light do a scan on you! You're kidding, right?"

Something that looked like a cross between a bird and some Drain-O charged right through the idle bioroids.

"Whatthe??" Mega exclaimed.

"Allow me." Protoman took out a small plastic device. It read, "Attack commencing. Push [STOP] to discontinue." Protoman hit the [STOP] button, and the entire population of the hill disappeared.

Mega Man looked at Protoman in awe. "You've gotta teach me how to do that!"