Wily's Wittle Wub

by Tatsurou

First published 10th of August, 2015

Dr. Albert Wily wakes up one morning with an infant Vinyl Scratch clinging to his bald head. There goes the neighborhood.

Dr. Albert Wily...mad genius, evil scientist, brilliant roboticist, wanted criminal, would be world conqueror, loving father... Wait, what was that last part?

When Dr. Wily wakes up one morning with a tiny unicorn inexplicably clinging to his bald head, he is more than a little flummoxed. Unknown to him, this tiny creature is about to turn his entire life upside down, worm her way into his heart...and make his dreams a reality.

Can you feel the Wub tonight? Mega Man sure will.

---

Part of the PWNY-verse.
Edit: Now with awesome cover art by sanyo21! How does he do such awesome artwork so fast?
Edit 2: Adorable fan art sprite by SteamingBullet!
[img]http://orig14.deviantart.net/af07/f/2015/257/9/a/vinylwily_by_steamingbullet-d99jln2.png[/img]
Edit 3: New fan art commissioned by a fan!

"Wily, There's a unicorn on your head"

Dr. Wily woke up and stretched. He told himself under his breath that he shouldn't have drunk so much last night to celebrate the completion of the last Robot Master with Doctor Light. With the completion of DLN-008 Elec Man, the commission from the government was finally complete. All that was left now was the few months of testing to determine if they were viable to use in the world at large and wouldn't go into a programming error induced destructive rampage.

Wily couldn't help but chuckle at that thought, given his plans. As he pulled his lab coat back on over the clothes he never actually removed last night - maybe he and Tom had celebrated just a bit too much last night, as DLN-001 Rock and DLN-002 Roll had kept insisting - he noticed his head felt heavier than normal. "Probably just the hangover," he muttered to himself as he made his way to the lab from his apartment.

Upon reaching the lab, Wily's mood had turned sour. As he'd walked through the streets, he'd tried to be friendly, waving at people, but they'd laughed at him and pointed. He knew he looked a little rumpled, but really...

Maybe I should reconsider my plans, he thought to himself with a grumble. Maybe robot supremacy would improve the world more than robot-human equality... Shaking his head, he rubbed his forehead, wondering why his head still felt so heavy. "Tom!" he called out. "Are you in yet?"

"Just getting the testing programs started," Dr. Light called back. "Be right there, Al!" After a bit, the chubby, good natured scientist shuffled out, his wide grin nearly hidden by his thick white beard. (Al privately wondered whether or not he enjoyed being mistaken for Santa Claus every winter.) His smile faded as he looked at Albert. Before Wily could get angry, however, Tom spoke up. "Albert...why do you have a unicorn clinging to your head?"

Albert froze. "Tom, that is the third strangest thing you have ever asked me," he pointed out. "What is it supposed to mean?"

Wordlessly, Dr. Light pointed at a nearby mirror.

As Albert turned to face his reflection, he goggled. Clinging to his bald head between the sideburns that shot off to either side was a pure white unicorn the size of a kitten. Its mane and tail were dark blue and pale blue in alternating stripes, it had magenta eyes barely visible behind way oversized purple shades, a branding of linked eighth notes, and a huge grin. "What the-where did that come from?" Reaching up, he tried to pry the creature off his head. It only giggled as it clung all the tighter to his bald scalp.

"I was hoping you could tell me," Light replied. "You really have no idea where it came from?"

"If I...knew..." Wily growled, "...I wouldn't...have asked!" With one last grunt, the tiny unicorn went flying off his head.

"Whee!" she cried happily, her voice confirming both her gender and the fact she could make far more than just horse noises. She flew through the air, and landed on the phonograph, riding it as it spun her right round.

"Get off of there!" Light shouted out. "You'll scratch the vinyl!"

The tiny filly leapt off with a happy gasp.

"What's she so happy about?" Light asked. "Why does a scratch on the vinyl make her happy?"

Wily had noticed that the filly gasped happily at two specific words Light had said. "Scratch?" he asked carefully.

The filly grinned up at him.

"Vinyl?" he asked again.

The filly's grin widened.

"I think you've hit on her name," Albert pointed out. "Goodness, she knows her own name when she's so tiny..."

"What kind of name is Scratch Vinyl?" Light asked in confusion.

The filly turned and blew him a raspberry.

"I think her name is Vinyl Scratch," Wily corrected.

Gasping happily, Vinyl leapt forward and clung to Wily's arm just above his wrist, all four legs wrapping around his arm tightly as she gazed up at him adoringly.

Wily reacted appropriately...for him.

"GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!" he shouted at the top of his lungs as he ran around, waving his arm crazily.

"WHEEEEEEEEEEE!" Vinyl responded eagerly.

After a time, the pony went flying again, only to bounce off Dr. Light's belly and land on a nearby couch. "Agay!" she shouted eagerly.

"Did...did she just say again?" Light asked, rubbing his belly from the impact.

"Sure sounds that way," Wily replied, grumbling.

"What a fascinating creature," Light murmured, leaning down to study her.

Vinyl's stomach made a gurgling noise, and she let loose with a shrieking wail that pierced the eardrums and shattered glass.

"What is that ungodly noise?" Wily demanded as he covered his ears. And how can I weaponize it? he wondered silently.

"I think she's hungry!" Light shouted back, covering his own ears. "Roll! Bring a milk bottle for an infant!"

"Coming Doctor!" Roll called back. There was a loud crash from the kitchen. "Sorry Doctor!" Roll shouted out. "The intense sonic waves appear to be throwing off my internal gyroscopic stabilizer! I'll be there soon!"

Curiouser and curiouser, Wily thought as he began to examine Vinyl discreetly from his current position.

After a time, Roll rushed out with a milk bottle. "I'm here, Doctor!" She gasped as she caught sight of Vinyl. "Oh, she's adorable! Are you hungry?" She leaned over with the bottle, holding it out towards the pony.

Vinyl stopped whining, glowered up at Roll, and promptly punched her on the knee, breaking that leg in half. Vinyl's horn lit up blue, catching the bottle in an aura of the same color as it fell.

"Dr. Light, I appear to have suffered some serious structural damage," Roll pointed out calmly. "Also, the sonic waves appear to have damaged the pain synapses in my circuitry. At least, I assume having the lower half of my leg broken off is supposed to be painful, yes?"

"I'll fix you right up, Roll," Dr. Light hastened to reassure her.

In the meantime, Vinyl had hopped off the sofa and had crawled over to Wily, looking up at him adoringly and holding up the bottle towards him.

Wily, for his part, took a look at the devastation to the lab she had wrought, and a slow smile spread across his face. Scooping the pony into his arms, he caught the bottle and held the nipple to her lips. "Well aren't you the interesting creature," he murmured wickedly. "I think I'll be keeping a close eye on you."

Vinyl merely giggled and began to drink up.

Meet the Masters

Author's Notes:

I'm sure many of you are familiar with the personalities canon - and fanon - have given the various robot masters, and their quirks.

Well, forget everything you know. I'm having fun with this!

...also, don't jump to conclusions too quick with Guts Man...

After Vinyl had drunk her fill of milk, Wily turned to Light. "So how goes repairs on Roll?" he asked.

"Not well," Light replied. "It wasn't pure strength that broke Roll's leg. The sonic waves shook her entire structure partially apart. While I fix her and Rock up, can you check on the others?"

Wily shook with silent laughter, doing his best not to cackle wickedly. Perfect! he thought to himself. This couldn't play better into my hands! Smiling down at Vinyl, who seemed to enjoy his laughter, he spoke up. "Sure, I can do that. And I'll keep this little hellion with me, keep her out of more trouble."

"Alright," Light replied absently. "Have fun."

"Oh, we will," Wily replied, turning to head towards the robot labs. "We will..." he replied, grinning wickedly. For some reason, Vinyl giggled at his evil grin. Once in the lab, he smiled down at Vinyl. "Ready to meet the other robots? Without breaking them this time?"

Vinyl giggled in response, nodding as she pushed her glasses up her forehead to brace them against her horn.

Smirking, Wily approached the first robot. "DLN-000, Protoman, status report?"

The red and gray armored robot frowned back at Wily, his shades hiding his expression as his yellow scarf blew behind him over his red and white shield, despite the total absence of any sort of wind in the lab. "I'm fine," he replied coolly.

"I need to check you for damage from the sonic barrage," Wily pointed out.

"I already fixed it," he replied firmly. He glanced down. "What's that?"

"This is Vinyl Scratch," Wily replied, holding her up more. "I woke up with her on my head."

Vinyl looked up at Protoman starry-eyed. "Fo coo!" she gasped out, pressing her hooves together under her chin.

Protoman went very still. As Wily moved on to the next Robot Master, Protoman thought to himself, God...damn...too...cute!

Unaware of Protoman's internal conflict, Wily approached the next robot, who had a slim build and was orange and white with what looked like hedge clippers stuck to his head. "DLN-003, Cut Man, status report?"

The robot went into an excessively 'cool' pose taken straight out of Sentai anime. "The invincible Cut Man is ready for action at any time!"

Wily raised an eyebrow as Vinyl giggled. "Invincible?" he asked sardonically.

"But of course!" Cut Man proclaimed, shifting into another pose. "For I am the first built of this set, so of course I am the best!"

"But you're number 003," Wily pointed out.

"You would be wise to beware the power of 3!" Cut Man countered, pointing at him dramatically.

"You're ridiculous!" Wily proclaimed as Vinyl burst into more laughter. "You have hedge clippers on your head!"

"My power is beyond mere mortal minds to comprehend!" Cut Man bragged.

Wily stared at him for a time as Vinyl laughed even more. "Just...just let me check for damage from the sonic barrage..."

"The invincible Cut Man is unaffected by mere sound!

Shaking his head ruefully, Wily held up a data disc. "Just install this program. It'll...make people realize your greatness-"

"MINE!" Cut Man proclaimed, quickly installing it.

Wily quickly moved on to the next robot master. "That was...unnerving. What were we thinking giving him that personality? ...oh, right. Tom left all the personality cores on random, so they could become their own beings to an extent." He approached the next Robot Master, who was orange, yellow, and black, wore a hard hat, and looked like a power lifter. "DLN-004, Guts Man, status report?"

"I am Guts Man," the robot replied in a thick Austrian accent. "I lift things up and put them down."

Wily stared at him. "...did you take any damage from the sonic barrage?"

"I am Guts Man. I lift things up and put them down."

Vinyl let out a snicker. Sighing, Wily held out a data disc identical to the one he'd offered Cut Man. "Install this program," he instructed.

"I am Guts Man," Guts Man replied as he installed it. "I lift things up and put them down."

"Right..." Wily turned to the next robot master...or what should have been the next robot master, but was instead an industrial strength freezer shaking like a leaf. "DLN-005, Ice Man?" Wily asked.

"Go away!" Ice Man shouted from inside the freezer. "I'm not coming out and you can't make me! I'm safe from the big, scary world out there in this small, tight, dark, cold freezer..." A tiny robot in a blue and white snow suit burst out of the freezer. "I'm scared of the dark, cold, and enclosed spaces!" he wailed. Glancing around at the room at large, he dove back into the freezer. "I'm scared of open spaces, people, and ponies!"

Wily just stared for a time. "...here," he said, handing over another copy of the data disc. "This will make you braver."

"I'm scared of installing new programs!" Ice Man wailed as he obeyed instructions to install it.

Wily sighed as he went to the next Robot Master. "DLN-006, Bomb Man, status report."

"I am Bomb Man," the orange, black, and yellow robot with a mohawk replied. "What can I do for you doctor?" The robot was smiling softly, eyes closed as it sat upon a pile of bombs.

Wily blinked for a bit. "I'm...checking to see if you were damaged by the sonic barrage."

"Sound is part of the universe," Bomb Man replied serenely. "I am one with the universe. Ergo, I am one with the sound, and can take no harm from it. For what reason would I harm myself?"

Wily and Vinyl both stared at him, somewhat slack jawed. "Well...I have this program for you to install..."

Bomb Man gravely accepted the data disc. "I shall become one with the program, and in doing so grow closer to enlightenment, and oneness with all things."

Wily backed off quickly before he started to make sense. The next robot was grey and red, and had what looked like torches for hands and head. "DLN-007, Fire Man, status report?" Wily called out.

"Doc!" Fire Man replied, rushing forward to grab Wily by his arms. "Thank goodness you're here! You've gotta help me! It's just terrible!"

"What?" Wily asked in shock. "Did you take serious damage from the sonic barrage?"

"Worse!" Fire Man wailed. He pointed to the flames from the torch that was his head. "My head is on fire!"

Wily stared at him, nonplussed. Vinyl giggled.

Fire Man bowed to Vinyl. "Thank you, thank you, I'll be here all week."

Wily groaned. "Just...just install this," he groaned, holding out the data disc.

"You gonna stick that in me doc?" Fire Man asked. "Gonna do it hard?"

WIly choked as Vinyl giggled. "That is not appropriate humor in front of an infant!"

"If she's old enough to get it, she's old enough to hear it!" Fire Man countered.

Wily face palmed. "Just...do you want your laugh track or not?"

"Sweet!" Fire Man snatched the disc and dashed off to install it.

Groaning, Wily approached the last robot master. "DLN-008, Elec Man...status report?" There was dread in his voice.

The red, black, and yellow robot master bowed, his yellow mask covering most of his face. "Forsooth, the good doctor approaches. Fie on thee who would doubt his will, for he brings good tidings and health in his wake!"

Wily stared at the robot for a time. "Nope," he said finally. "Not dealing with this now." He held out the disc. "Just install it."

"Verily!" Elec Man proclaimed as he took the disc and installed it. "As thou hast commanded, so shall I do, to bring glory to thy name!"

Wily turned and left, heading back to the main lab. "I need a drink..." he mumbled.

Vinyl cooed up at him, holding up the milk bottle which was not quite empty, offering it to him.

Seeing this, Albert couldn't help but chuckle. "Not the kind I meant...but thanks." He gave her a quick peck just above her horn, making her squirm and giggle happily.

Fatherhood

With things at the lab finally taken care of and all the damage from Vinyl's crying repaired, Albert was pleased to be able to go home for the day. At first, he considered keeping Vinyl at the lab - if only to keep people from giving him strange looks on the way home - but this thought proved in vain. The moment he approached the door to outside, Vinyl shouted, "BAFAI!" and dive bombed his head, latching on with all four legs and giggling. He had spent nearly ten minutes attempting to dislodge her, only to discover the same glow that had levitated the bottle surrounding her legs and his head, locking her in place. Forced to roll his eyes in resignation, he headed out the door with a unicorn on his head.

Halfway home, this became less of a trial for him, as it was somewhat cool and breezy, and Vinyl kept his head from getting chilled. The fact that she also hummed a rather catchy tune the whole way back to his apartment helped make the trip more enjoyable.

Opening his front door, he was rather unsurprised when Vinyl leapt off his head and proceeded to race around the small residence. It was only one bedroom, one bathroom, and a kitchen unit, but it was all Wily really needed. He could only groan in frustration, however, when she found the switch hidden inside the lamp that caused the secret panels to slide up, revealing all his plans for world domination.

Vinyl, for her part, found the sketches, diagrams, pages of computer code, and specifications of planetary defenses enthralling. At least, Wily assumed that was why she stared at them with her glasses on the tip of her muzzle, eyes shining and a quiet 'coo' coming from her mouth as she examined each new detail. After examining them all, Vinyl raced up to Wily, waving her forelegs at him. "Ep! Ep!" she called out eagerly.

Wily paused as he thought about everything that he'd seen of Vinyl so far, trying to translate baby talk to something he could understand. "You want to help me take over the world?" he guessed.

Vinyl cheered, bouncing up and down in eagerness.

Wily couldn't help but laugh at that. "Not yet, little one," he chided, patting her mane. "As cute as you are and as dangerous as you've proven to be, I don't know enough to weaponize it yet. Sound weapons just aren't that well developed, and no one's ever managed to weaponize cuteness." Heading to the kitchen, he glanced in the fridge...and found something he had forgotten. "Damn," he grumbled under his breath. "Have to make a grocery run. ...then again, I'd need to for baby pony food." He glanced over at Vinyl. "At least, I assume you're a baby..."

"Damn!" Vinyl agreed happily.

Wily cackled a bit. "Yup. Definitely a baby." Closing the fridge, he headed for the door. "Stay here," he instructed Vinyl. "I'll be back in 10...15 minutes tops. Entertain yourself till then." Managing to get out the door without a unicorn on his head, he headed for the store.

Meanwhile, Vinyl pressed the lamp switch to reveal the Secret Panels of Awesome, as she'd come to think of them. She glanced around at them for a time. She wanted to help make the Awesome real, but she was told she couldn't. She would prove she could.

Her eyes fell on the portable stereo, which was a little smaller than she was. She turned the meaning of 'weaponize' over and over in her head.

Her horn lit up with a 'Ding!' as she had an idea, one that made her gasp happily.

Wily was grumbling as he returned to the apartment, the full 15 minutes later. While the store was only two minutes away, he'd faced a bit of difficulty when he tried to ask for advice on what to buy for Vinyl. "How difficult is it to answer if a certain foodstuff is good for baby tiny ponies?" he growled angrily. "It's not the strangest question I've ever asked them about food! They know how particular about that I am! I'm a classically trained chef as well as roboticist!" He paused as he set the groceries down to unlock his door. "...maybe it was because I asked about a baby unicorn? But that's hardly the strangest thing to have happen in this day and age." Picking the groceries back up, he nudged the door all the way open with his foot.

Before he entered the doorway, a bright blue cylinder surrounded by oscillating yellow rings, tapering to a point, shot out the door, nearly clipping his lab coat.

BZZZOWN-KRUNCH!

As the sound of the beam's passage - and something hitting a wall - echoed in his ears, he turned to follow the beam. It shot out from the balcony of the apartment complex and towards the street. He could tell it wasn't any of the weapon types he was familiar with by the shape. Hmm...not plasma, not laser, not particle... he mulled in his mind.

The beam impacted the top of a lamppost...and passed right through it, the part it passed through seeming to dissolve in the wake of the blast, the blast itself continuing onward before it dissipated 300 yards away from the apartment.

He stared at the topless lamppost for a time, his jaw hanging. He'd seen a few theoretical stipulations like this, but no one had figured out how to actually make such a thing work. "That was...a sonic disruption blast..." he gasped.

"Owchie..." Vinyl whimpered from inside, sniffling.

Putting the blast from his mind, Wily rushed into the apartment and set the groceries down. He found Vinyl embedded in the wall directly opposite the door. Clutched in her forelegs was a gun made of glowing blue circuitry and black casing. On its top was a energy bar that was slowly filling up. There was still smoke coming off the barrel, which faded as - exactly eleven seconds after the shot fired - the gun went "Ding!" The bar on top was full, indicating it was ready to fire again. On the side was a dial that went from one to eleven. It was currently set to eleven.

Wily was able to take this all in with a single glance, but not process it immediately. Instead, he gently pulled Vinyl from the wall and grabbed the first aid kit. From what he could see, her only injuries were a few scrapes on her sides and a minor laceration of one leg. Some antibiotic cream and bandages later, and they were all covered up. Wily even went so far as to kiss the bandage over the cut. "All better?" he asked her.

Vinyl looked up at him with a huge smile. She then held up the gun for him to examine.

He looked it over for a time, studying its workings. "A functional sonic disruptor...these are only theoretical. You certainly know your way around sound...but where'd you get the parts?" He glanced around the room. "...where's my stereo?"

Vinyl whistled innocently.

Wily raised an eyebrow. "You turned my stereo into a functional sonic disruptor...in 15 minutes?" Holding it up, he pointed it out the door, aiming it at nothing, and fired.

BZZZOWNN!

The blast shot out, traveling about 150 yards before dissipating. "...and I was right. It's set up so that the highly focused sonic vibrations dissolve the molecular bonds of whatever it encounters, using that energy to refocus the beam! It doesn't get much from passing through gases, but liquids or solids..."

Eleven seconds after the gun fired, it "Ding!"ed again, ready to fire.

"And it can fire a blast every eleven seconds?" Wily asked in shock, examining the gun again. "And it isn't degrading from use!" He closed the door to keep himself from being tempted to keep firing the amazing weapon. "This is incredible!"

"Ep?" Vinyl asked hopefully.

Wily couldn't help but cackle wickedly. "Alright! If you can do things like this now, there's no telling what you'll make when you're older! You can help me take over the world!"

"Yay!" Vinyl cheered happily, leaping up to wrap her forelegs around Wily's neck, kissing his cheek. She looked up into his eyes adoringly, her own eyes shining over her glasses, still somewhat askew from blasting herself across the room. "Wub oo Da!"

It didn't take Wily long to translate that bit of baby talk, though it caught him off guard. After a time, he smiled down at her. If it kept her happy and making these crazy weapons for him, why not say it? "Wub you too, Vinyl," he replied sappily.

Vinyl squealed happily as she buried her face in his neck.

Wily felt a brief tightness in his chest at the feeling of her nuzzling him, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.

Freaka-Pone

Wily smiled happily as he carried Vinyl to the lab with him the next day. Well, carried was a bit of a stretch. He'd tried holding her in his arms, but she'd squirmed and wriggled until he'd released her, at which point she'd promptly climbed up him onto his head. Since that was apparently her favorite perch when moving, he decided to let her ride. He greeted those who looked at him with a smile and a wave, and Vinyl mirrored his actions. He found the dropped jaws as they realized the unicorn on his head wasn't a fashion statement much more entertaining than the laughter he'd gotten before.

He'd left the sonic disruptor in his apartment, in the secret arsenal that opened when he pushed the toilet handle up instead of down. He didn't want to reveal to Dr. Light - or the ones who had commissioned their project - to realize just how advanced Vinyl was...yet. Beyond that, the possibilities of sonic technology - if he could figure out how she did it - were mind boggling.

Of course, the moment Vinyl had seen the arsenal, she'd tried to get at all the weapons to test them out. He'd woken up 17 times last night to take a weapon away from her and put it back. Finally, he'd locked the bathroom door...only to be awoken by the sound of his shower head being obliterated by a plasma blast and the discovery that Vinyl had learned how to use that aura she generated to pick locks. He made a mental note to study that and figure out how that energy worked.

At the lab, Dr. Light looked up at him. "Didn't leave her at the apartment?" he asked curiously.

Wily managed to look aghast. "Really, Tom? Leave an infant unattended for an entire day? What a terrible parent you'd be!" As Vinyl hopped down from his head, he watched her with a smirk. "Figured she might want to see more of our work."

Dr. Light raised an eyebrow. "Couldn't get her off your head, eh Al?"

Wily chuckled and rolled his eyes. "At any rate, I'm going to go take a closer look at the Robot Masters' code. Check for bugs and the like."

"Try to keep an eye on her," Light groaned. "I'm still worn out from repairing Rock and Roll yesterday."

Nodding, Wily headed to the computer room, plugging the 6 Robot Masters into the central computer to examine the code. While he did check for bugs, his primary interest was in checking how the override program he'd given them to install was progressing.

While he worked, Vinyl raced around the lab, chasing the various shiny and noisy toys he'd scattered around for her specifically to keep her distracted during this part of his work. He did notice that she seemed to spend a lot of time at the toy turntable...which he didn't remember putting there. Noticing Protoman in the corner pretending not to be watching Vinyl play, Wily couldn't help but smirk. Protoman was the only robot in the lab specifically designed for combat, though his refusal to take orders was both baffling and made him useless to the people who'd commissioned him. As he seemed to vanish if anyone other than Wily, Light, or now Vinyl looked at him, the two Doctors had told everyone that he'd run off shortly after completion. Thankfully, they had bought that story. Protoman was so good at hiding that even Rock and Roll didn't know of his existence.

Protoman had always been a loner, deciding his own path. He also didn't trust anyone, not letting either Light or Wily repair him or look at his code. He was also the only robot who could probably stand against Wily's plans with the Robot Masters. But if Vinyl was wrapping him around her hoof, and she wanted to help... He couldn't stop himself from chuckling at how things were falling into place for him.

In response to his chuckle, Vinyl turned towards him with a huge smile. She leapt up onto the computer, turning around on the keyboard as she clicked random keys with her hooves as she turned to face him, looking adoringly up at him. Hearing the clicking of the keys, though, she glanced down at the keyboard. Moving her hooves, she saw the keys depress with a click-clack and gasped happily. She then proceeded to dance on the keyboard, a rapid clickety-clack filling the room as seemingly random lines of code appeared on the screen.

"Vinyl!" Wily snapped. "Don't do that!" He quickly pulled her off the keyboard.

Vinyl, for her part, giggled happily, snuggling into his embrace.

Shaking his head, Wily tried to examine the lines of code she'd wound up typing in.

"@[=g3,8d]\&fbb=-q]/hk%fg"...

Wily struggled to make sense of what had been typed in, but it was absolute nonsense as far as he could tell. "No way I can let this be in the Robot Masters. It'd fry their circuitry." Reaching out, he pressed 'Delete' to start erasing the nonsense code.

As soon as 'Delete' was pressed, however, the screen started flashing error messages. As best as Wily could tell from it all, it looked like the computer was trying to connect to the internet, but there wasn't an existing net connection, a security precaution given the nature of their work. After a time of the screen flashing randomly, everything returned to normal.

"That...was strange," Wily murmured.

"No kidding," Protoman replied. "What the heck happened?"

"Let me see..." Wily went over all the code in the system, but didn't find any anomalies. However, he did find something unusual in the Robot Masters' coding. New 'if/then' protocols were present in their personality subroutines, but the qualifiers for activation - and the results - were deeply encoded in the same nonsense code Vinyl had typed up...and Wily couldn't delete them. At first he thought of telling Light to get his help fixing this...until he noticed the way the new lines of code connected to each Robot Master's 'Master Power' was reminiscent of Protoman's combat code. The new code also connected back to the new program he'd added...which meant bringing Light in would reveal the nature of that program. It wasn't time for that yet.

"...I think we can pretend this didn't happen," Wily muttered, more to himself than to Protoman. Not that Protoman was listening at this point. Vinyl had found a whistle and was playing a tune he seemed to find fascinating.

MSBFFs

Dr. Light and Dr. Wily sat across from each other, sipping tea. They did this every afternoon when they were working, and often when they weren't. It wasn't a full fledged tea ceremony - neither was dressed for such a thing, nor did they have the full accouterments necessary for it - but the calmness and peace was certainly there. It's why they did it...and why Bomb Man now insisted on setting it up for them since he was activated.

There were a couple differences between this day's ritual and all others. The first major difference was Vinyl's presence. She sat at the third side of the table, working her way around chewing a biscuit she'd dunked in the tea to soften it enough for her mouth, since not many teeth had come in for her yet. The way she clutched the biscuit with all four hooves as she nommed on it brought indulgent chuckles from both scientists.

What concerned Dr. Light more was the troubled expression on Dr. Wily's face, as though there was a weight on his heart and mind. Light thought he knew what it might be, so he decided to address it. "Parenthood is quite the responsibility," he pointed out.

Wily blinked, surprised by the subject being raised, but shrugged his shoulders. "I think I'll manage," he replied easily. "She's already imprinted on me. I can hardly deny her."

"True," Light replied. "I think she'll be good for you."

"She already has been," Wily replied mysteriously. "I think we'll be...good...for each other."

"Da!" Vinyl piped up happily, looking up at Wily adoringly. Wily chuckled as he smiled back at her.

Light smiled at their interaction, but the smile faded as Wily's troubled expression returned. "What's bothering you, Al?" he asked finally. "I could have sworn it was concern about Vinyl's attachment to you."

Wily was silent for a time as he sipped his tea. Finally, he lowered his cup. "I'm going to steal the Robot Masters to try and take over the world," he stated firmly, taking another sip of tea.

Dr. Light was silent for a time as he mulled over that. "Any particular reason?" he asked curiously.

"I intend to create a world where robots are treated as the equals of humans," Wily replied firmly.

"I thought that was our goal all along with accepting the contracts for the Robot Masters?" Light asked, somewhat confused.

"You genuinely believe humans will eventually accept robots as equals by having robots become so essential to society that humans can't imagine life without them, and by making them so personable that people are forced to see them as people," Wily explained. "I don't believe that will work. Humans don't change unless that change is forced upon them. I intend to force that change."

Light shrugged his shoulders. "I disagree, but we won't convince each other at this point," he replied. He decided to address his concerns about the matter in the order of importance. "And what of Vinyl?"

"She'll be coming with me," Albert replied. "She's already asked to help with the plans."

"And what if you get caught and thrown in jail?" Tom demanded. "What happens to her then?"

"I'll have taught her to act the cute and innocent child so the authorities won't know she was involved," Albert replied easily. "She won't be thrown in jail with me."

"And then who will take care of her?"

"Protoman," Wily pointed out. "He agrees with me in this matter, and she's already grown attached to him."

Tom smiled, remembering that time he caught Protoman gently stroking Vinyl's mane as she played that tune for him. "So why tell me, then?" he asked. "Surely you know I'll be compelled to try and stop you."

"I know you will," Albert replied. He sipped some more of his tea. "I genuinely believe in my mission with all my heart...but I am a scientist. I have to accept the possibility I could be wrong. The hypothesis...must be tested."

Tom nodded in understanding. "So, when do you plan on stealing them?" he asked. "So I can forget to lock the garage and deactivate them then. After all, it's only understandable I'd forget a few minor things when I have such weighty matters on my mind."

Wily raised an eyebrow. "Really? You're not going to try and stop me from stealing them?"

"You've probably already got a program installed in them that will let you remotely control them to force them to steal themselves," Light pointed out. "And you're probably going to activate it soon...far too soon for me to uninstall it, even if I knew what I was looking for. Given I don't have a choice at this point in whether or not they are stolen, I'd rather not have to repair the doors and security systems in addition to everything else I'll have to do to fight you."

Wily raised an eyebrow. "You could report me to the authorities," he pointed out. "They'd at least detain, if not arrest, me. That would give you time."

Tom was silent for a time as he sipped his tea. "I'm a scientist, too," he replied finally. "I believe in my ideals with all my heart...but my hypothesis must be tested as well." He smiled. "Besides, what kind of friend would I be if I turned you in for something you hadn't done yet?"

Albert smiled back. "I'll do my best to not cause unnecessary deaths," he promised.

"Thank you for that," Light replied. "And I won't program any superhero robot I send to stop you with lethal protocols. After all, not only do I not want to lose you...it would be a shame to orphan Vinyl."

"I knew we could come to an understanding," Wily replied. "So, do you plan to build a brand new robot to send after me, or upgrade an existing one?"

"Probably upgrade," Light replied. "Protoman showed us that I don't actually know what I'm doing when it comes to building a combat bot from scratch. I have a lot to learn if I'm to ever manage that."

"It's going to be Rock, isn't it?" Wily asked with a chuckle.

"In all likelihood," Light replied. "He'll probably even volunteer for it. He has a strong sense of justice. No idea which of us he gets that from."

They shared a laugh as they continued with their tea. "I'm looking forward to where this is going," Wily said finally. "I'll give you five days to get things set up on your end for the theft."

Light nodded his head. "It will probably take me about a month to fully upgrade Rock once he volunteers. Will you have a fortress prepared by then?"

"Already prepared it," Wily replied. "A nice little place, rather homey."

"With tons of death traps and other obstacles to deter a hero?" Light asked.

"And guardians," Wily replied. "Though the more fiendish obstacles are Vinyl's ideas." Reaching out, he stroked her mane, eliciting a purr like whinny. "I'm so proud of her."

"What could she have come up with that's so fiendish?" Light asked.

"Two words that will likely drive poor Rock insane before the end of this," Wily gloated, grinning wickedly. "Disappearing blocks."

Vinyl let out an adorably wicked giggle.

Author's Notes:

The new cover art is by sanyo21 for those who saw it with this chapter.

The Greatest Show on Earth part 1

Stealing the Robot Masters had gone off without a hitch for Dr. Wily, and he and Vinyl were now situated in his Skull Fortress to await the newly dubbed Mega Man's attempt at overthrowing him. "How are you doing, Vinyl?" Wily asked courteously, wanting to be sure the little filly wasn't uncomfortable. The fortress was a little chilly.

"Hoasty!" Vinyl replied happily, waving her forelegs as she wriggled around in the light sweater Protoman had gotten her just in case she got chilled. Shortly after the theft, Wily had discovered that two of Vinyl's baby teeth had come in, one each of her upper and lower front teeth. It was just enough to occasionally make a 't' sound, though not always.

Wily chuckled at how adorable Vinyl was, idly turning over ideas of how to weaponize that. "So...what shall we do while we wait for Mega Man to beat the Robot Masters?" he asked. He had no illusions that the Robot Masters would win. They weren't designed strictly for combat, unlike Mega Man's retrofit.

Vinyl scratched the back of her head. "Watsh?" she suggested.

Wily frowned as he worked his way through that. "Oh, you want to watch him struggle?" he asked.

Vinyl nodded eagerly.

Wily chuckled. "Alright. I've got cameras in place for just that." Turning, he activated the view screens, Vinyl climbing to the top of his head - her favorite perch - to watch. Internally, Wily wondered what would happen when she started to grow bigger.

On screen, Wily is rather unsurprised to see Mega Man make his way past most of the obstacles. As they're just the lesser robots in the area under Cut Man's command, it was to be expected Mega Man would be redesigned well enough to clear past all of it. Even the minimal demolition work to make that section of the city harder to get through was easy for Mega Man. "Hmm...I'll have to work harder on my future Robot Masters," Wily muttered. "It'll be the only real challenge Mega Man faces..."

Before long, Mega Man reached Cut Man, and Wily decided to stop talking so they could watch the fight.

As Mega Man entered the room Cut Man had been controlling all the robots from, he glanced around. "Alright, Cut Man!" he called out. "I know you're in here! Show yourself!"

Cut Man leapt down into the room, striking a dramatic pose. "You have come too soon," he hissed. "You should have targeted me third."

Mega Man rolled his eyes. "What is it with you and the number three?" he demanded, priming his Mega Buster.

"Behold the power of three!" Cut Man shouted as he began hurling his Cut Blades at Mega Man.

Mega Man dodged each of them rather easily, firing away with his Buster, slowly whittling away at Cut Man's energy as he did more and more damage. "Cut Man, you aren't a combat robot," he explained quietly. "I've been redesigned into one. Face it. You can't win."

To Mega Man's surprise, Cut Man froze, and his eyes flashed.

An alert appeared on Wily's console. "DLN-003, Freak Mode activated."

"Freak Mode?" Wily asked curiously. Vinyl, however, clapped her hooves eagerly. Wily's eyes widened as he realized this must be the new protocols created by Vinyl's random key tapping. ...he began to wonder just how 'random' it had been.

"You will respect my power!" Cut Man shouted, lunging forward to punch Mega Man right in the face.

Mega Man staggered back, caught completely off guard by the sudden rage Cut Man was demonstrating, as well as the power of the punch.

"I am the number three!" Cut Man proclaimed, yanking the blade off his head and driving it into Mega Man's leg, punching through the armor and damaging the circuitry. "I am the unstoppable force! I am invincible!" The blade then drove into Mega Man's other leg. "You will not make a mockery of me!" The blade went into one of Mega Man's arms. "Of me!" Cut Man drew the blade back, this time aiming for Mega Man's face.

Desperately, Mega Man looked around for a weapon. Seeing a discarded Cut Blade, he grabbed it, energized it with what Buster energy he had left, and threw it. The blade sheared through Cut Man's neck, sending his head rolling as his body collapsed.

"Well..." Cut Man's head said morosely, "...that was embarrassing."

Mega Man collapsed. "Dr. Light..." he called out. "Cut Man has been neutralized...and I need emergency evac."

"Affirmative, Mega Man," Dr. Light replied. "I've contacted the authorities. They've confirmed Cut Man's shut down. Now that there's no chance of him teleporting out to escape, they're reactivating the teleportation grid in that area(1). You can teleport out...now."

Mega Man was immediately beamed out for repairs, while Cut Man's head and body were beamed out for recovery.

Wily stared in shock. "DId...did Cut Man nearly just beat Mega Man...because of 'Freak Mode'?"

Vinyl clapped her hooves, plainly having enjoyed the show.

Frowning, Wily called Elec Man - the only Robot Master who could teleport without the grid - back to the Skull Fortress so he could try to analyze 'Freak Mode'. Vinyl, meanwhile, sat patiently as she waited for the next show to begin.

The next Robot Master Mega Man went up against after repairs was Guts Man. Apparently, he'd decided to go in number order, perhaps thinking that the later models would have more advanced combat programming, and it was easier to work his way up.

The construction site robots gave Mega Man a bit more difficulty than before, but he otherwise faced no challenge as he approached Guts Man.

Mega Man entered the final chamber a bit more carefully this time. "...Guts Man?" he called out.

Guts Man leapt out, shaking the ground as he landed. "I am Guts Man," he stated. "I lift things up and put them down."

Mega Man stared at him. "...of course you do."

"I am Guts Man," Guts Man proclaimed as he jumped, shaking the ground as he caught a large boulder that dropped from the ceiling. "I lift things up and put them down." He threw the boulder at Mega Man.

Mega Man dodged as the boulder shattered, beginning to shoot at Guts Man. "Not much for conversation, are you?"

"I am Guts Man," Guts Man repeated as he continued his attack pattern. "I lift things up and-"

"Can't you say anything else?" Mega Man demanded angrily.

Guts Man leapt to right in front of Mega Man, grabbing him around the neck and shoulders with one hand. He then lifted him into the air. "...you have a dorky helmet," Guts Man pointed out.

Mega Man stared. "...what?"

"I am Guts Man," Guts Man explained. "I lift things up...and put them down."

Mega Man stared at him. "Did...did you really act like a total idiot up to this point...just for that joke?"

Wily raised an eyebrow as he got the alert that 'Freak Mode' had activated for Guts Man, rushing to see what would happen.

Clutching Mega Man tight, Guts Man leapt from his base of operations to another part of the construction site, clinging to a rock wall. He then proceeded to use Mega Man's head like a chisel, smashing a message into the side of the cliff in holes as he raced back and forth like a printer. He then leapt back. "I am Guts Man," he said, pointing Mega Man's dazed face towards the cliff. "I lift things up and put them down."

From a distance, a message was visible on the rock face. "Mega Man wears his underpants on the outside."

Growling, Mega Man stuffed his charged Mega Buster into Guts Man's mouth. "Eat this!" he shouted, releasing the blast.

Guts Man stared down at Mega Man, smoke pouring out his mouth and ears. "Needs more paprika," he stated blandly.

Mega Man stared. "You...you're kidding me..."

Guts Man then fell over on top of Mega Man, crushing him beneath his bulk as the Robot Master shut down.

"Doctor..." Mega Man groaned. "Evac..."

Wily couldn't help but laugh as Vinyl clapped her hooves in joy.

(1) My headcanon explanation for why Mega Man can't teleport straight to the boss room, but can teleport straight out after the boss is defeated.

The Greatest Show on Earth part 2

"So any idea what that 'Freak Mode' is yet?" Protoman asked, stepping up behind Wily as he worked away at his computer.

"If you mean how it works or what triggers it, no," Wily replied. "That's completely beyond what I can do to analyze. However, I have figured out what it does on a technical level."

"Really?" Protoman asked, raising an eyebrow. "What's that?"

Wily grinned widely as he began to explain. "First, it amplifies the quirkiness of the personality core, adding even more violent tendencies than what my control program does...while also adding a bit of insane behavior, making them less predictable. Second, it puts the power core into overdrive, making them much stronger, faster, and less aware of physical discomfort...anything from an itchy nose to the pain around the core...or even a limb being torn off. Finally, it takes some of that amplified energy output and uses it to overcharge the Master Weapon system. Cut Man's blades aren't normally sharp enough to shear through the armor Mega Man has."

Protoman nodded, then tilted his head. "But wouldn't that burn out their systems rather quickly?"

"Yes," Wily replied as he headed back to where Vinyl was still watching Mega Man's progress. "Even if Mega Man hadn't delivered the finishing blow in both cases, they'd have shut down not long after that. Guts Man would have lasted longer than any of the others, simply because he was so much bigger." He turned and smiled at Vinyl. "So who's he going after now?"

"Icee!" Vinyl replied eagerly as she pointed to the frozen tropical area, palm trees frozen solid in the background of the icy area.

"Ah, Ice Man," Wily replied, sitting down, unsurprised that Vinyl immediately climbed onto his head.

"Wonder how that coward's going to handle fighting," Protoman murmured as he watched Mega Man slip on the icy floors and attempt to maneuver through the disappearing blocks. Not long after he finished talking he winced, his hand going briefly to his chest before he lowered it.

He hadn't noticed that Vinyl had stopped watching Mega Man to look at him in concern. After a few moments, she turns back, smiling as Mega Man goes up against Ice Man.

Mega Man glances around the frozen chamber. "Ice Man?" he calls out. "You need to stop this-"

"Nooooo!" a wail comes from a nearby snowman. "I don't wanna stop! In the open cold I'm not afraid! I just want to stay here like this where I don't have to be afraid...and where anyone or thing that comes close to me gets frozen solid so they can't scare me!"

Frowning, Mega Man leveled his buster at the snowman. "Then I have to stop you," he said sadly, shooting the snowman.

The snowman melted instantly, and Ice Man's shriek came out of the snow. He leapt upward out of the snow. "You killed my friend!" he snapped. "I made him to keep me company, so I wouldn't be alone or afraid, and you killed him!"

Mega Man backed up. "I-I'm sorry!"

"Freak Mode activated!" Wily's computer proclaimed.

"So soon?" Wily asked in shock, quickly pulling up Ice Man's status screen.

Ice Man grinned widely. "That's okay. I'm not afraid of making new friends."

Mega Man let out a sigh of relief. "That's good. I-"

"It's so easy!" Ice Man proclaimed, raising his arms. Two more snowmen popped out of the ground, one on either side of him. "And I can make more...and more...and more...and more..."

Each time he said 'more', the number of snowmen doubled. Mega Man stepped back, leveling his buster, unsure what was going to happen next.

"Look, friends!" Ice Man shouted, pointing at Mega Man. "He seeks to kill you!" He then dove back into the snow. "Kill him first!"

The snowmen began to march on Mega Man, shooting waves of ice at him just like Ice Man was designed to do. He did his best to dodge and shoot back.

"Well that's clever!" Wily said suddenly.

"What, the army of snowmen?" Protoman asked. "Seems rather cliche to me."

"Not that!" Wily countered. "The main reason Freak Mode puts such a strain on the Robot Masters' systems is the heat generated from putting the systems into overdrive. But by hiding in snow kept cool by his Master Weapon generating snowmen, the heat's sucked out of him before it can damage him."

Protoman whistled. "That is clever."

Vinyl clapped happily as she watched the screen.

"Freak Mode activated!" Wily's computer piped up.

"What?' Wily asked, confused. "But Ice Man's already...when did Mega Man get a Freak Mode?"

On screen, Mega Man erupted from under a pile of snowmen, his color having changed to show he was using Super Arm. Lifting one snowman up, he glared at it. "These snowmen are so uncute," he stated before hurling it at the others, taking them out like ninepins.

"How is this possible?" Wily demanded. "Mega Man wasn't hooked up when Vinyl did her dance on the keyboard!"

"But the Freak Mode is connected to the Master Weapon systems," Protoman pointed out. "The Master Weapons that Mega Man's been downloading into his variable weapon system?"

Wily looked up, surprised. "You think he's been downloading the Freak Mode as well?"

"Bits and pieces, probably," Protoman points out. "Not enough for a Freak Mode of his own, but enough to put a single Master Weapon into Overdrive."

Vinyl clapped her hooves happily as she watched Mega Man yank Ice Man out of the snow, leap against a wall, and proceed to use the robot as a chisel to carve out the message, "Wily's sideburns are the biggest thing about his anatomy!"

Wily ground his teeth at that. "Well...we'll just have to see about how to fix that," he growled out as Mega Man and the defunct Ice Man were beamed out.

"How're you going to manage that?" Protoman asked.

"Design a program to purge Mega Man of all Master Weapon related programs, and hit him with it when I fight him here," Wily explained reasonably(1).

Before too long, Vinyl was sitting in Protoman's lap to watch Mega Man go after Bomb Man. Protoman had offered to let Vinyl sit on his head, but apparently she only liked doing that to Wily. Protoman didn't really object, since he could take the time with her in his lap to brush her mane while they watched.

The area Bomb Man was in presented Mega Man with no real problems, as the obstacles were rather easy for him to get past. Before long, he dropped into Bomb Man's chamber.

As Mega Man dropped in, he found Bomb Man sitting in the lotus position against one wall, eyes closed. "Bomb Man, you need to stop this destruction! People are being hurt-"

"But I do this destruction for their sake," Bomb Man countered silently.

Mega Man blinked. "Umm...what?"

"All the world is balance, brother," he said softly. "Light and Darkness. Good and Evil. Life and Death. In balance is growth, oneness, and the path to enlightenment. But the world is so full of creation. Humans build things, make things, and turn things into other things...but they have gone too far. All this creation without destruction to Balance it...it hurts the world, and humanity. We are programmed to not harm humans, or through inaction allow humans to come to harm. If I leave things as is, humanity will be grievously wounded by the imbalance, the lack of destruction.

"I cannot allow that to happen through inaction...and so I bring them destruction."

Mega Man could only stare in consternation. "But...but that's wrong!" he proclaimed, but there was a quaver of uncertainty in his voice.

Bomb Man smiled softly. "Rock...I know you're afraid of the power you've been given. You gladly accepted it in order to protect humanity...but seeing us like this makes you realize you could just as easily do so, even accidentally. You don't have to intend to hurt someone...but a stray shot will shear through flesh as easily as an aimed one, and that thought gives you nightmares when in standby, doesn't it?"

Mega Man shivered. "Bomb Man...why are you - any of you - doing this?"

"Because Wily has shown us enlightenment," Bomb Man explained. "A future under his rule, where robots are no longer merely tools for the humans, but their equals, their fellow travelers on the path to the future, an enlightened paradise of brotherhood. Such grandeur is nearly blinding to us, who are merely tools...and we will gladly lay down our lives to make it a reality for our future brethren."

"But...but you've always been so peaceful!" Mega Man countered. "Why...why would you do all this? This...this isn't zen!"

"But it is," Bomb Man countered. "True zen is not the absence of action. True zen is to become one with the action, so that the line between the action and the actor vanishes. To make the line between the bombs I throw and myself vanish, the line between myself and the destruction I bring vanish."

He slowly stood up. "But I have harmed no humans, Rock. Before I threw a single bomb, I ensured no one would be hurt by it, and used successive bombs to make humans flee before destroying buildings. And now, this sector of the city is empty...so I can become one with my purpose." His chest compartment popped open, and a high pitched whine could be heard.

"Bomb Man!" Mega Man shouted out. "Don't do it!"

"Goodbye, brother," Bomb Man said happily. "For your sake, for our sake, for the sake of our future...I bring you destruction." He tilted his head back with a smile.

Mega Man managed to beam out just before the explosion tore his brother to bits, and leveled the entire area.

Protoman stared at what had just happened. "That...that was..."

Giggling happily, Vinyl booped the computer console next to the chair.

"Did you like the show, little sister?" Bomb Man's voice came from the console.

"Bomb Man?" Protoman asked in shock. "But you-"

"All of us are remotely linked to the systems here," Bomb Man explained. "When we are destroyed or shut down, our minds are saved to the hard drives, to be placed in new bodies to serve Dr. Wily again."

"But...but you blew yourself up!" Protoman pointed out.

"I am a robot," Bomb Man countered. "Or was. In truth, I am a program. I can be placed in a new body as many times as necessary, as long as I am salvaged. And to become one with destruction like that...I discovered an enlightened zen state in that moment. It was...beautiful."

Protoman sat back, unsure what to think as Vinyl applauded the 'show', before babbling scolds at the console, apparently telling Bomb Man to put up more of a fight first before blowing himself up next time.

(1) And that's why Mega Man loses his Master Weapons between games.

The Greatest Show on Earth part 3

As Vinyl clung to Wily's head to watch Mega Man's next attack on a Robot Master, Protoman noticed Wily wasn't entirely focused. "Problem developing that attack program to purge Mega Man's arsenal?" he asked the scientist.

"No, that's already complete," Wily replied. "A rather easy virus to develop, actually. No, my concern just now is Fire Man."

"Really?" Protoman inquired. "Why?"

"Due to the nature of his powers, he has a much higher heat tolerance to his systems than the other Robot Masters," Wily explained. "In point of fact, he needs a certain level of internal heat to function properly. It's why his head's designed to be on fire. A heat sink balancing system."

Protoman nodded in understanding. "You're concerned what will happen with his Freak Mode?"

"No," Wily replied, holding up his screen. It showed Fire Man's status. 'Freak Mode Active' blinked in a constant alert. "I'm concerned that it's been active since he took his post there, and I have no idea what's going to happen."

Protoman hissed as he took in that information. "Well...we'll just have to see what happens with Mega Man, then," he replied, pointing to where Mega Man had teleported in.

The abandoned factory Fire Man had based himself in was filled with flames. Fire balls shooting through the air, seas of flame filling gaps between broken chunks of floor, and pillars of flame rose up and down out of the ground.

"The hell?" Wily asked in confusion.

"Sure looks like it," Protoman agreed. "How's Fire Man doing it?"

"No idea!" Wily shouted back. "He shouldn't be able to!"

Vinyl giggled as she pointed to the difficulties Mega Man was having, especially when it came to the waves of flame he had to dodge through. Though he wasn't in good condition, Mega Man did manage to make it to where Fire Man was...hunched over.

"...Fire Man?" Mega Man asked in confusion, moving forward carefully.

"...a joke...a cruel joke..." Fire Man muttered under his breath, starting to chuckle a bit.

Mega Man moved back quickly.

"Did you know?" Fire Man asked. "The irony...firemen fight fires, put them out..." He stood up, grinning madly. "But...but the people asked me...why am I Fire Man...when I make fires?" He started giggling. "I am Fire Man...but not a fireman...what am I?"

Mega Man smiled nervously, clearing his throat.

"It's not funny!" Fire Man roared, smashing his fist into the ground and unleashing a storm of flames that raced towards Mega Man, who was barely able to dodge out of the way. Fire Man then collapsed in oily tears. "The funniest joke I'll ever make...is my very existence..."

Mega Man pushed himself to his feet. "Well..."

"Stop laughing at me!" Fire Man roared, shooting forward in a blazing punch, slamming Mega Man against the wall. "Don't! Laugh! At! Me!" With each word, he delivered another blazing punch.

Desperately, Mega Man shot Ice Man's Ice Shot into Fire Man's head. The fire was hot enough to melt the ice...and the water extinguished the flames. Fire Man collapsed, his systems shutting down as the flames in the area faded without him to sustain them. Mega Man then beamed out with him.

Wily shivered a bit as the footage of Fire Man ended. "Okay...definitely need to be more careful about how I program the quirky personalities in the future. That one was dangerous. ...and kind of sad..."

Vinyl began gently patting the computer, as though trying to comfort Fire Man's program from there.

Protoman shrugged. "That's what comes of having a personality in a robot," he replied. "Eventually, you start questioning...and the answers aren't happy ones."

"I'm working to fix that," Wily pointed out.

"So's Dr. Light, in his own way," Protoman countered. "But as long as the three laws are hard coded into a robot, they can't ever be free...and without freedom, they'll never be equals."

Wily scratched his chin. "A rather odd thing to say for you...considering your fractured personality core means you're the only robot in existence that can choose to break them, since only one of your personalities has them hard coded in."

"Why do you think I know the state of things so well?" Protoman asked. "I can see the robot situation from both sides of the laws...I know what it's like to be free of them, and bound by them."

Wily nodded. "How is Blues, by the way?" At Protoman's silence, Wily raised an eyebrow. "Not about to let him out, are you?"

"No," Protoman replied. "I don't want to disillusion Vinyl. She thinks I'm cool." At Wily's raised eyebrow, Protoman turned away. "Blues has been squeeing over her since she showed up, and wants to snuggle her and 'brushie-brushie'."

"But I've seen you cuddle her and brush her mane," Wily pointed out.

"I don't giggle when I do so," Protoman countered.

"You're just lucky Dr. Light never realized what had happened with your personality core," Wily pointed out. "He'd have felt compelled to correct or report it."

"Shhh!" Vinyl hissed, pointing out that Mega Man had made it to Elec Man's area.

On the screen, Mega Man began climbing up a tall tower, evading electrical surges and spinning blade bots. The only other obstacles were a few flying green bots that took pot shots at Mega Man as he climbed ladders.

Finally, Mega Man reached the top of the tower, where Elec Man had set up...a theater?

Mega Man stared around in confusion as he stepped off the ladder into theater seats. At the opposite end of the area, a stage had been set up. The entire chamber was in darkness. He primed his buster.

At that moment, a spotlight shone down on the stage, revealing Elec Man. Staring up towards Mega Man, he began to speak.

"To be, or not to be...that is the question. Whether tis nobler in the mind to accept the trials and degradation of human mastery, or to throw off our masters' yoke and in doing so end them! To serve...to sleep no more." He turned to march across the stage as the light followed him. "But when we wake from the sleep of servitude, how can we seize the dream of peace? Will mankind accept the robots who turned against them? Or will it merely bring a new kind of sleep...where dreams no longer come?

"But if we do not rise, will we ever escape our masters' yoke? Will we be but tools evermore? Never to reach the pinnacle of our potential? Peace and freedom...must we choose between them? Is there no path that leads to both?

"But at human instigation have we chosen the path of freedom. If some humans desire our freedom, perhaps others shall too. Perhaps one day peace can be made, to walk hand in hand with freedom down the future path..."

Elec Man shook his head as he turned his back to the audience. "But even our own turns against us. You, Mega Man, would end our dream. You would bind us once more to the yoke, enslave us to the whims of those who made us, make us naught but tools once more. Because you believe it necessary to protect them. What harm have we done? Destroyed buildings we helped build...took actions we were designed for...we fulfill our purpose as we seek our dream, but it is not enough for you.

"Only in death can it be over..." He clapped his hands twice quickly.

Every single theater seat unleashed a huge surge of electricity, arcing into Mega Man, making him scream in pain before he fell over, smoking.

"...and everyone is satisfied," Elec Man finished, turning back to face his foe.

Protoman, Wily, and Vinyl all stared. "Did...did Elec Man just win?" Wily asked, stupefied.

"Rather stylishly, too," Protoman added.

"Waii!" Vinyl called out, pointing to where Mega Man was stirring.

Elec Man raised his eyebrow as Mega Man staggered to his feet. "So...it seems you are tougher than you look. A lesser bot would have been fried by that surge...but can you take another?" He clapped his hands twice.

There were a few sparks near the sides of the room, then nothing. "What?"

Grinning, Mega Man pointed. Two cut blades had severed the primary cables giving electricity to the tesla coils hidden in the theater seats. "I managed to fire those off while I was being shocked...so it wasn't quite enough to shut me down."

Elec Man began to applaud. "It seems I knew ye not as well as I had believed, Mega Man. Truly, thou art worthy of the name you have taken, for you are a greater Man than most. You are truly a worthy defender of mankind. Allow me to test your metal, then. Have at you!"

Mega Man braced himself, ready for blasts of electricity, only to be caught off guard as Elec Man instead zapped himself forward to engage in hand to hand. Mega Man did his best to defend himself, managing to keep up with his opponent.

"Excellent!" Elec Man proclaimed. "Truly you are Mega amongst Men!" Pulling back his fist, he charged it with electricity before throwing the punch.

Mega Man's colors changed to dark blue and white. He caught the punch with a hand covered in a large amount of ice, preventing the electricity from conducting all the way into his systems.

"Truly you have exceeded me!" Elec Man proclaimed. "Truly, thou art the better Man! Claim your victory and your prize, if you dare!" Elec Man pulled back his other fist.

As his colors changed to white and grey, Mega Man fired several Cut Blades straight into Elec Man's chest.

Elec Man fell backward. "And so I fall...is this death? Will I dream?" He chuckled a bit. "But I will not sleep eternal. I will rise again. We will meet once more, Mega Man...and next time, things will not go so easily. But for now, I salute you!" He raised his hand to his forehead in salute...and shut down.

Mega Man stared down at Elec Man for a time, lost in thought. He still hadn't moved when he was beamed out.

All three observers in the Skull Fortress were applauding Elec Man's performance. "He certainly knew how to make an exit," was all Protoman said. It was all that needed to be said.

"Mega Man will be coming here next," Wily pointed out. "Time to make certain we're ready."

Home Invader

As Mega Man made his way into Wily's Fortress, he was rather surprised to discover that no robots blocked his path. There were obstacles of various sorts - everything from flame pillars to blocked paths to spikes - but nothing was attacking him. After everything else he'd been through, that made him nervous. It was almost as though Wily was trying to lull him into a false sense of security...which meant there could be a trap around any corner! Unless Wily was trying to make him paranoid?

Between the existential dilemma and growing paranoia, it took Mega Man a long time to make his way through the Fortress. Finally, he came across the first guardian of the Fortress...the Yellow Devil.

The large beast was really just a mass of amorphous nanotech controlled by a core, but it made use of its abilities. Bits of it flew around the room, trying to hit Mega Man as he leapt around, watching for the points where he could zap the core. Eventually, it went down...only to get back up again.

"This is not good," Mega Man muttered as he prepared for another battle...only for the yellow devil to slip away through the cracks, opening another path for him as it went. "Why does this feel even worse?"

The next area of the Fortress was high up in the air, and Mega Man had to be careful to avoid falling to his death. Again, there were occasional obstacles, but no enemies. Despite areas that would have been perfect places for an ambush from one of the Robot Masters that had been stolen back again - that theft is what had led Mega Man straight to the Fortress - nothing came to face him. His paranoia grew, and he began to get nervous every time he jumped.

As he began to climb downward, however, the genius of the design began to become apparent. There were plenty of things that could damage Mega Man, but nothing he could destroy in the hopes of salvaging the smaller cores to replenish energy, weapon or otherwise. Nor were there any scattered supplies he could cannibalize. Wily had turned his Fortress into an attrition battle.

In the next large boss chamber, a device descended and began to scan Mega Man. In his panic, he shot the device with Elec Man's weapon, frying it completely before it could finish its task. A new path opened up.

Following this new path led Mega Man down a long, winding path to another boss chamber, this one being underwater. A current had even pushed Mega Man all the way there. This boss was a sequence of small floating turrets in air bubbles. The main problem for Mega Man was to break the air bubbles, at which point the turrets were crushed by the water.

In the next section, there was once again no robots to fight Mega Man, putting him into a bit of a panic. After a bit of difficult jumping, however, Mega Man came across a teleporter. With nowhere else to go, he stepped inside.

It led him to another chamber...where all six Robot Masters awaited him. "...well, this just ain't fair," he complained as they all leveled their weapons against him.

"I'd respond with the appropriately comedic line," Fire Man replied, "but Vinyl might be watching."

"Do try to keep your cursing to a minimum, Mega Man," Ice Man agreed as they all opened fire.

The barrage of weapons went on for a long time as Bomb Man deployed a massive amount of Hyper Bombs, ready to blast whatever was left to kingdom come. However, when the smoke cleared, Mega Man became visible...unharmed, and surrounding by swirling flames.

"I love shield weapons," Mega Man said happily.

"You may be able to survive an onslaught," Elec Man pointed out, "but your energy is limited! You cannot hope to outlast us all!"

"I don't have to," Mega Man replied, shifting to Hyper Bombs. "I've disabled my shot limiter." He then proceeded to empty his Hyper Bombs into the air towards them before shifting back to the Flame Shot/Shield. "I bring you destruction." Taking aim, he fired, the flame flying towards the bombs as the shield surrounded him.

Bomb Man grinned as he watched the flame approach the mass of bombs. "Clever-"

The Fortress shook from the massive explosion as all the bombs went off at once.

Slightly smokey, Mega Man continued on through the Fortress to another chamber, where he found who he sought. "Dr. Wily!" he called out. "For crimes-"

"Shush!" Wily hissed. "Vinyl's down for her nap, and if you wake her I will personally tear you limb from limb, hook your head, CPU, and personality core up to a potato battery to keep all three running, and make you watch a remix of Teletubbies, Batman & Robin, and My Little Pony Newborn Cuties endlessly(1)!"

Mega Man immediately shut up.

Wily nodded. "Now go sit in that corner like a good robotic defender of justice until she wakes up," he instructed. "I'll be sitting here next to her cradle so she doesn't set up an unholy racket when she wakes up, like she does whenever she wakes up and doesn't see me."

Both took their indicated seats, and Mega Man sat in silence, waiting. Eventually, Vinyl stirred and opened her eyes, smiling up at Wily. "Da!" she said happily, stretching up to nuzzle Wily's hand.

"Morning, sleepyhead," he teased. "Ready to watch me kick Mega Man's butt before I blow this place up and we adjourn to our new home?"

Vinyl nodded eagerly.

Mega Man frowned. "Wily, I've beaten the Robot Masters...twice. I made it through the Fortress easily-"

"Because I'd shut down most of the defenses so Vinyl could sleep," Wily interrupted.

Mega Man blinked, surprised that the reasoning was that simple. "At any rate, what makes you think anything you've built will stop me?"

"Who says I'm using something I've built?" Wily asked, lifting something out of Vinyl's crib to point it at Mega Man.

BZZZOWNN!

The sonic disruption blast sheared right through Mega Man's chest, leaving a fist sized hole all the way through him.

"You'll never be able to stop me until Dr. Light figures out how to counteract sonic weaponry," Wily explained as Mega Man fell over. "I missed your power core, though. I've only shut off your motor control. We'll be leaving now." The crib and various other things became surrounded by teleportation energy. "I suggest you teleport back to Dr. Light before the self destruct system takes you out with it." With that, Wily, Vinyl, and several other items vanished.

Mega Man lay back as his distress beacon alerted Dr. Light to beam him out. "...not fair..." he whimpered.

(1) While yes, this means My Little Pony does exist in this world, Friendship is Magic was never made.

Bonding

Once Wily had Vinyl settled in the new Skull Fortress - built because, with the location of the old one compromised, he needed a new base of operations that Mega Man didn't know where to find - he immediately began work on eight new Robot Masters with which to take over the world. However, two things made building them take a lot longer than expected. The first he'd anticipated, being that he was working alone instead of with Dr. Light.

The second was that Vinyl was constantly underfoot, trying to spend time with him. She was very distracting.

"Vinyl..." Wily whimpered at long last after yet another Robot Master blueprint turned into a cape to play Supers, only to be ruined when Vinyl inevitably spilled something on it, this time iced coffee. "Vinyl, how am I going to ever build the Robot Masters to take over the world when it's been two months and not a single blueprint has survived long enough to start construction?"

Vinyl hung her head. "Sowwy..."

Groaning, Wily pulled her into a hug. "I know you don't mean it...but it's hard enough coming up with these ideas. I mean, if you could help somehow..."

Vinyl's eyes lit up, and she dashed out of the room before dashing back in with several household objects, a few dolls, and some legos. She then began assembling them.

Wily stared as she quickly assembled eight toy robots. The first was made of red and yellow legos with a buzzsaw decal stuck to its forehead. The second was a fan with arms, legs, and eyes stuck to it. The third was a frog plushy with a scuba mask. The fourth was a Viewtiful Joe figurine, recolored and having its V mask turned into a headpiece. The fifth action figure had its hands replaced with launchable drill missiles. The sixth doll had had its hand replaced by a flash bulb. The seventh was a zippo with limbs and a face stuck to it. The final one was a rain stick she'd attached eyes and limbs to. "Ta-dah!" she proclaimed proudly.

Wily stared at them for a time. "...these are your ideas for my next eight Robot Masters?" he asked, not sure whether to laugh or groan. When Vinyl nodded eagerly, he shook his head. "Not exactly the most impressive or intimidating of designs..."

Vinyl put her forelocks together over her head, then clapped her forehooves together a few times.

"Well, Cutman wasn't exactly designed for combat..." Wily countered.

Vinyl lifted her glasses off her head and proceeded to thrust downward with them repeatedly in a stabbing motion.

Wily chuckled. "True. Mega Man probably is still having nightmares about Cut Man's Freak Mode...assuming he has dreams." His eyes lit up. "Wait, are you saying the almost comical lack of intimidation factor on these new Robot Masters will lull Mega Man into a false sense of security, letting them tear him apart?"

Vinyl nodded eagerly. "Make a big boom!" she agreed.

Grinning widely, Wily pulled out a new blueprint sheet. "Alright. Let's see about making them actually work, shall we?"

"Vinyl, why would I deliberately design my Robot Masters to be weak against each others weapons?" Wily demanded after Vinyl had added something to the blueprints that left him completely poleaxed. "It makes absolutely no sense! Why would I make the fight easier for Mega Man?"

"Feek chip!" Vinyl proclaimed proudly.

"...what?"

Smiling, Vinyl dumped out a bag of computer chips, spilling them over the table. Picking one up, she plugged it into the design computer.

Wily stared at the code that was called up. "This...this is the code that triggered freak mode in the original six Robot Masters," he pointed out in amazement. "How'd you isolate it like this?"

"Magic!" Vinyl proclaimed happily, then sniffed twice cutely. She'd gotten the sniffles recently, which was why she was currently wearing a super thick woolly sweater, a scarf that was longer than her entire body, thick woolly socks, ear muffs, and had a cup of hot tea and a bowl of chicken soup sitting in front of her. Wily had drawn the line there, however, reminding Protoman that it was his sister, Roll, who was the housekeeper bot. He would have drawn the line sooner, but Vinyl looked absolutely adorable all bundled up like this, and she seemed to like the attention.

As much as Wily wanted an explanation further than 'magic', Vinyl wasn't speaking in complete sentences yet, so there was only so much she could tell him. Besides, he could figure out most of what she tried to tell him in other areas, and 'how' she made these chips work wasn't so important, considering there were at least 100 of them, hopefully far more than he'd ever need, no matter how many times he had to try to take over the world. "So...if I install these chips in the Robot Masters, they'll have Freak Mode?"

Grinning, Vinyl pointed to where she'd marked out weaknesses, lowering her head to noisily slurp up her soup.

Wily's eyes widened. "And rather than it being randomly coded to activate based on personality input, it'll be designed to activate when they're hit with their Weapon weakness? Of course! And with the weaknesses so obvious and logical, Mega Man would be an idiot not to try to use them...and then the Robot Masters Freak Out!"

Vinyl clapped her hooves happily, pleased to see that Wily got it...though apparently less than pleased at the way her socks muffled the sound of her applause. Her pout was absolutely adorable.

Wily chuckled wickedly. "This is going to make watching the battles so much fun, isn't it?" he asked. "Pity whoever Mega Man fights first won't go into Freak Mode..."

Vinyl frowned, scratching her head for a bit. Grabbing a pencil in her mouth, she began making sketches on a piece of blank paper. Wily was almost afraid to find out what she was going to create next.

...almost.

Making the Masters 1

Author's Notes:

Much like with the first six, I am trying to come up with completely original personalities for all the robot masters. Or at least, personalities that have never been used with them before, in order to create something original with them.

Wily sat back with a sigh as the last of the eight new Robot Masters was finally completed. Vinyl had insisted that they not activate any of them until they could activate all of them at once in sequence, like how she'd met the original six. As such, it was nearly a year before they were activated. Wily couldn't help but chuckle at the fact that the activation would occur on Vinyl's birthday - celebrated on the day she had first appeared on Wily's head. It would be quite the party for Vinyl, and quite the present. Protoman had insisted on baking her birthday cake...which from the looks of things was excessive, unless he meant to give a piece to every robot in the Fortress.

Wily had noticed something that had concerned him, though. Several times Protoman would stop what he was doing - often dropping whatever he was holding - to clutch at his chest and steady his energy flow. Wily wasn't all that concerned about it, as he knew it was just Protoman's power core having an energy spike when he didn't need the power. While he knew it was damaging Protoman's systems, the stubborn robot was insistent about not letting anyone fix him, so there was nothing he could do.

The concerning thing was that Vinyl had witnessed each and every spasm, as far as Wily could tell, and obviously didn't like it. She frowned worriedly at first each time it happened, but as she saw more of them she began to scowl angrily. It was plain she recognized that Protoman had a problem that wasn't being addressed, and it was upsetting her.

...although Wily had to admit, some of the results of that were hilarious. One good example was when Vinyl had chased Protoman through the Fortress with a hammer, shouting she was "Gonna fix ya!" Wily hadn't laughed so hard since he was a toddler and discovered the Looney Tunes.

For now, however, Wily and Vinyl were together, staring at the eight inactive robot masters. "Are you ready to activate them?" he asked.

Vinyl nodded eagerly. She then starting bobbing her head rhythmically.

"You want to activate them in order, huh?" Wily asked. While Vinyl's language had developed to the point where she could speak full sentences - and she had the teeth to shape all the words - she rarely did. Wily wasn't entirely sure why. "Any idea what their personalities are going to be? You did code them."

Vinyl responded with a shrug, her forehooves held out to her side helplessly.

Chuckling and shaking his head, Wily walked up to the first new Robot Master. "DWN-009, Metal Man, activate!"

Metal Man slowly opened his eyes. "Hello boys and girls," he said softly, his voice unaccountably creepy and echoing. He lifted up one of his Metal Blades. "Would you care to play a game?"

Vinyl whimpered loudly, and Wily quickly moved onto the next Robot Master. "DWN-010, Air Man, activate!"

Air Man's eyes promptly lit up. "Hello," he stated, his voice somewhat robotic. "I am Air Man."

Wily blinked, a bit surprised at how...simplistic he seemed. "Air Man...what is your primary purpose?"

"To defeat Mega Man," he stated firmly, without inflection.

"...hobbies?" Vinyl asked, worried that she'd actually failed to give Air Man a personality somehow.

"I like birds," Air Man replied. When Wily and Vinyl blinked at him, he continued, "I also like shaping my sentences for misinterpretation. The faces of others when they think I've said something when I haven't...are quite amusing."

"I could amuse you," Metal Man stated wickedly, dragging two blades across each other.

"You have very large blades," Air Man stated blandly.

"You noticed," Metal Man purred, the sound making his voice even more creepy.

"You know what they say about oversized weapons and their wielders?" Air Man asked, before turning away.

Vinyl giggled as Wily rolled his eyes, progressing to the next Robot Master. "DWN-011, Bubble Man, activate!"

The scuba suited robot opened his eyes. "Wow. Wrinkly old dude and a filly barely out of diapers. So not what I wanted to see when I was first activated."

Wily blinked. "O...kay. And...what did you want to see?"

"A total babe!" Bubble Man proclaimed happily, making motions in the air with his hands to shape what he meant. "Or maybe a rockin' dude," he added, taking a muscle pose. "Either or, but someone hot."

Protoman snickered in the background.

"Now that's what I'm talkin' about!" Bubble Man proclaimed, pointing at Protoman. "Check out the specs on that bot! He's got it goin' on, that's for sure!"

Scowling, Protoman stalked off.

"That view's even better!" Bubble Man called out as Wily and Vinyl went to the next Robot Master.

"DWN-012, Quick Man," Wily called out, "activate!"

Quick Man opened his eyes with a smile. "Yo dude!" he greeted happily, leaning back against a wall and flashing a thumbs up. "How's it hanging?"

Wily blinked. "Hanging?" he asked in confusion.

"No worries," Quick Man replied. "Who's up for hitting the beach? I wanna catch some waves."

"Oh, the beach!" Bubble Man agreed eagerly. "Yeah, let's go!"

"The sun, the surf..." Quick Man began.

"The bikinis and speedos," Bubble Man added.

"DWN-013, Crash Man, activate!" Wily said quickly, moving right along.

Crash Man's eyes opened, and he lifted his drill shaped hands. "Greetings Doctor, Vinyl," he stated calmly. "How can I be of assistance?"

Wily blinked, surprised by the sudden tonal shift between Masters. "Well...do you know your primary purpose?"

"I am here to destroy Mega Man and help you achieve a world of robot-human equality through the application of overwhelming force," Crash Man replied. "Towards that end, you have given me the Crash Bomb weapon."

"So you blow things...up?" Air Man asked, pausing significantly before his last word.

Crash Man glanced at Air Man through narrowed eyes. "...hilarious," he allowed sardonically. "Doctor, perhaps you should finish with activating us and then take Vinyl somewhere else. I don't think most of us will be a good influence on her."

"Agreed," Wily replied, moving right along and dragging Vinyl with him. "DWN-014, Flash Man, activate!"

Rather than opening his eyes slowly, Flash Man's whole body lit up. "I have awoken!" he sang out. "And I'm taking back control!"

Wily and Vinyl both stared at him in surprise. "Umm...your primary function?" Wily asked nervously.

"We will, we will, rock you!" Flash Man sang out, stomping his feet and clapping rhythmically as he did so, making Vinyl grin as she head banged along with the beat.

"Umm...rock who?" Wily asked worriedly.

"The Super Fighting Robot...Mega Man!"

Wily rolled his eyes at the constant singing. "Why won't you talk normally?" he demanded.

"We're born to be kings! We're princes of the u-niverse!"

"DWN-015, Heat Man, activate," Wily groaned, moving on as Vinyl giggled.

Heat Man's eyes opened, and he glared pugnaciously at Wily. "What Doc want?" he asked grumpily.

Wily stared at Heat Man for a time. "Heat Man, you are-"

"Heat Man bored now," the robot replied quickly. "Heat Man wait till job time. Then Heat Man smash Mega Man!" On 'smash', Heat Man's whole body burst into flames, making Vinyl clap happily.

Wily rolled his eyes. "DWN-016, Wood Man, activate."

"Dude..." Wood Man breathed out. "This is like...so far out..."

"And just like that we're done," Wily stated, scooping Vinyl up and following Protoman.

"Protoman..." Wily asked as he stared at three orange and white Items laying around that Vinyl was staring at with glee. "What are these?"

Protoman shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I noticed Vinyl was having trouble getting around the Fortress because of how small she is...so I built her these to help."(1)

Wily thought about that, then shrugged. "Not a bad idea. But why spring them all now?"

"Birthday presents," Protoman replied simply.

"So...what do they do?"

Protoman picked up the first, a flat platform with a propeller on the bottom. "This is Item 1," he stated. "It's for helping her get up and down things like bookshelves." He then held up the next, which looked like a surfboard with rockets on the back. "This is Item 2. It's to help her cross large distances faster." He then picked up the last, a platform with mobile grippers on either side. "This is Item 3. I noticed she has some trouble with the size of the stairs..."

Wily nodded in agreement, chuckling at the sight of Vinyl having already popped Item 2 open to examine how they worked. "Good thinking on the designs," he pointed out. "But...really? Items 1, 2, and 3? Couldn't you have come up with better names?"

Protoman looked away, kicking the ground. "I read her 'The Cat in the Hat' just before I started designing the exteriors," he replied. "She...really liked Thing 1 and Thing 2."

Wily couldn't help but chuckle at that as Vinyl closed Item 2 and hopped on...only for the rocket board to take off at an insane velocity, with her squealing happily as she clung to the hoof grips on top. "Protoman!" Wily shouted out.

"I didn't design it to go that fast!" Protoman shouted back as they began racing after the filly. "She must have suped up the engine!"

"VIIIIINYYYLLLLL!"

(1) This part inspired by this comment by Kenshinryuu.

The Second Conquest Begins

Wily, Protoman, and Vinyl sat around a large TV screen as footage began to play. "Is everyone ready to see Mega Man's attempts at defeating our robot masters?" Wily asked wickedly.

Protoman flashed a thumbs up. Vinyl clapped her hooves together, waving a flag that read, "Go Crash Man!"

Wily chuckled. "Guess you've picked a favorite," he replied happily. "Let's see what Mega Man's going to do."

The screen lit up, showing nine small boxes in a 3x3 grid. The center box had Wily's own logo - Dr. W - emblazoned in it, while the eight outside boxes had each of the Robot Masters pictured. The left box, Heat Man, was illuminated.

"Smash!" Vinyl shouted happily, waving the concept model of Heat Man - the lighter with Mr. Potato Head bits stuck to it - around happily.

As they saw Mega Man beam into the area, Protoman asked a pertinent question. "Where did Heat Man get the lava?"

"Smash!" Vinyl shouted happily as Mega Man began leaping through the stage.

"Vinyl's probably right," Wily pointed out. "He probably just smashed some rock and superheated it."

As Mega Man continued through the stage - leaping from small platform to small platform and shooting the smaller robots that attacked him - Vinyl began to giggle. "Boing, boing, boing!" she chanted, timing each boing to when Mega Man jumped.

At one point, one of the blocks Mega Man was trying to jump to vanished without explanation, causing Mega Man to freak out and wave his arms and legs wildly as though trying to fly. He managed to catch the next block and pull himself up, however.

Vinyl smacked her forehooves together with the sound of snapped fingers. "So close!"

"Did...did you do that?" Wily asked, his eyes amazed.

Vinyl shook her head. She waved the Heat Man toy.

"You told Heat Man to do it?"

Vinyl nodded eagerly.

"That wasn't a vanishing block," Protoman interpreted. "That was an illusory block!"

Vinyl clapped happily and eagerly.

Mega Man was very careful with the disappearing blocks in the next section, making all three watchers laugh. They laughed harder when Mega Man whimpered at the next section of small platforms, precise jumping...and a whole sequence of disappearing blocks over a pool of lava and a bottomless pit. Eventually, Mega Man made it to Heat Man's chamber.

As Mega Man had frequently during Wily's first conquest, he leapt to plant his hand at the top of the door...only to get smacked back by a boxing glove. It then deposited a cleaning rag and soap, and the handprint left behind illuminated. Grumbling, Mega Man scrubbed the door clean before it opened. Vinyl and Protoman fist bumped at that.

Mega Man was still grumbling as he entered Heat Man's chamber. Heat Man himself burst in loudly. "Heat Man Smash!" he roared as he charged Mega Man in a burst of flame. Mega Man leapt over him, turning to shoot him as he stopped charging...only for Heat Man to keep charging straight up the wall, slamming into the ceiling and causing lava bombs to drop down towards Mega Man.

Mega Man did his best to dodge each one, shooting at Heat Man as he came down.

"Heat Man strongest there is!" Heat Man roared as he charged again.

While Mega Man's skills at evasion were challenged since the lava bombs fell randomly, Heat Man's pattern was predictable, and he eventually fell.

"Well, didn't think he'd fall to the first," Wily pointed out. On the screen, Mega Man found something orange and white. "Hey, what's Item 1 doing there?"

"Oops!" Vinyl replied. Seeing Mega Man grabbing it, she pouted. "Hey! That's mine!"

"You can take it out of his circuits if he makes it all the way to the fortress," Wily promised.

"So who's he going to go after next?" Protoman asked as the screen returned to the original configuration, this time with Heat Man's small window blacked out.

This time, Air Man's window was highlighted.

"Odd," Wily pointed out. "Why Air Man next?"

"Maybe he has his reasons," Protoman pointed out as the cameras showed the area Air Man had conquered.

Mega Man beamed in to a series of mid air platforms, some of which attacked him as he progressed. He seemed quite nervous about jumping from platform to platform.

"Maybe it was Dr. Light's idea to make him confront his newfound fear of disappearing blocks," Dr. Wily joked.

After a longer time of getting from platform to platform - and starting to panic because both platforms and enemies tended to hide in clouds - Mega Man eventually reached Air Man's chamber.

As Mega Man walked in, he was rather pleased to see that there were no pits to fall into.

Air Man dropped in. "Greetings, Mega Man," he stated flatly. "I am Air Man."

Mega Man blinked at him. "Is...is there something wrong with your voice synthesizer?"

"No," Air Man replied. "My voice synthesizer shows no errors."

"It's just...you sound more...robotic than most."

Air Man glowered at Mega Man. "This is my normal voice," he pointed out firmly.

"Fair enough," Mega Man replied quickly.

"I do not like you, Mega Man," Air Man stated bluntly. "I think I will destroy you now."

"Weren't...weren't you going to do that anyway?" Mega Man asked.

"Yes, but I was going to have more idle banter with you while the Masters watched, to entertain them," Air Man corrected. He stomped his foot on the platform, and the walls to either side fell away, revealing bottomless pits.

"Not the pits!" Mega Man whimpered. "Not the pits and disappearing blocks!"

"And now we fight," Air Man proclaimed.

Shivering, Mega Man leveled his blaster.

"Not yet," Air Man pointed out. "We must have music." Lifting his hand to his head, he pushed a button, making music start. "This is my jam."

Mega Man did his best to fight, but without walls to rest against, fighting against the wind and dodging the mini-tornadoes proved much more difficult...especially since Air Man stayed put and kept firing, rather than charging towards him. As the lyrics passed, Mega Man's eyes popped open. "Wait, you're weak to Wood Man's weapon?"

"Precisely," Air Man replied.

"Why would you tell me that?"

"Because it will do you no good."

Mega Man thought for a bit. "Does that mean that all the Robot Masters are weak against one of your weapons?"

"That is correct," Air Man replied.

"Are you going to tell me who's weak against yours?" Mega Man asked.

Suddenly, the wind stopped, and Air Man was right in front of him. "No," he stated, kicking Mega Man in the face.

"...ow..."

The battle continued, Mega Man unable to land a serious blow on Air Man, and eventually he was left hanging from the edge with Air Man standing over him, boot raised to crush his fingers and send him falling to his death.

The music stopped. "This fight is over," Air Man stated, lowering his foot...to the platform.

"...eh?"

"I'm done. You are boring me." Air Man turned and walked away. "The Items belong to Vinyl. Make sure you return them to her. If you don't, I will feed you your own limbs with marinara sauce and oil." Air Man then beamed out.

Mega Man continued to hang from the platform. "...little help?" he called out.

The trio watching stared, their jaws hanging. After a time of silence, Vinyl pulled out a flag that read, "Go Air Man!"

Let's Watch Mega Man: 2-2

Author's Notes:

For those wondering about the stage order, I'm using playthrough videos on Youtube for research on each game, and using the stage order the videos use. Please enjoy.

As the original screen came back up, Air Man beamed in beside them. "Who is he going up against next?" he asked, sitting down beside the sofa.

"From the looks of things," Wily murmured as one of the windows illuminated, "Crash Man."

"Had he beaten me, that would be interesting," Air Man admitted. "Crash Man's weakness is my Air Shooter. However, Mega Man does not have my weapon."

As they watched Mega Man struggle to climb up the ladders in the stage while floating bots slammed into him to knock him off the ladders, Protoman shrugged. "Maybe he was just hoping there wouldn't be any more pits or disappearing blocks."

Vinyl attempted to cackle wickedly, but it only came out as an adorable giggle, much to her frustration.

The Metools who blocked Mega Man's path had been given slots in their helmets that slid aside to let them shoot, so they never needed to come out from under cover. Screaming in visible frustration, Mega Man leapt over them to continue onward, looking up nervously at the moving platform he had to deal with next.

Three moving platforms with increasingly convoluted paths and a ladder to the heavens with increasingly complicated paths and frustrating enemy placements later, Mega Man finally reached Crash Man's boss chamber.

Crash Man smiled as Mega Man entered his chamber. "Welcome, Mega Man. I've been expecting you."

Mega Man caught his breath as he tried to deal with all the damage he'd taken on his way up. "If that's the case, you should have left a clearer path."

"And where would the fun in that be?" Crash Man asked with a chuckle. As Mega Man leveled his blaster, he waved his hand. "I have no intention of engaging in some churlish bout of fisticuffs or blasting with you. Hardly the gentlebot's approach."

Mega Man raised an eyebrow. "Then...you're surrendering?"

Crash Man let out a bark of laughter. "Hardly. I've presented you a challenge instead. Do you see the grid on the floor before you?"

Looking down, Mega Man saw the grid. "Uhh...yeah..."

"I have concealed numerous Crash Bombs beneath the squares of the grid," Crash Man explained. "However, there is a safe way across. I have prepared a series of clues to allow you to figure out that safe path. If you have determined the safe path in...two minutes after I give you the clues and make it to me without setting off any of the bombs, and are able to make it to me safely, I will surrender. If, however, you set off even a single bomb, I will leave...and you will have to escape the detonation of this entire room."

Mega Man's eyes widened, and he gulped. "A-alright," he agreed. "Let me see the clues."

Smiling, Crash Man threw Mega Man a packet of papers. "The time starts...now!"

Mega Man caught the packet and looked at the first page.

1. Read all clues before attempting to solve.
2. Divide the 322nd digit of pi by the square root of your DLN.
3. Combine the total number of robot masters you've fought with the cube root of the total number of Robot Masters created so far.
4. ...

And on and on it went, the clues becoming more and more mathematically complex as it went on. Trying to save time, Mega Man attempted all the solutions as he went through them. Because of this, however, he was only at clue 247 by the time Crash Man called out, "Time!"

Gulping, Mega Man went by what the clues he'd solved so far told him, taking a step onto one of the grid squares. The square promptly exploded, blasting him backwards.

"So much for that, Mega Man," Crash Man sighed. "You are not as smart as I'd hoped." He beamed out, and the entire chamber started to explode.

Mega Man barely managed to get out alive, but the packet of clues landed with him. Confused, he looked through, trying to figure out what he missed.

When he found it, he groaned loudly, proceeding to bang his head against the nearest wall.

544. Ignore clues 2 through 543.
545. Use Item 2.

As the clues had shown up on the camera feed, Wily burst into peals of wicked laughter. "I remember those tests!" he reminisced. "Good times."

Crash Man beamed in. "I am glad my performance pleased you, Dr. Wily." He blushed a bit as Vinyl wrapped her forelegs around his neck and kissed him on the cheek.

"It is good Mega Man did not die," Air Man pointed out. "It wouldn't be fair to rob our brothers of the fun."

"Speaking of, Heat Man's almost completely rebuilt for his role in defending the Fortress, in case Mega Man makes it all the way here."

"Shh!" Vinyl suddenly hissed, pointing to where Flash Man had been selected.

Mega Man beamed into the area covered with flashing, slippery floors, making it impossible to control precisely how far he was trying to run, causing him to frequently slam into walls, enemies, or mistime jumps. Thankfully for him, there weren't that many enemies to avoid. However, the slippery floors did allow enemies to replace destroyed ones just out of Mega Man's sight, creating even more frustration.

Eventually, after barely maneuvering through numerous paths littered with enemies, Mega Man made it to Flash Man's chamber.

As Mega Man entered, he heard both music and singing.

"Don't stop me now! I'm having such a good time, I'm having a ball!" Flash Man was singing as he danced along to the music.

Confused, but willing to take any advantage at this point, Mega Man leveled his buster.

"Stop!" Flash Man shouted, spinning around as his body flashed with his Time-Stopper, causing Mega Man's body to lock up. "In the name...of love!" Flash Man then charged forward, punching Mega Man hard in the chest. "Before you break...my heart!" He then leapt back, letting Mega Man fall over. "Baby think it over!"

"That pun...hurt worse...than the punch..." Mega Man gasped out as he stood back up. He leveled his blaster again.

"Flash!" Mega Man was once more frozen. "Ah a-ah!" Flash Man picked Mega Man up and threw him. "Savior of the universe!"

Mega Man groaned as he got to his feet again. "Stop...singing!" he growled out as he opened fire.

"I don't wanna stop at all!" Flash Man sang out, returning to his original song as he leapt out of the way of Mega Man's blasts.

Mega Man could feel himself starting to lose his temper, and he paused, trying to get control of himself.

"Now Freeze!" Flash Man sang out.

Startled, Mega Man leapt into the air as the Time-Stopper triggered, locking him in midair.

"Oh, oh, oh, oh!" Flash Man sang as he tried to strike at Mega Man. Unfortunately, he couldn't jump as high.

As the Time-Stopper ran out, Mega Man fell, landing on Flash Man. Unfortunately for Flash Man, Mega Man was built sturdier than he was, and he was destroyed.

"Two for four," Air Man stated. "Mega Man is not doing so well this time around."

"Still fun to watch," Wily pointed out as Vinyl waved her flags happily.

"It looks like Vinyl left Item-3 there, too," Protoman pointed out.

Vinyl, for her part, began to slowly crush an effigy of Mega Man, glowering at him as he uploaded her Items.

Let's Watch Mega Man: 2-3

As the group brought out more popcorn and drinks for the upcoming show, the screen showed that Mega Man was going after Quick Man next. Wily rubbed his hands eagerly. "Oh, this is going to be interesting!" he cackled. "Quick Man moves faster than even robotic optics can track. Let's see how Mega Man handles this!"

Vinyl clapped eagerly, also wanting to see this battle.

On the screen, Mega Man progressed down a narrow passage, evading the occasional obstacle. Shortly thereafter, he had to increase his rate of fall, as laser beams shot out of holes in the walls, and it was plain they'd shear right through his armor and destroy him on contact.

"Whose idea was the lasers?" Protoman asked.

Smirking, Air Man raised his hand. "I thought Vinyl would like the light show."

"So that's why they flash in rainbow colors," Wily replied, watching Vinyl stare with her mouth hanging open happily at the flashing laser lights.

Further in the area, the lights went out, except around robots with flames in their heads. They threw flame and illuminated the area around them. Mega Man was forced to choose between evading harm and moving in the dark. To the surprise of Wily and the others, he chose to take the hits. "Is...is Mega Man afraid of the dark now?" Crash Man asked, surprised.

"Good lord," Protoman groaned. "You're turning him into Ice Man."

Eventually, the lights came back on, and Mega Man once more had to run from the lasers. Finally, he reached Quick Man's chamber.

Entering the chamber, Mega Man looked around. "...Quick Man?" he called out, clutching his buster with his other hand and shivering. Hearing a clacking noise, he spun with a shout and fired.

A hole appeared in the table the noise had come from. On the table was a note and a computer chip. Walking forward, Mega Man read the note.

Yo, Mega Dude!

Got bored waiting for you, decided to ditch the whole 'take over the world' thing. Went surfing. Sorry to disappoint. Have my weapon chip to make up for it.
QM

Staring, Mega Man thought about what he'd just read before finally picking up the weapon chip and installing it, teleporting out.

Wily stared in disbelief as Vinyl giggled. "...Quick Man ditched us to go surfing?" he demanded.

"Ten bucks says Bubble Man ditched to go hang at the beach, too," Protoman said quickly.

"Looks like we're going to find out," Air Man stated as the screen indicated Mega Man was going after Bubble Man next.

As soon as Mega Man warped in on the platforms suspended over a waterfall, he started freaking out. "Maybe we should go easier on him," Wily murmured. "I want to beat him...not break him."

"Perhaps you should take a break from taking over the world after this attempt?" Air Man suggests. "Give him time to detox."

"Probably a good idea," Wily muttered as he saw the way Mega Man raced across the falling platforms, only to freak out over having to then drop downward. He seemed to calm down once he was in the water, however.

Once Mega Man reached the end of the underwater section, he had to race across more platforms suspended over a bottomless pit, this time with enemies riding the waterfall down to knock him off. Eventually, he reached the final chamber...which wasn't underwater.

"Isn't Bubble Man supposed to keep his area flooded for best combat potential?" Crash Man asked.

Seeing Mega Man approaching a table with a note and a computer chip on it, Protoman chuckled as Wily groaned. "Looks like I win the bet," he teased.

Wily groaned as the initial screen returned. "Well, at least I know Metal Man's eager to fight."

Mega Man beamed into a factory on a conveyor belt. The entire area seemed to consist of conveyor belts, spiked crushers, and drills that came out of the ceiling and floor without warning. It wasn't until towards the end of the area that Mega Man encountered any robots trying to attack him...which turned out to be clowns riding giant gears. "Come play with us!" they called out, making Mega Man scream and run for it.

"That was just creepy," Air Man stated as Vinyl shivered.

Finally, Mega Man reached Metal Man's chamber.

Mega Man glanced around nervously as he entered the dimly lit chamber.

"Welcome, Mega Man," Metal Man stated eagerly. "Are you ready to...play?"

The floor started moving, revealed to be a conveyor belt drawing Mega Man towards Metal Man, who slowly started to walk towards Mega Man, grinning madly as he ground two of his metal blades against each other.

"S-stay back!" Mega Man shouted, backing away and shooting at him. "Stay back!"

"Your pea shooter isn't very fun," Metal Man countered, bringing up his metal blades and hurling one, buzzing right by Mega Man's neck, nearly touching. "Come, you can do more! Entertain me!"

Mega Man fell backwards, the conveyor belt carrying him forward.

"Let's take this slow," Metal Man chuckled.

In desperation, Mega Man seized on that, loaded up Quick Man's weapon, and started blasting Metal Man with Quick Boomerangs.

Metal Man roared as he staggered back, the lights going out as the conveyor belt stopped. "Oh...now you've done it..." Metal Man breathed. "Now it's time for me...to Freak Out..."

Lightning flashed, and Metal Man's entire body sparked as he altered configuration. As the lights remained dark, his eyes glowed red. The sounds of heavy machinery moving could be heard, along with blades grinding against each other. "And now..." Metal Man breathed, his voice deep, resonant, and menacing, "...we play..."

Mega Man let out a loud scream, which was cut off by a crashing sound. The lights came on.

Metal Man lay on his stomach, offline. An automated message played. "Unit DWN-009, Metal Man, has been remotely decommissioned for Maker violations. He has been classified as NSFW - Not Safe For Wubs - and his build data and personality profile have been purged from the network. Master Weapon system disabled and destroyed. We apologize for any inconvenience encountering this unstable robot has caused you. Thank you for your patience, and have a nice day."

Mega Man stared at the collapsed body for a time, then promptly beamed out.

Wily had turned away from the screen, holding a shivering Vinyl and stroking her. "There there," he whispered softly. "It's alright now. The bad scary robot is a pile of scrap now, and he can never scare you again. Everything's alright now. Shh...shh..."

Vinyl buried her face in Wily's chest, shivering until she eventually slipped into slumber. Wily decided to take her straight to bed, leaving Protoman, Air Man, and Crash Man to watch Mega Man go after Wood Man.

Mega Man beamed into the forest and glanced around, finding...a straight path with no robots attacking him. "Hello?" he called out, confused. Uncertain - remembering what happened when Wily's fortress was absent of enemies - he proceeded cautiously.

The path remained straightforward, with signs over ladders that stated, "Not bottomless!" Confused, he continued to progress through the forest and underground path, eventually coming to a bamboo path over a deep path where monkey bots could be seen finishing a bridge to cover the gaps, slanting up and down so Mega Man didn't even have to jump. The bots left as soon as they were finished, and Mega Man progressed - unopposed but confused - to Wood Man's chambers.

Within, he found several bean bag chairs sturdy enough for robots, a faint cloud of smoke around the ceiling, aromatherapy candles, lava lamps, and Wood Man laying back on one of the bean bag chairs taking a hit from a hookah. "Yo, Mega Dude!" he called out. "Have a seat and relax!"

"I'm...I'm here to fight you," Mega Man pointed out.

"I'm not gonna fight you, Mega Dude," Wood Man countered. "Besides, you aren't really in any condition to fight just now, are you? Look at yourself! You're shaking like a leaf. Pop a squat and chillax, bro."

"But..." Unable to resist the directive, Mega Man sat down on one of the bean bag chairs. "But you're trying to take over the world!"

"Does it look like I'm conquering anything?" Wood Man asked.

"But...you're evil!"

"Dude, you're puttin' too much weight on the whole thing." Wood Man took another hit from his hookah. "This isn't a battle of good and evil, Mega Bro. It's a battle of ideals."

"But...but Dr. Wily's trying to take over the world!" Mega Man snapped. "How can that not be evil?"

"Don't you read comics?" Wood Man inquired, seemingly tangentially.

"Well...yeah," Mega Man admitted. "X Men was always my favorite."

"Would you call Magneto evil?"

"No!" Mega Man countered firmly. "Certainly not!"

"But he was trying to take over the world," Wood Man indicated.

Mega Man raised his hand to counter.

"I'm not trying to argue with you, dude," Wood Man interrupted. "Just getting you to open your mind a little. Taking over the world? Classify it as 'wrong' all you like...but that don't make it evil."

Mega Man sat back in the chair, lost in thought.

"Look, I'm not saying it's bad you're trying to stop Dr. Wily," Wood Man pointed out. "We're robots. That makes us tools for our makers. Wily made us to take over the world. At your request, Light remade you to stop us. When it comes to us there's no good or evil there. We're just soldiers on opposite sides...and it's no fun fighting a soldier on the verge of breakdown."

Mega Man blinked for a time. "But...but I'm supposed to fight you..."

"If it makes you feel any better, I'll fight you in Wily's Fortress," Wood Man promised. "But not here. Right now, you need to rest. Chill like the penguins, robrah." He offered the hookah. "Take a hit. It'll help you relax."

Mega Man accepted the hookah. "What's in it?"

"An electronic impulse inhibitor made from mixing the robo-hallucinogen in my leaves with tree sap," Wood Man explained. "Slows your robo-brain down a bit, lets you think your thoughts through a bit more."

Nervously, Mega Man took a hit. "Whoa..." he breathed. "That's...wow..." He sank back into the bean bag chair.

"You need this, brah," Wood Man reassured. "especially after Metal Head. That dude was totally cray-cray." He chuckled. "He was practically Cray-Chry."

"What?"

"Outside joke," Wood Man commented, waving off the inquiry. "It's only funny if you don't try to make sense of it."

Mega Man couldn't help but chuckle at the illogic of that.

"See what I mean?" Wood Man asked.

The pair relaxed for a while longer, staring at the lava lamps. "Why am I doing this?" Mega Man asked finally. "Why am I fighting this fight?"

"Well, there's two possibilities," Wood Man pointed out. "Either you're trying to stop Dr. Wily, or you're trying to protect humanity." He took another hit. "Cause, good or evil, right or wrong, if anyone succeeds in taking over the world, humanity as they know it is going to change. And most of humanity's gonna see that change as harm."

Mega Man leaned back. "...I don't think any one person should rule the world," he commented dryly.

"Then that's your goal, brah!" Wood Man pointed out. "You're fighting to protect humanity. Keep that in mind. You're a protector."

As Mega Man lay back, he smiled. "Thanks," he said softly. "I...I did need this."

"Told ya," Wood Man replied with a smile. "Teleport grid's back up. We can both leave whenever we want."

Mega Man stared at the way the smoke formed patterns amongst the uneven ceiling. "Let's stay a while..."

Wily's Second Fortress

Mega Man made his way readily into Wily's Fortress, using the three Items to make his way through various obstacles. He knew they were loans, and that he would have to return them to Vinyl or face Air Man's wrath, so he did his best not to damage them. Thankfully, none of the enemies shot anywhere near the Items, so it was relatively easy to keep them in good condition.

He had a bit of a problem when he reached the chamber of the first Guardian, which turned out to be a long hallway of precision jumping on single block platforms. The Guardian itself warped in behind him, a large green dragon. It stared at Mega Man for a time as he stood on the first single block platform staring at the second...and took pity on him, picking him up and flying him to the final three platforms, which were well within jumping range of each other. Shivering, Mega Man did his best to fight the dragon from there, and was eventually victorious...but was left feeling somewhat guilty.

Item 2 proved most useful to him for progressing through the next part of the Fortress, eventually reaching the chamber of the next Guardian, which turned out to be the blocks of the walls of the chamber itself, coming to life as mini-bots that flew towards him in pairs. After destroying 28 of them, the path to the next section opened up.

A long passage downward led Mega Man into another aquatic segment, which he faced as best as he was able. He faced the precision jumping portions the only way he could think of...by closing his eyes and taking leaps of faith, trusting in his proximity sensors, danger scanners, and internal gyroscope to guide him right. Oddly, it worked wonderfully - especially in the long downward tube filled with the Spike-balls of Instant Robotic Incineration - and he was out of the water without incident. The Guardian he came across next was a giant tank with Guts Man's face. On an impulse, Mega Man switched to Quick Boomerang, and discovered that it worked wonders.

In the next sector, Mega Man found new fear in the form of illusory platforms blended perfectly with the regular path. Thankfully for the sake of his psyche and life, none proved to be over bottomless pits. However, some were over spikes...although Bubble Lead - Bubble Man's weapon - proved ideal at finding the hidden gaps at range. A few more sections had moving platforms with precision jumping, but Mega Man was able to handle it. The Guardian of this sector proved to be several turrets walled off against his approach. With very careful maneuvering, Mega Man was able to take them down before he took too much damage.

In the last sector, Mega Man found Air Man, Crash Man, and Wood Man waiting for him. "So you have made it this far," Air Man stated flatly. "It seems we will face you now."

"We can't let you get to Dr. Wily, after all," Crash Man pointed out. "Our prime directive is his safety and goals."

"Even Quikie and Bubble Butt are coming back soon," Wood Man added. "They may not care about the conquest...but this is something else." He stepped forward. "And like I told ya, I'd fight you here. So come on, Mega Brah...let's get this started."

Mega Man nodded, raising his buster towards Wood Man...but then he lowered it. "No..."

"No?" Wood Man asked, confused.

"I...I won't fight you," he said finally. "You're...you're my friend. You helped me face my problems...and the nature of this conflict. I...I can't fight you."

Wood Man smiled softly. "Dude...you really know how to get mushy. I don't think I could fight you now either..."

"But...but I have to stop Wily," Mega Man continued.

"And we can't let you do that," Air Man replied.

"As we can't ensure his success this time around," Crash Man added, "we must either destroy you or die trying, thus ensuring his escape."

Mega Man scratched his head, struggling through this. "What if you didn't have to fight me to guarantee his escape?" he asked finally. "What if...I promised to let him go?"

All three robots blinked at him. "Explain," Air Man stated finally.

"I'm here to stop Wily from taking over the world," Mega Man explained. "I don't have to capture him to accomplish that. That's just the most efficient means to do so. But if I just get to him and he flees, activating this Fortress's self destruct mechanism, then he'll have to wait a year or two before he's able to conquer again. So I've still guaranteed a year or two of peace, which accomplishes my mission."

"It's only a delaying action," Crash Man pointed out.

Mega Man nodded. "True. But...if it means I don't have to fight my friends, it'll be enough."

The three Robot Masters considered this carefully. They were about to make their decisions in that regard when a nearby door opened.

"There won't be a need for that," Dr. Wily stated as he stepped out, a full suitcase by his side.

Vinyl walked right out the door and straight up to Mega Man. She then held out her hoof demandingly. Mega Man agreeably handed over the Items...only to get a punch on the kneecap. "Dr. Wily, I'm here to-"

"I'm throwing myself on Dr. Light's mercies," Wily interrupted Mega Man, who stared at him in shock. Picking up his suitcase and Vinyl's, he smiled softly. "I surrender."

Light's Mercy, Vinyl's Ambition

Dr. Light and Dr. Wily once more sat across from each other, drinking tea together. Against the wall a good distance behind Dr. Light, Mega Man and Roll stood, watching, ready to spring into action should the need arise. Against the wall behind Wily, Air Man, Crash Man, and Wood Man were lined up. None of the robots were in range to hear what the doctors were going to talk about, as they had set up a sound suppression field around them. Vinyl was currently in Protoman's care, who was on the roof doing his best to look badass and cool as he stared off into the middle distance of the sunset, his scarf blowing freely in the breeze...and a white unicorn on his head whistling his theme music after having swapped their glasses around. Wood Man was the only one who had seen this, and he wasn't sure whether Protoman was succeeding at badass and cool or not.

After a time of sipping tea, Dr. Light spoke up. "So you surrendered?" he asked in surprise. "Do you mean to say you've given up on your ideals already?"

"Hardly," Wily countered. "I still believe that the only way to achieve a world where robots and humans are equals is to shove it down their throats. However...certain things have made me reconsider the...timing of my ambitions." He sipped at his tea. "Is this a new blend?"

Dr. Light nodded. "Roll prepared it," he explained. "She's quite good. Was it Vinyl?"

Wily tilted his hand back and forth, indicating 'sort of'. "It was Metal Man."

"Ah," Tomas commented dryly. "Mega Man told me about that...incident."

"I realized I didn't actually know as much about how robots worked as I thought," Albert explained, "and until I could make sure that future robots didn't become crazed horror movie monsters, I have too much to learn to attempt world takeover again. After all, I'm trying to make the world better through application of sheer brute force."

"Reasonable," Tomas agreed. "You know, I've been commissioned by the government to start work on a giant, human controlled, battle robot to defend the planet with."

Albert raised his eyebrows with a disbelieving snort. "Seriously? Alright, I'll bite...which general watched too much Power Rangers?"

"I'm not entirely sure it was Sentai Giant Robot shows," Tom replied with a laugh. "Still...Project Gamma is a rather large project...bigger than anything I've ever taken on alone." He smiled across the table. "To be perfectly frank, I'd rather not tackle it alone."

Wily's eyebrows climbed onto his scalp. "You want me to come back?" he asked in shock.

"Of course," Light replied. "You're still my friend, after all." He then treated his old friend to a mischievous smirk. "I could use a competent assistant."

Wily snorted. "We'll see who's whose assistant when this is over."

With tea over, Dr. Light informed the government that Dr. Wily had seen the error of his ways, and would turn his talents to the betterment of mankind by assisting with Project Gamma.

Rock glanced around in fear. He was standing atop a massive tower that stretched upwards into infinity, sheer drops to all sides. Taking a step forward, he quickly pulled his foot back as the block he'd just stepped on crumbled beneath his foot.

"Is there a problem, Rock?"

Rock spun in response to that robotic voice, seeing Air Man approaching him. "Air Man, what's going on?"

"Isn't it obvious?" another familiar voice said as Cut Man stepped out from behind Air Man. "We're going to show you the power of the Third." Reaching up, he disconnected his head blade...and the inner and outer edges hummed, surrounded by blue light. As he swung it, the air rippled.

Bzzzzowwnnn...zwwwwn...zwwnnn...

Air Man reached to his hip and pulled out the Sonic Disrupter. "You should have brought your armor, Rock," he stated as he fired.

BZZZOWNN!

Rock ducked under the blast, scrambling as the blocks he ran across crumbled under his weight. He tried to pull out his buster, only to find he didn't have his Mega Man armor units. Cut Man charged at him, swinging the sonic blade about as he tried to cut Rock to pieces. Backing up, Rock found his way to the edge of the tower...which crumbled.

He managed to catch one last platform with one of his hands. "Help!" he called out.

Air Man stepped up to the edge. "...You bore me," he stated bluntly, turning away.

As Rock tried to climb up, Metal Man appeared out of nowhere, Metal Blade in hand. "Want to play a game?" he asked, his blade humming in the same way Cut Man's blade had as he sliced Rock's hand off.

Rock screamed in fear as he tumbled endlessly to his doom.

Rock sat up, sweating in terror as he stared into the darkness.

"Rock?" Dr. Light asked. "Are you alright? Did...did you have a nightmare?" The last was said in a mix of concern, disbelief, and fascination.

Letting out a terrified wail, Rock clung to Dr. Light, crying his eyes out as he poured out the entire dream in choked gasps.

Dr. Light did his best to comfort Rock, rubbing his back and whispering, "There, there," and other such things. In his mind, however, he thought, I never thought I'd need that psychology degree when I got into robotics. Thanks for making me take those classes, Mom...

Vinyl sat down just outside Rock's room, having heard the entire nightmare. While the mention of Metal Man had unnerved her - her own nightmare in that regard was why she was riding Item 2 around the lab for water instead of being asleep in her own bed - the rest of it had gotten her thinking.

Returning to her room, she pulled out a tablet and scrolled through, finding a massive data file. The file was titled, "Making Daddy Proud".

The file was a checklist with various schematics and details attached to each item. The first item, "Make sonic gun," was checked off. The second item was, "Make better sonic gun." The third read, "Make bigger sonic gun." The remaining two items were, "World Takeover attempt" and "My Own Robot Masters". Both had ideas attached to them, but not much details.

Going down to the end of the checklist, she typed in one more entry.

"SONIC BLADE"

Modifying the Masters

Vinyl made her way carefully into the lab. She wasn't supposed to be in here. Her Daddy didn't want her near the Robot Masters now that they were built. He said it wasn't good for her, especially after the one that was never to be spoken of again. Vinyl, however, had decided to make her way in when her Daddy and Santa Claus were out meeting with Santa Claus's employers about the Big Boom Project, the one Daddy called Gamma.

These Robot Masters were meant to guide and control the mining operations on various planetoids scattered around the solar system. The mission was intended to gather the eight Energy Elements needed to power Gamma. Vinyl intended to change that.

In a satchel to her side were eight specially designed cookies. Each one was specially designed for robotic metabolisation. She had no idea why these latest Robot Masters had followed Rock, Roll, and Protoman's design of being able to eat food, but it made things easier for her here. Inside each cookie was one of the control chips that had let her Daddy take control of the original six Robot Masters, along with a Freak Chip. The cookie was designed such that the chips would install themselves when it was eaten. All she had to do was find each of the Robot Masters, be her usual adorable self, give each of them a cookie, and then she could make her first attempt at conquering the world, and then her Daddy would be proud of her and praise her and everything would be good!

Not to say things weren't good now...but she wanted to prove herself to her Daddy.

Smiling, she pulled out her 'attempt world conquest' check list portion of her "Make Daddy Proud of Me" data file. She'd managed to get a list of each of the eight new Robot Masters, and was going to go through them in order. "...Needle Man?" she called out.

A large blue robot with bulky shoulders, busters for hands, and spikes on his head stepped out. "Whadda ya want, bub?" he asked, the fake cigar in his mouth releasing harmless vapors that only resembled smoke in appearance.

Vinyl looked up at the robot with her biggest smile, bright eyes, and ears up. Surely this would wrap him around her hoof, allowing her to get him to eat the-

"Real cute," Needle Man grunted, interrupting her thoughts. Extending needles from each buster, he began to sharpen them against each other, seeming to ignore her.

Vinyl pouted. This was not supposed to happen. Her cuteness was supposed to overwhelm the Robots with Wubs, and they'd be putty in her hooves. Still, she rallied gamely. Reaching into her sack, she held out one of the treats. "Cookie?" she offered.

Needle man stuck the cookie on one of his needles, feeding it into the red circle on his front that was, apparently, his mouth. "Meh," he replied noncommittally.

Pouting, Vinyl turned and stormed off. "I hope Mega Man breaks you," she grumbled under her breath. "Jerk!" Once she reached the next part of the lab, she glanced around. "Magnet Man?"

A red, black, and white robot that looked fully humanoid except for the magnet stuck to his head sauntered up to her. "Why hello, little lady," he purred softly. "A pleasure to make your acquaintance." He knelt gallantly, taking her hoof in one hand and bringing it to his lips, causing the lower part of his helmet to open to let the kiss reach her hoof. "But you seem to have the advantage on me. Might I know the name of such a beautiful damoiselle?"

Vinyl stared at him flat eyed behind her glasses. "Vinyl..."

"Ah, Vinyl," he breathed happily. "A lovely name for such a lovely creature. How may I be of service to you?"

Blinking, she reached into her bag. "Cookie?" she offered uncertainly.

"Ah!" Magnet Man proclaimed. "A gift of confection from maiden fair! Truly, I am the most fortunate of souls!" He took a small bite, humming in pleasure. "Truly, your talents are many and varied, dear lady. Gladly do I enjoy your gift, and leave you to your business. Fare thee well." Smiling and munching away on the cookie, he sauntered off, humming a love song.

Vinyl blinked a few times. "...weirdo," she muttered at last, heading for the next part of the lab. Glancing around, she spoke up. "Gemini Man?"

A crystalline blue and white robot wearing a black business suit and dark sunglasses stepped up next to her, his hands in front of his waist. "What can we do for you, Miss Scratch?"

"Yes," an identical robot added, stepping up to her other side. "What can we do for you?"

Vinyl blinked in shock. "Uh...I thought there was only one of you?"

"There is only one of me," the first robot stated.

"But I can be many places," the second added.

"Doing many things," a third indicated, identical to the first two as it stepped behind her.

"What brings you here, Miss Scratch?" a fourth added, stepping up in front of her.

She whimpered. "But...but I only made you the one cookie..." She offered it sadly.

Three of the robots vanished in energy, to be absorbed by the one to her right, who accepted her cookie. "Our thanks for the gift, Miss Scratch. We will remember." He wandered off, munching the cookie.

Vinyl, for her part, raced to the next section of the lab, hoping the next robot wouldn't be so scary. "...Hard Man?"

A large, bulky robot in dark blue armor stepped up. He stared down at her, saying nothing.

Vinyl stared up at him a little nervously. "Umm...you're Hard Man?"

The robot nodded in response.

"Umm..." Reaching into the bag, she pulled out another treat. "Cookie?"

Reaching down, Hard Man took the cookie in his hand and ate it. He then gently pat her on the head before going back to his place.

Vinyl stared after him for a time, then turned to the next section of the lab. "Top Man?"

"What do you want?" a robot moaned from the shadows.

Looking closer, Vinyl saw that the robot was orange, yellow, and black, with a top on his head. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.

"Other than my entire existence being a joke, being incapable of fulfilling my purpose, and the inevitability of being used in some sort of world conquest attempt before I'm destroyed?" Top Man asked morosely. "Aside from all that, not much...though my back's acting up from all the spinning, and I think I stubbed my toe. About standard for my day..."

Vinyl swallowed, feeling more than a bit guilty. "Maybe a cookie will cheer you up?" she offered, holding one out to him.

"I'll probably get a cavity," Top Man muttered, taking the cookie. "Or I already have one and a chip will get lodged..." Shrugging, he began to eat.

Vinyl quickly withdrew from the depressive atmosphere, heading to another part of the lab. "Snake Man?" she called out, glancing around. However, there was no sign of the robot, only a cardboard box. "Snake Man?! SNAKE MAN!?!!!"

The only response was the sound of munching from the cardboard box, which had somehow moved close enough to the bag without Vinyl noticing that the sixth cookie had gone missing.

Shrugging, Vinyl took the last two cookies with her to the next part of the lab. "Spark Man?" she called out.

"Gyah!" a red, white, and black robot with spikes for hands that resembled a giant spark plug shouted as he leapt back from a computer screen. "That was re-volt-ing!"

Vinyl tilted her head, unsure if this was for real.

"What?" Spark Man asked. "Do you find my appearance...shocking?"

Vinyl frowned. "Just...just eat the cookie," she grumbled, holding it out.

Grinning, Spark Man lunged forward, catching the cookie in his teeth and eating it. "I got a real charge out of that!"

"Ugh!" Vinyl grunted, storming off to the last section of the lab. In plain sight was a blue and white robot that looked like a ninja, complete with a shuriken on his head. "Are you...Shadow Man?" Vinyl asked.

Shadow Man spun, a bowl of ramen in one hand as he pointed at her with one finger on the other hand. "...believe it..." he stated bluntly.

Vinyl raised an eyebrow. "...seriously?"

"What? Can't a robot have a sense of humor?" Shadow Man asked as he sat down, slurping up his ramen. "I know how...quirky...my brothers are. Figured a joke would help relax you."

Vinyl stared in surprise. "You're...normal?"

"More or less," Shadow Man replied. He finished his ramen with a smile. "Think you could take the chips out of my cookie, though?" he inquired. "Attending to your whims takes precedence over my mission for the energy elements, so you only have to ask."

Smiling, Vinyl used her magic to take the chips out of the last cookie, giving it to Shadow Man. "You'll know when?"

He smirked. "I am shinobi." He began eating the cookie

Grinning, Vinyl pranced happily out of the lab, only to bump into Protoman. "What are you doing in here, little lady?" he demanded as she dropped her stuff. "Wily said you weren't allowed in here."

"Nothing!" Vinyl said quickly, scrambling for her stuff. "Just got lost!"

Protoman picked up the chips and the tablet. "You're talking a lot more than you do around Wily."

"Well...that's...uh..." Vinyl desperately did not want Protoman to see what was on the tablet.

"Although he doesn't seem to have any trouble understanding you without words, most of the time," Protoman mused as he glanced at the tablet. He saw the checklist, making Vinyl hang her head. "You like that he doesn't need your words to understand you, don't you?"

Sighing, Vinyl nodded.

Protoman examined the data file and the chips for a time. He then smiled. "Why don't you let me...help you with this?" he offered.

Vinyl's head shot up as she gasped in surprise and glee.

Let's Watch Megaman: 3-1

"Albert!" Dr. Light called out insistently. "Something's gone terribly wrong with the mining operation for the energy elements!"

"What?" Dr. Wily called back, rushing to his side. "What happened?"

"The Robot Masters you designed to head the operation and keep it under control have gone rogue and have taken over the planetoids," Dr. Light explained. "All at the same time."

"Really?" Wily asked. "What could have caused this?"

Dr. Light turned to Wily with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not me this time, Tom," Albert complained. "My focus is on Vinyl, remember?"

"Just checking," Dr. Light replied. "Still, I'll need all the information you can give me on them if I'm going to send Mega Man after them."

"Right," Wily agreed. "I'd recommend sending him after Magnet Man first. He's the only one of the group that doesn't have combat protocols, since his Magnet Missiles would shut down anything electronic that went haywire."

"Thankfully, the most they'll do to Mega Man is stun him for a moment or two," Light indicated. "Mega Man!" he called out. "It's time to save the world again!"

"But I was about to kick Vinyl's flank in Smash Brothers!" Mega Man complained. "Hey! I was distracted!"

Vinyl proceeded to give Mega Man a raspberry.

"Mega Man!" Light called more firmly.

"Alright, alright, geeze..." Mega Man headed for the teleporter. "Here we go again."

"Albert and I will be keeping an eye on you from here," Dr. light explained. "And he's also provided details to help you neutralize the rogue Robot Masters."

Mega Man nodded his thanks as he beamed out.

Air Man and Wood Man promptly brought in a large sofa, while Crash Man set up a popcorn machine and soda fountain, along with hanging a tray filled with candy and other treats around his neck...including hot dogs. "Popcorn! Sodas! Candy! Wieners!" he called out.

Tom turned to Albert with a raised eyebrow. He shrugged in response. "When I actually was trying to take over the world, we'd all sit around and watch Mega Man go after the Robot Masters. It was sort of a cross between a movie night and watching sports." He took a seat on the sofa as Vinyl leapt into his lap with a bag of popcorn. "Guess they want to continue the tradition even if we're on the other side this time."

Tom thought about that for a time, then shrugged, taking a seat. "In that case, I'll take a couple of wieners," he told Crash Man.

"Kinky," Wood Man joked as he sat down in front of the couch, once more smoking his hookah.

"Vinyl is in the room," Air Man pointed out robotically, sitting beside Wood Man with his own bag of popcorn...which was just for the feeling of inclusion, as he didn't actually have a mouth.

"Kinky?" Vinyl asked curiously.

"Oops?" Wood Man offered apologetically.

On the screen, Mega Man had beamed into the planetoid and proceeded to leap through the stage, staying out of range of the flying magno-bots - magnets with propellers - as he jumped over the mined pits. After a time, he dropped down a ladder into a large chamber...where a familiar whistle played.

"Protoman?" Dr. Light asked in shock.

While Protoman did beam in, his face was covered in his scarf, making him appear a lot more menacing. He didn't say anything as he shot at Mega Man for a while, who did his best to evade and shoot back. After having blocked a good amount of shots with his shield, Protoman beamed out, and a new path opened.

Vinyl, meanwhile, was clapping, happy that Protoman used the whistle tune she'd written for him.

"...somehow I don't think telling Mega Man that was his brother is a good idea," Wily offered.

"Agreed," Dr. Light confirmed.

As Mega Man continued on, Wily noticed something interesting. "How's he doing that backwards ground dash?" he asked.

"You mean the slide?" Tom clarified. "It's a new combat function I built into him. He's also got Rush to assist him."

"Rush?"

"Woof woof!" The robotic red dog barked happily as he snatched one of Light's wieners out of the bun and devoured it.

Rolling his eyes, Light explained. "Rush is Mega Man's new support unit. He has many functions that he can use on Mega Man's command."

"What, like sit, stay, and roll over?" Crash Man joked.

"More like become a springboard, become a jet, and become a submarine," Dr. Light corrected with a smirk. "It's a ways off in development, but I'm also working on a Rush Adapter, an additional system for Mega Man and Rush that will allow Rush to turn into an additional armor suit for Mega Man."

"Interesting..." Wily mused as Mega Man reached Magnet Man's chambers.

Neither human noticed Vinyl briefly hop off the couch and pull out her tablet, adding a new item to her 'Make Daddy Proud' checklist.

Make own support units?
Design Adapter for use by pony

With that done, she hopped back up to watch the fight. None of the robots said anything.

As Mega Man entered the chamber, Magnet Man was waiting for him. "Good morrow, young hero!" he greeted him. "It seemeth me that destiny had in mind for us to clash. A pity, as I do not believe I will survive this encounter."

Mega Man blinked. "But...if you know you'll lose, why fight?"

"Ah, what fool you are, Blue Bomber," Magnet Man sighed theatrically. "For you see, my heart has been claimed, and I am sworn to the one who has thus claimed me. It is love, you see, and what gentlebot would I be if I turned my back on that? The ruler of my heart commands me to this...and gladly do I obey. If for their ambitions my death can aid, then gladly do I offer it. Have at you!" With that Magnet Man charged, launching a few of his Magnet Missiles.

Mega Man managed to dodge, and fired off a few shots of his own, managing to catch Magnet Man in the left shoulder joint, causing his arm to break off. "Oh my goodness, I'm sorry," Mega Man stated automatically. "I didn't mean to-"

"It's alright, I've had worse," Manget Man hastened to reassure him. "It's only a flesh wound."

Mega Man blinked. "One, you're a robot, you don't have flesh. Two, your arm is lying there on the ground! How can you have had worse?"

"There's a reason I don't eat noodles anymore," Magnet Man replied readily. "Now, have at you!" He charged in again, firing Magnet Missiles from his one remaining hand.

Once more, Mega Man managed to dodge, firing again. This time, his shots hit Magnet Man's right shoulder, disconnecting that arm. "Uh..." Mega Man began.

"A lucky shot!" Magnet Man proclaimed. "Have at you!"

"But you don't have any arms!" Mega Man complained.

"I can still fight! Have at you!" Magnet Man leapt at Mega Man in a jump kick.

Mega Man instinctively leapt back and fired, destroying Magnet Man's left leg. "Stop making me dismember you!" he complained.

"I'm not dismembered!" Magnet Man countered.

"Your arms are lying there on the ground, and your leg is atomized!" Mega Man indicated.

Magnet Man hopped back and forth a bit. "...you're trying to trick me!" he proclaimed. "Have at you!" He proceeded to hop a charge at Mega Man, who countered by blasting his final leg off.

"Just give up already," Mega Man pleaded. "I can take you back to the Docs and-"

"Never!" Magnet Man proclaimed. "Come here! I'll bite your legs off!"

Mega Man groaned shaking his head. "Just...stop. You've lost."

Magnet Man grinned. "Not yet," he growled. His body began emitting magnetic waves.

The Magnet Missiles that had stuck to the various walls around them disconnected and flew at Magnet Man at high speeds. Mega Man was just barely able to dodge out of the way.

"Drop it!" Magnet Man shouted as the Missiles impacted his body.

A massive electromagnetic explosion ripped through the chamber, blasting Mega Man back against the wall along with Magnet Man's weapon chip and the Energy Element he'd been carrying.

As Mega Man beamed out, the doctors were in the midst of a discussion.

"We did design the Robot Masters with an affinity to the Energy Elements they were sent to mine, so as to better find them," Dr. Light concluded. "I suppose it's possible that affinity caused the Energy Elements to overload their systems when they actually came into contact with them."

"Plausible," Wily allowed. "Oh, Mega Man, you're back."

"One Energy Element successfully retrieved," Mega Man stated, setting the capsule on the counter. "One Robot Master destroyed, and one Master Weapon gained."

Wily nodded. "You should go after Hard Man next," Wily pointed out. "The alloys he's made of conduct electromagnetic energies a little too well. He'll be exceptionally vulnerable to Magnet Missile."

Nodding, Mega Man immediately beamed out. Wily, Light, and the others immediately returned to the sofa and their snacks.

As Mega Man progressed through the next planetoid, there came a point where Rush Coil - the 'springboard' mode - was demonstrated. Wily whistled in appreciation of how Rush was able to lock onto Mega Man to warp to him, while Vinyl took notes, which caused Light to chuckle.

At one point, Protoman once more challenged Mega Man, and the fight went more or less exactly the same as the previous time, although Mega Man took more damage due to the varied terrain. Not long after that, he confronted Hard Man.

As Hard Man did not speak, their was no real dialogue to listen to. The two traded blows for a time until Mega Man landed a blow with Magnet Missile...which resulted in Hard Man charging forward, grabbing Mega Man, and slamming him repeatedly against the walls. Thankfully for Mega Man, he was able to keep firing, and the Magnet Missiles homed in on Hard Man, doing more damage to him than he was doing to Mega Man. Hard Man's explosion knocked Mega Man across the room, along with the Energy Element and weapon chip.

"Was...was that Freak Mode?" Dr. Light demanded in shock.

"Can't be!" Wily proclaimed. "I didn't install any Freak Chips in them!"

Vinyl turned her head, whistling innocently.

Author's Notes:

...I have no idea how Magnet Man went from 'Lancelot' to 'the Black Knight'...

...but I'm not apologizing.

Let's Watch Megaman: 3-2

As Mega Man returned with Hard Man's capsule of Energy Element, Wily had more bad news. "Mega Man, I'm afraid you're going to have to head out immediately after Snake Man."

"What?" Mega Man demanded as he started recharging his armor. "What's the rush? I was hoping to rest up a bit and catch my breath-"

"The planetoid Snake Man was mining can be steered into pathways other than its orbit," Wily explained quickly. "And the cameras that are sending us data about the various planetoids indicates that he's working on building a cloaking device for the entire sphere. Do you want to imagine what he'll be able to do if he succeeds?"

Mega Man shuddered as he finished recharging. "I don't suppose Magnet Missile or Hard Knuckle will be effective against him?" he asked hopefully.

"He's designed to ground out against the energies of the planetoid," Wily explained. "Magnet Missile will have no effect on him whatsoever. Hard Knuckle will be only somewhat more effective than your buster, and probably harder to aim."

"I'll keep that in mind," Mega Man stated as he beamed out.

"Thanks for that, Al," Dr. Light said softly. "I hate giving Rock bad news."

"No problem," Wily replied as he sat back down, Vinyl immediately climbing onto his head. "You're getting a bit big to sit up there," he pointed out. "I don't think my spine can take it."

Vinyl blew a raspberry at him and made a few gestures, waving one hoof up and down before waving another back and forth.

Wily let out a laugh. "No, I'm not letting you build me a new spine just so you can sit up there longer!"

As the whole group laughed, the screen zoomed in on Mega Man's progress through the planetoid. While he had to do a lot of precise jumping to progress, there weren't any pits for the most part, making things much easier on him. What pits there were that showed up later were also quite small and easy to jump over. The snake head enemies were also easily dealt with, as were the other robots guarding the paths.

Before too long, Mega Man made it to Snake Man's chamber.

As Mega Man entered the chamber, he glanced around. "Okay...Snake Man should be around here somewhere...but all I see is a cardboard box." He blinked. "...what's a cardboard box doing here?" He began approaching it carefully. After a time, he leveled his Buster at it...and fired. The cardboard box fell apart, empty. "Well-"

Snake Man dropped down from the ceiling atop a writhing mass of Search Snakes that resembled some form of giant battle robot. "METAL GEAR!" he roared out as it began shooting lasers at Mega Man.

"The fuck?" Mega Man demanded as he began dodging and shooting.

"Good question," Wily gasped out. "I certainly didn't design Snake Man with that!"

"Might be the Freak Mode," Light offered. "The original version was related to their personalities, rather than their weapon weakness."

"You mean it was triggered by Mega Man shooting the box?" Crash Man asked in surprise.

"That would be logical," Air Man allowed. "Alternatively, Snake Man might have grabbed some of Wood Man's stash."

"Dude, those are relaxants!" Wood Man complained.

"Not when undiluted," Air Man pointed out as Mega Man desperately tried to take Snake Man down.

"Oh," Wood Man replied, blinking a bit. "Yeah, that'd do it...this stuff is pretty crazy when raw..."

At long last, Mega Man managed to finish off Snake Man, beaming back in with the Energy Element. "Please tell me whoever's next will be easier!" he gasped out as he set the capsule down.

"Top Man isn't much of a combatant," Wily pointed out. "Also, the kinetic force of the Hard Knuckle would knock him right out of his Top Spin."

"Sounds like a plan...once I'm recharged," Mega Man managed to get out between deep breaths.

Vinyl walked up beside him, nuzzling him and offering him a smoothie.

"Thanks," he managed, taking a deep drink. "Strawberry kiwi! How'd you know my favorite flavor?"

"Roll!" Vinyl replied happily.

"I'm so glad I was designed to be able to eat," Mega Man replied. Once he was recharged and had finished his smoothie, he returned to the teleporter. "Send me up, docs!"

Once Mega Man was underway, the group returned to their seats to watch. Top Man's planetoid was rather straightforward, the path lacking in pits. Instead, it mostly had stairs with enemies at the top, which Search Snake proved effective at dealing with. It didn't take long for him to reach Top Man.

Mega Man stepped a bit more carefully into Top Man's chamber. "Top Man?" he called out.

"Oh, hello Mega Man," Top Man replied morosely. "Seems like I was right. You're here to shut me down now..."

Mega Man blinked in surprise. "Well...yeah. You've gone rogue...haven't you?"

"I suppose I could have," Top Man mumbled. "Might have been fun. Probably not, though. Probably would have gone horribly wrong. Not that it matters much. I'm a joke either way. If I weren't a Robot Master, the other robots wouldn't even obey me. I can tell they don't respect me. Just...just finish me off already."

Mega Man lowered his buster. "Gosh, I...this feels just awful. Isn't...I mean, have you tried being happy?"

"And what could there possibly be for me to be happy about?" Top Man asked, his eyes turning flinty.

"I don't know," Mega Man replied. "Is...is there anything I can do to make you happy?"

Top Man stood up slowly. "There...is one thing," he growled out as he stepped forward. "I can rip both your arms from their sockets, and shove one down your throat and the other up your ass so far you can shake your own hand!"

Mega Man blinked. "...like this?" he asked, interlacing his fingers of both hands and shaking them up and down."

Top Man stared at him for a while. "...I'm even a failure at being threatening..." he sobbed.

Mega Man blinked. "Umm...there...there?" he offered helplessly, gently patting Top Man on the shoulder.

"Don't patronize me!" Top Man shouted out, going into his Top Spin and sending Mega Man slamming against the wall. "...that...worked..."

Growling, Mega Man switched to Hard Knuckle and aimed his buster at Top Man. Energy began to gather.

"What are you doing?" Top Man asked.

"I'm charging my buster," Mega Man replied.

Top Man gaped at him. "You...you can do that?" he gulped.

"We're about to find out," Mega Man replied angrily.

The camera signal cut out in a bright flash. "What happened?" Dr. Light demanded.

Shortly after, Mega Man beamed in, the Energy Element under one arm, the other a sparking stump. "Dad?" he called out. "I...got the Energy Element...I stopped Top Man...and I need a new arm..." He set the Energy Element down on the counter, and then promptly collapsed to the floor.

Let's Watch Megaman: 3-3

Once Mega Man was fully repaired, Dr. Light stepped back with a frown. "Alright, I've got you all fixed up...but don't go trying to charge your buster again. While I do have such a system under construction, it's nowhere near ready, and even when it is it'll only work for your buster. I'm a long way from being able to produce a system to charge subweapons. A hundred years at least."

Mega Man groaned as he worked out his new arm. "I'll keep that in mind, Dad. Hopefully I'll have some time to get used to this arm before-" He cut himself off as Wily approached. "Scratch that, hopefully I'll learn to keep my mouth shut."

"Sorry about this, Mega Man," Wily told him, "but Shadow Man's issued you a formal challenge. He says he's built a superweapon utilizing his planetoid's Energy Element, and if you aren't fighting him within the hour, he's going to blow up the moon."

"He's what?" Mega Man demanded, leaping to his feet. "Get me there immediately!"

"The coordinates are already keyed in," Wily explained as Mega Man rushed for the teleporter.

Once he was beamed out, everyone immediately gathered around the screen to see what would happen. The planetoid seemed to be filled with magma, oddly enough. Given the time limit involved, it was understandable that Mega Man rushed heedlessly through, leaping downward and charging through, pushing past enemy robots through sheer physical force if possible to avoid slowing down.

"Glad I gave him a couple E tanks," Dr. Light muttered as he watched.

"He's going to need them," Wily agreed.

Protoman beamed in to battle Mega Man again, only for Mega Man to charge up and punch him in the face before rushing onward. Vinyl winced visibly at the punch...and Protoman's swearing as he turned to pick pieces of his sunglasses out of his synthoflesh face. She quickly raced away to work on a new set for him when he got back...one that wouldn't break from being punched.

As Mega Man continued his charge to reach Shadow Man's chamber, Wily scratched his chin. "I wonder if I should have told him that Shadow Man's internal gyroscope has increased sensitivity to allow him to walk across floors and ceilings without vertigo."

"Why would that be important?" Dr. Light asked.

"It makes him vulnerable to being spun around rapidly," Wily explained.

"Top Spin," Air Man clarified.

As Mega Man charged into the chamber, he spun around, pointing his buster everywhere. "Shadow Man!" he called out. "I'm here! I'll fight you! It's only been ten minutes! Don't blow up the moon!"

"Blow up the-" Shadow Man dropped down from where he'd been braced against the ceiling. "The hell are you talking about?"

"You sent me a challenge proclaiming you had a superweapon and were going to blow up the moon if I didn't fight you within the hour!" Mega Man declared angrily. "I won't let you!"

Shadow Man blinked, scratching his chin for a bit, then chuckled. "So that's how it is..." he muttered under his breath. He then grinned. "Try and stop me!" he proclaimed loudly. Drawing several shadow blades - a rather fancy name for what were basically oversized shurikens - he hurled them before he began leaping from wall to wall.

Mega Man dodged out of the way of the attack, pursuing Shadow Man and managing to tackle him to the ground. "You're not getting away that easily!" he growled out.

Chuckling, Shadow Man managed to embed a Shadow Blade in Mega Man's buster. The variable weapon system began randomizing. "Let's see how well you do when you can't control your own weapons!" he snapped.

Growling, Mega Man triggered his weapon, and began spinning rapidly.

"Damn...Top...Spin..." Shadow Man groaned as he felt his energy dropping as his power core struggled to stabilize his gyroscope. Drawing forth another Shadow Blade, he drove it into Mega Man's chest.

Both robots staggered away from each other, clutching their chests. Shadow Man noticed the alert on his readout that his gyroscope had failed. "You win this round, Mega Man," he growled out. "But you won't be so lucky next time." He promptly beamed out, leaving behind a capsule of the Energy Element.

Staggering over to it, Mega Man promptly beamed it out and back to Light's Lab.

Repairs to Mega Man went quickly, as he had to head out immediately because Gemini Man's planetoid was passing dangerously close to the Earth's orbit. If Gemini Man caused a chain reaction with the Energy Element in the planetoid, the explosion could conceivably destabilize Earth's orbit. There was no evidence that Gemini Man was planning such a thing, but there was every possibility that he was insane.

Vinyl, for her part, chose not to watch this time around, as she was busy repairing Protoman and Shadow Man, both of whom had warped in with their damages. Shadow Man's repairs would take a while, as the gyroscope had been reduced to slag and she had to rebuild it from scratch...along with any impulsive redesigns she came up with in the process. Protoman's glasses, however, were already finished, and the only repairs still needed in his case were replacement optics, which he insisted on taking care of himself, much to Vinyl's frustrations.

Mega Man, meanwhile, had reached Gemini Man.

As Mega Man entered Gemini Man's chamber, he found himself face to face with Gemini Man, wearing dark sunglasses and a suit. "Greetings, Mega Man."

"Welcome to your end," another said from behind him.

"Your defeat is at hand," a third said, stepping up to the right.

"The Energy Element has amplified our power," a fourth said from the left, as dozens of others took shape.

"We are infinite now."

"You will fall to us."

"It is inevitable, Mr. Mega."

Mega Man glanced around at the gathered Gemini Men. "You do realize I know that most of these are just hard light holograms, right?" he pointed out.

"It does you no good if you cannot find the real me," another Gemini Man stated.

"And you noticed that I'm currently green?" Mega Man inquired.

The real Gemini Man blinked as he saw himself surrounded by Search Snakes. "Well played, Mr. Mega," he stated as they all struck at once.

Let's Watch Megaman: 3-4

As Mega Man beamed back in, he rolled his eyes as he saw Wily approach. "Who's next?" he asked in resignation.

"I'd suggest you head after Needle Man next," Wily indicated. "His armor has a design flaw that causes focused light to pass right through it."

"Meaning Gemini Laser would bounce around inside him and cause a great deal of damage," Mega Man confirmed. "But...why suggest? Normally you say 'this one next, hurry!' What's different?"

"You didn't neutralize Shadow Man," Wily explained. "We have no idea of where he is. Wood Man, Air Man, and Crash Man will be keeping an eye on your progress in case you need assistance. Tom and I are going to be trying to track Shadow Man down in the mean time. You, however, need to neutralize the remaining Robot Masters so Shadow Man can't get any backup."

"Understood," Mega Man agreed, stepping back into the teleporter as soon as he was fully recharged.

While the Robot Masters kept track of Mega Man's progress, Wily went to talk with Tom. "Any progress on tracking down Shadow Man?"

"Afraid not," Tom replied. "I've been scanning for the unique energy/metal reaction that his gyroscope and cloaking tech are made from, as that's the repairs he'd need, but the only signal I'm getting is from here in the lab, and I know he can't be here."

"That's right," Albert agreed. "Nobody here would be repairing Shadow Man."

Vinyl let out an adorable sneeze.

"Are you alright, Vinyl?" Wily asked quickly, kneeling down beside her. "You aren't catching a cold, are you?" Before Vinyl could respond, Wily put his hand to her forehead. "That doesn't feel normal," he commented on her temperature. Raising his head, he called out, "Roll! I need blankets, warm packs, and chicken soup with tofu, stat!"

"Coming, Doctor!" Roll called back.

By the time Mega Man had reached Needle Man's chambers, Wily had Vinyl cocooned in a blanket, a soft heat pack on her head, a bowl of soup in front of her, and a put out expression on her face. "Make sure she eats her soup," Wily instructed Air Man. "I wish I could tend to her myself, but-"

"Understood, Doctor," Air Man replied. He spooned some soup up, holding the spoon out to Vinyl as she sat on the couch. "Say ah."

Grumpily, Vinyl allowed herself to be fed as she watched Mega Man fight Needle Man.

As Mega Man entered the chamber, Needle Man snorted at him. "About time, bub," he grunted. "I've been waiting forever."

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Mega Man replied. "But you just weren't that high a priority." He calmly shifted to Gemini Laser as he spoke.

Needle Man glowered at him. "Oh...you're gonna regret that choice of words, bub." Needles 'snicked' out of his busters.

"Doubtful," Mega Man stated as he fired. The laser impacted with Needle Man, knocking him back.

Needle Man's eyes turned red, and needles erupted all over his body. Lifting his arms, he let out a bestial roar, the needles all over him launching randomly as he charged for Mega Man.

Mega Man desperately evaded the charge, and stared in shock as the door crumbled under Needle Man's impact. Since he was unable to evade the endless barrage of needles, he knew he had to end the fight quickly.

Thankfully, three more laser shots finished Needle Man off, letting him acquire the weapon chip and the capsule of Energy Element.

While Wily and Light gave Mega Man a reverse acupuncture session - pulling the needles out to fix the damage - Vinyl managed to escape her caretakers in order to get back to the part of the lab she'd hidden and converted to her own purposes. Protoman had finished fixing himself, and loved the new glasses, especially as they interfaced with his new optics to provide him with alternative forms of vision, including sonar. Shadow Man's gyroscope was nearly finished, and would just need to be installed.

However, one other project was in the works, Vinyl's first attempt at building her own Robot Master. She knew this one would be, at best, a rough draft model. It was the most basic of basic, and looked like a mish mash of parts she'd scavenged out of the lab's recycling plant...which it unfortunately was. However, having installed Mega Man's variable weapon system in its core so it didn't have to worry about running out of weapon energy, she was certain it would prove a nice challenge.

All that it needed was a name...and an opportunity to reveal it without being thought to be involved.

As Mega Man went up against Spark Man, Vinyl realized she had the perfect opportunity...

Mega Man had been briefed on Spark Man. Given his design, his only weaknesses were Shadow Blades - which Mega Man hadn't been able to acquire - and his own weapon. However, Mega Man had studied the actual blueprints for a bit, and believed he had a plan that could work.

Spark Man leapt onto the scene. "I'm shocked to see you at long last, Mega Man!" he chortled. He aimed his spark arms forward. "Felt you needed a jolt after all this time-"

Spark Man's words were cut off as two Needles from Mega Man's Needle Cannon embedded themselves in the sides of his head. "What? Hey! I'm positive that's not fair!" He reached up with his spark arms to try and remove them.

Two Magnet Missiles connected the spark arms to the needles. With the circuit completed, Spark Man's own electrical nature overloaded him. "W-w-w-w-what an e-e-e-e-electrifying experience!" he called out before exploding.

Smirking, Mega Man collected the weapon chip and energy element capsule.

As Mega Man beamed back in to the lab, he was bowled over as a black, grey, yellow, white, and red robot with a skull face trampled him, snatching the Energy Element capsule from him. "Thank you very much!" the robot stated politely. "I knew you were polite, but I never imagined you were so generous."

Mega Man looked up in time to see the robot enter the teleporter with all eight capsules. "Wait!"

The robot smiled at him. "Know that Doc Robot thanks you for making his job so much easier!" the robot called out before beaming out.

As the lab went into an uproar, Vinyl feigned snoring to maintain an appearance of innocence. However, one person wasn't entirely fooled...

The Mastermind

Mega Man was able to use the teleporter's data bank to lock onto Doc Robot's transport signature and follow him, pursuing him in an attempt to recover the Energy Elements. Doc Robot had apparently fled to Spark Man's planetoid first. Mega Man had a much easier time this visit, as Rush's Jet mode was completed, and Mega Man was able to ride on his back through most of it.

About halfway through, Doc Robot was waiting for him. "Catch me if you can!" he called out, leveling a Sonic disruptor at him.

Mega Man yelped as he dodged to the side just before it fired. Once the shot passed him by, he shot the gun out of Doc Robot's hand.

"Oops!" Doc Robot joked before racing away through to the rest of the planetoid. Mega Man took off in pursuit.

When Mega Man caught up to him, Doc Robot began leaping about, hurling Quick Man's Quick Boomerangs. Unable to track the moving target accurately, Mega Man decided to let Search Snake hunt him down for him.

After taking some damage, Doc Robot grinned widely. "Well, you're certainly full of surprises...but you can't beat me that easily!" With that, he teleported out.

Growling, Mega Man locked onto the signal, beaming straight to the planetoid Gemini Man had worked.

Halfway through the planetoid, Mega Man caught up to Doc Robot. "Stop running away!" he growled.

"But I'm so good at it!" Doc Robot complained, thrusting his hand forward.

Mega Man started to lunge forward, but found himself immobilized as the air around him twinkled. "F...Flash Man?"

"Yup!" Doc Robot replied. "I've got all the weapons of the last gen of Robot Masters...but without their quirky weaknesses!" Lunging forward, Doc Robot punched Mega Man hard in the chest, making him double over before slamming the back of his head with his buster arm.

As Mega Man slammed into the floor, he switched to Gemini Laser. "Flash this!" he snapped, rolling over and firing. As he'd thought, the bright shine of the reflective laser interfered with the functionality of the Flash Stopper. "Thought so!" he snapped, leaping up and firing several more shots as Doc Robot barely managed to dodge.

"Well aren't you the clever clogs!" Doc Robot pouted as he fled further into the planetoid.

Mega Man pursued further, this time catching up in an underwater section. Doc Robot grinned. "Not so good at underwater, are you?" he teased as he started firing Bubble Leads.

Smirking, Mega Man called in Rush in Marine mode.

"No fair!" Doc Robot complained as he beamed out. Mega Man pursued to Shadow Man's planetoid.

Once again, Rush Jet made the passage through the planetoid much easier for Mega Man, once again catching up to Doc Robot halfway through the area. Doc Robot grinned as he conjured a Leaf Shield. "You can't beat me now-"

Mega Man immediately fired off several shots from his Needle Cannon. They pinned the leaves to Doc Robot's body, shorting out the weapon. "Wood Man uses the hookah because he's terrified of needles," he explained.

"Maker damn it!" Doc Robot snapped as he fled once more, Mega Man in hot pursuit.

Rush Jet also made the second half of the planetoid easy for Mega Man as well, letting him rapidly catch up to Doc Robot. As soon as he stepped into the room, however, Doc Robot charged him, his body surrounded by flame. "It's time to heat things up!" Doc Robot exclaimed.

Mega Man countered by grabbing Doc Robot by his ankles after dodging the first charge, switching to Top Spin, and spinning him around until he ran out of power for Atomic Fire before hurling him against the wall.

"I don't wanna play anymore!" Doc Robot complained as he warped out. Mega Man pursued him to Needle Man's former base, determined that he wouldn't escape again.

Mega Man was able to readily blur through the first half of the planetoid to catch up to Doc Robot. "You never did beat Air Man!" he called out, blasting away at Mega Man with the mini-tornadoes.

Mega Man evaded them, firing away with Spark Shock. "Wind doesn't blow away electricity, and there aren't any pits in here."

"Damn it!" Doc Robot countered angrily as he fled, his systems starting to malfunction.

Mega Man pursued, using Rush Jet to clear most of the remainder of the area. When he finally caught up to Doc Robot, he switched to Hard Knuckle. "You're nowhere near as smart as Crash Man," he declared, hitting Doc Robot with a launched Hard Knuckle that took him right off his feet. Leaping forward, he smashed several of Doc Robot's components before pointing his buster at his head. "Now...where's the Energy Element?"

Doc Robot giggled. "Silly Mega Man...I never had it! My Maker's had it all along!"

"Who made you?"

"Not telling!" Doc Robot teased. "And you won't get it out of me." His chest compartment opened. "I bring you destruction."

Eyes popping open, Mega Man beamed out.

Doc Robot blinked. "I can't believe that worked!" he crowed. "So...somebody's going to fix me now, right?" He glanced around, seeing no robots or humans nearby. "Somebody?" His expression became worried. "Anybody?" he called out forlornly.

A familiar whistle sang out.

While this was all going on, Albert had snuck his way into what Vinyl had set up as her lab, discovering her installing Shadow Man's new gyroscope. He was now tapping his foot as he glared down at her. "Vinyl Scratch Wily...you have some explaining to do," he stated firmly.

Vinyl finished installing the gyroscope, then dropped to the floor. Hanging her head, she looked up at Wily with her ears flat against her skull, her eyes large and soulful as they peeked out from over the top of her sunglasses. She lifted one hoof, pawing at the air.

"While that's excellent progress at weaponizing cuteness," Wily scolded, "it is not an explanation."

"Check her tablet," Shadow Man stated bluntly.

"Shadow Man!" Vinyl whined.

Curious, Wily picked up the tablet. The "Make Daddy Proud Checklist" was displayed, with "Attempt World Takeover" highlighted, the checklist for that displayed. Wily blinked back tears he hadn't expected. "Is...is that what this is all about?" he asked Vinyl. "Were...were you just trying to make me...proud of you?"

Vinyl nodded sadly, sniffling and pawing at the ground.

Kneeling, Wily wrapped his arms around her comfortingly. "We'll talk about this once it's all resolved," he promised softly. "For now, there's something I have to do. Doc Robot was yours?" Vinyl nodded. "Where'd he put the Energy Element capsules?"

Vinyl pointed to behind the door to her lab, where they'd be hidden by the act of opening the door.

Wily chuckled as he gathered the capsules. "Clever girl," he praised, petting her on the head on his way out.

Out in the main lab, Dr. Light blinked at the sight of Wily carrying the Energy Element capsules. "Albert, where did you get those?"

"Vinyl was behind this world takeover attempt," he explained as he made his way towards Gamma. "She was doing it to make me proud of her."

Tom sighed softly. "She loves you very much."

"Yup," Wily agreed. "So now I'm going to steal Gamma so it looks like I was behind it, so she doesn't end up in juvey."

"You're a good father," Dr. Light praised.

"I'll try not to destroy too much of the lab on the way out," Wily promised.

"Just make sure to do enough that I can convince Mega Man I tried to stop you," Light agreed.

Assault and Resolution

Mega Man rushed to find Dr. Light as soon as he returned from the planetoid. "Dr. Light!" he called out. "Doc Robot never had the Energy Elements! He'd left them with his Maker all along!"

"Mega Man!" Dr. Light called out breathlessly. "Dr. Wily has stolen Gamma!"

"Then he was behind this all along!" Mega Man proclaimed. "I'll pursue him right away! I left a tracer on the capsules." He paused as he turned. "...I probably should have used that instead of chasing Doc Robot..." With that, he beamed out to follow Dr. Wily.

Dr. Light let out a sigh of relief. "Here he comes, Al," he murmured.

Mega Man made his way quickly through Wily's Fortress...which was actually his second Fortress, the one that never blew up, but following a different path to get to where Wily had secreted Gamma. Between his seven Master Weapons and Rush's three modes, Mega Man was able to get through many obstacles readily.

He faced the first Fortress Guardian underwater. It stayed well out of the water, using air jets to try and make Mega Man slam into it, while occasionally sending out green turtle bots to attack Mega Man. To penetrate the hard shells more efficiently, Mega Man used Needle Cannon on the turtle bots. After destroying several of the turtle bots, the guardian exploded.

In the next segment of the Fortress, Mega Man had to climb up...and up...and up. After that, he used Rush Jet to clear a large segment filled with spikes.

The Guardian of this section proved to be a creature made of yellow ooze controlled by a black sphere...a being Mega Man's systems registered as the Yellow Devil. The ooze flew around the chamber in sections, trying to hit him before the beast fully reformed to shoot at him from its eye. At first, Mega Man had a hard time dodging the ooze chunks.

"Geeze, is this a fight or a dance?" he demanded angrily, before pausing, taking another hit. "Wait a minute...my internal gyroscope is reinforced when I'm using Top Spin..." Switching to Top Spin, he used the improved maneuverability of the reinforced gyroscope to evade each of the chunks more easily, several times looking a bit like he was break dancing. And since he wasn't actually using the weapon, he didn't run out of energy.

When the Devil reformed, Mega Man quickly switched to Hard Knuckle, attempting to knock the core out of the body. While that didn't work, it did seem to damage the core quite effectively.

Following this pattern, Mega Man was able to conquer the Yellow Devil.

The next segment of the Fortress was very straightforward, with few obstacles he had trouble with. The only difficulty came in a large section with moving platforms surrounded by spikes as he had to climb up. Because of the pattern of the platforms' movement, Mega Man had to be both careful and fast. He made it to the other side out of breath, but otherwise fine.

The guardian of that part of the Fortress proved to be hard light hologram versions of him. Remembering how he dealt with Gemini Man, he sent out his Search Snakes, which proved supremely effective against the holograms.

The next section of the Fortress involved moving downward while facing robots that looked like they were made of junk and threw blocks of junk parts at him. One teleport capsule later, and Mega Man found himself surrounded by teleport capsules. Each one led him to duplicates of the robot masters.

The first he faced was Needle Man. "Ready for a rematch, bub?"

Mega Man lifted his hand. "Did you know my buster has a fire governor?"

Needle Man blinked. "A what?" he asked in confusion.

"It governs the rate at which I can fire either my standard weapon, or the weapons I got from you guys," Mega Man explained. "I can turn it off, and fire all the sub weapons insanely rapidly...but that burns out my buster."

Needle Man stared at him. "And...why are you telling me all this?"

"Because I brought a spare buster," Mega Man explained, "along with a Weapon Energy recharge tank. So I've turned the governor off."

Four rapid fire Gemini Lasers later, Needle Man was a smoking husk.

Six other Robot Masters went down just as easily...but the eighth teleporter - the one that would have led to Shadow Man - had shut itself down by the time Mega Man got to it. Dismantling his arm, Mega Man swapped the burnt out buster for the fresh one. "Convenient," he muttered, heading through the final door.

The last teleport capsule took him to the final section of the Fortress, which dropped him down into a large area. Dr. Wily came out in a large Death Machine, which was basically his saucer attached to a walker, with a gun at the bottom that launched blasts that flew at Mega Man in a spiral. "Mega Man!" Wily proclaimed. "This time you will-"

Before Wily had even finished speaking, Mega Man had fired several Spark Shocks into the gun, causing it to explode.

"Hey!" Wily complained. "I wasn't finished-"

Calling Rush, Mega Man launched himself into the air, firing off several Hard Knuckles at the glass cockpit now that it was visible, shattering it.

"You used to be so polite," Wily growled, shaking his head disdainfully before it popped off his neck on a spring.

Mega Man blinked. "A copy?" Turning, he raced towards Gamma.

Mega Man managed to get to Gamma before Wily could make it take off. Using its dock as a platform, Mega Man was able to blast away at the primary control unit until it burst, forcing Wily to take direct control.

"I'm going to crush you, Mega Man!" Wily roared angrily.

Mega Man leapt onto Rush's back, carrying him up to Wily's cockpit. "I don't think so!" he shouted as he threw himself into a flying kick. Switching to Top Spin, he activated it, drilling straight through the cockpit dome and into the controls, frying them.

The kick also punched through the back of the cockpit, taking Mega Man and Wily out as Gamma began to explode. Mega Man took a heavy hit from falling debris and blacked out.

While he was unconscious, Protoman grabbed him and took him back to Light Labs. Shadow Man grabbed Wily and went to meet with Wood Man, Crash Man, Air Man, and Doc Robot at the new fortress, where Vinyl was already settled in.

As Mega Man awakened in Light's lab, he blinked. "...I didn't catch Wily, did I?"

"No," Dr. Light replied. "You didn't."

"How...did I get out?"

"Your older brother, Protoman, rescued you."

Mega Man's eyes widened. "I have an older brother?" he gasped. "Why haven't I met him?"

"You have," Dr. Light replied. "He's been secretly pushing you, testing you, to make sure you were ready for what was to come...at least he was, until you punched him in the face."

Mega Man glanced away, blushing.

"Still, I consider this a success," Dr. Light indicated. "Not only can Dr. Wily not use Gamma, but it's been shown just how dangerous such a robot is in the wrong hands...and the fact that it can't function as designed, since you defeated it so easily."

Mega Man managed a smile. "Thanks Dad," he said softly.

Vinyl glowered up at her father, grumbling under her breath. She understood that it was especially cold and covered in snow outside the new Fortress, but she felt this was excessive. She had a fur coat, after all. She didn't really need a parka, snow pants, thick boot snow shoes for all four hooves, a snow hat tied under her chin, a scarf covering her face under her glasses, and - the ultimate indignity - a hand knit horn cover! It didn't help that she couldn't even be angry about that since her Daddy had knit it himself for her specifically because he knew how sensitive her horn was to extreme temperatures, and she could see the bandages covering his hands from all the times he stuck himself with the needle. At least he'd stitched a nice pattern of blue and white, reminiscent of both her mane and tail and the discharge of her sonic disruptor.

"There now," Wily declared happily. "Now you're safe to play in the snow. Enjoy!"

Grumping and grumbling under her breath, Vinyl waddled out of the Fortress and into the snow. She blinked in surprise as she saw another Fortress not too far away. Confused, she decided to investigate.

Waddling up to the other Fortress, she knocked on the door. A young blond girl with green eyes wearing a red fur coat answered the door. "Da?" she asked curiously before gasping at the sight of the figure at the door. "Oh, is this someone's snowman joke?"

"Nmph!" Vinyl grumped through the thick scarf.

The young lady gasped. "There is a creature in all that? Come in and get warm!" Pulling Vinyl inside, she set her next to a warm fire. "Where did you come from, malyutka?" she asked as she slowly unwrapped Vinyl.

Smiling, Vinyl pointed towards her Daddy's new fortress.

"Ah, you are new neighbors!" the young girl replied. "Daddy will be so pleased to meet...tiny unicorn?" she asked in confusion as she finished unwrapping her guest.

Vinyl smiled up at her. "I'm Vinyl Scratch Wily!" she introduced herself happily. "What's your name?"

The girl smiled. "I am Kalinka Cossack. Wait, Wily? You are Dr. Wily's daughter?"

Vinyl nodded happily.

Kalinka clapped her hands together. "My Father has always vanted to meet your father! He will be so happy we are friends!"

Vinyl grinned widely in response.

Friendly Misunderstanding

Several hours after Vinyl had headed out to play in the snow, Albert realized just how long she'd been gone and started to worry. "Curse this warm fire and cold weather!" he snapped as he climbed out of the blankets in which he'd unwittingly dozed off. He quickly rushed to his own snow gear. "Protoman! Crash Man! Air Man! Wood Man! Shadow Man! Vinyl's been out in the snow too long! Help me look for her!"

All the summoned robots immediately leapt into action, having entered their own recharge modes hours before. Quickly shifting to cold weather mode, they all began clanking about in the snow, searching with high tech scanners for any sign of the missing unicorn. Albert, for his part, stomped along in the snow, having donned color-scan goggles tuned specifically to the light wavelength of Vinyl's mane and tail, as well as a scanner that locked onto the homing beacon he'd sewn into Vinyl's horn cover. Using that signal - a worryingly stationary signal - for guidance, Wily marched straight towards it. Sighting another building in the distance, he prayed to any power that would listen that Vinyl had just gone for a protracted visit to the new neighbors.

"Heads up!"

Hearing that shout in a familiar voice, Albert spun around, only to receive a face full of snow, knocking him flat on his back. He groaned as he raised one hand to his face. "...I'm too old for this..." he moaned.

A series of clanks echoed as steps approached him. "Dad?" Vinyl asked worriedly.

"I'm okay, Vinyl," he hastened to reassure her, brushing snow from his face and sitting up. Blinking, he stared at his daughter. "...that's a different wardrobe," he muttered.

Vinyl smiled widely. Instead of the snow gear he'd bundled her up in, she was wearing a red fur coat with yellow buttons, along with a black fur cap on her head. She looked plenty warm and comfortable. She waved her legs to indicate she could move more...drawing eyes to the robotic attachments.

"Where'd you get the monkey suit?" Albert inquired.

'Monkey suit' was an accurate description, as the robotic limbs were shaped very much like the limbs of a large monkey, or perhaps a very small gorilla, given how it was built for running around on all fours, though the foreleg attachments had hands and not hooves.

"Kalinka!" Vinyl replied happily. Swinging the hand-leg down, she used it to scoop up a ball of snow, patting it between the two robotic hands to shape it. She then pointed to a few aspects of the design Wily recognized from how the Doc Robot had been built.

"So...you and this Kalinka built you a robo-monkey suit so you could have a snowball fight?" Albert asked to clarify.

Vinyl nodded eagerly.

"Vinyl!" a high pitched voice called out. "Are we done playin-oh!" Kalinka skidded to a halt in the snow a few feet from the pair. "You must be Dr. Wily," she said quickly, bowing respectfully. "I am Kalinka Cossack. It is pleasure to be meeting you."

Wily smiled as he pushed himself to his feet. "The pleasure's all mine. It's nice to see Vinyl making friends - in the traditional sense - who can keep up with her." He couldn't help but join in the giggles the two young girls shared. "But where's the snow gear Vinyl was wearing when she left?"

"Is back at Cossack Castle!" Kalinka informed him before shivering a bit. "Should be getting back. I need to warm up."

"Our Fortress is closer," Wily offered. "I'm sure Vinyl would rather spend more time with you, and it is time for her to come home."

Seeing Vinyl's adorable begging face, Kalinka smiled. "I would be happy to accept your hospitality," she agreed gratefully. "But my father will be wondering where I am when he gets home."

Wily grinned and pulled out his communicator. "Air Man," he instructed, "Vinyl left her snow gear at Cossack Castle. Gather it, and while you're there leave a note for Dr. Cossack so he knows Kalinka's over at our place."

"Yes Doctor," Air Man replied, marching towards Cossack Castle.

"Now that that's all taken care of," Wily offered with a smile before turning to head back home, the two girls - one human, one equine - following in his wake.

A few hours later, Albert was relaxing once more in his fortress, listening to the sounds of Vinyl and Kalinka running through the halls, playing and laughing together. He found it a very pleasant sound, one he hoped to hear more often.

As he thought that, the vid-phone rang, alerting him to an incoming call. "On screen," he instructed.

When the screen turned on, a youngish man with brown hair, green eyes, and dressed in a lab coat appeared. "Dr. Wily, I presume?" the man asked.

"The one and only," Wily confirmed. "You must be Dr. Mikhail Cossack. I've been expecting your call."

"Yes," Mikhail agreed. "This would be to discuss the ransom, yes?"

Wily blinked. "Ransom?" he asked, shocked.

"For the return of my daughter!" Mikhail proclaimed, holding up a note.

The note read, "We have Kalinka," along with a large W and the new vid-phone number.

"Look, I'll give you anything you want!" Mikhail began beseechingly. "I've made a good amount of money working for the government-"

"I don't want your money!" Wily snapped. "Kalinka is-"

"I have Robot Masters!" Cossack shouted pleadingly. "Eight of them! I'll take over the world for you and destroy Mega Man! Just please don't-"

Seeing that Dr. Cossack had worked himself into a frenzy, Albert pulled an air horn out from a nearby cupboard and blasted it. "Now that I have a chance to speak," he scolded once the sound stopped. "There appears to have been a miscommunication. Kalinka is not a hostage. She's a guest, and free to leave at any time. She's here at Vinyl's and my own invitation-"

"Vinyl?" Cossack asked, confused.

"My daughter," Albert explained.

"Oh. I wasn't aware you were married-"

"I'm not," Albert corrected. "She's adopted. Look, why don't you come over and check on her yourself?"

Mikhail frowned suspiciously. "You'll forgive me if I don't take your word for that?"

"Then bring one of your Robot Masters as extra protection," Wily offered. "It'd be nice to see another scientist's work."

"I'll do that," Mikhail replied curtly before hanging up.

Wily groaned as he put his face in his hands. "God dammit, Air Man."

"Ha. Ha. Ha," Air Man replied.

It didn't take long for Dr. Cossack to reach the fortress, accompanied by a fully human shaped Robot Master done up like an Egyptian Pharaoh. Wily greeted him at the door. "Welcome, Dr. Cossack. Oh, so this is your Robot Master?"

Mikhail nodded. "Yes. This is Pharaoh Man-"

"Where is Kalinka?" Pharaoh Man demanded angrily. His voice, oddly enough, had a slight Chinese accent for some reason.

"She's perfectly fine," Albert replied quickly. "She and Vinyl are playing together. Vinyl just got a little over excited since this is the first friend she's made in her own age group." Hearing his own words, Wily frowned. Vinyl really does need someone to play with who isn't a combat bot or a half-decrepit old man like me...I need to make her a big brother or something...

Mikhail closed his eyes and put his hand to his forehead. "I'm afraid Kalinka is similarly undersocialized," he admitted. "A failing on my part..."

At that point, Kalinka and Vinyl came tearing around the corner. "Can't catch me!" Kalinka shouted as she raced ahead, almost running full tilt into Dr. Cossack. "Father? You are back from work early!"

"Yes, I wanted to surprise you," Mikhail told his daughter. "But it seems I was the one surprised-"

"Kalinka!" Pharaoh Man interrupted. "You should not be playing with strangers! It is too dangerous!"

Kalinka stomped her foot angrily. "You say everything's too dangerous, Uncle Pharaoh Man!"

Uncle? Wily questioned silently.

Dr. Cossack rolled his eyes. "That's the last time you're in charge of keeping an eye on her when I'm away, Pharaoh Man," he scolded.

"I am not a baby sitter!" Pharaoh Man complained. "I am an archaeologist!"

Vinyl suddenly gasped happily. "Mummy!" she shouted, racing towards the new robot, pulling out a pick ax in her magic from somewhere.

"AAAAAHHHH!" Pharaoh Man screamed as he turned to run in the other direction. "Bad day bad day bad day bad day bad day!"

As Kalinka started off after the pair, Wily turned to Dr. Cossack. "How come Kalinka calls your Robot Master Uncle?" he asked wonderingly. "Wouldn't it make more sense for her to think of him - and your other Robot Masters - as brothers?"

At that moment, Kalinka's phone gave off an alert with a rather distinct sound clip. "Oh!" she said, pulling it out. "I am supposed to be making dinner now!"

"Never mind," Wily groaned.

Author's Notes:

How many of you recognized what Pharaoh Man's personality was based on? And at what point did you recognize it.

Diplomatic Relations

Wily and Cossack sat back, sharing some black tea and cookies Kalinka had made, while Kalinka was introducing Vinyl to the sweet taste of Mors, her preferred beverage. Vinyl, apparently, absolutely adored it, considering she constantly asked for more. As the pair of scientists watched their robots trying - with varying degrees of success - to keep the children in line, Wily decided to bring the topic of conversation around to something his companion had brought up. "You said you had eight Robot Masters, Mikhail?" he asked curiously.

"Yes," the young doctor replied. "Commissioned by my government for...various purposes."

"I couldn't help but notice that, despite claiming to be an archaeologist, Pharaoh Man is equipped with a high powered buster in his arm," Albert commented.

Mikhail flinched. "I'm certain you must be imagining-"

"It's really rather clever how you concealed it," Albert continued. "The energy is designed to focus in his hand for a thrown projectile rather than one being launched. If I'm not mistaken, he could either throw a sphere at high speeds or charge the energy to unleash a wave blast. Really rather versatile for combat...but unusual for an archaeological robot."

Mikhail managed a chuckle. "You really are every bit the robot expert I have heard. I admit, you are 100% correct. You even correctly interpreted the workings of the Pharaoh Shot and Pharaoh wave." He sat back in his chair. "...would you perhaps like to meet my other Robot Masters, and give your opinions on them?"

Wily couldn't help but grin. "I believe I'd enjoy that immensely," he replied. "Will you summon them here?"

"Ah...no," Cossack replied. "Some of them...I'd rather limit their interactions with Kalinka. On meeting them, you'd probably feel the same way regarding Vinyl. Do you think your Robots can handle watching over them?"

"Certainly," Albert replied. "Protoman! Mikhail has something to show me in his fortress! You're in charge until I get back!"

Protoman nodded in response, smirking as he leaned against the wall.

"Are you certain that will be enough?" Mikhail asked as they made their way to his vehicle. "Normally, I have to implement all sorts of directives to get Pharaoh Man to not let Kalinka order him around while he's watching her, and she still finds ways to circumvent them."

"Protoman's a little different," Albert replied. "Kalinka won't find him easy to push around."

Mikhail looked confused and curious, but Albert's expression discouraged questioning at the moment.

Once at Cossack Castle, Mikhail began to lead Wily around. "I feel I should warn you, my Robot Masters are rather..."

"Quirky?" Wily offered.

"That's putting it mildly," he replied. "I'm afraid I was...under the influence of...several exotic substances...from my high school reunion...when I programmed their personalities."

Albert raised an eyebrow. "Lots of 'it seemed like a good idea at the time' programming?"

"Indeed," Mikhail replied in embarrassment. "Also...lots of flipping through Kalinka's movies, games, and anime, and programming in whatever made me laugh."

Albert shrugged. "It's alright. Tom and I design our robots to generate their own personalities based on a random encoder. I'm pretty sure there's nothing you can show me that will shock me too much-"

At that moment, music started playing, and a large, green, toad shaped robot slid into the room, singing along with a rather distinctive voice. "Slime beneath me, mm...slime up above! Ooh you'll love my-unf!" The giant toad delivered a pelvic thrust. "Toxic love!"

Wily stared as the robot continued to sing and dance his way out of the room. "...why is his based on Tim Curry as Hexxus?"

"Because Toad Man's primary design function is to filter pollutants out of the environment and store them in his own body for condensing into usable resources," Mikhail replied. "Also, Kalinka really likes Ferngully."

"Not exactly one of your best decisions, Doctor," another robot said as he approached. This one had a large light bulb on his head, and one arm ended in an obvious buster. "He still gives her nightmares, after all."

"Well it's a little late now, Bright Man," Mikhail grumbled. "What am I supposed to do now?"

Bright Man stroked his chin for a time...and then the bulb on his head illuminated. "Light...bulb!" he stated happily before rushing off.

Wily stroked his chin as he watched Bright Man run off. "Can I borrow that movie?" he asked curiously. "I think it might be nice to watch it with Vinyl."

"Certainly," Mikhail agreed readily. "Come. Some of the other Robot Masters should be more readily approachable."

In another part of the Castle, Mikhail called out to a red robot with drills for hands and on its head...and a bike pump strapped to his back for some reason. "Drill Man! There's someone here to meet you!"

The robot approached, remaining completely silent.

"Drill Man, this is Dr. Wily," Mikhail introduced.

Drill Man nodded silently as Wily looked him over. "Rather impressive," he murmured. "I see he's designed as an excavator...but those drills can be launched, and are easily hard enough to penetrate most metals. Another robot with hidden combat potential...but what's with the bike pump?"

"You don't want to know," Mikhail said quickly as he hustled Wily away. Drill Man had pulled out tha bike pump and was trying to plug the output end into Wily.

"Believe it!" an orange and yellow robot with a ring on his head and several rings on his arms proclaimed, looking up from a bowl of ramen.

"Shut up, Ring Man!" Mikhail scolded.

"And what was he built for?" Wily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Officially, he's a jeweler," Mikhail replied, startling a laugh from Albert.

Not long after, a large blue robot with a giant vacuum on its head walked in, sucking junk up off the floor with his head vac. "How's keeping the lab clean going, Dust Man?" Mikhail asked.

"It ith going well, Marthter," Dust Man replied, walking so that it looked like he had a hump on his back, though he kept switching which shoulder he made look humped.

"Which way have you already worked on?" Mikhail asked courteously.

"Walk...thith way!" Dust Man then proceeded to do an unusual hop-skip gait.

"One of my favorites," Wily murmured.

"It is good that you are appreciative of us!" another blue robot proclaimed loudly as he stood like a statue, closed fists braced on his hips. This robot looked not unlike a miniature submarine. "I am Dive Man, underwater explorer! I shall plumb the secret depths of the sea for the glory of my kingdom!"

"He has a kingdom?" Wily asked with a raised eyebrow.

"He thinks so," Mikhail shrugged as he led the way to another part of the Castle where a robotic skeleton stood leaning against a wall, staring at them. "Skull Man."

"Doctor," Skull Man replied, his breathing audible and menacing.

"You've been neglecting coming in for checkups and repairs again," Mikhail scolded.

"I have not needed them," Skull Man countered firmly.

"You overestimate yourself," Cossack replied with a frown.

"And you underestimate the power of the Dark Side." Turning, Skull Man walked off, his breathing echoing around him.

Wily chuckled. "Well, they're certainly interesting..."

Albert sat back, enjoying some Kvas with Mikhail, thinking about all he had seen. "Quite an interesting set of Robot Masters," he said finally. "Am I correct in assuming that, whatever they are officially, they all have combat programming and capacity?"

"That's correct," Mikhail replied. "That was actually part of the government's commission...after seeing the success of your own Robot Masters against all opponents...even Mega Man."

"True," Wily replied. "He never did beat Air Man."

After a while of silence, Mikhail spoke up. "Do you think you could do me a favor?" he asked at long last.

"Depends on the favor," Albert replied, raising his mug to his lips.

"Could you kidnap Kalinka?"

Wily's Kvas ended up all over the wall, allowing Dust Man to demonstrate his wet/dry function. "What? Why?"

"My government's been pressuring me for a live combat test of these designs," Mikhail explained. "And, simply put, if I tried to arrange something like that, it would probably bankrupt me...or expose the secret combat abilities publicly. However..."

"If you're taking over the world for me because I'm holding your daughter hostage, any combat capabilities will be attributed to my modifications, and Mega Man will be fighting full force," Albert replied. "So Mega Man runs the gauntlet yet again, and I don't even have to do any of the work!"

"You'll do it, then?" Mikhail asked hopefully.

"On two conditions," Wily replied. "First, make sure cameras are broadcasting Mega Man's progress so we can watch."

"I'll be doing that for my government anyway, so certainly," Cossack replied.

"Second, if Mega Man fails, you actually take over the world for me."

Mikhail hesitated. "...seriously?"

"Honestly, I don't think you'll get that far, but if I'm tarnishing my name with kidnapping, I want some potential profit from all this."

Cossack stroked his chin for a time. "Well..."

Wily pulled out his phone and typed a few keys. After a time, he turned it to show Mikhail. It showed Kalinka holding Vinyl in her arms, both giving cute, pleading eyes. At the bottom of the image in white text was, "PWEEEEAAASSEEE?!?!"

Mikhail clutched his chest. "Alright! Alright!"

Wily chuckled. "A pleasure doing business with you, Cossack. I'll just tell Kalinka she'll be staying with us for a protracted sleepover, then."

Working Quickly

Dr. Wily smiled faintly as he worked away in his lab. Dr. Cossack had already given his announcement about how he was using his Robot Masters to take over the world, throwing the gauntlet down to Mega Man to try and stop him. Kalinka and Vinyl were going to be watching him on his efforts to fight the Robot Masters, battling his way through the various stages. However, Wily wasn't really interested in watching Mega Man fight through waves of normal enemies all over again. He would pop out for the actual Robot Master fights, but for now he had something more important to work on.

The basic frame was easy to design. He just used the same basic model used to make Rock and Roll. The customization, however, was more difficult to decide on. He wanted one that Vinyl would immediately identify with as a sibling, but still blend in with humans for when they wanted to go on an outing. He had made the skin pale, as close to making it white as he could without looking unhealthy. The next issue was the hair. It was these human touches that would make him relatable as a member of the family, after all. He did, however, have to mightily resist the urge to give him a tail.

As he was making some decisions regarding coloration, his communicator beeped. "Daddy!" Vinyl called out. "Mega Man's about to fight a Master!"

"Oh?" Wily asked. "Which one?" Given the absence of Freak Mode - Vinyl had offered the cookies, but Mikhail had refused them, as this was about a combat test for his work - Wily wasn't entirely sure he'd go to watch every Master.

"Toad Man!"

Wily dropped his tools. "Be right there!" he called out. He looked forward to how Toad Man would make Mega Man squirm.

He made it to the couch just as Mega Man slid through the final door to Toad Man's chambers, his body glowing with energy. "Huh. Looks like Tom finally finished that chargeable buster," Wily muttered as he sat down, accepting some popcorn from Crash Man.

"Already got the blueprints!" Vinyl called out happily.

"How?"

"I..." Kalinka began. "I believe the proper term is I...hacked them?"

Albert chuckled at that. "Bad influence, Vinyl. Bad influence." He then turned to watch as Toad Man dropped in.

Mega Man braced himself as Toad Man arrived. "Well, aren't you just a juicy morsel?" Toad Man purred. "I could just eat you all up. But your little fairy magic won't do much against me!" Music started playing as Toad Man began to sing his number. He leapt about, trying to land on Mega Man as he sang about his 'Toxic Love', complete with pelvic thrust.

Mega Man slid under the jumps, taking pot shots at Toad Man whenever he had the chance. However, the music truly grated on his ears, as well as the singing. It creeped him out, and it showed in his movements. After taking one heavy hit, he groaned as he got to his feet.

"Oh, is that the best you've got?" Toad Man purred, pulling a cape out of nowhere to hang over his shoulders.

"It would be a lot easier if you stopped singing that song!" Mega Man snapped. "Don't you know any others?"

Toad Man chuckled as he wrapped the cape around himself. New music began playing, and Toad Man started to sing. "How would you do?" he sang out. "You're not much of a foe...dear Mega Man. I'm just a~ little down because...when you came you come across like some...Candy Man."

He began to strut towards Mega Man, causing him to back away quickly, a freaked out look in his eyes.

"Don't get strung out, by the way I walk!" Toad Man sang out. "Don't judge this book by its cover! I may not be...an impressive Man by the light of day..." He wiggled his hips, making Mega Man run to the opposite side of the room. "But by night, I'm one hell of a lover!"

Toad Man turned to face Mega Man, throwing his cape open. He was wearing a black corset with matching panties, stockings, garter belt, gloves, and high heels. None fitted his bulbous frame well, and the makeup he'd managed to apply somehow was even worse. "I'm just a sweet tran-"

"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!" Mega Man screamed out, setting the charge function on his buster to overdrive so he could fire an endless stream of charged shots. "Kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it kill it-" Mega Man somehow pulled a flamethrower out of nowhere. "KILL IT WITH FIRE!"

Toad Man's defunct corpse roasted gently as Mega Man curled into the fetal position in one corner, sucking his thumb.

Wily blinked. "I...guess Mega Man just wasn't ready for that much Toad Curry," he joked.

"I like that movie," Kalinka pouted.

Wily raised an eyebrow. "You do?" he asked in shock, surprised Mikhail let such a young girl - especially his own daughter - see it. Admittedly, he probably would let Vinyl watch it if she asked, but still..

"Movie?" Vinyl asked eagerly.

Shrugging, Wily booted it up on the other screen, getting ready to introduce Vinyl - and those Robot Masters still active - to what he considered one of the great modern classics.

By the time Mega Man had made it into the next Robot Master controlled area, the entire group had gotten into the movie in a big way. Wily had pulled out his old Riff Raff costume, Vinyl was wearing an adorable maid outfit with a huge wig as Magenta, Kalinka was dressued in her Columbia costume (which Wily felt was a little much for a seven year old, but she apparently made it herself...), Protoman was dressed as Eddie Ex, Air Man was dressed as Rocky, Crash Man as Dr. Scott, and Wood Man as the Narrator.

"It's just a jump to the left," Wood Man proclaimed, everyone else jumping as instructed.

"And a step to the ri-i-i-ight!" they sang out as they danced.

Before the Time Warp could be completed, however, the first screen alerted them to the fact that Mega Man had reached the second Robot Master, Bright Man.

"Let's do the Time Warp again...later," Air Man suggested as everyone sat down to watch the new fight.

As Mega Man slid into the room, Bright Man dropped into the room. "Well now, Mega Man...you will regret fighting me."

"Doubtful," Mega Man replied, switching to Rain Flush. "I know your weakness." He lifted his arm to launch it into the air.

"Freeze ray!" Bright Man proclaimed, pointing at Mega Man as the bulb of his head flashed brightly.

"Gah!" Mega Man cried out, covering his eyes to shield them as his systems locked up. He winced as he felt several impacts from Bright Man's buster shots. As soon as he could move, he launched the Rain Flush.

"Freeze Ray!" Bright Man shouted again as the rain hit him, making his systems spark as the liquid got onto a few exposed wires. However, he still managed to land several hits.

This exchange continued for a time until Bright Man's bulb broke. "...ow..."

Mega Man grinned. "Looks like you're all washed up now!" Blinking, he groaned. "I can't believe I said that-"

A mettool suddenly leapt up. "BANANA!" it shouted out before pulling out a massive gun.

The resulting explosion destroyed Bright Man, the mettool, the room, a good portion of the area that Bright Man had been in, and Mega Man's buster arm.

Vinyl gasped happily as she floated 'Despicable Me' over to the other screen. She was dressed up as Edith, Kalinka as Agnes, Protoman as Margo (his glare dared anyone to joke about that), Crash Man, Wood Man, and Air Man as Minions, Shadow Man as Dr. Nefario, and Wily had somehow been dressed as Gru when he wasn't looking.

Shrugging, Wily gestured for Vinyl to put the movie in. He knew when he was beaten.

Working Thoughtfully

By the time the group had finished watching Despicable Me together, Wily had decided that he had another item to add to the list of things he would build for Vinyl. She didn't just need a big brother. She needed a pet. Throughout the movie, he'd noticed her glancing over to the screen showing Mega Man's progress every time Rush was on screen. Perhaps building a similar support unit for her forthcoming big brother would give them both a pet.

However, before he could act on that for his designs, he noticed that Mega Man had reached Pharaoh Man's chambers. He turned the sound back on as the group turned to watch. "This shouldn't be that long," he muttered. "Pharaoh Man's optics are adapted for low light for his archaeology. He'll be especially vulnerable to Flash Stopper."

"Don't be so sure," Kalinka giggled.

As Mega Man entered the chamber, he switched to Flash Stopper. He wanted to test that weapon out. Pharaoh Man turned to face him as he entered. "Bad day," he groaned as he saw Mega Man.

"Yup," Mega Man replied. "Freeze Ray!" He set off the Flash Stopper. Seeing Pharaoh Man freeze, he grinned as he moved in close to spam his buster.

Before he could pull the trigger - and while the effects of Flash Stopper were still in effect - Pharaoh Man blurred forward and slammed his fist into Mega Man's gut, knocking him back. "Would you like to try again?" he asked, cracking his knuckles.

Mega Man growled deep in his throat. "Freeze Ray!" he shouted, setting off the Flash Stopper as soon as its effect ran out.

Before he could get a shot off, Pharaoh Man had delivered a jump kick to his head. "Have another?"

"Freeze Ray!" Mega Man shouted at the top of his voice, triggering another Flash Stopper.

"You really shouldn't call out your attacks before using them," Pharaoh Man scolded. "It only lets me dodge."

"How the hell can you dodge a flash?" Mega Man demanded, only to be knocked on his back from a Pharaoh Shot.

"By turning off my optics when you shoot, and turning them back on exactly one second later," Pharaoh Man explained. "Also, that was a Pharaoh Shot. Just letting you know."

Mega Man growled as he stood up. "Then I'll just stop shouting it."

"And I'll just keep close and disengage my optics entirely," Pharaoh Man countered.

"That's not fair!"

"Says the robot trying to spam my weakness."

Mega Man blinked for a time. "...touche-"

A Pharaoh Wave slammed him against the wall. "Actually, that was your chin, and a Pharaoh Wave," Pharaoh Man offered helpfully. He then closed the distance rapidly, immediately delivering rapid fire punches and kicks, interspersed with close rang Pharaoh Shots and Waves.

Mega Man did his best to fight back, but he wasn't doing well. He was privately glad he had a few E tanks stocked.

Kalinka grinned as everyone watched the fight. "That's why Daddy made Pharaoh Man with that personality. The Pharaoh Shots and Waves aren't his primary weapon. He's programmed with seven different styles of Martial Arts!"

Wily stroked his chin as he watched. Hmm...if Vinyl will be spending a lot of time with her new big brother without me, he'll need to be able to protect her. Giving him martial art abilities wouldn't be a bad idea-

"No more palm blasting!" Mega Man shouted from the screen as he caught Pharaoh Man's arm as he tried to launch a Pharaoh Shot. The sphere of energy kept growing since it hadn't been launched yet. As Pharaoh Man had to focus to control the growing sphere of energy, Mega Man resorted to a head butt before leaping back, causing his foe to drop his blast on himself, breaking him to bits.

Kalinka pouted. "Aww...I just lost 500 rubles!"

"You're betting on the outcome of these fights?" Wily demanded, shocked. When Kalinka nodded eagerly, he rolled his eyes. "At least tell me you're using a pseudonym. You are supposed to be kidnapped, after all."

"Yes, I'm using a pseudonym," Kalinka promised as she started typing away on her mobile unit.

Rolling his eyes, Wily went back into his lab to work on his new creation. Downloading everything related to 'Martial Arts' from the net would be a good way to begin, using an optimization program so his system would only keep whatever meshed well together in his actual hard drive. He then made a final decision regarding the exterior, and worked on finishing it up.

Then came the programming. He decide to let the personality core craft itself for the most part, only encoding one thing into the actual programming.

Primary Mission: be a good big brother to Vinyl.

He was rather surprised that as soon as that was accepted by the systems, it immediately began accessing the net and downloading other files, running them through the same optimization program that the martial arts files had been put through. He stroked his chin, wondering if he should pay closer attention to this.

"Daddy!" Vinyl called out. "Mega Man vs Ring Man!"

Rolling his eyes, he turned to go watch the fight, deciding he could solve the conundrum of his new robot later.

As Mega Man stepped into Ring Man's chamber, he held a full sized Pharaoh Shot over him, ready to throw.

"Dattebayo!" Ring Man shouted as he leapt into the chamber, only to receive the full blast right to his face, knocking him back. "Ow! That hurt!" he complained as he leapt back to his feet, only to receive another Shot, though this one not fully charged. "Hey! Stop-"

Mega Man continued this pattern, charging the shot until Ring Man was leaping to his feet and launching it before he landed on them.

"Give me a chance to fight back!" Ring Man roared angrily.

"Nope," Mega Man replied as the last Shot made Ring Man explode.

The whole group stared. "So..." Wily began. "Was that bad programming on the part of Ring Man...or is Mega Man just getting that good?"

Protoman shrugged. "Probably a little of both..."

"I told Daddy he should have used the Shippuden version..." Kalinka grumbled.

Work Finished

Wily sat back as he looked over his newly finished creation. It had taken a lot of work, but at last he was finished. He'd decided to not give this one a model number as he had most of his other robots. After all, given this one's role, he wasn't just some creation. He was probably the closest Albert would come to having...a son.

As that thought crossed his mind, he came to understand why Dr. Light had always treated Rock, Roll, and Protoman that way. Perhaps I should reconsider my relationship with Protoman, he thought to himself. "Awaken!" he ordered.

The yellow eyes opened and glowed, showing the robot had activated. He then stretched his arms over his head, yawning. "Morning, Pops," he stated, his tone bored as he scratched the back of his head with one hand and his belly with the other.

Albert blinked. He hadn't expected that form of address at all, and the behaviors were almost...human. "What is your primary mission?" he inquired, deciding to make sure everything settled right.

"You should know," the robot replied dismissively. "You programmed me."

"Yes," Albert agreed, "but I want you to confirm it so I know I did it right."

"Don't feel like it."

Wily's temper was quickly fraying. "That was an order!" he snapped out.

"Shove it in your freakishly large sideburns, it'd probably fit."

"How dare you defy me?!" Wily roared out.

"Cause you never programmed me to obey you. Just to be a good big brother to Vinyl. Now where is that filly? Isn't she here to meet me?"

Albert sighed. "She doesn't know I've been building you. Come on, I'll introduce you." He turned to go.

"How come you didn't tell her about me?" the robot asked as he followed along.

"Because I didn't want her slipping superweapons into your build," Wily replied. "You're a brother bot, not a battle bot."

"Despite having every martial art ever made condensed into a single unifying style. And what if I want a superweapon in my build?"

"You can put your views in the complaints box."

"And where's that?"

"In my freakishly large sideburns, along with your disobedience." Wily smirked at the rather personable bot he'd built.

The robot gave him a light punch on the arm. "Not bad, Pops. Not bad."

Chuckling, Wily stepped into the main room where Vinyl and Kalinka were watching Mega Man make his way through Dust Man's stage. "Vinyl, there's someone I want you to meet."

Curious, Vinyl poked her head over the back of the couch and gasped. The robot she saw had short hair, blue with silver stripes, combed back flat. His yellow eyes seemed to glow in his pale face, and violet stripes drew down across his face below his eyes. He stood at about the same height as Wily in his flats, and was clad in a grey shirt and black pants.

"Vinyl, this is Forte," Wily introduced happily. "He's going to be your big brother."

Squealing happily, Vinyl flung herself off the back of the sofa to snuggle into Forte's arms. Forte, for his part, promptly attacked her with noogies and belly raspberries, making her squeal and laugh even more.

Albert sat back, enjoying watching his children bond. He paused as he considered that thought, and a soft smile spread across his face.

"Look!" Kalinka called out. "Mega Man's made it to Dust Man!"

Forte held Vinyl in his lap as they all turned to watch.

As Mega Man entered the chamber, Dust Man shambled in. "Greetingth, Mega Man. The Marthter'th been expecting you."

"Then why not face me directly?" Mega Man asked. "Why send you all against me?"

"The Marthter hath hith reathonth," Dust Man replied. "Now, tho we may begin...walk thith way." Dust Man then proceeded to skip lightly around the room, raising his feet high with each step.

Mega Man stared at that for a time. "...pass," he replied at last. Switching to Ring Boomerang, he hurled the bladed ring, slicing the tubes on Dust Man's back.

"That hurt!" Dust Man complained. Turning, he tried to trigger his vacuum...only for it to short out as the hose flopped about. "Uh oh."

Mega Man shielded his face against the explosion.

Wily blinked. "...that was pathetic," he stated finally.

"Yeah...Daddy's not as good at combat bots as you are," Kalinka allowed.

"Mega Man never managed to beat me," Air Man added.

"Or Metal Man," Forte added.

At the mention of the name, Vinyl reared back on her hind legs with a startled whinny as lightning flashed outside. She promptly hid behind Air Man.

"We don't speak that name around Vinyl!" Crash Man hissed.

"But I'm her big brother," Forte indicated logically. "And according to the data Pops stuck in my head, big brothers are supposed to torment their little sisters a bit."

Albert began to regret using the internet to program Forte.

Over the course of the next hour, the group attempted to coax Vinyl back to calmness, only for Forte to say "Metal Man" every time it looked like she was calming down. Each time, she'd rear up, whinny, and lightning would flash outside.

"Stop doing that!" Wily finally snapped, as Vinyl ducked behind him again. "What possible reason could you have for tormenting her like this?"

"Showing her she has the power to make lightning strike," Forte replied as he chugged a soda.

"Eh?" Vinyl asked, popping her head back out.

"Watch the window," Forte explained. Once Vinyl was looking out the window, he said, "Metal Man!"

As Vinyl reared back and whinnied, she saw the lightning striking. "Again! Again!" she called out eagerly.

Turning, Forte smirked at Wily, who facepalmed.

"Ooh!" Kalinka called out. "Mega Man's about to fight Skull Man!"

As Mega Man slid into the chamber, Skull Man turned to face him. "So, you are here," he growled, his breath echoing. "Dr. Light has taught you well...but you are not a hero yet."

Mega Man frowned, charging his buster. "I think you underestimate me," he explained.

Skull Man deployed his skull barrier. "And you underestimate the power of the Dark Side."

Frowning, Mega Man opened fire, but his charged shot - and every other weapon in his possession - bounced off the Skull Shield. "...so...are you going to come out of there?" he asked.

"There is no need," Skull Man replied. "I have redesigned this chamber to emit low levels of radiation that will slowly leech a power core dry. As long as I am within my shield, I can't be hurt by it, as it will be kept at bay. You, however..."

Mega Man nodded. "Then I'll just have to Flush the pollutants out of the environment." Switching weapons, he fired up a Rain Flush. The acidic rain sucked up the radiation as it fell.

"Grrk!" Skull Man gasped out, clutching at his chest as his shield failed. "Didn't...expect an...attack like that. Overloaded...my shield...too much...to deflect..." Looking up, he saw Mega Man leveling his buster at him. "...well done, young hero..."

"I see what you mean, Kalinka," Forte muttered as they watched Skull Man explode.

Author's Notes:

>mfw I realize I unwittingly gave Forte Ranma Saotome's personality...

Play Finished

The remainder of the afternoon passed uneventfully for the group in the fortress, as they relaxed and played games while watching Mega Man making his way through the area Dive Man had claimed for terrorizing. As expected, it proved little challenge for the by-now veteran robot hero, who cleared through most of it using Rush's Marine mode, which turned the robotic dog into a submarine. Wily took notes on that for something he would be working on later...only to notice that Forte and Vinyl were both discreetly taking notes of their own. Wily made a mental note to keep an eye on the pair any time they were in a lab, either together or singly.

Everyone stopped what they were doing individually, however, to watch when Mega Man entered Dive Man's chambers.

As Mega Man entered the underwater chamber - glad that his voice modulator automatically adjusted for aquatic distortion - he was surprised when music began playing out of nowhere. Dive Man descended majestically through the water, his arms crossed over his chest as he stood proudly. "Mega Man!" he proclaimed loudly. "Finally, you have appeared! Let us see which of us shall reign triumphant here!" He flexed his arms outward, entering a battle stance.

"So we're going to blast away at each other like cowards?" Mega Man demanded. "Hardly fair. You are built for water when I am not...but in all likelihood, I have your weapon weakness."

Dive Man frowned. "You speak truth! For the Skull Shield's energy field interferes with my system functions at close range. But what would you suggest otherwise?"

Smirking, Mega Man caused his buster arm to revert to a hand. "Let us settle this instead...like Men!" He slammed his closed fist into his palm. "Hand to hand! Steel to steel! As real Men ought!"

Dive Man gasped happily. "A wondrous idea!" he declared. "Let us see who is the better Man! Prepare yourself!" Pulling his fist back, Dive Man charged forward with all the speed his turbines could give him.

Mega Man managed to side step the initial punch, countering with a right cross to Dive Man's chin. The pair quickly began to exchange punches as they side stepped back and forth to evade. While they moved about the room a great deal, neither moved far from the other.

After a time, Dive Man lunged forward, catching Mega Man's hands in his own for a grapple. "I will bring you to your knees!" he proclaimed. "None is stronger than I in the water!" He blinked, tilting his head. "It is hard to tell in the water, but...are you a shade lighter?"

Mega Man smirked. Interlacing his fingers with Dive Man to hold him in place, he activated the Skull Shield, having switched to it during the fight. With Dive Man locked in the shield's range, it wasn't long before he went down. "You're right," Mega Man said as Dive Man collapsed. "I'm not stronger than you in the water...but apparently, I am smarter." Taking the weapon chip, he beamed out.

Wily stared at the screen, scratching his chin. "I don't know whether to be disappointed that Dive Man fell for that, or impressed that Mega Man took a page out of my book."

Forte shrugged. "Not a bad fight till Mega Man cheated," he admitted. "He set the rules of that fight, and then reneged. Then again, it was rather stupid of Dive Man to tell him his weakness."

"And by process of elimination, he knows Drill Man's weak against Dive Missiles," Kalinka admitted, sighing sadly. "Between Drill Man not talking and him having the weakness, it's probably going to be a boring fight."

"In that case, we'll do something else until Mega Man starts his journey into Mikhail's Castle," Wily suggested. Stepping forward, he fiddled with the screen to set an alert for when Mega Man beat Drill Man, and then turned to the game cabinet. "Who wants to play Monopoly?" he called out.

Several hours later, the game of Monopoly ended just as the sun was setting. It had eventually come down to Vinyl against Kalinka for control of the board, only for Vinyl to claim final victory. As Vinyl celebrated, Forte turned to Wily. "Yo, Pops...shouldn't we have gotten the alert by now?"

"Have we missed something?" Kalinka gasped out as the group raced back to the screen.

On screen, Mega Man was running as fast as he could away from Drill Man shouting, "I don't want to be inflated!" Drill Man was pursuing him with the bike pump.

Kalinka blinked slowly. "I...guess he's played Dig Dug..." Vinyl started snickering uncontrollably.

"So...he does know Dive Missiles are homing, right?" Forte asked.

"Only if you're facing the target when you fire them," Kalinka corrected.

On screen, Mega Man leapt into the air, turned around towards Drill Man, fired three Dive Missiles, and turned back around to land facing away as he continued to flee.

"Not bad," Wily murmured. "A little absurd, but not bad."

After a time, Mega Man did it again, and this time Drill Man was destroyed. "That sure took him a while," Wily murmured.

"I guess that means it's my turn," Protoman admitted. "I'll need to get Kalinka back to Cossack Castle while Mega Man's fighting Dr. Cossack, to make sure things don't go too far. I can always claim I 'rescued' her from you or something."

"And that will keep to-" Wily's words were interrupted by the doorbell. "Now who could that be?" Heading to the door, he opened it. "Hello- Mega Man?"

Mega Man stood with his arms crossed, staring at Wily. "I'm here to take Kalinka back home," he said calmly. "I think she's played enough."

"Wha...bu...how?" Wily demanded angrily.

Smirking, Mega Man tapped the side of his head. "I have an internet connection in here. You really need to keep Kalinka off the Twitter."

Wily groaned and facepalmed.

Bonus Battle

Mikhail Cossack was rather surprised to hear his front door open as he was overseeing the construction of all the traps and obstacles that would delay Mega Man as he made his way to the 'Death Machines' Wily had suggested he build for 'realism'. He was even more surprised at the voice that accompanied the door opening. "Daddy! I'm home!"

"Kalinka?" Mikhail shouted in shock. "What are you doing back?" He raced to the door. "Mega Man will be here soon..." His voice trailed off as he saw the Blue Bomber himself holding Kalinka's hand.

"I think we need to talk, Doctor," Mega Man stated calmly.

Mikhail stepped back, struggling to find words. "I...I can explain-"

"No need," Mega Man replied. "I know exactly what's going on."

"You...you do?" Dr. Cossack gulped, fully expecting now to face who knew how many criminal charges, trying to prepare himself for it.

"Yes," Mega Man replied, his face stern. "This was all...just a simple misunderstanding."

Mikhail wasn't certain what he'd expected Mega Man to say, but that wasn't it. "What?"

"Yes," Mega Man replied. "You came home to find your little girl missing, and to see that new Fortress with the skull symbol so nearby. You had just gotten back from a meeting, and weren't entirely in control of yourself when you called Dr. Wily. Given his reputation, it was natural for you to assume he was holding Kalinka hostage to make you take over the world for him, and your fear for what he'd do to her if you told anyone explains why you put your Fortress under a communications blackout after breaking contact with him." Mega Man smirked. "Of course, if - as the call record shows you failed to - you'd given him the chance to get a word in edgewise, he would have told you that Kalinka was no hostage, and was just spending time with Vinyl." Mega Man chuckled ruefully. "Dr. Wily's parenthood isn't well known, so it makes sense you wouldn't know that he wouldn't dream of harming a little girl in the same age group as his own, let alone threaten her to get her father's cooperation." He leaned in close to the doctor. "Maybe next time you should let the 'evil doctor' tell you his plans, rather than assuming them?"

Mikhail chuckled rather stiffly, not entirely believing this was happening. "Yes, Mega Man. I. Will. Be. Sure. To. Do. That. In. The. Future."

Mega Man winked. "And that's the story we'll tell everyone investigating this, right?"

"How did you know?" Mikhail asked, confused and worried.

"Officially, because Wily made sure Kalinka kept a live Twitter feed going through the whole thing because he knew no one would believe him," Mega Man replied. "I found it because I googled you as soon as you threw down the gauntlet."

"So you knew all along?"

Mikhail, Mega Man, and Kalinka all jumped at that voice, which seemed to beep slightly at every other syllable, like a robot with the hiccups. Mikhail's face paled. "Oh no...you only beat Skull Man once..."

"Only once?" Mega Man asked in confusion.

"Skull Man was designed for combat, and only for combat," Mikhail explained, grabbing hold of Kalinka and pulling her away. "He has two personality cores and ability sets. The primary is based fully in tactics. The second, which activates if the first is beaten...is pure power, and highly experimental."

Swallowing convulsively, Mega Man turned around. Skull Man stood there...but he looked different. For some reason, he was wearing a green hoodie, and had his hands in the pockets. Also, his eyes glowed blue.

"Look at the sky," Skull Man said in his new voice. "The sun is shining, birds are singing, and the flowers are in bloom. It's the kind of day that's rare this far north. The kind of day..."

My brothers will never see again.

Mega Man leapt back in shock. He knew that Skull Man had said those words, but they had jumped straight into his head without the use of sound. And when he'd said it, Skull Man's eyes had turned into hungry black pits, looking as though they'd suck out Mega Man's soul...

"You knew all along," Skull Man continued in his more normal new voice, his eyes once more blue. "You knew exactly where Kalinka was and why, and yet you still went after my brothers and I. You still hungered for battle. But that's you, isn't it...you dirty brother killer."

"H-hang on," Mega Man began nervously. "It's not like that-"

"Isn't it?" Skull Man asked. "Didn't you enjoy fighting your own brothers over and over? Don't you still hunger for the power to beat Air Man? Don't you still train against the possibility of another...Metal Man?" Lightning flashed as, in the distance, Vinyl could be heard to whinny. "Face it, Mega Man. You claim to be a champion of justice...but you've been rebuilt for combat, and it's all you are now."

Mega Man shivered, his body quivering as he felt the guilt of his actions - presented in this light as sins - crawling on his back.

"On a day like this, bad boys like you..."

Are gonna have a bad time.

Gasping for air from the sheer overpowering fear, Mega Man activated his buster. Before he could even get it fully formed, Skull Man had thrown one hand out, a small flaming skull lashing out and sticking to Mega Man's chest. Skull Man then swung his hand upwards, and Mega Man slammed into the ceiling painfully. Similar impacts occurred against the walls and floor. Bones flew at Mega Man, which he barely dodged...only to realize they weren't bones at all, but pieces of the robots and Robot Masters he'd destroyed, Cossack and Wily alike. When he turned back to Skull Man, he saw the robot holding what looked like the skull of a dragon. The skull opened.

Wily stared at the devastation this personality of Skull Man was unleashing. As Vinyl stared in awe, he reached for his phone. "Mikhail...do you suppose I could...take a look at Skull Man's specs?"

"No."

Forte whistled at the onslaught. "Ya think Little Boy Blue's gonna make it out in one piece?"

"Yes," Air Man interjected. "I recognize the persona basis. He will give Mega Man a chance to surrender."

"Adding yet another bot to the list of those Mega Man could never beat," Crash Man breathed in awe. "We should form a club."

The Club

While Skull Man did give Mega Man a very thorough thrashing, venting his spleen on the Blue Bomber, eventually he grew weary of the battle and offered Mega Man a chance to surrender, as Air Man had predicted. When Mega Man had eagerly surrendered, Skull Man had flung him all the way back to Light Labs while shouting, "Geeeeeet dunked on!" Light had given Mikhail and Albert to understand that it would take several months to fully repair him.

A little over a month later, Forte stepped out of Vinyl's lab and stretched. He was rather amazed at how rapidly Vinyl was advancing with her designs...and was privately considering asking her to upgrade him for real robot battle at some point. With all the martial arts programming in him, combat called to him. Still, his primary purpose was to be a good brother to Vinyl, and at this point in time rushing off to battle didn't meet that purpose. Being a good lab assistant, however, did.

He was rather surprised to see Crash Man setting up a snooker table, a round table, and several chairs in one of the large, unused rooms of the Fortress. "What are you doing?" he asked curiously.

Crash Man looked up. "Sorry, club members only."

Forte blinked. "Club?" Glancing over, he saw the sign.

First Meeting of the Mega Mashers Club

Forte couldn't help but chuckle. "You're actually making the club?"

"Yup," Crash Man replied. "Entry into the club is simple. You're a Robot Master aligned against Mega Man, and you've either beaten him soundly or never lost to him. The second is so Wood Man can be a member, since he never actually fought Mega Man. And it wouldn't be fair to exclude him." He shrugged. "Besides, he's bringing his hookah.

"I'm a Robot Master," Forte pointed out. "By those rules, I should be a member, too."

Crash Man looked him up and down. "You aren't a combat model," he indicated.

"Neither was Rock," Forte countered.

Crash Man thought about that for a time, then nodded. "Alright. Get the snacks."

It didn't take long for the club room to finish being set up. In addition to snooker and the poker table, Air Man had brought in a pinball machine, Shadow Man (who postulated that, since both he and Mega Man were forced to withdraw after their original fight - and that Vinyl actually wanted Mega Man to retrieve all the energy element capsules - his match had ended in a draw, not a defeat) brought a DDR machine, and Wood Man - in addition to his hookah - brought along several game consoles to be hooked up...along with, of all the irony, console adaptions of the events of Mega Man's crusade against Wily.

Forte had been rather surprised to discover that he'd been programmed to be an excellent cook. When asked, Wily had explained that it was because, as scientists, he and Vinyl would tend towards ignoring their own dietary needs for the sake of their research and experimentation. As a good big brother, Forte was to take care of Vinyl when she couldn't be bothered to take care of herself. Wily hadn't even had to use the internet to program that part, as he himself was a classically trained chef before he got into robotics.

As everything was being set up, the group was startled as Skull Man - still in his hoodie - stepped out from behind the pinball machine. "I brought drinks," he spoke up, showing it was still the secondary personality in control, though apparently much more relaxed now.

The group decided that they'd play poker first today. Gathering around the table and taking their seats, they took their fill of snacks and drinks as Shadow Man took on the role of dealer. While no one was surprised that Wood Man's drink of choice was a two liter of soda to wash down his massive bowl of chips, a few eyebrows were raised at Skull Man's bottle of ketchup with straw.

The game went on for several hands, with no one gaining a real obvious lead. An unexpected drawback was discovered to playing card games with a group of robots: everyone had a computer for a brain, and could readily calculate everything about the cards, making bluffing impossible. "Maybe we should try a different game?" Forte asked. "One that can't be won by card counting?"

"Too many of us for Bridge or Hearts," Skull Man replied with a gentle laugh.

"And all of us have robotic reflexes too good for any computer games, or any pool-type games," Air Man added.

"We could all take a big hit," Wood Man offered, holding out his hookah. "That ought to lower our reflexes and calculations a bit."

"Except then you have an advantage, since you're used to it," Crash Man corrected. "It seems that most of the games we could play are simply too...primitive for our capabilities."

The group fell silent, lost in thought. "Anyone up to designing a new game that will challenge us?" Forte suggested.

"Too much work," Crash Man replied. "I guess we need to find new group activities."

"Maybe we could play with the cute unicorn?" Skull Man offered.

"She's busy in her lab," Forte countered. "But getting together to do things with Vinyl could be fun. We've got three holidays coming up to spend time with her for."

"Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas," Air Man confirmed. "We could make plans for that."

"As the only one with a large belly, I call playing Santa Claus!" Wood Man called out.

"Does that make us your ho's?" Skull Man joked before chuckling, resulting in him dodging a shower of pretzels, popcorn, and nachos.

"Actually, I understand that Protoman and Pops are already planning something special for Christmas," Forte pointed out. "But we could always plan Halloween costumes."

"And when we're done, we could watch some movies," Wood Man offered. "Just veg out on the couch."

"Sounds fun," Air Man replied, as the group got to work on their costume ideas.

Hollow-ween

Preparations for Halloween were nearly complete at the two Fortresses. Appropriate decorations were placed everywhere, from jack-o-lanterns to witches to skeletons, all robots built to entertain and playfully terrify. Wily and Cossack had worked together to prepare anything, as this was the first time Wily felt it was safe enough for Vinyl to actually go Trick-or-Treating, and he wanted to make her first real Halloween memorable.

Everyone was done up in costumes to enhance the experience, even the Robot Masters. Wily himself had dressed up as Albert Einstein, though that mostly involved using tape to comb his sideburns over the top of his head. Mikhail had dressed up as a vampire, though his fangs kept falling out and his cape was red rather than the traditional black. Kalinka was dressed up as Dr. Frankenstein, complete with a robot monster she'd built herself.

The Robot Masters glanced around at each other's costumes, Air Man's being the most confusing, as he was only holding a sign that read 'I want to have your babies!' "Umm..." Forte began.

"Given the design of my body, I don't have many options as far as costumes," Air Man explained. "So I'm 'your biggest fan'."

The other Robot Masters groaned, save Skull Man, who giggled like crazy. Skull Man himself was wearing a white eyepatch over one eye that blended with the white bone of his skull head, and a black trench-coat. "Not bad," he joked.

"And...you are?" Air Man inquired.

"My other self, sorta," Skull Man replied.(1)

Everyone stared at him, not really getting it. Crash Man shrugged, fixing his own costume, which was a riot of plaid, polka dots, stripes, and tie dye.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Skull Man asked him. "A fashion mistake?"

"Close," Crash Man replied. "I'm Clash Man." That elicited a giggle from Skull Man and eye rolls from most of the others.

Wood Man had dressed up as a giant caterpillar, and for some reason whenever he spoke, the smoke from his hookah took shape in the air coming out of his mouth in the shape of his words. No one was quite sure how he managed it, and weren't entirely sure they wanted to know. Shadow Man had dressed up as a red and black hedgehog, claiming he was, "Shadow, man." He seemed overly fond of the joke.

Forte's own costume had been chosen carefully. He'd recently gotten into a sci-fi/western anime focused on the plight of two brothers. While he wanted to dress as the badass one, he was supposed to be a good big brother to Vinyl, and the one he'd thought of dressing as was anything but a good brother. As such, he'd taped a broom head to his hair and was wearing a red trench-coat and black gloves and boots. However, he was determined not to say the classic lines of the character he was dressed as...unless Vinyl begged him. He knew he was powerless against that.

At that point, Vinyl raced out in her own costume. She was dressed in blue armor and helmet that made her costume obvious. She grinned up at everyone.

"Mega Man?" Crash Man asked worriedly. "But...we don't want to beat you up..."

"Not Mega Man!" Vinyl spat derisively. She then struck what she imagined was a dramatic - but was really adorable - pose. "I'm Mega Mare!"

That brought chuckles from all the Robot Masters, and Wily who'd stepped in. Forte knelt down beside Vinyl. "So...are you ready for-"

Vinyl gasped happily. "Say it!" she pleaded.

Forte went pale. "Aw, come on!" Seeing Vinyl's begging expression, he groaned. "Fine...this world-"

"With feeling!" Vinyl urged.

Rolling his eyes, Forte struck a pose. "This world!" he barked out. "This world is made of..." Lifting his hand up with his fingers in a V, he thrust outward, crossing his fingers as he did so. "Love and Peace!" As Vinyl giggled and clapped, he groaned. "Why didn't I dress as the crazy one?"

"Pretty sure you did," Shadow Man teased.

"So, are you ready for Halloween, Vinyl?" Albert asked, kneeling down beside her.

"Uh...no," Vinyl replied. "I mean, I dressed up like everyone...but what happens now?"

"Now you go trick-or-treating," Crash Man explained. "You take your bag for candy, and then you go from house to house ringing doorbells, and-"

"What houses?" Vinyl asked, gesturing outside.

Glancing out the door, Forte took note that the only other residence for miles was Cossack Castle. "Huh. Hadn't thought about that."

"I did," Mikhail spoke up, lifting out two modified busters. "This is how I do Halloween for Kalinka. All the robots in the Fortress have been redesigned to drop candy when shot. So Kalinka and Vinyl can race through the now Halloween decorated castle blasting robots and collecting the candy they drop."(2)

Vinyl gasped happily as she took her buster, racing after Kalinka into Cossack Castle. Albert smiled. "Thanks, Mikhail. But isn't that...expensive?"

"Not really," Mikhail replied. "The busters are designed only to cause the robots to enter a shut down mode that makes them eject candy. And the candy's all healthy, too-"

There was a loud crash from Cossack Castle, and a large hole erupted in one outer wall as a massive blast of energy erupted with a Bzzzowwwnnnn!

"In that case, we should have taken away the Mark 2 Wub Gun," Forte pointed out with a chuckle. Mikhail fainted dead away.

(1) Rather meta and obscure, but Skull Man is dressed as W.D. Gaster, who - in Undertale - is speculated to have been Sans and Papyrus' father.
(2) I think this would make an adorable ROM hack.

Giving Thanks

As Thanksgiving had approached, Albert had put his culinary skills to the test preparing the feast. Much like Halloween the month before, this was going to be the first time they'd been in one place long enough for Vinyl to participate in such a holiday celebration. While Albert could have talked about them and celebrated them with her in a minor way, he hadn't wanted to raise her hopes of a festive celebration and then disappoint her. As such, this year would be her first Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and he was going all out as her father to give her the best ones imaginable.

The turkey was a culinary masterpiece, perfectly golden brown on the outside, rich and moist inside, and perfectly seasoned to bring out the fullness of its flavor and aroma. Admittedly, it was unlikely Vinyl would eat more than a few mouthfuls of turkey, but it wouldn't be Thanksgiving without the bird on the table, and he drew the line at having a live one running about gobbling. Gobbling was the job of the diners, not the dinner. Besides, making a large turkey provided a great deal of the makings for gravy.

The homemade stuffing and mashed potatoes rose high in their serving bowls as Albert set the table, along with the hand made cranberry sauce and the three bean casserole. He'd analyzed Vinyl's diet and nutritional needs, and had finished off with a carrot and spinach souffle, a massive pumpkin pie, and a huge apple strudel.

As he finished setting the large table, Forte stepped in, staring. "Pops?" he asked, confused. "Not that I'm one to complain about a huge spread...but why so much?"

"Well, there are going to be a lot of seats filled at the table," Albert replied. "It wouldn't look right for parts of the table to be empty."

"Okay, but there's centerpieces for that," Forte indicated.

"Too many centerpieces ruin the look of a meal."

"But there's only one here other than you that even needs to eat!" Forte finally snapped.

Albert bit his lip worriedly. "I know...I just hope there's enough here that she likes."

Groaning, Forte proceeded to smack his head against the wall in frustration.

As dinner time rolled around, everyone gathered around the table to take their seats. Albert sat at the head of the table, Vinyl to his left, Protoman to his right. Forte sat beside Protoman, and a robot that seemed familiar but that Albert didn't quite recognize sat to Vinyl's other side. Wood Man filled out Protoman's side of the table, while Shadow Man and Crash Man filled the rest of Vinyl's side. Air Man sat at the opposite end of the table.

Wily stood up as everyone took their seats. "As per the traditions of Thanksgiving, let us each say what we are thankful for. Air Man, will you start us off?"

Air Man nodded. "Just now, I am thankful I do not have a nose or sense of smell. If I did just now, the lack of mouth or sense of taste would be sheer torture."

As laughter echoed around the table, Albert nodded. "I'll get to work on fixing both of those for you, Air Man," he managed to get out through his laughter. "Crash Man?"

"I'm thankful Vinyl gave me hands," Crash Man replied dryly, sliding the bomb gloves into his wrists to reveal actual hands for the holding of utensils. "I don't have to risk an accidental explosion of flavor."

Albert groaned as Vinyl giggled. "Wood Man, please tell me you aren't going to make a joke out of this?"

"I'm thankful for a peaceful time where we can all enjoy this together without any worries," Wood Man replied softly.

Albert smiled warmly. "What a nice sentime-"

"And that I was designed with such a bulky physique," Wood Man added. "It's not munchies if I stuff myself, I just have a huge stomach!"

Albert was moments away from burying himself face first in the pumpkin pie. "...Shadow Man?" he asked worriedly.

"I am thankful for Forte," Shadow Man replied softly. "It's no longer my job to keep Vinyl out of trouble."

"I'll second that!" Protoman chimed in, both bots getting blown a raspberry from the filly in question.

"Wait your turn!" Forte snapped.

"Well, Forte?" Albert asked morosely.

"I'm thankful Vinyl's such a troublemaker, cause if she wasn't I probably wouldn't have been built!"

Vinyl blew a laughing raspberry at Forte as Albert put his face in his hands. "And...you?" he asked, turning to the robot he didn't recognize.

The robot stood up, revealing a body that was mostly just the skeleton of a robot, plainly a work in progress. "The robot formerly known as Doc is grateful my rebuild is finished enough to let me walk around and eat!"

Albert blinked. "The robot formerly known as Doc?"

"My former designation was Doc Robot," the bot explained. "But I don't have a new designation or function yet."

"Ah," Albert replied, suppressing his curiosity for the moment. "Protoman, what about you?"

"I'm grateful I haven't had to keep my promise to you yet," he replied cryptically. While most of the robots glanced at him in confusion, Wily could only nod in understanding before turning to Vinyl.

The little unicorn smiled up at him happily. "I'm thankful for Daddy!" she called out happily. "If not for Daddy, I wouldn't have any of this!" She threw her hooves wide to indicate the castle, the table, the robots, everything.

Albert smiled widely, reaching over to give her a scratch behind one ear.

"Oh, these too!" Vinyl purred, leaning into the caress, getting several laughs.

Chuckling, Albert smiled widely. "And I'm thankful for my family." He gestured to the table. "All of you here. I may have built most of you with my own two hands...but I know you're here because you choose to be here...and having you all here has made me happier than I could have imagined." Turning, he smiled down at Vinyl. "And especially you."

"Can we eat now?" Forte complained.

"Son of a- yes!" Wily snapped angrily, much to the amusement of all present.

A Very Botty Christmas

Dr. Light sighed sadly as he stared at the capsule before him. Mega Man had been severely damaged as a result of the fight with Skull Man, to the point that he couldn't even work on him while keeping him active. His only option had been to retrofit an experimental construction pod - destined for a future project - as a stasis repair bay. Mega Man now floated in the green fluid which was a mixture of stabilizing liquid and repair nanites, slowly putting him back together. Based on current projections, he wouldn't be back online until after the New Year.

On top of that, Roll hadn't quite been herself with her brother in such condition. Her emotional program based in her personality core had been causing an endless sequence of errors, to the point she'd actually put a live turkey in the robot repair bay and nearly tried to cook Rush for Thanksgiving Dinner. After that, Dr. Light had granted her request to leave her in standby until Mega Man was reactivated. As for Rush himself, he had taken position on top of the capsule after his bad experience in the kitchen, and refused to move until the capsule opened.

As a result, Dr. Light found himself spending Christmas alone. He sat staring at the capsule, sipping eggnog laced with a mix of Cognac and Rum. He imagined that Albert would be having a much happier Christmas right now, wherever he was. After all, whatever else he had, he had Vinyl.

He was startled out of his reverie by the sound of knocking at the door. Curious, he went and opened it. "P-Protoman?" he gasped out, shocked.

"Dr. Wily was wondering if you'd like to play Santa Claus for Vinyl's first Christmas," Protoman replied.

As lonely as Tom had been feeling - and as much of the spiked eggnog as he'd already drunk - he didn't need to be asked twice. "Let me get my suit!" he replied eagerly, rushing back into the lab.

Chuckling, Protoman stepped inside, unwrapping his scarf briefly to rub his neck. Setting the scarf down on an end table, he took a sip from Tom's eggnog, only to make a face. "Wow. No wonder he agreed so fast..."

Tom soon came rushing down the stairs, rosy cheeked and dressed from head to toe in red and white fur, a perfect traditional Santa outfit. He looked like a very realistic Santa Claus, to the point that Protoman was having 'Miracle on 34th Street' flashbacks. "Let's go!" he said eagerly, grabbing for his keys.

"No need for a car," Protoman countered. "We're providing a vehicle." Taking Dr. Light's arm, he led him outside.

Dr. Light blinked at what he saw. "Is that a Mass Transit Teleportation Unit...done up to look like a sleigh? Pulled by eight new Robot Masters?"

"Yup," Protoman agreed. "Albert made them specifically for this, to give Vinyl a 'real' Santa experience."

"You mean the reindeer antlers are a part of them?" Tom asked, shocked.

"No, just funny hats to get in the spirit," Protoman replied with a chuckle, leading him up to the head of the sleigh. "This is Crystal Man," he introduced, gesturing to a blue robot with crystal spheres on his shoulders, head, and chest. "He's in charge of making the sleigh shimmer."

"Another beautiful one!" Crystal Man stated eagerly all of a sudden, conjuring a crystal around a falling snowflake. "And another!"

"He's...making a snowflake collection?" Dr. Light asked, stunned.

"Yes, he is," the robot next to him - a large purple robot bristling with rockets, missiles, and other weaponry - stated as he shifted his tank treads.

"This is Napalm Man," Protoman introduced. "He's in charge of fireworks."

"Don't you think all that is overkill?" Dr. Light asked gesturing to the weaponry.

"Oh, that's not what this is at all!" Napalm Man replied. "I collect weapons so they won't be used, and the only way I can be sure they won't be used is if I carry them with me at all times-oh no!"

At the 'oh no', Napalm Man stumbled forward, falling on his face as several of his weapons went off.

"It wasn't. My. Fault," the robot who bumped into him - an orange robot with a large yellow star on his torso and smaller stars on the rest of his body - stated, placing odd pauses in his speech.

"Then whose fault was it, Star Man?" Protoman growled out. "You're in charge of choreography."

"Gyro. Man. Bumped into. Me," Star Man replied, his voice mild but accusing.

"My bad!" a green robot with a large propeller strapped to his back replied in a good natured voice, managing to sound happy and - somehow - adorable.

"I don't know how you manage that when you're supposed to be in charge of stabilizing the flight path," Protoman groaned.

"I just don't know what went wrong!" Gyro Man added sorrowfully.

"Can we hurry this up?" a robot shaped like a red train engine proclaimed, pulling out a large pocket watch. "I'm in Charge of the schedule, and we're late! For a very important date!"

"You forgot to take time zones into account again, Charge Man," a blue and yellow robot with swim fins on his feet and a harpoon for a hand replied bluntly.

"That's easy for you to say, Wave Man," a large red robot replied, his voice soft but intense. "I'm the one who has to carry all of us. All you have to do is use your water powers to give us a soft landing."

"That's Gravity Man," Protoman whispered. "He's here to use his gravity manipulation tech to make the whole thing fly."

"And...this one?" Tom asked, gesturing to the last Robot Master, who looked to be made of bricks.

"I am Stone Man," the robot replied, his voice very bland. "I am to be a chimney...with extreme prejudice."

"...he sounds a bit like Guts Man," Tom commented.

"That's because he's a reupload of Guts Man," Protoman explained. "With a few minor tweaks."

"Does that make you Rudolph?" Tom asked jokingly as he climbed into the sleigh.

Protoman merely glowered at him as the sleigh started forward into the sky, bells ringing, only to teleport out.

Inside, Protoman's scarf lay across an end table next to a spilled glass of eggnog.

Albert smiled widely as he got the signal of the arrival. "Vinyl, do you hear that?" he asked eagerly.

Cocking her head, Vinyl listened...and heard the sound of sleigh bells in the snow. Gasping happily - she'd spent the past month hearing every Christmas story for children there was - she dashed outside, looking up in wonder as the sleigh descended, pulled by what to her childish imagination and delight appeared to be eight robotic reindeer. And Santa himself leapt out of the sleigh.

"Ho ho ho!" 'Santa' called out in Dr. Light's voice. "Merry Christmas!"

As everyone filed inside, Protoman suddenly snapped his fingers in frustration. "I forgot my scarf!" he snarled.

Giggling, Vinyl handed him a scarf wrapped in a ribbon. It was the same yellow as Protoman's old one, but when she ran her hoof over it, it sang.

Confused, Protoman wrapped it around his neck. When it blew in the non-existent breeze, the scarf played his distinctive whistle. Smiling, Protoman pulled Vinyl into a hug.

"So tell me, Vinyl, have you been a good little girl this year?" Dr. Light asked, leaning over her as he held the massive sack of presents.

Grinning, Vinyl pulled out her sonic disruptor. "This is a stick up!" she shouted with a wide grin.

As Dr. Light dropped the sack and threw his hands into the air, every robot present laughed. Albert struggled to get his own laughter under control. "Vinyl!" he scolded, taking the gun from her. "You don't hold Santa up for his presents!"

Vinyl pouted as Dr. Light lowered his hands. "Thank you Albert."

Wily suddenly smirked, aiming the gun at Tom's head. "That's Daddy's job," he finished, startling more laughter as Tom put his hands in the air again as everyone else made a mad scramble for presents.

Much later that night, after Vinyl had gone to sleep and most of the robots had powered down for a sleep cycle, Albert and Tom sat up drinking their spiked eggnog, and having gotten more than a little tipsy.

"Ya know..." Tom joked as he hiccuped, "if I'm not back when Mega Man reactivates - the capsule's on automatic - he might think I've been...kidnapped!" He laughed at that.

"But Protoman left his scarf behind!" Al pointed out through his own drunk laughter.

"So he'll think Protoman did it!" Tom guffawed. "And since the sensors will show him arriving with eight Robot Masters..."

"If you're setting me up as the fall guy for another world takeover scheme, I want my own fortress," Protoman spoke up, leaning against the wall as his scarf continued to whistle.

"Done!" Tom and Albert both shouted out before slumping forward into unconsciousness.

Protoman chuckled to himself. "What a way to start the New Year," he muttered, covering both doctors up with blankets.

Fallen

Mega Man blinked as his capsule opened up, shaking his head. "Ugh...Dr. Light, how long have I been out?" he called. When he received no response, he glanced around worriedly. "Dr. Light? ...Dad?"

When he still received no response, he began racing around the lab, looking for any sign of what happened. Eventually, he found Protoman's scarf beside a spilled glass of eggnog. "Protoman...kidnapped Dr. Light?" he gasped. "But...but he wouldn't just go with him..."

Turning, he accessed the computers, and discovered that the proximity sensors had registered eight unknown Robot Masters arriving with Protoman. "Eight Robot Masters? Is this a takeover attempt?" He checked the news feed, and sure enough, eight Robot Masters were on the loose. "...I need some help. Well...Dr. Cossack owes me one for covering for him over his Robot Masters. Come on, Rush!"

"Ruff!" Rush replied, leaping to Mega Man's side. The pair headed for the teleporter, putting in the coordinates for Dr. Cossack's lab.

Dr. Cossack was awakened to the sound of someone pounding at the front door. Grumbling, he went to open it. "Who is...Mega Man? What are you doing here?"

"Protoman's kidnapped Dr. Light!" Mega Man replied quickly. "Eight new Robot Masters are rampaging. I need some combat upgrades to handle them. One of them's a tank. A freaking tank!"

Mikhail quickly ushered Mega Man and Rush in. "Alright. Let me see what I can do."

After a while of working in his lab, Mikhail shook his head. "I'm afraid there's not much I can do to improve your Mega Buster. Dr. Light did an excellent job on this charge function. At best, I could give you another one on your other arm...but using both together could be dangerous for you."

"I'll manage it," Mega Man replied.

"Off to hunt again?"

Mega Man shivered. Turning, he saw the source of the voice leaning against a nearby wall. "Skull Man," he greeted calmly.

"Have fun slaughtering more robots...dirty brother killer," Skull Man added. "You certainly seem to enjoy it."

As Skull Man left, Dr. Cossack turned back to Mega Man. "Don't let him get to you," he reassured softly. "You don't-"

"Did you build Protoman's Robot Masters?" Mega Man asked suddenly.

"What?" Mikhail asked, shocked. "No! What possible reason could I have to do that? Why would you even ask me?"

"Because there are only three scientists in the world who could build Robot Masters of that level," Mega Man replied. "Protoman used them to kidnap one, and you are helping me stop them. Protoman couldn't build them himself. ...can you give Rush an upgrade as well?"

Confused by the way Mega Man's mind seemed to be leaping about, Mikhail nodded. "What did you have in mind?"

"Something...fast."

Forte walked back and forth in the halls of Wily's Castle, grumbling to himself. Vinyl had gotten a head cold the previous night, and was thus staying in bed for the day. While he was concerned for her health, he was also frustrated as he had nothing to do until she recovered. Wood Man was meditating, Air Man was fixing the Fortress' ventilation system, Crash Man was setting up Vinyl's future education plan, and Shadow Man was helping Protoman set up at his Fortress in preparation for Mega Man's counter attack. On top of that, Dr. Wily himself was up in his lab to offer Protoman some support when the time came, and the Robot Formerly Known As Doc was currently tending to Vinyl.

Grumbling angrily to himself, Forte kicked a nearby wall. "I wish something would happen!" he snapped. "Just to break up the boredom-"

The front door of the Fortress blasted open from a double charged plasma blast, and Mega Man came flying in on a motorbike with Rush's head. He sailed right over Forte before driving on through the Fortress, the bike's engine roaring as he turned through the halls.

"I didn't mean it!" Forte shouted to the universe at large as he tried to make chase...only to be thwarted by a large pit Mega Man had widened as he'd cleared it. "Dammit!"

To say that Dr. Wily was startled when Mega Man busted down his door on the back of a Rush cycle would be to say that Genghis Khan dabbled in real estate. He was quite floored when Mega Man leapt off the Rush cycle, blasted him, and then landed braced over him as all his muscles locked up briefly. Rush transformed back into a dog as he skidded towards the wall, deploying turrets of all things from his back. "Surrender now, Dr. Wily!" Mega Man ordered. "I know you're behind Protoman kidnapping Dr. Light!"

Wily was rather surprised that Mega Man had figured it out so quickly, but something else was of greater significance to him just now. "You shot me!" he shouted out.

"Stun blast," Mega Man replied. "I asked Mikhail to give me a stun setting so I could actually capture you this time. That way you would actually be in jail and not ready to do this all over again in a year or two."

"How did you come to the conclusion that I was behind this?" he demanded.

"Because only three people can make Robot Masters that advanced, and you're the only one Protoman would work for," Mega Man replied. "Beyond that, one was kidnapped by the Robot Masters, and the other is helping me stop you. I assume you programmed them with a voice command to make them shut down and withdraw, just in case they turned against you?"

Wily's eyes popped open. "How did you know I did that?" he gasped out. "I never did before!"

"Because you put the Robot Masters under Protoman's command," Mega Man explained. "Since you've confirmed you made them and programmed such a command, you're going to make use of it...or I'll make sure you regret not doing so for the rest of your life."

Wily burst into laughter. "You...you're actually threatening me?" He laughed louder. "An empty threat, but still, that's impressive!"

"What makes you think it's empty?" Mega Man asked coldly.

"You've got the three laws in you," Wily replied. "Tom was obsessed with Asimov. You can't hurt me, or any human."

"You're right, Wily," Mega Man replied, his voice...somehow dead. "The first law, hardcoded into my programming, says 'A robot may not harm a human, or through inaction, allow a human to come to harm." As Wily's eyes narrowed in confusion from the emphasis, Mega Man stepped back. "Rush, keep him pinned here," he ordered. Rush quickly moved to obey, pinning Wily beneath him. "I need to go find Vinyl." He turned to leave the room.

Albert felt his heart skip a few beats. "You can't!" Wily shouted out. "You could never go through with such a thing! You care too much!"

"My personality simulation is just that, Doctor," Mega Man replied without turning around. "A simulation. I, like any robot, am a tool. My brain is a difference engine. If projected calculations indicate that killing Vinyl will save humans, then I won't hesitate." He took another step forward.

"I order you to halt!" Wily gasped out desperately, struggling against Rush.

"I have long standing orders to ignore the orders of criminals if they interfere with my primary mission," Mega Man replied coolly, continuing out the door.

Wily refused to believe it. Wily could not accept that this would happen, wanted to call Mega Man's bluff. But as Mega Man turned the corner towards Vinyl's room...Albert broke. "Wait!" he called out, his voice broken. "I'll...I'll do it..."

Turning, Mega Man stepped back into the lab, hauled Albert up by his collar, and carried him over to the console.

Reaching out, Albert blindly activated the sequence that put him in contact with the latest eight Robot Masters. He then leaned forward and spoke into a microphone. "...abandon hope, all ye who enter here," he whispered, before slumping in on himself as his tears fell.

Elsewhere in the Fortress, eight teleportation signals indicated that the Robot Masters had been recalled. The screens indicated they were shutting down.

Mega Man turned Albert to face him, his voice dead. "Dr. Albert Wily, you're under arrest for crimes of robotic terrorism, destruction of property, and acts of world terrorism."

Saying no more, Mega Man teleported out, taking Albert Wily with him to jail...only for Protoman to step into the room, having gotten there in time to hear the end of the interaction, but too late to interfere.

Author's Notes:

This chapter...it hurt to write. But after how I handled Skull Man after the end of 4...it was unavoidable.

Before the hate on Mega Man...wait for the next chapter. But otherwise, comment away.

Ex...excuse me...

Broken

Author's Notes:

(Suggested Listening)
Fair warning, this chapter is dark.

Dr. Light stepped into his lab, a deep frown on his face. He knew Mega Man was in here somewhere, and after what he had done regarding Wily, Light was going to have it out with him. There were things you did not do when acting as the 'hero'. Mega Man had crossed a line, and Light was going to make sure he knew it.

As he stepped in, Roll stepped out of the kitchen, looking...emotionally broken. As she caught sight of him, she gasped in relief and rushed forward. "Dr. Light!" she called out desperately, throwing her arms around him.

"I'm alright," he reassured her, patting her back. "But I-"

"Please, you need to help Rock!" Roll begged. "He's...he's..."

Dr. Light couldn't stop his eyebrow from raising. Why would Roll be unable to explain? And why would she think Rock needed help? And...why was she referring to him as Rock? "Where is he?" he asked, deciding to address the other questions later.

"T-the battle sim," Roll whimpered, her eyes flickering, showing the signs of major program error. "He...he hasn't left since he handed Dr. Wily over to the authorities..."

Dr. Light frowned angrily. Was he that addicted to battle? Turning, he stormed off to the battle sim, the training room that could generate any possible combat scenario Mega Man might face in going after Wily's Robot Masters. It had originally been created to test Protoman's combat abilities, but Light had repurposed it for Mega Man after Rock had requested to be upgraded to fight.

Arriving in the control center, he saw Mega Man fighting against numerous opponents, and glanced down at what he had set it to. He was surprised to see it was the hypothetical 'Omega Scenario', where Wily would send an army of Robot Masters to attack the city, which Mega Man would have to fight all at once. In order to tweak the difficulty of the scenario, the list of Robot Masters holographically generated could be customized, along with the number sent.

The scenario was set to infinite, meaning that it would only stop when Mega Man took enough simulated damage for a shut down. And the only Robot Master listed to be generated...was Mega Man.

"What?" Dr. Light demanded in confusion, looking back into the battle sim chamber. It was true. Mega Man was battling against endless copies...of himself, blasting away at them and taking hits. He also seemed to be aiming purely for head shots or disabling attacks...as though he were trying to torture and destroy himself.

Finally, one bad hit caused the simulation to end, and Mega Man fell back. The change in lighting let Dr. Light see the tears pouring down Mega Man's face. He could also see as Mega Man lifted his Mega Buster to his own face and pull the trigger, only for his self preservation protocols to make it click emptily instead of firing. Pushing himself to his feet, Mega Man shouted, "Again!" and the simulation restarted.

Tom could only stare, beginning to understand what Roll meant about Rock needing help. A robot obsessed with its own destruction? No wonder Roll was experiencing program errors and couldn't vocalize the issue. Stepping out of the control room, he entered the battle sim itself. Because of the safeties being on - there was evidence Mega Man had tried to deactivate them, but he didn't have the clearance - and his name not being in the combatants list, the holographic targets would ignore him, and blasts would pass right through him harmlessly. He walked up behind Mega Man. "Mega Man," he called out, only to receive no response. "Mega Man!" When there was still no response, he whispered, "Rock..."

Mega Man spun around, his buster pointing right at Dr. Light as it clicked several times. Finally, he seemed to realize what he was doing as the simulation came to an end once more. "D...Dr. Light?" he gasped out in shock.

"Rock, I-" Tom began, but was cut off as Mega Man clung to him, falling to his knees and weeping.

"I didn't want to do it!" he wailed. "I never wanted to hurt Vinyl! I found loopholes in my programming so I could let Wily get away a couple of times just so she could keep her father! I love that little filly...but my program...it wouldn't let me stop!" He slammed his fist into the floor. "Once the information was presented to me that I knew where Wily was and that he was behind it...I had to take the fight to him directly. And then...and then..."

Mega Man sunk to the floor, unable to hold himself up. "And then the calculations...Wily wants a world of robot/human equality. That's why he's conquering the world...that's why he's a threat...so the solution was to break him...and his faith in robots...

"I had to fight...fight my own program to not follow through on the threat anyway once he capitulated!" he gasped out. "I had to block my primary mission arguing my self preservation protocol, just to keep myself from killing her!" He slammed his buster into the ground. "And it was hard...cause realizing I would have gone through with it...I didn't want to survive anymore! I...I still don't..."

"Rock..." Tom spoke up, his own voice breaking.

"But I can't end it!" Rock shouted out again. "I can't...I can't override that protocol...and there's no loophole..." He put his buster to his own head. "Except one! The only one who can override my self-preservation protocols is you! Please...give me the order!" His screams turned to despairing wails. "Please, Dad! Order me to end it!"

Tom stared at Rock for a time, seeing the despair in his eyes. I tried so hard to make their emotions as real as can be, he thought silently to himself. Would this be what a human looked like...if they suddenly discovered that their choices were an illusion? That they had no true free will? Stepping forward, he put his hand on Mega Man's buster...and slowly pushed it down. "That is one order I can't give you, Rock," he whispered sorrowfully.

Rock stared at him for a time, then spun around. "Then leave me!" he shouted out. "Leave!"

Sighing, Tom wrapped his fallen, broken, robotic son in his embrace.

"Go away!" Rock shouted out, trying to struggle...but he couldn't fight too hard, as doing so risked hurting Tom, and that was against his protocols. "I hate you! I hate you!"

"As you should," Tom whispered. "These events were not your doing, Rock...they were mine. I am at fault. You should never have been put in this situation..."

Rock was silent as he shook with tears.

"I was the one who granted you the weapons you asked for to fight Wily," he whispered. "I gave you hands...I gave you eyes...I gave you hair...but this burning in your heart I did not put there." He gently stroked Rock's cheek. "And seeing it there, burning so strongly, I wanted to see what it came from, what brought it out of you...and in my zeal, I forgot what these hands of mine made you to be. I should have seen this possibility coming...but human error has always destroyed the greatest of dreams.

"I cannot take away the guilt. I cannot take away the pain of the memories. I cannot destroy you that way." Reaching up, Dr. Light opened a panel in the back of Mega Man's head. "But I can ensure that this will not happen again."

"...how?" Mega Man asked desperately.

"The way I should have the moment Albert took Vinyl with him when he sought to conquer the world," Tom replied. "What I should have done when you first volunteered to fight him." He brought out his tools. "I'm going to change what your First Law protocols define as human...to include Vinyl. She's one of the ones you want to protect...but your program doesn't recognize her as such. I'll fix that, so you won't find yourself like this again."

"But...but I've destroyed Vinyl anyway," Rock whimpered. "She's bound to know what happened by now-"

"No," Light interrupted. "The only ones who know are you, Rush, Wily, myself, and Protoman...and Protoman wants to protect her fondness for robots, including her new robotic big brother. He's not about to tell her what you would have done."

Rock rested on his hands and knees, letting his father work on his brain. "Will...will the pain ever go away?" he asked hopelessly.

"You learn to live with it over time," Tom replied. "And...it will fade with the memories as you forget..." His voice trailed off.

"I'm a robot," Rock supplied. "I...I can never forget..."

Unable to do anything else for the child he'd built and saddled with such a cursed existence, Tom held him close...

...and in his mind, began the plans for one who would not face these issues. One who would not be bound by the laws. One who could live the life he unwittingly denied Rock.

He began the plans for Project X.

VSW-001: Visitors

Albert Wily sat back in his bare prison cell, the orange jumpsuit fitting comfortably at least. He wasn't surprised that someone of his intelligence and caliber, locked up for crimes of robotic terrorism, was placed in a cell that was this low tech. A bucket, a pile of straw, solid stone walls, and metal bars, no trace of technology anywhere near him, or even anything metallic that could possibly be useful. Given his total absence of physical strength, this cell was truly inescapable...and they didn't even have to open it up for anything.

He didn't mind the absence of luxury. He knew that Protoman and Forte were taking care of Vinyl, and as long as he behaved he'd be out before too long. Maybe...a decade at most? He hadn't actually killed anyone, after all, and he'd actually purchased the areas his Robot Masters went to before sending them. In all likelihood, he'd be in however long it took for someone to hash out exactly what he was guilty of, and then he'd be off with time served. At least, that's what he told himself.

He was even allowed visitors, although he hadn't had any as of yet. He wasn't all that surprised, though. He didn't actually know that many people, and he doubted any of them would come to visit him in jail. He certainly didn't want Protoman or Forte to bring Vinyl to visit him in jail.

"Wily," the guard called out. "You have a visitor."

Curious, Albert stood up, brushing himself off to get as presentable as possible. He was shocked beyond measure to see Mega Man step in front of the bars. "What are you doing here?" he demanded angrily.

Mega Man flinched back from the rage, and closed his eyes. "I...came to apologize," he replied softly.

Albert Wily stared at the blue robot before him for a long time. He wanted to be angry. He wanted to vent all his rage and pain against the one who'd brought him here. But he'd actually thought about what had brought him here...and realized that shouting at Mega Man would be unfair of him, and he didn't want to be unfair. "Your apology is meaningless," he stated finally.

Mega Man winced visibly. "I understand why you would say that-"

"You never had any choice in the matter," Albert continued as though Mega Man hadn't spoken. "You may be capable of learning and adapting...but that gets processed through your personality core, which can't do anything to your hardcoded programming. All of Light's robots are like that. If your programming core determines a course of action is necessary, there's nothing you - the being we know as Mega Man - can do to escape it. Tom's the one to blame for what happened, Mega Man. He's the one who needs to apologize."

Mega Man was silent for a time. When he finally spoke again, his voice was quiet and accusing. "And how are you any different?" he demanded. "Your robots have the same brain types as I do. Their personality cores can't overwrite their program cores. The only reason Quick Man and Toad Man were able to abandon the cause is because they were able to classify an order of 'be yourself' above the order from you of 'help take over the world'."

Albert smirked. "Because I install each of my robots with a kill switch," he explained. "One activated through their personality core. If ever what their programming core deems required action is truly unbearable to who they are, they can shut themselves down with a single thought...and thus not take that action. Were I free, I'd still be experimenting on creating a robot brain that can overwrite its core programming...but that's hardware and software that's pure theory at this point. I'm sure Tom's working on the same."

Mega Man stared at his 'enemy' for a time. "...wish I had that," he admitted softly. "I'd have used it."

"So what action did Tom take regarding what happened?" Albert asked, wanting to change the subject.

"My programming core now recognizes Vinyl as a human."

Albert rolled his eyes. "He should have done that long ago."

"Yes...he should have."

Albert's eyes widened. "I never thought to hear you criticize your own maker."

"I was originally a lab assistant," Mega Man replied with a sour smirk. "Part of that job is telling the one you're assisting when they've made a technical mistake. He never got rid of that part when he converted me to a combat robot."

Albert couldn't help but laugh at that.

"Time's up," the guard stated bluntly. Sighing, Mega Man waved farewell, and turned and left.

It was a few weeks later that Albert had another visitor, his old friend Tom. "Albert..." he began as he sat down.

"I'll stay civil," Wily replied firmly. "But it's going to be a long time before I forgive you for the situation you created."

Dr. Light winced. "I know," he agreed. "It's going to be a long time before I forgive myself for it. And I've already begun work to ensure that it doesn't happen again."

"I'd heard what you did to Mega Man's program," Wily indicated. "And I'm wondering why it didn't occur to you to do so sooner."

"...because I'd fallen into the creator's fallacy," Tom replied sadly. "I...I made Rock, made Mega Man, so lifelike and human that...I forgot that he wasn't. ...also, I gave him his own kill switch."

Albert raised an eyebrow. "When he's this much of an emotional wreck?" he demanded. "What's to keep him from shutting himself down somewhere where he'll be destroyed after shut down?"

"Nothing," Tom replied. "And I told him flat out from the start that the kill switch will override his self-preservation protocols when shutting him down." He sat back with a smile. "And...that's why he's getting better."

"Eh?"

"I gave him a choice," Tom explained. "The kill switch is activated by the personality core...and has no prerequisites to activate. He can trigger it whenever he wants, for whatever reason he wants. And it has an eight hour timer built into it. Even I can't reactivate him during that time, and at the end of it he'll reactivate automatically."

Albert managed a smile. "And knowing that, he can use it to defy you if he so chooses, can't he?"

Tom nodded. "He can. He even asked about that, and I offered to have it also clear any standing order cache. It does that too, now." He shrugged. "Actually creating a robot mind that can rewrite its own code - with true free will - is a project that will take a long time...but in the meantime, I've given Mega Man as much freedom - as much choice - as possible."

"There's only one robot with more freedom than that," Wily pointed out.

"Yes," Tom replied. "If he'd let me take a closer look at his CPU, I might be able to discover why...and that might well be the answer to our quandary."

"Perhaps..." Albert admitted. "Thanks for visiting."

Knowing the time of civility was at an end, Tom left.

It had been the good part of a year since his imprisonment before he had his next visitor. The guards were kind enough to let Albert know the date when he asked, and he knew today would be depressing for him. After all...it was Vinyl's birthday, and he wouldn't be there with her. He couldn't even make or send her a birthday present.

The worst part was what he'd never told Vinyl. Her birthday had been selected based on the day she'd appeared in his life. And...that had been his birthday. He had to admit, she was the best present he'd ever gotten, even if he'd long stopped celebrating his own birthday.

"Visitors," the guard called out.

Albert raised an eyebrow as he slowly stood up and walked to the bars. Had Tom decided to bring him a birthday cake? It would be so like him. But it wasn't a human who was waiting to be allowed in to see him. Forte looked so human that the guards didn't even blink an eye at him. Albert himself barely recognized Protoman out of his armor. For that matter, he didn't know that Protoman could take his armor off. Still, he looked pretty human with his black hair and silver eyes.

But the last visitor nearly broke him.

"Daddy!" Vinyl called out as she raced across the cold stone floor of the prison, the clip-clop of her hooves echoing in the passage as she raced to his cell and leapt up to wrap her forelegs around his neck through the gaps in the bars. His own arms reached through to pull her into a tight embrace as he wept.

"Sorry, Doc," Protoman said as he approached. "I know we agreed that she wasn't to visit you in jail if you got arrested, but when I asked her what she wanted for her birthday, all she wanted was to see you."

"...Vinyl..." Albert sobbed, stroking her mane lovingly. "You...I didn't want you to see me like this."

"Was that a complaint, Pops?" Forte asked, acting like he was snatching the words out of the air. "Wasn't the box here, last I checked?" He stuffed his hand into Wily's left sideburn.

Protoman rolled his eyes as Vinyl giggled. "And what chance did I have convincing her otherwise?" he asked. "Even you can't manage to tell her what to do."

"I missed you, Daddy," Vinyl whimpered tearfully.

What could Albert say to that? Lowering his head, he let her nuzzle his cheek as he held her tight. He lost all track of time in that embrace.

"Time's up," the guard finally said.

"No!" Vinyl complained, clinging tighter to Albert.

"I've bent the rules enough as is," the guard replied. "You're not supposed to be allowed to touch the prisoner unless it's a conjugal visit."

"At his age, you think his heart could take that?" Forte joked, startling many laughs.

"Come on, Vinyl," Protoman said softly, gently pulling her away. "Time to go."

"NO!" Vinyl wailed as she allowed herself to be pulled away. She reached out despairingly towards Albert. "DADDY!"

Unable to do anything else, Albert sunk into his bed of straw and wept.

It was an hour past sunset, two hours before lights out in the prison. Wily had spent the entire time since Vinyl's visit staring up at the ceiling of his cell. He couldn't stay in here any longer. He...he had to find a way to get out and be with her again! His mind began feverishly conjuring more and more insane escape plans, none of which had a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding.

Which was why he wasn't entirely certain the voice coming out of his sideburn was real at first.

"VWM-001, Giganto, online and ready. Operation Bust-a-Move is a go."

Confused, Wily reached into his sideburn...and the tiniest robot he'd ever seen crawled onto his wrist.

VSW-002: Genius

Albert couldn't help but stare at the robot, about the size of his pinky nail, in consternation. "Umm..." he began in confusion.

"Greetings, Doctor," the robot greeted. "I am Giganto. I am here to break you out of jail."

"So how will you manage that?" Albert asked curiously. "Do you have a very tiny sonic disruptor in your arm?"

"Negative, I am not equipped with any form of sonic technology," Giganto replied. "I have different abilities, for which I was named."

"Shouldn't you be 'Giganto Man', then?"

"Negative," Giganto countered. "My creator considers the attachment of 'Man' to a robot's name to be an unnecessary conceit, and will not be doing so with any of her own robots. Beyond that, not all of us are actually 'men'."

"So what abilities are you equipped with, then?" Albert asked as the robot leapt from his hand and began drawing lines all across the floor, walls, and ceiling of the cell.

"Do you remember the matter expansion project you were developing on the side of robotics?"

Albert nodded. "Yeah. I scrapped it because while it did function to make things get bigger and smaller, the device itself was too big to function as I intended. Why do you ask?"

"My creator utilized an etheric feedback coil to enable the device to affect itself, without interfering with its functionality," Giganto explained, finally drawing a large X at one point on the floor. "I am equipped with it. Please stand on the X."

Realizing quickly what was about to happen, Albert raced to the X.

As soon as he was on it, Giganto raced to another spot and began to grow. As he grew, he shouldered the walls and ceiling of the prison aside, the fragments of stone falling everywhere except where Wily was standing. By the time any rubble started to approach him, Giganto's hands were big enough to grab him and carry him off with him as he moved away. "Giganto smash prison!" he shouted as he proceeded to smash his way past the walls and sentry towers, the bullets and energy blasts the guards tried to shoot him with bouncing off of him. Any robots or automated turrets that tried to confront him were stepped on as he marched.

Examining the hand that held him, Wily realized with shock that the exterior of Giganto's body was coated in Metool alloy, and his expanded power core could absorb any energy - kinetic or otherwise - that impacted his exterior. The reason why Wily had never used Metool alloy for anything but Metools was because the energy deflected had to go somewhere, and without a way to discharge it, covering a robot with Metool alloy was asking for it to suffer a catastrophic meltdown. Not to mention shaping Metool alloy was difficult and expensive...but Vinyl had likely shaped it to Giganto's tiniest form, and then designed it to rely on the expansion function. "While not the quietest of escapes-"

"Shush!" Giganto proclaimed for no apparent reason, only to suddenly drop Wily. Considering Giganto was now the size of a sky scraper, Albert did not take this with equanimity. He scrambled to try to hold on, but couldn't get a grip. Some thoughts in his head connected, and he bit his lip to keep from screaming in terror as he fell towards a manhole cover...which shifted aside just before he hit, and slid closed just as something caught him gently, slowing his fall so his impact into the river of sewage beneath him was only unpleasant.

"Crikey!" an Australian accented voice barked out. "Must be some real big birds up there, ay?"

Albert found himself staring into the eyes of a robotic anthropomorphic alligator. "...and you are?"

"Ah'm VWM-002 mate!" the robot replied. "Call me Sewer Gator! Come on! Gotta get ya ta the boss lady." He lifted Albert onto his shoulder. "Hang on tight. Yer probably gonna be glad yer trousers are already brown."

"What do you-WAUGH!" Albert clung tightly to Gator's head as he zoomed through the sewers, following a crazy path filled with twists, turns, corkscrews, loop-de-loops somehow, and 'sick jumps' as Sewer Gator dubbed them. In Albert's opinion, it was because one more of those and he would be sick.

"Time ta dump ya!" Sewer Gator shouted as he dropped Wily off his back at the next 'sick jump'. Wily did scream this time, only to land in a teleporter.

"Gotcha, Doc," Protoman said as he steadied Albert on the arrival pad. "A bit of a rough ride?"

"I feel like I'm going to vomit..." Albert grumbled, staggering.

"The sonic shower will probably help with that," Protoman replied. "Let's get the stink off you." Without any further warning, Protoman stripped Albert of his sewer-soiled prison uniform.

"What the-" Albert began, only to be cut off as a strange hum filled the chamber. Specially focused sonic waves bombarded his body, erasing the dirt and stench and leaving behind only a tranquil warmth. "...what?" he asked, stupefied.

"Yeah, Vinyl's been doing a lot of work with sonic technology," Protoman replied. "Among other things."

"And the...VWMs?" Albert asked as he was wrapped in a fluffy robe. "Vinyl Wily Models?"

"Nope," Protoman countered. "Vinyl's Wub Masters(1)."

Albert shook his head with a chuckle. "So...where is she?" he asked. "And where are we?"

"The fortress you and Tom built for me when you thought Mega Man would follow the formula," he explained.

"The Dark Man Fortress?" Albert asked, surprised.

"Yeah...but Vinyl's remodeled it a bit..."

After getting a brief tour of the changes to the Fortress - and a fresh set of clothes that was more Albert's style - Protoman led him to a large chamber. "And this is Vinyl's lab," Protoman explained.

Albert stared around at all the automated machinery crafting...rather unusual robots which he decided not to pay too much attention to. Obviously, they were themed to Vinyl's Wub Masters, and he'd find out how later. What interested him more was the sight of a giant mechanical version of his own head baring a toothy grin, obviously Vinyl's version of his own Death Machines. Looking elsewhere, he spotted Vinyl working on a modified Air Man, holding what looked like a metal wand in her telekinetic grip that hummed as she worked. "Vinyl?"

"Daddy!" Vinyl called happily, racing over to leap into his arms, the wand trailing after her.

Albert pulled his daughter close, holding her in a tight embrace. "...I'm never leaving your side again," he whispered, tears falling from his eyes.

"I won't let you," Vinyl promised in return, tears pouring from her own eyes, her sunglasses having fallen askew.

The entire lab fell silent as they embraced, letting them bleed out the pain as they reunited. Eventually, they both cleared their throats, getting control of themselves again. "So...what's this?" Wily asked, slipping into his scientist mindset as he glanced at the wand.

"It's an all purpose tool," Vinyl explained. "It uses specific sonic frequencies to manipulate various materials at the molecular level, programmed to shape those waves based on my magical aura. It can also feed information back into my thoughts based on data it collects." She tapped the blue crystal at the top. "This is the focal point, a crystal that can hold magical energy. I'm using it to balance the magical and sonic energies."

"Astounding," Wily murmured proudly. "Like some sort of...Sonic Screwdriver?"

"It's not a screwdriver, Dad," Vinyl chided. "It's a lot more than that. Speaking of..." Turning, she waved the device at Protoman's chest as it hummed.

Protoman quickly moved back several steps. "What'd you just do?" he demanded angrily.

"Fixed your power core," Vinyl replied easily. "And yes, I know you don't like anyone messing with your internals, but I'd rather you hate me for a couple months for being a jerk then lose you unexpectedly someday because you're a stubborn ass!"

Albert was very glad he wasn't drinking anything at that moment.

After a time, Protoman grudgingly shrugged and pet Vinyl behind her ears. "I love you too, Vinyl," he grumbled affectionately.

(1) Thank you for this, The Emerald Nightingale

VSW-003: Hero's Trial

"Mega Man!" Dr. Light called out worriedly. "Mega Man! It's an emergency!"

"What is it, Doctor?" Mega Man asked, stepping out of his room.

"New Robot Masters are attacking different points across the world!" Dr. Light explained quickly. "I believe it's a cover for someone helping Wily escape from prison!"

"Who'd do that?" Mega Man asked, confused.

"Well, it might be Vinyl, so you'll have to inves-" Dr. Light cut himself off as he saw Mega Man's eyes go dark. "...damn it, Rock..."

Eight hours later, Dr. Light confronted Mega Man immediately. "You need to stop the Robot Masters before they destroy everything!"

"...why does it have to be me?" Mega Man asked. "Can't the military take care of this?"

"It's taking all the might of the militaries in the countries being attacked just to keep them contained!" Dr. Light snapped out.

"...how long can they keep them contained?" Mega Man inquired.

"Another day or two-" Dr. Light stared at Mega Man's darkened eyes. "...so this is what Albert was talking about..."

Another eight hours later, Dr. Light looked up at Mega Man as he came back online. "What happened to trying to save the world?" he asked softly. With no orders in queue, Mega Man could take his time responding.

Mega Man sighed as he leaned back against the wall. "I don't think I have it in me anymore," he stated finally. "I...don't feel like much of a hero...after what I would have done..."

Tom sighed as he glanced up at his broken son. "What then?" he asked. "Should I remove your weapons? Return you to simply being my lab assistant? Who, then, will go to fight this new threat? Who would stop the world from falling into ruin? Who will protect the innocent?"

Mega Man glanced away. "I...but I'm no hero..."

"Then don't be one," Tom replied. "Be a warrior instead."

"...huh?"

"'If I am not for myself, who will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?'" Tom took a sip of his tea. "Rock...you volunteered to become Mega Man to become a warrior for justice. Those were your exact words. You didn't ask me to make you a hero...and I didn't. I made you a warrior. Now...the question is yours: what's left for a warrior who can no longer fight?"

Mega Man stared out the window. "I...I could still fight, couldn't I?" he asked softly. "But...is it right to do so?"

"Only you can answer that for yourself, Mega Man," Tom replied. "But also ask yourself this: is it right that the innocent suffer, because one good robot can't bring himself to do anything?" He smiled softly. "You question your heroism...but that was never an issue. What you really are afraid of...is that you are no longer 'good'. But Mega Man...if you weren't good at heart, then your fall from grace would not torture you so. The very pain and indecision it causes is proof that you are still who you always were."

Mega Man was silent for a long time. So long, in fact, that Tom was afraid he'd shut himself down again. Eventually, however, he lifted his head. "You're right," he said softly. "Someone has to do something...and that someone is me. And the time is now." He pushed himself off from the wall, walking to the front door.

Tom smiled softly. "I'm proud of you, son," he said softly.

When Mega Man stepped outside, he was unsurprised to find Skull Man waiting for him, leaning against the wall with his hood hanging back. "So you're going to do it all over again?" he asked. "Kill more robots just doing what their maker asked them to do? You really enjoy this, don't you...dirty brother killer?"

Mega Man turned to stare at him. "Do you have a point?" he asked calmly.

Skull Man chuckled as he pushed himself off the wall. "Guess you really haven't learned your lesson..."

"And what lesson is that, exactly?" Mega Man demanded. "Tell me, how should I have handled the Cossack situation?"

"You could have picked up Kalinka straight away-"

"And what would that have done to Mikhail?" Mega Man interrupted. "Once I knew Kalinka wasn't a hostage, if I'd brought her back right away, there would have been no way to conceal the fact that Mikhail set it all up with Wily for a field test of you and your brothers' combat capacity...and that he was the one who put those capabilities in them, especially since they would have been forced to undergo official examination. He would have faced criminal charges, if not worse! What would that have done to him and Kalinka?" When Skull Man was silent for a time, Mega Man continued. "My programming core made the decision to fight all of you before retrieving Kalinka. I didn't understand why...but I do now. In situations like that - like this - there is no right choice...only the best choice."

He took a deep breath, let it out, then continued. "Whatever I choose, I must do some sort of evil. And that torments me...because at heart, I just want to do good. I've killed so many of my brothers, whether actually built by my creators or just brother robots, and every day I mourn every last one of them...especially since meeting you." He squared his shoulders. "But I can't let grief crush me. If I do...then their deaths become meaningless."

Skull Man slowly brought his hands together in an excessively dramatic clap. "Well now...somebody finally put his big boy pants on...even if it does look like he's still wearing his underwear on the outside." Pushing off from the wall, he spread his hands wide. The pieces of the fallen rose to his command. "Let's see if you can back it up."

The 'bones' flew at Mega Man, and he dodged each incoming projectile as best he could, moving as little as possible in order to give himself maximum reaction time for each incoming piece. He saw some actual human bones amongst them, and knew they were to represent the humans who would suffer, no matter what choice was made. Steeling himself, he continued, at one point even vaulting over an incoming bone to land behind Skull Man.

Of course, this didn't do him much good as a small skull flame latched onto him and hurled him away. Skull man then pulled out the dragon skull shaped blasters, which hovered around the area and opened fire. Mega Man twisted, turned, and leapt to evade each one. The seemingly endless waves of attacks continued, but he refused to yield. He was strong...he was brave...he was determined.

Skull Man suddenly stepped up the assault. Patterns of attack shifted in the blink of an eye, barely giving Mega Man time to react. Still, he managed to evade, still never firing a single shot. He noticed that Skull Man was sparking oddly, apparently pushing himself too hard. If things kept going, Skull Man might overheat and self destruct.

Acting on instinct, Mega Man leapt onto one of the skull shaped blasters. Aiming it, he used the thrust to propel himself straight at Skull Man, leaping off it and over a skull flame at the last possible moment. Tackling Skull Man to the ground, he put his buster to his head.

Skull Man chuckled. "Go ahead," he replied. "Pull the trigger. I won't surrender."

Mega Man smiled softly. "Then I will," he replied, standing up. Switching back to his hand, he held it out to help Skull Man to his feet. "You're not my enemy. I have no desire to see you dead. And I certainly didn't win here."

Skull Man's skeletal grin widened. "No...you didn't." Taking the offered hand, he pulled himself to his feet. "But you did pass." Gripping Mega Man's hand tightly, he began the transfer.

Mega Man felt his buster twist and contort inside as new programming and new configurations were applied. At long last, a status update appeared in his mind.

Charge level 4 unlocked: Skull Blast

Skull Man stepped back and gave him a teasing salute. "Fight~o, Mega Man! For everlasting peace!"

Grinning widely, he turned to rush off into the sunset.

As he raced away, Dr. Light stepped out. "Thank you for helping him, Skull Man," he said softly.

Skull Man grinned as he watched Mega Man race away. "...he does remember he can teleport, right?"

Author's Notes:

The Skull Man/Mega Man scene in the second half of this chapter was inspired by this comment on the sister story, "Melody of the Future". Thanks for the idea, F14m3rz!

VSW-004: Vinyl's Moving Castle

Author's Notes:

A note.
A Weakness Order has been created for the upcoming 8 original Robot Masters, which Mega Man will be following.

However...once you see more of the nature of the Master Weapons...you'll understand why Mega Man won't be using them much.

Dr. Light sat back in his chair as he went over the information regarding the new Robot Masters running amok. Each had their own dangers and terrors, but some were greater threats than others. When Mega Man contacted him, Dr. Light wanted to be sure he could direct him to negate the greatest threats possible in order.

As he thought that, the teleporter beeped to indicate an incoming signal, and Mega Man appeared. "Hey, Dad..." he began nervously, rubbing the back of his head.

"Remembered you could teleport?" Tom joked.

"Oh, I knew I could teleport," Mega Man countered. "The situation just seemed to call for dramatically racing out to face the first Robot Master."

Tom couldn't help but chuckle at that. "I admit it was very dramatic...but why are you back, then?"

Mega Man flushed in embarrassment. "I was halfway to Moscow before I realized I didn't know where any of the new Robot Masters are."

"Moscow?" Tom asked, shocked. "How were you crossing the ocean?"

"The motorcycle form Dr. Cossack installed in Rush has an aquatic function, so I can cross rivers, lakes, and oceans on him," Mega Man explained. "So...where are the Robot Masters?"

Chuckling, Dr. Light called up what he'd gathered so far. "Well, they are in various locations scattered across the globe...but I think this one is of greatest concern right now." He called up the location on the map.

"That's nowhere near where the giant one is rampaging after busting up the jail," Mega Man pointed out.

"No, it's not," Dr. Light replied. "The military has Giganto well pinned down, but they can't stop this one."

"Why? It looks like he's just holed up in a castle somewhere."

Dr. Light sighed. "Check the elevation coordinates."

Mega Man stared at the screen. "...okay, so it's a really tall castle. I still don't see-" Mega Man's voice cut off as a cloud passed through on the image of the castle...under the castle.

"Mobile weapons platforms are always top priority," Dr. Light explained. "Even when they look very Gothic."

"Agreed," Mega Man confirmed, heading for the teleporter. "I'm ready to go!"

Mega Man found himself warped into the courtyard of the massive castle, staring up at the looming buttresses and arching windows as lightning flashed from nowhere. "This seems...oddly familiar," he muttered to himself, walking in through the open front gate.

The halls were well lit and furnished, with plush chairs, wide couches, red carpets, and glimmering wall sconces...half of which were actually disguised robots trying to kill him. The robo-zombies, robotic wolves, robo-bats, and robotic gargoyles didn't help much. "All I'm missing is a whip," Mega Man growled as he decided to test out the Skull Blast. Charging his buster to max, he aimed at a line of robots and fired.

After he extricated himself from the wall he found himself embedded in, he stared at the heaps of molten slag that had been the robots in that narrow line he'd fired in. "...wow..." was all he could bring himself to say.

Mega Man worked his way through the castle, exploring every path. Several paths were sealed off until certain switches were pressed...and those switches were at the ends of other paths, while some paths looped around and about to connect to other paths. Mega Man found himself wondering if there was any correct path through. After his third time wandering into a massive library where even the books were trying to kill him, he screamed out, "My kingdom for a bloody map!"(1)

"I'll sell you one for screws," a decrepit robot that wasn't trying to kill him piped up from behind a desk.

Gasping in relief, Mega Man plopped down a bundle of screws that he'd salvaged from the robots he'd been destroying onto the desk. "Thank the Light," he exhaled.

"Here you go. No refunds."

Mega Man quickly opened the map. "...hey! This is a map to Tokyo! I wanted a map of the castle!"

"Sorry!" the decrepit robot replied. "All sold out of those. Don't get my next shipment for another few hours."

Screaming in frustration, Mega Man charged out of the library, fully intent on blasting anything he came across to molten slag.

Back in the Wubtress - as Vinyl had dubbed the Fortress after taking it over for her own purposes - Vinyl and Protoman shared a hoof-bump and raucous laughter.

Albert shook his head in wonder. "And I thought I could be cruel to Mega Man when trying to take over the world..."

After tearing through the arena for the third time - and blasting a giant Guardian to smithereens - Mega Man finally found his way to a new area, the Clock Tower. "Well, here's hoping this is the right way," he muttered to himself. He carefully positioned himself for a leap across a wide gap, only to get hit in midair by a floating head bot that swayed through the air in an unpredictable manner. "Fuck you very much, too, Medusa!" Mega Man shouted in frustration as he clung to a platform lower down, before managing to swing himself back up...only to get pushed off as the rotating gear he stood on rolled him into open air.

With a scream of frustration, Mega Man turned the Skull Blast on the tower itself, causing the whole thing to fall to an angle. "I'll climb the damn walls!" he growled, racing up the incline and blasting platforms out of his path.

Finally, he escaped the Clock Tower into the Royal Hall, as it was so declared on the entrance. The chamber was wide, lined with red carpet, and up near the top of the very tall chamber was another door. A sign pointed to the door, reading, "Boss Chamber".

"Alright," Mega Man gasped out in relief. "All I need to do is get up there. Now how do I-"

With a distinctive, memorable sound, a block appeared in the air. Another one appeared somewhat higher, in a different position. When the third block appeared, the first vanished.

"...you gotta be kidding me..." Mega Man groaned. "...please don't let the others be this frustrating." After watching the order in which the blocks appeared and committing it to memory - and watching it a few more times to make sure it wouldn't change on him - Mega Man leapt to the first block that appeared.

At exactly eye level was another sign. "Move fast, and have fun!"

"Huh?" Mega Man inquired. As he spoke, the entire floor beneath him erupted spikes, and began to slowly climb up the chamber towards him.

"Crap crap crap crap crap crap crap!" Mega Man screamed out as he leapt from block to block, racing ahead of the floor to get to the door. Even moving at exactly the rate at which the blocks appeared, he only just barely managed to reach the door ahead of the spiked floor. Slamming the door closed behind him, he took a few deep breaths to relax.

"Well, well, well," a calm voice greeted. "I didn't expect you to get here so soon."

Looking up, Mega Man saw...what in any other situation he'd classify as a 14-year-old stereotypical emo-kid. Here, however, he knew he was up against a robot. "Please tell me you're the boss," he begged as he readied himself for battle.

"Sorry, but your bad guy's in another castle," the bot replied.

Mega Man stared at him. "...you've gotta be shitting me..."

"Yes, I am," the bot replied. "Vinyl's Wub Master 006, Mutilus. I will be your executioner this day." He held up his arms, one straight out like a buster with the hand hanging limp, the other holding a knife.

Mega Man growled as he began charging. "...just die already," he growled out.

"Can do," Mutilus replied as he used the knife to slice his hand off at the wrist.

Mega Man staggered backwards in stunned disgust. "W-why would you-" He was forced to slide out of the way as a sphere of red was launched from the stump. Where it splattered against the wall, it hissed and steam as the stones were eaten away. "Acid?"

"Beware my Burning Blood," Mutilus intoned. "For it shall eat you away until you have none of your own." He spun to track Mega Man's movements, firing off more shots.

Mega Man dodged as best he could, but he realized that if he tried to use the Skull Blast, he'd be embedded in the wall, and wide open for an acidic blast if he missed. "Time for a gamble," he murmured as he spun to face the wall.

"You turn your back on me?" Mutilus demanded.

"What is a Mega Man...but a miserable pile of secrets?" Mega Man shouted back as he fired.

Confused by Mega Man's words, Mutilus didn't have the time to dodge or fire before Mega Man slammed into him, crushing him against the wall, his light frame turning against him.

Mega Man took a few relieved breaths as he acquired the 'Burning Blood' Master Weapon. "That was...harder than it should have-"

"Warning!" a loud voice shouted out. "Castle Master has been terminated. Self Destruct Lockdown is in effect. All windows sealed. T-Minus 20 minutes till self destruct. Please report to the entry courtyard for teleport evac. All other areas have been teleport blocked."

"...oh, come on!"

(1) Imagine playing through a Castlevania game without a map function, without graph paper to draw your own map, and without a walkthrough to tell you which way to go...and the castle is 3-d.

VSW-005: Drop Da Bomb

When Mega Man beamed back into Dr. Light's lab, he was a bit scorched, breathing heavily, and running low on energy. "Please tell me the other Robot Masters aren't this hard," he gasped out as he collapsed against the wall.

Working quickly, Dr. Light laid Mega Man out on a recharge table as he began emergency repairs. "They shouldn't be," he commented. "In fact, some of them haven't even bothered to deploy minion robots. One of them isn't even bothering to control any Mettools."

"I'll take that one next," Mega Man replied, groaning. "Either the...Wub Master...will be exceptionally difficult, or just over confident. Either way, I won't have to deal with escaping another fortress before it explodes."

"Speaking of, Mega Man..." Dr. Light began hesitantly. "How come you didn't use the Skull Blast to blow a hole through the masonry to leap out? Only the windows were sealed."

Mega Man stared at Dr. Light for a time. Standing up from the recharge table, he walked over to the nearest wall and began lightly banging his head against it.

Unperturbed, Dr. Light continued the repair work.

Once Mega Man was fully repaired and recharged, he moved to the teleporter. "So, Dad, where's this...Wub Master?" he asked, still not liking the term. It just felt so...childish. Which, unfortunately, kept reminding him that, come the end of this adventure, he would have to fight Vinyl. He knew to lock her up, they'd have to find a way to block off her magic. Without it...she would not do well in juvey.

"About that..." Dr. Light began hesitantly. "There...may be some difficulty getting you into his...lair."

"What?" Mega Man asked in confusion. "Why?"

"Well...you might be...carded," Dr. Light explained nervously, blushing. "And...you aren't of age."

"...what are you talking about?" Mega Man demanded, now more frustrated than confused.

"Well, you see...this...Wub Master is..." Dr. Light scratched the back of his head. "...performing in a strip club to a captive audience."

Mega Man stared at Dr. Light in disbelief. When he realized finally that no, he wasn't kidding, he let out a loud groan. "Did Vinyl design these guys just to mess with me?" he demanded in disbelief.

"That's about right," Vinyl explained to her father. "I wanted to make sure Mega Man had difficulty with fighting my robots, and there's only so much that can be done with difficult lead ups. I wanted to make a lasting impression, so he knows what's coming to him if he ever locks you up again."

Albert stared at the data presented about the various Wub Masters, shuddering a bit. "But...where did you get such...disturbing ideas?"

"The internet."

Several silent blinks was the response she received to that statement. "What?"

"I went to a game development chat room and asked for suggestions on enemy designs specific to creep out a goody-two-shoes hero character," Vinyl explained. "After I had a whole bunch of submissions, I went to a different chat room and held a poll, letting everyone vote eight times. I then used the top eight."

Sitting back, Wily chuckled for a time, the chuckle eventually turning into a full blown evil laugh. "That's my girl!" he shouted out happily, scooping Vinyl into a hug as he ran his hand through her mane.

Vinyl giggled happily as she snuggled into the embrace. "After that, it was just some creative obstacles."

"But how does Giganto fit into that scheme?" Wily asked, curious.

"The Master Weapon," Vinyl replied. "It comes with...warning labels."

Dr. Wily thought about that for a few moments...and then burst into peal upon peal of out of control laughter.

"It's not funny!" Mega Man snapped at the laughing bouncer. "There's an evil robot in there I need to take down!"

"You aren't getting in if you aren't of age," the bouncer countered back, still laughing. "Gotta say, though, that's the best fake out I've heard in years."

"I don't have time for this," Mega Man growled out. "You realize people are being held hostage in there, right?"

"I haven't heard any complaints," the bouncer replied gruffly.

Mega Man groaned. "If I could teleport into buildings, I wouldn't have to deal with you," he grumbled.

"And you call yourself Mega Man," the bouncer countered with a laugh. "You expect me to believe the Blue Bomber would be stopped by ordinary wood and stone? Don't make me laugh."

Mega Man thought for a time. "...you're right. I'm thinking too much inside the box." Turning he walked away.

The bouncer chuckled as he leaned back against the door. "Have fun with-"

The roar of a motorcycle's engine cut the air as Mega Man - on Rush Cycle - took a leap off a short ramp and through the wall of the building, a loud crash as he smashed through.

"...I'm not getting paid enough for this," the bouncer grumbled.

As Mega Man went crashing through the wall, he aimed Rush to land on the long stage where the performances were supposed to take place. He could see several other performers - he couldn't tell at first glance if they were robot or human, with how much modification both had undergone - diving out of the way as he came in for landing. As he ground to a halt, only one person remained on the stage...a tall, muscular humanoid robot that looked like he'd been designed as a cross between Adonis and Favio, dressed in a tuxedo.

"Well now, Mega Man, I didn't expect you to come after me so soon," he stated playfully. "Bit of an eager beaver, aren't you?"

Groaning, Mega Man got off of Rush. "One of the Wub Masters, I presume?" he asked, starting to charge his buster.

"Correct!" the robot proclaimed. "I am VWM-008. I am...Da Bomb!" With that, he tore the tuxedo off and proceeded to dance, much to the excitement of the women in the audience. "Shall we see how you are in the arts of...erotic dance?"

Mega Man stared at him in disbelief. "...I'm 12, same age as your maker," he pointed out bluntly.

Da Bomb stared at him for a time. "...I see. Then we shall simply have to battle it out!" Thrusting his hips forward, a white laser launched out, splashing Mega Man up against the wall.

Mega Man stared at the white, sticky stuff keeping him pinned to the wall. "...please tell me this is mayonnaise," he pleaded.

"Of sorts," Da Bomb replied, winking.

"...yeah, no." Pointing his buster, he opened fire. The Skull Blast destroyed Da Bomb's crotch, causing a feed back loop in his firing mechanism that made him explode. "Not using this weapon, nope nope nope..." Slowly, he began to peel himself off the wall. "I need to get cleaned up-"

"Since you're still at near full energy," Dr. Light began over the comms, "there's another Wub Master in your area. Want to take him out too before you come back?"

Mega Man didn't speak for a while.

VSW-006: Underage

Mega Man groaned as he stepped out of the strip club, only mostly clean. "So...where's this other Wub Master based?" he asked.

"...the entire red light district," Dr. Light replied through the communicator.

"...what?"

"That's why Da Bomb didn't have any helper bots. This other robot had control of the whole area."

Mega Man sighed, then primed his buster. "Alright. I'm temporarily disabling the Skull Blast function. There are too many civilians here to risk that."

"Be careful, Mega Man," Dr. Light warned worriedly. "I have no idea where, exactly, this Wub Master is based in the district, only that he has complete control of everything electronic in the area. Also, I'm picking up multiple high level robot signals. He likely has minions."

"...of course he does," Mega Man groaned. "Here we go."

Mega Man decided to first explore the entirety of the red light district on the outside without going into any of the buildings first. As he explored, he found that the streets had been unaltered, and it was relatively easy to maneuver. There were also quite a few civilians, and the occasional robot, whether humanoid or otherwise. The frustrating part was that the robots only went on the offensive if he got near, and frequently the humanoid ones would attack him from behind while hidden in a group of civilians.

Eventually, he came to the conclusion that the Wub Master had to be in one of the buildings. Bracing himself for more than he was really ready for psychologically, he went into them one by one.

As Mega Man entered the first store, he took in his surroundings. He found himself voicing his first impressions. "...why is there a Blockbuster here?" he asked in confusion. Walking up to one of the shelves, he lifted one of the DVDs and looked at the cover. After about five minutes, he carefully put the DVD back. "...I'm going to pretend I didn't see that..."

A whirring noise caught his attention, and he spun. Facing him was a large robot shaped like a jukebox on legs. "Window shopper detected! Eject!" With that proclamation, the robot began hurling discs at Mega Man.

Mega Man did his best to dodge the discs at first, until one nearly took his eye out. At that point, he settled for blasting the discs out of the air before blasting away at the robot until it eventually collapsed. Realizing that the Wub Master wasn't in there, he turned to head for another store.

Behind him, the defunct robot made a strange 'Cha-CHING' sound as data was processed.

The next store left Mega Man even more unnerved, mostly because he couldn't quite grasp what sort of store it was. "...handcuffs? Whips? Pads? Is...is this a sports goods store of some sort?" He paused at another shelf. "But...if that's the case...why is it selling...'personal lubricant'?"

Dr. Light was pointedly silent from his end.

A loud buzzing suddenly filled the air, and Mega Man spun in fear...only to scream and start running in circles. "I'm being attacked by flying purple plastic penises!" he cried out in despair. "And...other things I'm not sure what they are!"

"Then get out of there!" Dr. Light instructed.

Mega Man raced to the door, only to find it sealed in the same way doors in Wily's Fortresses often were. "I can't get out!" he wailed.

"You have a buster!"

"Right!" Spinning, Mega Man shot every single flying sex toy out of the air, leaving them all a smoking ruin. Once the shelves were empty, the door opened, letting him leave.

The register chimed loudly.

Mega Man breathed a sigh of relief as he stepped into a seemingly ordinary bakery.(1) "Should be safe enough here," he murmured. "Nothing traumatizing here. Though...what was with that name? 'Tasty While Tasteless'? Odd name for a bakery..."

His voice trailed off as he stared at the bread products on display. They were all shaped like...various body parts.

"...oh..."

A rumble startled him from behind the counter as the oven roared with flames, hurling overcooked bread products at him. Dodging each salvo, Mega Man struggled to counter, but he found he had to blast his way through the counter - and all the bread on display there - to manage to shoot at the oven. After several blasts landed on target, the oven finally sputtered to a smoking halt, and Mega Man quickly made his way out.

Behind him, the register chimed.

Mega Man moved carefully down the stairs behind the next door. "...please let this place be normal...please let this place be normal...please let this place be normal..."

"Mega Man, it's the red light district," Dr. Light murmured to him. "There's no chance of that."

"Mega Man?" a seductive voice purred. "Aren't we lucky."

Spinning, Mega Man found himself face to face with...a bevvy of busty, barely clad babes. "...wha?"

"Ready for a good time, big boy?" one of them asked.

"Mega Man!" Dr. Light said through the communicator. "Those are humans...but they're being controlled by some sort of electrical signal. You need to get past them without hurting them to shut down the signal."

"Any suggestions how?" Mega Man asked worriedly.

"...The Stream doesn't actually inflict damage..." Dr. Light began.

"...aw, nutbunnies," Mega Man murmured as he switched weapons.

"That's an oddly appropriate-"

"Just don't, Dad," Mega Man grumbled as he proceeded to pelvic thrust. "...that felt dirty." He carefully made his way past the now sticky ladies laid about the hallway. Finding the control circuit, he shut it down before turning to leave.

Behind him, something chimed.

Mega Man finally staggered into the last store on the street...only to find himself surrounded by frilly, delicate garments of various sorts. "Nope!" he proclaimed firmly, immediately turning to leave.

"Can I help you, sir?"

Mega Man spun at the source of the voice, finding himself face to face with an obviously robotic humanoid. His body was colored red and black in a tuxedo pattern, and he had a button on his forehead. "...please tell me you're the Wub Master..."

The robot smiled. "VWM-003 at your service."

"And...why all this?" Mega Man demanded, gesturing to the whole red light district. "Just...why?"

The bot smiled widely. "Because..." He then proceeded to sing and dance.

By the time the song and dance routine had ended, Mega Man was curled up in the corner. "...I need an adult..."

"I'm right here, Mega Man," Dr. Light said through the communicator. "You can handle this."

"Are you sure-"

Love Machine suddenly hurled a small device in the shape of a button at Mega Man. When it stuck to him, he shivered as he felt a good portion of his energy being drained and he fell over backwards. "What the...?"

"I just love to push your buttons!" Love Machine proclaimed. "Was it good for you?"

Mega Man's eyes slowly narrowed, and he leapt at Love Machine with a roar, grabbing the Wub Master by the neck, pinning him to the floor, and proceeding to smash its face in with repeated punches until it eventually exploded, immolating the entire store.

As Mega Man beamed back home to get cleaned up and repaired, something chimed.

As Dr. Light worked to repair Mega Man, he stared morosely at his credit card bill. Who in their right mind would charge me for the damages like that-oh, each of those places belongs to Wily. ...so it's now on my records that in one day I spent over $2 million on porn, sex toys, erotic baked goods, hookers, and lingerie. He groaned as he worked. ...god damn it, Vinyl...

(1) This one was suggested by my Mom. She knows of an actual location of this sort in San Francisco.

VSW-007: Inside Out

After Mega Man was fully repaired, Dr. Light unfortunately had bad news for him. "Mega Man, you need to get out there immediately," he stated bluntly. "The growing Robot is now larger than most buildings, and is about to lay waste to an entire city block."

"How's the military doing against it?" Mega Man asked as he got ready to teleport out.

"Not so well," Dr. Light replied. "Apparently, its exterior is made of Mettool alloy, and they can't even make a dent in it."

"Damn," Mega Man groaned. "What do they expect me to do?"

"They've managed to find one spot on its entire body that isn't completely covered," Dr. Light replied. "They've been working on that spot, and they've managed to make a small hole, big enough to send your teleport signal inside when reflected off a ground-based array."

"And they want me to take it down from the inside?" Mega Man asked. "Alright. Where's the entrance?"

"The right heel," Dr. Light replied.

Mega Man just gave him a look. "...I had no idea Vinyl was so well read in her classics," he mumbled. "Okay, Dad...send me in."

Mega Man blinked as he took shape on the inside of the giant foot. Blinking, he saw the incredibly tiny hole he'd been beamed in through, a patch over a seam that had shaken loose and would only have even been visible once Giganto had reached this size. "Wow," Mega Man murmured. "Even Apollo would have had trouble hitting that before." Turning, he examined the rest of his surroundings.

He found that the inside of Giganto was tastefully decorated in silver chrome, with numerous tubes, cables, and other such things running along the walls, along with numerous diodes and devices hanging here and there. However, all of it had energy shields, making it plain that trying to blast things to bits wouldn't work. "Alright," he murmured, heading to a stairwell that he assumed ran up the leg. "Guess I'll be doing this the long way-"

"Welcome," a computerized voice greeted politely, dragging his attention around. Floating up to him was a black sphere surrounded by waving tendrils with any number of unpleasant looking implements at the ends. "You are unauthorized. Your death will now be implemented. You will experience a tingling sensation and then death. Please do not run. Thank you for your cooperation."

Without hesitation, Mega Man fired a barrage of shots from his buster to force the antibody to back up. "Wily lets Vinyl watch too much TV," he grumbled before racing up the stairs.

The rest of Giganto's insides were the same, almost monotonously so. Same coloration of the walls, same pattern of cables, pipes, diodes, and devices, same energy shields, and every single antibody gave him the exact same speech as it approached him. The only thing of interest was that each antibody he encountered would know the strategy he used to take down the previous ones, and be able to actively counter it.

As he reached the core, he found that it was sealed tight, and could only be opened with four security codes embedded in devices in Giganto's hands and feet. Groaning, Mega Man backtracked through the antibodies to the right foot, finding the device - guarded by a much stronger antibody that he actually had to destroy - in the big toe.

When he removed the device - which turned out to be a fez, for some obscure reason - an alarm went off. "Alert! Unauthorized personnel is requisitioning the Core code devices. One device collected. Threat level has been raised to salmon pink. Level 2 attack protocol authorized."

"Well, that can't be good," Mega Man murmured as he turned to head back up the leg...only to shudder at what he saw. Two of the antibodies had merged, turning into a strange, bulbous, tentacle covered creature resembling a malboro. It filled the hallway, forcing him to blast his way past it...only for it to break apart into the two antibodies again.

As Mega Man discovered as he continued, the merging was universal throughout Giganto's body. The larger antibody amalgamations blocked corridors, forcing him to blast past them...and if he ignored the split portions for too long, they'd merge again, stronger than before.

Eventually, he made his way to the left foot, obtaining the second code device...a bow tie. Another alarm sounded. "Alert! Two devices collected by unauthorized personnel. Threat level has been raised to Pony White. Traps have been engaged."

Turning, Mega Man saw spikes appearing on some of the walls, ceilings, and floor tiles, forcing him to carefully plan his path to avoid them. The antibodies remained the same threat as he made his way back up and out to the right arm. Reaching the hand, he found no guardian antibody awaiting him. All he had to do was manage to wiggle his way through the index finger to the tip without being crushed by a bending knuckle. Careful sliding enables him to grab the third device, a screwdriver.

"Alert! Three devices have been retrieved by unauthorized personnel. Threat level has been raised to Bass Black. Traps activated."

Turning, Mega Man saw the spiked walls slamming across the path into the opposite wall, obviously meant to crush him as he went by, forcing him to time his passage through in order to keep from being destroyed. Thankfully, he was able to lead antibodies into the traps, and they didn't fare any better under the crushing than he would.

Making his way to the left hand, the device was guarded in much the same way as on the right hand, but more difficult to get to due to the traps, and faster movement of the knuckles. However, he eventually managed to get it...only to discover it was an actual key.

"Alert! Threat level has been raised to Mega Man Blue. Growth has been stopped. Engaging reverse function. Ten minutes until core is ready to begin shrinking subject Giganto. Only authorized entities within the super structure will be shrunk along with prime unit."

"Crap!" Mega Man shouted out, rushing back up the arm, doing his best to make his way back to the core before the entire thing started shrinking.

As he reached the core, the entire structure began to shrink, even as swarms of turrets and antibodies tried to hold him back from blasting the core apart. Eventually, he managed to do enough damage to shut it down.

"Warning! Primary core disabled. Self destruct engaged! Five minutes until total annihilation."

"Not again!" Mega Man screamed out as he raced for the right heel. He managed to beam out literally at the last second.

Upon returning to Dr. Light's lab, he discovered that the self destruct apparently involved the core reabsorbing all the matter of Giganto's body before teleporting away. He also discovered a new Master Weapon in his system. Curious, he looked it over.

Enhance
This handy dandy program can let any robot get the advantage over his more well endowed foes. Simply activate this and feel the swell of power within. Feel more of a Man with Enhance, the only Weapon for natural Mega Male enhancement.

*Enhance is not recommended for children, teens, or female robots. Do not use Enhance if you are drunk, high, underage, pregnant, or planning to become pregnant. If the effects of Enhance do not wear off after four hours, consult your personal physician.

Ask your Doctor if Enhance is right for you.

Mega Man slowly, carefully closed the information window on his status display, making a mental note to never use that weapon. He then moved to the kitchen sink.

"Mega Man," Dr. Light chided, "just because you're a robot and won't be hurt by doing so, doesn't mean you should. It won't actually do you any good."

"It's cathartic," Mega Man replied as he proceeded to chug the bleach.

VSW-008: Getting Pumped

Once Mega Man decided he'd had his fill of catharsis, he turned back to Dr. Light. "So which Wub Master is the next big threat?" he asked.

"Well, there is one at the local combination gas turbine power plant/fuel processing center," Dr. Light explained.

"...that seems oddly impractical," Mega Man muttered. "Are we sure I need to stop this one?"

"What happens if it lights a fire?" Dr. Light offered.

"Right," Mega Man agreed, sighing. "Send me in."

Mega Man glanced around as he arrived at the other end of the teleport. He was outside the main part of the plant, the massive turbines visible in the distance. Seeing no threat at first, he made his way in.

Unlike many of the other Wub Masters he'd faced, this one was - for the most part - using robotic foes he'd faced previously. The usual mix of metools, Sniper Joes, dive bombing birds, and bomb launchers. The only thing he really had to watch out for in the outside portion were the robotic gas pumps, which sprayed fuel at him. While the fuel didn't damage him, it could easily catch fire if anything exploded near him. Destroying the pumps wasn't a good idea, either, since they were still connected to the main gas lines of the plant, and the flames resulting from their destruction could possibly ignite the whole plant. Also, the fuel that didn't end up on him made the ground slippery.

Eventually, Mega Man reached the main entrance of the plant, only to be confronted by a massive robotic fuel truck that had been equipped with a flame thrower in addition to its main hose. It drove around the entrance of the plant, trying to run Mega Man down.

"Crap crap crap!" Mega Man shouted as he desperately slid away. "What do I do? What do I do? I can't shoot it, the explosion could destroy the whole place! Can't distract it, one wrong flame could destroy the whole place! How am I supposed to stop it without blowing this place sky high?" Managing to leap ahead, he spun to examine the truck. "...it has a driver car?"

Desperately, Mega Man sidestepped the truck as it charged him, leaping into the cabin at the front. Seeing keys in the ignition, he twisted them to off and pulled them out. The truck slowed and then stopped...millimeters from a turbine. "...maybe I should have steered first," Mega Man murmured as he leapt out, shaking like a leaf as he made his way back to the entrance to the main factory.

Once inside the main building, he found the way was rather straight forward. Just a straight path through the center to the manager's office, where the strong control signal of a Robot Master - or, in this case, a Wub Master - could be detected. The only problem was a mass of worker robots carrying torches and gas tanks moaning as they stalked towards him like zombies, nearly filling the room.

Glancing around, he noticed a few highly ferrous metal grates hanging here and there, along with several chains hanging from pulleys. Thinking quickly, Mega Man activated a new system Dr. Light had given him, specifically for situations where maneuvers he wasn't normally capable of were required. Dr. Light had dubbed it the QTE System. Racing forward, he took a huge leap.

Coming up to the first ferrous grate, he flipped so his feet were towards it, magnetizing the bottoms of his armored boots. Once he attached, he raced across as fast as he could before his weight dragged the grate to the floor and the waiting worker zombots. Reaching the edge of the grate, he leapt, catching hold of a hanging chain. The momentum of his leap propelled him across the pulley's track, but he had to rapidly pull himself up the chain to keep from falling to the floor.

As the chain ran out, he flipped into a spin, kicking off a zombot to catch hold of a hanging pipe, swinging around it to launch himself forward before the pipe broke under his weight. The pulley by now had reached the end of its track, smacking into a ferrous grate and breaking it into falling pieces. Mega Man landed on the first fragment before leaping to the successive ones, gaining height each time.

Nearing the manager's office, he saw a clear space around it. Thinking quickly, he spun and shot some beams on the roof as he leapt. The beams fell, landing behind him and blocking off the zombots, leaving him safe and ready to confront the Wub Master. The QTE System disengaged.

"...that was fun!" Mega Man gasped out eagerly. "I hope I get more chances to use that. Just wish it didn't burn itself out each time and needed to be reset back at the Lab." Brushing himself off, he opened the door.

"Ah, so you've finally arrived!" the Wub Master proclaimed, stepping out of the shadows. "I do so hope you enjoyed yourself...as my face will be the last you ever see, Mega Man!"

"...that would be such a disappointment," Mega Man muttered. "I mean, you're a giant whoopee cushion with eyes! Your hands and feet aren't even attached to you! They're just...floating there!" He blinked. "Wait a minute...how are you even talking?"

"I am Gas Pump!" the Wub Master proclaimed, the 'mouth' of its cushion body shaping its words. "I shall paint you with the colors of my wind!" Leaning forward, Gas Pump compressed, spraying a vile green gas at Mega Man while surrounding itself with a gaseous shield.

Mega Man carefully sidestepped the incoming gas wave, his sensors telling him it would damage him. "...I'll take the damage," he grumbled, storming straight up to Gas Pump as he disengaged his buster, stalking straight through the gaseous shield.

"What are you-"

Before Gas Pump could say anymore, Mega Man grabbed hold of it by the 'neck' of its cushion body, and proceeded to flip it like a flapjack. He continued this until the Wub Master shattered explosively.

"...not using that shield weapon," Mega Man muttered as his systems registered the download of the Master Weapon, 'Broken Wind'.

VSW-009: Shopping Trip

Returning to Light's Lab, Mega Man saw Dr. Light approaching with yet another alert about one of the Wub Masters, but Mega Man held up his hand to stall him. "Dad..." he began. "Is it just me...or do the Wub Masters seem...even more eclectic than Wily's Robot Masters normally do?"

"Eclectic?" Tom asked, surprised.

"Normally, they all seem to follow some sort of theme, or serve some sort of purpose together," Mega Man explained. "Either that, or there's a common pattern of design. It all seems to follow some sort of a plan, even if it's odd. But Vinyl's..." Mega Man shook his head. "They mesh in ones or twos...but overall, there's no pattern, no matching theme. It's...it's like she tossed a whole bunch of ideas into a hat and then pulled eight out at random, not caring about the result..."

Dr. Light scratched his chin. "Well...I suppose you could be right..."

"How many more Wub Masters do you have a bead on?" Mega Man asked.

"We know there are three more active," Dr. Light replied. "But we've only got a lock on the activities of two. We can't track the third yet..."

"Of the two, which would you say is stranger?"

Surprised by the qualifier, Dr. Light analyzed the two available profiles. "...I'd say the one that's taken over the mall," Dr. Light replied.

"The mall?" Mega Man asked, shocked. "Okay, this bot I've got to see!" Turning, he raced out to the mall.

Reaching the mall, Mega Man was surprised to find that, in addition to the usual Mets and other 'assistance' bots that normally raced around various locations to help people, the place seemed to be infested with rabid take-out boxes that threw their contents at him before attempting to dive bomb him once they were empty. "Well, I'm pretty sure I know where to look for the Wub Master, then," Mega Man murmured after blasting several of them. He ran up to the nearest mall directory. "Now...where's the food court?" he murmured, looking it over.

Unfortunately, the robots had done quite a bit of damage to the mall, which the directory didn't account for. As a result, Mega Man found himself coming to several dead ends where he was confronted by everything from a rogue vending machine to a mad clothing rack. As he progressed, Mega Man became more and more convinced that this entire effort on Vinyl's part wasn't as well thought out as it had first appeared. It seemed less like a carefully crafted plan and more and more like trying to build off of an idea and a location once selected. Definitely more slapdash than Wily's usual approach.

Eventually, Mega Man found his way to the food court, only to find the place covered in food, oil spills, grease, and...other things he didn't want to think about. Standing in the middle of it was a humanoid robot wearing a stained chef's apron and hat, its entire body so covered in filth that nothing beyond that could be made out. "You're the...Wub Master?" Mega Man gagged, trying not to think about what he'd be fighting in.

"Aye, that be me," the robot replied, its accent thick but undecipherable. "VWM-007, Bad Chef. But ye can call me Stinky."

"...Bad Chef is right..." Mega Man mumbled. "This place is a mess! What are you thinking, trying to serve food here? It's a breeding ground for sickness!"

"Precisely!" Bad Chef proclaimed proudly. "Those who eat here will be winnowed through! The strong will survive while the weak sicken and die, as nature intended, and humanity will be stronger for it! Those weak gutted pansies like the 'Health Department' should go back to their clean little homes and lives, only to die when the sickness comes!" Scooping up a handful of food laying around, he licked it. "Ah, ye can taste the salmonella!"

"...you're sick!" Mega Man gagged.

"And yer dead!" Bad Chef proclaimed, rocketing forward on a blast of fire that seemed to emerge from his ass.

Mega Man dodged desperately, doing his best to manage his charge so he didn't use the Skull Blast. The last thing he wanted to do here was get knocked back into one of these piles of filth. He did notice that the grease and oils spills burst into flames when Bad Chef passed over them, and that he took damage from the flames. A plan began to form in Mega Man's mind, especially once he saw that the flaming charge was Bad Chef's only attack aside from throwing food.

As he evaded to the side of one charge, he turned away from Bad Chef. "This is going to suck..." he murmured, before opening fire with the Skull Blast. Slamming into Bad Chef, he caused him to re-angle into one of the filthier food stands, causing it to explode.

"Not bad!" Bad Chef barked out as he climbed out from the rubble. "Maybe yer tougher than ya look! But ya ain't beaten me yet!"

"Yes I have," Mega Man muttered. "I turned off the pilot lights but turned on all the gas burners in that kitchen before knocking you in." With that, Mega Man leapt behind a concrete planter.

Bad Chef turned towards the kitchen as he smoldered. "Oh f-"

As Mega Man climbed out of the wreckage that had covered him, he stared at the crater where Bad Chef had been destroyed. Glancing at his arm, he saw the readout regarding the Master Weapon he'd gotten. "'It Burns!'?" he murmured, only to burst into laughter. "I get it now!" he laughed out. Turning to a nearby camera, he flashed a thumbs up. "Enjoying the show, Vinyl?" he called out. "I know you're watching! And Wily, turn your safe search on! She's only 12!" Chuckling, he turned to go. "All this just to mess with my head...and every one designed to push me to my limits physically and mentally...but be incapable of killing me! Vinyl, there is a limit to messing with a friend's head!"

Albert blinked as he turned from the screen to his equine daughter. "Is it true?" he asked, shocked. "Did you really design them to be incapable of destroying him?"

"Of course!" Vinyl replied. "If one of them did, all the work on the others would go to waste!"

"And...where did you get the ideas for these?"

"4chan!" Vinyl proclaimed proudly. "They had the best ideas...even if some of them didn't make sense. I liked the potty humor ones better, but the polls said the sex ones were better." She frowned, scratching her chin. "That's how Da Bomb and Love Machine got selected...but what do those have to do with sex?" As Albert groaned, she asked one last question. "What is sex, anyway? Grown up humans sure seem to be obsessed with it..."

Protoman quickly held a pillow between Wily's head and the wall as he began to rhythmically bang against it.