Hardman's Bar

Chapter 11


I sat down heavily on the pier, clutching my side. Golemman’s fast had left an instantly recognizable mark. It was a credit to my own solid build that I was still standing, let alone moving around.

Needlegal stood next to me. Despite the fact that she was standing and I wasn’t at the moment, we were pretty much at eye level with each other. Needlegal had told Magnetman to go find the jammer in the area and take it out so the other Mechs could be contacted. As our crimson friend disappeared into the fog, she gave me a look.

“What did you mean when you said we had to talk?” she asked in a level tone. “This isn’t something stupid, is it?”

I shook my head, “Not at all.”

“Well, then, out with it.”

“First,” I said, then I took a moment to cough and readjust myself to take the strain off my side. I’d probably cracked a major load bearing support in that fight. “Tell me what you guys know so far.”

“We’ve got some pretty solid evidence Wily is involved in the arsons somehow.”

“Because o’ th’ Evil Eight?”

“Pretty much, yeah.”

I thought about this, but dismissed it almost immediately. Wily was far too flamboyant and full of himself to pull of something like this and leave clues that didn’t scream his name. “I don’t think he had much of anythin’ ta do with this,” I grunted.

“What makes you so sure?” She asked pointedly.

I sighed. “Because whatever or whoever is behind this, they wanna hurt one of the Mechs bad. Possibly all of us, but one of us more than th’ others.”

“Who?”

“Ya know a woman named Terri Reynolds, right?”

“Well, yeah, she was a regular at the Diner. She ran a cleaner bar than you did.”

“Well, if my guess is correct, you know the location and combination to her establishment’s safe, right?”

She gave me a hurt look. It was dawning on her what I was getting at. “Terri was a good friend, but I didn’t steal her money and burn her place down, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“I’m not, but I’m SUPPOSED ta be thinkin’ that.” I scratched my head. “The Diner, my Bar, and Terri’s bar have all been burned down. Everyone else thinks the only linking factor is th’ fact they all serve food and they all got burned down th’ same way. I managed to figure out something nobody else has mentioned. Every place that’s been hit has had its safe emptied.”

“So they’ve all been burned down and they were all robbed. Lots of arsonists rob places BEFORE they burn them. That gives the burning part a purpose.”

“I understan’ criminology 101, thank ya very much,” I said through gritted teeth. “The one other thing that they all had in common was you.”

“Me?”

“Ya worked at the Diner, and ya were damn near a manager, with access to the safe and the combination to it. Ya worked long enough at my Bar to know WHERE my safe was and how to get to it and open it, and if Terri’s a good a friend as ya say, ya probably know a bit more about her safe and combination than most do. The clues’re subtle, and ya better thank god I’m th’ only one who’s picked up on ‘em so far.”

“Why?” she said, arms akimbo in indignant denial.

“Can ya imagine the kind o’ witch hunt Gemini might call down on yer head? Or Mags for that matter? If they heard soemthin’ like this, you KNOW how they’d overreact.”

She took a second to think, but I kept going. “Think about the tension and distrust that kind o’ thinkin’ could breed in the team, at a time when we really don’t need it. The last time something like that happened we were all at each other’s throats. We don’t need another ‘Unnamed’ incident, get me?”

She nodded numbly. “I know you didn’t do it,” I said, putting a reassuring (if not somewhat large) hand on her shoulder. “Ya don’t have the evil in ya to pull that kind o’ thing off.” Ignoring her face, I pressed onward, “but whoever is doing this is, either consciously or unconsciously, tryin’ to hurt you here.”

“So where does that get us?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Not too rightly sure,” I said with a shrug. “You made any crafty enemies recently?”

“Nobody you wouldn’t already know,” she shook her head.

I stood up with a little bit of effort. Walking was going to hurt on the way home, I could tell. “We need ta find th’ Boss. He’ll probably have a bit more information than we do. He usually does.”

“Okay,” she nodded, looking at the floor. As we started to walk back to base, she spoke up. “Hardman?”

“Yeah?”

“Thanks for not… being stupid about this.”

“No problem. Let’s find Mags and see if he’s got that jammer offline yet.”

It took us almost an hour to find Magnetman. He was standing in a pile of metal debris, making small metal sculptures to take home with him. All in all, he looked a little worse for the wear than I did. Warman had done a number on Magnetman’s right arm, which was hanging around only because it was attached at the shoulder. Part of that was probably because Golemman and Warman had caught him off guard, and it took Needle a second or two to show up at the scene while she tried to deal with who I eventually learned to be Spinman.

The presence of the Evil Eight here had thrown me off for a moment, before I realized that whoever was orchestrating this had probably thrown out a juicy piece of bait they knew Needlegal would go after on her own. Obviously, whoever was our real enemy here knew Needlegal very well. The two kinks in the plan to eliminate her, however, had been Magnetman, myself, and what I would later learn to be skepticism on the part of Wily, but that wouldn’t become clear to me until later.

As the three of us made out way back to base in the dead of night, we heard a rustle of motion from a nearby rooftop. Naturally on edge after our battle with the three members of the Evil Eight, we demolished a portion of the building before the hacking and coughing form of one of the oddest Robot Masters to ever walk. Or fly, for that matter.

Gyroman always stuck me as duck-like, somehow. I think it might have been the feet. It was interesting to many that while he was one of the few Robot Masters truly capable of flight, Gyroman himself was very wary of heights. I could only assume it had something to do with the flying monkeys he’d occasionally mention offhandedly whenever he visited the bar, but I never made an inquisition out of it.

“Gyro? What’re you doing?” Magnet asked.

“Aside from getting SHOT at? I was falling down. And doing pretty good, I should say.”

“Sorry about that,” Needlegal said, walking over to help the propeller robot to his feet. “Why were you following us?”

The lime green robot took a minute to straighten out one of his propeller blades before answering. “The Mayor placed a late night phone call to the Ascendant Androids. He can count himself lucky I got to the phone before Crystalgirl. She probably would have killed him or something.”

“Why call you guys, though? Did something ELSE burn down?” The Mayor’s actions and overreactions to the situation were beginning to set off alarms in my head. Something told me he was somehow connected to the incident, as either a fall guy or he was covering his tracks.

“Burn down?” Gyroman gave me a puzzled look. “No, he called about a fight that was going on at the pier he wanted stopped.”

“Magnet shrugged. “That was just us versus the Evil Eight, round whateverthehell. Fight’s done. Go home, man.”

“I would have, but something struck me as odd.”

We sat there in silence for a while before Needlegal gave him a glare. “WELL? WHAT did you find odd?”

“I got there almost ten minutes before there was any sign of a fight.”

“What? When did he call you?” Needlegal asked.

“Must have been almost an hour and a half ago,” Gyroman shrugged.

“We hadn’t even discovered those three were down there!” Magnet exclaimed.

“Wait, so does that mean the Mayor KNEW the fight was going to happen?” I asked aloud.

“He must have, although I don’t know how,” Gyroman shrugged again.

Needlegal gave me a look and a nod. “We have to speak with the Mayor, and as soon as possible. I think we’re being led on a wild goose chase.”

“I know I was,” Gyro said dejectedly. The Ascendant Android looked at his propeller blades and brushed some dust off them “I was about to jump in to help you two when the ground started shaking. Awesome fight, by the way, Hardman. Classic clash of the titans.”

“Oh, and what are we?” Magnet asked, “chopped liver?”

“You kind of look like chopped liver,” I said with a smirk.

“Can it, fat man.”

I snickered as Needlegal talked to Gyroman. “Look, we appreciate you looking out for us. Do me a favor and tell the Ascendant Androids to meet us at City Hall tomorrow, around 10, okay?”

“AM, or PM?” He asked.

“AM,” Needlegal said flatly.

“Okay. You guys take care, all right?” Gyro said, floating off the ground and flying low back in the direction of the Androids’ base.

“What’s the occasion for the get together, Needlegal?” Magnet asked.

“The Mayor’s got all the Megaman Teams in the city working on a single case, it seems,” she said, looking up at the stars in the sky. “It’s time we find out what he’s got to hide.”

“I agree,” I said with a low growl behind my voice.

We headed back to the base in silence, Magnetman’s discomfort with us plain on his features. Somehow, Needlegal and I felt we had something personal to settle with the Mayor. If it got us a step closer to our real enemy, it was worth shaking up the city a little.

That’s how I felt anyway. I was pretty sure Needlegal had a similar opinion.

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