Hardman's Bar

Chapter 32


I forced my feet under me and stood up, my legs screaming a fire-filled rebellion. Protoman was thrashing wildly, screaming in pain, but there was something else about him. He was flickering.

“If anyone is goin’ ta hell,” I forced my voice to say, “It’ll be YOU, Doc.”

Protoman’s form melted away as the overwhelming damage finally broke Doc Robot’s concentration. His arm lay in pieces and he still screamed in pain, but now I could see my real enemy. I stood there, listening to him cry in agony, trying to summon up the strength to move. He might’ve been a cheap imitation, but that Big Bang had been real enough.

He slowly rolled over and got shakily to his knees, the permanent grin affixed to his features making him look even more insane.

“You titanic twit!” He shouted at me. “There’s nothing you can do! You can’t save them from my lord!”

“Unless you just found religion, you just admitted the Maniacs are alive,” I smirked.

“You’d LIKE to think that!” Doc back-peddled. “They’re all dead! Destroyed! Anihil-AAA!”

He was cut off by a Hard Knuckle that reached out and grabbed him by the forehead and dragged him back to me. I lifted him off the ground with ease, even in my injured state, and far enough away from me where he couldn’t do much harm.

“Talk,” I growled. “What the hell is really going on?”

“No…” he whimpered, “never…”

“TALK!” I barked, tightening my grip. I could feel his head dent.

“Zat’s enuff.”

I let out a roar of absolute hatred as I turned and threw Doc Robot with almost expert precision at Wily. The deception-based Robot Master crashed into the old German and they both went tumbling. Doc Robot skidded to a halt in the rubble, but Wily kept bouncing, rolling in unhealthy ways before finally coming to a breaking stop against the last remains of a wall.

I stood there is shocked horror as I took it in. Blood traced a thin line down to Wily’s chin. His eyes were rolled back into his head.

“Oh god…” I whispered. “I killed him…”

“Yes, it vuld appear zat you did.”

Wily’s head then took the liberty of springing off, bobbing about like a wild cat toy. The head, however, shook itself and looked at me as best it could while it bounced around.

“Zat vas razzer rash, vusn’t it?” it asked me. My mouth hung open for a moment, but the head continued. “I aprerciate zat you’ve dealt viz one traitor in my ranks, but zis does not sholve my overall problem.”

“What are you talking about?” I coughed.

“Zis problem of you.”

“Me?”

“You are shtill ze thorn in my side you vere ven I built you ze first time. You vere very expenshive, and barely vorse rebuildink. Zen you joined zese Maniacs and have a new personality… I’ll never undershatnd it. But ze fact remains zat you are a constant, shtabbing pain in my arse, and it is time I vus rid of you vunce und for all.”

“What the hell is going on here? WHAT DID YOU DO?”

The head laughed at me. The most comical thing I’d never been in the mood to appreciate, and IT was laughing at ME. “Vell, I’ve taken ze bulk of your team hoztage, und I shtaged ze entire debacle in ze apartment to zrow you off balance, vhich you sheem to be. Vunderbar.”

“Staged… then there’s no alliance?”

“Gud heavenz no,” Wily chuckled. “I vas vorried I gave myshelf avay, but I can shee now zat I needn’t haf bozzered shveating about it.”

“Then what’s really going on,” I asked again. “Surely, you must feel confident enough in your victory to tell me.”

“Gud point,” Wily smiled. “Very well zen, since it doesn’t much involve you anyvay, I zink it is chust important for you to know zat I am putting down a usurper to my throne of evil, and taking ze opportunity to put some more annoying fliesh in my shoup out of my misery. I shtay in touch, Hardman, sho be a gud boy and die when I ask you too, okay?”

With that, the Wily-robot shut down, the head bobbing to one side and the body slumping to the ground.

I thought about this for a while. Wily was making his move against whoever had been behind Cityman and Mesmerman, and was using the confusion to hurt the Maniacs, and maybe a few other teams as well. This was bad. Not only that, he’d found a way to tamper with our team communications. This was worse.

But what had he meant when he called Doc Robot a traitor? This needed an answer fast.

I staggered over and hoisted Doc Robot up to his feet. He groaned as I shook him, and his eyes went wide at the sight of me. He was far too damaged now to fight back, even though I was far too damaged to put up much of a fight myself.

“Talk, and you get to live. Maybe even escape from Wily. He thinks you’re dead, and that’s the only chance you have of getting out of this city alive. So, talk,” I told him simply.

He squirmed for a moment or two. “Okay, okay, so I jumped ship… Wily wasn’t helping me much, and the only other patsy I could have found was Bizzarro, and we all know he’s nuts. But then there was this new guy…”

“What new guy?”

“Calls himself ‘Hakushaku,’” Doc Robot said dismissively.

I thought about it. “Isn’t that Japanese for ‘Count?’”

“Something like that,” Doc shrugged. “Anyway, he got his hands on some of Duo’s leftovers, and needed to fill them full of Evil Energy, so I got hired to go make some.”

“How?”

“I arranged for Torchman’s removal from the Sinister Six,” he grinned. “I’m a little proud of that.”

“Why?”

“Because he’s an insult to evil, that’s why. And because those feelings of resentment and all the booze you filled him with provided us with a ton of Evil Energy. Mesmerman pretty much planned out his whole act on his own, and he managed to gather enough Evil Energy from you and a lot of other people to activate Cityman and even afford himself another life after you guys killed him the first time…”

“What about…”

“Protoman? Haven’t heard from him in months. No, I’m afraid I’ve been the actor playing his role the entire time.”

“Megaman would rip you to pieces if he found out.”

“But he won’t,” Doc smiled, “That’s part of our deal, right?”

“One other thing,” I said, ignoring him carefully, “it’s obvious now you did the whole thing just now to get even more Evil Energy out of me,” I felt an internal twinge at being used like that, especially after the entire display with killing the fake Wily was probably enough energy to revive Mesmerman again, “but for what purpose?”

“Hakushaku’s gathering a ton of the stuff for something he wouldn’t tell me about.”

“And Shademan?” I asked out of curiosity.

“Haven’t seen him in months either. I’d heard he was on vacation.”

“Does Drastic Measures know that?”

“Probably.”

Of course, I’d never ASKED any of Drastic Measures about Shademan. I hadn’t gotten the time. Nice to know my bat-like friend hadn’t thrown in with the bad guys.

“Where are the others being held?” I asked.

“Are we playing twenty questions?” Doc asked me back. “Because you have, like, 4 left.”

“Shut up and tell me.”

“Wily only got his hands on Sparkchan, Geminiman, and Snakeman, so don’t let his hot air bother you. They’re at the Skull Fortress. They got jumped by the whole Evil Eight and ‘Protoman,’” the shape-changer giggled.

“Yeah, what was up with the Evil Eight in Mesmerman’s alternate reality? Were THEY double-crossing Wily too?”

“I think that was actually Mesmerman’s idea of implicating Wily in the whole thing,” Doc shrugged. “Did it work?”

“Not really,” I said, moving out of the rubble, still holding on to Doc Robot.

“That figures,” he huffed. “Hey, where are we going?”

“Dr. Light’s place.”

“Um… why?” he asked in a squeak.

“I need repairs.”

“But… but… what about me?”

I laughed. “You could prolly use some too,”

“But… Megaman… but…”

“Ya reap what ya sow, ya deceptive little snot. Personally, I think you’ll be my price ‘o admission to Light n’ Auto’s Body Shop.”

Doc Robot wept like a little girl all the way to the home of Dr. Light.

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