The Unnamed: A Mechanical Maniacs Mini-Novel

By Gauntlet (Shadowman)

Chapter 19

Needlegal stood in an attack posture. Her hands were retracted into her wrist for easy activation of her Needle Cannon. Her eyes were ice as she surveyed the team.

“Don’t you recognize us?” asked the diminutive robot, Topman, “We’re you’re friends.”

“My only friends are Doc Robot and the Wily Rescue Force!”

“Doc Robot,” said Hardman incredulously, “Whose Doc Robot?”

Shadowman knew and so did Topman. They saw Wily’s escape on the news and has contacted his forces to join them to fight the renegade Mechanical Maniacs. This new incarnation of Doc Robot – a metallic version of Wily himself – seemed innocent enough and even charming in a way. Now Shadowman burned with a cold fury.

“What’s goin’ on, Needle-hun?” asked Spark Chan as she took a step towards Needle. Needle fired a needle right before her feet. Spark jumped back with a yelp of surprise.

“No closer!” spat Shadowman’s sister.

“What’s wrong with her?” asked Hardman with worry. He had expected anger, but Needle acted as if she didn’t know them at all!

Shadowman had puzzled most of it out. “She was reprogrammed before she was taken control of by those renegade ‘Maniacs. By that bastard Doc Robot.”

“Renegade ‘Maniacs?” asked Hardman with some surprise.

“I’ll explain once we gather everybody.”

“You should explain it to us now!”

“And why don’t you explain how she could have been taken by Doc Robot in the first place if you’re – “

A sound not unlike that of a machine gun shattered the argument.

“I don’t know who you people are,” began Needlegal, “But I will know why you’ve entered my mind without proper authorization! Identify yourselves!”

The ‘Maniacs did so and explained that they were all under control of renegade members of their team. Needlegal stopped them here.

“What team? The only team I’m on is Master Wily’s!”

Topman was about to argue the point when Magnet shushed him.

“The Mechanical Maniacs are on Wily’s team, honey!”

“:Don’t call me ‘honey’!”

Magnet continued, “You were tampered with. So were all of us. They erased our memories just like they did yours. Just take a peek at your memory files and you’ll see what I mean.”

Magnet was bluffing. He had no idea what she’d find. If there were no holes and they did a complete reformat of her system than the Needlegal they knew would be gone forever. But if the real Needlegal was still around, then ….. hopefully…

“I see what you mean,” said Needle. “There is evidence of tampering with my system. Probably some of Light’s work. What a joke. Wily’s gonna win, there’s just no doubt about that.”

The ‘Maniacs agreed.

“Your lost files should be around here somewhere stored in a recycle bin maybe,” Shadowman said, “we’ll look for them, restore them in you and then go after the next member of our team. Needlegal agreed tot his plan.

***********

Shadowman couldn’t help but wonder what the Hell happened between Needle, Spark and Hard. But he didn’t like it. He wanted to believe that Needle was captured first and turned against the rest of them later, but too little time had passed for that to have been the case.

So that meant that they had split up. And not on good terms, it seems.

Shadowman very much wanted to ask what was going on, but doing that would destroy the fragile truce they had with the brain-washed Needlegal. Also, they would have to review what happened later on with Snake and Gemini, which would waste valuable time. Shadow didn’t know how long time was relative to the real world here in the cyber world. He expected it ran faster, which was an advantage. But they couldn’t waste it.

Needlegal’s brain was like a plant’s. Thorny vines covered everything, but those same vines were covered in thick, black cables and black nodes. Like the others, her body was still under the renegade’s control.

After, what seemed like days but was probably hours of searching they finally found it. And something else.

“Well, I was wondering when you’d find me, guys.”

“CJ!” spat Topman. CJ grinned menacingly at his counterpart.

In his hand he help a glowing yellow crystal which floated in midair.

“Can you guess what this is?

“My memories.” Said Needlegal.

“Give the girl a prize!”

“So, you’ve found us out,” said the behemoth, Hardman.

“Well, look at the trouble you’ve caused!” replied the former Topman. “How can I help but notice when six of my servants suddenly stop working?”

Shadowman supposed that without minds, their bodies were still as statues.

“Destroying your bodies means nothing if your minds are free to roam the network. And we can’t have that.”

Our bodies are in trouble!

“I figured you’d be here for this, so I waited. Looks like you’ve been outsmarted, smarty-pants!”

The team slowly crept away from him. They knew the drill. Surround the enemy.

Unfortunately, CJ also knew the drill. He lifted the crystal high into the air.

“Stop right there or Needlegal’s never the same!” shouted the former leader of the ‘Maniacs. They stopped short. “That’s right. Back the Hell off!”

Shadowman couldn’t take this. “CJ! You’re our friend! You were on the team with needle and me! You’ve met everyone else too at get-togethers! Would you really kill the person she used to be?”

CJ smiled wickedly, “Friendship. Loyalty. Family. These are the obstacles you must overcome to take over the world! Whatever feelings I had for you were deleted when I decided to take this path!”

Shadowman was stunned silent.

“Once you drop that crystal, I’ll drop you,” threatened Needle in a very dark voice.

“Would you sacrifice who you were? Would you really? You were a happier person you know.”

Needlegal hesitated.

CJ made a chuckling sound. “Good. Now, why don’t you just turn right around and go back to your bodies and then initiate the prison procedure. That way you’ll all live and I’ll live and we can all be happy.”

The team began to back away. Hardman took action.

Despite his disagreement, and despite his dislike for her attitude, Needlegal was still his friend. And he couldn’t bear the idea of her staying as this distant cold-hearted stranger forever. Shooting out his Hard Knuckle he grabbed the crystal right out of a very surprised CJ’s hand and with the other gave the former Topman a knockout punch in the face! Boomeranging back to him, his fists returned and with them the crystal that held Needle’s memories.

“You talk too much, punk,” said the large robot to the glaring CJ.

The ‘Maniacs all readied their weapons for the attack. CJ saw this and teleported out when he saw he had no chance in this battle. The ‘Maniacs began to breath easy until the ground shuddered. Floor plates crack open as large robotic legs sprouted from the ground.

“What’s that!?” asked Topman in a panic.

“A trap,” stated Needlegal.

The robot was large. Too large. The ‘Maniacs were still tired from the fight with the Needle Clones. Still, whatever monstrosity this was could have a turn too. It resembled a centipede with a long, thin body and tiny legs.

“It’s big,” said Shadowman, “but its legs are small and weak. We strike there. Topman, use you’re Top Spin to – “

Shadowman was cut off as the creature suddenly exploded in pixels and data. The team just stood there, dumbfounded.

Needlegal turned towards them from behind them.

“This is my body. I interfaced with the systems and activated the antivirus filters. It’s not a critical system, so the controls this ‘CJ’ set up didn’t prevent me from doing so. You didn’t honestly want to fight that big thing did you? Men…”

***********

Needlegal took the crystal with her memories with a little trepidation. She wondered what she had lost that these strangers had been so eager to recover. From her work with Expressman, Multiman, and Doc Robot, she didn’t find much loyalty in robots. Except to Master Wily of course. Still, these were her own memories … what could be surprising?

The crystal vanished as Needle accessed her lost memory files.

She fell to the ground as memories overwhelmed her. Memories of her activation. Memories of her adopting the Needle identity. Memories of fighting Wily. Memories of her gaining the Transmetal armor and following the team across the globe and into another dimension. Memories of her recent fight with Hard and Spark. Memories of the assault on the forces of Wily and her friends Expressman, Multiman, and Doc Robot beating her down and reprogramming her with that robot-head Artilleryman adding in his own bits of reprogramming.

Needlegal was disoriented. Wily was her enemy. An enemy? The Mechanical Maniacs was a team she was on. They were her friends. Her friend Doc Robot had reprogrammed her to rescue Master … Doctor Wily. It was painful and unpleasant. She remembered Artilleryman saying something about her being lucky she wouldn’t be able to remember it. The thought made Needle grimace. Hardman had helped restore her. The same Hardman who had earlier let her down.

She supposed he wasn’t such a bad guy after all.

“Are you okay, Needle?” asked her brother, Shadowman.

Needlegal tried to speak, but found the effort dizzying. Instead she merely nodded vigorously. Shadowman helped her up.

“Do you … remember hun?” asked Spark Chan tepidly.

Needlegal nodded again.

“Are you still … mad?”

Needlegal found her voice.

“I’m madder at that bastard Doc Robot and CJ for making me their puppet!”

***********

Needlegal took some time to recover and the rest of the team recharged their energy. Her thoughts were reasserting themselves fairly quickly. Doc Robot had made a very hasty new personality program based mostly off her old one. That made for a quick, painless, integration of her old personality and memories into her current state. When she was done, Shadowman promised they’d review the situation after getting Geminiman and Snakeman back. It seemed they all had something to share and they needed to move fast.

CJ has implied their bodies were in danger and they still had two friends to rescue.

Snakeman was next on the list. After everything they went through bringing him back seemed easy. Last on the list was Geminiman.

Geminiman’s mind was crystalline, also with black cables clogging his system. However here they were not greeted by Gemini Clones ready for an attack.

Here they were greeted by the Gemini-thing.