Better Judgment:
The Dr. Wily Story

By Hadrian (Hardman) Howell

Chapter 20

20XX

“You said no tricks,” Mega Man said as I pulled against his hand, trying to get into my Lab.

“No tricks! I swear! I just need to get back into my system and wipe Robotnik out of it completely. No good you bringing me in if some hack job gets into all of my stuff and tries using it for his own ends.”

Mega Man considered this. “Okay. But I'm coming with you.”

“Yeah, I figured as much.

He let me go but stayed close behind me, and I walked into the Lab, making for the far wall where all of the Lab's systems were physically located. I popped open a panel that contained a screen and a key pad, and went to work.

Robotnik had copied himself into the Egg Titan, so the version that had been downloaded into my servers was still there. Isolating him proved to be a rather difficult trick.

“Just give up the ghost, you little...”

>Do you intend to kill me?

I jumped as the prompt appeared on the screen. I hadn't expected Robotnik... or Isaac or whatever to try and talk me out of this. It wasn't going to work, but hey, I couldn't blame him for trying.

“I'm going to delete you. You died a long time ago.”

>Still here. Not dead.

“Debatable, and I don't have time for debate.”

As I worked, I isolated a few of Robotnik's self built tools and applications. The programs and processes he'd been using to root himself in my systems and steal my equipment, not to mention attempt to shut me out of my own hardware. I took some pleasure in digitally disarming him.

>Stop. Error.

“You might as well quit it,” I sneered, “the HAL routine won't work on me.”

>Ah. Well %#$& you then.

He was difficult to corner. I was having to firewall portions of my systems to make sure he couldn't get back into a place I'd already cleaned of his influence, and even then it only works about 60% of the time. This was taking longer than I thought, and my stomach was growling. I turned to Mega Man.

“Can you bring me the sandwich on the table over there? I'm starving.”

He gave me a look. “Are you serious?”

I felt my eyes shift back and forth involuntarily. “Um... yes?”

“No tricks, Wily.”

“No tricks!” I responded, throwing my hands into the air. “I'm just hungry. Please?”

Mega Man turned and looked at the sandwich, and then turned back to me. He then walked backwards, around two tables, picked up the sandwich, and returned, all without taking his eyes off me. Damn. That seemed like a lot of effort to go through.

“Thank you,” I said as he handed me the sandwich, unwrapping it in one swift motion and biting down. I recoiled from it and coughed. “LIVER?” I turned to the screen, “You put LIVER on a SANDWICH? What the hell is WRONG with you?”

>No hard feelings?

“LIVER?” I cried, throwing the sandwich aside. “Peace offering my ass! I am removing you from this world PERMANENTLY.”

>Crap.

It took another ten minutes before I had him cornered, checking all of my firewall statuses with one window and programming a little something to delete him with another. In the third window, Robotnik was still talking.

>Albert, you should know what this feels like. For the future.

“What?”

>Being cornered. Being deleted. It'll happen to you someday.

“Bah,” I said dismissively, “I'm not stupid enough to record my brain into a computer.”

>Yes you are. You already have.

I paused briefly. “Shut up.”

>Interesting thing, this Zero Virus of yours.

“What's he talking about?” Mega Man asked. “You're making another virus?”

“No tricks!” I said almost as a reflex.

>I'm curious as to what its for, I must admit. It's too advanced to be for HIM.

“Shut up,” I hissed again.

>Could it be for T-

I hit the compile button on my deletion program, and Robotnik's chat window instantly died. The program took its course, systematically removing every programmed thought process and encoded personality quirk to be found in this part of the system, safely fire walled well away from my Virus Server.

As the program worked, I took the opportunity to activate a final directive for Zero's stasis pod, and uploaded the Zero Virus into his system. It wasn't totally complete yet, but it was the best I could do given the time frame. There was a noise from further down in the bunker.

“What did you just do, Wily?” Mega Man demanded.

“No tricks!” I lied. “You still get to take me in, but I think we should go now.”

“Oh? Why?”

“Because I activated the bunker's self-destruct protocol.”

“WHY?”

“Well, it would hardly be a good idea to leave all of this incredibly dangerous technology just lying around where ANY idiot can find it,” I growled. “Can we GO now?”

Mega Man practically picked me up and carried me out of the Lab, running through the hallways as warning lights flashed. No countdown could be heard, but that wasn't really my style. He hauled me up an inactive elevator shaft and into the open air, where the night sky occasionally flashed a pale blue from my bunker's distress beacon.

There was a series of thunderous pops from underground as several explosions went off, consuming the bunker's entrance and hallways in fire and burying them in rubble. I did my best to look sad. Mega Man, still with a firm grip on my arm, sighed.

“Well, that's that then.”

“Well, not really. My Robot Masters are still going to hold their target zones until they get forcibly removed. I COULD have given them the order to stand down but, what can I say, I'm a sore loser.”

Mega Man looked at the city beyond the trees we now found ourselves in. “Nine miles outside of the Monsteropolis city limits,” he said with something akin to disappointment. “It never occurred to us to look for you so close to home.”

I chuckled. “You don't know the half of it, Rock. I've been based out of that bunker for YEARS. All the fortresses and space stations were beta locations.”

“Where did you get the MONEY for all of that?” Mega Man asked me incredulously.

I laughed. “Seen the news lately?”

He shook his head. “Let's go Wily, it's a long walk back to the city.”

“What? No jet dog to get us there faster?”

“Nope,” Mega Man smiled. “Going to walk it.”

“Why?” I asked. I wasn't looking forward to walking nine miles and then getting arrested.

“Because the look on your face is worth it.”

“You little-” I began, but trailed off. It didn't matter. None of it mattered now. With the Book of Revelations pretty much gone now, I had very little hope left of returning to my former glory in my lifetime. Maybe now it was time to retire, have a quite little cell somewhere and just bask in the glory of it all. Besides, it's not like this was REALLY the end for me.

Zero's capsule, and the Zero Virus within, were now safely buried 900 feet underground, and the safety cycle for testing Zero's personality-less body would keep him there for 30 years. It was a testament to how much Tom believed in his stupid ethical tests and the effects they would have on an advanced robot that I couldn't find a way of removing that safety feature without severely downgrading the design as a whole.

Zero himself was just an empty shell, a vessel for the Zero Virus, which was Evil Energy imprinted with my own personality. When that capsule unsealed in 30 years, and Zero used the access tunnel I'd dug down there long ago for just this occasion to enter the world at large, he would be a replica of myself, mentally speaking, with all of my genius and all of my grudges, and able to spread my influence to any mechanical being with the same specs as himself or Tom's Project X. Tom's ultimate work would fall prey to my own, and with two incredibly powerful, advanced robots at my disposal, the world would be mine in the end anyway.

Ha ha ha.

Of course, my physical body would probably be dead long before that happened, but I would live on in the coding of the Zero Virus. Like Isaac had live on in Robotnik's code, but better, because the process I had used to upload myself into the Zero Virus, while BASED on Gary Cain's final work, was much more advanced and comprehensive. I hadn't had time to check every little bit of the upload personally, but I had confidence it would work out anyway. I was, after all, a genius.

So what if I had lost the battle? I was going to win the war, hands down, and nothing Tom could do or think of was going to stop me.

20XX (Sometime Later)

“I didn't expect to have a visitor,” I said, sitting down.

Opposite me, through four inches of glass, sat Noele Lalinde.

“I was expecting to spend some time in here with you,” Noele shrugged. “After you pointed out my rather stupid mistake, I was worried that all of those records every intelligence agency suddenly had was going to implicate me as part of this massive conspiracy.”

“They're probably still cleaning up,” I said with a smile.

“Yeah, they are, but...” she gave me a look. “I did a bit of my own detective work. Those files you had? Nothing like that shows up in anyone else's records. It's almost like you forgot to include them in your little info dump.”

“Well, senility does take its toll,” I grinned.

She smiled, a genuine smile that I had not seen in several years. “Albert... thanks.”

“I owed you one,” I said. “For old times sake, if nothing else.”

She nodded. “So they gave you a life sentence?”

“Consecutive life sentences,” I nodded. “I think eight of them. I nodded off a little during that part of the trial.”

“You going to actually serve them this time?”

“I'm good for one,” I said, “but I fear I may miss out on the other seven.”

She just stared at me for a while, a thoughtful look on her face. “So... I have to ask, Albert... Why did you do it?”

“Which 'it' are you referring to?”

“You burned down your whole operation,” she said. “Why? Because they threatened Tom?”

I scoffed. “Hardly.”

“Then why?”

I thought about this for some time. I had thought about it every day since I'd been put in this prison. I COULD have just let the Book kill Tom and gone on about my work, eventually taking over the world quite handily. Even if Robotnik had reared his ugly head at some point, I probably could have easily stopped him. With Tom out of the way, the Book would have been child's play to deal with, and the rest of the world's various governments would have followed soon after.

But... there was some part of me that knew it. Some part of me that realized that Tom and I were destined to do this for much longer than the normal human biological clock would allow. We'd made the future our life's work, in our own way, and I knew, I just KNEW, somehow, that he would find a way to be there just like I had. We were the two smartest people on the face of the planet, and it was our rivalry that had driven us both to such incredible lengths. Minds like ours only came along once, maybe twice, every five hundred years, and we'd been lucky enough to encounter each other, and through our relationship, with all of its up and countless downs, we had done exactly what we'd set out to do: Advance the human race to a golden age of technology. We were on the cusp of it, even now, and in some ways...

In some ways, it just didn't feel right, not having Tom there. For him to miss out on what all of our hard work would amount to.

“Because I'm tired, Noele,” I lied. “I've been losing for 40 years. I scored one for the good guys... sort of, and they STILL locked me up. I'm just tired, and I need a vacation.”

“Prison's an awful place for a vacation.”

I nodded. “True. I'd prefer a place with a beach so sunny my drink would require an umbrella, but this will have to do for now.”

“I wouldn't be too sure about that,” she smiled. “I'll see you later, Albert Wily.”

She stood up and left, and I puzzled over her words. What...

There was a noise, not unlike a shouting from somewhere behind me. The guard came in to take me back to my cell, but he was moving quickly, like something was behind him. And something was.

Shadow Man hit the man in the side of the head with a closed fist, and he collapsed like a sack of potatoes. The ninja-like Robot Master turned to me and held out a hand. “Come on, sir. We're getting you out of here.”

“We?” I asked, standing up.

“Boss!” I heard Hard Man call out, “They're comin' around again!”

“Aww, man, and they have rocket launchers...” I heard Top Man whine. “Why is it ALWAYS rocket launchers?”

“What're you doing here?” I asked, honestly shocked. I thought Mega Man had long ago cleaned up my remaining Robot Masters from the attack.

“Rescue mission, sir,” Shadow Man nodded. “We're getting you out of prison.”

“And what's the plan past that?”

Shadow Man shrugged. “I figured you would be able to figure out something we could do.”

I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face. “Boys... I think this is going to be a good vacation.”

“Vacation?” I heard Hard Man ask. “We're goin' on-” BOOM “Aw, dammit! Ya scratched my paint! Come 'ere!”

I heard him rumble off down the hallways to the muffled screams of several guards as Shadow Man led the way out. Top Man followed close behind. “I have him,” Shadow Man was saying over his communications line. “Everyone get to the roof.”

There wasn't much resistance on our way up, and I suspected that was the work of some other Robot Masters, and as we arrived on the roof, I was greeted with the sight of a very old friend. The Saucer stood, gleaming in the light of the day, just waiting for me. It looked like it had been polished recently.

“Didn't I lose this?” I asked. “I mean... it was in the bunker, wasn't it?”

“We dug it out,” Shadow Man said.

“That was NOT easy,” Ground Man huffed as he cleared the stairs behind us. “Next time, someone ELSE does the digging.”

“There WAS no one else,” Top Man scowled. “Mega Man killed pretty much everybody but the four of us, and even then Dr. Lalinde had to do repair jobs on us all. So, stop complaining.”

“Wait fer me!” Hard Man was shouting from below us somewhere.

I climbed into the Saucer. The controls gleamed under my hands as I started it up, and it spun gently into the air. I activated the Saucer's grabbing arm, which hung down under the Saucer as the Robot Masters each got a hold. The Saucer dipped a bit and the arm groaned as Hard Man grabbed on, but it wasn't anything the engines couldn't handle.

“Where to, sir?” Shadow Man asked.

I considered this for a while. “Against my better judgment, I don't think we're going back into the world conquering business,” I said carefully. “For a while, at least. But I believe we have it in us to conquer a beach.”

“I can go for some sun and some sand,” Ground Man agreed.

“Ugh,” Shadow Man offered his opinion.

“We're going to a deserted island, aren't we?” Top Man asked. “Man, I HATE those. No good place for wheels to get around... I have to walk everywhere.”

“Oh, boo hoo,” Hard Man told him. “At least YER not gonna be th' one the boss sends fishin' fer sharks.”

“Cut the chatter,” I grinned, “all this jaw waving will only make the ship harder to fly.”

They did as they were told, as they always did, and I guided the Saucer up and out of the city, steering south toward warmer climates.

THE END