The Business of War

Orchestrated By C.M. Rich (Magnetman)

Old Friends

By Spinning Demon, Gauntlet, Lennon

Scenario A
Participants:
Mechanical Maniacs (RPD)
Geminiman (MM3)(SA)

Location: Monsteropolis
Max. Cossack Scrap Value: 3871
SA Infantry: 1605
RPD Units: 1363
Wily Bots: 660

"What'd you find?" Blues asked gruffly. In response, Constance tossed a meager handful of small parts, a screwdriver and a pocket knife at his outstretched feet. "Not much," he snorted.

"We're moving again," Top Man said from a few feet away. "Leave whatever you won't want behind." Blues stood up stiffly and picked up the handful of items they'd salvaged- it didn't matter if he thought he'd need them or not, but in such dire circumstances, you weren't picky.

"Where are we headed now?" Blues asked bitingly. He was never one for listening to anyone order him around, but even so, Top Man seemed like he was doing an especially poor job of it. They had been wandering for weeks, following rumours and hear-say that led only to dead-ends and disappointment. Even the rumours had stopped. What did he plan on following now?

"...I don't know..." Top said shakenly. He felt foolish saying it out loud, but it had repeated in his mind a thousand times over. "I don't... I don't even know where to start. We don't even know if he's really still alive."

He cursed himself for saying it. He might act cool and aloof, but Top knew that Blues was desperate to find his father more than any of them. Blues looked bitterly back at the orange robot. "We might if you were a better leader."

"I'm not a leader!" Top exploded, venting all of his frustration at himself, his failure. "I don't have any plans, or-or strategies, or... I don't have anything! Gauntlet was the leader, he would know exactly what to do. Gauntlet always knew what to do..."

Knew. Top had used the past tense without even realizing it. But it was true. Top didn't think of Gauntlet as the leader, as the stalwart warrior he'd always known anymore. Now, he could only picture Gauntlet as he'd seen him last; on the ground, maddened and desperate. Fallen.

But thinking of it gave the Spinning Demon a new determination. He wouldn't give in to the same desperation his team-mate had. Maybe he didn't have the qualities of a leader, but he had hope. And that would be enough to keep him going.

"Come on, guys. We've wasted enough time here, let's get going."

"Going?" Blues asked incredulously. "Going where?"

"Forward."

--------------------

The fight between the two robots had, in fact, improved their relationship immensely. Top Man was bolstered with new confidence, and while he was still struggling with becoming more assertive, Blues respected the effort. With no more rumours of Light sightings, the two of them had begun to trace the locations of Light's various labs.

What they found was always a scene of utter destruction. Even the doctor's international and co-owned research facilities had been reduced to rubble.

"Shouldn't be surprised," Blues said regretfully as he kicked at the shards of a shattered glass door. "Getting Dad out of the way would have been one of the first things the General would do."

Top Man sighed. "Any other ideas?"

"No..." Blues muttered. "This was the first place Dad worked as an engineer. There's no where else he-"

"Incorrect."

Both their heads turned towards their usually-mute companion. Her voice was raspy, almost unrecognizable from disuse, but she had clearly said it.

"...what do you mean, incorrect?" Blues questioned.

Constance continued, her voice rigid and formal as if she was reciting something word for word. "Doctor Thomas Light was employed for six months at a manufacturing facility in Iceland. His resignation was almost immediately followed by the discovery of the nuclear isotope later used to create Protoman's core."

"...the girl did her homework," Blues remarked. Constance nodded satisfactorally.

"Think it's still standing?" Top asked.

"Might be. I didn't even know Dad used to be a blue-collar, I'm sure the General wouldn't. Only one way to find out for sure."

--------------------

The facility was remarkably small, but even more remarkably, intact. It had likely been closed down to shift labour during the war effort, but there was no damage to the property. The whole country had been so far saved from the General's reach. So far.

"Should we knock?" Top Man asked bemusedly.

"If you were a wanted fugitive, would you open the door if someone knocked?" Blues quipped. Constance brushed past the arguing robots and had removed a pin from a satchel she kept at her waist. She readied herself to pick the lock when Blues put his hand on her shoulder. "Let me handle this," he said.

"HEY SIS!" he yelleed suddenly to the interior of the dark factory, "if you're in there, come out and give your big brother a hug!"

There was a second of silence that hung in the air as the group began to doubt anyone was here after all. But out of the silence came distant footsteps, fast and increasingly loud until the door burst open and a small figure in red leaped into the arms of her brother.

"Roll," Blues said sheepishly, "nice to see you again too."

"You came back," she said, still firmly gripping her brother tightly in a hug. "I can't believe you're back." Blues, in a rare moment of expressivity, even smiled.

"Father's resting right now," Roll said excitedly as she finally loosened her grasp, but let me wake him up. Oh, he'll be so excited to see you!" Leading, or rather pulling, her brother by the hand, Roll went back inside, leaving Top and Constance standing hesitantly at the entrance. They'd done it. They'd found him...

What next?

--------------------

"Top Man!"

The voice was deep but clear- not the ghostly whispers of a troubled dream. Not a muddied, distant voice of memory. It was his voice. "My dear child, you are a sight for sore eyes."

Doctor Light bounced toward the robot with his arms held open wide. His face bore the new wrinkles of worry, but he was grinning from ear to ear as he approached the small figure. Top Man felt overwhelmed... after all this time, there was so much to say, so much to ask... all he could manage was a squeaky "How are you?"

The doctor chuckled at the absurdity of the question. "Well, I've seen better days, we all have. But come, let's not stand here gawking at each other, sit down, sit down!"

He led them into a side room that had been furnished brightly. A modest potted plant sat on top of an office desk that was presently being used as a coffee table. Roll flitted about tending to the small concerns of the room, with a huge grin on her face. Despite their circumstances, this was the happiest Top Man had ever seen her.

"-believe you found this place," the doctor was saying. "My career skyrocketed so soon after I had left, I almost forgot about it myself. But I don't imagine many people would have cared that the "Father of Robotics" once worked in this old place. It was actually a friend of mine from University who offered me a position here, and would you believe it, he's President of the company now! Naturally it seemed like the safest place I could think of."

"You can't imagine how relieved we are to find out you're alright," Top Man replied. He hesitated for a moment, and raised the issue he had set out to do months ago. "Doctor... we need your help."

Doctor Light smiled gravely. "Yes, I assumed it was not out of leisure that you tracked me down. You want to get Rock back, don't you?" They nodded in response. He sighed. "I do too... more than anything.

...but I cannot help you."

Top Man had always known the doctor could say no, had prepared and steeled himself for the possibility, but it still felt like the world had crumbled underneath his feet. "But... but Doctor, think about what it would mean for the War if Rock-"

"Thinking about Rock," Light interrupted in a dangerous tone, "is all I have been able to do for months. Do you suppose you're the first to have approached me in the matter? Mikhail contacted me quite soon after I had settled here with a proposition. He delivered to me everything I would need to further my understanding on the Shutdown Code- its programming, the implant chip; he even somehow acquired one of the Watchers' control mechanisms. I became obsessed! I worked for weeks analyzing it with what few tools I had. I might have even found a way to bypass the security measures placed upon them! But the thrill of my success was soon overshadowed by new doubts. There is still so many things we don't know about the Code, Top Man. What if Rock's personality bank was corrupted during the surge on his systems? What if his memory was wiped? I couldn't bear to see him like that. We lost him once, and it was hard, but we've moved on. We've accepted our loss, and things have finally started to get better. It's peaceful here, and safe. Look how happy Roll has been these days." As if on cue, she turned from dusting some knick-knacks on a shelf in the corner and gushed at him. "I lost him once, I'm not strong enough to lose him again."

Top Man felt dizzy, a rarity for him. How could this be happening? Light HAD to help, he had to... he looked imploringly at Blues, whose face was so grave that Top Man wondered if he had really seen a smile there some minutes ago.

"Dad, you have to help. The war will be everywhere soon, you won't be safe here either."

Doctor Light sat up to his full height, and bore a wise look on his face. "Your old man has not given himself up yet, Blues. Nor have I sat idly by while millions are dying. Come, let me show you something."

He rose to his feet without waiting for a response, and began walking toward the main rooms of the facility. Top Man, Blues, and Constance all followed in curious silence.

"Rock was truly one of a kind. A real son to me. But perhaps because I saw him this way, because I loved him like a father should, I was blind to his imperfections. But to win this war, we will need better than that; we will need a perfect weapon." The doctor stopped at a door and turned to face his entourage. "I present to you all a variation on Rock's design that possesses his power and agility tenfold. Mega Man X."

--------------------

'Mega Man X'.

Top Man was one of a privileged few who knew the significance of the name. Run-ins with the time-travelling X-Force had given him some minimal knowledge of the future, but even minimal knowledge was enough to know that X was legendary. He was not sure how he would feel upon seeing the future's legacy. Shock? Awe? What he felt... was horrified.

In the middle of the room, a worktable had been set up with several crude instruments, and in the center lay what he could only think of as a monstrocity. Its shape was humanoid, but barely so, lumped and bent in odd places. The metal encasing its body ranged from misshapen slabs of steel to tin foil, and its head wore an upturned bucket as a helmet. The face had been crafted in clay, with two fingerholes where eyes would be. Some cords protruded from the chest and neck as if to deliver power, but their ends were disconnected or frayed, the cords useless. In all, the figure bore more resemblence to the nightmarish offspring of a troubled child than the work of the genius who had created one of the onlookers.

"Dad," Blues said quietly, his voice breaking slightly, "what the hell is this?"

"Well of course he's not completely finished yet," he said dismissively, "because I'm missing one or two vital components that you simply couldn't find in these small towns, but I believe he's close to being functional." The doctor walked purposefully around the lifeless thing, adjusting small details as if any tweak might stir it to life. His eyes shone with excitement, but what was once a sharp and knowing gaze had regressed to the cloudy stare of a distracted child. Indeed, he looked more like a toddler playing with a new toy. It was horrible to watch.

"This is some kind of joke, right?" Top asked waveringly, but knew that it wasn't. Blues looked more distressed than he'd ever seen him, and even Constance's stony face was lined with concern.

"Roll?!" Blues shouted with an edge of panic in his voice. They heard her drop something and moments later she was hurrying to the door. "What, Blues, is something wro-?"

She pushed the door open and froze as the same image greeted her eyes. She stared with her mouth slightly ajar, eyes unfocused on any spot in particular. After a second, her jaw snapped closed and into a large smile, her eyes still unfixed. "I bet you'd like some tea, father, you've been working so hard! Let me go look in the kitchen." She turned on the spot and left without even a glance at her brother or his two allies.

"Such a sweet girl," doctor Light said cheerfully to himself as he bent down to inspect the eye sockets of the dummy-X.

"R-roll, wha-?" Blues stuttered. "What's wrong with her? Why didn't she say anything?! Why didn't she see how FUCKED UP this is?!" Blues shouted, knocking some of the clutter on the table to the floor in anger. He turned on his father, shock and frustration and disgust and confusion all coming out at once. "Did you do this to her, Dad? Did you screw up her brain or something??"

Doctor Light looked both lost and petrified. "What? Blues, I don't... what do you..?"

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HER?!" he yelled again, gripping his father by the collar of his lab coat. The old man was cringing and sobbing now, his eyes wide with fear and confusion.

"Please, Blues, I... why are you doing this?"

"STOP IT!"

It was Roll who cried out, standing again at the threshold to the room. Tears were streaming down her face. "Stop it!! All of you!! He didn't do anything wrong, he just... he's just confused!..." Blues let go of his father, and met his sister's eyes.

"He's been like this since... since a little while after he gave up on deactivating the Shutdown Code. I never thought... I thought it was just his way to grieve. He lost so much, Blues... he..." She looked at her father, and it was a look of pity. Her tears swelled even more. "Father, please... stop it! I tried to be happy for you, for us, I tried so hard, but you're breaking my heart! Look at what you're doing!!"

Doctor Light looked down at the heap on the table, and he looked confused, as if he didn't recognize what he had spent hours labouring on. "I... I'm so tired, Roll... I th-think I'm going to lie down for a while."

He stumbled on his way past, and Roll rushed forward to help him stand. As she walked him to the doorway, he looked back at his "Mega Man X" on the table. "Maybe if I moved the engine to the chest instead of the back..." he muttered. Roll stifled a sob.

"Yes, father, that might work..." she said encouragingly.

"Any day now, Roll," he said happily to her.

"I know, father..."

--------------------

Doctor Light had fallen asleep, and the party had gathered outside to talk freely.

"Are you just going to let him stay this way?!" Blues snarled.

"What else can I do, Blues?" Roll cried. "You can't just scare this out of him. He's an old man, he... he's just tired. We need to be here for him!"

"We need Rock to be here," Blues said abruptly. There was silence after he said it. It was true, Blues realized; Rock had been the glue not only for the community, but for their family too, and without him they had fallen apart. "We're going to get him, and you two are coming too."

"No! You heard what dad said, and besides, it's too dangerous! You're just going to break into the RPD Headquarters?! Three of you??"

"We'll find others, we'll get help! Roll, please, it's what he needs right now."

"It'll break him."

"Come on, Roll," Blues said, "we're leaving." He turned away and began to walk away.

"...Blues!" she shouted to him after a moment. He turned, in hopes she had chosen to join them, but she still stood by the doorway.

"Bring him back, Blues."

Blues flashed her a wistful smile. "...I will, Roll."

--------------------

Constance watched Bass unblinkingly, or so it seemed to him. He didn't know why she bothered, he wasn't going to escape. Wily was a failure, a coward. There was no point in following his ideals anymore. Even if it meant allying with the enemy... even if it meant trying to save HIM... anything was better. Constance, meanwhile, was lost in thought. She had sought out the doctor in hopes he could perform a diagnostic on her, repair her and improve her performance. But his mind was broken. The irony of a broken doctor was lost on her mechanical mind, and she had no sense of what course of action to pursue next. She would have to wait and watch. Top Man, meanwhile, was making plan after plan, all ending in disaster. Bass was a powerhouse, but against the whole of the RPD they would be slaughtered. Four against hundreds. And even if they got the body out, then what? Doctor Light had been their only hope to fix him... and they couldn't rely on him to help them anymore. But he'd find a way to fix things, to fix everything. He just had to think.

"Penny for your thoughts?"

He looked up at a set of black boots and a trenchcoat.

"...who are you?"

--------------------

Hardman destroyed another Scissor Joe as he, Shadowman, and Needlegal made their way through the outskirts of Monsteropolis. They destroyed an automated taxi as it tried to attack them. Hardman reached out and swatted away a flying Metool that had gone haywire.

“The whole world’s like this!” cried Needlegal in frustration, “I thought R&D was developing an anti-virus for this sort of crap.”

“They are,” replied Shadowman, “But it doesn’t mean it’s ready.”

Hardman shot his large fists at a renegade member of the RPD. “Well, you’d think they coulda cleaned th' streets by now.”

“Maybe this ‘secret weapon’ Crorq has sent us to fetch will help,” said Needlegal optimistically.

“Or maybe it’s a huge waste of time,” said Shadowman with his usual pessimism. Needlegal rolled her eyes. Would it kill her brother to be upbeat?

“Focus on the mission,” said Amatista over the internal radio as she took out a small enemy as it drew close to an unaware Hardman. “Whatever it is, let’s just be thankful we’re getting support.”

The Mechanical Maniacs swatted away the dozens of robots that came at them. It was more irritating than an actual threat; Monsteropolis had been on heavy lockdown since General Cutman’s first wave of attack and its internal security had managed to destroy all infected robots while keeping itself relatively protected from infection. However, the streets still weren’t safe.

Hardman destroyed a street cleaning machine with a powerful punch. “This is the same stupid crap Wily’s always doing. He has gotta get a better plan.”

The team finally came to a large facility that remained abandoned after the initial stages of the war. Hardman immediately ripped open the doors.

“Tha' oughtta do it.”

“I did have the access codes to get in, but that works too, I guess,” said Amatista from her unseen position. “The weapons should be in an old bomb shelter below the building.”

The team made their way through the eerily quiet building. Unlike the streets above, this place had not been affected by the random outburst of robotic violence. As they descended the architecture revealed itself to be much older than the newer buildings above. There were actual bricks and mortar; something uncommon for the technologically advanced city of Monsteropolis.

“This facility goes back. What you’re looking for is an ancient bomb shelter from the ‘Cold War’ era. It was made to be sturdy, but Hardman should be able to break it down easily.

“Right, ‘tista,” said the blue behemoth. She might be irritating, but at least she had taken to the habit of being useful.

In no time the team made it to the bomb shelter. They were thoroughly disgusted at the condition of the basement. The metal had become somewhat corroded after years of neglect. The walls showed exposed bricks. It was cold and ill lit. Fluorescent lights ran along the walls and they flickered because of their poor wiring. A Cold War era bomb shelter… a chill ran down Needlegal’s spine. There had been rumours that both Wily and the General were stockpiling nuclear weapons. At first Needlegal and the rest of the team had disregarded these reports as paranoid speculation, but that was before the General’s senseless attack on Niagara Falls. There was a devastating attack on the area and subsequent investigations had confirmed a nuclear strike. After that rumours of Wily’s activities were seen in a completely new light.

Has this war really gone that far?

And yet the ‘Maniacs were under orders. And they had chosen their side already. “Break it open, Hardman. Let’s see what Santa brought us today.”

With a grunt Hardman dug his fingers into the solid steel door and ripped it off its hinges. The team gasped audibly. This was no nuclear arsenal. This was far, far worse.

“Greetings, Mechanical Maniacs! We were wondering when you were going to show up.” Torchman stood from his comfortable sofa. The rest of the Sinister Six remained seated, but turned their heads (except for Waveman who did not actually have a head) to look at the Mechanical Maniacs.

“You people!” said Shadowman angrily. “What have you done with the arsenal!?”

Sharkman and Blademan giggled to themselves while Torchman laughed loudly. “Arsenal, my foes? There is no arsenal here. Only we! And that makes us the arsenal you are looking for!”

Hardman grinned. After months of gruelling fights and being ripped apart more times than he’d care to admit, he was ready for a good brawl with someone easy. “If yer lookin’ fer a fight, I’m glad t' oblidge!”

Again Blademan and Sharkman giggled to themselves.

“Fight you?” Torchman laughed loudly again and made no move to attack. “The plan is not to fight you! Actually … we’ve come to join you!”

--------------------

“Mesmerman was a traitor…” Geminiman thought to himself as he sat in his throne room at Himeji Castle. His clone had recently declared to bring victory against the traitorous mind-reader at the General’s meeting at the now-occupied Underground Skull Fortress but there was a slight difficulty in hunting this particular foe, for Mesmerman was the very robot that had been manipulating him ever since the beginning of the War, perhaps even some time before it.

“But if Mesmerman is no longer supporting the Scissor Army, then what is to become of me?” the White Knight trailed off as he looked outside the castle keep from his throne. The city before him now a lot quieter than the last time he recalled it.

“How sweet that you still think of me despite the situation, Geminiman…” Mesmerman’s voice echoed from within the depths of his mind.

“How can I not when I am aware you live deep within the recesses of my mind. You leave me with a sense of… uneasiness.” Geminiman retorted in an irritated tone.

“I am the one who leaves you with a sense of uneasiness? Oh come now, if it’s anyone who should make you uneasy, it should be General Cutman. After all, he knows that you are my puppet and yet he’s done nothing to hinder your own operations or even prevent you from roaming freely around Elysium. He’s even allowed you to keep this castle as your own with your own personal army. Why do you think we would do such a thing to an officer that is easily manipulated by someone who could potentially be his greatest threat?”

Geminiman hadn’t thought of that, why had the General let him act so freely if he had such a high potential to go rogue after Mesmerman deserted him. Was it because he trusted him? Impossible, he would not be so stupid to let an officer of his act on their own will when they are such a risk. Perhaps he was watching him now, perhaps the Holy Order that the White Knight values so much were spies reporting his every move to Cutman back in Elysium.

The room began to shrink and Geminiman started to feel like he was trapped. His own personal army that thought and fought like him, if Cutman had so many at his disposal then technically the Holy Order could replace Geminiman with ease under a different commander.

“That’s not all,” Mesmerman chuckled within the knight’s mind, “You recently seized a certain someone who is now under the watchful eye of the General, someone whose mind could easily be fixed as a bargaining chip.”

The White Knight’s heart froze, Classi-Cal, the one who meant the most to him. The one who he had just rescued from the clutches of that crazed Dr Wily, and the one he constantly referred to as his ‘beloved’… No, the General wouldn’t dare touch her! He needed her as she was. He wouldn’t forcibly fix her to be just the way he wanted, he wasn’t like Dr Wily.

“Oh you know very well that he is fully capable of doing such a thing. How do you not know he’s already done it?”

Geminiman was visibly troubled now. He had followed the General all this time, he believed that he was respected by him, and he was awarded with all that he wished for. Now at the crucial moment, he surely couldn’t tear away from him the one thing that matters the most to him… Or could he?

“There is only one way to find out, Geminiman,” the manipulative robot sneered, “you must follow my whim and betray him. That is the only way you can ensure your beloved’s safety.”

No, this was madness! He couldn’t betray the Scissor Army, not now, not after everything he had done. He had thrown away his old friends and laid waste to all they sought to protect, chased and hunted the ones he claimed to have loved, killed countless amounts of people. If he simply turned his back on all that he had done then where would he go. No one would want him. He’d be alone… again…

“Your uncertainty about this decision disappoints me. Surely you don’t think that you would lose everything if you left the Scissor Army? No, you will only gain more. You will still gain everything you ever wanted. It was not the General who provided you with these upgrades, this castle, and everything in your possession. It was I, Mesmerman who gave it all to you. Your loyalty should be to me and not the General! I own you both body and soul…”

Mesmerman had a point, or perhaps he was just made to think he had a point. In any case, Geminiman saw no other choice in the path ahead of him now, he had to leave to Scissor Army, but he had to be sure of one thing.

--------------------

“You can’t be serious!” Needlegal was fuming at Crorq. The team had returned to base with the Sinister Six PC in tow. The first thing they did when they got back was confront their ‘magnificent’ boss about the situation. But it seemed not only were the Mechanical Maniacs forced to recruit their old adversaries, they were also required to work with them.

“Why us!?”

Crorq stamped a massive foot. “Because I hate all of you that’s why!”

“This is ridiculous!” said Oilman curtly. “I refuse to work with –“

“Shut up!” said Crorq. Oilman’s voice immediately stopped. His look burned into the yellow chief of police. “I give the orders around here. And my orders are to work together. You can handle that … right?”

Crorq eyes the assembled group. Hardman and Shadowman were frowning, but kept silent. Needlegal was visibly restraining herself. She knew their boss had no qualms about soft shutdowns just to get his point across. The Sinister Six also seemed to have reservations about arguing. Torchman seemed to, amazingly enough, restrain himself.

“We will do as you order. For humanity,” said Torchman in an arrogant tone. Crorq snorted.

“I don’t get your angle,” said the chief of police, “but whatever.”

Torchman’s eyes widened at the chance to explain himself. “My angle is to show the world the greatness of the Sinister Six! We hold in ourt hands the legacy of the greatest team of all and we are honour bound to follow in the hallowed –“

“I don’t care! Shut up! I don’t care!”

There was a click as Torchman’s jaw snapped shut at Crorq’s command.

“How’d you do that?” asked Hardman, “I didn' think it was possible t’ shut that bugger up.”

“None of your business! And you all better prepare yourself for the mission tomorrow. We have a city in chaos and you have to clean it up.”

The Mechanical Maniacs grunted. It was the same mission they’ve had for a while now. At first keeping order seemed impossible, but now it had become rutine. Nevertheless, both teams exited the spacious office. Needlegal grabbed Torchman by his long leather jacket.

“Hey, burning boy. If we have to work together we better see what you people can do. Meet us in the training area.”

Torchman gave her a curt nod before yanking his jacket back and striding confidently off. Blademan made a face at her as he left.

--------------------

It was several hours before the Sinister Six showed up for the training session.

“You’re late!” said Needlegal in exasperation.

“You’re not the boss of us, lady,” said Bitman. “And why’re you callin’ the shots? Starfish is being pretty nonchalant.”

“I’m the leader now. You follow what I say!”

The Sinister Six stopped dead. And then all of them burst into laughter.

“You’re the leader?” laughed Blademan.

Torchman looked at the ‘Maniacs. He seemed to grin broadly. “Obviously the War has not been kid to you Mechs. Look at you! There’s only three of you left! How pathetic!”

Hardman brandished his fist at the red robot. The guy just didn’t know when to shut up. “You want a knuckle sandwich, Torchie!”

Torchman pulled out a sword from under his jacket. Its curved blade immediately lit on fire. “Bring it on, you Bitman reject! Your feeble attacks can’t harm me!”

Oilman summoned an overly large sword from out of nowhere. Its blade was as wide and as tall he was. He thrust it powerfully into the ground. “It seems our alliance was short lived! It made me sick anyway.”

The Mechanical Maniacs stood gaping.

“Aw, do we have to fight, guys?” said Waveman, “I thought we were all friends now.”

“Shut up!” said Sharkman as he pulled out a light blue light sabre, “We’re fighting!”

Blademan followed suit as he pulled out a katana, “Yeah, we’re fighting! Yeah!” Waveman threw his arms into the air and walked a distance away.

“No, we’re not fighting!” said Needlegal in exasperation. “We’re on the same side now. So just … put it away.”

The Sinister Six didn’t seem ready to do that and Blademan looked at her as if he wanted to slice her up with his new toy. Surprisingly, it was Torchman who was the voice of reason.

“The mistress of pain is, right my fellows. We are allies now. United against a common foe!” Needlegal muttered something under her breath as Torchman continued, “Let us be the bigger men and step down, so we all may continue.”

The Sinister Six snickered and put their swords down.

Bitman chuckled. “Yeah, that’s right. We’ll be the bigger men around here.”

Hardman scoffed. Loudly. He could usually keep his cool around these guys, but he had gone through so much during the last few months. He’d lost Gemini, Snake, Magnet, Top, Cassandra, and he hadn’t even had time to relax by bartending his own bar! He was not in the mood for jokes.

Instead of smashing Torchman’s face in, he focused on their new weapons. “Yeah, yer pretty conf’dent wit’ th’ new gear yer sportn’.”

“We used to be hot stuff before, but with out swords we’re unbeatable!” said Blademan enthusiastically.

Sharkman seemed to gyrate in place. “Yeah! Everyone knows real badasses have swords. Now we’re a whole damn team of sword-slinging bad ass mutha fu-“

“Gentleman!” said Torchman, holding his sword up high, “Tell our new allies where you obtained your mighty swords!”

Oilman once again dropped his large sword into the ground. It stood as high as he was and just as wide. “This here is my Oil Sword! It’s like the Buster Sword only even more sharp and powerful. I’ve added additional materials in my arms in order to better use it. Using the weight of my blade I can dispatch most adversaries in a single, mighty, blow. Its dense alloy is resistant to most attacks. I can also use it to spray oil all over my adversaries as I slash, creating an effective distraction in battle.

I received this sword during my training with Doctor Wily. He created it for me during the beginning of my training, but it was much too powerful for me to use! Only now that I’ve experienced many hardships … thanks to you people … am I ready for the power of my oil sword.”

Blademan waved his Japanese sword around recklessly. “My sword’s called Ryo Katana! And it might look like an ordinary sword, but it isn’t so at all.

It started after our last adventure. You guys beat us up so bad, we were all close to death. But I was the only one who saw it. A monster! I was sitting outside of my body and a strange chain connected me to it, see? And this monster runs right at me! It senses my power. Power I didn’t even know I had. It had me right in it’s clutches, okay? And, as I could feel myself dying, my dormant powers came out! I’m a Shinigami and this here’s my Zanpakutou. I’m still new at this, so I don’t have full control over it … and when I get really mad I black out. And sometimes … there’s a mask just lying there when I come to. And all my enemies are chopped up into little bits.”

Bitman stepped forward and hefted his arm into front of him. The large, thick electrode quickly went inside of his forearm and, just as quickly, it was replaced by an equally long blade. The blade was simple in design, but it crackled with electricity. “This is my Bit Sword,” said Bitman, “It carries my electric attacks through its handle, so every cut deals an extra bit of damage. I made it myself.” Torchman seemed annoyed at the rather simple explanation.

Sharkman jumped up next and withdrew a high-tech hilt from his leg. Once activated a blade of energy surged to life. “This is my lightsaber, yo! I bought it off ebay! I’m a Jedi, man! Like mah father before me!”

Waveman drew a sword that flowed into his hand like water. Once formed it had a white hilt with a wide, glass-like handle. It shone brightly in the light. “I had a dream,” the Robot Master began, “that I was a heroic knight in the land of Faerie. One day a dark wizard put the king and the royal court to sleep with his dark magic and he was free to rule the land. He was a tyrant.

I heard tales of an ancient weapon that could defeat this evil man. It was high atop Mount Colossus, but no man had dared to brave the treacherous peaks. With the threat I dared. I faced this mountain alone and, at the snow covered top was the shining blade. Then it spoke to me. It said that I had great inner strength and that only I had the power to use it’s power.

With this sword I slew the dark wizard. And all the people woke up from their slumber. They soon found out what I did and threw me a party. The people promised to remember me forever and ever.

Then I woke up. The memory of my dream stayed with me and the feelings of peace and friendship moved me to tears. My tears pooled beside me and formed into this. The Dreamsword!”

All gathered were silent for a moment. Torchman slapped his face in exasperation. “God damn it, Waveman.”

Torchman then stepped forward and held his sword high. “Hear me, Mechanical Maniacs, and hear my glorious tale!

It starts in Damascus. One of the original places that learned the fine art of folding steel, this ancient nation was central for warriors across the ages. When they needed someone dead, they searched for Damascus steel to do it! And so, the forges of Hell used Damascus steel to forge its own demonic blade. A blade so powerful that Satan hoped to use it to win his revolt against God. But it was too hot for even the devil to use and so he staged his revolt without it, and so he fell!

The sword itself was placed in a rock on Earth. It became the stuff of legend. Warriors from around the globe would try to pull this sword from the stone in the hopes of becoming an invincible warrior. But if they failed Hellfire would consume them! Many failed.

Eventually I made my way to the place of the sword. As I was about to test my mettle, an angel came down from the heavens. He feared me and tried to do battle with me! He carried a flaming sword and I countered with my own Torch Arm. Our battle lasted days, and it was fierce. I was more than a match for his flame, and my speed conquered his moves. My long range weapon made his flight useless. Eventually it was clear I was the superior warrior and I slew the angel with my sword!

And then … I claimed his sword, the sword right out of myth, as my own … And I name it … the Torchsword!”

Needlegal groaned loudly.

Torchman pointed his flaming sword at a surprised Shadowman. “And now I challenge you to a duel, ninja!”

“What?”

“Face me! If you are man enough to do so alone! I already dispatched another who dared claim the mantle of ‘Torchman’ and now I will settle accounts with you, my oldest rival!”

Shadowman sighed and shrugged his shoulders. “Sorry, my sword got broken in a fight.”

“YOU LIE!”

“Nope. Sorry. Antiques aren’t so easy to repair, especially when you’re in the middle of a war.”

Torchman’s arm dropped like a rock. He looked at his sword as if it were suddenly useless.

“Can we start training now?” asked Needlegal impatiently.

"Hold up," said Hardman with a pale face, "did he just say there wuz two of 'im!?"

--------------------

A Geminiman clone was still stationed at the underground Skull Fortress and by utilizing his cloaked mode, the Twin Terror looked for the room in which his beloved was being held. He was under the belief the General no longer trusted him so he did not want to be seen.

The fortress was quiet, after Wily’s surrender all of the insane doctor’s creations seem to have been relocated elsewhere and now only a number of Scissor Joes remained to simply patrol the important areas.

The White Knight snuck through the corridors and checked every room. Strangely enough he was still able to access any room due to his officer authorization and soon enough he finally opened the room that contained the one he most desired.

Classi sat in her room with a dejected look on her face; she looked up at the now opened door of her cell and wondered at how the door had seemed to open on its own until the light in front of her began to distort and her former knight in shining armor stood before her once again.

“Milady, I have come to take you from your captivity once again.” The White Knight said.

His words seemed to light a small ounce of hope within the prototype robot. It almost seemed that her friend had reemerged to rescue her once again. However at closer examination of her rescuer, he was still in his Mesmer state, but there was something off about him, in addition to his unstable behavior, he now seemed to have an expression of paranoia. The war had certainly taken its toll on Geminiman’s sanity.

“Lenny… What’s wrong?” his beloved asked with a concerned look.

“Nothing, nothing is wrong at all, I just thought you’d like a nice change of scenery that’s all. You see I found a very nice house for you to live in, away from all of this. Ask Shoryu, she was there when I was renovating.” The bishounen robot said in some sort of nervous laughter.

But before the spider robot could say anything a faint sound could be heard outside the holding cell causing Geminiman to spin around and aim his laser at the doorway.

“WHO’S THERE?” he screamed out, scaring both Classi and Shoryu, but nothing seemed to emerge from the hall. But she could tell that Gem was in a worst state of mind.

“Hun, you’re not thinking straight…”

“I’m fine! You don’t have to worry about me… why would you anyway?” Geminiman said coldly.

Classi couldn’t reply. The man in front of her just seemed so different, so much colder than the flamboyant gentleman that she once knew, and that she hoped to see again once this whole ordeal was over. Maybe she could if she went with him. Maybe she could convince him to return back to the way he was, there were hints that his real self was still lingering within him, she had seen them herself at Cape Canaveral and the Warriors reported it as well at Kalingrad.

She was no longer obliged to follow Wily anymore, not after what he did to her and if there was anyone she felt safe with in her current predicament, it was going to be Geminiman.

“Ok, I’ll go with you.” She said as she stood up and looked at the Twin Terror who seemed slightly relieved at her decision and then held her hand out for him to hold it.

Surprised, Geminiman slowly reached towards his beloved’s hand to hold it, the two hands met and Geminiman felt a strange sensation from within. Her hand felt so warm, it was like he was now surging with a newfound energy, yet he did not feel any more powerful, he just felt… happy. He looked up to Classi-Cal’s eyes and slowly his darkened eyes began to develop a hint of color and for the first time in a long while, Geminiman made a genuine smile…

--------------------

“You’re all traitors, every last one of you!” Geminiman screamed out to his Holy Order Joes as they attacked him in his throne room. All of them using their illusion tech to look like him in an effort to confuse him but the White Knight could tell the differences, after all the clones were a part of his mind.

It seemed premeditated, the moment he considered leaving the Scissor Army, the Holy order immediately turned against him and he had been fighting them ever since his clone in Skull Fortress started to look for Classi.

The Holy Order moved strategically around their former master and fired plasma rounds in a sequence so that they would not leave any room for a counterattack, they had him completely suppressed.

However, Geminiman knew these tactics better than anyone; he had programmed their combat techniques and maneuvers himself. So he knew their flaws just as well as he knew their strengths.

A clone appeared behind a group of Joes and attacked, catching the group unaware and soon an opening emerged for the White Knight to successfully mount a pincer attack and break free from his treacherous army. No longer trapped he fired his signature laser to destroy his would-be assassins and then disposed of those who got close with his sword before merging back with his clone to recover some of the minor damages he took.

“Well that takes care of my royal attendants. But there’re still a large number of them outside the keep to deal with. I must clean out this castle before milady arrives…”

The White Knight walked out to the balcony of his keep to look out for the rest of the Holy Order but to his surprise something had already beaten him to punch and wiped out the entire force.

“Mesmerman, perhaps?” Geminiman wondered out loud but then he took notice of the pattern the bodies had fallen. There had seemed to be a message written out to him he examined the robot corpses outside closely so he could distinguish them from the buildings in the castle.

“Now that you’ve left the Scissor Army time is running thin, therefore I would like you to ‘meet up’ with the last one you seek in Monsteropolis…” it read. “The one I seek?” The Twin Terror thought, “I now have milady, so that must leave…”

Laughter seemed to emerge from the former Mechanical Maniacs’ lips. At long last he could finally prove his worth. He could finally settle things with him, the last piece in his driving obsession would be satisfied.

He was hysterical, feelings of madness and glee had consumed him and soon a clone of Geminiman disappeared in a flash of light heading towards Monsteropolis…

--------------------

The General sat in his chair smoking a cigar as usual while he was twirling the controls of the Holy Order in his hand, watching events unfold. Geminiman had now taken ClassiCal away and was now focused on hunting Shadowman. Everything was going according to plan.

“You see Mesmerman, you’re not the only one who knows how others think. One of your precious pawns is motivated mainly by his emotions towards two people, and therefore once I manipulate his actions so that his obsessions are satisfied he’ll no longer be your pawn and then you’ll be left with a very angry robot to deal with afterwards. All he really needed was a push in the right direction.”

Cutman took another smoke from his cigar and chuckled to himself. A lot was riding on this plan and if everything went well he was to benefit greatly from it.

--------------------

The ‘Maniacs were sent to stem the tide of destruction within Nonsteropolis alongside their unusual allies. Who, naturally, were nowhere to be seen.

“Where are you losers?” demanded Needlegal over the internal comm line.

There was no response. Needlegal demolished some aerial robots to relieve some anger. This city had just been taken back and now it was one of the hot spots in the current crisis thanks to its long occupation. Every single robot in the city was affected by this Wily virus. How could such a virus be so widespread? The RPD took all sorts of precautions and yet here they were. Fighting all over the world to keep the chaos in check. It was spreading resources thin and everyone knew it.

Shadowman appeared from out of nowhere and destroyed a mad mail delivery robot that was about to attack Needlegal. “Keep focused. This one almost got your head.”

“I know that! I have everything under control!”

“What about th' shutdown code?” asked Hardman angrily, “In’ this what it was made for?”

Amatista answered from an unseen position. “It was installed only in the higher-end robots. There just wasn’t time to install it in everything robotic on the face of the planet before the War broke out.”

“Great,” said Hardman snidely. For once that code would have come in handy.

“Focus on the mission!”

“Yeah, ‘cuz clearing this city is such an easy job,” said Hardman angrily.

There were dozens of construction robots now swarming on them. These things had been shipped to the city to get rebuilding started. Especially of a new RPD construction plant, where scrap was disassembled, melted down, and remade into new RPD troops. Things hadn’t had much time to get started, however. And now these robots were scrap as well.

It was several minutes before the ‘Maniacs discovered no other robots were coming to attack them. It looked as if the worst was over.

--------------------

It was only after the team announced they were done when they saw the Sinister Six again.

“Where were you goons?” demanded Needlegal.

“We were pursuing our own agenda. One greater than your own,” said Oilman haughtily.

Sharkman rubbed his hands enthusiastically. “Yeah, man, we were totally looting!”

“We were salvaging what we could from being ruined by out of control robots.”

“I gots me a PSP.”

“Which we will use to solve crime.”

Torchman spoke loudly before Needlegal could continue, “It was a glorious battle! On this day we have achieved victory over the forces of Wily (or whoever). I declare that there shall be a feast to celebrate our victory!”

The Sinister Six roared in agreement while the ‘Maniacs groaned. Torchman continued, “But only one shall keep steady. Only one truly knows what lies ahead. Only one will keep his Spartan reserve. Only one. Your king.” Torchman nodded to himself in satisfaction, but the other members of his team had begun to make their way to the mess hall.

Hardman turned to Amatista quizzically, “Aren’t they getting’ in trouble?” Amatista could only stare in disbelief. She had never met any robots like the Sinister Six PC before.

“Come on,” said the Watcher after the brief pause, “We have to get the next assignment from Crorq. Robots all over the world are going haywire and we’re needed elsewhere.”

The ‘Maniacs followed Amatista as she made her way to Crorq’s office. They didn’t bother to call the Sinister Six PC this time. Still and uneasy feeling settled onto the group. This last wave of attacks had been designed to cause chaos by Wily, that much everyone seemed to agree on. But how would the General take advantage of all this? Needle tried not to think on that too much.

--------------------

“Well that takes care of another lot of rogue units” an RPD officer said as he examined the remains of a wrecked construction droid.

“We’ve been getting a lot more robots suddenly go berserk on us lately, it's pretty freaky isn't it?” another officer said as he kept a lookout for anymore enemy units.

“Hey, it’s not like anything big is going to happen here in Monsteropolis though, I mean this is where the heart and soul of the RPD is. If that Scissor Army had the strength to destroy us all he’d have done it by now.” The officer replied casually.

“What about Nonsteropolis? That base was almost as secure as our one here and it got overrun really early on in the war.”

“You worry too much, relax, this is probably the safest place in the world right now. So let’s just keep it that way and clear out the roads from any more rogue units.”

The two officers got up to continue their patrol when another officer came running into the scene in a panic he seemed to be screaming out something but the emergence of gunfire drowned him out. However it was clear that they were under attack.

“Backup! We need backup!” the panicking officer managed to yell out again, and this time he was heard as the two officers picked up their weapons and went to retaliate against this new enemy.

“What’s going on? Who’s attacking us?”

“We can’t tell, he moves too fast for us to identify, all we could distinguish was that his armor was a shining white color.” Another officer replied as he fired machine gun rounds all over the place in hopes of hitting his target.

Then a plasma shot flew from behind the officer’s head and instantly a spray of blood covered the man next to him.

“He’s behind us! Officer down! Officer down!” another voice screamed, but it was too late, as another shot hit from a completely different angle killing another officer and before the group could react several more shots came and laid waste to the poor helpless souls until there was only one left.

“What the hell are you?” the officer screamed as he was met with maniacal laughter as his foe remained unseen.

“What am I? You ask such a foolish question that I will not even dignify that with an answer.” The voice replied almost multiple locations almost creating an echo effect.

“Maybe you should ask yourself, why are you still alive? Clearly I could kill you at an instant as I have killed all those around you. But fortunately, I have a use for you.”

Geminiman slowly appeared from his invisible mode and approached the scared officer, who was frozen in place, he finally saw the enemy in front of him and knew just how outclassed he was. He called for help; he wanted help; he needed help.

Then a line of sharp needles spread out in between the White Knight and the officer causing him to chuckle a slight bit before turning to face the shooter while the officer ran for his life.

“Hello Needlegal,” Geminiman said with a long grin on his face, “so nice to see you.”

Needlegal was almost speechless, it had been a long time since she last saw Geminiman, he had just vanished since the start of the War and had since joined the Scissor Army. She was both saddened and angered at the man she was now looking at. While they had their past differences, she still thought of Geminiman as a friend, they had been through a lot together but now he was there smiling in the midst of carnage in which he had brought upon himself she couldn’t help but feel betrayed.

“So I’ve heard that you’re leader now, you have my congratulations.” The Twin Terror said as he bowed gracefully to his former comrade.

“I don’t have time for your smart remarks, Geminiman. You are hereby under arrest for opposition to the Shutdown Code and crimes against humanity!” The Mistress of Prickly Things said with a strong look on her face.

“What, no I’m so glad to see you again, or I’ve missed you so much? Come on, don’t you think I deserve a little more than that after all these years? Don’t you want to listen to my stories of glory during my leave of absence?”

“You mean like that time you massacred Toronto, or when you left Kalingrad in ruins, or maybe when you put all those innocent people through that horrible deathtrap at Himeji?”

“I see you are well-informed then. Well, perhaps you heard that I am no longer part of the Scissor Army.”

Needlegal stopped for a second, no longer part of the Scissor Army, then why was he here and still evil?

“It would appear that you did not know that. Well, consider news of my departure a hint towards the current situation with the SA. But moving along, as much as I would love to spend more personal time with you, I’m afraid my time is running short. So if you would excuse me…”

Geminiman faded into invisible mode and Needlegal quickly fired her needles at where he once stood but hit nothing.

“My, my, that was certainly a close one…”

The Twin Terror had appeared behind the Mechs leader and drew his sword, as a reaction, Needlegal activated her cactus defense and needles came out of her armor to repel her former friend but, Geminiman had anticipated this and jumped back from the needles' range and faded away once again.

“Risky business fighting me don’t you think?” he mocked. “Not only do I know how you fight, I also possess your weakness in combat.”

Geminiman appeared once again and sliced off the back spikes on her armor before disappearing again. Needle had quickly caught on to how Gemini was attacking now and then made a feint causing Geminiman to reappear and go to attack her blind spot but then quickly fired several rounds into his chest.

“Don’t think I haven’t learned a thing or two from you.” Needlegal remarked as she then spun around and unleashed more needles at her former teammate.

She had one clone pinned, chances are there was another one behind her so she opened fire to the area behind her to prevent a sneak attack but there was one more angle from which Gem could attempt to approach from.

In response, Needlegal fired her head-mounted needles into the air and struck gold as an invisible Geminiman clone was attempting to dive down at attack from above. The impact caused him to cough up some blood but he smiled at the opportunity he now had.

With one mighty slash, the chain connecting Needle’s head with her spikes was severed and the impaled clone crashed into the ground trying to remove the spiked imbedded into him while another clone took an opportunity to try grabbing Needlegal, and charging his laser energy into her body to overheat her systems.

Needlegal screamed in pain as the energy began to burn her insides but she managed to quickly reel back and slam the back of her head into the clone holding her forcing him to release his grip. She then formed a large needle fist and drove it into another incoming clone before he could land a hit on her.

“Not bad, Needlegal, not bad at all… But unfortunately, I must end things now.”

As Geminiman finished his words, a stabbing pain went through Needlegal’s shoulder as another clone emerged and drove his sword into her and as she fell, all the clones of Geminiman got up and surrounded her standing just outside the range of her body’s defenses and had their arm cannons pointed at her head.

“Like I said, I am running low on time, so I must make my point clear. I desire to duel your brother.”

“He sure seems to be the popular one today. You and Torchman both have duels on the brain. Hate to break it to you, but his sword's broken.”

Geminiman made an annoyed clickling sound with his tounge. “Fine, he can borrow my sword then. I have two of them."

One Gemini took out a sword and jammed its blade into the ground in front of Needlegal, then began to back off. "Tell your brother to meet me at Himeji Castle. I will leave the castle doors open and leave the traps off in order to await his appearance. Also, I now have ClassiCal under my custody as well. Just in case the RPD don’t have enough incentive to let him go out so far…”

As the White Knight departed, both he and Needle knew they could fight on further but the end result would not be pretty so she instead sat where she fell and watched helplessly as Geminiman disappeared in a flash of light.

--------------------

The room gasped as Needlegal retold her story.

“Geminiman did this?” said Shadowman quietly.

“He wasn’t himself. You could see it in his eyes.”

Shadowman looked angrily to the floor. “I’m pretty sick of this ‘Evil Lennon” crap. This is the fourth time something like this has happened.”

“We have to bring him down,” said Amatista, “All of us should go to Himeji and set up an ambush.”

“I’m not goin’ anywhere,” muttered Bitman to himself. The group ignored him.

“You people are needed here,” said Crorq, “and besides, the Scissor Army might have set this up to lure you all away while they strike here. They’ve already tried that before.”

Shadowman tightened his grip on the shining sword Geminiman gave him. He didn’t trust it. He’d much rather have his old one.

“A pity your blade was broken,” said Torchman with false sympathy, “I would lend you mind, but it can only be wielded by myself. It is magically bonded to me.”

“I’ll be fine. This is all foolishness. And if Spark Chan is there…”

“Then you will capture her for interrogation!”

Shadowman looked at Amatista. He didn’t know what Spark Chan had done to earn her ire, but Amatista seemed eager to confront the orange robot. Shadowman wasn’t about to let that happen. Still, it wasn’t unprecedented for enemy factions to be incorporated into the RPD should they make a plea. Pharon worked for Cossack before surrendering … and Hyper Storm had joined the Scissor Army before being captured. Even if she and Gemini were captured they would not necessarily be put to death. Spark Chan, however, did not want to join the RPD … however …

“Understood.”

“And I’m coming with you to make sure the job’s done right.”

Shadowman looked at the Watcher. Fighting by her side had been … interesting. Lately she was becoming less of a burden and more of an asset, however her fear and hatred of robots still showed. Whatever the case was, Shadowman did not want her around for this.

“Geminiman will probably have the place surrounded by Scissor Joes. Knowing him he’ll let me pass through quietly to feed into this duel nonsense. But he’ll likely try to get you.”

“I can take care of myself! And I always have the Watcher’s standard invisibility cloak. Those Scissor Army bastards won’t get me like they did those other Watchers!”

Shadowman hesitated for a moment. Amatista was headstrong. A fanatic. Arguing with her would just set her firmly in her stance. She was a lot like Shadowman himself that way. However …

“Agreed. You can come with me.” Shadowman turned to Hardman. “With Needle in need of repairs I’m counting on you to keep these jokers in line.”

Hardman’s face fell. “Wha!? You gotta be kidding me, Shades! There’s six of ‘em! And they never listen to anythin’ I say!”

“That’s right!” agreed Blademan happily. “Just you try to keep us in line.”

Bitman cracked his knuckles. “I’d like to see that too. Anytime, anywhere.”

Torchman crossed his arms. “Oh, we’ll behave, Mech. Go on with your mission. We’ll be good.”

Crorq stomped his large, heavy feet as he turned towards the Sinister Six. “You had better be!”

“Oh we will.”

“You had better!” To emphasize his point Crorq tossed a half-eaten chicken leg at Torchman. The red robot seemed to frown as it hit him.

Amatista sighed. “I’d better stay here. To keep you all in line. Besides,” she eyes Shadowman warily, “we always have you on remote.”

Shadowman nodded. With the unfriendly blade in hand he left the room. He heard Crorq order the Sinister Six to settle down. After they had he explained their new mission to them. Shadowman, however, had other things on his mind. Geminiman wanted a duel … Shadowman would oblige. And he’d be sure to score him a hit for every mark he made on his sister.

--------------------

Geminiman returned to Himeji Castle with ClassiCal in tow, along with Shoryu who had followed her mother as they had left Skull Fortress with surprising ease.

“Welcome to Himeji Castle, milady. I have done my best to renovate the landmark to suit your every need.” He said as he gracefully displayed the castle exterior to his beloved gesturing with one hand, while still holding on to hers with the other.

Classi-Cal felt uncomfortable at seeing something at such a large scale be devoted solely on her, it seemed so creepy and also made her feel very self-conscious, but her captor did not seem to be aware as he guided her through the castle to the throne room complete with a giant portrait of the electric robot.

“Um, that’s very… nice of you hun.”

“Please take a seat on the throne, I would offer you some tea, but I have had recent problems with the servants. Make yourself at home, you are safe now…”

The Twin Terror bowed to his beloved and smiled as she took her seat at the throne of his castle, it was almost like a dream come true. He then turned to oversee the rest of the castle from the balcony while Classi remained feeling awkward in her seat.

“Mr. Gem, where are all the Holy Order?” Shoryu said as she popped up from her mother’s shoulders.

The question caught Geminiman off-guard, neither Classi nor Shoryu knew he had just double-crossed General Cutman and now only served Mesmerman. He knew Shoryu thought of the general as a father-figure and news of his betrayal would not sit well with her. So he lied to the spider robot.

“Like I said, there were a few problems, so I had to… send them away for the meanwhile.”

Unfortunately for him, Classi was more intuitive.

“You left the Scissor Army didn’t you?” she asked, causing Shoryu to react in shock while Gemini just sighed. “Then why are you still doing this? What ever happened to your honor?”

“Honor…” The White Knight seemed to trail off, “Always with the honor. Honor got me nothing, it is dead to me and I no longer deserve to use it. I now get my respect through fear. Never again, will I be overshadowed by another, I will drive fear into the hearts of the many until they submit to my will and give me the respect I so deserve.”

“But, no one would ever like you if you did that; don’t you want to have friends more than you want respect and acknowledgement?” the motherly robot asked with a tear forming in her eye.

“The only one I want to like me is you…” Geminiman said, but his words just fell upon deaf ears.

--------------------

Shadowman stood in front of Himeji Castle, true to his word, Geminiman had left the gates wide open for his arrival.

The shinobi master entered the castle gates and saw the empty maze-like layout of the inside of the castle grounds. Arrows seemed to be constructed to guide the former Maniac leader through the maze allowing him to make his way through the keep with ease.

As he walked into the keep he kept his hand ready to draw out his borrowed sword, until the room lit up to reveal a series of mirrors covering the room causing him to see an endless amount of himself within.

The sound of clapping could be heard in the distance but Shadowman couldn’t figure out where it was coming from until Geminiman uncloaked himself creating a large number of reflections on the mirrors making it nigh impossible to determine which was him, which was a clone and what was a reflection,

“So, here we are… once again.” The bishounen robot casually remarked with a large grin on his face.

“Gem… you know your whole ‘Evil Lennon’ moments just get all the more frustrating each time.” Shadowman stated as he was trying to discern the real Geminiman or clones within the reflections.

“Ha, ‘Evil Lennon’ huh, you were right about that. I do not feel the need to go back on to that subject, but I will tell you that I stand here now, not in a matter of good or evil, but for the sake of my pride.”

“Your pride? You mean to tell me that all of this you’ve done, all this destruction and killing was your way of fuelling your own ego?”

“It was to prove my superiority and to obtain that which I most desire. And to do that, I must surpass you and win ClassiCal's heart. For that, I must destroy you.”

Shadowman’s jaw almost dropped, his teammate’s reasoning just seemed so absurd. But before he could make a retort, the number of Geminimen in the mirror room seemed to exponentially increase.

“Draw your sword, Shadowman.” The White Knight said as he looked directly at his former leader, “We shall end this now.”

And as soon as the last words left Geminiman’s lips, the two robots charged at each other with a sword ready to clash.

--------------------

Captain Landigarm mulled over his thoughts as he strode down the halls of Monsteropolis’ police department. It had been a while since his encounter with Topman, but he still felt uneasy about it. Those Mechs couldn’t be trusted.

He stopped in the small kitchen the cops used to store and reheat their food. He got himself a coffee and ran over a few more notes. There were rumours that Topman had been spotted in Himeji, but nothing he could follow up on. He’d lost a lot of sleep and his fellow officers worried about his obsession with the one robot. But this was his job and he took it very seriously.

There had been pretty disturbing allegations all ways ‘round. An agent named Foxglove was being investigated for treason on suspicion of aiding the terrorist forces of Cossack. What’s worse is that Senator Hugo Jorgunsson is accusing RPD officers of assault! Drastic Measures more specifically. And if they did assault him then Watcher Spiegel was complicit in it. That senator held a good degree of power and was, even now, at the United Nations building with Keigle debating the Shutdown Code and the war. What could there be to talk about? The RPD needed unrestricted power in this crisis! Conventional armies and the Robo Commandos proved to be completely ineffective against this threat.

His cell phone rang. It had been going for a while before Landigarm noticed it. It turned out to the the administrative robot Gaderham.

“Landigarm, we have a situation.”

“What’s up?”

Landigarm could tell this was serious. Gaderham always had an irritating upbeat attitude he kept at all time, but now … was it possible for him to even feel worry?

“Some of the –“

The line suddenly cut off. Landigarm frowned. A cut signal? How was that possible?

--------------------

Gaderham ran as fast as he could and dodged enemy fire while he clutched his injured arm. It was absolutely imperative he escape! The Robot Police had to be warned!

His attackers didn’t agree. They managed to blow out one of his wheels. Gaderham looked in fear and his seemingly permanent grin finally faltered.

“You’ll … never get away with this!”

Silent as ever his attackers pressed onwards. Gaderham shut his eyes, but not before seeing something small dart close to him. He didn’t have time to guess at what it was. The enemy robots took aim and fired.

--------------------

With one masterful slash, the White Knight seemed to have cut straight through his rival, however his target’s corpse quickly flickered away and the knight simply smirked and spun around to block Shadowman’s incoming attack.

“Your holograms have become quite predictable, Shadowman”

The two robots clashed blades several times before Geminiman’s blade reached its target once again, only to have it disappear in a puff of smoke.

“You’re still going to have to try better than that” The ninja robot replied before he struck his former teammate with a swift kick to his side causing him to fall to the ground and roll around before vanishing along with the rest of his clones and reflections.

“Very good, you’ve dealt the first blow. I am going to enjoy this…”

The Twin Terror reappeared with sword in hand and moved in for another attack before the former Maniacs leader moved to parry the blow, only to miss by the slightest inch and then get followed up with a burning cut across his abdomen.

Geminiman grinned and then followed up his attack with several lunge and thrust techniques forcing Shadowman to jump back quickly to dodge the attacks and block those that got too close. Each time he wanted to attack, he moved just that second too late or too early which left him open for more attacks. With little time to react properly, Geminiman vanished quickly in front of his adversary and a clone reappeared behind him and punched him square in the back before flickering away back into concealment.

Shadowman got back up and examined the visibly empty arena, his borrowed sword was not the weight he was used to and he had trouble swinging it the way he wanted to, the room was filled entirely of mirrors to the point he couldn’t seem to find a shadow he could use to warp and due to the many reflections it created, Geminiman had him somewhat disorientated.

Still, after years of fighting alongside each other, the two robots had a full understanding on how the other one fought. It all came down to trickery.

The ninja robot quickly pulled out a number of smoke bombs and set them off filling the whole arena with smoke, thus concealing all the reflections and revealing the locations of all of Geminiman’s clones.

“Hmm, there are only five here… The sixth one must be with Classi.” He thought as he went to attack the closest clone, this time he would make sure his attack hit its mark.

The White Knight tried to wave all the smoke away but it was too thick and his vision was now severely hindered. Then a shooting pain went through his shoulder as Shadowman’s sword was embedded into him proceeding to burn his joints.

“That was for my sister.” he muttered before pulling the glowing sword out of the wound and sliced the clone’s arm off completely causing him to yell out in pain.

As a natural response, Geminiman quickly changed his remaining arm into the Gemini Laser and opened fire at the direction of the attack, but with the smoke covering the room, Shadowman was now capable of using his shadow warp to dodge and reappear in front of the Twin Terror and slash him horizontally across the eyes blinding the one clone and then kicked him hard into one of the mirrors creating a very satisfying shattering sound.

Shadowman approached the fallen knight only to find him fully recovered and having bounced back up threw himself straight at the ninja using the clone collision technique, the kinetic force of the 5 clones consecutively hitting him knocked him over while Geminiman gracefully leapt back to finish off his foe.

Shards of metal went flying everywhere as Shadowman changed into his log form at the crucial moment causing The White Knight’s burning sword to smash into pieces.

He could hear a faint laugh as his former leader transformed back into his normal form while he jumped back to prepare for the next round.

“Looks like your sword is broken,” Shadowman remarked as he gave his old friend a cold glare. “This duel is pointless you should just give up now. Surrender and I might consider not hurting you too badly.”

“My blade still has an edge. While it may not be whole it can get the job done.” Geminiman replied as he twirled the remains of his sword around and prepared his stance. “I will never surrender to you; my pride would not allow it.”

“Suit yourself then.”

The smoke cleared and the shinobi master suddenly appeared in front of the White Knight and did a wide sword slash, however Gemini leapt into the air and outstretched his body at a complete horizontal and barely evaded the attack which blew the air into him before he slammed back into the ground and rolled out of the way and flipped himself upright.

“Nicely done, you almost had me then.”

Geminiman responded quickly in a similar manner, only he decided to smack Shadowman upwards with the hilt of his broken sword and then proceeded to fire his Gemini Laser at him.

Unable to evade the laser, Shadowman took the full blast of the beam and plummeted down to the ground, but before he landed, he was met with a swift Shooting Star punch to the head sending him crashing into another mirror and sending his sword flying away.

While the ninja robot coughed out some blood, the White Knight stood there grinning as he picked up the remaining sword and then the blade started to glow an intense white color…

--------------------

Landigarm and Amatista were the first to respond to the crisis along with fifty SWAT officer robots. They arrived at the Special Forces division and found it calm enough … but only on the surface. Already reports were coming in from officers and technicians on the inside. The building itself was close in proximity to the RPD Headquarters … if something were to go wrong here…

“What’s going on!?” shouted Amatista at the robot-hating Captain.

“There’s conflicting reports going on inside,” responded the captain, “there’s actually reports that the Special Forces have gone berserk!”

“What!?” the Special Forces gone renegade? Were they infected with this virus that’s been going around? No … their systems were much more advanced than the robots that were infected. And yet …

“I’ll go inside.”

Landigarm looked at Amatista in shock. “It’s a deathtrap in there! We’ll send the SWAT teams in there instead. That’s what we made these robots for … so human lives wouldn’t be at risk anymore!”

Amatista stiffened. “I am a Watcher. It’s my duty to shut down renegade robots wherever I find them! If they’re one of ours I’ll get them.”

“We’ve already tried shutting them down! Stay back!”

Amatista smiled to the captain. “Thanks for the advice, Officer Landigarm, but I’ve been fighting robots for most of my life … and besides, the RPD might have tried to shut these things down, but you haven’t seen me do my work yet!”

With Landigarm protesting all the while Amatista leapt into the building. On a compulsion to protect the life of a Watcher (indeed, all human life), five of the nearest SWAT officers ran to assist the running Watcher. Landigarm could only stare.

She really is a lunatic…

--------------------

“So it’s down to one. Truly, I think we can see who has the superior team.”

Hardman tried hard not to hit Torchman. It didn’t help that Blade and Shark were giggling like little girls at every word the guy said.

“I guess you’re in charge of this show, aren’t you Mech?” Oilman this time. The guy had a big mouth. “So what are your orders?”

Hardman sighed. “We sit an’ wait. That’s all th'r is t’it.”

Sharkman and Blademan groaned.

“That’s so boring!” said the grey robot master. “Let’s just do whatever the hell we want!”

“You know,” said Bitman smiling to himself, “there seems to be some trouble at the Special Forces division.”

Hardman stopped being angry and started being interested. “What was ‘dat?”

The RPD headquarters suddenly lit up like a Christmas tree. Crorq’s voice boomed from all over the place.

“Attention, Infidels! To your posts! Get ready for battle! The Special Forces Units have gone mad! To your stations! Do it now! This … I command!”

Hardman got to his feet as he was issued special instructions from Crorq. “You! Your commander is still in the repair bay. She’ll be activated soon, but until then you are on your own. You are to go to the Special Forces facility immediately! Bring the simpletons with you. This is serious! You must destroy all malfunctioning units immediately! There is no higher priority!”

“Why don’tcha jus’ shut ‘em down!? Ain’t this exactly th’ reason we have th’ damn shutdown code!?”

“Obviously they aren’t responding, you twit! Now, do as I say!”

Hardman was infuriated! He was expected to lead the Sinister Six PC!? What a time for Shadowman to run off and Needle to get beat up. Wait … the timing was too good … was it possible this was all planned!?

Hardman shook his head to clear his thoughts. It didn’t matter. Junkman had left on a mission and the rest of his team was killed by the Scissor Army. Waveman and Starman were both out of town and Pharon had lost all will to fight after seeing his bro turned into a monster by the Scissor Army. That weird Nox guy wasn’t around either and HyperStorm had been captured again. It was all up to him now. And he’ll use whatever he had on hand to get the job done.

“All right, ladies, it’s time ta get this show on th’ road!”

Surprisingly the Sinister Six seemed eager to move out. Torchman didn’t even have to tell them to listen. The only one not eager to fight was Waveman.

--------------------

Amatista hammered at her pad furiously. Ever since the RPD received reports of captured Special Forces Units she had worked on a program to break into their systems and shut them down. She had tested it furiously in her off hours. Keigle’s vision was perfect … and if there was a chink in the ultimate protection his shutdown code gave humanity she would find it and fix it. She was confident she could shut down (or even reprogram) any renegade Special Forces unit sent her way.

Or she would be if these units weren’t trying to kill her! She dodged a powerful bust of plasma and gasped for breath. Why wasn’t her invisibility cloak working? She dodged another blast of plasma and flashed back to a different time.

She had been face-to-face with Magnetman. She had him dead in her sights … and he beat her as if she was nothing. He jabbed his metal fingers right through her hand!

And again, in Madrid, she was confronted by horrors. The local RPD had lost their minds and modified dead bodies into sickening robotic parodies of life. It so disturbed her that she didn’t think she could ever sleep well at night again.

Even the pacifist, Spark Chan, had gotten the better of her. While her, now mad, comrade tore Brussels apart without moving a muscle.

Amatista sliced a hand from a careless Special Forces wearer and bolted. This was a mistake! She got careless again and she was going to pay for it. She’d fought for so long to end the threats robots posed for humans … at first she worked within the bounds of a political activist. Then as a covert agent: a Pale Rider. And finally, as a Watcher. But no matter what it seemed as if she …

Amatista screamed in pain as a plasma blast finally connected. She was not like those machines. Unless properly treated this one shot could kill her. All around her the robots gathered. The pad … why hadn’t her precautions worked? Amatista shut her eyes.

After a long, hard fight this is how it would end…

--------------------

When Hardman left, the Special Forces officers inside RPD headquarters came alive and began attacking their fellow officers. Already the research and development department had been destroyed. Crorq held the line and ordered Retired Officer bots to throw themselves at the Special Forces Units if need be. Anything to keep them from getting to him.

“Hurry! Throw everything you have at those traitorous INFIDELS!”

To emphasize his point Crorq shot a powerful energy blast at the oncoming Special Forces Unite. It hit destroyed the arm of one and gouged a hole into the chest plating of another. Crorq laughed madly.

“Yes! Feel my power! I am Crorq! The magnificent! And I won’t be felled by ones as insignificant as YOU!”

Crorq unleashed another powerful bust of energy, but the Special Forces Unit he aimed for tore a chunk out of the wall and blocked the worst of it. Crorq laughed madly and charged with his massive frame. As he attacked, Crorq was constantly radioing his superiors.

“Get me out of here! I am you central means of communication and co-ordination! If I fall the Robot Police falls!” screamed the yellow super computer as he stomped over the destroyed corpse of an officer bot. His consoles had turned bright red.

His superiors radioed back.

“What do you mean an anti-teleportation field is in effect! Hack it, you iiiiiiidiots! I took this eventuality into consideration long ago!”

Crorq cursed his situation. He didn’t know what happened, but his own men had turned against him. What’s worse was the city limits was challenged not only by a now-routine assault made by the Scissor Army, but also by Wily’s rag-tag forces as well. With any luck the two sides would keep each other busy Crorq focused his attention on more his more immediate situation.

As he processed this Crorq received another report. The paranormal investigations division had been destroyed now as well. Small loss … only the traitorous Geminiman actually believed in ghosts.

Despite his power, Crorq soon found himself cornered. There were more RPD officers in the building than Special Forces Units, but the Special Forces were made to fight toe-to-toe against General Cutman’s Scissor Army officers. Crorq cringed as one Special Forces Unit tore an officerbot apart with it’s bare hands. It was pockmarked with rounds of plasma and solar bullets, but it kept on coming.

Right until it’s head was ripped off by a speeding kick. Smoke from fires caused by the battle and groups of RPD officers blocked his view. Crorq struggled to see who it was. The now-headless Special Forces robot turned as well. It was not common knowledge, but the Special Forces units were quite closely modelled after the Gamma Armour the Mechanical Maniacs were fitted with at once point. And that they were not true robots, but armour still. The headless Special Forces Unit still had a fully functioning Robot Police officer inside of it!

But its attacker seemed to know its true nature. The small robot jumped off a wall and punched a leg into the large armour, destroying the robot inside. Then it sped off.

Crorq slowly made his way to the fallen Special Forces Unit. A disturbing thought had crept into Crorq’s calculations. The battle raged around him and he was hit a few times by small weapons fire, but that was not important to the chief of the robot police force.

Crorq used his massive foot to stomp the heavy shell of the Special Forces robot until he could rip it free. Crorq cursed and radioed another message to both his superiors and the other members of the Robot Police.

“This is Crorq, the MAGNIFICENT! The renegade Special Forces Units are piloted by Scissor Joes! I repeat: the renegade officers are Scissor Joes in disguise!”

As if this wasn’t bad enough Crorq received an update from the city’s limits. The Scissor Army and Wily’s forces were not engaging in battle against each other. Both sides had teamed up to overwhelm the defences the Robot Police had spent the entirety of the war preparing! Crorq calculated high odds that both armies were making their way to RPD headquarters.

Crorq fired at the renegade Special Forces Unit nearest to him and radioed his superiors. “Get those teleporters online NOW!”

--------------------

It pained Topman to see his old stomping grounds like this. He remembered a different time in his life. A time when this place felt like home. Now it served as the base of people who were set to turn him into some kind of tool.

He clutched at the rags he wore. He had to keep his identity hidden at all costs!

Topman remembered Bass’ reaction to his plan. “Don’t you have any pride!? Wearing rags is beneath me!”

Protoman and Contance both approved, however. “Situation: dire. Stealth: necessary.”

Protoman voiced his support by way of a annoyed glare in Bass’ direction. “We don’t have anyone’s help in repairing ourselves anymore. Save your strength for the escape. We’ll need it then.”

The robots had made their way into the base with relative ease. The chaos both outside an in had made it easy. Bass took every opportunity he could to destroy anyone in his path. And Cassandra … Constance took out her fair share with disturbing efficiency. How much of his friend was still in there? As the war progressed she seemed more distant than ever. Still, she was a good ally to have.

The dark man had been right. About everything. Topman didn’t believe him when he told him of this surprise attack, but there was something about him. He seemed to know what he was talking about … despite looking like something out of a horror movie. He wore a long black trechcoat. And a black fedora. His expression bordered on insane. And yet … Topman believed every word he had said. And here it was, an attack at the very heart of the Robot Police. The very creepy man was right.

Topman had left at the start of the war because his employers thought it’d be a good idea to put a chip in his head. The betrayal stung him. But they need help … and he still had friends here. It hurt him to see the old place looking like trash. It wouldn’t ever be the same, would it?

Protoman seemed to read his expression. “We can’t stop what’s going on,” said the red robot, "but we can complete our mission. And, hopefully, save a few lives while we’re at it.”

Topman nodded and moved forwards.

--------------------

ClassiCal looked on as Geminiman seemed to occasionally wince in pain at given moments, due to her knowledge of his linked mind to his many clones it was clear to her that something was happening elsewhere in the castle.

“You’re fighting someone, aren’t you?” she asked in a saddened tone.

“Yes, but it is of no concern, I will be through with him in due time and then we can be together forever in this sanctuary. We will be so happy together, milady. You will no longer bare witness to the horrors of this world, you could just simply relax in this castle in a blissful ignorance never having to see another suffer. Wouldn’t it just be magnificent?”

The motherly robot sank her head; he didn’t seem to understand at all, she couldn’t just turn a blind eye to the rest of the world. She wasn’t so selfish to put her own happiness ahead of the others. The White Knight turned to see his beloved in this depressed state and went to comfort her.

“What is the matter, milady? Why are you not happy? I am offering you an escape from this cruel world a life without suffering, you should rejoice.”

Classi looked up at her knight’s empty eyes, his words had struck a bad note to her, and she just couldn’t hold it in anymore.

“You just don’t get it do you? Sure the world is cruel, but it’s also beautiful, can’t you see that? I just want to go back to how everything was before all this happened. To run away from it all and isolate myself from the rest of the world would go against everything I stood for. You only think of your own happiness, what about mine?”

The White Knight was taken aback by his beloved's outburst. This wasn’t right; she was supposed to be happy. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

“But milady, everything I have done, I have done for you…” he began to defend himself but he was cut off by his beloved.

“You did it all for yourself. All you wanted me to be was your possession. You’re not the Geminiman I knew. He was selfless when it came to my well-being, he would sacrifice everything to protect me. You pretend to be selfless. I would never like someone like you.”

Her words cut deep into Geminiman’s heart. He began to stumble a bit and held his head in pain. Something was inside of him had reacted and was trying to break out, he was struggling to contain it but his grip seemed to weaken and all he could do now was scream.

--------------------

The White Knight lunged at his nemesis with his White Holy Sword in hand and swung the laser charged blade letting out an explosion of light which rocked the entire room, every mirror in front of the attack broke into tiny shards which flew everywhere. He smiled as he walked up to examine Shadowman’s corpse, only to realize it was not there.

Immediately he turned around, prepared to block an incoming attack from above, but it did not come. Geminiman kept himself alert as he tried to find the ninja robot, reacting at the slightest sign of movement. He knew he was waiting for an opening to drop down and attack, he just had to discern what angle the attack was going to come from.

Then something suddenly grabbed his leg. The Twin Terror looked down to see Shadowman’s arm emerge from the ground underneath and pull him into it, fusing him in place before raising up with a Shadow Blade in hand ready to throw at the bishounen robot.

The blade then flew from Shadowman’s hand as a plasma round came from the distance and a Geminiman clone appeared and forced the embedded clone to merge back with him, freeing him from the shadowy prison but making him drop his holy sword at the same time.

The shinobi master quickly threw series of caltrops on to the floor followed by a barrage of Shadow Blades, with his movement limited by the caltrops, Geminiman had nowhere to go as the Shadow Blades phased right through him damaging his internal systems.

As the Twin Terror fell from the internal agony of the attack he made a faint smile as another clone appeared behind Shadowman and pointed his laser at the back of his head and fired.

The Maniac evaded the blast and rolled to the side before sliding underneath the new clone and tripped him over and turned to throw another blade at him but the clone evaded by merging back thus healing the internal damage from the original barrage.

Geminiman fired another laser having his maximum of two bounce around the room, cutting both robot’s movement considerably. Shadowman attempted to warp out of the way of the beams, but due to their size and unpredictable movement it seemed too risky, while Geminiman was fully aware of the laser paths and made his way to his rival’s position and punched him in the face.

The two began to brawl amidst the lethal light show throwing each other into the mirror walls, punching and kicking each other, but neither of them would back down. They met each other hit for hit. Shadowman would knee Geminiman in the stomach; He would then perform a graceful back-flip that smacked the ninja in the chin who would return the favor by bouncing back up and hit the Twin Terror with a devastating left hook.

Geminiman then stumbled back and looked in horror as he found himself in the path of one of his lasers which then burned off the side of his face and half his armor. He was breathing heavily trying to keep himself upright and then came to the realization that he had no more clones in the battleground to heal himself with.

Still, he would no give up and then pointed his laser at Shadowman once again, seeing no way to end this, Shadowman called upon his frog to jump in creating a shockwave that shattered all the remaining mirrors in the room and caused the White Knight to hit the ground and fire his laser at a random direction.

“Give up Geminiman, this next attack will kill you! You’re in no state to fight on anymore.” He said as he aimed the frog’s flamethrower at the fallen Twin Terror.

The White Knight cursed at himself but then felt something lying next to him, he looked over and saw a fragment of one of his swords and began to laugh maniacally once again.

“So that’s your answer then?” Shadowman sighed and prepared to fire the flamethrower but before he could Geminiman threw the sword shard at the cannon of the frog causing a leak in the flamethrower, Shadowman was unable to stop his attack and his own robot was ignited in flames and exploded magnificently as Geminiman continued laughing.

As the smoke cleared, Gemini had got up to his feet and picked up his other sword once again. Shadowman was on the ground, struggling to get back up as he saw the blade shining in front of him. He had nothing left to give, if he was going to live he had to kill Geminiman, he had to kill his friend and with one swift movement he pulled out his trump card, his arm cannon, pointed it at Geminiman’s head and fired.

The shot rang through the castle and Geminiman stood shocked. Shadowman had a gun? After all these years he had not seen him use that weapon once. What shocked him even more so though was that he missed.

The White Knight felt the burning mark across the side of his face the shot had left and then smiled as his nemesis fell unconscious. He had finally won, he had finally proved himself superior to Shadowman, and now he was going to kill him.

He raised his sword in the air and charged it full of laser energy creating the Holy Sword once more, but then something in his head stopped him.

“No…”

Geminiman froze in confusion and looked around the room. What was that?

“No? What do you mean no?”

“This isn’t what I want…”

Mesmerman spat angrily, this was the worst possible time for this to happen.

“Of course this is what you want. This is why you’ve been fighting all this time! You hated him, you wanted him dead, now you have the perfect opportunity and you’re just going to throw it all away?”

“No, I respected him, and he respected me! You were the one who put these feelings of resentment within me; you were the one who drove me to do all this. I will not kill my friends, I will not kill my leader, and I will not follow your will anymore!”

A plasma shot came out from the darkness and knocked the sword out of Mesmer-Geminiman’s hand and he turned to see the impossible, Geminiman, no longer as the White Knight, no he looked just as he did before he joined the Scissor Army, it was Geminiman, the Mechanical Maniac, the real Twin Terror.

--------------------

Amatista gasped for breath as the large hand dumped her onto the ground. She looked back and saw Hardman punching a renegade Special Forces Unit with his remaining arm. She had been saved. Barely.

Hardman was one of the only robot masters who could take on a Special Forces Unit in a fistfight. His new Transmetal 2 body was only a head smaller than the Special Forces Units, giving him an advantage other robot masters didn’t have. Hardman’s densely made alloy also allowed him to take a lot of abuse. Like the uppercut this Special Forces Unit just delivered.

Hardman wiped liquid off his mouth. He felt something break there. The Special Forces weren’t about to leave him be, however. Two fired on the massive robot from behind. Their powerful shots took Hardman’s simulated breath away.

“I always hated ya buggers.”

Hardman leapt high into the air and, with all the force he could muster, slammed down as hard as he could on top of the nearest Special Forces Unit. To his amazement, the Unit didn’t try to dodge. Instead it sidestepped the attack while grabbing Hardman. Using the blue behemoth’s own weight and momentum against him, the Special Forces Unit pounded Hardman into the ground with so much force that the floor beneath the two gave way.

The SF wasn’t finished. In a move that amazed Hardman, the robot quickly latched onto his body and pile drove Hardman into the 1st floor basement of the building. This time the floor held, but there was an audible groan as the impact stressed the building to its limits.

They weren’t done yet. Before Hardman could get his head out of the ground he felt the robot bombard him with high-powered plasma bullets. The Special Forces member was aiming for his knees … to cripple him! Hardman felt another jolt as another Unit fell right on top of him. He was driven further into the floor. It wasn’t a good situation, and it was humiliating for the seasoned fighter. Ignoring the pain and using his internal propulsions, Hardman blasted himself out of the hold, knocking the second Special Forces Unit off balance.

Even as he got to his feet Hardman knew he had a problem. The rest of his old playmates had followed him onto the lower level. Hardman had a look around him. He saw the ruins of Special Forces Units everywhere. Obviously the renegade units had been hard at work … destroying the RPD’s first line of defence. How long had they planned this? He supposed it was inevitable … twice he’d been on missions where the RPD had salvaged Scissor Joes and used them to infiltrate key Scissor Army facilities. And, while they were powerful, many Special Forces Units had been lost in battle … it must have been easy for the General to create a small strike force to infiltrate the head of the RPD. This was probably why he had focused on Cossack and Wily while letting the RPD gain so much ground on him … the bastard already had a plan in place!

“So, whatcha waitin’ fer!?” cried Hardman loudly, “Come an’ get me!”

Much to his surprise a loud crack shot out from above and the least damaged Special Forces Unit crumpled to the ground. One of the other units immediately shot powerful rounds in the direction of the shot and the other decided to charge at Hardman, but the blue robot had his opening. Opening his chest wide he shot out a large spiked ball at the Special Forces unit charging towards him. The Unit’s eyes widened in surprise (it wasn’t often that Hardman used this attack) before its torso was ripped off the hinges of his waist. The second robot turned to see his comrade fall and was nailed by another mysterious blast.

Hardman looked up to see Landigarm holding an EMP bazooka.

“Stop gaping at me and get out of there! These things aren’t going to stay down for long!”

Hardman picked his jaw up from off the floor and shook his head in disbelief. Landigarm hated robots … who knew he’d be the one to save him from the big trash heap in the sky? Hardman ripped his mace free from the fallen Special Forces Unit, along with its outer layer of metal. Sure enough, there was a mangled Nightshade Joe body underneath it all. Hardman tore the scrap metal off the spiked ball and replaced it inside of his chest. Using his internal thrusters he got to the first floor the same way he got in. Landigarm was already at the other side, through a newly made hole in the wall.

“Amatista went back to headquarters!” said the captain from his position, “she says she has a plan to bring this under control.”

Hardman grunted as he body-checked an SF Unit out of the way.

--------------------

Needlegal had to catch her breath as her repair bed exploded mere moments after she jumped out of it. The Special Forces Unit crushed the head of the Robo Rescue Force member who had revived her seconds earlier. Needlgal gulped as its body twitched. The Special forces Unit ejected more rounds of plasma fire at the leader of the ‘Maniacs. She dodged a few, but was finally hit thanks to the SF Unit’s speedy shots. Needlegal cried out in pain. Her repairs weren’t nearly complete. While unloading her Needle Cannon onto the renegade root Needlegal called to Hardman over internal communications.

“What’s going on here!?”

“The Special Forces have been taken over by the Scissor Army!”

“What!?”

Their conversation was interrupted by an urgent message from the chief of robot police, Crorq. “All available units, to my position! My defence is your top priority!”

Needlegal rolled her eyes in frustration. Their arrogant, loud-mouthed boss was the last person she cared about protecting. But he was their central coordinator and if he fell … the RPD everywhere would stop acting as one. Nobody liked their yellow commander … but everyone knew how important he was to the entire world.

“On my way.”

Needlegal shot out a volley of needles at the Special Forces Unit. Most of them stuck into its thick armour, but the robot itself was undamaged. Undaunted Needlegal ran forwards. The Special Forces Unit continued to shoot at her, but Needlgal, surprising the larger robot, dove through its legs and sped towards he commander’s signal. The base was a complete mess. The Special Forces were in such key positions … nobody even thought about what would happen if someone used their armour as a disguise. The technology baffled even the most experienced RPD technicians, most didn’t consider that General Cutman might be able to disguise his own troops in them. Needlegal shook her head in anger. They should have seen this coming. They did scan their troops for bugs … she supposed the Special Forces armour shielded them from that sort of thing.

Needlegal continuously fired rounds of needles into the enemy. Everywhere she looked there were destroyed officer robots, and officer robots still fighting. Human officers seemed to have little hope and she spotted several body parts littering the more open areas of the headquarters. She even spotted a Watcher’s body in a mostly-destroyed invisibility cloak. It was sad, but it made sense. The Watcher’s invisibility cloak was a good defence … unless you knew exactly where to look for them. In RPD HQ they were everywhere. If you were to mount an attack in Monsteropolis it only made sense to use heat-sensitive vision overlayed on top of the normal spectrum … with all the Watchers in one area, they were easily spotted. The poor people never really stood a chance.

Needlegal took the stairs up to the floor where her chief was stationed. She saw the remains of brave officer bots who stood in the path of the renegade Special Forces Units earlier all around here. Both the blocky kind and the rounder kind … a destroyed SWAT team was smashed into the wall directly before the door. The SWAT robots were the most powerful police robots under the Special Forces, but the Special Forces were so beyond them that, like the human officers, even they didn’t stand a chance. Needlegal touched her shoulder. The wound Geminiman gave her still hadn’t been repaired properly. With her arm largely useless she could only shoot off half the amounts of needles as before. It seemed she didn’t stand a chance either.

--------------------

“Mesmerman…” Lennon muttered as he slowly followed his possessed clone’s movements around what used to be a mirror-filled arena. “I have lost my pride, my honor, and even my own sense of beauty due to your games.”

“Oh? You didn’t seem to complain about any of this until now.” The Mesmer-Gemini sneered as the two revolved around the room, waiting for the other to strike. “I gave you everything you could ever want and now you decide you don’t want it? You’re quite the tricky one.”

“There is nothing to be gained in a victory that holds no beauty. Doing so would only further disgrace what little dignity I have left.”

Geminiman stopped in his place, making Mesmer-Gemini halt his movement as well in order to observe. He smiled while the real Gemini kept a calm demeanor.

“But, if I destroy you and purge you from my soul then perhaps I might be able to regain all that I have lost.”

Mesmer-Gemini laughed at the statement, destroy him? The idea was absurd, He still possessed a clone and he fully knew that the life of a clone was linked to every other one therefore if one clone died, the rest would follow. There was no way Geminiman could kill him without killing himself.

“I can read your expression Mesmerman, don’t think I don’t know you’re aware of my linked clone condition, you’ve been manipulating me for several months so it’s only natural that you know all my strengths and weaknesses. However there is something you may not know.”

The Twin Terror unleashed a full power laser blast at the White Knight and then ran under cover behind it, picking up the hilt of his broken sword which changed its form to his old trusty riot stick before turning invisible while Mesmer-Gemini dodged the laser and returned fire with his own more powerful one. He tried to link his mind to the real Gemini to figure out his movements but to his surprise he couldn’t find him.

“Due to a fracture in my mind, we have full control of one half of my body.” Lennon sneered as he appeared behind his clone and swung with his riot stick, missing narrowly as Mesmerman leapt back to evade the attack. However Geminiman followed through with several more swings of his weapon and Mesmer-Gemini had no choice but to block with his forearms constantly as his clones constantly moving towards him prevented him from standing in place to pull up his shield. Eventually, the possessed clone faltered and was promptly met with a swift blow to the face with riot stick causing him to double back in pain.

“As a result, you cannot enter my half of my mind, nor can I control your half. This also accounts for pain too, so I can happily wail upon you without feeling a thing.”

“Interesting, well if I cannot fully control you anymore, then I no longer see further use of your powers. Therefore the simplest course of action for this fight would be to…”

Mesmer-Gemini pointed his arm cannon to his head and smiled at the unwavering bishounen robot to indicate his victory.

“Not the sort of graceful victory you’d appreciate, but I simply can no longer waste anymore resources on you.”

A loud cry could be heard followed by a plasma shot and Mesmer-Gemini dropped, stunned as his suicidal shot was prevented by none other than the appearance of Classi-Cal.

Lennon smiled at the sight of his beloved coming to his rescue and made a polite bow towards her.

“I thank you for your assistance, milady.” He gestured before his expression turned serious once more and he began to approach his possessed clone.

Mesmer-Gemini angrily picked himself off the floor and moved to attack the former bride of Wily but Lennon was quicker and leapt at the clone hitting him with a Shooting Star punch, knocking him back into the ground, Mesmer-Gemini retaliated with a plasma shot, hitting the chrome plating of the Twin Terror causing him to reel back a bit.

The two clones proceeded to take shots at each other while avoiding the two lasers they had fired off earlier and took cover behind some debris left from the fight against Shadowman while Classi-Cal watched from a safe distance.

“Your injuries against Shadowman have certainly put you at a disadvantage.” Lennon yelled out as he prepared for his next attack.

“Ha, even in this state, I possess more power than you. I have released your full potential in this form! You have no possible chance to standing up to it.”

“You think that matters to me? Come on, Mesmerman you should know better. Even if my chances of winning are nonexistent, I will challenge those odds until my last dying breath. How else do you think I got this far?”

“How amusing…” Mesmer-Gemini laughed and then he noticed in front of him, the sword that was shot out of his hand. He crawled over to pick it up and grinned while Geminiman was still hiding back his cover unaware of the new weapon his clone picked up. “Well then, shall we continue?”

The White Knight charged up the White Holy Sword once more, while Geminiman noticed his Gemini Laser was ready to fire again. The two then jumped out of their hiding spots and attacked.

Geminiman fired off his laser but the sheer amount of energy in the White Knight’s holy sword managed to deflect it effortlessly, the real Gemini went to use his riot stick to parry, but then recalled the time the sword pierced Doc Robot as if he was made out of paper and thus chose to not use it. He could not find a way to dodge the incoming attack and so he was down to one last option.

Mesmer-Gemini swung the holy sword at his good half but then his blade stopped suddenly as Lennon managed to form his crystal shield in front of the blade to prevent it from cutting, unfortunately the released laser energy from the sword was not so easily blocked.

The surge of energy bypassed Geminiman’s shield and exploded in a massive cut down the torso of the Twin Terror sending his blood everywhere as the right side of his body fell limp and his forearm got cut in half.

Despite this, Lennon stood back up and gestured to his clone to attack again.

The White Knight simply laughed at his other half and lunged at him to put an end to his foe but this time Lennon swerved to the side, dodging the attack and then ducked down to sweep Mesmer-Gemini off his feet. He then pulled out his riot stick and jabbed it deep into his clone’s arm forcing him to drop his sword once again and holding him in place and then pointed his laser at Mesmer-Gemini’s head.

“Kill me, and you die as well.” the White Knight spat out, “No matter what, I will win in the end.”

“Fine then,” Geminiman said as he charged his leg with laser energy and unleashed a Shooting Star Kick into his clone’s head with enough force to break its neck and render him unconscious. “I suppose that solves my problem then.”

Classi-Cal emerged from her hiding spot as Geminiman stood triumphant over his Mesmerman-influenced half. His return seemed almost like it was a dream, she started to cry and then ran to hug her knight in shining armor.

“Lenny!” she said in between her sobs, “You’re back. I missed you so much.”

“It’s a pleasure to be at your service milady…” he said as he slowly embraced his teammate with his remaining arm and as the scene seemed to calm down he began to recall all the carnage he had dealt during the war, all the pain he had caused and he began to break down in tears.

“I… killed so many people…” he sobbed, “I destroyed cities, ruined families and hurt friends… How could anyone forgive me?”

“There, there” the motherly mech said in a comforting tone as she held her friend up. “It’ll be ok, so don’t you worry…”

From the corner of the room, Shoryu crept out and saw her mother holding the traitor to the SA along with what seemed to be another clone of Geminiman and Shadowman’s unconscious body. Classi looked up to see her and smiled.

“Come on Shoryu, please we’re all together again. So come join us.”

The spider bot seemed to scamper back a bit and shook her head.

“No mommy, they’re bad people! Poppa Cutman is the only good person left. Why don’t you understand?”

And with those words Shoryu ran out of sight before Classi could react. She tried to get up and chase after her, but Geminiman's weight held her down too much leaving her with not much else to do but to cry out for her daughter to come back.

Distraught, all she could do now was comfort the crying Geminiman and tend to her former leader.

"Shoryu..." she drifted off in a sad tone.

--------------------

Waveman cried out loudly as his sword was shattered into a million pieced by a Special Forces Unit. “My Sword! Aw, it’s gone!”

“Interesting,” said Oilman sarcastically as he used his own oversized sword to gouge a large crevice into the armour of a Special Forces Unit. “But hardly unexpected.”

“Quit crying you wuss!” said Blademan angrily. “I lost my Zanpakutou! It’s like losing a piece of myself! I can’t believe it’s gone!” Blademan tore into a Scissor Joe. They had appeared in great numbers and overwhelmed the conventional robot police forces.

Hardman crushed two mouse robots that used to belong to Wily with his feet. “This place's gettin’ too hot ta handle! And ‘sides, it’s done fer! Let’s get back ta th’ base! They need us there.”

Oilman grunted as a large fist once again hit his oversized sword. Cracks had begun to appear. “Interesting,” said the red robot. “It seems you can’t hold your ground.”

“What the hell’s so int'restin' 'bout it!? Jes' follow mah orders!”

Hardman pounded into a Special Forces Unit. It refused to fall and hit back with full force. Landigarm had already fallen back in order to support Amatista. Hardman was hoping beyond hope that she had a plan. Because he sure as hell did –

Hardman was hit by a fireball and toppled to the ground. A Mad Grinder had appeared. When did this happen? Hardman called out to his subordinates over the internal line. “Hey, bozos! I could use some help ‘round here!”

Hardman heard some faint snickering from far behind him and turned just in time to see the Sinister Six run away.

“We will tell all the others about your struggle to the death!”

Hardman cursed loudly and shot a Hard Knuckle into the Mad Grinder’s face. It tore off easily and then Hardman used the other to crush the attacking Special Forces Unit. He kept on hammering away at it long after it ceased to function. Those Sinister Six guys …

--------------------

“NO!” Amatista cried in despair. She dropped the broken Special Forces head she had carried from their base all the way over to the headquarters of the Robot Police. She had snuck past the attacking hordes of the Scissor Army and Wily factions using her invisibility cloak. Several Special Forces Units had spotted her (they were on the alert for Watchers), but she had ducked quickly out of the way before they could do much to harm her. She had to slice off one’s hand , though. One thought kept burning in her mind. That this would all be worth it if she could only get to the Robot Police’s research and development labs. However, it looked like the Scissor Army had gotten there first.

Amatista straightened. She had to get to other officers. She listened to the chatter and consulted her pad. It seemed Needlegal, Crorq, and a few Police Bots were making a stand near his office. Nearby was officer Landigarm, who seemed to have followed her. She decided to go to the human officer and quickly ran out the door. It was no more than a few paces when she saw someone she didn’t expect.

Topman. He was wearing rags, but she recognised him anywhere. What was he doing here? He couldn’t see her thanks to the cloak she was wearing, but she watched him take out a Sniper Joe that had gotten into the building. It seemed the main body of the Scissor Army and Wily attack force had made it to the base. It was lost then.

Or maybe not. Topman was followed by another cloaked figure Amatista couldn’t recognise. And then by … Protoman and Bass!? Wasn’t Wily attacking them?

Making as little sound as possible, Amatista followed the group. They seemed to be following Topman purposefully … only natural since Topman was once a member of the Robot Police. He knew the layout of the building. Normally Amatista would attack them all without question, but something gave her pause. Why were they attacking Wily and Scissor Army Forces?

“Halt!” said a Scissor Joe from behind the Watcher. Amatista had to duck to avoid being hit by Bass’ rapid fire. It blew away the Joe before he had a chance to move. That Wily robot truly was dangerous. Robots like him were the reason the great Senator Keigle had introduced the shutdown code in the first place!

The robots continued down the corridors for a long time. They ran into plenty of resistance, but no Special Forces. Amatista wondered how many the General had managed to convert and if they weren’t all destroyed by now. She was lost in thought for a while before she noticed they were deep into the building. They had gone down the stairs for a long time until they were in one of the RPD’s sublevels. Not much was down here, but Amatista immediately knew what they were looking for.

Throwing off her cloak Amatista prepared her razor sharp wire.

“Freeze!”

Bass immediately aimed his blaster at the Watcher, but Amatista was too fast for him. With one motion the robot master’s arm was separated from his body and he was on the ground.

“I told you to freeze. Nobody’s rescuing Megaman on my watch!”

--------------------

Landigarm was cornered. He knew it was over. His EMP bazooka had been destroyed by a Scissor Joe shot. Blood was pouring from the wound made in his shoulder.

The Special Forces Unit loomed over him.

“Well, what’re you waiting for, you big lug? If yer gonna shoot me … shoot me!”

Immediately Landigarm wished he hadn’t had said something so rash. His ex could have told him he had a problem with his attitude. He didn’t figure it’d get him killed, though. The Special Forces Unit aimed its giant GUN AND … HESITATED. Its eyes flickered brightly before the entire robot powered down. It fell into a heap of useless junk.

Landigarm didn’t quite know what to do. The Joes and Wily robots around him began convulsing and shuddering until, one by one, all of them were on the ground deactivated. Landigarm hesitated. Was it a trick? He didn’t quite know what to expect.

Something small and green slithered out of a previously unseen hole in the Special Forces Unit. Landigarm shook his head. It couldn’t be. It really couldn’t.

The snake opened its mouth. “You know,” it said, “in times like these a ‘thank you’ is usually in order.”

Landigarm couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Snakeman?”

“In the flesh. So to speak.”

Landigarm’s jaw was on the floor. He still couldn’t believe it. “But you were shut down!”

The snake hissed angrily. “Yeah, and you’re lucky it didn’t take!”

“But the Shutdown Code…”

“Wasn't installed in my Search Snakes. The higher-ups just assumed they were drones. No one suspected they could act on their own to rescue me. Of course the best they could do was upload a backup of my mind to one of them. I've been slithering around like this for months.”

Landigarm looked somewhat offended. Was it because Snakeman had found a way around the Code? “Hey,” said the snake, “if I didn’t pull it off, then where would you be now?”

Landigarm closed his mouth. He seemed to be quickly accepting the situation. “I … suppose you’re right. Thanks. I guess.”

The snake hissed, but didn’t press it. He had more important things to discuss. “We don’t have much time, man! So swallow that pride of yours and listen to me! We have to get someplace safe.”

The captain stiffened. “We have to protect Monsteropolis. There are countless lives at stake here.”

“Ours bein' some o' dem.”

Landigarm turned and saw Hardman. His body was covered in burn marks and his plating had been ripped off in several areas. His simulated breathing was coming out heavily. The Robot Master had seen better days.

“The entire Scissor Army is coming down on us. We gotta get outta here.”

Landigarm fumed, “But the people-!”

“We can’t save ‘em, 'Garm. It’s over.”

Landigarm’s mouth moved up and down but no words came out. Everyone … could they just abandon them?

Hardman then noticed the snake on the floor. “Th‘ell's dis?”

--------------------

Crorq blew away another Joe. Needlegal’s wounded arm had been torn off in the struggle to save their lives. Still, the anti-teleportation field was in place. There seemed to be no place to run.

“This cannot be the end!” said the giant yellow computer in disbelief. “I won’t let it end!”

Needlegal let out a small gasp as a swift blade ripped through her armour. It was close to vital circuitry and caused quite a bit of damage. Crorq spun around just in time to see dozens of Joes blast at the robot. Bits of her strong armour flew off as each bullet hit its target. Crorq readied his blaster and blew them apart.

“Enough of these games! I will not be done in like this!”

Crorq used his spindly arms, usually reserved for carrying food, to heft Needlegal onto his back. He then charged at the startled group of attackers while aiming his laser cannon.

Splitter Joes were obliterated on contact along with a squad of Battons and Chibees. He used his powerful legs to crush the battered remains of a Special Forces unit. Was it one of the ones they were fighting against or one that was on their side? It didn’t matter.

Needlegal responded by shooting Needle Cannons everywhere. Their escort had fallen. It was now just them.

“There’s tunnels in the lower levels,” explained Crorq, “We’ll use them to escape.” Needlegal was too weak to respond.

--------------------

“Constance took out her knife and Protoman readied his shield, but Topman held both of them back by stretching both his arms out.

“Wait!”

“She’s stopping us from rescuing my brother!”

“The bitch took my arm!”

“Just hold on!”

Amatista took a step back as Topman approached her. “Don’t come near me! Keep your hands where I can see them!”

Topman stopped where he was and put his hands out in front of them. “Hear me out.”

“No!”

“Please!”

Amatista waved her wire defensively. “Stay where you are!”

Topman bit his lip. There was nothing to do but tell her the truth. “We found Doctor Light.”

Amatista stopped and found she was shaking all over. They had found Light?

“He can bring Megaman back to us.”

“He was shut down.” Said the Watcher firmly.

Topman grimaced. “Yes … and look where it got us. Listen, you can hear it now. They’re fighting right above us.”

Amatista paused. She really could hear it. The booming sounds of large robot feet hitting the ground. Shots being fired. Explosions. She started shaking even more.

“You know they want him too. He can stop this!”

Still Amatista did not lower her weapon.

“He didn’t deserve this!” said Topman feverently. “Maybe others, but not him! Not Megaman! He’s saved the world countless times! Can you really say he deserved to be shut down!?”

Amatista recalled all the horrors she had witnessed robots capable of. And yet … robots had now saved her life many times over. And Megaman really had saved the world countless times. He really didn’t look evil. Sometimes these robots could fool you …

“No,” she said finally, “I guess he didn’t.”

“This place is done for. We have to take him away.”

Amatista looked down. Done for? Maybe. And yet …

“How do you plan on getting out of here?”

It was Protoman who spoke this time. “Doctor Light has his own network of satellites. They operate on a different frequency than anyone else’s. We can leave any time we choose.”

Amatista breathed heavily. This was it, she realised. The defining moment of the War. She could stop them now. Megaman had defied human orders and stood against the Shutdown Code. Topman and all his allies were enemies of the state. The very kind of robots she had spent most of her life fighting against. She could make her stand right here, right now.

The sounds of battle were drawing closer. She looked at her pad. Her hand was trembling, but she could tell most of the RPD officers in the building were out of commission. It really was over.

Amatista lowered her weapon and nodded. Within moments Protoman and Constance had the door opened. Topman never took his eyes off her. She supposed he didn’t trust her.

“We have him,” said Bass while holding the small blue robot in his good arm. “I can’t believe I’m the one doing this. But with just the one arm and my other injuries, I’m not fit for battle.” With a frown the black robot immediately vanished in a flash of purple light. The rest of the party began to make their way to the exit.

“Where are you going?” asked Amatista. “You can leave at any time, can’t you?”

Topman looked back at her. “I still have some friends here. I don’t intend to leave them behind.”

The group continued to make their way to the sounds of battle overhead. When they were almost out of earshot Amatista heard Topman call out to her.

“Are you coming or what?”

--------------------

Crorq fired another shot into the oncoming swarm of Pipis. He didn’t quite know where he was going. Things looked grim.

“Come and get me!” bellowed the yellow super computer. “I will crush you where you stand!”

To emphasize his point Crorq jumped onto a surprised Hammer Joe. He stomped repeatedly, smearing the robot like a bug on the floor. He looked at the crowd of enemies defiantly. His programming really could see no way out of this. He pleaded for assistance from any RPD forces in the area by internal radio. He knew Amatista, Hardman, and the Sinister Six were nearby!

“I’m afraid it’s a little too late to call for assistance,” said a voice from behind the group of attackers. A chill ran down what passed for Crorq’s spine. Needlegal drew a ragged breath. She didn’t know who the voice belonged to, but she could hazard a guess.

The crowd of enemies parted to make way for their leader. General Cutman strode confidently into the destroyed hallway. Crorq held his ground. He refused to be intimidated.

“You are the final 'commander' I had yet to meet personally. Allow me to introduce myself. I am a man of wealth a taste.” The General chuckled, but neither Crorq nor Needlegal saw what was funny. “My name is DLN003: Cutman. And you must be Crorq! I have heard so much about you.”

Crorq rose high on his large legs and prepared his large blaster; his monitors glowed bright red. The Joes surrounding the General immediately took aim. The General himself did nothing. “IIIIIINFIDEL! I am Crorq! The SUUUUUUPER COM-PU-TOR! And you do not frighten me!” Crorq shot out his mighty blast and was immediately peppered with plasma shots. His monitors were even more damaged than before and one spindly arm was severed. Needlegal tried to aim at the General and shot out wildly. She knew she’d hit an enemy regardless of where she aimed.

The General did not need such an assault. He had avoided Crorq’s shot with ease. He had somersaulted underneath the behemoth and sliced his underside with a broken Rolling Cutter. Crorq screamed in frustration. “I don’t know how Cossack faced death, but I, CRORQ, will not go down without a fight!” The yellow computer leapt at his enemy and landed with a crash. The force of his landing cracked the floor tiles and Neeldegal struggled to hang on. She saw the General out of the corner of her eye and immediately took aim.

“He’s over there!”

She fired her cannon at the skeletal robot and Crorq fired his own weapon as well. They tore down the pock-marked wall behind the General, but the robot master himself did not fall.

The General laughed at their efforts. “KYA hah hah hah hah! This is more like it! I’ll have you know that the Comrades did most of the fighting for the good doctor before I chopped his head off. Of course that human didn’t bother to try and save his own skin.”

“You saved me the trouble!” Crorq followed his statement with a series of thin high-powered shots while Needlegal tried to outguess the General by aiming above them. The General outsmarted them both and, once again, somersaulted beneath Crorq while slicing him again.

“And Wily … he just surrendered like a scared child once it was clear who his better was! Of course it helped that I had his 'beloved' Classi Cal. Such a pathetic human specimen.”

Needlegal was shocked. “Wily surrendered!?”

“Oh yes!” Cutman roared triumphantly. “And that just leaves your pathetic police department! You morons even helped me do my job by dogging the remains of that idiot Cossack’s faction. So I should really be thanking you!”

Crorq growled. He didn’t like the implication that he was helping the General. His ego wouldn’t allow it. “You’re not facing a defenseless human now, Cutman!”

The General brightened. “No, I’m not. Ironically, you’re proving my point nicely, oh 'magnificent' Crorq. But you’re wrong on one count. You’re quite defenseless against me.”

“I am CRORQ the INVINCIBLE!” Crorq's burst of anger had actually caught General Cutman by surprise and the yellow computer landed a shot squarely on the orange robot’s chest. Once against the Scissor Army and Wily Forces fired on the chief of police and the yellow computer was brought low when they managed to blow out one of his knees. Cursing loudly Crorq took aim at the general and fired his cannon. Needlegal leapt off Crorq. This was her chance! To take down the General and end this war!

Needlegal took aim and fired! Right before the world turned dark.

Needlegal’s lifeless body hit the floor.

The General stood triumphantly over the remains of the deactivated Mechanical Maniac. He didn’t need to go this far into his game, but he really did want to see their faces. Crorq’s face and the face of that ninja (a pity he wasn’t here, but his sister had done well enough in his stead) as he completely took victory from them and rubbed it into their faces before he shut them all down.

The General chuckled. And then let loose. Mad laughter bubbled out of the Light robot. The look of shock carved into Needlegal’s featured was priceless! Surely she realised it in the split second it took to happen. It hurt him to laugh like this – Crorq had surprised him and Needle had gotten a couple of shots in, but the General couldn’t help it. The RPD did it to themselves, really. They had never realised it, but General Cutman was behind the Shutdown Code from the start! It was him all along and these fools were so busy fighting the obvious war that none of them had seen it coming! And now they lay deactivated at his feet! And it was not just Crorq and Needlegal. No, General Cutman had just then Shut Down every Robot Police officer of every type everywhere! Even as he stood there basking in his triumph his Scissor Army and Wily Forces began to attack the now helpless RPD occupied areas. This moment had been planned since the War began!

All of their focus was on getting land. But never did they realise that the only true victor with their “Shutdown Code” policy would be General Cutman himself! It had served well to turn a united enemy against each other. The RPD, as the biggest faction, had even helped him by weakening the Cossack and Wily factions. Even their airing of the Cossack’s surprising brutality had been in his favour as it had made those random elements despised throughout the world.

And, while the RPD collected lifeless cities and were thought to be his strongest enemy, they were the only ones who never stood a chance against him for they dispensed the General’s own Shutdown Code throughout their forces and could be deactivated by the General at any time! Meanwhile he occupied himself by getting rid of the true threats to his army – the Cossack and Wily factions. The RPD lasted only as long as it could help the General achieve his ends.

General Cutman savored the irony. His world’s Doctor Light had used a similar “Shutdown Code” to shut him down when he was still naive enough to believe in humanity … and now that first betrayal was his greatest weapon! It had truly come full circle.

The General radioed his men. “Take it all.”

--------------------

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