The Robotic Endgame

I. Mega Man

I couldn't believe my eyes. I knew who was behind it this time, just like every other time. Wily was turning robots everywhere into fighters again, but this was a virus beyond control. I was lucky to have been protected from his viruses so well, but as for the rest of the robots...

The city was in a complete panic. People were running around everywhere, the robots mostly trying to take out the police corps first. Buildings were on fire, and a few cops were laying on the ground motionless. I had been shot at a few times, the cops thinking I too had been taken over by Wily's new virus.

The question that kept popping into my mind: how did Wily manage to get out of prison in the first place? He had been guarded heavily round the clock in a maximum security prison. Had he somehow created the virus in his cell?

There were moments when I thought I could feel the virus trying to break through my firewalls. Glitches would run through my body, and I stood still and rebooted often, hoping that would keep it out. The last thing the city needed was their hero falling to his nemesis.

Dr. Light was back at the lab, trying to piece together ways to completely combat the virus. So far, he had had no luck. And him and I were both worried about something in particular.

Roll was missing.

I was mostly ignoring everything happening around me, trying to find my sister. The robot masters that were around me, trying to kill me, should have taken my attention, but it hadn't. Anything could happen to her. She was fragile and I worried that Wily would do something to her. She could have been taken away by the police. She could simply have gotten lost. But, of course, Roll could have succumbed to the virus, and I didn't want that to happen. I had to find her before that happened.

The virus wasn't as simple as turning the robots against Dr. Light and me. It was so advanced, it was taking Dr. Light hours to figure out how it did what it did. And he hadn't figured out much, either. Once the virus passed through the firewall, it changed the robot, giving him guns and lasers if he didn't have any, and sometimes making them grow and change in ways that shouldn't have been possible. It turned the robots that it attacked into complete monsters. I had seen it happen before my eyes as Quick Man was the first to fall to the virus. He was just minding his own business, being stubborn and stuck up as usual, when, all of a sudden, he changed. I couldn't imagine my innocent sister as a killer robot. What powers could it possibly give her? The power to wield a deadly broom or duster?

With another sigh, I looked around again. Roll was still nowhere to be found. I had run to multiple parts of the city with no luck. I also had to be stealthy at the time, though. There were robots everywhere, like ants inside of their own home. Some ignored me, while others came directly at me. The only thing I had managed to find was a few bullets in my armor. In this kind of emergency, the police shot at anything that looked mechanical. I was afraid to yell at them for fear of getting into a fight.

"Roll!" I called, arms slumping afterwards.

"Still no luck?" Dr. Light seemed to say absentmindedly. As usual, he was helping me from the sidelines. Static fluttered in my helmet.

"She's nowhere," I told him. "It's like she disappeared off the face of the planet."

"My daughter will show up." Dr. Light said. "Look just a little longer, Rock. Please."

"I would have whether you had told me to or not." I said, trying to smile. "I'll find her. Sooner or later. I... promise."

"I just hope that's a promise you can keep, son."

I walked a little further until I saw Flash Man, walking as if he were patrolling the area. I backed up to a building, staying out of sight. He walked back and forth in a perfect line. His blue armor shone against the setting sun. If I could run past him at the perfect moment, maybe he wouldn't see me. It was still a risk, though. Not that it wasn't a risk I was going to take without much of a second thought.