"Great." Elec Man remarked as he looked out across the crowd. "People are unable to leave, and anything we do to try to free them could very easily break our programming rule: we can't harm any humans. Any of them."
"Well, that's great, pal." Oil Man jumped off the couch.
"You know, you could try to help us out a little bit." Michael told him.
"Hey, I'm just messing around." He punched Michael playfully on the arm.
"Ow..."
Elec Man froze. "Wait, what did you just do?"
Oil Man sighed. "Look, I'm just playing around, don't worry about-"
"No, I mean, did you...technically 'harm' him?"
Oil Man thought for a moment. "Yeah. I guess so."
Elec Man snapped his fingers. "That's our loophole. Your programming must not be complete. You don't have the main rule programmed into you yet. You can attack people, Oil Man."
"And that's good because?" Michael asked.
"Because I've got a brilliant idea." He grinned.
-Two Minutes Later-
"Alright, when I break the window, you've probably got about 5 seconds before one of them does something." Elec Man informed Oil Man.
"I can work with that." Oil Man took a stance next to the glass.
"Good." Elec Man threw a punch at full force, causing part of the glass to shatter. Oil Man stepped forward, putting his oil cannon through the hole. He aimed a few shots and fired.
After a moment, he stepped back. "Yup. Think I got em all."
"Are you sure?" Elec Man asked him.
"Do you hear any screams of death and pain?"
Michael shrugged. "Good enough for me."
Elec Man rolled his eyes. "Come on. Let's go.
---
Light looked curiously as the body guards led the strange, armed men away. A window high above them had shattered, and something strange and black had fallen from the sky on top of them. He knelt down to the substance and did a quick smell.
"Oil...?" He whispered to himself.
He stood up again, brushing himself off before he suddenly heard someone calling him. He quickly turned around to find Elec Man running towards him, with Michael and...
"Oil Man?" Light asked as they reached him.
"The one and only." Oil Man replied. His eyes widened. "I am the only one, right?"
"I...um...yes..." Light managed.
Oil Man wiped his forehead in relief.
"Anyway, the urgent situation at hand..." Elec Man rolled his eyes, before turning to Dr. Light. "What is going on? Why is everything down?"
"I...some strange group of people...I believe they called themselves the Emerald Spears, or something like that. There was a man who seemed like he was in charge of them. He was holding us here, apparently they used an ElectroMagnetic Pulse to shut off everything electronic. I think they want to destroy all robots."
"And I can't do anything about it..." Elec Man grumbled, his hands sparking as his anger rose.
Michael jumped in. "We found out that since Oil Man isn't complete, he can technically 'target' humans. That's how we took those guys out."
"Is no one gonna mention how I took out three dudes from a window several stories above? That seems pretty legit to me." Oil Man added.
Light frowned. "I don't know about this." He muttered.
"It may just be our only chance." Elec Man replied.
Light looked back up at the building. "That can wait a moment. I want to check on the situation up there."
The four of them hurried into the building. After several flights of stairs (which nobody was very happy about), they arrived at the main floor where Michael had been when the power had gone out.
Elec Man stepped forward and lifted a hand, which began to crackle quietly with electricity, and sparks bounced across his fingertips. He held it out, spreading a low, flickering light around the room. Dr. Light stepped forward, kneeling beside Rock.
"From what I can see, he looks to be alright." Light announced as he stood up again, with obvious relief in his voice.
"What about Tempo?" Michael asked him, nodding in her direction.
Light nodded and walked over to where she lay still on the ground. He knelt down and looked at her. As he inspected, he frowned, confusion becoming more and more apparent on his face.
Finally, he waved the three of them over.
He reached down to her head, turning her over. He pulled the hair away from her neck.
On the back of her neck was what looked like a small port for cables.
"...Okay..." Elec Man muttered.
"Wha...wha...what?" Michael stammered as he looked at it.
Oil Man stared at her for a while. Then he turned to the two of them.
"Who is this girl again?"
---
Light stared at his computer screen. "I'm not sure what we're going to do."
"You do realize that's not on, right doc?" Oil Man asked.
"We know that Oil Man is our best bet, since he can actually fight them. However, I'm not sure how well that would work to begin with. And then we do still need to get the power back on."
"What if we split up?" Michael asked. "Oil Man could go try to do whatever he would be best at, and Elec Man and I could go to the power plant and get things running again."
"Wait wait, you're not going with me, kid." Elec Man told him.
"I can handle myself. Besides, you never know if you might need me." Michael replied.
"As if I would ever need help from a human child." Elec Man grumbled.
"Like when I had to reactivate you fifteen minutes ago because you got shut down?"
Elec Man spun around in anger. "That doesn't count!" He growled.
"Enough, you two." Light told them. "We have bigger things on the line right now." Elec Man frowned, but pushed himself away from Michael.
Michael had a thought. "That reminds me, if all of the robots got shut off by the EMP, why did Oil Man activate?"
Light thought for a brief moment. "I suppose since I had kept in a stasis chamber, the wave deactivated the chamber, but kept him safe from the effects. Without the chamber keeping him in stasis, he naturally woke up."
"I guess I remember wakin' up in my pod or whatever." Oil Man added.
After a moment of silence, Light sighed. "We need to do something. Every second we waste is giving the Emerald Spears more time to prepare something. Elec Man, you'll be heading to the power plant to see what you can do. And you're taking Michael with you. That's an order."
Elec Man opened his mouth to protest, but quickly closed it and stared at the floor. "Yes, doctor."
Light then stood up. "Oil Man, come with me. We're going down to the police station, and I hope to see if we can find out anything from those Emerald Spears you took down."
"Sounds cool." The robot said with a glint in his eyes.
"Are you sure about this?" Elec Man asked.
Dr. Light looked back in the room with Rock, lying there on the ground. He sighed. "Yes. I'm sure. Now let's go."
-Later-
Dr. Light pushed the door open, leading Oil Man into the busy police station. There were a large number of people crowded around the desk, all reporting various issues stemming from the loss of power. Oil Man, short in stature like the other Robot Masters, was trying to appear as cool as possible. Light brought him to the side of the crowd, where a police officer stood on the other side of a counter answering a phone call. He looked up at Light, and his face lit up. He finished his call and turned back to Light.
"Thomas! It's been a while." He smiled, offering a handshake.
Light accepted. "How have you been?"
"Oh, all right. Things have been pretty crazy around here lately, as you can imagine." He nodded towards an old poster advertising the conference Light had held to present the Robot Masters.
"Yes, I apologize for that. I assure you that every precaution has been taken to prevent that happening again." Light shifted a little, and the man noticed Oil Man standing behind him.
"Um...what brings you...two...here?"
"I was hoping you could give me that favor you owe me." Light smiled.
The man rolled his eyes. "I thought you had forgotten about that. Maybe. What exactly do you want?"
"I'd like to speak to one of the members of the Emerald Spears that you took in custody."
The man frowned, thinking for a moment. "I may be able to do that. Unfortunately, I don't know how much you'll be able to do. We've only got one who's said a word to us, and he isn't too crazy about being under arrest."
"I'll take what I can get." Light replied.
The man nodded. "Alright then. Let me just talk to my captain."
---
Oil Man tapped his foot impatiently. He continued looking at the clock down the hall. "How long they been doing this?"
Dr. Light sighed. "I don't know, Oil Man."
"I mean seriously, if you're willing to do a guy a favor, at the very least make it quick, am I right?"
"I know, Oil Man."
"Seriously, I wonder what's takin' em so long." He looked at the clock again.
"I DON'T KNOW, Oil Man."
At that moment, the man came out of the small room they had been waiting outside of. He looked at Light. "Everything's straightened out. He's all yours."
Light and Oil Man stepped through the door into the dimly lit room. Sitting in a chair on the other side of a desk was a young man. He still wore the group's strange uniform, but he no longer wore the hats that several others had worn. He had a messy tangle of red hair on top of his head, and it looked like he had been sweating.
Dr. Light politely sat down. He looked the young man in the eyes. "Hello."
He looked up for a brief moment. "I didn't k...I-I mean, I don't uh..." He sighed and hung his head. "Hi."
"Would you like to tell me anything about the Emerald Spears, as they seem to be called?"
"I don't need to tell you anything." He grumbled. "You got your robot buddy there, I see."
"Yes, I do."
"Then I got nothing to say to you. We don't discuss plans with people who support those monsters."
Light nodded. "So I take it your group doesn't like robots very much."
"Yep." The man replied. He then flinched and began speaking rapidly. "I mean, no, we don't...I, I guess we sort of...what do you know?"
Light smiled at him.
"Oh man." He muttered.
Oil Man groaned aloud and dashed over to the desk. "Hey, I think you've wasted about enough of our time."
"Who...who the heck are you, anyway?"
Oil Man smiled under his scarf. "You remember how you got a buncha oil dumped on you back there?"
The man swallowed. Oil Man took a short bow.
"I'm Oil Man. And if you don't wanna get three times as much of the stuff shot up your nose, I suggest you tell us a bit about your friends."
It was silent for a moment.
Oil Man stepped back from his threatening position with a grin spreading across his hidden mouth. "Please?"