His systems took barely a second to send power through his entire body. It took even less time for him to threaten someone.

In the blink of an eye, Quick Man lifted Roll up in the air by her neck. I immediately raised the Mega Buster. "Quick Man, stop!"

He looked over at me, rage already obvious in his eyes. He scanned around the room, identifying his location. He focused on me again. "What's going on here? Why am I here?"

Dr. Light stepped forward. "Everything can be explained in time, Quick Man. First, I have to ask you to set her down."

The robot stared back at him for a few seconds, and then broke into a smile. "No promises."

After a tense moment, his face filled with surprise. "Why...why can't I...she should have..."

Dr. light sighed. "I was going to tell you. I restored your original body, but I made some small changes. Your programming prevents you from harming any of us."

Quick Man's face filled with surprise and rage. "Why...why you-"

"Quick Man, hear me out." I asked. He looked over at me, his expression not changing at all. I took a breath. "I'm giving you a chance here. We all are. Your brothers chose to abandon Wily. They chose to come with us, and decide for themselves what their purpose is."

"He's right." Air Man said from behind me. "I believe there is more waiting for all of us."

I lowered the Mega Buster. "We're willing to help you figure out your purpose. If you just trust us."

Quick Man looked between all the people in the room. He locked eyes with everyone, his face still unchanged. Finally, he lowered his head.

"They'll learn their purpose, huh? Doesn't sound too bad. I can understand the appeal for those weaklings." He raised his face enough for one eye to be visible. "But I know what my purpose is. I always have. I was made as a weapon, and I was meant to destroy you! I will always see to that!"

"Quick."

The cold metallic voice seemed to startle Quick Man. He turned his head to the doorway, where Metal Man stood.

"Get over yourself. You and I were never meant for anything more than destruction. Don't act like your goal of killing Mega Man is some righteous cause. We're monsters."

He equipped a Metal Blade, and hurled it across the room, where it struck a picture frame and embedded it into the wall. 

"You don't have to change who you are. I choose to be a monster for the winning side." He turned around and walked out.

Quick Man stood in silence, slightly trembling. He looked to the door once again as Metal Man left, and then he lowered Roll to the ground. 

He looked at me with a face I hadn't seen on him before. "You guys are really dedicated, aren't you?"

I nodded. "I won't give up on a fellow robot."

"If you promise you won't cause any more harm, I will remove the program limits I placed on you." Dr. Light assured him.

Quick shook his head and chuckled. "You all must be stupid." He looked at Air Man and Crash Man, who stood behind me. He sighed. "Sure. I won't hurt anyone. At least for now."

Dr. Light pulled out a tablet, quickly entered a few commands, and looked up at the robot. "It's done."

Quick Man took a few steps, moving his arms around his range of motion. He smiled when all seemed to be well.

Then he threw a punch across my shoulder. I winced and clutched the limb, and he laughed loudly. "No promises."

Crash Man rushed forward, but I held out my other arm in front of him. "Don't. I think he's okay." I watched him walk out of the room. "At least for now."

---

Dr. Wily looked up from his designs with frustration. Muttering under his breath, he walked over to the command center he had established, where a persistent beeping continued to sound.

"I requested that you not bother me while I work." He answered them.

"Apologies, Doctor." a voice replied through the communication system. "We have him."

Wily smirked and rubbed his chin. "Good."

"Well, I wouldn't say that..." Another voice blurted, causing Wily raise and eyebrow.

He cleared his throat and asked, "Let me be clear: Have you actually captured him, and have him detained?"

There was a pause, and the first voice answered, "...We do not."

Frustrated, Wily threw his hands in the air and slammed them back onto the console. "You bumbling fools! You were created to be better than the last ones. Yet you call me like this, wasting my time and resources to tell me you've accomplished nothing? Do you have any idea how long it took me to find a communication signal that Thomas' police satellites couldn't pick up?"

On the other side of the line, the second voice whispered, "Thomas?" to which the first softly replied, "Dr. Light."

Wily grumbled some curses under his breath. "Now, seeing as I'm already distracted, what DID you call me for?"

"Well, we called because we wanted to know if we should continue to pursue him after he escaped into the city sewer..." Wily's low growl grew a little in response. "...b-but I realize that you would of course want us to do that. I had told them that this would be the case, but they insisted that-"

"JUST GO!"

Three voices responded simultaneously, "Right away."

"Sssuck up." The third voice muttered as Wily turned off the system. The doctor shook his head. "Idiotic. I haven't seen a single thing about them to back up the claims."

He walked over the echo-y stone, kneeling down beside a recently restored robot, wearing an outfit similar to a ninja's robes, with a large four pointed throwing star on its head. "Unfortunately, it seems you may have to step in and help out your brothers. They may not be ready to accept this responsibility."

The robot opened its eyes, and a piercing gaze met the doctor's face. "Of course, master."

---

I removed my helmet, setting it on the table beside the couch as I sprawled out. I stared up at the ceiling, trying to wrap my mind around the last couple days.

I turned over to stare at the rest of the room. I blinked, and suddenly saw Flash Man sitting in one of the other chairs. I sat up in surprise. "Whoa, what-"

He looked at me with a smirk. "Just act natural."

Crash Man rushed into the room, with a pair of oven mitts over his hand/spikes. "Okay, I'd like to know who put these...infernal devices over my spikes."

Flash Man chuckled, but didn't reply. Crash Man sighed. "Look guys, I'm not trying to start something, but this is...this is kinda really personal for me. And...and I can't...get these things off, so I would really appreciate it if someone would like to...help...me...out!"

Flash Man looked over at me and winked. I frantically shook my head no, but he had already leaned forward in his chair and begun saying, "Gee, buddy, sorry to see you're so...steamed. Get it?" He grinned at me.

Cut Man happened to be walking past, having been called in by Dr. Light in case we needed to take down any of Wily's robots. Upon hearing Flash's joke, he stopped and groaned. "That was so horrible. The word used is hardly applicable to the scenario in question; there are far too many connections that need to be made before it makes any sense. Coming from an expert, a far better pun would have been-" He stopped when Crash turned towards him, an infuriated glare on his face. "I'll just leave."

Crash Man looked down at his arms. "This is...really frustrating. I just want to be able to...to pick stuff up, you know? But I can't. I can't because I have these...stupid points for hands!" His expression continued to intensify. "It really makes me angry. It makes me..." He raised an arm in frustration. "IT MAKES ME WANNA BLOW SOMETHING UP!!!"

"HOLY CRAP GET DOWN!" I screamed. I took cover shortly before I heard a small shkkt, indicating a Crash Bomb getting stuck in something.

The next second I looked up from the ground, and saw the window was broken despite not hearing a sound. Flash Man held the bomb in one hand, standing in front of the shattered window. He looked down at his cannon arm, and groaned, "Oh, come on!" before throwing the bomb as far as he could out of the building. The explosion was still startlingly loud.

As the tension slowly dropped, I got to my feet and looked around. The room was mostly undamaged. There was a small hole in the floor from a Crash Bomb, and of course the broken window, but I'd say we were pretty lucky all things consider. I looked over at Crash. "Okay. We need to get you guys...not living here."

Flash Man, who still seemed a little disoriented, walked over to his brother and put his hand on his shoulder. "For real, sorry about that...no hard feelings?"

Crash Man's face seemed equally horror-filled as ours. He nodded slowly. "I'm sorry guys. I...I lost control again..."

I sighed and walked out of the room.

---

I found Dr. Light sitting at his computer looking over some information. When I entered, his chair spun as he asked me, "I thought I heard something a few minutes ago. Do you know anything about it?"

I shrugged. "Wasn't much. Just Flash Man accidentally setting off Crash Man and having to get rid of a bomb via window."

Dr. Light looked very concerned.

"You might want to call a glass repair company."

He shook his head and turned back towards his computer. "Wily has certainly proven his skill with robotic combat capabilities. Now if only he could work a little bit on their volatility..." He glanced up at me from his seated position. "Are you okay, Rock? How are you holding up with all this?"

I shrugged. "About as well as can be expected. Within a pretty short time, my best friend went to space, my girlfriend became busy with a sister she didn't have until a few days ago, and Wily's robots are already back, and they're now living with us."

"You sound a little bitter."

I sighed. "Let's just say I could use a break."

Dr. Lights computer began to flash a message. He turned to the screen, confused. "A distress message? Odd. Who would be sending one...?" He opened up the message.

Rather than a voice, a short whistling melody began to play. It had a slow jazz sound to it.

I noticed Dr. Light tense up. "Doctor?"

He slowly shook his head. "No. It couldn't be. Why would he...why now?"

I tried to think of what to ask, but it wasn't working out. I lifted my helmet, which I had been carrying around, and put it on. "So, I'm guessing I'm not getting that break."

---

"Blues...was the first robot Wily and I created together." Doctor Light said over the speaker. Even through the faint feedback of the microphone, there was a hint of solemnity in his voice. "In a way, he was your older brother."

"You're kidding." I replied. I kicked a ramen container into the steady stream of sewer water flowing down the tunnel.  "I thought I was the first."

He let out a deep sigh. "No. He was the first Robot Master ever made. He was my pride and joy. I loved him like a son."

"So...what happened?"

There was a significant pause. I was grateful I could turn off my scent registers, because this was undoubtedly awful.

Exhaling deeply, Dr. Light answered, "He was amazing, but more importantly for Albert, he was valuable. You've seen the Sniper Joe design, correct?"

I recalled the annoying robots. Their frustrating design was certainly effective. "Yeah. Unfortunately."

"They were based off of his design. The advanced AI that was implemented in his model allowed him to be skilled for military combat. We were offered a chance to display his abilities." He paused. "During the test, his experimental power core began to malfunction. I was only barely able to keep him from going nuclear."

"Nuclear?" I wasn't sure I had heard that right.

"I'm afraid so. As I said, his power core was experimental, and though we perfected the designs on future robots, this particular one was powered by a miniature nuclear reactor. After the incident however, Wily and I knew we had to make him more stable for the sake of our futures." His voice broke. "But when we came back he was gone."

I kept quiet, and an eerie silence surrounded me, broken only by my footsteps on the concrete floor, and occasional sounds of water droplets breaking on the floor or the stream.

"He liked the blues. So that's what I called him." Dr. Light cleared his throat. "But...enough about me, I suppose. Are you doing alright? I wouldn't send you on a mission while you're distracted."

I took in a deep breath, and as I let it out I replied, "Yeah. I didn't believe for most of my life that I was a robot, and with everything that's been going on, having a secret brother doesn't exactly blow me out of the water."

He chuckled quietly. "Always nice to hear your sense of humor, Rock. Just make sure you're right about that. Sometimes, the only thing worse than confusing emotions is..." The audio broke up, filling with patchy static."...them."

I tapped on the comm set a few times. "I'm sorry Dr. Light, you didn't come through at the end there."

The static returned stronger this time. "Must...limited signal feedback. You'll...it alone...him...him home safely...be-" This last statement cut off suddenly.

"Hmm." I turned off our system, and when I turned my attention back to the sewer ahead of me, I noticed someone standing there on the floor. I walked towards them a little more quickly, trying to adjust my vision to the lighting. As I got closer, I noticed some familiar elements. What seemed like a large shield strung over their back. 

"Hey!" I said, not too loud, since sound carried pretty well down here.

They turned towards me. He did look a lot like a Sniper Joe. His body was red, and he had a buster on his arm that was a lot like mine. His helmet had a black visor over his eyes, and it cast a shadow over his face so I couldn't see it.

When he looked at me for a second, he raised his buster and pointed it at me. I stopped and held up my arms. I heard the buster prepare to fire.

---

Nice. I love this story.

This is so much fun to write, and I hope you guys enjoy reading it. A lot of the stuff you've read throughout the story came on the spot as I was writing. Even though I've planned out a significant portion, I still come up with new ways to build the character relationships and the drama. And it's awesome.

Anyway, I'll see you guys when the next chapter comes out!