Author's Note:

Alright, this is X22, which I will leave to you for my vacation. I gotta go home and take care of some stuff; if you're wondering why this didn't come earlier, I put up a site called Programmer of Entertainment. I'm trying to get some other stuff posted up and out of the way first. I should have 23 up in a bit in January. Depends on how much my new roommate bugs me.

So, they say give the public what they want. Well, I asked around and it turns out that everyone is most interested in seeing Rock vs. Elec-Man. Don't expect this entire chapter to be about it, in fact very little is about it. Sorry to disappoint all you fans that wanted to see a long drawn-out battle. Most of this involves a new character.

Anyway, this is Rock vs. Elec-Man. That's all it's really about and it's safe to skip it if you aren't interested. I'm gonna introduce yet another new character...*sighs*

---

"The belief in the possibility of a short decisive war appears to be one of the most ancient and dangerous of human illusions." -Robert Lynd

   ***

   Sure enough, just like the old man had said, there was a TPS surrounding the entire crevice of Diablo Canyon. Lindsay still couldn't believe she had trekked across half a small dry desert just to find it. She had spent the last week with a palm-pilot in her hand. She had scribbled many half-legible notes pertaining to any information she could gather during her afternoon flight over here. She had only left New Orleans this morning, and now on the other side of the country, the sun was beginning to set across the landscape. California was very different from Louisana. It was a very dry, dusty place with an incredibly mechanical landscape covering most of the populated parts of the small state. Here, in Diablo Canyon, there were no signs of life anywhere save a few dried out grey plants. The nuclear reactor was further down through the crevice. She had entered the canyon at least a two kilometres back. Looking upwards, the walls coming down into the canyon scaled at least a hundred metres high. She was sure that her American colleagues would be puzzled by her measurement. A great deal of rocks cluttered the landscape as if there was a recent avalanche. The blue glow of the Teleportation-Prevention Shield was causing a dull ache in her mind. There was absolutely no good reason for a TPS to be up around a nearly obsolete nuclear fusion reactor. She looked up the short steep hill at the old building. She was surprised that the Americans were still using them in some places, as her own country across the seas had abandoned the technology altogether after the last nuclear threat nearly two decades ago. Now, here she was, staring the old technology in the face. She wasn't very old, fresh out of Cambridge, so she could barely relate to this antiquity staring her in the face.

   The yellowed cylindrical building was set against both rock walls, scaling the canyon itself. The sun setting behind her glinted across the metal plating. The blue glow of the TPS spread across the orange dusty ground, making for a very unpleasant colour.

   "I hope this source turns out," Lindsay muttered to herself in a faint British accent. Ever since she had got to this country for her first job, they had been sending her on nearly pointless assignments. While her more experienced colleagues were covering political instabilities in the world for the front page of the Times-Picayune in New Orleans, she was stuck covering boring court cases for the side notes at the end of section A. She wanted to prove herself, but found it very difficult with the arrogant showyness of her fellow journalists. Or her own arrogance, she supposed. Or else, why would she be out here trying to prove herself?

   Maybe she should have considered applying to the Los Angeles Daily Star when she had landed in that smoggy city for the stopover this morning. Covering the newest celebrity divorce was at least mildly more entertaining than the latest construction site protest. And yet, that was the exact reason why she had spent part of the company payroll to book a flight out to the middle of nowhere. She probably wouldn't even have a job by the time she got back.

   She continued musing in her stray thoughts as she climbed up the dusty path to approach closer to the wall. The skin on her hands began to crack from the dry dust. Her auburn hair was an absolute mess; it fell over her small spectacles and clouded her sight. The smell of rusted metal was much more prevalent, now that she was right up next to the reactor. She bent backwards a bit to look up the shaft. It was incomprehensibly big. It stretched upwards as if reaching for the sky; she adjusted her glasses and brushed her hair back into place with her hands.

   She was beginning to feel rather silly for letting that old man persuade her to come here. There was a protest about the construction site beginning at North Peters; there were rumours of the site expanding partly into the Jazz National Park. Lindsay was sure that the rumours were false, but the dozen protesters located there were not so sure. Still, it couldn't have been a big story, or else the job would have gone to someone else. In fact, Lindsay was sure that if the rumours turned out to be true, there would be a much larger protest in the future. Front Page news, covered by someone else at that point. It was there that she met that strange old man. He wore a dirty labcoat and...

   'Come to think of it, he sort of reminded me of Santa Claus,' Lindsay thought to herself. She pictured the man she met with a jolly demeanor and a red suit. It made her laugh out loud. She was tired, thirsty, and now probably delirious.

   "I must be going crazy," Lindsay chuckled a bit. She circled around, hoping to find an entrance. She had to cut through a high-voltage fence which covered the entrance past the base of the canyon back nearly a kilometre. It had been difficult, but she had come prepared. She pictured a government lawsuit in the future, knowing the outcome if she was to be caught. That's why she was being very careful. Still, there were no surveillance devices. In fact, it seemed to her as if this entire plant was completely void of any other human beings. She came around to the entrance, noticing a paved road which stretched off into the distance, through the winding canyon. The road ended near her, of course. It stretched into a parking lot and ended in front of the stairs up to the main door.

   Absolutely no one was here. The old man had been right. Diablo Canyon had truly been evacuated. She knew that many of the old plants had been somewhat automated, but there still would have to be some sort of overseeing team.

   "What does this have to do with a construction site in New Orleans?" Lindsay said out loud, trying to find a connection. "Or an evacuation near Rachel, Nevada? Or even a security breach sounding off in Kennedy Airport, later reported as a false alarm?"

   This was the most ridiculous string of events to try and connect together. She had a nagging feeling telling her that this may be a prank; she was the butt of another office joke. There was simply no way to make the pieces of this puzzle fit together. She had done a bit of research during her flight. The evacuation had occured near S4, which had some connection with some place called Red Seven, also in Nevada. This same Red Seven was apparently involved in all the other instances according to the old man she met near the construction site. This old man wanted her to write an article on it, telling her to see for herself. She had honestly tried to write it off as a stupid joke, but her sense of journalism kept nagging her. What if there was some sort of government cover-up going on here? It might finally get her the front page for the first time.

   All of her fears and hopes were confirmed when the building began to shake. Just above her, the metal plating surrounding the first sector of the nuclear reactor blew out in a tremendous fiery explosion of air and fire.

   'What the hell was that!?' Lindsay ducked for cover up against the wall of the building.

   She also heard the unmistakable sound of gunfire just above. Lindsay stopped herself before she screamed and decided instead to try and find a way in.

   Something really was going on; it was big something. And she was going to figure out just what it was.

   ***

   "Sir, reloading visual after the explosion," The pilot calmly said. Thomas shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The small black helicopter was now approaching the area. Thomas could see the city lights of San Luis Ibispo on the horizon. The canyon was a long gaping maw beneath them. Dr. Light and his brother Terrence were sitting in the back of the helicopter.

   "Damnit, I can't see anything," Terrence took a swing and hit the old plasma-screen with the back of his hand.

   "If anything, you're just going to knock the connection out of place," Light said, his voice obviously weary. Thomas hadn't slept properly for the past six days. His energy and his patience were wearing thin; his brother was also getting bogged down by the past week. It had all been one long insane string of events...and at best, it was half over.

   "This connection has been wavy since we got within the area. It must be all the damned radiation in that reactor..." Terrence trailed off, visibly frustrated.

   "Rock's systems are unaffected by radiation. Besides, it's not as if the reactor is leaking radiation or anything. It's because of the Internet servers located in California. They disturb wireless frequencies even as far out as here."

   Terrence just grunted and hit the side of the screen again. It flickered for a bit and contact to Rock's visual system was re-established.

   "Looks like I knocked it back in place," Terrence mumbled, looking at the screen. The system in question was a direct link to anything that Rock would see on all frequency bands. At the moment, through thermo-imaging, Rock was currently looking directly at a wall. Nothing else could be determined. He seemed to just sit there, as if waiting.

   "What the heck is he doing?" Thomas looked onwards. He couldn't really make out much with all of the fake colour.

   "I think he ran for cover...something is going on down there," Terrence pressed the button for communications to his team. "This is Tango 149er, implement the operation."

   Thomas looked up from the staggering view below directly at his brother. "What's going on?"

   "My team is going to secure the area to make sure that this Elec-Man doesn't escape. I don't want this guy to get out of the canyon. Once the TPS is down, they'll move in. Rock knows that is his top priority."

   Thomas nodded. The reply soon came over the radio in a static-filled message, "10-4."

   "Maybe there is a radiation leak down there," Thomas mused. "It could disrupt communications when they get close to the building."

   "Let's just hope that Rock gets that TPS down so that my men can get in," Terrence reached forward and tapped the pilot's shoulder. "Take her around again from the north, okay?"

   The black helicopter turned slightly left as it prepared to make another pass of the area. The setting sun streaked the clouds with red light in front of them as they continued turning around. Terrence let a low whistle.

   "Too bad this good day had to be wasted in such a way. I would have loved to take Evelyn to the park..." Terrence trailed off.

   "What, did you bring her here?" Light asked. Terrence just shook his head.

   "No, I didn't. She hasn't really been outside of Nevada. Too bad, she really could do with some nice green grass and a sandy beach," Terrence sighed. "Instead, I'm spending my evenings plotting a way to counter yet another threat to the homeland."

   "I can't imagine what would have possessed my friend to do this," Thomas just shook his head. "The stress of failure from a few years ago must have finally caught up with him. He used to love the work, but I think it's just been too many failures since the scientific community has propelled us both to a sort of famous status. He's been different since the failure of the prototype. I think that horrible accident in the lab was just the last straw."

   Thomas just looked down. Usually the two brothers butted heads over everything, but at least they seemed to agree on one thing: Life was simply too demanding in their old age; neither of them seemed to have time to spend with their families.

   'Hell, I never even had the time to start one,' Thomas thought. Now his entire life's work was in shambles and it was his older brother's job to destroy the remaining vestiges of a future too dangerous to be explored. It didn't seem to surprise Terrence, given that genetics had failed nearly a decade ago. Now that that had been abandoned, humans were searching for another way to prove that they had such capabilities. The ability to create life as an exact science. Thomas explored this ability...And now it was their job to destroy such a wondrous achievement.

   What a positive way to look at it.

   The helicopter came in from the north, and Terrence pointed at another console display. "What the hell does that mean?"

   "I think the TPS has been dropped," Light replied. "I'm not sure why it would though, Rock hasn't moved an inch yet."

   Thomas thought about this a bit. It seemed that Rock was hiding away; possibly to get the drop on his opponent. He recalled installing ambush subroutines from an espionage program. But that would mean that Elec-Man would have dropped the TPS on purpose. For what reason, Thomas wasn't sure. There was no reason to drop the TPS...unless something was trying to get out of the plant.

   "...Hang on a second," he suddenly thought out loud. "Terrence, bring up the electrical grid display for the town of San Luis Ibispo."

   Terrence tapped a few buttons and immediately they saw what was going on. The TPS prevented export of energy. It was possible that the radiation build-up was due to an overloading of the systems. Elec-Man was going to drain the plant dry.

   "Wily is exporting energy...possibly to use for even more resources," Terrence yelled. "That crafty son of a bitch!"

   Terrence looked at his brother in amazement. "I never would have picked up on that so quickly...we might just be able to track where that energy is going."

   Terrence picked up the phone from the wall, probably to contact the power plant in Ibispo to track the movement of the source.

   'We may be able to figure out where Richard is hiding,' Light thought to himself. It was at that time that he heard the sound of a gun from the canyon. Someone was down there... but the team wouldn't have moved in so quickly. That meant that someone was there and was unauthorized. Terrence didn't seem to notice the sound; of course the spinning helicopter blades drowned out most of it at such a high altitude.

   Light remembered talking to the journalist in New Orleans. Ms. Korner seemed to dismiss his 'crazy' story at first, but he couldn't deny that someone was down there in the canyon. He prayed that it really was her. She would have been able to make it here by now.

   Light certainly wasn't going to destroy his achievement, and Ms. Korner was going to provide him with a way to save it.

   ***

   Again that same helicopter had appeared, the low buzzing sound of the spinning blades marked it's second appearance. Lindsay ducked quickly underneath the cement canopy at the entrance. She wasn't sure if they had seen that explosion, but it was much more than possible that this really was a very serious military situation. She tried to open the entrance, but found that it was locked by keycard. Lindsay huffed and tried kicking in the glass door which looked inwards towards the grey carpeted lobby and brown reception desk. She was already tresspassing on government property; a little breaking and entering probably wouldn't add too much to any sort of charges.

   She gave the glass another kick and got nothing but a dull shudder. She was annoyed to make it this far, only to be stopped by some thick glass.

   "Alright, let's try this," She reached into her tan overcoat and pulled out a .15 Brigadier. She aimed the gun at the door and took a few steps back.

   She squeezed the trigger gently and her gun cocked back automatically. A few bullets sounded off, the thunder echoed down through the canyon; the flash from her gun lit up her own reflection in the glass.

   "Whoops...they probably heard that," she cursed to herself. "I know I sure as hell did."

   She shook her head, trying to get her hearing back in at least one ear. She looked up and saw that the glass was unaffected.

   "Oh for crying out loud," she hadn't made it this far to be stopped by some really thick glass. She covered her ears and fired the gun at the electronic lock. The door immediately shunted open as if the lock was severed. She couldn't believe her luck.

   "You'd think they would have noticed that security oversight," She muttered to herself. Sometimes the military was just plain stupid. That would explain how she had made it so far. Of course, there weren't any guards to actually stop her. She forced the door open and made her way inside. Her gun had been loud, but it did the trick. She went into the lobby and decided to figure out if anyone was even in the building.

   It was strange. Although the outside of this cylindrical building was a rusted yellow, the inside looked nearly brand new. Grey lounge chairs were situated in a seating area by the desk, and the wood path lead around the desk and to the elevator on the side. She wondered where the actual plant was located.

   'It's probably upstairs somewhere, I just need to take a look around,' Lindsay checked a few doors and found a doorway leading into the main reactor room. The large metal vault-door which should have been there...was ripped right off the hinges. She felt her forehead break a cold sweat.

   "H-how...?" Lindsay stuttered. She couldn't believe the amount of damage done to this door. There definitely was something going on in here, and she wanted to know what it was. The old man she had met told her that everything would unfold eventually. She was tired of waiting; it was getting dark outside and she wanted to go to bed. She wasn't exactly used to her mild jet lag yet.

   'Not to mention I've been on my feet since I got here...' She took a step into the room. Cement made up the floor and the walls for at least forty feet. She kept looking upwards and that's when she saw it. The rest of the building was located in this one room. This one incredibly huge room. The steam from broken pipes above clouded her vision from going further than ten stories. This room was at least forty metres diametre; at least sixty feet in radius.

   'Ten stories...at least,' she thought in a slump. There was no way in hell she was climbing up the catwalks; she probably wouldn't be able to do it anyway. She wasn't exactly the leanest, most athletic person in the world. In fact, she had been putting on weight ever since she got to this country. She stared down at her protruding stomach, as if to ask it permission to attempt to scale something so impossible.

   'Stress like this does it, I swear to God. I blame stress for my weight problems.'

   The catwalks were black wrought iron; the few floors above her were made entirely of a thick wire mesh, allowing her to see up into the steam above. She saw a faint yellow glow of what was probably radiation from the large reactor above. She knew her doctor wouldn't be too happy about this expedition of hers when she got back. Lindsay looked at the walls in amazement. The stainless steel walls were blackened, possibly from explosions. Broken wires and systems were exposed, electricity shooting out the tips every two seconds exactly.

   "Great, that makes this so much easier," Lindsay hoisted herself up the stairwell which climbed up to the second floor which was at least ten metres upwards. She made her way over some debris and up to the first floor made entirely of steel. She climbed for nearly fifty feet until she got to the first part.

   The overhang from the protected walls dipped into the hole in the catwalk floor. There were a few smashed consoles on this floor, as well as a large computer screen. It seemed to be reading out reactor temperature and mixes. The walls turned this room into a circular hallway. She couldn't see directly across, because the wall was in her way. That was when she noticed some odd discs moving across the grid floor. They appeared to be tracking her movements.

   "What the hell? Is this place booby-trapped or something?" Lindsay shook her head in disbelief. A loud long creaking noise came from above; something was going on up there. The lights suddenly darkened, and she could barely see anymore. All she could make out were the blinking blue lights from the discs spiraling around on the catwalk floor. There was no way she was going to be able to get up there in the dark.

   'Didn't I see an elevator somewhere?' she thought in vain. Before the lights went out, she saw the elevator doors around the left corner of the room. Of course, it probably wasn't working at all. This whole situation seemed to have been set-up to prevent people from getting inside. That was when she heard something clunk far above her. And then something else. The lights flickered back on; Lindsay seized that opportunity and took out her camera. She zoomed in through the first few floors using the compensate-zoom function and realized that something was going on another four stories above. It appeared that two people were standing on a circular catwalk several floors up. They were also fighting eachother. Their footwork was visible as they both clanked against the thick wire above. Lindsay zoomed in some more, hoping to see a bit of them. One was blue and the other was so black that Lindsay could barely make him out save a strange yellow mask which covered his face. She shrugged and took a picture. The two continued their fight, thankfully unaware of her.

   'What the hell are those two doing?' Lindsay thought. The blue one fired at the black one again, but he missed and took out a console behind the other one. That was when she noticed something. The face of the one in blue armour was very young.

   'He can't be more than...thirteen, maybe?' Lindsay found this entire situation much too strange to even try to figure out. Who gave that kid a gun? She decided to duck around to the other side of the room where she wouldn't be seen. She just hoped that whomever won the fight upstairs wouldn't find her hiding down here.

   ***

   They had fallen through yet another floor, but the situation was unpreventable. Out of all the robot masters that Rock had fought so far, he had not been expecting this one to prove so difficult. The last three had proved fairly trivial and he had sustained only minor damage. Yet, this one was not caught off guard by the ambush. In fact, this robot master seemed to be impervious to his arm cannon. His last shot missed Elec by only a centimetre. Elec had been exact in his dodge, meaning to taunt Rock possibly. That of course, would provoke no over-reaction on his part.

   "Even if I did not dodge," Elec stated coldly in a low rasp. "I am a walking power converter. I can dissipate 90% of your plasma before it even touches my armour. And I assure you that my armour is just as tough as yours."

   "Concede," Rock said. "You cannot win; you brought your own destruction by de-activating the TPS. Back-up will arrive shortly."

   "They'll find only your corpse," Elec smiled and put both of his hands together again. Rock was curious about this reaction. It did not seem to fit any protocols that a normal Robot Master would have had installed. The electrical run-off immediately converged. Rock had been hit by this once already; it had turned his front plate so brittle that it broke with a single physical attack. It simply did not compute. Dr. Wily must have reprogrammed Elec in order for it to express sadism. But why would a robot master require sadism? It would not effect the judgment of Rock in combat. Rock backed away with frightening speed, but it was too late to dodge what Elec had truly planned. Elec changed his target to the floor and electrified the catwalk beneath them.

   Rock's heavy weight broke through the now brittle floor when he landed back down and he fell through with a loud crash. Rock scanned Elec-Man one last time before he was out of range. The air turned into a high-pitched whistling wind. When he finally hit the floor beneath him, gravity did it's best to pull him through it to the floor below as well. Rock saw Elec-Man get further and further away as he fell down many stories through the grid platings. He broke right through another steel grid and felt the cool air against his back as he began falling again. The steel groaned and screamed as he landed solidly on another catwalk. This time, the floor bent instead of breaking completely. Rock ignored the damage that he had incured from the tremendous fall and stood up out of the bent curve now beneath him. Elec was still up there somewhere.

   His power was down to 50% and he had yet to harm his target. Rock decided that he should retreat until he could determine a way to win this fight. He had managed to scan Elec's systems again before being thrown down through those floors. Elec obviously was not pursuing him for the moment, or else he would have simply jumped down. Rock analyzed the data he had managed to retrieve. It was true that Elec's armour was the same type as him. It made sense, since Elec was based on his systems. However, Elec's systems were much less sophisticated as he had only been designed for one purpose in mind. Of course, Wily gave him a new purpose, and new armour to go with it. And he noted that this Robot Master was more of a conversationalist than the previous ones. The armour that Elec was wearing showed a strange anomaly that Rock could not identify. Unfortunately, he had not been trained in how to analyze such data. He transmitted it to Dr. Light's receiver, hoping that an answer would arrive shortly. He realized that the chances of successful transmission in such conditions was very low.

   That was when Rock noticed odd movement one floor beneath him. Rock went to the ladder and jumped down nearly forty feet to the lowest catwalk level in the reactor. The unidentified woman gave a yelp and scampered around to the other side of the room. The scan showed that this new target was behind the wall in front of him. Rock also noticed the same Spines that he had evaded earlier. The blinking discs moved slowly across the floor. He walked around to the other side of the room.

   This was a curious situation. There was no reason for this woman to be here, as the building had been evacuated this morning. Rock came to the conclusion that he must escort her to safety before Elec-Man came down to continue the battle. Rock walked around the corner and saw the woman hiding behind a console. Because of all the startled reactions, the Spines had begun paying attention to her and one closed in on her position.

   He pointed his arm near the woman's position. His left hand split and retracted to the outside of his fore-arm; the plasma blast from his cannon seemed to frighten her. She gave a startled scream when Rock shot the Spine near her feet. It was paralyzed for the moment. The woman pulled out an antiquated weapon and unloaded half the clip into his chest. It was certainly an incredibly noisy weapon. No damage was recorded. Her eyes lit up in amazement, but retracted in fear when she saw his blank face. She backed up from him slowly, her face covering in the shadows of the corner as she moved away from the pale yellow lighting.

   "Greetings," Rock stated simply. For some odd reason, the woman passed out. He scanned her again and concluded that it was possible that she suffered contamination from the radiation leaking from above.

   ***

   The dim lighting in the steel elevator shaft was the first thing that Lindsay noticed. It was probably brighter than normal, but her vision seemed to be playing tricks on her, lately.

   'I did just shoot someone who is apparently invincible,' Lindsay thought ludicrously. Since she was waking up, she concluded that she must have been waking up from some terrible nightmare. Of course, that didn't explain what she was doing in an elevator shaft.

   That was when she noticed the blue boy looking down upon her.

   "Ah crap," Lindsay whined loudly. She slumped back against the wall. She felt like she was going to be sick.

   "I assume that besides the radiation, you are undamaged," the boy said. His voice was simple and never varied in tone. Lindsay noticed the fray wires coming from his chest and the cannon where his arm should be. Now she remembered what had happened.

   "W-wha..." Lindsay stammered. "What-- the heck are you?"

   "I am a Robot Master, designed originally as a basis for all other Robot Masters and therefore generally incorporate all test protocols. My designation is Rock."

   "So you work for Red Seven...," Lindsay said. "Well, at least something seems to fit into this puzzle."

   Lindsay looked up the shaft and noticed that the elevator doors had been torn and bent open. The rank smell wafted in from above. She looked down and realized that they were standing on the elevator which was halted, probably near where Lindsay last was.

   "Um...My name is Lindsay Korner," She reached out her hand. Rock shook her hand. "Um, how...did you open those doors?"

   "With the Guts protocol now installed, I can apply a pressure of nearly--" Rock broke off when Lindsay retracted her hand from his so suddenly. She backed up a little.

   "So...you're some kinda robot then?" She poked his face a bit. He was a bit short, so they were staring nearly face to face, even though she was sitting on the elevator ceiling. "What...are you doing here?"

   "Attempting to neutralize the target identified as Elec-Man," Rock stated. It was pretty obvious that this...robot was not programmed to avoid response to certain sensitive questions. She shook her head; she knew there had been some advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence, she had heard of the work being done by Thomas Light and Richard Wily. Still, this was incredible. That was when she realized the extent of what Rock had said.

   "Wait a second, where is this Elec guy?"

   "That would be Elec-Man. And I believe that he is currently making his way down to our position."

   "How did you survive such an immense drop?" Lindsay asked. This was easily the single most confusing moment of her life.

   "I was created to survive such an event," Rock replied.

   "What's gonna happen?"

   "You will be left here. Please stay and I will do my best to neutralize the target."

   And with that, the robot made an impossible leap upwards through the busted elevator doorway. Lindsay couldn't believe what she had seen since she managed to get here. This robot fell nearly ten stories and didn't seem to be hurt very much at all, except from the recent combat. And now he had just leapt nearly twelve feet out back into whatever awaited him. It was an incredible display of obvious honed military efficiency.

   "The military," she whispered. Now that the TPS is down, they'll probably start beaming in, starting with the top and sweeping their way down to dismantle all those...traps lying around. They're probably going to secure the area. She had to get out of here before anyone else saw her. She had the recorder around her neck pick up everything that this Rock had said, albeit probably with lots of static from the radiation. She reached up weakly, realizing that her vision was slightly blurred. She realized that her spectacles were gone, probably broken. She was a bit annoyed that she didn't have them, but she was getting out of here before any more radiation decided to leak on her.

   "Screw this...I need medical attention or I'm going to be wearing a wig over my bald head for the next six months," she muttered to herself. She stood up best she could, but this resulted in her doubling up. She threw up all over the floor, the disgusting aftertaste of afternoon coffee now bitterly fresh on her tongue. At least it was better than the metallic taste of blood she had earlier. She was definitely sick. She closed her eyes, but that only made her feel worse. She felt like she was drunk, which was a bit of a ridiculous thought. Lindsay moved to the emergency ladder and weakly made her way up. She felt kind of stupid, seeing as how that Rock managed to scale this height in a mere second.

   She heard more shots fired from within the room. She surmised that the battle had picked up again. It still didn't make sense as to why Elec-Man simply didn't drop down just like the blue robot. If this Elec-Man was based on Rock's systems, surely he was capable of such a drop. Lindsay brought her head up over the entrance. The rest of her body clung to the ladder as she peered over the edge. Rock and Elec were at it again. Elec fired some bizarre grey arc of electricity which stained the circular wall black. The electricity danced across the wall and glanced Rock across his right arm. Elec then swung his fist with blinding speed, but Rock moved out of the way with ease. Elec's fist shattered the wall, breaking it as if it were dried out cardboard.

   'How...how could he be so powerful?' Lindsay thought. 'Surely, the wall wouldn't break like that. There must be something odd about that weapon he's using.'

   Rock rolled across the ground and ducked for cover behind a console. Elec backed up and left Lindsay's view. Rock was straight to her left and she had to strain her neck to see what he was doing. Rock's arm cannon lit up again and he stood up quickly to fire a few shots into the blind spot of the room. The response was a powerful stream of plasma turning the console to a charred mess. The sustained electric arc made Lindsay's hair stand nearly on end. The console was reduced to a fine powder which the ventilation system behind Rock picked up. The grey ash streamed around Rock's feet into the ducts behind him. Rock didn't even seem phased by this display of power by Elec.

   'He can't be human; no human could come so close to death and still be able...to carry on.'

   Rock ducked from the next blast and tackled Elec. The two robots tumbled across the ground. Rock had Elec pinned to the ground. Rock fired his arm cannon right in Elec's face.

   "That's it?" Elec laughed sadistically. "I honestly expected more from the Blue Bomber."

   Elec put both of his hands on Rock's legs which were straddling the black robot's chest. An immediate surge of electricity literally exploded Rock backwards and into the wall with a tremendous shudder heard even in the catwalk floor. It was definitely clear who the winner was going to be. In fact, Rock didn't seem to be harming this Elec guy. Not very much anyway...it was almost as if Elec was acting as an immense power converter. Elec was like a giant diode.

   'But wouldn't that completely ruin his armour?' thought Lindsay. Perhaps he would be nearly immune to plasma or limited blunt force, but surely a sharp object could pierce through to his vital systems. Lindsay strained to remember the theories from first year science.

   'Come on Linds, it was only five years ago,' she did her best to try to work it out in her head. Rock pulled himself out of the wall and hopped down next to the reaction monitor. He ripped out that screen from behind him and proceeded to throw the entire monitor instalment directly at Elec. Elec moved forward, taking the monitor directly in the chest. The two were within close combat and Elec delivered an electric punch directly to Rock's chest. The robot fell back; he wasn't going to last much longer.

   "Ah, screw theories," Lindsay whispered. She took out her gun and reloaded the clip. She aimed the best she could with both her elbows hoisting her up over the edge of the ladder. She lowered her gun into position and fired at Elec-Man. The thundering noise caused her more pain then last time, her hearing incredibly sensitive in her radiation sickness. She only managed to hit him once, but it was enough to cut clear through his chest-plate. Elec backed up in surprise and Rock bought some more time by smashing the floor beneath them. The duo fell through the plating down to the cement basement of the final floor and out of Lindsay's sight. The screaming of the catwalk metal finally settled.

   "That was strange...why was Elec surprised?" Lindsay muttered. Surely robots couldn't be surprised...Rock sure wasn't when Elec nearly turned him to ash. In fact, Elec even laughed. Whatever the explanation, it was certainly an unnerving experience. She shook off the thought and climbed up over the edge. The catwalk had fallen through all along the second half of the floor. She could make it through to the first floor though, she was pretty sure. She stumbled along what was left of the grid plating. She saw the two beneath her; she had to hurry, because Elec was starting to get the upper hand again. She heard Elec beneath her yell with rage.

   "Don't get me wrong, Rock...it was fun while it lasted," she looked down to see Elec deliver a cruel blow into Rock's chest again which sent him sprawling across the floor. Rock's heels left deep skidmarks in the cement before he tripped backwards and impacted against the cement siding, the cracks travelling all the way up to the second floor. Rock was probably down for the count.

   Lindsay hurried and climbed down the stairs from earlier. She took a higher position from those stairs and fired a few more times at Elec. He stared at her with cold eyes. Incredibly cold; she hesitated and stopped firing.

   "You're really starting to bug me, young lady," Elec put both of his hands together.

   'Uh oh, I know what that probably means,' Lindsay saw the pool of plasma forming in his hands. 'What is it with this guy and his Kameyameya techniques. He's a freakin' loon!'

   Lindsay backed away, but she knew there was no way to avoid the blast. Suddenly, a steel boomerang flew across the room and caught Elec in the chest, literally knocking him with such force that he stumbled back out the vault door. Rock stood up out of the wall; Lindsay hoped this would be the last time he would have to peel himself off the wall like that. Still, he seemed to be dead.

   "Auxiliary power," Rock said simply. His right fore-arm was open like a metal cabinet. He withdrew another blade and took aim into the other room.

   'Where the heck did he get those?' Lindsay thought. She moved down the stairs, ignoring the dizzying headache which made her arms feel like rubber. This was simply too much. She stumbled into the room to offer some more support fire, but she knew that she was in no condition to even be awake right now, much less useful. Rock and Elec were going at it again in the main lobby. Rock jumped over the couch and cut the coffee table in half with one of his blades. He was holding onto it backwards like one would hold a dagger. Elec sent an electrical arc which literally ate a hole into the floor where Rock once stood. Fortunately, because Elec had nearly vapourized most of Rock's armour plating, the blue robot was much faster. Rock had leapt sideways to avoid the blast; Elec fired another shot at the pillar, but Rock landed against the pillar and used it to bolt off towards Elec. Even though the plasma blast hit Rock directly, the blade cut right through Elec-Man's left arm. Elec backed off towards the other side of the room.

   Rock staggered and fell into the couch. Lindsay could see that his own right hand had been sliced nearly clean from his own blade. They obviously weren't designed to be used as a personal hand weapon, but Rock probably had no choice. Elec was just too fast to chance throwing it.

   "Alright..." Elec spat out what looked like blood. "One last time; show me what you got Bomber."

   Rock looked up with what looked like fiercesome determination in his eyes. Lindsay could see that he had a strong sense of survival and a strong will to get the job done. It was more than simple artificial intelligence; in that one brief moment, she could see it in Rock's eyes. Truly, whomever created him must have been a genius.

   "One last time," Rock replied, a new edge showing in his voice. Elec smiled at the tension and they both lunged at eachother again. Lindsay couldn't believe the speed with which they took off. The black robot literally ripped up the wood tiling from where he stood. Rock came towards her, his body shaking. Lindsay ran and jumped behind the desk with all the strength she had left in her. The ensuing explosion nearly knocked the desk over and she was sure she heard the glass in the entrance doors shatter from the sheer pressure. She looked up, electricity surrounding the two in their grapple. Elec forced his hands into Rock's legs, bringing the blue robot down. Rock fell down, but it looked like it was on purpose. In a mere instant, the blade shot up and spun through the armour plating of Elec; Rock was weaving his blade as if he was stitching the air. Elec's head was thrown clear from his body and bounced off the desk. The eyes in the mask of the lifeless head stared up at her. She couldn't hold back any longer on her fear, anguish, confusion...she just started sobbing. She hoped that it was finally over.

   It was at least a minute before she dared to stand up. She saw that Rock's left leg had received extreme damage from that final blow, but he was still standing. Rock turned around and looked straight at her. She stiffened up immediately, almost forgetting her new illness. He walked towards her. She froze in fear for a second until she realized that Rock wasn't going to hurt her. She wasn't sure why she thought that, really.

   "Thank you for pointing out the fatal flaw in his design," Rock put out his hand. Lindsay slowly took it and looked down at him in disbelief.

   "The blue bomber, huh..." Lindsay thought to herself. "Is that what I am going to call you...it better be good if it's going to be front page news."

   "I'd like to think it's a good name," came the cracked voice from the entrance. Lindsay turned in surprise and saw the old man she had met in New Orleans just yesterday. "That's the project name, you know."

   Lindsay looked at this man in disbelief, "Just who the heck are you?"

   "I'm Dr. Thomas Light," the old man said. "I'm sure you've heard of me before."

   "Umm...yeah, you were mentioned in a textbook for my...uh," Lindsay trailed off.

   "Yes, well. Hopefully you'll have more to say when you write up your article," Light said. Lindsay just sort of stared at him. A team suited in radioactive suits came in from the vault door. They had probably beamed in and started sweeping the top floors, just as Lindsay thought. They nodded at Light and moved outside. There were a few moments of awkward silence.

   "Um...aren't you going to try and cover this up?" Lindsay wasn't sure what exactly was going on.

   "No, I'm not," Light gave her a transponder. "Just hit that button and you'll be beamed back to the local Telestation in Ibispo. That's as far as a portable one takes you."

   "Wait a second...," Lindsay stopped herself. "So, what are you going to do with this...um...Megaman?"

   Light chuckled at the term, "You may want to check into a hospital before you go back to New Orleans, Ms. Korner."

   Lindsay just stared at the transponder in her hand. She looked at Rock again. She was about to hit the button when she remembered to do just one last thing. She fumbled in her coat for her portable camera. She took it out and backed up a bit.

   "Smile," She motioned to Rock. The robot gave an awkward smile when the flash went off.

   ***

   Author's Comments:

Not too bad, it actually turned out better than I figured it would. The fight wasn't exactly a big part of the chapter, but I hoped it was satisfying for my more testosterone-driven readers. You probably noticed by Dragonball Z reference, not to mention that the fight sorta turned out this way.

I'll be honest with you; Rock vs. Elec is a good indication of fights to come in the future. If you do not like my mutilation of the video games, I suggest you stop reading now. We're getting into some pretty combat-intensive chapters coming up.

For those of you wondering about X's flashbacks, and how they are related to these chapters that take place in the past... Well, X remembers Rock's experience from this particular scene, however he doesn't experience the thoughts and persons of others. Basically, it's like I'm telling you what took place back then, but X obviously only remembers it from Rock's perspective. And yes, Lindsay Korner will re-appear in later episodes. She's a new canon character for my past storyline for the second season. In fact, expect a few more new canon characters to pop-up; now the fun gets started.

Oh yeah, Star Trek reference in there. I'm sure any Trekkie would have noticed it.

Merry Christmas! ^_^

Michael Raymond Vendittelli (LimousineDriver)