Wily's Wittle Wub

by Tatsurou


Prelude to Darkness

Rock smiled as he sat back from his video games, having once more enjoyed playing with Vinyl and the others online. Much to his pleasure, Kalinka had also logged in, as he especially enjoyed playing with her...for reasons he couldn't completely compute, but had apparently made Dr. Light very happy for some reason. Rock still didn't understand that, but he'd decided not to pursue it. Dr. Light had said his personality core, at least, was designed to grow and evolve the longer he was functional, so he assumed it would make sense someday.

To his surprise, Dr. Light stepped into the lab earlier than expected. "Dad!" he called out, running up to him. "I thought the appointment would take longer!"

"Got bumped up," Dr. Light replied, moving his mouth carefully as he spoke.

"An earlier appointment got cancelled?" Rock clarified. When Dr. Light nodded, he smiled. "So how did everything go at the dentist's?"

"Evewything went wondufwy," Dr. Light answered, frowning as he heard the changes to his own voice due to the visit. Even if it wouldn't last long...

Rock covered his mouth to stifle his snickers. "I'm sorry...I didn't quite catch that?" he asked quickly.

"It went wondufwy," Dr. Light replied, glowering at his creation.

"Well, I'm glad it's all healthy," Rock replied, managing to stifle his giggles for a time.

Dr. Light smiled softly. "Thank you, Wock." He winced as he realized what he'd just walked into.

Rock burst into laughter as he sank into a chair. "Say rascally rabbit!" he gasped out. "Say it!"

Muttering under his breath, Dr. Light turned towards the lab.

"Hey, where are you going?" Rock called out curiously.

"Upgwading youw awmow!" Dr. Light called back, causing Mega Man to howl with laughter. Muttering imprecations, Dr. Light began tinkering with the Mega Man armor, seeking to add a new effect of what it would do to Rock's voice synthesizer when he was being Mega Man.(1)


Vinyl frowned as she stared through her telescope at the stars. She had been plotting the next mission to Mars after the initial survey had proved rather fruitful. Not only had there been plenty of places to build settlements, but there was an excess of energy mineral for the terraforming Robot Masters to power themselves with, meaning an atmosphere and oceans could be crafted with just a few robots, while the rest started preparing the sustaining plants. Everything looked like it would work wonderfully with her plans.

However, instead of plotting the next mission, her vision caught on some sort of conflict. Two robots, one surrounded with pale blue energy and the other surrounded by dark purple light, were locked in pitched battle, and her scanners showed that the very fabric of space fluctuated with every impact of one against the other. Whatever the fight was about, the very existence of the combatants was concerning. It seemed highly likely that her plans would have to be put on hold while this was dealt with.

As Vinyl watched, the two robots clashed once more, inflicting massive damage upon each other...and then began to fall towards Earth. Gasping, she raced to her computer and began to calculate trajectories. The one in blue proved difficult to track, as it fell into the oceans, but the purple/black one landed on an island, thankfully uninhabited. Vinyl knew exactly what needed to be done now. "Dad!" she called out, both shouting and using the communicator.

Grumbling, Albert pulled himself out of bed, muttering under his breath as he picked up the intercom. "What is it, Vinyl?"

"We need to buy an island!"

Albert was silent for a time. "Vinyl, I wish this was the strangest thing you'd woken me up with. What do we need with an island?"

"An alien robot crash landed on it!" Vinyl explained.

Albert opened his eyes wider, his interest caught. "Well...that's certainly something we'd want to investigate...but the only reason we'd want to flat out buy the island is if we were going to build a Fortress there, and I thought we'd agreed to the 'conquer Mars' plan over trying to conquer Earth?"

"It contains an unknown source of energy that warps the fabric of reality," Vinyl explained. "And a second alien robot with a different energy was fighting it in space...and that one crashed into the sea!"

Albert was immediately fully alert. "I'll be right there!" he insisted, tossing aside his blankets and running through to Vinyl's lab in just his pajamas. "Which island?" he demanded, looking up at the map.

Vinyl pointed it out on the map.

Wily grinned widely. "We're in luck!" he cried out, feeling a bit relieved. "It's uninhabited, small enough to have not drawn any mining or resort interest, but large enough for a research infrastructure. We don't even need to buy it, we can just shift Sky Lagoon into position and start air dropping resources down for construction. You focus on designing the interior of the Fortress and the hazards to keep that other robot from getting in before our research is done...and keeping the one on the island from getting out. I'll start designing eight robot masters to patrol the island and control the security systems."

"On it, Dad!" Vinyl confirmed, grabbing the intercom again. "Protoman! Alter Sky Lagoon course to Point 74923-00664! We've got research to do!"

"On it, Vinyl," Protoman replied readily. "What readiness should the Four Wardens be at?"

"Priority False Blue!" Vinyl replied readily. "I don't know what we'll be facing, but it might be stronger than Mega Man. Let's be prepared for that."



(1) This explanation for the different voices in Megaman 8 is blatantly stolen borrowed a tribute to the awesome, if discontinued, webcomic Two Evil Scientists.