Author's note: If you haven't read Book 1 yet, I suggest you do so. If you don't, nothing in this book will make any sense whatsoever. Mega Man and all related characters are copyrights to Capcom. Thank you and have a nice day :)

20XX A.D.

New York City, sometimes called Megalopolis, always had been rather crowded, with hundreds of people shuffling off to their daily routines. Due to this, most citizens tended to ignore those around them as long as there was nothing of particular interest about them, and as such, hardly anyone even saw the blonde sixteen year old wearing a Mets baseball cap in their midst. He didn't mind. In fact, he preferred it that way. If anyone recognized him for who he was, he'd have probably gone through the twenty-first century equivalent of being stoned to death. Bass grinned to himself. Hiding out in plain sight. Never before had he realized how easy it really was. Perhaps Protoman's infamous "mysterious disappearances" weren't so mysterious after all.

It had been a week since Bass had left Dr. Wily's Space Node, and life was going well for him for the first time ever. Passing himself off as a human and using an alias, he'd managed to get himself a reasonable apartment for cheap, which was where Treble was, now, holographically disguised, of course. For some reason, he couldn't bring himself to go over to Dr. Lights lab, just yet, and that's where he really wanted to be. Roll was there. Bass grinned to himself again. A robot that could love. Boy howdy, would Dr. Wily give him an earful about how robots were not supposed to have feelings of any kind whatsoever, if he ever heard of Bass's secret. That was probably part of the reason Bass hated him so much.

"'Scuse me," a voice from behind interrupted his thoughts. "Do you have the time?"

Bass turned and found himself facing three men, one quite large and muscular, and two others much smaller and leaner. They looked to all the world like human beings, but Bass recognized them as the robots they really were. After all, he helped Wily design the holo-camo. "Yeah, time for me to get the heck outta here!" he replied with a grin, then disappeared into the crowd.

The three robots tried to follow him, but there was a reason that Bass had once been Wily's right hand man. He was one of the most skilled robotic warriors there was, rivaling even the famous Mega Man, and though he didn't do so very often, he knew many ways of avoiding fights, as well as winning them.

"Aw nuts," the big one­Guts Man­complained. "He gotta way!"

"That'sssss enough, Gutsssss Man," Snake Man­one of the smaller robots repremanded­ Basssss'll ssssssurly ssssshow up again. It'sssss only a matter of time."

Elec Man, the third disguised robot lifted a hand and sparks of electricity played across it for a moment. "Yeah, and when he does, he's in for a shock he'll never forget!"

Bass, lying flat on a ledge several stories up, heard the entire exchange. Only a matter of time, huh? He thought to himself wryly. Time's what got me into this mess in the first place.

He had thought that getting back to his own time would be the end of his recent problems. Little did he know that it was only the beginning..