There was a large stage, open red curtains framing seven red, cushy chairs. A background of white projection screen is in the back of the stage, blank. All this, and yet there is no one to be seen. All of a sudden, huge fireworks go off, exploding and filling the room with color. As these fade away, a shower of glittery confetti and colorful balloons pour out all over the stage, right atop the author and five of her suddenly appearing characters: Mega Man, Roll, Proto Man, Bass, and Crystal Bot. The five sit in the chairs as GrimMoody herself, twirling in the midst of glitter and balloons in her pink, beaded blouse and black skirt.

"Welcome, welcome all!" she giggled. "To the fifth and final Bonus Features!"

Canned applause sounded from hidden speakers, which was good because nobody onstage seemed ready to applaud. Mega Man grinned at the spectacle, smacking a red balloon over to his brother's chair, who swatted it back. Roll tried to sweep off all the confetti that kept landing on her, but more kept falling all over her, going down her dress and getting tangled in her hair. Bass stared at it all with his chin on one hand, flicking away any balloon that dared land near him. Crystal Bot merely stared at it all, enjoying the shiny glitter with wide eyes.

"Hey Crystal," Moody said, pointing above the robot's head. "Pop that pink balloon coming down."

"Okay!"

Crystal Bot snagged a screwdriver from her dress, lifting it above her head and stabbing it into the falling balloon. Instantly a loud BANG alerted everyone, and a massive explosion of glitter rained down on Crystal, leaving her buried in an ever so shiny wake. Even still, she giggled, spitting the glitter out of her mouth and wiping at her eyes. The glitter didn't stick much to the metal, but left Crystal Bot sitting half-buried in a pile of glitter. It did stick in her hair, however, leaving its auburn locks bright and pretty. Or tacky, if that's your opinion.

"Hee, hee!" Sonata kept right on giggling, even as she tried to clear off the shiny stuff. "I like that!"

"Thought you would!" GrimMoody winked. "Anyway, guys, this is the very last Bonus Features! Make it a good one, alright?"

"Finally." Bass muttered, though not unhumorously. "It's about time we didn't have to do stupid things like this anymore."

"What are you talking about?" The author stuck her hands on her hips. "None of you were in the last two Bonus Feature specials. Well, except for Roll, but that was basically a cameo."

"Yes, but that was because we were dead, might I remind you." Proto Man said. "Thanks a lot for that, by the way."

"Oh, stop whining, y'all. You're perfectly fine now, aren't you?" GrimMoody turned back to the camera, going back into hyper-sugary-caffeinated host mode. "So anyway, YAY! My three years hard work has payed off! As of the writing of this episode of Bonus Features, these are our stats: the wordcount is 727,180; the stories have gathered a total of 288 reviews, 59 favorites, and 34,735 hits; and finally, stories in the Okkusenman quintology appear on four different C2 lists! WOOHOOO!"

Despite themselves, the characters began to grin and clap. Crystal Bot practically squealed with delight, and her boss in the chair beside her grinned smugly.

"Wow, that's a lot of reviews!" Roll gushed. "I'm so happy that people enjoyed this story."

"And I'm so surprised." Rock said, though not without amusement. "It's not like Moody here knows what she's doing."

"I suppose people enjoy watching us suffer, or something like that." Proto Man mused.

"Actually, that's not quite true." GrimMoody pointed out. "You guys suffered the most in Wily Ga Taosenai, but that story actually has less views than the others."

"Unlike Afterlife, where we were dead." Proto Man rolled his eyes. "And that has the most views."

"I think most people like that because it's a Classic/X crossover, technically speaking." the author shrugged.

"Don't be silly." Bass grinned. "People enjoyed that story because I was in it. After all, your two most popular stories in the series are Okkusenman and Afterlife, and I was the main character in both of those. I guess I'm just so charismatic the fans can't get enough of me!"

"So true." Crystal Bot nodded. "Forte-kun is the coolest guy ever! And it doesn't hurt that he has a totally cute technician!" The girl-bot winked at the camera.

"Guh..." Proto Man facepalmed.

"Silly people." GrimMoody turned to the camera. "Moving on, how do you guys feel about the story series finally being over?"

"Wonderful!" Mega Man said. "Now I don't have to worry about you lying and saying you're actually going to feature me in the story. I mean, I'm used to it by now, but it's just nice not to have to worry about it anymore."

"I like that I don't have to think about my past anymore." Proto Man nodded. "Going through all that was pure torture, and of course you had to make Rock find out about my past in the worst way possible. It's great that there's no more story for you to be able to reveal more of it."

GrimMoody raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And you're sure about that?"

Proto Man's mouth flattened into a line. "Oh no...gah, of course you would think of something for Bonus Features. At least none of us will remember this later. Fine, just get it over with."

The author winked at him before turning to the other half of the stage. "So what about you guys? How do you feel?"

"Better, but this story wasn't so bad." Bass put his hands behind his head, relaxing in the chair. "There were some annoying parts, but it's nice that you're embarrassing Proto Man more of the time instead of me."

"That's mean, Forte." Crystal Bot scolded him, but not sternly as the glitter in her hair still had her in giggles. "I liked the story this time! I got my daddy back!"

"That reminds me," GrimMoody lifted her hand toward the right side of the stage and the last empty chair. "We have one more special guest to introduce! My favorite character in the entire Mega Man series, Crystal Man!"

"Yay!" Crystal Bot squealed. "Yay, Daddy!"

Out onto the stage stepped the aforementioned robot, looking mostly the same as he always had, though somewhat taller than he had before. If you looked closely enough, you could see new details and upgraded crystal orbs - assuming your eye can tell the difference between a crystal and an upgraded one (the upgraded version is shinier). As usual, his face was mostly covered by the front of his helmet, but his eyes were stern, and also red like his daughter's. In any case, Crystal Man went to his daughter, who squealed like a little child and reached out for his hand. He gave it a quick squeeze before going over to his chair. He glanced down at the piles of glitter on it.

"Um, Moody." he said. "Doesn't this glitter seem a bit excessive?"

"No. It's glitter. Glitter is never excessive." GrimMoody snorted. "Oh fine, I'll get rid of it."

With the clap of her hands, all the balloons and glitter disappeared from the stage, and all but Crystal Bot sighed with relief (the girl-bot pouted). Crystal Man finally settled into his chair, ready to get on with it.

"Hello, everyone." Crystal Man addressed the camera. "I am Crystal Man, DWN-040. One would think that my being GrimMoody's favorite character would entitle me to more screen time, but alas, that is not the case."

"Actually, I was thinking about making you be alive, but then I wrote Crystal Bot." Moody smiled. "And you're not bitter about it at all, I see. Come on, she's your daughter. Surely you're happy about her getting screen time, aren't you?"

"Yes," Crystal Man eyed the author disdainfully. "But that does not stop me from noticing that you are merely dodging the matter."

"Yeah, she does that a lot." Mega Man agreed.

"Dorkfaces. The both of you. Okay, so let's start off with the usual questions." GrimMoody pulled some notecards out of nowhere. "First of all, tell us a little about yourself, Crystal Man."

"There isn't much to tell that hasn't been covered in the story." he shrugged. "I was created by Dr. Wily at the same time as Team 2, but at that point I was a mechaniloid and capable of little more than walking and producing crystals. I remained in this form until Dr. Wily formed his fifth plan, and we all became Team 5. Yet somehow I retained my memories as life as a mechaniloid, and the very first moment I was given sentience, I found myself in hatred of Dr. Wily and his plans."

"Ouch." Moody bit her lip. "Hating your own creator. That must stink."

"Yes, it was definitely unenjoyable. I'm not entirely sure why that was, as Dr. Wily was the one that programmed me, but I think it was due to Proto Man." Crystal Man gestured to the other side of the stage. "Though I was a mechaniloid then, I rememer when Blues was one of Dr. Wily's servants. Though I had no emotions or understanding at the time of his servitude, once I gained sentience, I instantly knew that serving Dr. Wily was a mistake. Wily had no problem using Blues for his aims, and Blue took Wily's betrayal quite hard."

Everyone's gaze went over to the third chair on the left, and Proto Man's head turned downward to the floor. While the robots appeared sympathetic, GrimMoody grinned, rubbing her hands together gleefully.

"So, you have an embarrassing story to tell us about Proto Man, yes?"

"Hey, that's not fair!" Mega Man protested. "That's none of your business. Leave Proto Man alone. Hasn't he suffered enough for your twisted story aims?"

"Yeah, leave him alone." Roll supportively clutched Proto Man's arm. "His story is over and done with."

"Hell, I'd like to hear it." Bass leaned back in his chair, ignoring Proto Man's glare. "Tell us a story, C-Man."

"There is no need for concern, Lights." Crystal Man said. "Blues wasn't usually present in Wily's castles. He was either doing a chore or avoiding Wily, especially after the Gamma incident. My few memories of about him mostly just concern him taking orders...ooh, except that one time..." Crystal Man looked up at GrimMoody and frowned. "Eh...never mind. There is nothing."

"What?" Bass grinned. "If you have a story about Proto Man, spit it out already!"

"No." Crystal Man smoothly replied. "I forgot."

"That's okay. I took the liberty of recording the memory on my projector." GrimMoody turned downstage, calling out to Auto in the sound station. "Hey Auto! Play the first file on there! The one labelled 'Wily's Autograph'."

Phhhhwwwwzzznnnn...BLAAADOOOOOWWWWW!

With one charged pulse from Proto Man's buster, nothing remained of the poor little projector except a pile of molten goo dripping off the now melting plastic stand that once held it. Thankfully the precision-aimed blast had completely missed Auto. With that, Proto Man sat back down in his chair with a firm nod. Bass snickered.

"Dang. It must have been a really good story." the dark robot grinned. "Too bad we can't see it now."

"Oh, it's not all that much." the author replied. "It's just a little bit about Proto Man asking Dr. Wily for his autograph. Proto had a friend who was sick in the hospital years and years ago, and he was hoping that the signature of a 'famous scientist' would make the guy feel better."

"Heh." Bass chuckled. "That's lame. I was hoping he did something really stupid like call Wily his hero or something."

"It's not as lame as it sounds. Wily didn't want to sign the autograph, and Blues tried his hardest to get him to."

Bass burst out laughing. With a sickened groan, Proto Man buried his face in his hands, left to only hope that his family would support him. Much to his horror, Mega Man chuckled as well, and Roll had to cover a smile.

"Grimm's right." the blue bomber said. "That isn't too bad. Aw, Blues, you didn't know any better at the time. You were just trying to cheer someone up."

"Yeah." Roll patted his arm. "Besides, you have to imagine how much a signature like that would be worth these days. Your friend could sell it and donate the money to a good cause."

"Betrayed by my own siblings." Proto Man sucked in a sharp breath, glaring at them through his vizor. "Thanks...guys..."

Crystal Bot let loose a load of giggles, causing the poor Blues to turn his glare her way. Then, just to be fair, he glared at Crystal Man for bringing it up in the first place.

"You know, Moody, you can put up a deleted scene any time now."

"I could." she folded her arms. "But somebody blasted my projector."

The red and grey robot shifted his angry eyes to her. "Use your author powers to fix it."

"I am. It's just taking awhile. Author powers sometimes do, you know." GrimMoody chuckled. "Aw, just kidding. Here ya go! Hit the button, Auto!"

"Introducing, my greatest work yet," Roll said, lifting an arm for dramatic emphasis. "Crystal Bot!"

The second girl-bot giggled at this, and indeed Roll had done a good job. Her hair was up in a simple bun, but her dress more than made up for it. It was a dark green dress with a halter top and baby doll waist, glittering with little crystals. Long, dangly earrings that matched her dress hung from her ears, making the shiny girl-bot even more shiny than she usually was.

"You look really good in that, Crystal." Rock said. "That dress is very you."

"Um...thanks..." the tech-bot squirmed. She never was that comfortable near Mega Man. "You look dorky."

"He does not!" Roll said teasingly.

"Oh yeah? Then how do you explain his hair?"

The black waves that made up Mega Man's distinctive do were sort of sketchy, Roll had to admit. "Well...I really don't know why Dr. Light had to give him such hard to mess with hair. It just sticks up like that on its own, and you can't do anything much with it."

Crystal Bot snickered. "Dork."

Bass' technician rarely got on the good natured robot's nerves. Mega Man only smiled. "Have either of you seen Dr. Cossack? I've been looking for him."

"He's with some of the scientists next to the dance floor." Roll said. "It's a wonderful party and there they are huddled and talking about their latest projects! They need actually have fun once in a while."

"You need to have fun once in a while!" Crystal said. "That guy wanted to dance with you but you said no."

Roll's face crumpled, and she winced. "Uh, Crystal, that man was hitting on me because he didn't realize I'm a robot."

"Hitting on? What does that mean? He didn't punch you."

"Uh...I'll explain it to you later." Roll wondered if Crystal Bot knew anything of the world outside of a laboratory. "Rock, you go ahead and have fun. I need to find Kalinka. This place is so crowded!"

Today was a strangely annoying day for Bass. He was conflicted. All of it stemmed from this walk through the American embassy in Russia, escorted by a stiff soldier that never spoke. Bass eyed him warily; he was obeying the rules that both Russia and America had placed on him, and he didn't like being distrusted and led around by a guard.

He hoped he wouldn't have to be there long. That was the source of his main frustration. The party had ended and Treble had made the interesting find of two dead Wily robot masters, and nothing should have held him back from continuing his search for Zero. That was when he got the call that his ethics agent, Tim Reyes, wanted to see him. Bass first suspected that the American was trying to check on him, but he had been assured that this was about a job.

And that was the good part. Bass grinned thinking of it.

~"Why the hell can't you get your little blue boy to do it for you?"

It was after the party, but Bass wasn't yet out of his tuxedo from the party as he yelled at the telescreen. He had, however, managed to find his helmet so he felt a little better about addressing Tim Reyes in that getup.

"All of my collegues believe that Mega Man can't handle this situation." Tim replied, rubbing his chin. A nick in his skin seemed to be irritating him. "They feel that you are the most capable robot for this mission."~

Oh how that filled him with the utmost joy! It lightened him considerably, and his trip to the embassy was filled with thoughts of fighting some dangerous foe, one far too difficult for the lowly blue bomber. Perhaps it was too complex, requiring a significantly more powerful mind. It delighted Bass to no end that someone believed him superior to Mega Man - government agents no less! A thought nagged him, reminding him that they weren't likely to tell him of something more dangerous than Zero, but it entertained Bass too much to let go of this happiness. He had to wonder what convinced them of his "clear" and "obvious" superiority.

"These two scenes are the result of some plot puttering I did." GrimMoody explained. "I wasn't really sure how exactly I wanted each chapter to go, and these are some early drafts of that. In the first scene, Roll was showing off her work on Crystal Bot, but revealing Crystal Bot's dress this late meant that I couldn't use CB for earlier scenes, and I like the part where Bass tries to trick Rock into asking Crystal to dance."

Crystal Man eyed Bass warily, but he just sat quietly and let the author go on, acting completely nonchalant as he examined his fingernails.

"As for the second scene, that's just an alternate way to get Bass to the American embassy in Russia so that Reyes can explain to him that he wants Proto Man caught. It wasn't really that great, and the material was better when I showed Mega Man there, making it awkward for Reyes to explain what was going on."

"Hey, wait a minute." Bass squinted up at the projector screen. "How come 'clear' and 'obvious' are in quotes up there?"

"Ahem, no reason." GrimMoody coughed and quickly changed the topic. "Okay, so Crystal Man, I just realized I forgot to ask you some more questions. So, what's your favorite color?"

Everyone on the stage besides the author and Crystal Man groaned. The male shiny-bot just blinked with confusion, answering the question uncertainly. "Um, well, I like all colors. There is an appropriate place for every color to be enjoyed. But if I had to say the one I preferred, it would be...hm, probably lustrous."

"See!" Crystal Bot pointed triumphantly at Mega Man. "I told you shiny was a color!"

"I stand corrected..." Mega Man said with the shake of his head, not wanting to start conflicts he couldn't end.

"Why the hell don't you think of any better questions?" Bass muttered at the author. "They're so lame. You don't have any clue how to do an interview, do you? You've basically asked every character that appeared in Bonus Features those same questions."

"Not true." Moody answered. "I didn't ask Top Man, Sheep Man, or Ping Duplicitous. But anyway, thanks for reminding me of the other question I always ask. Crystal Man, who do you consider your hero?"

Everyone groaned again, and Proto Man turned to Bass. "Good job, Bass. You just had to remind her, didn't you?"

"Don't give me that crap." Bass snapped. "GrimMoody probably already remembered the question and she's just blaming it on me."

With glittering eyes, GrimMoody winked at Bass and promptly ignored his implication. "So Crystal Man, why don't you go ahead and answer the question?"

"You might as well." Mega Man said. "She'll probably lock the doors until you do."

"Very well." Crystal Man shrugged. "I don't know if I can answer your question very well. I admire several people, such a Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Ghandi, Confucious...philosophers of all types. But I suppose if I really must choose a hero of some sort, it would have to be Forte. He has acted heroically, just as I foresaw when I began to formulate my plans to free my team from Dr. Wily. Not only has Forte enabled them to be free, but he has also rescued and protected my daughter on several occasions."

"No problem." Bass let out a wide, smug grin. "I'm just awesome like that."

"I'd like to point out that Bass didn't have any intention of freeing Team 5." Proto Man mentioned, ignoring Bass' nasty glare. "He did that almost inadvertantly. And he only saved Crystal Bot because he wanted a technician."

"It doesn't matter." Crystal Man replied. "Whether he knew it or not, Forte completed the task. Also, I built my daughter to be a technician because I knew this would encourage Forte to help her. Didn't anyone see the note I left in Sonata's CPU?"

"Not in this timeline." GrimMoody piped up. "That happened in the old timeline, but it was erased because I sent Roll back to a point before then to fix history. Crystal Bot never got a chance to train Bass to look for hidden files on her system this go-round. Your note is written in How Many's secret chapter at the end. If anyone missed that, they can go back and look. This chapter isn't going anywhere." The author winked toward the camera.

The characters groaned with spite. Bass snarled with disgust. "The ego on this girl!"

"It would be better if she stopped plugging her stories and plugged her mouth." Proto Man shook his head. "It's not like her stories are that good."

"Oh!" GrimMoody grinned. "That reminds me. On my blog, Arc Rose Studios, I've just restarted my Hero of the Month series, and it's about these girls with superpowers. Right now I'm working on the May girl-"

"Whoa! Advertising!" Mega Man piped up. "That's against the fanfiction net guidelines!"

"I'm not advertising...I'm...telling." the author managed, then threw her hands in the air. "Oh, bother you people! I mean, I wrote you guys such a nice ending too. You know I can go back and edit those chapters, right?"

"Not after all I went through, you don't!" Roll huffed, folding her arms with a pout. "I'm not about to deal with another time change!"

"Besides," Proto Man pointed out. "If it took you this long to write the Bonus Features segment, who knows how lazy you'll be about finishing another story ending."

"I need characters that don't know me so well." Moody grumbled. "Bah. Auto, the next deleted scene, if you will."

"I've got their CPUs in the computer!" Crystal Bot exclaimed joyfully. "Gemini Man's is too damaged, but Sword Man's is processing. Aw, I kinda liked Sword Man. He was cool."

Bass rolled his eyes. "He was a loser like the rest."

Crystal Bot scowled at her boss, wrinkling her nose and turning sharply back to her computer. Bass let it pass for the time being. She was extra grumpy that day, and her glance went straight to the source of that irritation: Mega Man. The blue bomber was inside her cozy lab. His conversation with Bass at the party had piqued his curiousity, and of course he wanted to know as much about a potential threat as he could. Moreover, the dark robot couldn't object; part of the conditions of his probation was that he had to allow Mega Man to see anything he was investigating. It wasn't a right that Rock used a lot, but that didn't mean Bass liked it.

The girl-bot had it worse, or at least it looked that way. She wandered from computer to computer, explaining things to Mega Man in the fakest happy voice she had. Every so often she would look back at her boss, biting her lip and shining her questioning eyes. Bass only glared in reply. What did she expect him to do? Tell Mega Man to go away? She could do that herself.

"So what exactly did you find on Cut Man?" Mega Man asked. "Any leads?"

"It's kinda weird." Crystal resisted the urge to look at Bass. "I mean, the past month of his memory was heavily encoded, and once I got past all that I didn't find anything. All his memories were deleted. It's like someone just wanted me to waste my time."

"That doesn't sound like Wily." Rock said, rubbing his chin in wonder and staring upwards in thought. "It would be more like him to leave some ominous threat or clue behind."

Crystal Bot took advantage of Mega Man's distracted gaze to silently beg her boss for relief. Bass scowled and turned away. Crystal returned the scowl to his back, despite the little good it would do.

"Well," she said, going back to the subject at hand. "I mean, it's really annoying and that's like Wily. Ha, if I was on his side I'd be laughing really hard!"

She grinned delightedly, but the questioning look Mega Man gave her was enough to melt her happy grin into a nervous pout. She glanced at Bass (who still wasn't looking) without even worrying if Mega Man saw. She sighed.

"I'm not gonna betray anybody." she stuck out her lip in a not entirely childish way.

"I know." Mega Man's smile was confident. He knew how nervous Crystal Bot was around him. The transition to "good guy" hadn't been an easy one for her, and he didn't want to make it any harder than it had to be. "But what was the last clear thing you got from Cut Man?"

"Well, he was hanging out a lot with Team 2." Crystal Bot said. "Everybody besides Air Man was there. I don't know where they were meeting, but it might be a place that you recognise. I got you his CPU, and here's a disc that's got some specific things you wanna look at, like the path he took to go meet up with everybody."

The tech-bot handed Mega Man the CPU and a small zip drive. He tucked the CPU safely into his armor and stuck the zip drive into his neck. He nodded as the information ran through his mind and made itself known. As it processed, he felt himself filled with a sense of duty. Team 2 was the most serious and the strongest of the robot master teams, just the thought of fighting them again made Mega Man's selfless sense of heroism rise up. He just knew that he would be able to defeat them! Unconsciously he lifted a cute, determined fist, and Crystal Bot almost cracked a smile at how adorable he looked.

"Right, so how long will it take to get information from Sword Man?" Mega Man dropped his cute pose.

"Not too long." Crystal went over to the computer. "He's just got basic Wily encoding, and I know all about that! I think they were after Forte-kun, but I gotta confirm and make sure."

"Only two robots?" Mega Man questioned. "Er, three if you count the Gemini clone. I doubt that's enough to destroy Bass."

"Of course not!" Crystal Bot smiled with pride, folding her arms. "Not with my upgrades! But uh, it's possible that they're trying to distract him or maybe there was more of them and the drifts of snow covered up other people's tracks. Treble dug for hours and he didn't find anyone else."

"Is he still out there?"

"Yeah. Forte's headed out now to join him."

It's about time. Bass grabbed a couple of E tanks. I should have been out of here hours ago.

His maintenance had been finished during the night, directly after the party. Thankful that robots don't sleep, Bass tested his busters. His hands transfered from hands to busters and back again in 1.04 seconds. Satisfied with that, he began to set up a transmission to Treble.

"Hey, I got a transmission." Crystal Bot tapped a glowing button on the computer console. "Oh, hey mister Reyes."

Every bit of Bass joined in the cringe as Bass gritted his teeth. His ethics agent was on the line, and that meant another delay. Now that Mega Man was involved, Bass knew that there was less time for him to find Zero before something happened, like Zero awakening or Mega Man volunteering to help. Bass wanted to gag at the thought of assistance from the bomber, but he forced himself to calm down.

"Oh sure, Forte's here." Crystal chirped at the Hispanic human. "Hey Forte-kun, it's your ethics agent."

"Yeah, yeah, I'm not deaf." Bass irritably approached the viewscreen, addressing Reyes with his typical disdain for authority. "So? What is it?"

"Tell Treble what's going on and to contact me directly if he finds anything." Bass programmed the coordinates of the American embassy into the teleporter. "I'll teleport directly to him rather than come back here."

"But..." Crystal Bot stopped herself, glancing over at Mega Man briefly.

"Just show him the stuff and make yourself useful." Bass knew how Crystal felt about being left with Rock, and he didn't care. "I've got to get this over with."

"Good luck, Bass!"

"Shut up, Rock."

Bass teleported out, leaving the two to finish up their business. Rock was by then far used to Bass. It was still bothered him that Bass was so rude, but he let it go. Protesting would have been worthless anyway.

"Okay, so what exactly is on Sword Man's mind? What was he doing in Russia?"

"Uh..." Crystal Bot twisted her lips, then started clicking away at the computer. "His memories are sketchy at best. It says here that he was going to go get Wily out of jail at some point, but from what I recovered, he didn't have any specific plans right away."

"Well, that's good news." Mega Man said. "Unless the robots that were going to break him out were different ones. Exactly how damaged is Sword Man's mind?"

"Pretty bad, it's scratched from broken CPU casing. I'd give it to Auto to look up, but there's no sense in risking it getting more damaged." Crystal Bot sounded a little impatient. "Besides, you've got Cuttie, and he was always more of a big-wig than Sword Man anyway. Sword Man was told to do something, and he went and did it. Wasn't into planning or anything like that."

Mega Man nodded. "That's right. I'll actually miss Sword Man. He always seemed so good natured for a Wily robot. It's not fair that he died like this."

"He was still a bad guy, Rock." Crystal huffed before going on in a more reminiscent style. "And he was really...silly. He always helped me find ways to blow stuff up. He would make these long trails of black powder and light them on fire, and-" Suddenly remembering who she was talking to, she at once cut off, pulling her arms down and growing a little sullen. "I mean...he was cool. Oh yeah, I've got to show you the bodies. Hurry up!"

Sonata went over to the automated machine, waving for him to follow. She pressed several buttons on the side computer. The large, imposing door panel drew upwards and back out of sight, and with the pressing of two more buttons, a flat metal bed emerged from the opening in the huge machine. On it were strapped Gemini Man and Sword Man's remains, though sadly there was only enough of their bodies left to identify who they were; the bulk of their armor was gone, and this was the only way that both of them were even able to fit on the repair table.

The slightly paler color of Gemini Man identified that this was the clone rather than the original. His headdress was severed in the head wound that not only had killed him but robbed him of a readable CPU. It was very cringe-worthy, just thinking about receiving a head wound like that. Rock shuddered in the dread of it. Sword Man was hardly better off. Other than a large, torn gap through his power core and a laser-blackened cranium, his top half seemed barely damaged.

A deep thunk beside Mega Man startled him. It was Crystal, hauling out a clear plastic cylinder and letting it make all the noise it wanted to as it landed near Mega Man's feet. It was filled with all manner of metal bits, screws, bolts, and something that looked sort of like broken chunks of armor. The whole thing looked charred and black, scorched by some powerful flame.

"This is the main Gemini Man." Sonata enjoyed Mega Man's shock with a cruel smile. "Or all the parts of him that Treble could recover, anyway. Of course, some of those might be missing pieces to Sword Man's legs."

Having deposited that, Crystal quickly backed away from the metal bits rapidly. It suddenly made sense to Mega Man that she would scan the remains instead of eyeing them herself to make the reports to the authorities; the poor girl-bot never could deal too well with death. She nervously gestured over to the repair table where the robot master's detached legs lay resting, making well sure to keep her distance. Of course, Mega Man was only sure of their origin because of what Crystal told him; no one could look at the now ripped apart metal bars and plating and immediately tell what sort of wreck it was. Only close inspection revealed some of the intricate markings that still decorated the edges of some forlorn bits of plating still hanging on for dear life.

"It's easy to guess that he was attacked, not buried in the snow or caught in one of Dr. Cossack's security traps." Mega Man said, peering down at the damage. "From the damage to his legs, someone must have figured out that destroying his legs would have a very bad affect on his ability to fight. Once they were gone, defeating him wouldn't be a problem. They just had to shoot him through the chest. I just don't get what happened to Gemini Man, though. Why would they destroy him so...completely?"

Mega Man looked back over his shoulder at the bucket carrying the remains of the original Gemini Man. It pained him to see a robot in that horrible state, and though Crystal Bot tried to hide it, he knew it upset her too. She forced herself to be strong, but Mega Man could see her eyes averting from the remains, staring as hard as they could down at the floor.

"I...I don't know." she admitted. "I think he was harder to kill than Sword Man, and the guy that fought him had a hard time. He got so mad that he just tore him to shreds. That's my guess anyway. Angry people do bad things. It actually looks like they were fighting each other, because Sword Man has laser burns and Gemini Man got burned up."

"I see." Mega Man said. "Huh...it's weird...I don't think Sword Man killed Gemini Man. Sword Man controls fire, but how do you kill someone like that without actually hitting them with your sword? Gemini Man doesn't have any blade marks on him."

"It's definitely a plasma laser that got Sword Man, though." Crystal Bot countered. "Look at him. I mean, what robots have plasma lasers?"

"I know Signal Man did." Mega Man mentioned. "He's dead though, so...yeah."

Crystal Bot wondered. She knew what the Gemini laser could do. How different was Signal Man's? She glanced nervously at a still pondering Mega Man, trying to avoid a grin. Though it was illegal for any robot, including Mega Man, to hold onto enemy powers after that team was defeated. He didn't know that Crystal had kept copies of them, "just in case" was her excuse. She made a mental note to test and see what kind of burns the Signal shot dealt when Mega Man was gone.

"Hey, um, aren't the Cain-robots in the robot museum?"

Mega Man turned to Crystal Bot, curious. It was a good question. "I'm not sure. Maybe they do have them and it's just taking them longer to put their armor back together. Echelon Man by himself would take a pretty long time. Hey, Crystal, if you're finished with them, I'll take Gemini and Sword Man's remains and have them shipped to the museum. If you need Sword Man's CPU longer, you can hold onto that."

"Um, sure. Thanks. I'll get some crates."

The mention of Proto Man got a funny look from Bass, one that Mega Man couldn't immediately discern. It wasn't hate, or even disdain (or at least mostly not). It was an odd sort of curiosity, the kind which appears on those around you when they are uncertain about something, but especially about you. Noticing Mega Man's reaction, Bass allowed his face to go into a more casual look of indifference.

"Heh. I wish I could have seen when Proto Man worked for Wily." Bass said. "That would be weird as hell. It's hard to imagine Proto Man listening to anyone, especially an idiot like the old bastard."

The comment hit Mega Man like a lightning bolt, and not only because of Bass' blatant refusal to consider his creator in any sort of respectful light. He grimmaced at Bass, remembering that he wasn't dealing with a completely good guy here.

"How can you be curious about that?" Rock asked with a shudder. "I don't like to think about that at all."

Bass snorted, grinning with only a little maliciousness. Was that a little pity in his eyes? Or just contempt? "Yeah, I bet. Hell, I just don't see it. Proto Man being another of Wily's idiots just seems...stupid. How the hell does something like that happen? Imagine Blues following his orders. I guess he never tells you about the crimes he committed."

"I don't want to know." Mega Man scowled. "I love my brother no matter what. If you're trying to get me to leave, you're doing a good job."

The dark robot was just curious, but he stashed away this bit of information in his head for future reference. Having a reliable way to make Mega Man leave might prove handy. Rush must be less patient than his master; he left Bass on the end of the pier with a growl before pawing it back over to his master and standing by his feet.

"Relax." Bass knew he was pushing too far. Letting the truth slip out would just cause him trouble later on, and he couldn't risk doing it accidentally. "I'm sort of surprised that one of the higher ups hasn't made you turn him in yet."

"They know it's better that I don't get involved. I'm too close to the situation."

"Even if the crime is really bad?"

Mega Man paused. Why was Bass saying all of this? He didn't appear to be mocking him, or even that curious. He was...making conversation? And since when was the dark robot any good at hiding his emotions? Bass' visage was plain; it didn't convey any more information than would someone's face as they talked about the weather.

"I don't really think he could have done anything that bad." Mega Man said this with only a reluctant speed. "I know what kind of programmer Dr. Light was. Even misguided, Proto Man isn't the sort of person that would be cruel. He and Dr. Light...well, you know how they were, but it wasn't so bad between them that Blues wanted to give up on morality entirely. He still loved justice, and he's a good robot today. Dr. Light would be really proud of him. His past doesn't matter."

Now this got a strange look from Bass. His eyes widened then narrowed suddenly, as if critiquing what Mega Man had just said. In the end though, he just shrugged.

"Whatever." Bass turned back to watch the waters. "Treble says he still hasn't found anything more interesting than some golf clubs and a broken canoe."

Mega Man lifted his hand as if to get Bass' attention again, but

"I don't much care for these scenes." GrimMoody explained. "They're just alternate pieces of the scene where Bass goes off to be told his assignment on Proto Man. I wasn't sure what angle I wanted to come out on for this chapter, so I wrote it out a couple of different ways before I got it more or less right. At first I had an idea to let there be an awkward scene between Mega Man and Crystal Bot, but there was no necessary information to convey in that sort of scene, so it turned out better to move on.

"As for the third, that's a little bit of scene I cut out when Mega Man and Bass were standing at the pier. As much as I liked that scene, it wasn't giving any new information about Proto Man and his relationship with his brother. Now, if I were to publish this as official fanfiction, I would edit back in a similar but better scene where Mega Man gets on the edge of finding out about Proto Man. So you guys, thoughts?"

There was a moment of pause as all of the characters onstage sat in thought. Most of them glared at GrimMoody, Blues and Roll in particular. Bass shifted uncomfortably and Crystal Bot stared at everyone else, but Mega Man shook his head.

"You do seem to enjoy torturing them." Crystal Man put a hand on his chin, elbow leaning on the armrest of his cushy chair. "Perhaps I am glad I spent most of these stories dead."

"You were going to be in it at one point, in the beginning." GrimMoody mentioned. "I was writing Crystal Bot in the first chapter of Okkusenman, and I was trying to figure out if you should be alive or not. I decided not to, as that's more dramatic."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Oh, Crystal Man, I have a question." Roll spoke up. "There's something I've always wanted to ask you. When we first discovered the upgrades you planned for Team 5 in Jewel Man's head, you also included plans to upgrade me with an energy sword. Why was that?"

"I am sorry, child." the shining man-bot shrugged. "But that must have been part of my later, more specific plans. My current CPU is merely a copy of my first, a mere backup made many years ago shortly after Wily's sixth scheme. While I began to build my daughter and make plans for Team 5 almost as soon as I became sentient, my plans for escaping Dr. Wily were not entirely formulated. I can only assume that my former self, whom Wily destroyed, had some specific reason for giving you this weapon. While I can't say for sure why, I can guess that perhaps I wanted you to replace your brother. At all times my plan required my daughter - I quite like 'Sonata', Forte, so I shall call her that - to aid Forte in destroying Rock. There was no way around this, so perhaps to satisfy my moral quandry at the earth losing its blue hero then I should set you in his place. Or maybe I simply wanted to force you to save my daughter in an emergency. One cannot say for certain."

"Where did you get the idea to make me?" Crystal Bot squealed.

"That was easy." Even though Crystal Man's mouth was covered, it was clear in his eyes that he smiled. "I needed someone to upgrade my team, and with the skills I acquired from Wily about robotic construction, I desired to build myself a child. I settled on a daughter because there were so many man-bots around already. My own small way of rebelling against Wily, I suppose."

"So is this how it's going to be, Moody?" Bass said in a bored voice. "You asking us a bunch of pointless, awkward questions?"

"Nope! I have some extra special guests, and I'm going to ask them pointless and awkward questions!" GrimMoody gestured over to the side of the stage. "Our first guest today is the fanfiction net author Teribane, known to my Afterlife readers as Venom Pterosaur! Come on in, Teri!"

Another cushy red chair appeared in the middle of the stage. From the side of the stage, out came a large reploid: a brown, winged reptile. The metal pterodactyl slid across the upper stage, waving her excited arms back and forth as she slid.

"Hi everyone!" she squealed. "Thanks for ha-OOF!"

Teribane slipped, still sliding as she smacked into her chair. Up it flew, landing right down on her with a mighty PLOOMP and a pitiful whimper. The robots eyed each other. Mega Man uncertainly equipped his buster and got out of his chair.

"Um, I guess a clumsy Maverick is still a Maverick..." Rock bit his lip with doubt. "Um, freeze?"

Proto Man and Bass likewise began to get up from their chairs, but GrimMoody quickly waved them away. "No no, y'all sit down. She's not really a Maverick, she's an author on fanfiction net. I just based a Maverick on her in Afterlife. So sit down, already."

The robots sat down, but still warily eyed Teribane as she shoved away the chair and clambered up to her feet. Quickly she righted the chair and plopped herself in it, chuckling and pretending nothing happened.

"GrimMoody," Crystal Man lifted an eyebrow. "Why are you smiling?"

"Smiling? Me, what?" GrimMoody replied smoothly. "I'm not laughing at the misfortune of my guest. And I most certainly did not wax the floor twice before she got here. What a horrible thing to say, Crystal Man. Shame on you. Anyways, welcome to Bonus Features, Teribane!"

"Thanks for having me!" Teribane giggled, clapping her wings together.

"So, what'd ya think of my little story?"

"In general, it's one of the better Megaman fics I've read." the pterodactyl smiled. "In fact, one of the better fics I've read for any series. Lots of awesome little plot twists and enough random - or not so random - humour to keep me happy. I liked Crystal Bot quite a lot - one of the very, very few original characters who manage to be main characters, not Mary Sues, and actively likeable. So that was enjoyable."

"Aw, thank you!" Crystal Bot giggled. "I like you too!"

"Can you stop stroking Moody's ego already?" Proto Man muttered. "Just tell us what you really think. You can't possibly like everything about this story."

"Don't be so mean to Crystal Bot! She's cute! Besides, it's pretty rare that good OCs show up on fanfiction net." Teribane turned back to the author. "If there was anything that bothered me, it was showing up yourself to fix everything in the future. This is the kind of thing nearly all authors wish they could do with their fandoms, of course, but to me it seems slightly like cheating to actually DO it. Didn't make the series any less enjoyable, though."

"It was cheating." Moody admitted. "And that's the entire point. Haven't you ever read something where you just knew that the author had completely lost focus on the story? How they lose track over why people like their story? That guy that wrote the Drizzt Do'Urden series really went nuts toward the end of it. I couldn't read that series anymore because of how he treated the characters. It's much more forgivable when a video game producer does it, because the game entertainment value is still there, but I still feel really bad for the characters."

"Says the person that tells everyone's business." Proto Man said.

"Proto buddy, you're seriously getting cranky." GrimMoody folded her arms. "If you can't cheer up, then you're out of here."

"You promise?"

"Hush up." Moody quickly turned back to the guest author. "Anyway, next question. How do you see the Capcom series and characters differently from me?"

"First of all, my bad guys. I'm a sucker for evil characters and grey motives instead of black and white, so it's actually pretty difficult for me not to figure out motives for evil characters that make them sound perfectly reasonable."

"Yeah, I'm not much of a bad guy person." Moody nodded. "But to be fair, Wily was a pretty simple villain."

"I guess." Teribane shrugged. "Though I'd probably have come up with a more complex reason for him going evil. Also, for some reason my idea of the Megaman series is somehow limited to a single small country or even state sized area instead of the whole world. This makes quite a bit of absurd situations possible, such as Megaman bumping into a Wily bot shopping for milk."

Teribane giggled, lifting a little claw politely over her vicious fangs. Roll nervously scooted her chair away as Teribane continued. "Also I picture Protoman as a 'bot who really enjoys sneaking through air ducts. Especially overlord's fortress ducts."

With another burst of laughter from the dino-bot, Roll scooted her chair away even further. Still, the guest author continued. "And Bass carefully looking around to make sure he's alone, and then cuddling Treble and calling him painfully cute nicknames. And so on. I should stop rambling now."

"I don't think the police would allow Dr. Wily to just go shopping." Crystal Man noted. "The manager and customers would be so frightened, that they would probably just call the police on him."

"I definitely don't crawl through vents." Proto Man said. "That's something only a human could get away with, as I'm made of metal and that would just make too much noise. Crawlspace, on the other hand, is a lot more convenient. Except for all the loose plaster." Blues turned to Bass and put on his most devious smirk. "Though I'm sure your third comment is a whole lot more acurate."

Bass glowered at Proto Man, but his technician responded instead with a mighty giggle. "Aw, he doesn't call Treble baby names. I always get in trouble when I call him Trebby. But they do wrestle and play all the time. It's so cute! Bass pets him, and pretends to growl at him, and tells him secrets all the time!"

"And you wonder why I don't tell those secrets to you, blabbermouth." Bass exposed a fang as he glared sidelong at Crystal Bot. "And for your information, I'm not 'playing' with Treble. I'm training myself to fight close range mechaniloids so that I can't be sneak attacked."

"Whatever!" Crystal Bot leaned forward, looking past her boss and toward Teribane. "He's totally playing with Treble! You should see them sometime. It's so adorable!"

"You're awful." Mega Man shook his head. "You shouldn't be telling that kind of story about your boss. It's only normal to play with a dog anyway."

"Oh, so you're saying you cuddle up with Rush and call him cute nicknames?" Crystal Bot teased.

"Buh? What...I...no, no, not like that." Mega Man fidgeted. "I just play catch with him. And soccer. He likes soccer. Next question."

"Alright, alright." Moody chuckled. "So Teri, how's about you tell us your theory about what you think happened between the classic series and the X series?"

"Well, the generic, automatically-comes-to-mind response involves Zero slaughtering everything." Teri played a bit with her claws. "If I was to really sit down and think of something original, though, it would probably involve a whole bunch of crises that piled up to take all the robots out one by one. Both small stuff, like a reactor or such blowing up to take out a single robot, or larger scale stuff, like a petition by panicked humans that would end up causing several robots to be deactivated and destroyed... And some of them would set others in motion, of course, other than taking out a robot or two. Something very complicated and intricate."

"That sounds political, and kind of depressing." GrimMoody frowned. "But it could be really good, if you set down and wrote it all out."

"It does sound depressing, doesn't it? If I had to choose only one type of fic to write, it would be humour, since that's the most enjoyable for me to both scribble and read. But humour doesn't come very easily to me, so I mostly write depressing angsty stuff. Which is strange, because, well, I'm not a particularly depressed person. I'm just good at it for no apparent reason."

"You should be the one named GrimMoody." Mega Man said. "You're way more depressing than our author."

"Don't say that." Roll objected. "You weren't the one that had to spend the future in a dystopia."

"Oh yeah...hee hee..." GrimMoody chuckled with glee. "I did torment you, didn't I? So, let me ask you guys a question. Do y'all ever read fanfiction net stories? I mean, we're all working hard out there to entertain."

"No." Crystal Man said. "I prefer nonfiction, and admittedly, I find it very difficult to read a fanfiction where I am not involved, unless it is particularly good. I did read one amusing tidbit where I helped Bass create his own scheme against Mega Man using sock puppets, and that story was somewhat amusing."

"Sock puppets?" Bass snorted. "How was that supposed to help me defeat Rock?"

"It wasn't quite that. You wanted to outdo Wily and come up with a scheme that would do better than him."

"Did I?"

"I won't spoil the story for the readers." Crystal Man replied. "But you wouldn't be entirely unhappy with how it turned out. I'll say that much."

"Oh no, don't say that." Mega Man chuckled. "I'm not dead in the end, am I?"

"No, it was a humor based story."

"Well, anyway," Mega Man continued. "I'm sorry, but I'm usually too busy to read much. When I do it's usually sports history or newspapers. The only fanfiction net stories I read are usually ones that use my netnavi counterpart. I like those stories the best!"

"I just like gardening and cooking magazines." Roll admitted. "I know it sounds a bit stereotypical, but I like them! I'm going to be redoing the garden in the house soon."

"I definitely don't read fanfiction net stories." Proto Man said, a little too firmly. "There's just too much slash fiction these days, and I'm not into that."

"Same here." Bass said in bored tones. "I've tried to read some, but most of the time writers like to make me date Roll. I'm a robot, first and foremost, and even if I were a human, don't you think I'd date someone who isn't pretty much Rock's identical twin? No way in hell. And yeah, Proto Guy's right. There's so much slash...ugh."

"People are silly." Mega Man got a little uncertain. "But what do you guys mean by 'slash' fiction?"

"Don't worry about it!" Proto Man said quickly. "Don't worry at all."

"Hm?" Bass smirked, hooking up his wireless connection to the internet. "Hey Rock, do you know what yaoi is?"

"No...why?"

"Oh nothing." Bass sent Mega Man a link through his comm system. "Hey, I found a story on the internet you'll like. Why don't you read it?"

"Okay. Thanks Bass." Mega Man checked out the link. "Oh this is nice - wait, what? UGH! BASS! Wait, I'm doing THAT to...PROTO MAN? Ugh, gah...that's so WRONG! I am definitely deleting this story from my brain!"

As Mega Man frantically deleted the past few seconds from his mind, Proto Man let loose a wild glare in Bass' direction, none the weakened for coming from behind a visor. "Will you stop trying to corrupt my brother?"

"No."

"I thought as much." Proto Man said. "But if those stories are so bad, then why haven't you deleted them from your memory?"

"Simple. So I remember not to read them again." Bass turned to Mega Man again. "Hey Rock, there's this really great story on fanfiction net that you should read."

"Oh really? Thanks Bass - GAAAAAHH! BASS!"

Proto Man's scowl turned into a beast lunging after Forte, and he equipped his left hand into a buster. "Stop doing that. Now."

"Oh? And you're prepared to make me?" Bass pulled out his double busters. "Let's just see about that."

"No no, not on my stage you're not." GrimMoody stubbornly insisted, gesturing for them to stay seated. "Now let's just cool down with a nice deleted scene, okay? Hit it, Auto!"

"Um, they've got him behind a secret panel down the long north hall. I can go with them if you want."

"No, just transmit the location to them. I want my heir with me so that she can learn how to deal with opposition."

That simple statement warmed Crystal right down to her toes. Her smile and sweet, bubbly laughter flowed as free as a spring. The transmission was quickly sent, and Crystal Bot almost skipped as she followed Dr. Wily to the office.

"Crystal Bot, evil villains don't giggle."

"Sorry! Hee hee, oops!"

Dr. Wily waved to his robots, and Metal, Wood, Crash, and Algorhythm Man followed him for his "little conference" with Dr. Cain. Frantic Man joined as well. For a moment, Crystal Bot was too happy to notice he was staring at her. However, once glance in his direction made it suddenly a lot easier to not giggle. He seemed so serious. Outwardly he was no different than at any other time, as he had nothing to properly convey emotions, but somehow something seemed off with him. Crystal Bot scowled and lifted her head. She was an evil villain, and who cared what Frantic Man thought?

"Where are they?" Dr. Wily screamed at Dr. Cain. "Get the scanners on!"

If Wily really wanted his hostage prisoner to be the one to work the scanners, then he probably shouldn't have shoved Cain aside and started on the controls himself. Cain tried to get away, but Heat Man snatched his arms and held him still.

" - Dr. Wily! - " Epic Man's voice came over the comm system. " - It's too late! They enemy is already in the building, and several of our robots are down. - "

"We'll just have to set this pretty little base to self-destruct then." Wily turned to his prisoner. "Cain, if you value your face then you will tell me the password to blow this cave of yours to bits."

"This base doesn't have a self-descruction capability." Cain protested. "And even if it did, I'm not wasting the twelve years I spent working on-"

"Heat Man, shut him up." Wily went right on back to the computer.

"Heh, sure."

Heat Man promptly tugged on Dr. Cain's ear, using enough force to risk tearing the cartilage. Fortunately for Dr. Cain, he was smart enough not to scream. He bore the pain in silence, grimacing terribly until the lighter-bot finally let go.

"Ah-ha, here's something I can use." Dr. Wily turned on the comm to signal Epic Man. "Delay them as much as you can. Activate all of my robots that Dr. Cain here so graciously rebuilt for me."

" - I'll do that, but I need a password to activate them. - "

Wily turned to Heat Man and the hapless Nikola. "Heat Man..."

Heat Man was enjoying this far too much. He especially enjoyed the little squeal that Dr. Cain gave when Heat Man did barely more than touch his sore ear.

"It's TY7900." Cain gasped. "No-"

The lighter-bot didn't wait for orders this time. He simply smacked Dr. Cain in the head, knocking him out cold. He let the programmer slip to the floor then commenced ignoring him.

"Epic Man, did you hear that?"

" - I did. I'm activating the robots now. The enemy is nearly at the main lab, so I'll send them there first. Also, four of them are destroying Dr. Cain's boats and his aircraft. They plan on cutting off your escape. - "

"Let me worry about them." Wily said. "You just delay them as long as possible."

Switching off the computer, an impatient Wily turned to his forces, the robots that were still in the main lab with him. "Wood Man! Bubble Man! The both of you will bring Zero to my capsule now. Heat Man, you come with us. Psycho Man, you eliminate them once they get in here."

"Yes, my master, I'll obey!" Psycho Man sang. "But I like killing anyway!"

Though he was in a rush, Dr. Wily lifted a wrinkled eyebrow at the killer clown-bot. He looked with disgust at the fallen form of Dr. Cain. "Seriously, you programmed this? This? Ugh."

"Dr. Cain upgraded me just in case I should happen to meet you again. This time, I am much more powerful than before! I can even destroy you! Oh, sweet irony! I am the new, the improved...TOP MAN!"

Bass was stunned as the orange, spinning robot twirled his way past the corner, skating about the hall with more grace than Charlie Chaplain on the wheels. He was indeed Top Man, everything from his top head to his skate boots. His armor appeared thicker, but other than that, he was still the graceful orange toy-bot. Top Man skated as near as he dared to Bass before coming to a stop, performing his most graceful of bows.

There was silence for a moment. Bass' mouth wrinkled up, and his lip began to twitch. And then the dam broke.

"AHAHAHAHAHAA!" Bass exploded, trying his hardest to hold his sides in. He shook with mirth, unable to keep control. "Dr. Cain is a GENIUS! Hahaha! He's so smart! He figured out a way to get me to laugh myself to death! I can't stop! AHAHAHAAA HA! This is too good! I'm gonna get killed by Top Man here! Haha, someone save me! AHAHAHAAAHAAA!"

"I'm improved!" Top Man insisted. "No really! I'm quite better now! You'll see if you fight me!"

"I totally believe you...NOT! BWAHAAHAHAA!"

"What's so funny?"

Crystal Bot went up the hall, still leaning heavily on her left leg. Not even an interruption like Crystal could get him to stop, and Bass continued laughing. He tried to make himself stop long enough to speak to his technician.

"His powers of pathetic are too much for me!" Forte oozed sarcasm. "You've got to fight for me!"

Crystal jumped back, hesitant. "Um...I don't know...oh, hey, it's Top Man. Hiya, Toppy! I like you."

Top Man sighed, though he cheered a bit, seeing her. "Oh dear, I'm afraid I'm not intimidating anyone today."

"You don't have to." Crystal said, smiling in her cute way. "You're really nice. Not everybody has to be scary to be fun!"

"We really must fight, though. I am your enemy."

"Yeah, I know. Forte-kun says. He's kind of a meanie sometimes." Crystal Bot approached Top Man. "Like this one time when he wouldn't dance with me at a ball. He didn't let me dance with Dr. Cossack either. I got all dressed up too!"

"Really? Sounds cute."

"It was. Hey, Toppy, I know we have to fight, but...can you dance with me? I really, really want to!"

"Why certainly, darling! You wouldn't want to dance with Bass anyway. I'm sure he's nothing more than an absolute oaf on the dance floor, and he only told you no so that you wouldn't find out."

Top Man winked at the completely horrified Bass. Next he bowed to the girl-bot, then reached out his hand. Giggling, Crystal Bot took it and was instantly swept away. She hardly noticed that her leg wasn't on tightly enough; Top Man was the perfect dance leader, even humming a bit of waltz song that he knew as he spun Crystal Bot around.

"Hee, hee, is Forte looking?"

"Why, yes he is." Top Man winked in Bass' direction. "He looks like he's going to explode."

In all fairness, he did. No amount of facepalming could express Bass' disgust as he stood there dumbfounded.

"Aw, I guess I better fight now." Crystal Bot said, a little disappointed. "Oh well."

ThwooONK!

Top Man looked down, instantly, and too late, realizing his mistake. He was too close to Crystal Bot, and there in his chest was a blue crystal, embedded completely through his power core. His wavering lips uttered a few sounds, but that was all he could do before collapsing to the floor at Crystal Bot's feet.

She grinned over him. "Oh, so I can generate crystals even if somebody else is in the way. Good to know."

"Did you have to do that?" Bass growled. "And where's everyone else?"

"Yes, I did have to do that!" Crystal huffed, trying to resist stomping her foot. "They're coming. They sent me ahead to help you with the computer doors."

"Then let's get going. Don't slow me down!" Bass dashed past her and the fallen Top Man. "Let's go!"

"Wait, you're not going to take the top spin?"

Bass turned back long enough to glare. He looked like he was going to retch.

"Ha, I was just joking." Crystal giggled. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

I really, really wish I could absorb powers too!

Bass didn't even look at him. Thankfully Gyro Man attacked, ending Algorhythm Man's annoying yells and beginning an even noiser fight. Forte instead joined Crystal Bot over at the panel, which he figured must have superior coding to the door they came in. It was taking Crystal much longer to hack into it. She turned at Bass and smiled, then glanced up at the robots fighting overhead.

"Oooh, I like watching Algorhythm Man fight." she said. "He's so shiny, 'n so are his busters. Hey look, there's everybody else."

Bass looked back where Crystal was pointing. Sure enough, Wave Man, Gravity Man, and Star Man were all entering, not looking too worse for wear. Bass was impressed, a little. He expected at least one of them to be missing an arm. As he looked, Algorhythm Man slammed to the ground right in front of him, his glowing metal panels completely without light.

"Eh, that was quick." Bass noted. "He sure sucks."

"I'm just that skilled!" Gyro Man boasted as he lowered himself to the floor. "Now how's that door coming, Crystal B?"

"It's coming..." Crystal always liked being called "Crystal B", but she didn't giggle this time. She had to concentrate. "Dr. Cain sure is overzealous with all the security around here. This door is the hardest! It'll be just a minute..."

"Note that these are the better deleted scenes of that chapter." GrimMoody rubbed the back of her head, wincing at the memory. "I actually rewrote this chapter several times with a bunch of equally boring what nots. Eventually I had to simplify the whole thing, and these are the best bits that didn't make it. The first was just a first draft of when Dr. Wily first arrives in Cain's cave base, and while it's okay, it's just nothing special. And I switched around the situation so that Crystal Bot wasn't following Dr. Wily into Dr. Cain's office. There was nothing for her to do in there, and she had to go bring Zero to Dr. Wily anyway.

"As for the second, that's Dr. Wily's reaction to Mega Man and company's attack. It wasn't strictly necessary and added nothing to the plot. I figured it would be more exciting narrative if we didn't know what Dr. Wily wanted to do anyway. The third is actually a scene I was really, really sad to cut. The trouble was, Bass' confrontation with Algorythym Man was far more necessary to the plot, and having both confrontations lined up next to each other was just too much. Besides, I very much doubt that Bass would just stand there and let Crystal Bot dance with Top Man. He'd definitely either yell at Crystal Bot or just shoot Top Man with impatience. Isn't that right, Bass?"

"Sure is." Bass nodded. "Hell, it was annoying enough when she danced with him right in the middle of a battle. Besides, I'm not going to give Sonata a dang fighting lesson right when I'm trying to find Wily."

"I thought as much." GrimMoody turned to the guest author. "Okay, so how do you like those deleted scenes?"

"Evil villains do giggle." Teribane grinned. "Also I kind of wish that scene had been included. Just because. And Psycho Man rhymed!" Teribane clapped with delight. "Perfect embodiment of a crazy killer robot right there."

"He's been rhyming since Okkusenman." Bass said. "Where have you been?"

"Bass, hush." GrimMoody ordered. "Please go on, Teri."

"Okay. Well," Teribane peeked back up at the projector screen. "That third scene was sort of adorable and even reminded me a bit of the Christmas truces from WWII because I'd been reading about them recently - up until Crystal Bot stabbed him with a crystal." The author wagged a disdainful finger at the female shiny-bot. "For shame, Crystal Bot, for shame. If you're going to stab someone in the back after being all friendly with them, you have to at least do it with a really horrible pun somewhere. Practically a requirement."

"But I don't like puns!" Crystal Bot exclaimed. "I'm no good at them! Um, I guess I could have said, um...um...'do you like your death nice and shiny'? Aw, you think of a pun if you want one so bad!"

"My dear Teribane!" A loud voice cut off Teribane's response. "Why didn't someone tell me that she was here?"

Skating in from stage left, in twirled an orange blur. It zoomed to center stage before stopping and revealing itself to everyone as Top Man. He bowed gracefully to the camera before skating to Teribane's chair, bowing and taking one of Teribane's claws.

"My dear Teribane," he said lovingly. "Ever since the first of these silly stories of Moody's began and I heard the sweetest words from your lovely mouth, er...oh dear."

Top Man turned to GrimMoody. "Um, Moody, could you do something about this? I'm not particularly comfortable talking to a reploid, your creation or no."

"I guess that's alright." Moody lifted her hands. "Notedly, since Teribane wishes to remain anonymous, I'm just going to make up the first thing that comes to mind. I don't actually know what she really looks like. So, please stand up, Teri."

Top Man politely stepped away Teri nervously pulled herself off of the couch. The Pteri-author clicked her claws together. "Um, don't I get a say in this?"

"No." GrimMoody replied. "Of course not. Alley-oop!"

With the flick of her fingers, GrimMoody gestured oddly at the guest author. All of a sudden, the pteradactyl found herself surrounded by a glowing aura of light (the crystal robots oohed and aahed appreciatively). At once, all dinosaur features disappeared. Her skin turned a normal sort of shade, if tanned a bit and dotted with freckles. Her hair turned a deep jet black, falling over her shoulders. She wore an orange tea dress, one with a square neckline and a gently poofed skirt that went down to the knee and was propped up but a couple of petticoats. Little white lace gloves decorated each hand, and two orange high heels gave Teri an additional inch of height. She looked down at her new appearance uncertainly, biting her lip.

But Top Man was absolutely certain, and quite a bit appreciative. "Oh...my...word! What a lovely darling!" Top Man quickly resumed his position by Teribane's side and kissed her hand. "How wonderful! Oh, orange is certainly your color. You look absolutely ravishing!"

"I...didn't quite expect that kind of reaction." GrimMoody winced. "That's dang creepy. Give the guy one positive review, and this is what happens. Um...Teri...I can change you again if you want..."

"No! No no, of course not." Top Man couldn't look away from Teribane, not even to speak to Moody. "Miss Teribane, to the delight of your ears I have composed a poem. Would you...I mean, could you indulge me in a quick recitation?"

"Please no," Bass groaned. "Moody, stop that guy!"

"What's wrong with Top Man's poetry?" Mega Man looked around at the other robots. "I've heard he writes a lot of it."

"That's the problem." Proto Man explained. "I take it you didn't read the third Bonus Features. It's...not good poetry."

"Hush!" Top Man hissed. "And anyway I wasn't asking you, I was asking Teribane."

"Um, well," Teribane looked down at her outfit awkwardly - none of Top Man's comments had satisfied her concerns. "But I never wear dresses or high heels. How do I function in these...? Okay, how about this. I'll listen to it if GrimMoody agrees to poof me into something more normal. Like, jeans or something."

"What? You don't like tea dresses?" A stunned GrimMoody stepped back from Teribane suspiciously. "But...everybody likes tea dresses. TEA DRESS!"

GrimMoody pointed at Roll, and poof! Roll was instantly in a red tea dress trimmed with lace, topped with a straw hat.

"TEA DRESS!"

The finger of GrimMoody wandered to the other side of the stage, and another poof! Crystal Bot suddenly wore her own blue tea dress, but hers included layers of tulle and several green flowers printed on the waist. The tech-bot stared awkwardly at her elbow length gloves, but GrimMoody no longer paid attention. She turned to Bass, and with an awful grin and one finger flicking wildly, she stared deep into Bass' now terrified eyes.

"Teeaaaaaa..." Moody said slowly. "Drrrrrreeee - "

"Get that finger away from me!" Bass double jumped behind his chair and activated his buster. "Or else!"

"Aw, spoilsport." GrimMoody pouted.

"Okay, how about this." Teribane said, sitting back down. "I'll listen to the poem if GrimMoody agrees to poof me into something more normal. Like, jeans or something. And then if the poem is really all that horrible this time Bass gets to whack you upside the head."

"Maybe I like Teribane after all." Bass grinned, coming back around to his seat. "One smack coming right up!"

"Oh come on," Teribane protested. "It can't be worse than all that really bad fanfiction out there I've stumbled upon... right?"

Seeing Teribane's slightly worried look, Top Man immediately forced a dismissive laugh. "Oh no, my dear. For you I have summoned the greatest of my poetic powers!"

"Um..." Teribane glanced toward GrimMoody. "So, um, I said you have to poof me into something normal first."

"FINE." GrimMoody sighed and clapped her hands. "Poof."

Instantly Roll's and Crystal Bot's outfits turned back into their respective red dress and cyan dress with green cloak. While Teribane remained in human form with jet black hair, she was now transformed into jeans, a green shirt, and an orange sweater wrap sweater. Teri glanced at her feet with relief. Green sneakers with orange laces weren't exactly her thing, but they weren't heels either.

"Ah, much better." the guest author looked at Top Man, trying to hide her reluctance. "Well, I guess you can begin now."

"Very well!" Top Man cleared his throat. "I call this one The Eyes of Teribane!

"Tylterra, so lovely, so wise,
Tylterra with ever perceptive eyes.
Will not be decieved by color or trick,
Not at all hindered by walls of brick,
And sees beyond the lair of the lie."

"I don't get it." Crystal Bot scratched her head. "What does that mean?"

"Simple." Proto Man didn't know if he wanted to laugh or gag. "It means that Top Man says she's perceptive because she complimented him in a review."

"I don't remember that."

"It was in the first story."

"Oh yeah...Forte didn't let me read those..."

"And you're still not allowed." Bass said. "So Teribane, do I get to smack him or what?"

"Actually...I've heard worse." Teribane gently patted Top Man on the head. "So no smacking."

"Dang." Bass slumped back in his chair. "You got my hopes up."

"You...don't like it?" Top Man's lip trembled just a bit.

"It's just alright." Teribane shrugged. "It's not really as creepy as everyone made me think it was going to be."

"Then I must improve it!" Top Man gallantly lifted a fist in the air. "I will work day and night, night and day, until my powerful prose is exhausted and my ink pen has run dry!"

"UGH. Creepy cheese. If you're through being a creeper, Toppy, go ahead and ske'daddle." GrimMoody shoved Top Man off the stage. "Go on, Auto! Put up another deleted scene!"

Mega Man, however, was as blue as his armor. His sadness weighed him down, but he coldly resisted it as he went over to the comm station. Pausing at the controls, Rock turned around. He knew his sister was following him, and he was going to have to answer some questions. He waved Auto over.

"Okay, I want you to hear this from me," Rock said. "And not somewhere else. Proto Man...during the Gamma crisis he killed a security guard named Richard Copenhagen."

Auto gasped and Roll paled. Not out of earshot, Crystal Bot shuddered. All three knew what it meant for a robot to be guilty of that kind of crime. Blues evaded the authorities most of his life, but this made it worse for him, even in countries such as Japan where Proto Man's support was the strongest.

Mega Man nodded at them. "It's true. Either that or Proto Man just confessed to it for some reason...but...I don't think that's the case. Bass had some security footage of that night, and apparently both Shadow Man and Hard Man were there. If we can capture them, we're going to need to surrender those memories to the REA."

Roll found herself grateful that those two robots weren't inside the lab. If they were, Rock would make himself watch their memory footage. Roll knew he would, though it would only torture him.

"What are we going to do?" Roll asked.

"Well, first I'm going to tell Reyes that I know." Mega Man placed a hand on the control panel. "I don't think he'll let me go after Blues, but if Blues comes here again, we're going to have to turn him in. We can't shelter him any longer. Not from this." Mega Man grew more somber, drawing in a stiff breath. He'd made his decision. As much as it pained him, justice needed to be done. "He can't run away from his past anymore."

Roll took Rock's hand. He smiled at his sister, but the smile held no warmth. It hurt like nails to force a smile on his face, and he dropped it shortly thereafter. Roll didn't let go of his hand. Rock glanced over at Auto, but the green repair-bot only stared at the blue tarp to the left. Mega Man knew what it covered and sighed. Proto Man wasn't going to be around for Christmas.

"Everyone, I know how bad this is, but we're going to have to continue living." Rock said. "As much as this situation hurts, we have to survive. Don't grieve too much now. Proto Man can tell right from wrong, and he'll know what to do."

"Are you sure?" Roll found herself asking. "If he..."

Rock shook his head. "He's bound to be pretty emotional right now, but I trust Blues enough to know he hasn't forgotten everything he's learned since we met." Mega Man might not have sounded confident, but he truly believed in his words. Patting it gently, Mega let go of Roll's hand and turned to the other girl-bot, calling out, "Crystal Bot, are you alright?"

"I'm fine...I think." Crystal looked up from her work on Bass, shy as she looked up at him. "It's just too weird. I didn't think Proto Man was like that."

"None of us did." Mega Man said. "Now please, everyone, go back to work. I'll handle as much of this as I can."

No one was really sure what he meant by handle. They went back to work nonetheless. They were going to have to get all those robot masters out of there somehow. Crystal Bot hurried along as she got to working on her boss, but she couldn't help taking a moment to watch as Mega Man started moving the controls at the comm station. Rock dialed in the numbers slowly. This was an inevitable call, one that Mega Man dreaded more than he could say.

Tim Reyes appeared on the screen. Seeing Mega Man's expression, he immediately grew concerned. "What's going on, Rock?"

"I just found out about my brother." he said, keeping himself remarkably under control. "Why exactly didn't you tell me about the Gamma situation?"

Reyes tensed, and the wrinkles on his brow got deeper. "You know why we couldn't tell you. It would be too hard on you. We wanted him taken in and all of this dealt with as quietly as possible. You would be informed if Proto Man were caught, but it seems Bass couldn't handle the assignment. How exactly did you find out?"

"It was a zip drive mix up." Rock's stare grew more firm, and his fingers tightened around the keyboard. "I have all of Proto Man's criminal records, and he now knows I do. He...didn't take it well."

"Do we have any assurance that we'll see him again?"

"...No."

The human swore, glaring off to the side before focusing again on Mega Man. "Just great. We give Bass one little assignment and he screws it up like this. And he even asked for early release from probation. But no, he had to give Proto Man one last week of freedom when he could have just-"

"I know what happened." Mega Man darkened as he spoke, and a determination strengthened his voice. "Bass gave Proto Man that week to help me defeat Dr. Cain. He had the best interests of Monstropolis in mind. On the other hand, if REA had simply told me what was going on, I could have spoken to Proto Man before all this and talked to him reasonably. I could have talked him into turning himself in, which it seems he was half ready to do in the first place. He needed my help and understanding, and quite frankly the REA is to blame for not allowing him to have these. But what's done is done, so let's start thinking about what we're going to do next."

"Alright," Reyes was hardly happy being talked down to, but he just folded his arms. "What exactly can we do next?"

"I'm not sure, but since Proto Man confessed to this we know that a part of him wanted to make this right somehow. When he found out I knew the truth about him, he freaked out, but sooner or later he's going to remember the kind of person he's become. He's not Wily's robot, and he's fought for good for many years now. It stands a chance that he'll come back."

"How much of a chance?"

"I don't know." Mega Man admitted. "But Proto Man is not the type of guy to disappear forever. He's going to show up sooner or later. I don't know if he'll ever trust me again."

Reyes blinked. "What exactly happened when he found out?"

Mega Man sighed, and he converted his finger into a zip drive to plug it into the computer. "I'll send you a report of that now. Both Bass' memories and mine are included."

"Alright." Reyes' hands went off screen as he confirmed the arrival of the message. "I'll contact you again when I have orders from the REA. For now, I want to know how much of a threat your brother could possibly be right now."

"I don't know that either, but right now I think if he does anything horrible it would only be to either Bass or himself."

Even as he said this, Mega Man paled. It was a new thought that Proto Man might attempt to kill himself, and to that point Mega Man hadn't thought it through. Now that it was in his thoughts, it seemed like the most likely option of all. How could Proto Man live with himself now that those he cared about most knew his darkest secrets. That is, if he still cared about the brother that had tried to arrest him.

"I can see you're going to need some time." Reyes said. "I'd rather not involve you in trying to find Proto Man, but it may in the end come to that."

"Oh, um, I understand." Mega Man answered, thankful in the change of topic. "But there's something else. Proto Man is a part of my family, and as such I feel responsible for what he's done. I want to do something to reach out to Richard Copenhagen's family."

Behind him, the sound of Crystal Bot's wrench echoed in the lab as she dropped it. Roll

It was a calm day in the labs. Roll had dusting to do, and while normally she didn't go through the lab, she felt like it for once. It would be nice to see how Mega Man was getting on. That and it was a shorter path to the storage room, so once she was done with dusting she could go right to mopping. Roll hadn't mopped the lab in forever, and she wanted to make sure it got done at some point. Fighting crime wasn't a job that kept one's feet clean.

Roll opened the door to the lab, contentedly looking around. It was pretty much empty, especially since Gyro Man had taken Stone Man back up to the space station for repairs. In fact, the only person in the lab was Crystal Bot, who peeped over her shoulder as she noticed Roll coming in.

"Oh, hi Sona-chan." Roll said. "Where is everyone?"

"Rock and Forte are out talking to the police and doing hero stuff." Crystal Bot replied. "Proto's never here, and Auto went out to go talk to some people and see if he couldn't collect his insurance on the shop. He'll probably get big bucks."

"Alright then. I'm glad you're here. It gets so lonely in this place sometimes."

"Yeah, I can see that."

Crystal Bot pulled a disc out from the computer and stashed it in her hood. That complete, she turned to Roll. Though she had been holding it all along, only then did the housekeeper-bot see that she was holding a large, pink energy crystal. It was sort of thin, like a small sword.

"Be careful with that around the computers." Roll paid it no mind as she went along to the other side of the lab. "Auto says it could be damaging to hard drives."

"He's definitely right. It does really bad things to hard drives...like the ones on robots."

Without warning, Crystal Bot snatched Roll's arm and tugged her nearly off her feet. Roll tried to remember what to do when someone grabs you like that, but at once every thought of martial arts she knew was blasted out of her mind by the crystal energy. The electric pink surrounded her and for several seconds that pink was all that she could see.

"Hey, Roll-chan," Crystal spat. "Remember last year when I said that I'm not your friend? You should've listened."

Pink. Roll fell limp, almost settling to the floor but for the arm that Crystal Bot held. The Light-bot, now safely unconscious, was pulled over Crystal's shoulder. With a clap of her hands, Roll's assistant-bot Dub appeared from out of nowhere, clutching at his mistress and using four of his eight metal arms to secure Roll on his back. Bruce flew down from the windows above the lab and rested on a very confident Crystal Bot's shoulder. She smirked a very evil smirk, letting the line of her lips cut a very perilous angle.

"I'm Sinistra the evil!" she exclaimed, sending a shimmer through the globes built into her body. The light winked out quickly in a brilliant flash, quite the anime finish. "And I'm not going to let this opportunity go to waste!"

With that, Wave Man and Splash Woman disappeared into the blue, and the two robots left behind started to pick up their hanging jaws. Dive Man glanced at Pirate, surprised to see that the rebellious guy didn't seem too disheartened. Pirate Man grinned a bit at Dive Man, but it was admittedly a sour expression.

"Well, let's call this one a draw 'tween us two, shall we?" Pirate Man chuckled. "Or a victory for Lady Splash. She pegged me right. I don't think I can stand another day living for a master! The open waters call, a more faithful female than I'm afraid the lady will ever be. Bah, if only Dr. Light's lab had any gold in it! Then this venture might've been worth something."

"Pirate Man," Dive said slowly, still staring at the waters where Splash Woman had gone. "If you promise not to come here again for six months, I won't hunt you down and make sure you get reprogrammed into a housekeeper robot."

"Bah! What makes ye think ye can even attempt such a thing?" Pirate Man snorted with contempt. "But eh, I might as well take the deal. I'm going to spend at least a year keeping quiet and counting my gold. Ocean waters sing the sweet song of freedom, and that's a tune our fair merrow knows not."

"You're lying. You're just going to wait until I'm not suspecting anything and then strike." Dive Man got into a fighting stance, readying his dive bombs. "That's enough talk from you. Get out."

"Those are from a lot of scattered chapters." Mega Man noticed. "Don't you usually go in order?"

"Yeah," Grimm said. "But I didn't write this story in order, sometimes, and I'm only including the more interesting deleted scenes. I had a lot of meh ones this go round that are basically lame versions of what I posted. As for these, the first is a nice scene of people reacting to the revelation of Proto Man's past. It's an okay scene, but it's not really necessary to the plot and doesn't add anything. On the off chance I get this story into an official fanfiction, I might consider adding it back, if nothing else but to add more of Mega Man's perspective. I do consider this scene to have happened, I just didn't show it.

"The second I definitely could not use. I wanted to tempt the audience into thinking that Crystal Bot did betray her friends, but this just goes too far. I didn't want her to be liable to the authorities for a harsh crime, and this is just a set up right here to get CB arrested for kidnapping, and she would be guilty too. As for the last, it's a cute addition to the Splash Woman scene, but I just had no clue how I was going to end it. It wasn't supposed to be a large part of the chapter, so I couldn't focus on it too much."

"I'm really glad you didn't go with that second one." Crystal Bot shuddered. "I would never be that mean to Roll-chan!"

"So you'd be just mean enough to put a second set of AI into me, drag me into an alley and pretend you captured me?" Roll teased.

"Hey, that was all to save your life, and it worked." Crystal Bot glanced at the chair next to her. "Um, stop looking at me like that, Daddy..."

Crystal Man said nothing. He blinked a couple of times, then finally turned away. "Hm? What's wrong with Blues?"

Much to everyone's surprise, Proto Man looked sick. He was curled up in his chair, head in his hands. Upon noticing everyone looking at him, he let out a long, drawn out breath.

"Moody." he managed, almost gasping out his words. "Please...don't show those scenes..."

Everyone instantly knew what he was talking about. And in the next instant, Teribane and his siblings had him surrounded. Mega Man firmly grabbed his arm, intently and earnestly looking into his brother's visor.

"Hey, stop that now." Rock said gently. "We all know your past, and we don't judge you for it. It's done and over with, and nobody cares about it. It doesn't define you anymore, if it ever did."

"Yeah," added Teribane. "Besides, learning about it doesn't make everyone hate you. It makes us like you even more!"

With that, the guest author promptly hugged him tightly around the neck from behind the chair, and Proto Man smiled a little, though awkwardly.

"Hey Moody..." he said. "Could you do something and distract everyone? I sort of regret calling attention to myself now."

"Okay. It's about time I brought in our next guest. You guys get to your seats, alright? Okay, now everybody, please welcome our next author, ThatFanFicGuy!"

The robots and Teribane politely applauded as a young man, dressed in a black suit with sunglasses and a stylish fedora. Before sitting in a suddenly appearing red chair next to Teribane, he walked over to GrimMoody and shook her hand. However, he did seem a little nervous, glancing up and noticing that he was a good three inches shorter than the host author. He said nothing, but raised himself on his toes as high as he could without thinking other people noticed.

"Thanks for the invite, Grim." FanFicGuy turned to the others. "Hello everyone, nice to meet you all!"

With that, the second guest author promptly settled into his chair. The robots nodded approvingly.

"I like your entrance." Bass said. "You're not trying to be overly dramatic like Teribane over here and slide across the floor. Heh, I bet Teribane spent twenty minutes trying to come up with an entrance. She was probably sorting through cheap one liners and banging her head on her keyboard."

"I most certainly did not!" Teribane huffed, stubbornly folding her arms. "I just chose the entrance that comes most naturally."

Upon hearing Bass' comments, FanFicGuy nervously tugged at his collar and cleared his throat. Proto Man shook his head, but not at FanFicGuy.

"GrimMoody," he said. "You sure are milking this audience participation thing. Isn't there a guideline against that?"

"Er...well...um," It was Moody's turn to tug at her collar. "It doesn't really count, you know? After all, the story is over, and this is just some features."

"Right...I'm sure..."

"Personally I don't think it quite counts as reader participation if it's arranged ahead of time and doesn't involve every single reader." Teribane added. "Certainly I've seen people take suggestions for plot from readers sometimes, and including a certain number reviewer as a character... and if that isn't reader participation, or it's a tolerable level of it, then this is too. At least in my opinion."

"Yeah, and who'd bother reporting it anyways?" FanFic smiled at Moody. "Everyone loves ya!"

"Not everybody." GrimMoody smiled a bit. "This one guy I talked to said that my plot 'committed suicide' in Afterlife."

"Well, he should commit suicide on his plot!" FanFicGuy stubborn banged a fist into the arm of his chair. "I know that doesn't even make sense, but I'm sticking with what I said!"

"Ha, don't take it so seriously." Moody laughed. "He basically said he didn't like that I inserted myself. It's pretty understandible. Thing is, the entire point of this series was to insert myself and show my own personal defiance of what Dr. K did to the Mega Man plot. As much as I appreciate what he did gameplaywise as time went on, the plot was just atrocious. And if I didn't insert myself, I'd have to use a stupid time travel plot. And aside from Back to the Future, I hate time travel plots. They tend to all blur together and be pretty much alike. Anyways, to the questions! So FanFic, what'd ya think of my stories? Anything you saw differently than I did?"

"Well, I think the series is wonderful, with a well balance between humor and drama. I've always loved how at the end of each chapter, you always included a Bio of the Robot Masters seen or mentioned in the chapter, your take on them, and their role behind the scenes. Adds a lot of insight on what's happening where the readers aren't looking." he explained. "I actually see the Capcom version and GrimMoody's versions as nearly identical, actually."

"Thank you." Moody said. "I tried."

"However," here he put a little emphasis in his tone. "I do see Bass as a bit more violent, and a tad less intelligent than Grim's, who's version of him has been seen reading several advanced books throughout the series. No offense Bass, you just always came off as a bit of a brute to me."

"Hey!" Bass snarled. "Who the hell do you think you are, coming in here and talking like that? And shut up, Proto Idiot!"

But Proto Man wouldn't shut up. He just kept laughing. "Oh, oh man...this is good. Keep going, FanFicGuy!"

"Erm, I didn't mean to be offensive." the FanFicGuy said. "I just don't see Bass reading very much. I always envisioned him either training constantly, annoying Wily about battle upgrades, or when he's really bored, flipping through channels on the TV with a bored expression on his face."

"He definitely does that last one." Crystal Bot agreed. "But most of the time he just reads books with a bored expression on his face."

"I'm not a dang two dimensional caricature." Bass insisted, folding his arms with a contemptful snort. "I have a lot more depth than you think."

"Actually, FanFicGuy," Moody said. "You're pretty much right about Bass. Thing is, he was really influenced a lot by Dr. Light, and that means he wants to read more. Also, he doesn't like being seen as stupid, so he's constantly reading just to make himself look smart."

"Hey!" Bass roared. "You take that back! And what did I just tell you, Proto Man? Shut the hell up already!"

But Blues kept on laughing, and it took GrimMoody to make the dark robot calm down.

"Alright, alright," GrimMoody clapped her hands. "On to the next question! So what kind of stuff do you like to write, FanFic?"

"Sappy crap and bad humor. Not too ashamed to admit it." FanFicGuy shrugged. "I personally wish I had the patience to write such a series as GrimMoody's, but unfortunately, patients is one of two virtues I lack. Oh, and writing skills is the other."

"Heh, an author willing to admit they suck. That's new." Bass glared at GrimMoody.

The authoress purposefully ignored him, though put it in her mind to figure out a way to punish him. "So Guy, what do you consider your best work?"

"My best work? Well, I guess it would be a toss up between 'Roll Items' and 'Squeaks.' 'Roll Items' was a fic I wrote after thinking that the Items you can give to Roll in MegaMan Legends were much more sentimental than the ones you can give her in Legends 2, and 'Squeaks' was my own take on those suggestive stories that turn out to be something completely innocent when the reader actually understands what's going on. As I said before, I specialize in sappy crap and bad humor."

"Sappy crap and bad humor, eh?" GrimMoody slowly turned to Bass, an evil smile gradually growing on her lips. "Sounds like something I need to show to my characters...heh heh..."

"Hey Moody, remember that time we killed you?" Bass growled. "I don't mind doing that again, by the way."

"Yes, because that worked out so well." Moody went back to her guests. "In any case, if I can avoid another interruption, hows abouts I get to another question. This one is for both my authors. Starting with FanFicGuy, I guess. What is your favorite Mega Man series, character, robot master, and...color? Yeah, color."

"Well, I'd have to say that the X series is my favorite," FanFicGuy suddenly noticed that Teribane beside him was taller, even though sitting down. As he continued to speak, he tried to sit up straighter. "I grew up with it, played it everyday for six or so years. My favorite character would have to be... Spider, from Megaman X Command Mission. He was so cool, and so different from most of the characters I'd seen before! My favorite Robot Master is Skull Man, no doubt. Such a neat character, and creepy too! And my favorite color is Rainbow."

"Rainbows? Pffft. How sweet." Bass muttered. "I bet this chump is the type of guy that likes My Little Pony."

"Um, of course not, haha..." FanFicGuy nervously tugged at his collar. "I don't have any idea what you're talking about."

"Keep your comments to yourself, Bass!" GrimMoody's voice obtained an ever so gentle sing-song tone that quietly threatened serious punishment. "Anywho, so really rainbow? And you like Spider?"

"Rainbow as in, I don't really have a favorite color, so I just choose them all." Guy glanced at Teri's legs, hoping they were shorter than they looked. "I liked Spider for several reasons. One, he was a bounty Hunter, which instantly makes him made of Win and Awesome. Two, he had that whole 'Poker Player' Theme going on, and I love card games. He ever used cards as weapons! He also had this laid-back personality, but could be very serious when he wanted to be. And as for Grim's portrayal of Skull Man, I loved him. He creeped Roll out, and was likely snickering in his skull while doing it. He's loyal, and makes a damn good bodyguard. I want a Skull Man bodyguard..."

"D'aww," Moody tittered. "I'm flattered!"

"I'm not." Roll pouted. "Skull Man was really scary! I hated how he would always hide in dark corners and try to scare me! So mean."

"You really like Spider?" Mega Man winced. "I played that game once, and I didn't like how he was really Redips. That seemed so cheap."

"You really played that game?" Guy was amazed. "But you're a character..."

"Sure I did. It was non-cannon. And I really don't like Redips."

"I think the real Spider is dead." Guy said. "Redips had to have copied someone. I think that sometime in the main plot, the real Spider was replaced, due to some plot holes in some of the conversations. Redips felt more like a thrown out character, who was only put in to attempt to make the story more dramatic."

"That story was way too dramatic." Mega Man shook his head. "I don't think I'll play it ever again. That and I don't like RPGs. Except for Super Mario RPG, and this one 'Bob the Hamster' RPG I found on Hamster Republic. That was really fun, but unfinished. Oh excuse me, it's your turn to answer the question, Teribane."

"That's fine. Let's see, series, character, robot master, and color. Hm..." Teribane thought a moment. "Well, my favorite Mega Man series would have to be Classic, hands down. Especially if you include the spin off type of things, such as the American cartoon. The cartoon is hilarious."

Bass attempted to make a smark remark, but he couldn't get out more than a "hm" before GrimMoody stared him down.

"Favorite character is difficult." Teribane continued, brandishing an evil grin. "Either Protoman or Bass from the 'main' characters - especially if you decide to include the cartoon again, in which case the evil Proto Man from there, who is kind of a fusion of the two."

"Fusion?" Bass lifted an eyebrow.

"Ugh..." Proto Man groaned. "That's going to be a mental image tough to get rid of."

Teribane giggled. "As for Robot Masters, Sheep Man and Napalm Man. Sheep Man just because Sheep Man, and Napalm Man because his name is awesome and he is highly explosive. My version Sheep Man was originally built as a cuddly therapy robot. After Wily got to him, well... he still looks cuddly from afar, to be fair. As soon as you get close though, he spontaneously generates robotic rabies."

The guest author paused a moment, glancing over at FanFicGuy. He was trying to prop his hat a little higher. Teribane shrugged it off and finished the question. "So colour? Black, I guess. 'Tis a nice colour."

"Why the black?" Moody asked. "Are you unnecessarily grim?"

"It is both relatively practical and a trademark of evil. Mwaha. Even if whoever said you need black to sneak around at night lied. Black stands out, you actually need dark grey. Random tidbit of info there."

"Uh...huh...s'okay." GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow. "So the author I've forced into orange and green likes black, and the author wearing nothing but black likes all the colors. Okay, whatever. It's about time I finished off some of these deleted scenes."

"Wily was always evil." Roll leaned her head on her knees. "It wasn't that interview, and it wasn't the Nobel Peace Prize. It was him. He had the capacity for evil, and he followed through on it. It's nobody's fault but his own. I can't believe Crystal Bot went to see him in the hospital. I never would've done that."

Mega Man bit his lip. If talking to her would do any good, then he would, but she was caught up in her own darkness. Did Wily do something to her? It puzzled him that Roll could be so harsh, even to Wily. For the moment though, he just scooted over beside Roll and put an arm around her.

"Crystal Bot is very merciful." Rock agreed. "It was her task to see him, not yours. Your task is to forgive him and let go of everything he's done. It's over now, Roll. Can't you leave it all behind?"

Roll lifted her head, looking for a moment like she was going to object, but then the stubbornness fell out of her face. She relaxed, and instantly was more lovely than the moment before.

"I can." she finally said. "It really is all over now. I...I forgive him now. It's not as if hating him will do any good. But...are you sure it's all over? There's no more nasty surprises waiting for us?"

"I doubt it." he reassured her. "And if there were, I would take care of them like always. Haven't you heard? I'm the invicible robot."

"Dorkface." Roll giggled and hit him in the side. All the same, she really did believe in him again. Slowly, even hesitantly, her heart was going over to the side of faith again, and she wasn't going to let go anymore.

Before Auto could respond, a beep sounded at the lab's console. Both robots went up to it curiously, though Crystal Bot made sure to stay at least five feet away. Auto pushed a few buttons.

"Huh, it's a text transmission." Auto noted with surprise. "Most people don't send those anymore."

Well, apparently someone had. Auto accessed the file and opened it on the computer. Its letters appeared on the screen large enough for both robots to read. They gasped simultaneously.

"Everyone," the text read. "I'm sorry, but I have to do this. I can't explain why, but this is something I have to do. If anyone's going to defeat Zero, it can only be someone he doesn't expect. I'm really very sorry to do this to you, but I'm going to fight Zero myself. Please don't try to stop me or interrupt. You'll only put yourselves in danger. I love all of you, and if this is it, then goodbye. Roll."

"WHAT?" Crystal Bot practically shrieked. "What is she doing?"

Auto was instantly typing away at the computer. "Oh no! According to the records, Roll teleported out half an hour ago!"

"That's it! I've got to stop her before she does something stupid!"

Auto was quick to grab Crystal Bot's arm before her teleport code could sequence. "No, you can't go out there or Zero will take over your mind again!"

"But we have to do something!"

The Light-bot could only shake his head. "There's nothing we can do to save her now..."

"I just wish I had someone to talk to about it." Roll shifted on her feet. "It's so weird to have the memories in my head with no one to discuss it with. I don't know if I can handle it."

"Actually, there is someone you tell." GrimMoody said "Go ahead. Look."

The author pointed to her makeshift, future-revealing screen. Colors on it swirled into figures. One of those figures was Roll herself.

~Roll stood in the darkness of the room. She nervously stepped forward, switching on the light. Yes, he was there. Dr. Nikola Cain was there on the pale green couch (quite a nasty color, actually), perfectly asleep. His snores permeated the room like the roar of a dinosaur, but Roll only giggled.

"You're a worse snorer than Dr. Light, you know that?" Roll whispered over his sleeping form. "And every bit as messy too."

The housekeeper's accusation was very true. All sorts of papers lay strewn about the coffeetable, the loveseat, and the floor. Cain even held a set of blueprints under his head as he slept. Roll's instincts came out at once. She collected the papers, and even without knowing what exactly they were, she shuffled them into appropriate stacks on the coffeetable.

As she cleaned, Roll sneered at the apartment. It was such a tiny place. The living was the dining room (in Cain's case, a powder blue foldaway table and chair on the other half of the room) and a tiny kitchen to the right of the place. There must have been a bathroom down the hall next to the kitchen, but there was no bedroom. Dr. Cain was evidently too tired to pull out the couch.

"Silly, silly man." Roll chanted to herself. "What a place to end up! You brought it on yourself, you know. Oh, how funny!"

Roll couldn't help herself. It was so funny. Dr. Cain must have fallen asleep atop his work, and already the poor blueprints were covered in a small puddle of drool. The girl-bot tugged it out from under his head, trying her best to be gentle. The sleeping man snorted, startling into the waking world.

"Buh?" he sputtered. "Wha-? Who's there?"~

"The first bit up there is a piece from Wily's 'funeral chapter'." GrimMoody explained. "I deleted it because it took the chapter to a happier place, and I wanted to keep that chapter in fairly dark territory. The second is a bit where Roll actually left a letter at the lab saying why she had gone to fight Zero. That was just really unnecessary, and it was a good way to ensure that Rock or someone came and stopped her. The last is from when I broke the fourth wall. I sort of like it, as it makes Dr. Cain a more tolerable character, but I never found a way to end this piece satisfactorily. Its only goal was to make Dr. Cain seem human and be willing to talk to Roll, but other than that was pretty purposeless. Though it did give Roll a place to confess she'd been in an alternate timeline. Dr. Cain is probably the only person willing to believe her."

"I would believe her." Mega Man protested. "I'm her brother!"

"No you wouldn't. You'd be weirded out. And don't you get any ideas, Proto Man. You'd think someone had hacked into her brain just to torment her."

Proto Man opened his mouth, but promptly shut it again. After a moment, he chuckled. "Yeah. I'd probably think it was some last ditch effort from Wily."

"Well, I'm glad that you kept Cain's bit out, he's a character I love to hate. I don't want to sympathize for him - heck I don't even want to tolerate him! It was part of his villainous charm. And 'dorkface', Roll? that's the best you can come up with? But then again, this is a T rated piece of fiction..."

"And I'm a PG rated girl." Roll retorted, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm very proper, and I don't use bad language. It's not ladylike."

"Aw, I want to feel bad for poor Cain." Teribane added in a pouty voice. "I might pat him sympathetically if not for the other stuff he did."

"So, while we're all here." GrimMoody said. "How's about we let our guest authors ask some questions? Teribane, anything on your mind? You can ask anybody anything."

"My question, and this is for all of you," Teribane eyed the robots gleefully. "Is this: what, in your opinion, was the most embarrassing thing you did over the course of the series? And the most awesome?"

"Guh, you're really going to make us answer that?" Bass grimaced.

"I am." GrimMoody smiled. "And thanks for offering to go first."

"She's already humiliated us in front of fanfiction net." Proto Man sighed. "You might as well answer the question."

"If it'll get things over with sooner, I guess I will. The most embarrasing thing I did was get saved by Rock. I don't know how the hell GrimMoody got that into her evil head, but that was insanely embarrassing."

"Ooh!" Roll piped up, grinning. "And that time GrimMoody showed what a nice guy you were in the first Bonus Features."

"And how about the time Zero kicked your butt?" Proto Man grinned. "That had to hurt."

"You were defeated by Mega Man a couple more times during the series, if I'm not mistaken." Crystal Man mentioned. "That couldn't have been very edifying."

"Screw all of you guys. Anyway, the most awesome thing I ever did...eh...well, there was that time I arrested Wily. Aw hell, that was great." Bass grinned with delight. "And no offense, Crystal Bot, but I think it was pretty awesome that I defeated someone with an instant death spike for a weapon."

"Aw, don't remind me of that!" Crystal put a disturbing grimace on her adorable face. "I didn't like being brainwashed into fighting you! But I guess you did defeat me, and I did have a death spike. Yeah, that's pretty awesome! I'll go next, I guess. Besides fighting Forte-kun, I was never that embarrassed during the story."

"Except when I had to save you from Signal Man, the wimpiest of all the Cain robot masters." Bass snorted.

"Hey, it's not my fault I have Toad Man - I mean, Wily Disease!" Crystal Bot shook a finger at him. "And I was going to be all sweet and say that the awesomest thing I ever did was organize that huge fan gathering for you so you could fight Algorhythm Man."

Sheepish, Bass grinned. "I'm sorry, then. I have to admit, that was pretty awesome of you."

"Thank you very much!" Sonata winked. "Yes, yes, I am pretty awesome!"

"The most embarrassing part of this story for me was being dead for most of it." Crystal Man retorted. "And I'm supposed to be GrimMoody's favorite character."

"Don't feel too bad." Bass said. "I'm Grimm's second favorite and basically anything bad that could have happened to me did. Rock saved my life, I get compared to Wily, Axl gets killed right in front of me...the list just goes on."

"That must make me her third favorite." Proto Man sighed. "She's tortured me endlessly. You think it would be pretty obvious what my most embarrassing moment was, but actually that was more...torturous than embarrassing. As far as pure embarrassment goes, well it was when Bass saved my life in How Many."

"Oh?" Roll asked. "It wasn't the time you had a tea party with Leila when she was six and had to wear a feather boa and tiara?"

Bass guffawed, and Crystal Bot laughed. Even Crystal Man and Rock chuckled. Mega Man just smiled. Proto Man eyed them all, but kept his composure.

"No." Blues replied simply. "That was something I did to please a small girl. And technically speaking, that didn't even happen in this story."

"Oh," Bass grinned. "What you're saying is, that's the most awesome thing you've ever done."

"The most awesome thing I've done is save my brother's life so that he could live to defeat you again." Proto Man's calm only barely wavered. "But during the main plot, I suppose I enjoyed...oh yes! It was that time during WGT when I could order you about. That was awesome."

"I actually think the most awesome thing you did was come and see Dr. Light when he was dying." Mega Man said. "That really meant a lot to him."

Proto Man was taken aback, and even Bass resisted any further taunting. Blues finally shook his head at his brother.

"You certainly know how to shut down an argument, don't you?"

"It's one of my favorite things to do." Rock winked. "But as far as most awesome, I'd have to say...well, returning to my lab. It's where I was meant to be since my creation, and I didn't realize how much I've missed it during the past few years. I guess technically speaking I'm still a soldier, or defender if you like, but once Bass takes over for me, I'll be in my lab all day and that will be awesome! Oh, and it was also awesome how I got to be a part of so many robots becoming good guys. Team 5, Team 6, all our other volunteers...it just makes me so happy."

"What about your most embarrassing moment?" Crystal Bot asked. "Tell us, tell us!"

"Um...well, since GrimMoody didn't seem to like writing about me, there isn't much to tell." Mega Man rested his head on a hand. "Hm. I guess it was pretty embarrassing to be trapped under a huge chunk of brick by Echelon Man. It didn't actually bother me that much, but still, Echelon Man wasn't the hardest robot I've ever fought. It seems weird he'd get me pinned like that, even though I beat him. Oh well. That's the kind of thing that happens when you're a fighter-bot."

Roll counted on her fingers, looking around the room for a moment before realizing everyone else had gone already. "Oh! It's my turn now. Um, well, I was very lucky that I wasn't a fighter-bot. Nothing too embarrassing ever happened to me. Wait, the time Crystal Bot tricked me and stole sensitive information from the lab was pretty bad. I felt sick for a week!"

"Sorry, Roll-chan!" Crystal Bot giggled. "But I wasn't a good guy back then."

"It's okay. Anyways, the most awesome thing I've ever done...you might think it was the time I went out to go fight Zero, but that was pretty scary. The thing I did that I'm the most proud of - and this is really going to sound silly - is when Bass was first training me, and he said I could be a fighter. Well, what he actually said was that I looked like a crybaby girl and that I should take advantage of that. But what he meant was that even though I look like a crybaby girl, I really can be a good fighter!" Seeing Mega Man's expression, Roll quickly backpedaled. "Well, that is if Rock would let me. Anyway, it's not that I want to be a fighter, I'm just really happy that someone like Bass would say I can be one if I wanted to."

Extremely flattered, Bass leaned back in his chair and grinned as wide as the moon. "Aw, come on. There's no way that's more awesome than the time you destroyed Epidemic Man. That was awesome, even if it was in a different time line. That's just what he deserved too: to get destroyed by Roll."

"Answering hat took a bit." GrimMoody said. "But hey, I think y'all are getting the hang of being entertaining for the audience. Oh hey, FanFicGuy, do you have any questions for the 'bots?"

At being addressed, FanFicGuy quickly stopped trying to make himself sit higher in his chair. He had realized a couple of minutes ago that Bass, who sat to his left, was taller than him, as much as he tried to assure himself that it was only because of the dark robot's protruding headfins. Guy cleared his throat and got himself into professional mode.

"Okay, here's a question, but it's for you, not a 'bot. Can I ask you Why I'm in the Bonus Features when I only reviewed this particular story, like, once? I was going through my old reviews, and when I got to this story, I saw only one, for chapter 15. The reason why I'm asking the question, is because when other people see I only reviewed once, they'll be asking the same thing!"

"Simple." Moody shrugged. "You're my friend. I feel like I know you. We talked a lot during Afterlife, particularly about your Maverick name. Besides, it's just a thing: you can't always base characters off everyone you know because inspiration only goes so far. You're inspired for some, and not so much for others. Of course, I could end up irritating some people, couldn't I? Well, I only made Mavericks out of my Afterlife reviewers and favs, and I only made Top Man write creepy poetry for Queen Sunstar and now Teribane. I think all my mature reviewers will realize that life is simply unfair."

GrimMoody paused a moment and shuddered. "I actually feel pretty weird about the poetry for Sunstar. I really hoped she would realize it was Top Man speaking and I'm not some crazy net stalker."

"Trust me, we all know how Top Man can be." Proto Man assured her. "I'm sure Sunstar understands."

"I hope so. In any case, any more questions, Guy?"

"A couple more. How in the world do you stay so inspired to write like this? How do you have the patience to write five stories in a row?"

"To be honest, I don't really have the patience." Moody admitted. "I just had a story I really wanted to write, and I wrote it. I forced myself to pretend that I could do it, and lo and behold, apparently I can. Though it is something to spend three years writing a fanfiction - it'll be three years officially next month - and not recieve any real compensation beyond fanfiction net kudos. Part of me feels like it's a waste to write when I don't get paid and published, even though my mind knows better. I've gained endurance, experience, and fans from all of this. And hopefully y'all will end up reading an original fanfiction I write, someday when I really publish something. My plan for the moment is to create a book of short stories and sell it online for two bucks as an e-book."

"That sounds like a pretty good idea." FanFicGuy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "How do you publish something online and make money?"

"Dang if I know. I'll find out eventually, I guess."

"Alright, just one more question." Guy turned to Crystal Bot. "Do you have a kawaii chip or something? You're just so adorable!"

Bass rolled his eyes. "Yep. A total brony."

"There's nothing wrong with My Little Pony, Forte-kun." Crystal Bot flipped a hand at her boss, pretending to brush him off.

"Perhaps I should answer this question." Crystal Man spoke up. "While my daughter has no literal 'kawaii chip', she was designed to be as appealing a personality as possible so that when Dr. Wily discovered her - I could not hide her forever - then he would desire to keep her alive, even if he felt I was betraying him. I suppose my plan worked too well and my daughter replaced me, but that is of no consequence. I prefer her to live rather than to keep my own life."

"Aw, that's so sweet!" Crystal Bot happily clutched at his arm. "But Dad, I like it best when both of us are alive. FanFicGuy, I guess it's safe to say that I turned out so cute because I have the best dad in the world. He always watches out for me, even when I don't know it!"

"Aww!" Mega Man said.

"Gag..." Bass said, rolling his eyes.

"Hey!" Teribane protested. "FanFicGuy gets to ask all that, while I only get one question?"

"Your question was long, and Guy's were short." GrimMoody turned to her. "Bonus Features isn't finished yet, so ask away!"

"My next one is for you." Teribane said. "Were there any points in the story that, while writing, you decided to change completely - ones for which the ending would have turned out drastically dissimilar?"

"Ooh, toughie." GrimMoody scratched her big nose. "Well, not exactly. For the most part I got the sense of what would work and what wouldn't pretty quickly. If I had to go back and edit, I'd mostly work on shaping the least influencial of the scenes. But I did consider during Wily Ga Taosenai to make Bass get distrusted by the government, and ultimately betrayed by them. Luckily for him, that sort of distracted from the story, and the ending I had in mind was more one of him versus Algorhythm Man, and all those 'the government is the bad guy' stories are so trite and overdone that I couldn't be bothered to do a story like that."

"Wow, she had a chance to torture me and didn't take it." Bass said. "I'm impressed."

"Hush you. In any case, the change I most considered was for what turned out to be a fairly small character: Demi. Demi, if you can recall, is Dr. Cain's minature robot assistant monster robot thing, and he merges with Epic Man to become Epidemic Man - that's so dang clever, ain't it? At one point, I actually considered making Demi a robot chick as Dr. Cain's companion. But after thinking about it for a while, the potential plotlines became just too creepy. That was just a no. So he ended up being a monster. In the end Demi turned out not to be used as much as I would have liked, and that really bothered me. If I ever decide to edit this into an official fanfiction, he's getting his parts extended."

"What's so creepy about a female robot?" Crystal Bot asked. "I'm a girl robot and I'm not creepy."

"Hush, dear." Crystal Man reached out and touched her arm. "Don't worry about it."

"But-"

"Ssshhhh." Crystal Man persisted. "Shh."

"Ooooo-kay." GrimMoody turned back to Teribane. "I guess we've got time for one more question, if you want."

"Alright. My next question - okay, demand, really, is for the first character to accept a challenge: rate all the other characters," Teribane gleefully searched the faces of those around her for a taker. "In terms of Raditz."

"Raditz?" GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"It's a Dragon Ball Z thing." Proto Man answered. "I think he's Goku's brother."

"Goku's brother?" GrimMoody lifted an eyebrow even further, taking advantage of this as much as she can in fiction, because she can't do so in real life. "How do you rate someone by a brother?"

"I think it's like that 'over 9000' thing." Mega Man turned to his brother. "Is that right?"

"Oh yeah, it might be." Blues tapped on the arms of his chair. "I don't know how you would rate someone like that either. I always imagined they were sort of making up the numbers. I didn't watch a lot of it."

"You watch cartoons?" Bass stared awkwardly at Teribane. "Aren't you a little old for that?"

"Bfft. You're a cartoon character." Teribane retorted. "If people like me didn't write about you then you wouldn't exist. Sheesh, guys. It's like your life force power levels! Isn't anybody here familiar with Dragon Ball Z?"

Blues waved his hand in a "sort of" gesture, and everyone else just stared at each other, waiting for someone else to raise their hand. No one did. Teribane turned to FanFicGuy for support, but he only shrugged.

"I like Dr. Who and Mass Effect." he said, feeling a little smug. "Sorry."

"Ooh, you like Doctor Who?" Crystal Bot squealed. "Me too!"

"So you're not going to answer my Raditz challenge?" Teribane turned hopefully to Proto Man. "Come on, it's all in good fun."

"Sorry." GrimMoody shrugged with apology. "I looked it up on Google, and I just don't get the concept. To me it's a bunch of imaginary numbers. Besides, that stuff is like for magical super saiyan power or something like that. It doesn't have anything to do with robotic effeciency."

"Isn't anyone at least going to try?"

"Okay, fine." Mega Man smiled. "I'll try. I'd say I'm about a...oh, one Raditz."

"Just one?" Proto Man asked. "Aren't you more than that?"

"Raditz is a brother, and I'm one brother." Rock winked.

"Oh, I see. Then I'm a Raditz and a half." Proto Man pointed to his neck. "The half is because I have a scarf."

"It's a cool scarf too."

"Why, thank you."

"That's not how it works..." Teribane tried to protest.

"I'm not a brother, I'm a sister." Roll teased. "That means I'm at least three Raditz. Three Raditz and a pony. One of you now owes me a pony."

"I have tons of brothers, and they all suck." Bass snorted. "So I trade my Raditz for an arm cannon."

"When it comes to Raditz," Crystal Bot piped up. "I'm the shiny, spiked hair! I like spiky hair!"

"And I'm Confucious out of twelve." Crystal Man added.

"That makes me four-fifths Napoleon." Guy said.

"And I'm hamster to the tenth power." GrimMoody winked.

"You guys are spoilsports." Teribane, much to Guy's glee, slouched in her chair enough to make him look an inch taller. "I'm done talking to you."

"Are you sure?" GrimMoody waved to the projector screen. "Because now it's time for the guest author profiles! Auto, be a doll and put all the info up on the screen here, will ya?"

Auto cranked up the next slide on the projector. A robot master profile popped up on the screen, information for the first of GrimMoody's guests.

=====Teribane
Good point: Insane
Bad point: Obsessive over fandoms
Likes: Reading anything and everything
Dislikes: Bigots

Teribane was always an odd child. She spent her elementary school years as a member of a superhero squad with her friends, her superhero persona a blatant ripoff of Poochyena, only with wings. This can be excused, as she was young and did not yet know what a Mary Sue was.

She began reading and drawing very early, and later added writing to her list of skills. Her ability in all of these has been steadily increasing since, possibly in exact parallel to her insanity.

Teribane is notorious among her many acquintances to, while lost in thought, often walk straight past without noticing someone who is waving their arms and shouting. Her reading speed is relatively fast, going through at least one or two books a day on average, and she likes fiddling with strange crafts. She also enjoys and is extremely amused by the phenomenon known as the internet.

She has been assured that there is only a high possibility of her being an alien, not a certainty, and has plans of taking over the world with several other aspiring world dominator friends.

She also rather likes snickerdoodles and mint hot cocoa.

"Wait, wait, her good point is insane?" Bass wrinkled his nose. "How is that good?"

"It's good that she's insane because if she wasn't, she'd have taken over the world by now." Proto Man's voice couldn't get any more dry as he stared at Teribane. "Yes, she would rule over all of us right now otherwise."

"Oh, be quiet!" Teribane tittered, not at all dismayed by the robots' reaction. "Little do you know that my insanity is the source of my power. That and snickerdoodles."

"I have to say, Teri," GrimMoody winced as she peered up at the projector screen. "I gotta say I'm pretty uncomfortable with your whole world conquering thing. I didn't think you were that kind of person."

"You never realize how many aspiring world dominators there are 'til you ask." Teribane replied cooly. "I think the world would be a much better place if I took it over. And prices on chocolate would definitely go down. It's just too expensive these days."

"As it so turns out, I'm the hero type. And now that you've confessed it is now my mission to stop you." GrimMoody donned a pair of sunglasses. "Oh wait, I'm too nearsighted..." The author switched back to her regular lenses. "Ah, much better."

"Oh relax, Moody." Teribane shifted forward a little, stretching her right hand around her back. "I'm not going to conquer your world. Though if I did, I'd definitely change its name. 'Nerdlandia' is just too much. But don't worry. I'm your guest today, and I would never conquer my host."

"You're not crossing your fingers behind your back, are you?" Mega Man asked.

"Of course not." Teribane quickly pulled her hand out and set it on the arm of her chair. "Hee hee, I just had an itch."

"Well, if we're going to be confessing things, then I've got one." GrimMoody sighed deeply before continuing. "It turns out...I'm a bigot."

"WHAT?" Teribane stared coldly, and her fingernails dug into the arms of the couch. "You really are?"

"Yes. I'm a white chocolate bigot. I just can't stand the stuff. Gives me headaches."

"Bigotry is wrong, GrimMoody." Teribane huffed. "Even against white chocolate."

"Pfft. White chocolate is the devil in candy form, and it's perfectly fine to be bigoted against the devil."

"As 'eager' as I am to see how much worse FanFic boy's profile is," Bass muttered. "Can we move on before this conversation gets any more stupid?"

"Fine, fine." GrimMoody pouted. "Auto, go ahead!"

=====FanFicGuy
Good point: Supportive
Bad Point: Giant Ego
Likes: Games
Dislikes: Rap Music

Suddenly, before any more information could come up on the screen, it exploded in a flash of light, sending all robots and authors to floor - except for one. Through the noise and smoke came the sound of terrifying, bellicose laughter. Mega Man, Proto Man and Bass all tried to stand up, but the roar of the explosion was replaced by the roar of vast metal machinery. Dozens of robo-men crowded the stage, each one impeccably dressed in delightful three piece suits and black bow ties. They held their shiny new tommy-guns pointed right at everyone, with one exception: FanFicGuy.

"Mwahahahaha! Bow before me, mortal fools! It is I, ThatFanFicGuy, but you may call me the Dictator-King of Awesomeness! First off, let me congratulate you on your fanfiction tastes, as you've chosen a damn good story to read - that's as close to a complement as you'll get, Grim, I'd suggest you take it. But now, we're here to talk about ME! So, lets get to it. My first edict for the province of Nerdlandia, newest addition to the FanFic Empire, is that you are to erect a ninety-foot statue of me in my honor. And while you're at it, a fifty foot statue of each actor that has played the Doctor, because Doctor Who is awesome. And secondly - "

"No, no, NO!"

Despite all the armed tuxedo-bots, a now very frazzled Teribane got to her feet and stomped her way over to Guy, sticking a defiant finger in his face. "You can't take over Nerdlandia, because I'm taking over Nerdlandia!"

"Hey wait, you said you weren't!" GrimMoody gasped and tried to get up, but one of the tuxedo-bots quickly stomped her back down. "You liar!"

"Cry about it, why don't you?" Teribane scoffed at Moody before turning to her opponent. "You can't do this to me! I had my army ready and everything!"

"Well too bad." Guy huffed. "I called it first."

"Called it? There's no 'called it' in the world of supervillains!" Teri threw a hand in the air, and she raised her voice the rafters. "Venom-bots, battle positions!"'

With that, all the stage-dwellers were insantly aware of even more robots. Long fanged pterodactyls hung from the beams and lights above them, each one ready to drop a powerful egg-bomb on the robots and humans below.

"Hey!" Guy yelled, raising himself on his toes so that he could look down on Teribane. "Stop it! You're ruining my invasion!"

"It's my invasion now." Teribane folded her arms smugly. "But y'know what? I'm a nice person. Instead of fighting each other and destroying each other's armies, let's join forces. We can't give GrimMoody a chance to win Nerdlandia back. Conquest is more fun with friends anyway. We can go get cocoa later."

"Well...alright." FanFicGuy agreed. "But I still get a statue. Now let's deal with these guys. Mr. Tuxedo 3000s, let the robots up."

And so that left GrimMoody still under the foot of a tuxedo-bot as all the other characters were allowed to stand. Mega Man and the other fighter-bots looked around for an opportunity to get free, but the tuxedo-bots still had their arms tightly pinioned, and the dinosaur-bots above remained ready to let their bombs fly.

"And so, you robots," As he spoke, Guy conjured himself platform shoes and a bigger hat. He was getting tired of standing on his toes. "You don't have to be our prisoners. You can be free robots on the single, solitary condition that you promise to never help GrimMoody get Nerdlandia back, and acknowledge my unending reign."

"Our reign." Teribane corrected.

"Yeah, what she said. What say you, bots?"

"We won't side with violent conquerers!" Mega Man exclaimed. "Right, guys?"

"I don't know..." Proto Man glanced down at GrimMoody. "If we don't join them, we'll have to keep putting up with her."

"Oh yeah." Bass glared at the author with distaste. "Grimm here always treated us like crap. She actually deserves this."

"Hey! You're really going to treat me this way?" Moody exclaimed. "Bass, you're one of my favorite robots!"

"Being your favorite doesn't exactly earn us any favors." Crystal Man narrowed his eyes. "I only appeared in two of your stories, and one of those was a brief cameo in a memory chip."

"That's right." Mega Man said. "And I never got featured the way Moody promised! Maybe...maybe things will get better if Teribane and FanFicGuy take over..."

"And Guy said we were going to make Dr. Who statues!" Crystal Bot added.

The robots stared at the conquering writers, each one wondering what life would be like under their new leaders. They glanced at each other, looking at each face to see if there was an answer.

"Shall we put it to a vote?" Rock suggested. "Who supports Teribane and FanFicGuy?"

"NO!" a desperate GrimMoody shouted. "Not while I'm still the author here!"

"Pssht." Teribane laughed at Grimm. "And what exactly are you going to do about it?"

"Yeah," Guy said. "You're the one that let us into your world in the first place!"

"Well, I'm not powerless!" GrimMoody zapped the projector screen back into place. "Auto! The next slide, please!"

Robots couldn't cry.

Or at least Snakeman was pretty sure he couldn't. He knew his old body didn't have the physical means of doing so. Now that he was in Megaman's body, maybe he could, only he didn't know how, and he was glad he didn't.

He winced and squeezed his eyes shut as Protoman kicked him again, trying not to move, not even bothering to pick himself up from the floor. Maybe, just maybe, if he stopped moving he'd be left alone.

"You're Megaman, got it? You're my brother!"

This needed a reply. The green-white bot - or at least he'd never stop thinking of himself that way, even if he was now blue - nodded frantically.

"Act like him!"

Snakeman whimpered involuntarily as Protoman kicked him again, and the visored robot flinched, stopping. He looked a little shell-shocked, as if only now realizing what he was doing, then turned away and hit the wall with a fist, driving it almost an inch into the metal.

"You're... my brother..."

Snakeman cautiously opened one eye a crack, only to see Protoman hunched over, his fist still embedded in the wall. He cringed as the robot started to speak again, then slowly uncurled, unwrapping his arms from his side.

"It's alright, Snakeman. You can go now."

It sounded oddly choked, forced, but Snakeman didn't question it, deciding that the robot must be in a forgiving mood - although he still didn't understand what he'd done wrong - and taking the chance to get out of there. Overly grateful for this new body's speed, even if it didn't seem to have brought much other good to him, he only stopped at the doorway for a second to look back.

That bot has something seriously wrong with him.

Protoman waited for the door to close before he let the "I'm sorry." out.

He leaned against the wall, his eyes closed, then slid down, folding his legs.

Wishful thinking. That's all it was. The person he really most wanted on his side, he'd never have. The best he could hope for was a cheap imitation.

But just this second, he was really glad that...

Robots couldn't cry.

"What..." Bass gasped. "What's that?"

"That, my dear Bass," GrimMoody rolled out from under the tuxedo-bot's foot and stood up. "Is a sample of Teribane's work."

"Aw, hell," Bass soured worse the longer he read the words. "I was going to make fun of Proto Man, but...I just feel bad for him."

"Stop insulting my work, you!" Teribane yelled.

"But why would I cry because Snake Man is in my brother's body?" Blues, equally horrified, couldn't help but staring. "Do I want Snake Man to pretend to be my brother so that I can pretend that my brother and I get along? I mean, I know this is the Ruby-Spears universe, but that's insanely creepy."

"You're right about that." Moody nodded. "Auto!"

Such small things, near meaningless objects, yet each sayed a different thing, having a different meaning.

A Flower, a Ring, and a Music Box. simple little worthless possessions to some, but when he gave them to her, to his Roll, she treated them as if they were priceless.

The Flower, found out in Yass Plains, when it was in a wrecked state because of the Bonnes Tanks and Cannons. between the blazing fires and hot metal, he had spotted it, and kept it with him because it reminded him of his friend. He kept it close, and soon after gave it to her because of its beauty. It was so much like her, simple, yet elegent, with yellow petals that were so much like her hair. When he gave it to her, it symbolized that he treasured her friendship, that though the flower may wilt, their friendship never would.

The Ring, he spent two days underground when he found it. In the dark with nothing like a flashlight, it shined forth from a little hole in the wall. It was a beautiful ring, made of gold with a little silver ring going around the middle. He immediantly turned back and fought off any enemy Reaverbots that got in his way, simply to give her such a treasure. When he gave it to her, it symbolized that the Ring made everyone who wore it look more beautiful, but it was her, that made it look more beautiful, for compared to her, it was nothing but a piece of shiny metal.

And finally, the Music Box. He had played on that game show countless times, running and skating to get that Music Box. After countless hours he had finally retrieved said object, and nearly collapsed from exhastion. When the producer asked if the effort was worth the small prize, he just grinned and nodded.

He gave it to her the moment she showed up in the Spotters Car. She knew how hard he had worked to get it, after all, the Car had a portable Television in it, and felt bad for him giving her all these gifts, but he had insisted that he had planned to give it to her the whole time. She gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug, making both feel quite embaressed when they noticed the cameras were still rolling and had just caught the whole thing live and had broadcasted it all over the small island.

He had given her it to symbolize that every move she made was filled with a certain grace, every dance step filled with perfection, no matter how clumsy or childish it may seem to others. That though she may not be able to hold a note while singing along to the songs, that her voice was like a choir of Angels.

It made his heart skip a beat whenever he saw her with these things, when she would fill the vase her flower sat in with fresh water, when she had kept her promise to never take her sparkling ring off, and how when she was cleaning up around the Flutter, the Music Box played, with her singing along, even if she knew less then half the words to the song that was playing.

All these items said a different thing, yet all said the same at the same time. They spoke out what he felt. They all said, "Thank you for being here, for being my family, my best friend, for being yourself and for being the girl I will always and forever love."

"Oh, ugh!" Mega Man exclaimed. "That's terrible!"

"I warned you about my sappy crap." FanFicGuy shrugged. "I never lied to you about it."

"I'd a million times rather deal with GrimMoody than with this!" Proto Man exclaimed. "I didn't know it would get this bad!"

"I can't look at it any longer!" Roll cried out. "Take it down!"

"Yes, yes it is." It was GrimMoody's turn to be smug, and she was sure going to take it. "Normally I avoid being negative about my reviewers, but I knew you two might pull off a stunt like this. Now the both of you will make your armies disappear, or else."

"Or else, what?" Guy snapped. "We've still got the drop on you!"

"Oh do you?" Moody snapped her fingers.

It felt like the room had exploded. Throes of pink, green, and blue lighting (the crystal robots admired this appreciatively) exploded across the stage, zapping at every last tuxedo-bot and pteradactyl in the place. Each one disappeared in a cloud of colored smoke, leaving both guest authors bereft of any support. The two huddled together, waiting for the moment when the lightning would come for them. But it didn't touch them, except when a bit of green lightning knocked off Guy's hat. As the electronic storm stopped, GrimMoody emerged, completely unhurt and plenty angry. Guy and Teribane, still shuddering, opened their tight shut eyes and awaited whatever punishment would befall them.

"Get them!" Moody thundered.

Quick as teleports the two authors found themselves pinned. Mega Man had Teribane by the arms, and Bass searched FanFicGuy for weapons. As he felt Guy's pocket, he laughed.

"I really was just joking earlier." Bass reached into Guy's pocket and pulled a little pink pony. "But he really does like My Little Pony!"

"There's nothing at all wrong with that!" Guy growled. "Friendship is magic! Long live Dr. Whooves! Long live Fluttershy!"

"Shut up, Guy." Moody grinned. "It's time for your punishment."

"Um...we're sorry?" Teribane offered.

"Duly noted." GrimMoody just couldn't stop smiling. "But hey, y'all are my guests, and they always say empty your larder before emptying your lead. Y'all are forever banished from Nerdlandia. But before you go, it's time for your parting gifts! Rock, step away from Teri so that she can get her gift."

Mega Man's eyes widened, and he dove away from Teribane as quickly as he good. For a moment nothing happened, and Teribane looked around for something to happen. Finally she looked up.

"OOF!"

Before she could comprehend what was happening, a huge pillow slammed into her face, knocking her to the floor. The thing was so large, all anyone could see of Teribane was her feet as they kicked and struggled. Finally Teri managed to kick it up and roll out of the way, though she gasped for breath. Being smothered by a huge pillow certainly wasn't fun.

"Hey wait, this pillow is pretty cool." Teribane noticed. "Black with green binary on it? Wow! That's pretty unique!"

"Yeah, glad you like it. Now shoo."

As she spoke, GrimMoody pointed to the back of the stage toward the projector screen. Out of nowhere grew a huge, swirling portal. With a wink from Moody, Mega Man and Proto Man snatched up Teribane and her pillow, throwing them both through to Teribane's proper dimension.

"Um," FanFicGuy tried to back away, but Bass held him too tight. "That doesn't hurt, does it?"

"I dunno. Never tried it." Moody said. "But to give you your present, we have a special guest. Come on in, Skull Man."

Skull Man stepped out onto the stage, solemnly heading for FanFicGuy. He held in his hands a little plush toy that looked exactly like him, buster, red eyes and all. The robot offered this to Guy, who accepted it with glee.

"Wow, thanks, Skull Man!" Guy squeezed the doll to his face. "I'll keep it forever!"

"And," Moody added. "As a bonus, your favorite robot master will now do you the honor of throwing your sorry butt out of my realm."

"What?" Guy gasped with excitement. "Really?"

Skull Man took FanFicGuy away from Bass. Then he snatched FanFicGuy by the collar of his shirt and his belt. Swinging him three times, on the forth go Skull Man tossed Guy through the air and right into the portal. FanFicGuy's voice could be heard before the portal sucked him completely away.

"THIS IS SO AWESOME...!"

And the portal disappeared, closing shut to the worlds of the fanfiction net authors. All the characters sighed with relief.

"Whew! Now that was something, wasn't it?" Moody said. "Oh well, now it's over. You guys weren't really going to betray me, were you?"

"I wasn't." Roll said. "After all, you did save us from that awful future with Dr. K."

"Yeah, even if you had to do it in the most horrible way possible." Proto Man added. "Besides, your story is over, so you can't torture us anymore. There's no need to betray you."

"I'm kinda sad there's not going to be any statues." Crystal Bot shrugged. "But you did imagine me, so I'll stick by you."

"I think this would be a good time to have a deleted scene." Crystal Man said. "It would make sense after all that action."

"Hm...let me check...nah, I don't have any 'good' ones left." GrimMoody said. "Um, here, I've got a few tidbits. The rest of you, get back into your chairs. Oh, Ping, thanks for your help. You can get back to operating the lights now. Skull Man, we've got some more guests, and you can tell them they're on after this bit of deleted scenes. And there we go. Auto, the clips, if you please!"

"Hey, Roll..."

"EEEEKK!"

Jumping nearly two feet off the ground, Roll thudded back down right on her bum. By that time, if she hadn't caught a glimpse of Bass already, she would have known it was him by his harsh laughter.

"Ahahahaha!

Mega Man was in the main lab. For once, the lab wasn't looking like its normal self. For one, it was too dark, and the empty repair tables looked gloomy in the dim light - it wasn't good to waste electricity when no one was working. Yes, Auto was done with his massive work, finally, and had even gotten started on Fire Man and Snake Man, both of whom lay incomplete and unactivated in two of the rear tables. For now they were going to sit there. Auto's shop in town needed rebuilding, and with all his setbacks the green engineer wanted to get it going as fast as possible. It was a good source of income for the lab, and quite frankly they needed the money.

Mega Man wasn't thinking about money. He sat at the main computer, talking on the video phone with a surprisingly helmetless, brunet robot. They were both all smiles, and in the midst of a happy conversation.

"I was expecting Briggs' kids to be little terrors." Proto Man said. "But they aren't so bad. They seem to know how annoying their dad is. Except for Harry Jr...he's pretty much the spitting image of his father."

"Ouch, I'm so sorry." Mega Man winced with a smile. "I don't know, Mr. Briggs has never really been that much of a problem to me."

"That's because you're not his favorite." Proto Man retorted with a chuckle.

In that moment, as Bass found himself seeing Mega Man in a completely different light. Now, Bass had seen a picture of Ayumu Light before (mainly because Crystal Bot was so nosy) and he was able to see her looks in all three of the Light siblings. Rock, with his jet black hair and gentle features, looked the most like his "mother". It was easy to see the resemblance between Rock and Ayumu, and that made it very clear how much Thomas cared for his wife. However, in that moment, for the very first time, Bass could actually see a semblance of Dr. Light in the robot. It wasn't in the way Rock's eyes were shaped, and his nose was distinctly Asian. Yet there he was, Rock Light, somehow the son of his father.

Why the hell am I thinking this crap? Bass glanced once more over at Rock. Oh hell, because it's true.

"These are just a few tidbits I cut for various reasons." GrimMoody said, sitting in one of the chairs left behind by the guest authors. "The first was just a bit where Bass jump-scares Roll. It was cute, but didn't really fit the mood of the chapter. The second is a 'meh' scene that's basically a first draft of what's there. The third...well, that was something I had in mind to be sort of literary."

"Literary?" Bass growled. "How that hell is that literary? I would never think something like that! And wipe that smirk on your face, Rock!"

"I didn't say anything." Mega Man grinned. "Not a word."

"Then stop talking now!"

"I did have a problem with letting you think something like that." GrimMoody nodded to Bass. "I don't feel I got the sentiment right. I mean, you might notice that Mega Man looks a little like Dr. Light, but you wouldn't phrase it that way. Thus, it was cut."

"Eh, I think he has Dr. Light's chin." Roll said leaned forward to get a better look at her brother as she teased him. "And his eye color."

"Ironically, you look the most like Dr. Light." Mega Man said. "I think he was too sad to make someone who looked just like Mom."

"Why do you say that?" Bass snorted. "He made you, didn't he?"

"Y'know, GrimMoody." Rock rolled his eyes. "Feel free to put him in a tea dress now."

"Maybe later. For now, it's time for our next three guests to enter the stage. Everyone, please welcome, Mega Man X, Zero, and Axl!"

The stage actually erupted with genuine applause as the three Maverick Hunters entered the stage. GrimMoody vacated her chair and allowed X and Zero to sit in the center chairs.

"Axl, Axl!" Crystal Bot squealed. "You come sit by me!"

GrimMoody, ever helpful to her Mary-Sue, conjured up another poofy chair between Crystal and her father. Even before Axl sat down, Crystal Bot was scooting her chair closer. Bass winced, hoping she wouldn't say anything weird.

"I'd like to note, just for the heck of it, that these guys are from the original timeline, not my revised future." GrimMoody explained. "Everybody knows them from that universe, anyway. So guys, go ahead and introduce yourselves. Tell us a little about yourselves."

"Hello, everyone, I'm Mega Man X." X said to the camera. "Though I guess you already know that, since you're in the Mega Man section of fanfiction net. I mean, why else would you be reading a Mega Man story if you didn't know about me? I don't think there's a lot of people who are only familiar with classic and not the later games."

"Actually, I was one of those until I wrote this story." Moody mentioned. "Just go on with it."

"Um, okay. So anyway, even though I'm the first advanced robot Dr. Cain discovered in the X series, I didn't actually join Maverick Hunters until a year or two before Zero was discovered. I joined because reploid crime was rising, and well, I just felt I couldn't stay on the sidelines. In my spare time, I like to read history books, play video games, and sing karaoke."

"Um...hi, I'm Zero..." Zero shifted awkwardly in his seat. "I guess I'll introduce myself, even though I've already been in two of these stories and most of you know who I am anyway. And most of you know my background too. I'm not the sort of person with a lot of surprises...what you see is what you get. I'm just a passionate Maverick Hunter, and when I do have free time, I like to draw, study Japanese caligraphy, maybe play video games, and try to stop X from singing karaoke."

"Hey, everyone!" Crystal Bot still had hold of Axl's right hand, so he waved his left one. "I'm Axl, and I'm not going to complain about introducing myself, because I'm not as popular as these guys are. But I will be someday, if people can get over the trainwreck that was Mega Man X7. I do not sound like that! Anyway, in my free time, I like to play video games, have target practice, and spar with other Hunters."

"So how did you guys feel about my story?"

"I actually sort of liked it." X said. "It's sad and dramatic in the right places."

"Wait, what?" Bass said. "You actually like her nonsense?"

"Sure. I mean, there are several issues with editing, grammar, spelling, plotblocking..."

"That's enough, X." GrimMoody warned.

"...Characterization, game canon, and usage of reviewer Mavericks." X finished without even acknowledging the author. "Oh, and I thought it was silly that she showed up in Afterlife, but she changed the bleak future so I'm not complaining."

"I didn't care for the story." Zero sighed. "Much of it has to do with my past, and I don't like talking about that. My favorite was Okkusenman, but even that one is kind of spoiled because I'm mentioned near the end. You should take it as a compliment that I tried, GrimMoody. Normally I stay as far as possible from stories on fanfiction net. It's almost impossible to find a story about me that isn't very depressing. Normally I read some of Teribane's work, because she writes on the Ruby-Spears cartoon, and that cartoon has nothing to do with the normal universe."

"I...didn't read it." Axl confessed with a sheepish grin. "I mean, I read a little bit, but how can I read when I'm always hunting or playing video games with X? I liked the part where Zero and Bass are cursing at each other. Now that was funny! Oh, and I liked finding out where I really come from. That was cool. It's nice being based on first generation robots!"

"I'm really sad I didn't get to be in your story." Crystal Bot said. "But I'm so happy I finally get to meet you! Oh, and you can meet my father, Crystal Man!"

"Oh?" Axl turned to Crystal Man with a bit of devilish gleam in his eye. "So I guess this means you're my grandfather!"

Bass groaned loudly, and his face fell into his palm with a loud smack. "What Axl means to say is that his creator dug me and Crystal Bot out of the dirt and decided to build a robot based on us. Axl, I've warned you before..."

"Aw, I'm never going to get over how cute that is!" Roll squealed. "Bass being a dad is so adorable! Well, it is because he's a robot. If he were a human...well, I wouldn't want to know how his kid would turn out."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Roll" Bass growled.

"Roll," Mega Man shook his head. "Bass and Crystal Man were both created by Wily, making Crystal Bot Bass' niece!"

"Oh..." Roll blushed. "I didn't think of it like that."

"Forte and I are not brothers." Crystal Man said abruptly. "Though Dr. Wily is responsible for the creation of both of us, we are only related in an engineering sense."

"What do you mean?" Rock asked.

"It is like you in your lab." the shiny-bot continued. "You, Blues, and Roll were all created by Dr. Light, but Dr. Light also created and designed many other robots that were always intended to be sold commercially. Dr. Light would not so much as imagine selling you. You three are the most complex and best cared for of all the Light robots, and it is similar with those created by Dr. Wily. Most of his robots, myself included, were mere soldiers for his cause. Nay, not soldiers. Lackeys, if you will. Though I may have lost years of my memory, I can still recall the day when Dr. Wily invented fortenium. He refused to engineer anything but the best for his new invention, and would not place it in a simple lackey. I remember those days when Wily feverishly designed his 'greatest project to date', and granted him free will beyond that of all the other Wily numbers. Though Wily himself would not have called Forte a son, the efforts he made in creating Bass' AI went far beyond the greatest of the Team Wily numbers. Wily would have no child from the fear such a child would rebel against him and refuse to be what Wily intended it to become. It is for this reason I chose Bass to free my Team members and my daughter, because he was the only robot with both the desire and the ability to be free from Wily's foolish ideals."

"But...but..." Roll protested. "Dr. Light appreciated all of his creations."

"I am certain he did, for that is the kind of man he is." Crystal Man nodded. "But such feelings do the gods have for their inferior creations. They might have looked upon a great forest, a flock of geese, and newborn lion cubs all with the same concern and delight, but it is into man that the gods' primary efforts focused. Despite the variety of life upon the earth, it is but one species that is the highest and the only one that can lift its eyes and behold heaven. Plants and animals are mere creations of the gods; mankind is their child."

Bass sat in his chair with a sour look in his face, and though he sputtered, he couldn't find the right words to speak. It was just as well. All he had on his mind were very colorful metaphorical statements for all the ways he now hated Crystal Man, especially since he couldn't find a logical way to disagree with Crystal Man. The Team 5 robot got the idea from Bass' eyes anyway.

"I am sorry, but this is true." Crystal Man said. "Wily's heart and soul went into building you, and you even resemble him a little - a very little, as fortunately for your sake Wily's view of his own earthy beauty was far higher than what he might have seen had he looked in a mirror. I am afraid your only true brother is Zero, as Wily surely granted him the time and attention he did you."

Zero and Bass hardly dared to stare at each other. Bass bared a fang as he gradually turned to the blonde-bot, glaring. Zero uncomfortably turned away with a sigh. X glared back at Bass for him.

"So you're saying that Dr. Wily isn't really my grandpa?" Crystal Bot asked.

"No. He was merely my creator."

"Oh." the girl-bot put a finger to her chin. "I guess I didn't really need to see him in the hospital then..."

Crystal Man chuckled. "No, no, my dear, do not be ashamed of the mercy in your heart. It is very becoming of a young lady, the subject of it deserving or no."

"Aw," Crystal Bot giggled. "You're so sweet, Daddy."

Mega Man paid little attention to the conversation of the crystal robots. Instead he kept looking at the now very much grumpy Bass, and he tried to think of some way to cheer him up. And then it hit him.

"Hey Bass," Mega Man said. "There's a bright side to all of this. Now nobody can say that Aqua Man is your brother."

The anger in Bass' face turned to thoughtfulness, and finally he laughed. "Ha, and not Top Man or Spring Man either. Heh, that's something."

"Aw, but that still means Wily's my grandfather." Axl joked. "Because of Bass if not because of Crystal Man."

"Can we stop talking about this?" Mega Man X turned to GrimMoody. "This conversation is getting worse by the second."

"Okay." the author agreed. "I just remembered that I haven't asked you my standard questions! So guys, what's your favorite color?"

"Red." said X.

"Blue." said Zero.

"I dunno," Axl thought about it a second. "Oh wait, yeah, I like orange, red and yellow. The colors of fire! Oh, and gold is cool too. Someday I'm going to get myself a gold-plated gun. That would be awesome!"

"Alright, and who would you guys consider your heroes?"

"Aw, what kind of question is that?" Axl complained. "Well...I guess I have to say X and Zero. Zero believed in me when nobody else would, and X let me join the Hunters. And definitely Red...I miss him a lot. If it weren't for him, I might have been stolen by Mavericks!"

"I'd have to say Zero." X turned to his friend and smiled. "I mean, we've saved each other so many times, it might as well be him."

"This is going to sound really weird." Zero said slowly. "But in a way...I'd have to say Sigma."

"WHAT?" exclaimed everybody on the stage. X's eyes went wide in horror.

"It's not like you think." Zero said quietly. "It's just that, if it hadn't been for Sigma, I would have killed the entire Maverick Hunters organization. I'm much more powerful than he is, and if I had been the villain instead of him, things would have been much worse. Besides-" here he lifted his head and smiled. "I wouldn't have been able to be your friend."

"Considering that Sigma led to the eventually extinction of reploids and humankind." Bass muttered. "It couldn't have been any worse for the world if you were the evil one."

"Shut up, Bass." X snapped. "Don't talk like that!"

"Freedom of speech, you bastard. Freedom of speech."

"Forget I said anything." Zero sank deeper into his seat. "Moody, please move on to the next question."

"Actually...that's kind of it." GrimMoody answered. "I exposed so much of your story in Afterlife that I'm not sure what there is to say. Besides, this Bonus Features has gone on so long, it's about time I started to wrap it up."

"I have a question." X said. "It's about your future timeline. Because the future you caused is so different from the one that Dr. K gave us, well...everyone will be so different. Especially me and Zero. I mean, I was only supposed to be tested for thirty years, not a century. And Zero will have basically a fresh start. No Sigma virus, and no pre-programmed violence. That's bound to make us different people."

"Only sort of." GrimMoody replied. "After all, your AI won't be any different. But yeah, I actually do have one last deleted scene. It's from the chapter where I last talk to Roll. I was going to include it there, but the problem is I didn't want Roll to know how Zero was going to end up alive. The scene shows that it's Crystal Bot's doing, and that just seemed tacky to give it away. However, I still consider this scene more or less canon to the plot - I wasn't quite happy with how the writing turned out, but the same situation basically happened."

GrimMoody smiled. "But don't worry about that either. You've already saved him."

"I have? But how?"

"You said the right words. It's like I was saying about the good barista. You say the right words and good things come to pass. As it so happened, you said the right words to the right person. I'm not going to tell you now, but you'll find out a little bit after Dr. Light comes back. That's when Zero wakes up. Here, I'll show you a little bit."

GrimMoody walked sideways a couple of steps, then traced a large rectangle in the air. A field of black appeared once the tracing was complete, and Roll recognised it as the same screen in which she had watched Dr. K's future. She shuddered automatically, but patiently waited. Colors began to appear on the screen, slowly forming the image of Zero sitting on the edge of Kauffman Tower. He gazed downwards at the people moving about, but he himself did nothing. He just sat there in confusion, not moving at all.

Zero's lips moved. He was speaking quietly to himself, trying to figure out something. Whatever he was saying didn't seem to comfort him. With a sigh, Zero grew silent and kicked his legs a little bit. He looked down at the road again, staring at the mass of cars, trucks, and a few motorcycles passing by below him. It was a crowded day in Monstropolis, and the entire city was buzzing with life. Across the street, Zero could see through the window of an office. It was a meeting room, and several people were crowded around a table. They didn't notice him, and so they weren't afraid. But the question was, did he want them to be?

A blue teleport beam streaked downward behind Zero. Zero turned to watch as Mega Man X materialized. The first robot didn't move, and for a minute, neither did X. Zero only seemed more confused, and conflicting emotions passed across his face. Nothing happened for a full minute. Getting tired of the staredown, Zero turned away and looked back down at the street.

"I know why you're here. You're here to kill me." Zero said. He pointed in different directions as he continued to speak. "Down that street is Mega Man. Gravity Man and Gyro Man are over that way. Bass is in the street in front of us. I remember him. He's not a very good fighter. But you are. That's what I heard, anyway."

"Heard from who?" Mega Man X asked, daring to approach.

"My creator. He left a bunch of memories in my head. He says you're bad, and I have to kill you."

"Do you want to?"

Zero paused. He gave this question considerable thought, straining his mind as he searched for an answer. Finally, he shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know what I want."

"Will you talk to me for a minute?"

The red robot turned around again, glaring a little. "Aren't you supposed to destroy me because I'm a threat to your happy little world?"

"Well, not destroy." X said. "They told me to 'neutralize the threat'. I guess that could mean destroying you, but if you're not a threat then I don't have to."

"Oh." Zero blinked, and the sternness turned into a blank expression. "That makes sense. I guess you can talk to me, if you want."

Mega Man X sat beside Zero, making sure not to be too close. That might make Zero nervous. X settled down, trying to be as calm as possible. He stared at Zero. Zero didn't look like the robot X had seen in his memories. This Zero wasn't shooting things or cutting them with a sword. In fact, he didn't seem to have a sword with him at all. Zero didn't look at the more advanced blue bomber, but he knew he was being stared at.

"So what are you doing out here?" X asked.

"I'm just looking, I guess." Zero replied. "I don't really know what to do. Look at those little people down there. My creator said I'm supposed to hate them. He says I'm supposed to destroy good things, especially you. But you like those people, don't you?"

"Sure, I do." X nodded. "Why wouldn't I?"

This answer seemed to surprise Zero, and he startled. "What? Why would you like them? You can't know all of them."

"Well, yeah, but...they're just people, like everyone else. They just want to have a happy life and make the world different from when they came into it. That's how I feel too. I want to make the world a better place." X paused a minute, glancing sideways at the Wily-bot. "So what do you want?"

"Dr. Wily wants me to destroy things. You, your brothers, and my brother too. But Crystal Bot said I was supposed to be nice. She told me I was supposed to be a good guy. She said I was supposed to be your friend."

"Is that what you want?"

Zero uncomfortably shifted. "I...don't know. I don't really know much of anything. I just know what I've been told: a lot about you and your friends, a bunch of stories, and a lot about a place called Korea. It's a lot of information, but I don't know what to make of it."

"It sounds like you need to do things instead of just being told." X suggested. "After all, nobody really knows what life is about unless they live it. Anyway, that's what Dr. Light says."

"So you're doing what he tells you?"

X opened his mouth, but suddenly stopped. Zero was right. "Well, I guess so. But I don't know very much either. I've only been activated for three months. Dr. Light is really smart, so I want to listen to him. He trained me to be able to handle life on my own, but I have to live it too. Hey, maybe you can come back to the lab. You can ask Dr. Light what to do."

The blonde robot frowned. "I'm not your friend, X."

"You can be if you want. You don't really want to kill me, do you?"

Zero thought about this a minute. After a time, he shrugged. "I don't know."

"Well, how about this. You can come to the lab with me and then be my friend for a while." X explained. "You might like it. If you change your mind, you can always kill me later."

"You want to be killed?"

"Well, no. But I figure if you get to know me, you won't want to."

Zero blinked. He turned away from X for a moment, going to look at the people of the city once more. His thoughts took him away to other places that X couldn't go. So X just turned and looked at the city too. He heard the sound of the train coming in the distance. It seemed strange that such an old form of conveyence hadn't gone out of style yet.

"Does that rail there look loose to you?" Zero asked, pointing down at the tracks over a bridge. "It looks like some spikes are missing."

X increased his zoom feature to see what Zero was talking about. Sure enough, the bridge that went over Monstropolis' busiest highway held the train's railing, and a piece of the rail was bent away from the rest of it. At that distance, it was hard to tell, but something was clearly wrong with it.

"Oh no!" X jumped up, clearly unafraid of being so close to the edge of the building. "I've got to stop that train!"

X jumped off and slid down the building, hanging on to the side so that he didn't fall too fast and hurt himself. Immediately he sent out several signals. They went out to the police, emergency medical services, and the conductor of the train. They had to know what was going on, especially if he didn't get there in time.

Dodging both automobile and foot traffic, X jumped and dashed his way over to the bridge. One final jump and he was on the track. Much to his horror, the train was a lot closer than he thought. Without hesitation, X ran toward it. The squealing of its brakes filled the air, but it often took more than a mile for a train to fully stop. Dashing forward, X smacked into the train. He held hard to the front of it, engaging his dash boosters to give himself as much push as possible. Still, the train ground onwards, pushing against X with its mighty bulk. It slowed, but not soon enough. They were coming upon the missing rail-

Scrunch!

Before X knew what was going on (he was concentrating very hard) the train was suddenly going even slower. It was still moving as it came to the bent railing, but the speed was slow enough so that nothing more happened than simply falling off the track. This made the train shake suddenly, and Mega Man X found himself slipping backwards. Before he could fall off the bridge, a red arm grabbed his, and Zero pulled him back.

"There you go." Zero said, suddenly getting a little shy. "The train's safe now."

"Well...thanks for your help!" X smiled. "I thought that was going to turn out a lot worse."

"What do we do now?"

"I guess we need to talk to the police and tell them what happened." X walked over to the side of the train to see what he could see of the broken train track. "Then we ask if anybody on the train is hurt."

"Okay." Zero shrugged. "I don't have anything better to do."

"So, as you can see, not a very eloquently written scene." Moody admitted. "I wasn't feeling inspired that day, and it shows. Actually, the final chapter turned out to be fairly different than what I wanted it to be, as I just didn't feel inspired to create a parallel to the end of Afterlife, like I intended. I figured it was better to not include lots of flashforwards rather than try something overambitious to my energy. Now I really want to go back and edit it, which I will do at some point. I'll post an extra chapter when that happens."

"Not likely, with your track record." Proto Man remarked.

"Hey, why do you think it took so long to get to the Bonus Features? I wanted to get back into the swing of things."

"That scene seems so weird to me." said X, who still stared at the projector screen. "I'm so naiive there..."

"I think I'm pretty accurate." Zero chuckled. "I don't seem that much different at all. Just...clean."

"What about ME?" Axl exclaimed. "Don't I get a scene?"

"You're not that much different in either universe." the author laughed. "Actually, you're the Hunter most resistant to fear and depression. Therefore, you'll basically be the same in my future as in Dr. K's."

"Be nice and give Axl-kun a scene." Crystal Bot scolded. "He's so cute, how can you not?"

"Cute? I'm not cute!"

"Oh?" Crystal Bot looked at him with since astonishment. "Then why do you have cute little kitty ears on your helmet?"

Everyone laughed as Axl reached up and covered the offensive decorations with his hands. He had such a cute pout.

"Heh, alright, I'll whip him up a scene." GrimMoody snapped her fingers. "Here we go!"

It was Bass, and yet it was sort of not Bass. Sure, the head-fins were still there, but much of his armor had been changed. The colors seemed richer, and the angles of his arms and legs were sharper. His normally thick wrists were a couple of inches skinnier, but to look at him no one would think that would hurt his power level. But in any case, the face was the same as it had always been. At the moment, that face was calmly examining the innards of a book, Lt. Bucher: My Story, and to judge by the occasional grunts Bass emitted, it was an engrossing book. So Bass leaned forward in his rather luxurious leather reading chair to concentrate.

The room itself was large. Vast, even. It had enough square footage for a large ballroom, and it had to be at least two stories high. Books lined the three walls forward, behind, and to the right of Bass. The left side was a massive double-sided window, which from the outside of the lab looked like nothing more than a simple wall. Bass liked to sit near to the window, watch the rural California hills (if his book was boring), and let the outside light wash over his raised sitting platform. As if to emphasize the enforced lonliness, the only chair on the hardwood stage was Bass'. Even if a guest made it into that room, which they weren't likely to do, they would get the message rather quickly that only one ego was allowed.

Yes, this was Crystal Bot's lab, or so it was called, even though it was as much Bass' home as hers. Bass didn't care what they called it so long as he got his library. Ever since the days he was forced to stay in a skull-shaped castle with a bunch of robot masters, he treasured his solitude, and despite the fact he was no longer imprisoned, he still preferred to be alone.

Today, however, this was not going to be the case. The massive door to his right lifted open, making one wonder who would set computer encoding on a library door. In popped a person who must have been Crystal Bot. She also was a little different. The armor on her arms and legs seemed to have sharper edges, and also to be slightly bigger. As for her old clothes, they had been exchanged for a forest green dress that reached just below her knees, and had a cinched, camisa top with little frilly sleeves that mostly covered her shoulder crystals. Also, Sonata's hair seemed wavier. It bounced as she merrily hopped her way across the room and up the few steps to where Bass sat.

"Happy Birthday to you, Forte-kun!" the girl-bot exclaimed.

"Huh. Since when do you celebrate birthdays?" Bass looked up from his book. "You have great timing. You've interrupted me right at the part where the Pueblo gets captured."

"Silly Forte-shee." Crystal Bot laughed. "Today's not just your birthday, it's your one hundredth birthday! You're officially a century old today!"

"Ugh," Bass teased, setting the book in his lap. "Are you trying to say I'm obsolete?"

"As if I'd ever let you get that way." she poked him in the nose. "You, mister, got a call today from a certain Dr. Reiko Inafune. Now, I thought that was weird, because Inafune Institute never talks to any other lab if they can help it. She's very introverted, you know, except I got to talk to her at a conference earlier this year. And so this morning, when her name pops up on the vid phone, I get all happy and excited. But no, you stinker, the call turned out to be about you. So not fair." Crystal Bot finished with a wink.

"I don't care about talking to any scientist. That's your business."

"Exactly my point! But no, her robot Casper called and told me that we're both invited over to her lab tonight, because you, mister, have a birthday present that she built for you."

"What?" Bass grinned. "No way. And I don't even know this chick."

"I dunno." Crystal Bot shrugged. "She said she was really inspired by us, and she wants us to see this thing she's made. Casper wouldn't tell me what it was. It's a surprise."

"Ugh, red alert!" Bass suddenly got skeptical. "So this doctor barely knows you and she's supposed to be inspired by us? I think we've got a crazy on our hands. And it's not as if I like surprises."

"So are we going or what?"

"Sure. Why not? If it's a trap, I'll fight my way out of it."

"Says the century old robot." Crystal Bot teased.

"Keep talking like that and see what happens." Bass faintly smiled. "Now call Casper back and tell him we're going."

-t-

"I didn't think so many people would be here." Crystal Bot whispered. "I would've worn something different if I knew."

Bass hadn't been expecting the crowd either. As far as either robot was concerned, they figured it was just going to be a casual visit to Inafune Institute. They didn't expect that they would be greeted at the door, only to be rushed to the front of a crowded auditorium (Reiko had one in her lab?) and made to sit before a curtained stage. Sure, Bass enjoyed the applause as they came in, but it was weird. This, however, really only irritated Crystal Bot.

"Relax." Bass whispered back. "Nobody cares about what robots wear. Just enjoy it. She's probably going to do something in my honor."

They were whispering because the ceremony that Dr. Inafune planned had already begun. This event, according to the programs handed out, was something done by Inafune Institute once a year to review their lab's progress. Even though Reiko had moved the event earlier in the year to coincide with Bass' birthday, she still had to get her other lab demos out of the way. One of her assistants, Dr. Hardgrove, was explaining how he was going to cut down on glare from computer screens. It bored Bass to tears (Crystal Bot was enraptured) but he just re-read one of his books in his head until Dr. Inafune herself came onstage.

"Welcome, everyone! Scientist and technician alike!" said the spunky, short-haired scientist. She waved at the crowd enthusiastically. "Isn't it about time we got to the main feature of the night? Now, why don't we have our guests of honor come on stage? Everyone please give a round of applause to Bass and Crystal Bot!"

A security-bot pointed them to the stairs, and Bass near about strained his face smiling as he graciously, but gratefully allowed his ego to feed on the audience's love. Crystal Bot shyly followed her boss, as there seemed no way of getting out of the eyes of the crowd. Both of them stepped to the center of the stage, where Dr. Inafune kept an enclosed automated machine. It's front glass was too dark to see anything, but Crystal Bot tried to look nonetheless.

"And so everyone, Mr. Bass here is one hundred years old as of today!" Reiko announced.

As she paused for the crowd to clap once more, Bass turned to Crystal Bot with a curious eye. The tech-bot shook her head no; she hadn't told Inafune about his birthday.

"As some of you know," Dr. Inafune continued. "I have been working on new technology that will allow a robot to change its own shape! To mold its metal into the shape of something else entirely! Everyone said I was crazy, and well, I am crazy, but I'm also right! I have created a prototype that will shatter all your preconceptions of what a robot can do!"

The two guests on stage glanced at each other nervously. Crystal Bot winced; her boss' fake smile was starting to fade.

"And that brings me back to these two," Reiko gestured toward them. "Bass and his companion Crystal Bot served as the artistic basis for this next leap into the future, because of all they've done for society in the past century. The past shall not be forgotten, even in the future!"

" - I swear to God, Sonata, - " Bass told her on his comm. " - If she's saying I'm obsolete... - "

"And so, I bring to you, my greatest creation!" Reiko turned to the robots. "Bass, would you do the honors?"

"Um, sure..."

Bass very reluctantly pressed the open button on the automated machine. Out came...a robot. It had navy blue armor, all covered in red stripes. A poof of reddish-brown hair stuck out the back of its head under its stylish helmet. It had one of the most pleasant, happy faces that Bass had ever seen, and he couldn't believe it. He turned to Crystal Bot in horror, only to realize that its was incredibly similar to hers.

"What is this?" Bass could only barely keep the growl out of his voice.

"Hi, I'm Axl!" said the robot in a remarkably cheery voice. "And I'm Dr. Inafune's new robot. I can take the shape of any robot I want! Well, if they're my size, anyway."

"I based him on the both of you!" Dr. Inafune explained. "The shape overall is Bass' general armor type, as well as some references to his headfins. Not a direct rip-off, of course. And for you, Crystal Bot, I was a little more referencial. The crystals in the helmet and chest are your design elements, and since you have a lovely red belt, I took the red stripe element and ran with it!"

"And...she also has my face." Crystal Bot said slowly.

"She?" Axl protested. "I'm a guy!"

"Oh, OH. Excuse me." Crystal Bot politely laughed along with the audience. "I see the doctor hasn't finished adjusting your voice. It can be...tricky."

"Isn't it such an honor to have him designed after you?" Inafune offered. "It's like you're his actual parents!"

That was it. Bass wasn't built with many manners, and he hadn't collected too much even in a century. This was just too much, and Inafune would soon regret ever inviting them to her lab.

"What the hell is this?" Bass snarled. "You build this girly-looking piece of crap based on me? What am I supposed to think? That you're some great genius and I should be honored that you ripped off my design? And it's some stupid prototype? Look, if you want something based off me, then build something that doesn't suck and doesn't look like some chick soldier wannabe. Come on, Crystal, let's go!"

Bass stormed off the stage, leaving his tech-bot to look apologetically at the audience before rushing off to follow him. Before long, both robots had made their way out of the building and headed for the parking lot, where teleportation was allowed.

"Wait, wait!"

If the look on Bass' face was directed towards the oncoming voice then surely the source of it would have run. Thankfully, Bass managed to pull half his face into an ever so slightly more polite direction. And then he turned to Axl. If he hadn't been so angry, he might have been impressed that Axl dared to come after him.

"What do you want?"

"I...I want you to know," Axl stammered. "That this wasn't my idea. I didn't think it was a good idea to introduce me to you like this. I told her to think about it some more. But...I'm her robot, so-"

"So you follow along with something stupid." Bass hmphed and shook his head. "You pathetic thing."

"Hey! You don't even know me!" Axl huffed. "Besides, I'm not even a day old. Gimmie a break, here! I'm new to the world!"

"Ugh, no," Bass felt like throwing up. "She gave you the same birthday as me. Sonata, please tell me there's something we can sue Inafune for."

"Well..." Crystal Bot was always reluctantly to talk when Bass got that angry. "We might be able to do it on design, but he's not really close enough. I'll have to call a lawyer."

"Do it, as soon as possible. She's not getting away with building this crap." Bass snarled and activated his teleporter. "Now let's go!"

"No, wait!" Axl tried again.

"Look you," Bass jammed a finger in his face. "I don't want to ever-"

"I DIDN'T ASK TO BE BUILT!" Axl yelled, his face going red. "I didn't ask Inafune to base me off you! I'm sorry I'm not what you want or expect, but...I really liked you guys. Since I woke up today I wanted to be like you, Bass. You're so cool!"

"That's nice, fanboy." Bass growled. "Now leave me alone."

"No!" Axl's face suddenly grew darker - which didn't have much of an affect as it was pretty adorable in the first place. "You can't call me crap and get away with it! I'm not crap and I can prove it any day of the week! I...I challenge you to a fight! Tomorrow in the desert! You better be there, you...you...obsolete hunk of junk!"

Bass was up in Axl's space before the latter could even wince. He glared straight into Axl's attempt at intimidating eyes, then hmphed and activated his comm. "Fine. Here are the coordinates. Meet me there so I can beat the motor oil out of you."

With that, Bass teleported out. Axl, still shaking a little, turned towards his "mother". Crystal Bot flinched at his glance, but examined him a moment. She tilted her head, biting her lip a bit. And then she smiled.

"Y'know," she said. "It's kinda cute how brave you are."

And she teleported out.

The stage burst out into laughter, even Bass, surprisingly. Not Axl of course, though he smiled a bit as he blushed. It was just too silly.

"Did you have to make it that awkward?" he said. "Please tell me that me and Bass get along after this."

"It takes a while." GrimMoody nodded. "But after a while, Bass sees your talent and gets used to you. Bass is the sort of guy really moved by flattery, and considering you kind of follow him around like a lost puppy dog, he can't help but take you under his wing. And yes, Bass, since I know you're going to ask this, you win the challenge."

"Not that my victory was ever in doubt." Bass grinned.

"Why am I acting like that?" Crystal Bot wrinkled her nose. "Don't I like Axl?"

"You're weirded out by him." the author said. "Well, not him exactly, but more the notion of having a kid. You can't help but equivocate it to human childbirth. That, and Dr. Inafune did pick the most awkward way to introduce Axl possible. Besides, it's not like you're going to remember this Bonus Features afterward."

"Ugh. Please no more talking of the birds and bees." Sonata squinted her eyes tightly shut. "Ew. Yuck. Thinking of shiny things...and...there! So what were we talking about again?"

"We were talking about the future." X replied. "So Moody, what is it going to be like? I mean, no Maverick Hunters, no Mavericks...I can hardly imagine a world like that."

"Well, you'll have to because I sure ain't gonna." Grimm snorted. "I mean, there's still going to be a Maverick Hunters because reploid crime won't be nonexistent, but aside from that, the future's something you're gonna have to figure out. You were talking about Utopia or somesuch crap all the time. Now's the time to build it. Well, actually, now's the time to say thank you to the readers, because we're coming to the end of Bonus Features-"

"Hey wait," Mega Man exclaimed. "You can't end it now! We have to do something! We have to...have a singing contest!"

"A what?" Zero lifted an eyebrow.

"Yeah, a contest! We'll be in groups. I'll be with X."

"Yes, and we'll sing Poi Poi Peace!" X said. "I just love that song!"

"Um, X," Zero winced. "You know, you're my friend so I have to say this: you're not really that great of a singer."

"What? What are you talking about?" X said. "The people at the karaoke bar love me!"

"Yeah, because you go a lot and they have private rooms. I'm sure GrimMoody's audience doesn't want to hear you sing."

"Yeah, and this is a writing format." Moody scoffed. "How am I supposed to write singing?"

"Ooh, but a contest would be so nice!" Roll exclaimed. "Sona-chan, me and you are going to be in a group! It's like we're the Digital Sweethearts band."

"Yes!" Crystal Bot clapped her hands. "Oh, GrimMoody! Please conjure up Splash Woman so that she can sing with us!"

"What the crap?" The author shook her head. "Didn't you just hear me? There's no way to show singing in writ-"

"Did someone call me?"

The voice of Splash Woman as she entered the stage was as musical as if she were already singing. She came in on a small, motorized pedestal, and it had a small stool atop it with little arms for maneuverability. Splash Woman swung her tail merrily as she rolled in next to Roll's chair. Even though her "hair" was a helmet, somehow the mer-bot had found a top hat that could actually fit her, and she cocked it to the side mischeviously.

"If we're going to be in a singing contest." Splash Woman winked at the camera. "Then we simply must do Puttin' on the Ritz. I adore that song."

"Ooh, yay!" Sonata squealed. "Top hats for all!"

"NO!" GrimMoody stomped her foot. "You can't do that! Not only is posting lyrics on fanfiction net against the guidelines, it's probably copyright infringement of some kind!"

"Hey wait! You pathetic goody guys can't have a singing contest and not include US!"

Everyone's head snapped over to the projector screen, and it displayed a grand, old timey country bar, complete with horns on the walls, a cactus in a corner, and a jukebox in the back. Leaning against a bar in the foreground were Signas and Sigma. Many beer bottles lay strewn out before them, and Signas lay half slump over the bar. Sigma, on the other hand, was grinning mightily. He lifted a beer as if to make a toast.

"Aw, crap." GrimMoody paled. "It's the Cain brothers, and they're calling from the alternate universe where robots can get drunk."

"That's right!" Sigma pounded his beer on the bar. "Luminous Sigma and Excelsior Signas demand to enter your singing competition to prove our immense and altogether superior talent!"

"No, I'm afraid you misheard." Moody huffed. "There isn't going to be a singing contest."

"Will someone shut up your human already?" Sigma retorted. "We're going to sing, and there's nothing you can do about it."

"Um, Signas..." Zero uncertainly asked. "How many beers did you have?"

It took the Maverick Hunter leader a bit to answer. He slowly lifted his chin off the bar, then even more slowly lifted his hand to the air and pointed up his index finger.

"I had...*burp*...this many. And then I had this many." Signas lifted his lone finger again. "And then this many...and then this many...and then, and then...I need to sing off the alko...the aller...the ahco, the ah...the beer."

"Shh, shh, dear brother." Nobody was sure if Sigma was being sarcastic or not. "You'll get to sing soon. Lord Sigma decrees it."

"I guess that's that!" X couldn't help but laugh as he turned to Zero. "Well, I guess since they're singing, you have to sing also. You have a great voice. It's even better than mine!"

"Like that's hard to do." Zero smiled. "Do I have to?"

"Y'know Bass..." Roll grinned. "You should totally be on the same team as Zero."

"Wait, what?" The black and gold robot growled at her. "There's no way I'm going to be singing in your little contest at all, much less with him."

"Aw, come on," Crystal Bot persisted. "You have a great voice!"

"Leave him alone, Sona-chan." Roll teased. "He's probably just afraid that Zero's going to outshine you."

"I don't want to sing with you anyway." Zero scoffed. "I can sing Bohemian Rhapsody just fine alone."

"Wait, you're going to sing that?" Bass almost jumped from his seat. "No way! I was going to sing that one!"

"Says Mr. 'there's no way I'm singing'." Crystal Bot teased.

"Look, if I'm going to be in your stupid contest, then I'm going to sing that song, and I'm sure I'm way better than Zero at it. There's no way in hell pretty boy over here can hit the high notes right."

"We'll just see about that, won't we?" Zero said. "Looks like were in the same group. Try not to drag down my performance any."

Proto Man glanced across the stage at Axl. "Well, it looks like we're in a group. Can you sing?"

"I'm okay." Axl shrugged. "I'm really better at playing the guitar."

"Huh, me too. I guess that makes us a good team."

"Dad, what group are you going to join?" Crystal Bot asked.

"None. I shall the judge." Crystal Man stood up. "I don't think there is a need for complications. If we had just a couple microphones for the front of the stage, it should be suitable."

"You guys are going to get me in trouble!" GrimMoody exclaimed. "How am I supposed to write this?"

"Hey Rock," Bass said as he stood up to get a microphone stand. "Remember when we killed GrimMoody and she actually went away for a while?"

"Oh yeah." Rock grinned as he too got up. "It didn't actually hurt her, so I guess it's okay."

"Yeah, and remember how I punished you?" Moody retorted. "But, as I see you're pretty obstinate, I'm cutting away. Have your contest all you want. Just don't expect the audience to see it. Auto, cut to camera 2!"

All of a sudden, the stage and everyone on it disappeared. In its place came the black and white static of an old TV, frequently called "snow". But, since you are likely a young person with no knowledge of such antiquted and downright oldfangled matters, the image instantly cuts to black, then fades into...a commercial? In the middle of a large studio with wooden floors and large windows stood Top Man, grinning at the camera with his hands on his hips. About a dozen attractive men and women in colorful gym clothes stand around and behind him.

"Hello, America, it's time to get fit!" Top Man shouted. "And if you're going to be thin, you've got to Top Spin!"

With the flick of Top Man's hand, all of the fit people started to spin around. Top Man was of course the fastest of them all, but he stopped early to speak to the camera.

"Are you feeling flab? Get fab! So drained of energy you can't get off the ground? Then it's time to spin around!" Top Man continued as shots of spinning fit people sequence. "Lose the blues and get in the game with the all new Top Man's Super Top Spin Workout! You'll spin to the left, you'll spin to the right, and then you'll feel alright! Try it on one leg, try it on two, and if you've go three then try that too! You can order our double DVD pack of exclusive Top Spin exercises, set 1 and set 2, for the low, low price of 5.99, plus shipping and handling. Look your best, outspin the rest! You've never lost calories quite like this before, results guaranteed!"

Everything snapped back into snow for just a minute and then it was back to the Bonus Features show. GrimMoody popped up back on the stage with a sick look on her face.

"Ugh, sorry about that, guys," GrimMoody said into the camera. "I mean, dang, what in the world? I'm sure someone doing a Top Spin exercise routine would lose weight, but only from hurling. Eh, let's get back to these guys. I used my author controls to speed time up, so they're done...by now? Uh..."

As GrimMoody looked around, she couldn't help but notice that it was very silent. Everyone was there on stage, but all completely silent. Or mostly so, as Roll or Crystal Bot would sniff as if they looked like they had been crying. The others looked tragic as well. Proto Man refused to look up, and Axl and X whispered to each other in only slightly audible tones. A whole flurry of conflicted emotions battled it out over Splash Woman's face. Crystal Man, though he had no tear ducts, was wiping his eyes. Mega Man's eyes were wide open. The stunned robot stared at the center of the stage, where Bass and Zero stood. The two of them could not be more uncomfortable if they were stuck in Iron Maidens with instant death spikes at every angle. Zero awkwardly rubbed his arm, and an irked Bass stepped several feet away. As they met the author's gaze, both Wily-bots grimaced and turned away, heading as fast as they could to their seats.

"Uh..." Moody stared at them. "Okay. So...what happened?"

"They were singing." Roll said softly. "It was so right that we let them go last."

"It wasn't that good..." Zero muttered.

"Are you kidding?" X exclaimed. "That was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard! It was like...like angels singing!"

"And those high notes!" Crystal Bot gasped. "They were unbelievable! I already knew Forte-kun was a good singer, but when he's singing with Zero...it's just...it's just...wow! It's better than explosions!"

"I'm sorry, Crystal Bot." Mega Man turned to her. "I can't believe I didn't believe you when you said Bass could sing!"

"I...I didn't believe it either." Proto Man lifted his head, daring to look up at the two singers. "Bass...sings? And Zero! Well...well...I don't know what to think!"

"I'm never singing again." Bass glared at each robot in their turn. "You will all now delete that from your memory databases."

"But why?" Crystal Bot sighed with delight. "I want to hear the song over and over again!"

Zero reluctantly turned to the author. "Moody, would you be nice for once and delete this contest from our memories?"

"'Fraid not." Moody shrugged. "You guys were so insistent on the contest, so this is what you get. On the plus side, none of you guys will remember this once Bonus Features is through."

"Excellent. I'll take it" Zero settled back into his chair with a glad but tired sigh.

"Well, I've been taking notes during all of your peformances." Crystal Man sat up as he spoke. "I don't believe there is any doubt as to which group wins first place."

Zero turned away from the others and determinedly stared offstage. Bass wrinkled his nose and stared at his lap.

"So I suppose the real contest is for second place." Crystal Man continued. "That would have to go to The Digital Sweethearts."

"Yay!" Crystal Bot clapped her hands. "We did really good!"

"Aw, I don't think I did so well." Roll wanted to blush. "It was Splash Woman that did all the hard parts."

"I am talented, what can I say?" Splash eyed the two Wily brothers a little as she spoke, but quickly caught herself and put her face in a more mannerable position. "I suppose I get lots of practice, being out in the ocean on duty."

"Or maybe Crystal Man is rigging the score for his daughter." X teased.

And there went Splash Woman's mannerable expression, and she instantly wished she had her trident with her. "You...you...how dare you insult me like that! I'm through with you!"

With a huff, Splash Woman promptly donned her top hat and directed her cart offstage. She was gone so quick that X didn't have a chance to apologize. Crystal Man rolled his eyes and went on. "In any case, third place goes to the drunken and yet rather lively performance of Sigma and Signas: Friends in Low Places."

"Boo!" Signas called out, smacking his beer against the bar's countertop. "Cheat! I demand a recount!"

And with a mighty burp, Signas slumped and fell off his stool, landing in a heap on the other side of the counter and invisible to those watching the projector screen. Signas roared with laughter, taking a swig from his own beer before speaking.

"Ha! So I didn't win your pathetic singing war." Sigma scoffed. "I am still the might Sigma, the one that haunts your nightmares and fills you full of fear!"

"Um, actually Sigma," Moody said. "In my revised universe, you don't become a Maverick. You lead the life of a do-gooder, stopping Mavericks and being a servant of humans for your entire existence."

"WHAT?" Sigma smashed his beer on the bar in an explosion of glass and foam. "That is it! I have had it with you, GrimMoody, and now I'm finally going to make you suffer, then take your place as author, and write the story that I want to read! I'm-"

"-Going to get out of my bar!" A female voice not in view of the projector called out. "You've been smashing up my bar all week, and now your brother threw up on the floor! Get out of here!"

"How dare you speak to the great Sigma this way, foul brewery wench?" the king of Mavericks thundered. "I demand...whoa!"

As Sigma talked, he'd tried to get over to the bartender, only to slip in a puddle of beer.

"I demand," Sigma slurred. "That you stop flipping the room."

"Yeesh. Auto, cut off the projector signal." Grimm stared with distaste at the scene. "I think we've had enough of that."

Crystal Man nodded with approval as the projector went blank. "We perhaps shouldn't have included them in the contest. In any case, fourth place goes to Axl and Proto Man for their adequate rendition of Smoke on the Water."

"Sorry, Proto Man." Axl said sheepishly. "I play guitar way better than I sing."

"Heh, I'm not very good either." Blues chuckled. "Now if only we weren't beaten by the drunks."

"And that leaves," Crystal Man said. "At fifth place, X and Mega Man."

"More like one hundredth place." Bass scoffed.

Roll opened her mouth as if to protest Bass' remark, but she found herself unable to bring forth any logic. She turned apologetically to her brother.

"Sorry Rock, but...maybe you could never sing with X again?"

"Wait, what?" Rock startled. "Come on, we weren't that bad."

"Yeah, I think it was my best performance yet!" X exhuberantly lifted a fist in the air. "Don't you think so, Zero?"

If possible, Zero looked even more embarrassed than he had before. "Um, not exactly. You...could definitely improve. Maybe you could try not singing jpop songs meant for girlish voices."

"Hear that, Rock?" X said. "That means we have to practice!"

"NO!" Zero exclaimed. "That's definitely not what I meant!"

"Well, if we can't sing Poi Poi Peace," Rock thought for a moment. "Why don't we sing Rising Sun by TVXQ?"

"I don't think I know that song, but the band sounds kind of familiar." X said. "Is that Japanese?"

"No, Korean. I heard Crystal Bot listening to it one day." Rock smiled in her direction. "And I really like it! Here, I'll sing you a little bit and maybe you'll remember hearing it!"

"Quick!" A very frightened Crystal Bot addressed the author. "Ask a question, do a deleted scene, or anything you can think of to stop him!"

"Actually, I've got nothing." GrimMoody answered. "No questions, scenes, or guests. It's done. I'm all out. And that means it's time to say thank you to our reviewers!"

"First of all," GrimMoody turned to face the camera, smiling galantly. "I'd like to say a friggin' huge thank you to ManOnThe3up, as you have given my favorite review of all the stories on Wily Ga, and really made my day - no, my three years. Knowing that someone appreciates what I do enough to recommend me to two of the most popular gamer youtubers really means a lot to me. So, as a reward, here you go, a reviewer Maverick!"

ManOnThe3Up
=====Tellurian Triptych
"Should you decide to enter, you will never return."

Tellurian is a crafty Maverick, and he lives in an ancient masoleum where he likes to keep the victims of the Mavericks. He's very speedy, well armored, and bears a trident. His clothes are a Middle Ages-ish set of armor, all carved about with dark sybols and burnished not to shine, though over this he wears a threadbare cloak of black. It's highly recommended that the player defeat other robot masters first, as it's very difficult to fight him without his weakness. The player that gets him is the Triptych Trident, which pierces all enemies and attaches to walls so that the player can shoot it out and use it as a platform to reach higher areas.

"I got the idea for this Maverick by looking up synonyms for 'man'." Moody said. "And one of the really archaic names for Earth is Tellus, so Tellurian. Triptych means a collection of three. Or something fancypants like that. Alright. Now you guys go."

"Well, I'd definitely like to thank AccessBlade for supporting me." Roll said. "Thanks also to Tanokki, and Arktemis."

"Thanks to Anmynous for giving Moody all the crap she deserves." Bass grinned. "Puppet the 13th too."

"Thanks, Haruna Rei, for enjoying my cute side story." Crystal Bot giggled. "And thanks to Queen Sunstar and MungoJerry for being my fans!"

"I suppose I should thank RedAxl for being my fan." Proto Man winced. "But I'd prefer to have a fan who can spell and use punctuation."

"I'll say thanks to Kaelenmitharos. It's nice to know that someone thinks I was underused too." Mega Man winked.

"Thanks to Teribane, for writing stories I actually read." Zero said.

"Thanks to FanFicGuy for not being here when I arrived." X shook his head. "My Little Pony? Seriously?"

"Stop hatin', X." GrimMoody said. "And finally, thanks to Goddra2 for being here for my whole series, and reading it all. I swear, making Ping Duplicitous was a lot of fun."

"You guys thanked everybody already..." Axl complained. "Oh, wait, Lalalei! Thanks for reading! You too, kazikamikaze24! That's everyone!"

"So..." Roll said. "Is this really it? It's all over?"

"I guess so..." Moody said. "That's all I've got."

"But it just can't end so abruptly." Mega Man protested. "It's been five stories and three years since all of this began. It...it just doesn't seem right."

There was silence for a moment. Everyone looked at each other, searching everyone for an answer that nobody seemed to have. GrimMoody herself shrugged.

"Well, I guess I'll just end it here." she said, then solemnly turned to the camera. "Well, thanks for reading-"

"Wait!" Mega Man jumped out of his chair, and all eyes focused on him. "We're all just going to forget this when it's all over because it's outside of our time, correct?"

"Yeah." the author nodded. "So?"

"So then let's have a techno party!" Rock exclaimed. "We can party for hours and hours, but it'll be like no time at all! Let's celebrate the end of these dumb stories and the final downfall of Wily's schemes forever! Hit it, Auto!"

The green repair-bot must have also been in control of the lights, as the very instant Rock called out his name, Auto had the place jammin'. Colored lights shone down at every angle, and a huge disco ball sent flocks of sparkle on all the walls. A techno song, I've Set My Sights on You, blasted on the sound systems. At once all chairs were shoved back, and the robots at once began to boogie down. Mega Man and X were the first on the floor, and thankfully their dancing was far better than their singing. In fact it was so good, that Bass, by no means free of his competitive nature, at once got on the dance floor to establish his rug cutting superiority. Zero laughed, and he dragged the more recitent Proto Man to the dance floor. He didn't have to drag Crystal Bot, who danced with her dad like an over-sugared six year old. GrimMoody tried to dance, but thankfully everyone was having to much fun to pay her any mind.

In the midst of the technicolor techno, Signas and Sigma danced their way in, somehow sobered up and dancing as well as anybody, Skull Man entered too, but not his usual self - he'd sprayed himself with glow-in-the-dark paint, his ribs glowing in neon pinks and greens. Top Man, not to be outdone, skated on stage, deftly circling the skaters. He finished his loop directly in front of Roll.

"Would you like this dance?" Top Man pronounced grandly.

"I sure would!" Roll giggled, putting her hand in his.

And so the group partied for hours and hours, no one was really sure how long. Not even GrimMoody. Long before the party ended, the author spun out and winked at the camera.

"So long, y'all!" she announced. "This is the end of the Okkusenman quintology, and I hope you enjoyed this process as much as I have! As for me, it's back to the regular fiction! I plan on making a series of short stories to sell online as well as doing a series of robot master one-shots, but more on that later! Bye, y'all!"

The End. And this time I mean it.

-t-

Youtube:

Puttin' on the Ritz - /watch?v=3hmFeKxM0fE

Friends in Low Places - /watch?v=p29wEZSwUVM

Smoke on the Water - /watch?v=b-MG_35Gk7g

Poi Poi Peace (or Bai Bai Peace) - /watch?v=3hmFeKxM0fE

Rising Sun - /watch?v=2ZxK60hbX-s

I've Set My Sights on You - /watch?v=zM_7BwFvCpg