“Damn it, Doc, will you listen to me?” Bass snarled, bringing a hand down on the counter. If he weren’t my creator, Bass reflected grimly, I’d have disemboweled the bastard years ago.

“Go tell it to Ripley’s Believe it or Not. I have work to do.” Wily crouched over the half-finished body of a new metool, his hair a cloud of dingy gray. “I do not have time for such nonsense!”

“Doc! I’m telling you, it really happened! Doc?” Wily was ignoring him. “Doc! I swear, I’m not going away! I really saw-“

“A group of robots singing up a monster plant? Really Bass.” Wily said disdainfully. “If you were going to lie to me you could at least come up with something more convincing.”

“IT’S NOT A LIE! It’s the truth – Treble! Where the hell have you been?!?” The ferocious metal wolf lowered his ears and looked at Bass like a kicked puppy. “Nevermind. C’mon, Treb, show this lunatic what we found.” His eyes glowed yellow, and the image of a very rotten bone was projected onto the wall. “Not that! The robots, you dumb dog.” The image this time was very clear. Bass glanced at Wily in triumph. The mad scientist had dropped his tools, and was watching the projection. He hissed when he saw the carnivorous plant appear, and hissed again when the trio reduced it to ash. He stood rubbing his chin for a long while. Bass endured it as patiently as he could, but finally he burst out.

“Well?” He tried not to sound sarcastic, but didn’t have much luck. Wily shot him a very dirty look.

“I recognized those robots.” He said, looking hard at Bass. “Did you?”

“No, I’ve never seen them before. Why?” Bass was slightly surprised. Where had Dr. Wily seen those bioroids?

“You remember that robotics conference in Winnipeg?”

“The one you attended incognito? Yeah, I remember. Were they there?”

“No.” He shook his head, smiling. “But Dr. Ferris was. She had pictures of them, her “greatest achievements”, and was showing them off. I remember that. So.” He murmured, staring dreamily into space. “They would make a fine addition to our forces, don’t you think?”

“Yeah. Especially…” Bass cut himself off before he could mention the girl.

“Especially what?”

“Nothing. Are we moving out? I know where the lab is.”