Ground Zero

"Here we are! Proto Man accounced as he stepped out of his shiny new bright red porsche, followed by X and Roll. X gazed about him, surprised. "Why did you bring us here, bro? Where IS here, anyway?" The blue Hunter stood in knee-high grass that surrounded a very large, old building. Proto shook his head. "Look closer, Mega. Look at the house!" he pointed one dark-red finger toward the run-down building. Roll smiled softly at Proto, then at X. "Oh, Mega..... Doesn't anything look familiar?" she asked, slightly begging. X sighed. "No, not-----um, sorta. Actually.........now that I think of it........ARRRRGH!! What is it about this place? I get the feeling I've been here before... but I don't remember..." Proto groaned and slapped X on the back. "This is where you were created!! Dr. Light's lab!! And where Dr. Cain dug up that time capsule you were in! See it now?"

The scene began to pull together in X's mind. Memories that had not yet returned finally came back to him. "So many things have happened here....," X thought to himself, his mouth forming the words. Roll cheered with delight and shouted, "He remembers, Proto!! He remembers EVERYTHING!!! YIIIIIPPPPEEEEE!!!" The tall blonde Reploid joined hands with her brother and spun him around in circles through the air. Finally after several minutes of complaining from Proto Man, she was forced to release him. She took a seat on the front porch.

"Mega never mowed the lawn....." Proto thought sadly. X stepped through the weeds to hug his brother. Ever since the encounter with Bass, Zero, and the Wily bots at Skull Castle, X found it easier to think and talk about his brother Mega Man's death. He didn't know exactly why that was, but he was grateful that it didn't hurt as much to think about it anymore. �"Proto Man, why did you bring us here?" X asked, walking toward the lab.

"Simple. Well, maybe not THAT simple.... I'm going to, uh, explain something to you. About Dr. Light. But, let's all go inside first." Scarf waving behind, Proto ran into the lab. Roll and X followed.

The inside of the lab had been left the way it was, so a few broken chairs and various other things lay around the huge room. Dr. Light's equipment was also set out neatly on a table, and the table in the center of the room was the one on which X had been built. Proto Man looked out one of te cracked windows and prepared to begin his speech.

"X, after you were placed in the time capsule, Dr. Light decided to upgrade me and Roll to Reploids. Then Dad told us to search Wily's castle to see what we could find. When Roll and I got there, we didn't see any Wily bots at all! Dad said Wily probably set a hidden place for them somewhere in the castle, so that they could live on to help Zero in the future. We went up to Wily's quarters, and....... we found Dr. Wily."

X's interest boomed. "What did he say?"

"Wily wasn't very talkative," Proto answered, "He was sort of dead." �X's face twisted in disgust. Proto Man smiled at his over-sensitive brother.

"Roll and I boogied on out of that room pretty darn quick, and headed for Wily's lab. We found some peices of paper with plans on it for some sort of computer virus. We brought the papers back to Dr. Light, but then he told us we needed to go into the time capsules he had prepared for us. But, before he sealed the capsules, Dad told us that Wily had probably already activated the computer virus, and that he just had to come up with an anti-virus for it or else Wily's creation would become almost or even more powerful than you, X. Dr. Light made the plans for an anti-virus for Sigma, but.... he died before he could fully create it. Now we need the anti-virus more than ever, since the Wily bots are here also. And since Sigma was made by Wily, I'd guess that Bass and the rest are at Maverick Headquarters with him, planning something. But my point is, Dr. Light hid the plans for the anti-virus somewhere in this lab, and we need to find it. Tonight. I just know Sigma is planning something! Are you two with me?"

X and Roll's mouth hung open in shock, but for seperate reasons. �"Of course I'm with you on this!!" X cried, "If we can destroy Sigma then the other Mavericks will be easy to destroy!" �"How come YOU know about the papers being hidden here in the lab and I DIDN'T, Proto?" Roll steamed.

"Because, before I stepped into my capsule, Dad stopped me abd explained things. Also, he gave me a special upgrade for my visor," explained Proto Man. �"But I thought the archaeologists searched this lab through thoroughly after they found me! Wouldn't they have found these papers if they were still here?" X asked. �"No, they wouldn't have. The visor upgrade Dad gave me allows me to see the secret place where he hid the papers. But I can only see it in the dark, that means we'll have to wait until dusk to start looking."

X was radiating with excitement. "A way to finally defeat Sigma!" he thought.

Clapping her hands together, Roll announced that she was going into the city before dark.

"Why?" Proto inquired. Roll smiled back over her shoulder and replied, "To pick up a portable radio. It'll be boring out here without any music!" With that, she was on her way.

"Oh........ Hey! WAIT!! You're NOT driving my new porsche!!! COME BACK HERE!!!!!!!" Proto Man sped off, but just a moment too late. Roll was already in the driver's seat, and in a nanosecond the car roared away, her summer-blond hair waving behind.

Proto Man's pathetic cry echoed throughout the house, and the nearby city. "MMMMMYYYYYYY CCCCAAAAAAAAARRRR!!!!!" X fell down, laughing loudly. He was silenced shortly by a punch in the nose from his brother.

At dusk, with the portable radio blasting out 80's tunes, Proto Man, Roll, and X began searching for the papers their father had written over thirty years ago. �"Hm..." Proto whispered to himself as while he searched through the lab, his visor glowing a soft red light. X was in Dr. Light's bedroom, looking through dresser drawers and in the closets. Roll took to searching the bathrooms and the living room.

X held the flashlight beam over the floor of a closet connected to the bedroom. On his knees, he ran his hands along the carpet. There seemed to be a lump underneath. He quietly asked Dr. Light to forgive him as he tore the carpet away from the floor. To X's surprise, there was an old rusted lever attached to the cement. �"What'd I tell ya, X?" he laughed to himself, "You just might've found it!" Wrapping both hands around the lever, X pulled upward. It didn't budge. He stood up and tried again, but still the rusted lever refused to move. With sweat beginning to cover his face, X pulled once more with all of his strength. Suddenly the lever swung up, and the floor beneath X collapsed. He landed on a wooden platform while dust floated all in the air surrounding him. The Reploid raised his head and shakily stood up, not knowing what to expect. His eyes scanned through the room, but stopped at three circular metal things. X walked over to them. Running his hands over them lightly, he judged them to be about forty-eight inches around. "What?" he whispered, and pulled out his flashlight. As soon as X turned the flashlight on............

Proto Man appeared behind X in less than a minute. "X! Bro! What's wrong?! Where are you?!?" The light from his flashlight dicovered X on the ground a few feet away. "Bro!" Proto Man ran over to him. The crazy look on X's face was all he needed for reassurance. "You're alive!!" Proto wrapped him up in a monster bear hug. "I thought someone had hurt you! What happened?" �X pointed toward a dark corer of the room, and stuttered, "Saw glowing eyes.... and then something jumped out..... onto my face!!! It's over THERE!!" Proto turned to see a pair of tiny glowing eyes staring back at him. Quickly two other sets of eyes appeared around the first one. �"It's a six-eyed beast!!!" X cried hysterically. Proto swallowed hard and pointed his flashlight at the 'creature'. X and Proto Man both screamed, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!..........Rush? Tango? Beat??"