Chapter Text
"You're doing the right thing, Roll. You're doing the right thing."
This was the mantra that was going through the Light Bot's head as she stood outside the Wily castle. This was all her idea, but despite that she was still very well aware of the risks for doing this.
Although Bass is a Wily Bot and doesn't exactly have the cleanest record, he has saved Rock, Blues, and even her own life on more than one occasion. As far as she could remember, he only really fought against her brother around two times, and for as much harm he's caused, the Lights did owe him for a few occasions.
These thoughts were the only things keeping her near the skull-shaped castle. If she could get Bass to join the Light siblings on some bonding time, maybe it could lead to all four of them being a better team than before. The hard part was going to be to march up in the building and ask the potential death machine in the first place.
Despite her resolve, her legs shook slightly. She's well aware that she's entering enemy territory, however, she knew that her idea would only be wistful thinking if she never tried it.
With that last thought, and before she lost her nerve, she kept a determined face, and knocked on the door. For a while nothing seemed to happen, and Roll wondered if she didn't knock loud enough. The building was pretty huge and stored quite a lot of robot masters, so it's possible nobody was near the door enough to hear it. That thought vanished as she heard footsteps get closer to the door. The girl was tense at first, prepared to face any big or intimidating robot that would open the door, but she soon relaxed as she noticed it was Star Man. Out of all the robot masters she could've faced, Star man was one of the less intimidating robot masters on her imaginary list, or at the very least one of the few that would be willing to hear her request.
When he looked at her, it seemed he didn't recognize her, as his expression grew confused, but still had the flirtatious flare he always had.
"Hello, and how may I help you?" The question made her frown. So, it seems he doesn't recognize her. She’s not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but either way the idea that the robot master had no clue who she was made her feel a little hurt. After some thinking she realized it's probably a better idea to let him know than to keep it a secret, even if she's the sister of "the enemy".
"Do you really not know who I am?" Growing more puzzled at her words, Star Man tried to examine her face more to get a clue of who she could be. After a few seconds there was a spark of recognition, and he looked almost defensive.
“What’s Mega Man’s sister doing around here?" Whether Star figuring out her identity was a good or bad idea, she wasn’t quite sure, but perhaps she could still get through to him. While she obviously knew his reasoning for staying on guard, she was also aware that it wasn't directed at her specifically, more so Dr. Light and Rock. For now, however, she won’t give all the details of her plan until she talks with Bass himself.
"Well, you see, I was hoping to speak with a certain Wily Bot if you wouldn't mind," she said. Star Man's face looked more curious as she said that. "And who might that be?"
Here it comes.
"...Bass," she mumbled. Despite her quiet tone, Star Man heard her nice and clearly, and the moment she uttered the name his eyes looked like they could leave its sockets with how shocked he looked. Roll was expecting this. Bass wasn't exactly the easiest robot master to converse with. In fact, he's probably one of the worst. After his look of immediate shock Star Man quickly tried to compose himself back to his usual attitude with a nervous laugh.
"U-uh did I hear you right? I think I might be imagining things..." Star Man replied. He scratched his head and looked over to Roll. She gave a serious look and nodded. Star Man turned pale if that was possible. "L-look- uh what's your name again?" The Light bot frowned.
"It's Roll.”
"Roll, for your own safety I don't know what you're doing but that sounds like a bad idea," Star Man was saying frantically.
"But I-" She tried to speak up but was quickly interrupted with Star Man frantically shaking her shoulders.
"Look, Rhythm, was it? I don’t want to see someone like you get pummeled by someone like him so trust me when I say whatever you are doing will get you kill-”
“Hey, I’ll have you know I can stand on my own with my brother-”
“WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO-”
"What is going on, Star Man?" Before Star could go onto his rant to explain how bad of an idea this is (which Roll can't entirely disagree with if she was honest) another face appeared behind Star Man. Roll looked over Star Man's shoulder to see it was none other than Doctor Wily, glaring at the DWN in annoyance. He most likely heard the robot's yelling. Dr. Wily added, "I just heard from the other robot masters that there's someone at the door. Who is it?"
When Star man turned around and heard his request, he tried to purposely block out the man's vision from the girl behind him, but it was too late. Once when Roll peered over, the mad scientist immediately recognized the girl outside, and grew suspicious. Before he made a comment to her, however, he looked back to Star Man with the same glare as before.
"DWN-037, you know that anyone who knocks on the door is first addressed to me," Dr. Wily said.
"Yes, I'm quite aware of that, Doctor, but I can handle this-"
"It doesn't matter if you can 'handle it', what matters is that it's my palace, and I need to make sure that-"
"Uh, guys?" Roll made sure to cut the conversation short before the mad doctor could go on a full lecture against Star Man. And from the looks of it, that was most likely what that poor Wily bot was going to have to handle if she didn't cut in. Dr. Wily looked over to the girl and scowled, motioning for Star Man to move away from the door.
"What do you want? Here to brag about Dr. Light or even Mega Man's recent successes to me?" At Dr. Wily's attitude Roll gave the scientist an irritated look in return.
"No, actually, I'm here to talk to someone else with a simple request in mind,” she replied, her tone cold. At that the doctor's eyebrow rose. It's not everyday someone, especially from the Light family, came here without the need to blow the palace up. Before Wily could ask who, Roll immediately gave the name. "Bass," she added.
Wily had to take a few seconds to process the name, and then he started to burst out in laughter. Roll started to pout at this. The old scientist was even starting to tear up a little.
"Bass! A- Are you serious!?" Roll glared at the mad doctor upon his reply, which just made him laugh harder. After a minute or two, however, he began to calm down and talk without cackling in-between his sentences.
"The day someone can 'talk' to Bass without him breaking a robot's limb is the day I allow one of my robot masters to cook me a meal, which will be the death of me" Wily explained, and even held a smirk on his face. Roll frowned.
"Well, can I at least try?" At this question, Wily seemed to be actually thinking about it, which Roll was somewhat optimistic about, since it meant he wasn't going to slam the door in her face first thing. From what everyone else was answering her with, however, she was starting to lose hope.
Whether it was from the "kindness" of his heart or just the curiosity of what would happen, however, Wily's answer surprised her.
"Fine. Come with me," he said. It took Roll a few seconds to process his answer, but she soon sighed with a relieved smile plastered on her face, giving Wily a small thank you despite his previous attitude.
"Yeah well, don't blame me if you leave in more than one piece," the scientist replied, then started walking inside his palace. Roll then quickly followed, leaving a Star Man still standing in his spot, with an incredulous look on his face the whole time.
After quite a few floors and doors to go through, Roll finally made it to where Bass' room most likely was. She could tell because the moment they got there, Wily gave an obnoxious knock, yelled the robot in question's name, then ran off. 'Figures,' thought Roll, until she started to hear loud stomping from the room, and the door was almost torn open. Uh oh.
"WILY FOR THE LAST TIME I DIDN'T- Oh, you're the blue brat's sister. What the hell is your problem?" Was the first thing Roll heard when Bass opened the door. At first, he seemed to have his buster out as a threat to give to whoever was at the door, but it soon turned back into his left hand when he realized who was there. Still, the sudden shout left her frozen for a second, slightly fearful, but she quickly tried to compose herself. She took an unnecessary, but nonetheless assuring, breath in and out before she answered.
"Hi, Bass. I came here to ask if you'd like to join me, Rock, and Blues and hang out,” she said. Bass at first looked confused, so Roll quickly added in, "I mean Mega Man and Proto Man."
Bass' face eventually turned into recognition, only to revert back to puzzlement and irritation. Was this all she really wanted while coming into this scrap of metal castle? To hang out? There has to be more to this.
That is exactly what Bass would voice to Roll, perplexed by her weird invitation? The hell’s the point when it’s not fighting the blue dweeb himself? As he looked over to expect an answer, however, Roll became oddly quiet, looking playing with the ends of her skirt almost nervously. This only proved to irritate the Wily Bot however, as he yelled, "Well, what is it!?"
This seemed to jolt Roll back to normal, however, as she exhibited a more determined posture.
“Bowling,” she replied.
“...What?"
"Bowling..." she affirmed, nodding her head as she did so. This response led to what she largely expected of him, with Bass looking over at her with disinterest and annoyance.
"Bowling? Why the fuck would I want to play such a stupid game like bowling?" Roll knew she was starting to lose him fast, so she started to ramble her words to him quickly.
"You know, I just wanted a nice game to play and Rock and Blues were cool about it so I wondered if you'd join and I know you probably don't go bowling but I just thought it was a better activity than mini-golf which Rock and I already played a while back anyway so even then I knew Rock would be bored even if he would never say such a thing and it took me so long to get here and-"
"Look, loser, if it doesn't involve fighting Mega Man then I don't care, and I'm not doing it," Bass cut her off, about to close the door, only for Roll to put her foot in between it.
"Wait," she said, sounding slightly desperate. When Bass opened the door back however, the Light bot noticed that was most likely the wrong move, as he started to look at her like any other robot master that ever pissed him off. Before he could say or do anything though, Roll put her hands up in defense, closed her eyes, and yelled out, "Would you do it for some upgrades!?”
Roll waited for any yelling, but it never came. After a few seconds she opened her eyes to see the SWN look at her with curiosity.
"What was that?" Now that got Bass' attention it seemed. Roll was wondering if all of this was really worth it in the end, but she knew it was too late to back down now and continued on.
"For your do- I mean wolf, Treble. I have upgrades. Rush recently had an upgrade to his software, and I thought that you would want Treble to have the same," Rolled explained. Bass was about to say something, but before he could add anything, Roll cut him off, saying, "But, you'll need to go bowling with me, Rock, and Blues if you want those upgrades."
At the mention of his name, Treble perked up from his nap in Bass' room and looked up at him, head tilted as he gave a confused noise. With a reward in mind, Bass suddenly became conflicted as he looked down at his canine companion. The old geezer of a doctor has been focusing on other things than his current creations, and Bass has been demanding more upgrades for the both of them with not much success. He looked back up to Roll with a suspicious look. This girl doesn't seem like someone who'd pull a fast one. That, and the Light family are known for being a bunch of pushovers. He highly doubted that there was a single lying bone in their body, although Proto Man was questionable.
Roll was looking back at him expectantly, and after a few more seconds of thought, Bass finally made up his mind.
Dr. Wily meanwhile, was looking out for what would happen in a safe distance. That is, he waited out in one of the common rooms in a corner that just so happened to be where he could see Roll walk out (if she could even make it out of there in one piece). Much to the mad scientist's surprise, however, he not only saw the girl without a scratch on her, but one of his most destructive creations heading out alongside her. She even has a smirk on her face.
Before the two could walk out of the palace, Wily ran up to them, yelling, "W-wait! Where are you two going!?" Bass didn't look at his creator, the only way you could tell he even acknowledged the man was because of his reply as he kept walking.
"It's none of your damn business, old man," Bass said. Wily was about to question him further, but the moment he opened his mouth, Treble also seemed to exit the room, snarling, and successfully shutting Dr. Wily up.
After the loud slam of the door, the rooms around him were dead silent. That is, until a few robot masters, including Star Man, said with a mischievous glint in their eyes, "Cook you a meal you said?"
Wily could only slowly turn his head to the robots, his posture stiff and terrified.
God dammit.