Mega Man and Bass: Frenemy Mine

Wily Machine Prime!

Wily Castle Prime, Section 4...

While all of this was happening, Mega Man had made his way up to the next floor, only to be confronted with a gauntlet of familiar faces.

"If it isn't Private Mega Man..."

"I knew you'd bree back..."

"My claws are going to cut you into tiny little pieces, okay?"

It indeed was every Robot Master that had been dealt with throughout this entire adventure. He wasn't surprised about that, as that was par for the course. What was shocking, however, was seeing them all in one place not separated by teleporters, but in the same room.

He was surrounded.

Of course, Joshua used this opportunity to gloat. "You'll be happy to know that I didn't leave you out of the fun, Mega Man! In my brilliant mind, I figured that you two would split up. I'd been watching the whole thing all this time, in fact. You think it wasn't blindingly obvious that Bass would choose to betray you instead of hopping onto your side as your permanent 'best buddy'? Pure child's play! For your entertainment however, I've taken the liberty of bringing back quite a few old friends from this little adventure. I'm sure you'll be delighted to learn that they've been completely rebuilt from the ground up to be absolutely invincible! Enjoy your horrible, flaming death!"

What followed was a nightmarish melee in which the blue hero was on the losing end.

He didn't even get an attack in as he was mobbed by Robot Masters from all sides. If this had been his usual song and dance with the elder Wily, he would have been able to pick apart the weaknesses of each enemy one by one to handily defeat them all.

In this situation, there was no chance of that happening.

He found himself alternating between chugging Energy Tanks to stay alive and desperately dodging and swatting away what he could with his arm cannon.

"You can't run away, coward!" Grizzly Man savagely slashed him when he tried to slide away from him at one point.

Cheese Man glued him to the floor with a super sticky sort of Cheese Whiz. The eight enemies then surrounded him proper, standing over him with a nice mixture of malicious and triumphant grins on their faces, excluding Trap Man, who looked more resigned than anything.

"Time to terminate you, Mega Man." Soldier Man charged up a Soldier C4, and the hero closed his eyes in anticipation of the inevitable...

"Wait. Why do you get to finish him off? The mighty Mega Man deserves to be cut to pieces by my claws."

"What are you talking about, Pooh? If there's anyone he deserves to be diced, sliced, and shredded by, it's me!"

An argument ensued. Only Mega Man noticed the sudden spike in temperature in the split second. The cheese burned and stiffened enough for him to snap it off and back away just before...

BOOM!

A massive explosion and corresponding curtain of flame came up from below and torched all of the Robot Masters before they could realize what was coming.

Proto Man!

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT?!"

Joshua was clearly freaking out at this point.

Staring at the rising plume of smoke, Mega Man had to speak up.

"Please, Joshua! Give up! I need to rescue my brother! I need to..."

"SHUT UP!" He roared through the intercom, barely comprehensible. "I'LL MAKE SURE YOU BOTH DIE HERE!"

Mega Man only felt horror as he noticed what seemed to be an earthquake, followed by a massive blast that sounded close by.

"What are you... "

The apartment suddenly had its roof cut off by a laser. What appeared in the newly revealed night sky was what was probably intended to be a Wily Machine. In actuality, it looked like a hastily shoved together tank made of scrap metal with hands and a skull plastered on top. It was actually taller than the house itself.

"Now, you'll fall to Wily Machine Prime!"

The machine launched bombs at the hero that were quickly neutralized by the Soldier C4 and the Tour Lens.

"Stupid brat!" The machine swung its fists at Mega Man, trying to crush him. He dodged, but the apartment was now critically damaged, it was going to come down.

"I'll cut you to pieces!"

The laser came out again, with a sawblade joining in this time.

Mega Man had to keep moving and returning fire to the giant gem on the robot's chest. He tried to talk some sense into his opponent as he did so.

"Can't you see that you're hurting people? You don't have to do this!"

"I'm a Wily. It's what I do!" There was resentment in that voice.

"It doesn't have to be!" Mega Man cut some approaching chains with the Grizzly Slash. "You could do so much more with your life!"

"Like what? Go into hiding, like my folks? You get off so easily because you're Mega Man, created by that ever-benevolent Santa in a lab coat known as Dr. Light!"

He couldn't deny that. "Maybe, but Proto Man chose his own path, and so could you!"

"But he's still a hero. Me and my parents are nothing! People want us dead because we're associated with that old man by our last name!"

"This is making it worse! What would your parents think about all of this?!"

"SHUT UP!" The younger Wily sounded like he was crying as he kept swatting away at him.

The fists kept coming and missing as Mega Man got off charge shot after charge shot. The machine was smoking by this point, surely at critical damage.

"Stop this!"

"Nev—" A shield hit that weak point one last time as the boy was in the middle of his sentence. It was Proto Man's shield.

The giant explosion that followed dwarfed anything that had come before as it engulfed the world around it in flames...