Chapter 6: Proto Man

When we appeared, it took me a bit to orient myself. I looked for Mega first- I seriously dont trust this guy when he said he wouldn't split us up again. I know damn well I can handle myself, but Mega, for how good he is in battle, isn't as strong as me. He's too soft sometimes. All this guy would have to do is send my brother into a moral delema, and that would be it. But what can I say? He's my brother, and I wouldn't change him or his soft heart for the world.

Mega was shaking his head right next to me, and when he saw me looking at him he gave me that smile of his. Then I saw him look past me, and his eyes widened a bit. I turned around, and saw what had surprised him.

Those two other bots, Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, were in the circle next to us, looking at us just as confused.

“Heh,” the red one, Sideswipe, said with a lopsided grin. “Guess he decided to pull a switch.”

“Hopefully, you two can keep up,” Sunstreaker added. I felt myself frown. This guy sparked my circuits the wrong way. Not that I thought he was like Wily or anything, but he had an attitude. Not that I didn't have one, I knew I did. Some sort of guidance system glitch that was in the original plans Wily made me from, one that was fixed in Mega's. Made me really difficult sometimes, especially when they told me to do something I really didn't want to. I was just about to respond, when Mega put his hand on my arm, and stepped around me.

“We'll be fine,” he said calmly. “This isn't the first time we've been in tight spots.” He grinned and looked around. “Hmm... this feels a little more familiar.”

Our surroundings were metal, like Wily's fortress. In fact, it felt very much like the fortress to me, where I spent so much of my time. That put me in a worse mood, so I just shut my mouth and crossed my arms, as we started walking.

Once we were out of the room, we found a pit with poles standing up in it. They weren't very wide poles, perhaps five inches wide at best, scattered randomly across it. The pit looked very deep, as in I couldn't see the bottom. All in all, the pit looked about thirty or so feet wide.

“Heh, where's Rush when I need him?” Mega joked. I saw Sideswipe trying to do something, giving a little hop, then shake his head.

“My jet packs dead,” he said. “That guy must've done something to it.”

“This shouldn't be too hard to cross,” I replied. “Just jump.”

“Jump?” Sideswipe queried. I nodded.

“Yeah.” I backed up, and dashed towards the edge, jumping onto one pole. It was too small to land on with both feet, though, so I had to balance. Not hard at all. Then, to the next one.

“Watch out!” I heard Mega call. Balancing, I looked over my shoulder to see the pole had sunk down into the pit. The one under me started to sink too.

“Whoa!” Quickly I jumped to the next one, then the next and on until I landed on the opposite side, leaving a trail of gaps behind me. I turned back to face them. “See?” I called. “Easy.”

“Seems whoever goes last will have a time of it,” Mega called back.

“We'll go last,” Sunstreaker said.

“What? Mega was as surprised as I was.

“I said we'll go last,” the yellow mech echoed. After a moment, Mega nodded, and going to the far left side began to jump. I watched him carefully, feeling an unconscious tightness inside me, dreading it if he was to fall, and me unable to do anything to help. But thankfully he made it. I couldn't help but let out a relieved sigh. Then it was their turn.

Much to my surprise, they were heading back down the hallway we'd come from, with an over the shoulder call from Sideswipe to 'Stay to the left wall, please.' Shrugging, we did so, and I was more than a little startled to hear the sound of a car engine revving up. Then, a red Lamborghini shot out of the hallway, blazing fast, and kinda jumped, on its own without a ramp. A quick,single, bounce on a few poles, which sank, and it touched down on the other side, gave a small jump from the impact, and changed into Sideswipe.

“What tha -” Another revving engine, and a yellow Lamborghini followed. Sideswipe scrambled out of the path, as it made the cross. But there were fewer poles, and as a result Sunstreaker had to hit earlier than his brother had, and transformed back at the last second, to grab the edge. Instantly Sideswipe was there to grab his arms, and so were Mega and I. It wasn't something that we thought about really. He needed help, and so we were there to help. Between all of us, we pulled him up over the edge.

“That was close,” Mega said as we all sat there for a moment, recovering from the sudden scare.

“Thanks for the help,” Sideswipe said to us. I could tell that he was honestly grateful for us helping his twin. That calmed down my earlier-sparked nerves.

“Meh, it's nothing,” I replied casually, climbing to my feet. “You'da done the same for my bro.” I believed it too. Something about these guys told me that. I added with a small laugh, “Heh, you might have too, when you guys took your run.” The others got to their feet.

“Lets go.” Feeling much better, I silently fell in line as Sunstreaker led us through the next open hallway.

“This is feeling like what we last went through,” he remarked.

“Oh?” Mega, behind me and at the tail of the line, asked.

“Yeah. We went into a room, and everything went black. All of us got jostled around, and when the lights came back up we were in a line in a circular room, with these thick metal collars around our necks connected to chains, connected to the walls. Honestly, I thought those cat twins were going to frag out on us. They were about a microsecond from panicking. Then we saw the key, floating right in front of Zentarou. He was kinda in the center of us all. Try as he might, though, it was about an inch out of his reach. None of us were anywhere close enough to reach it, 'cept him.”

“Not that we didn't try,” Sideswipe picked up. “We pulled on the chains, trying to rip them outta the walls. No good. Then, on accident, I slipped trying to pull the chain – I was closest to the wall – and it startled Sunny, and he stumbled too. That jerked the chain, and it went tight. Snapped Zentarou slightly off his feet. Then he got the bright idea for us to pull one direction, his brother the other, so he had a tight chain to grab. We pulled, and he grabbed the chain, and kicked. Snagged the keyring on his foot, and unlocked his collar. After that, the other collars and chains just vanished, and we went through a door to find two circles glowing on the ground.”

“Sounds like this guy's playing Riddler now,” I commented, more than a bit annoyed. At their question, we filled them in on what we'd gone through.

“I hate riddles,” Sunstreaker growled.

“You and me both.” He looked back at me.

“I think that's one of the first things we've been able to agree on, other than this guy, whoever he is, is gonna have some serious payback due.”

“Oh yeah.” I punched my fist into my hand, looking forward to getting some answers. Mega put his hand on my shoulder, and looking back I saw he had the same focused look I knew I had on my face. Oddly, it made me smile. Pressing a button on my belt, my visor snapped up into my helmet to let Mega see my eyes, which made us look even more like brothers – we both have blue eyes – and gave him a brotherly wink. He smiled back, and I lowered the visor again. Turning back forward, I just caught Sideswipe putting his hand on his brother's shoulder, and getting a squeeze on said hand in return. They weren't so much unlike Mega and me, I guess. Sideswipe was to Sunstreaker like Mega was to me. They balanced each other, and so did we.

Around the next corner, we saw two more circles, this time the second one having the same symbol the yellow and red twins had on their chests. What it meant I didn't know.

“Guess that pit was it,” Mega said.

“Hmph,” Sunstreaker said. “I wish this guy would throw something tougher at us. I'm getting bored.”

“Don't forget, he can probably hear you, Sunny.”

“Let him! The fragging coward, won't face us one on eight.” I bit back a laugh as all of us stepped into the circles and vanished.

lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

I watched them vanish, clearly hearing the words of the one named 'Sunstreaker.'

“Hmm... a 'fragging coward,' am I? Well, I guess I can understand. You are one to love a good fight... Good thing I have one in store for you.

“Emotion, logic, now to see how they handle conbat.”