Work Text:
Obbligato
/ˌäbləˈɡädō/ (noun):
an instrumental part, typically distinctive in effect, which is integral to a piece of music and should not be omitted in performance.
Bass’ microphones were faulty.
They had to be. Because Dr. Light did not just say he scrapped Megaman.
It was on every news station, every blog, every damn YouTube channel and TikTok - did you hear the news? Dr. Light scrapped Megaman.
But that couldn’t be right. That was a lie, right? Megaman was Dr. Light’s son. He would never… he would never -
It didn’t take long for Bass to see the video again. It had been playing over and over on repeat all day.
“ - of robotics, Thomas Light, solemnly announced today that the Hero of Humanity, Megaman, the Blue Bomber himself, has been decommissioned. This in the wake of the latest robot masters to be scheduled for their government assigned expiration: the remainder of the original six robots created by Dr. Light.”
The news footage cut to a recording of the good doctor filming from a cellphone. He was old… he’d been old for as long as Bass had known him, but like Dr. Wily, he only seemed to grow older. The doctor had more wrinkles than before, and now wore thin, wire-rimmed glasses, which he adjusted as he got comfortable.
Dr. Light in the video took a long beat to think before speaking.
“I… had a dream. As a younger man, I envisioned a world where humans and robots could live in peace….” Dr. Light took a deep breath. “...I’m afraid I won’t get to see such a world in my lifetime. I’d had so many plans for the future… and it has come to my attention that… the world is not ready.
“...I built my son… whom most of you know as Megaman… to be a helper robot. It was his need to help people… humans and robots alike… that led him to becoming the fighting robot most understand him to be…
“...I am old. I don’t have many years left in me… and I have been thinking about my children’s futures. I cannot protect them forever…. When I am gone, any of my remaining robots will become property of the government… and I have no illusions that they would allow my son a peaceful end. It is not my wish, nor Megaman’s, for him to be used to hunt down the remaining rogue robots… and so… it is with a heavy heart… that we have chosen to lay my children to rest now.”
Light reached off-camera, and pulled a blue helmet into frame. He brushed his thumb against the metal, holding it in his lap for a long minute before making eye-contact with the camera.
“...Megaman is gone. Humanity… is on our own.”
He reached forward to turn off the recording, his image freezing in place on the TV screen.
But that was ridiculous. That was impossible.
Megaman can’t be gone. He can’t.
Bass slammed his fist into the TV screen… and the display window it was behind. As one of the other TVs started the news story all over again, he grabbed it and yanked the cord out of the wall, throwing the appliance into on-coming traffic to the sound of screams and honking.
Megaman was not dead, those lying bastards. No one was allowed to kill Megaman but Bass.
No one.
Bass laughed in a way that made Treble tuck his tail between his legs. What a joke. What a funny little joke. But Dr. Light wouldn’t euthanize his precious son. It’s a ruse! Well, Bass wasn’t going to let them off the hook that easily. If Megaman thought Bass was going to let him retire quietly, he was wrong. It was his destiny to die in a blaze of glory by Bass’ hand.
It was destiny.
It’s what Bass was made for.
There is no Bass without Megaman.
“MEGAMAN!” Bass roared as he arrived on the lawn of Light’s home. He marched up the lawn towards the front door. “Knock, knock, mother fucker!”
No one came running, which just pissed Bass off more. He stomped his way up the porch and was this close to ripping the damn door off its hinges, but it opened before he could touch the handle.
Dr. Light stood in the doorway. He looked like shit, old man wrinkles more prominent in person, dressed in a robe and pajamas and leaning heavily on a cane. He was standing in the dark, lights in his home turned off for some reason.
“Ah…” Light sighed. “Bass.”
“Where is he?”
Light’s already sad eyes turned sadder. “Bass….”
“WHERE IS HE?!” Bass roared, shoving Light aside and storming into the building, not mindful of his mobility aid. Light toppled onto his ass, gasping sharply and clutching at his hip.
Bass stormed through the house. “MEGAMAN!”
“...He’s not here, Bass,” Light called to him calmly as Bass threw open doors and chucked cushions off the couch as if Megaman might be hiding under them.
“Well, where the fuck is he?”
“...He’s gone.”
“BULLSHIT!” Bass rounded on Light, fire in his eyes, fangs bared. “No he isn’t! How dumb do you think I am? You would never scrap him!”
“...We discussed it as a family. It’s what Rock wanted - “
“STOP LYING TO ME!”
It was not the first time Bass has destroyed Megaman’s home.
Light didn’t stop him. He quietly left as Bass blasted holes in the walls, ripped up the floorboards, and shattered the windows. The house of Light went up like a tinderbox, coming down around Bass as he took out the support beams.
He walked out of the rubble, Dr. Light standing in the yard watching the remains of his home burn. Bass snarled at him.
“You tell Megaman I’m coming for him. He’s not bitching out on me like this.”
Light looked to Bass with pity.
“Megaman is gone, Bass. He’s not coming back - “
“LIAR!” Bass panted and growled at him. “And I’m going to prove it.”
Light’s sad expression turned wary. “Prove it…?”
Bass jabbed a finger at him. “I know how Megaman thinks. I know how to draw him out. You can’t hide him from me forever.”
“Bass - “
And Bass was gone.
Destroying Symphony City was like kicking over building blocks. The humans screamed and ran in Bass’ wake. He started small, causing havoc in Titanium Park, but when that didn’t draw out his bleeding-heart rival, he moved on to bigger things: knocking down buildings, blowing up busy roads, setting bigger and bigger fires.
The humans reacted in kind. First the police came, local authorities in the area with more balls than brains. They cornered him on the steps of the mayer’s office, building in flames, cop cars barricading his means of escape on foot as the humans got out, using their car doors as shields while they held him at gunpoint.
As if Bass needed to escape on foot. As if their little bullets would hurt him.
“GET ON THE GROUND! YOU ARE ORDERED TO SUBMIT FOR DESTRUCTION!”
“Cute,” Bass huffed and shot a blast at the nearest cop car. It went up in a fireball, and those not caught in the blast began to fire. Their bullets pinged off his armor plating, ricocheting wildly and by the screams, some people were definitely catching stray bullets.
Bass fired on another cop car, laughing as it, too, went up in smoke. “Hurry up, Megaman! Before I burn this whole city to the ground!”
The military were next. Tanks and helicopters were just new playthings for Bass to break.
“Come on, Megaman!” Bass roared, grabbing a copter by the tail and swinging it around, flinging it down into the rubble of the city below in yet another fireball of a crash. “How long are you going to keep me waiting?!”
Bass landed among the warzone, walking up and down the wreckage that had been city blocks that very morning. “Look around, Megaman! This is all on you! This is your doing! All these innocent lives, gone, because you were a coward!” Bass grit his teeth.
There weren’t any more lives left to threaten. There was no one left to hold hostage, to goad Rock into a fight. Symphony City had gone quiet except for the crackle of fire in the distance.
Megaman hadn’t come.
None of the other robots had, either. None of them were left. Fireman hadn’t come to the waste disposal plant’s defense - that was gone now. Elecman had not been protecting the nuclear plant - that was melted down.
Was… was there anyone left?
Bass’ feet sped up and he found himself running.
The robot museum was in bad shape. The building had been knocked down in the wake of Bass’ destructive fury. The bodies of humans laid amongst the debris, crushed under fallen pillars and collapsed ceilings. Most of the display cases had been smashed.
Lightbots and Wilybots and Cossackbots and fucking rando bots were collapsed together on the ground near their displays. Some were still partially posed, all staring blankly, lifelessly ahead.
Bass counted, cataloging names. There were more now than there’d been the last time Bass was here. Not like he cared. He wasn’t going to end up here, decommissioned like some chump and put on display for human babies to gawk at. He had a grander purpose than that. He was the greatest robot ever created! He would be the one to defeat Megaman, he -
Bass froze, seeing a banner on the ground, ripped in half and partially burned, but with clear text across the top: coming soon - Megaman.
Bass shook his head and ran away from the wreckage.
Bass collapsed onto his knees and slammed his fist into the concrete with a scream. Power radiated off of him from his core, his bassnium power source heating up until he exploded with energy, the fiery green blast flattening the rubble around him in a large radius. He panted, holding himself up on his hands and knees, and it took him too long to realize he was crying.
How could Megaman just be gone? That wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.
How could they…?
How dare they?
Bass slowly got to his feet, fists shaking with fury. Destroying Symphony City wasn’t enough, couldn’t be enough. With every moment his denial dissipated, anger took its place. It never occurred to him to hurt Dr. Light - some part of his programming Wily installed at the start of his creation made actually killing the good doctor something Bass wasn’t even capable of considering - but those scumbag politicians that pushed him into what he did were another story. Bass had never cared about their policies or destruction orders before, as he was far too powerful to fall prey to any of their legislation, but this time they’ve gone too far.
This time they took Rock from him.
Bass was not kind in his destruction of the capital. He was cruel, he was methodical, and he was goddamn indomitable. This was revenge, and he would make sure they all knew it. Infrastructure came tumbling down in loud, violent bursts, crashing cymbals and frenzied war drums to the beat of Bass’ lament with an accompaniment of human cries making up an orchestra of terror.
Bass stood among the fallout of his latest massacre. Smoke and fire filled the night sky as Bass came to the realization that he was tired… no, not tired.
He was empty.
Megaman would have hated what he’s done. He’d be horrified, would never look at Bass the same way again, never ask to just be friends… Bass wonders if he’d miss that, if he couldn’t have stood Rock’s real hatred, if he hadn’t done this before because such a thing was actually too awful to bear.
It didn’t matter. Megaman was gone.
“Bass!”
Joy and terror shot through Bass as, for all of a second, he thought Megaman had returned.
Bass whipped around, “Mega - !” falling embarrassingly from his lips just before he took in the red armor and long, yellow scarf of the robot approaching him.
“…Protoman.”
Protoman frowned. “What are you doing?”
“…what does it look like?” Bass gestured around them.
“I can’t let you keep on like this. It’s gone too far. Are you glitching? This isn’t your style.”
Bass grit his teeth. “The hell do you know? I’m a bad guy. Isn’t killing people what we do?”
“You’ve always respected humanity as your inventor, if nothing else. You’ve fought to save them - “
“I fought to prove I was the best!”
“Why now? Why start wasting your energy on killing innocent - “
“THEY KILLED MEGAMAN!”
Protoman stopped talking. He stared at Bass from behind his dark shades, and Bass’ hands balled into fists, shaking uncontrollably.
…Protoman always said Rock fought for the future of humanity. That Bass could never surpass him because of that.
…Maybe Rock was fighting for Bass’ future too.
“…oh, Bass,” Protoman whispered softly with such pity and understanding it made Bass sick.
“There’s no point,” Bass growled lowly. “If I can’t defeat him, there’s no point to any of it.”
“...Of course there is. Bass… you’re capable of disobeying your creator. You don’t have to destroy Megaman, you can live for so much more than - “
“YOU COULD NEVER UNDERSTAND!”
“…I miss them too, Bass. They were my siblings.”
Bass jabbed a finger into Protoman’s chest. “He was your brother. He was my everything!”
“Bass - “
“There’s no point, there’s no point, there can never be a point, not without him!”
Bass’ voice broke and he’s shaking, trembling, the existential terror of it finally crashing down on him. He finally has to acknowledge the goddamn error loop running in his system -
His primary function is to defeat Megaman. Megaman is gone. He cannot perform his primary function.
Error. Error. Error. Error. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ERROR. ɆⱤⱤØⱤ. E̛̮̼̫̻͊̈́͞Ŕ̡̯̻͌̚R̫͎̃̈́O̞͉̘̼̜͐̚̚͘͝R. E̸̛͕̐̔̋̾̓͘͝R̵̜̥̬̲̠̰̗͎̈́̽̄͐R̶̤̻͋̃̈́̏̓̑̈́̈́Ǫ̷̢̯̜̭̜̖͓̍̌͝Ȑ̴̢̼̼͎̖͍͝.̷͍͍̭͙̂ ˙ᴚOᴚᴚƎ ?????? ?????? ?????? ??? -
“Hey, hey… shhh… you’re okay, you’re going to be okay…”
Bass didn’t realize he’d collapsed until he came to on the ground, half pulled into Protoman’s lap. He opened his mouth to curse the Lightbot out, but only wound up gasping for air, tears streaming down his face.
It took a minute to realize Proto had started whistling.
It was a familiar tune, one he’d sung many times before. Bass had never thought of it as sad in the past.
He does now.
He wonders why Protoman bothers with this overture of comfort. Is it for Bass? Laughable. For himself? …
Maybe it’s for Megaman. That, at least, was believable. Rock would have wanted to help… would have wanted them to help each other.
Megaman would have fought Bass, would have broken him down, laid bare his circuits, and promised to put him back together, put him back right, fix his broken pieces. After everything he’d done, Megaman still would have handled him with care, handled him with love, with friendship, despite how Bass hated him -
E̛̮̼̫̻͊̈́͞Ŕ̡̯̻͌̚R̫͎̃̈́O̞͉̘̼̜͐̚̚͘͝R.
how Bass loved him -
E̸̛͕̐̔̋̾̓͘͝R̵̜̥̬̲̠̰̗͎̈́̽̄͐R̶̤̻͋̃̈́̏̓̑̈́̈́Ǫ̷̢̯̜̭̜̖͓̍̌͝Ȑ̴̢̼̼͎̖͍͝.̷͍͍̭͙̂
how Bass needed him -
Ė̴̢͔̲͉͉̲͕̠̼̞͉͎̟̤̜̲̰͚̣̯̼̝̫̥̱̭̝̣̠̯̣͈͆́̈́͋̒͊̏́́̊̆̆͋̌̈͝͠ͅR̶̢̦̩̯͓̣̻̥͖̣̺̣͗̄̓̽́̊̀̀̌͊̅̑̅͆̾̚͝R̴̨̧̨̜̫̦̺̻̟̜͔̳̩̙̱̰̙͈̳̅̀̔̎̍̀̈́͑̈̓̄̀͗͗̇̑͑̓͒͗̄́̏͠͝Ơ̸͈͓̤̳̓̍́̎̆́͘R̶̡̧̛̛͔̖̖͓͖̬̘̳̱̪̬̖͇̝̫̫͖̺̥̖̼̣̱̣̪͕̥͔̟̈́͆̈́́̄͊̌͂̍͛͛͑̌͒̾͋͘͜͝.̵̛͉͔̤͕̂̉͑̓͋̂̍̏̔̊̏͊̓͆͌͊́̈́̀́̔͊͌͑͘͘͝͠͝͝
Megaman was dead.
Bass looked up into his own reflection in Protoman’s dark visor, and wondered what he saw. His brother’s enemy? His brother’s friend? Just another little robot doomed to struggle against a paradox of free will and predetermined fate…?
Did he look at Bass and see Rock?
Bass’ eyes catch a shadow past Protoman’s head above them. It’s another helicopter; they’d been circling for some time, but none had risked coming so close, not after what Bass did to the last one. This one has made its way into his airspace, a door in its side sliding open.
He watched the gunman line up his shot. Bass formed his lips into a small ‘o’, and he added a high, faltering duet to Protoman’s whistle.
Bass and Proto only had a fraction of a second to register the bullet ripping through their armor before everything within sixty feet of Protoman was incinerated in a nuclear fireball. That alone would have been devastating, but apparently when you cook a bassnium core in a nuclear blast, you get a bigger explosion.
Everything for twenty miles is destroyed. A hundred miles out, buildings collapse, fires start, injuries are universal, fatalities widespread.
The date was September 19th. The age of robotics was over.
The music stopped.