The moment his former grandfather vanished, Joshua's glare faded, any fire he'd displayed went away too, replaced by a broken emptiness that tainted his very soul. He hung his head. Even Proto Man, who had been berating him just minutes ago, kept silent. He might not have liked the cyborg boy, but even he wouldn't have hurt him like that.

The only reason the silence was broken was because there was still business to be taken care of.

"Four robots inbound!"

Roll pointed to four blips on the radar screen now showing on the monitor.

"Are they new?" Proto Man asked.

Roll shook her head.

"Let's see, Fuse Man's attacking the power plant, Sheep Man is attacking that new Perpetual Energy Generator, Toad Man's in the sewers, and Grizzly Man is attacking the petting zoo."

Mega Man stopped on his way to the teleporter. "Wait, wasn't Grizzly Man Joshua's Robot Master? He was repurposed as a mascot. He was doing a pretty good job, from what I heard. Kids loved him!"

"Well, not anymore, apparently." Proto Man added. "Let's go. I'll take care of Grizzly Man, while you deal with Fuse Man."

Mega Man shrugged. "Let's put a stop to this as quickly as possible. Hopefully, Wily or whoever didn't give him back Double Gear..."

The duo disappeared in a flash of light, clocked into their respective destinations, leaving a languishing boy and worried robot girl behind.

When the two left, Roll turned her attention to the only person left in the room.

"Um... Are you going to be okay?" She got silence back from the boy. In fact, he wouldn't even look at her, keeping his gaze firmly on the floor below him.

An awkward moment of silence passed. The female robot decided to change topics. "So... Do you want to handle Mission Control this time?"

After a moment, the boy looked up vacantly and shrugged. An expected answer, but not exactly the one she wanted, for sure. Then again, who could blame him?

"Maybe you're not up to this... I could..."

"No, no! I'm... Fine," the boy quickly insisted before entering a few quick keystrokes into the large computer. He then glanced back at her. "I've been, uh, meaning to ask you. What do you usually do whenever Dr. Light gets kidnapped?"

The girl ran her hands through her hair. "I just...keep the place tidy. Most of the time, the boys do pretty well handling themselves for the most part."

"Why the setup, then?"

Roll was already scoping out the crash site, trying to figure out the best way to clean it up.

"Father never stops worrying about them no matter how experienced they get. That, and he needs to keep an eye on their location to know where to deliver upgrades and such."

"Huh..." the boy turned back to his computer, and Roll took solace in fulfilling her design, as she often did during dark times...

---TBC---

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