“Should I…do something?” Gary though aloud.

He watched the giant destroy a few more buildings and listened to a few more screams before he made himself answer that question: “No.”

He thought back to his first encounter with this monster called “Pulsar” nearly fifteen years ago. It was originally no more than a giant obstacle for Rockman to battle and lose time and energy to. A sort of warm up exercise for an upcoming battle with Wily’s Robot Master set of the time. Of course, Rockman destroyed the machine with ease and annihilated it’s Robot Masters with just as much skill, but that was only it’s first incarnation.

Just as nanotechnology was made “public”, an armed terrorist force opposed to the taking of jobs by the nanomachines and robots commandeered and rebuilt the remains of several dangerous robots, most of which were supposedly scrapped during the Wily Wars. The purpose of this was to show just how dangerous and easily destructive such technology was, and their centerpiece was the massive, beetle-themed mechanical monster they named “Pulsar”. As the terrorists were composed of out of work scientists, engineers and other bright young men and women, they did more than rebuilt this monster- they improved upon it a dozen-fold.

Pulsar was sent out and laid waste to two mid-sized cities in the Western U.S. in half a day until the Tetsu Roku arrived and demolished the giant menace after a long and drawn out battle. More clear in Gary’s mind, however, was the fallout from the battle. For weeks afterwards, it seemed as though the media had nothing better to do than pick apart the “Sinister Six’s” performance, slow reaction time, and carelessness with private property. All the while, the terrorist cell that sent out the beast became enraged that their message and efforts were being ignored and they engaged in several more guerrilla strikes until they were finally completely wiped out. Even then, the “Sinister Six” received more blame than the terrorists.

“They didn’t want us around, so let’s see what these ‘geniuses’ do. Let them see what it’s like to be blamed for doing their job…”, Gary muttered as he folded his arms.

Only moments later, a jet strike was called in and the monstrous beast was strafed with machine gun fire and low grade rockets.

“Tch! That’s just pathetic! It took a girder thrown at four hundred miles an hour from Gutsman to even get that thing’s attention back in the day! A few piddly firecrackers won’t even get you a glance.”

The pair of jets looped back in an Immelman’s turn and attempted another strafe when a thick blue haze of destruction engulfed them, burning them into nothing but meteorite fragments in less than a second.

“Heh, I’m amazed he even bothered to give them the “death ray’. Old Pulse must be agitated.”

* * * *

“Alright, this is just plain sad now.”, Gary scoffed as he watched the nineteenth tank crushed beneath Pulsar’s bus-sized foot. “At least the Army was competent in our day. Now it’s just a bunch of kids in high-tech gear.”

Within his mind, Gary was listening in on the secret radio communications of the Army and was aware of their every move. He could tell that they were all panicking now- not even the ‘grizzled commander’ was doing that great a job of keeping his cool, and he nervously requested yet another air strike. When he was told that no more light jets were immediately available, he panicked even more and decided to go with “Plan B”.

“Plan B”, as it turns out, was a new toy the military came up with just a few years ago after the Tetsu Roku disbanded. It was a limited-range fusion bomb; a non-nuclear weapon that delivered even more power without the messy clean up, not that they’d care about what happened to the cesspool called Dallas. It was generally exploded in mid air above the target and involved some sort of technical mumbo-jumbo to create a plasma dome in a small area, theoretically melting anything within the spherical explosion and nothing outside it. The only side effects were the usual EMP and the temperature within about a mile raising by about a hundred degrees. Not too shabby considering the power they had.

“Well, it’s about time they got serious. He’s only a seven-story-tall beetle, after all.”, Gary said as he raised his black-lensed goggles to his face in anticipation.

Six minutes later, the gratifying light encapsulated the monster, engulfing all but it’s feet and right hand. Seconds later, radio silence and a rush of heat surged from the epicenter, blowing out windows and popping car tires in an instant, but nothing too bad. Maybe a few dozen or so stupid people who didn’t get out in time died at the very worst.

“Should have done that in the first place. Bunch of bureaucrats.”, Gary said, impressed by the still fizzling perfect sphere of power that absorbed the space where Pulsar’s body stood. Listening in on his internal radio receiver, Gary noted the EMP still had knocked out communications within the Army. But that didn’t matter much at this point. After all, not a whole lot can stand up to a few dozen thousand degrees of para-nuclear hell for minutes on end.

As the plasma dome dissolved, the intense light it created finally started to subside. Perhaps Gary was the first to see it, or maybe the Army, but one thing was very clear: Pulsar was not completely destroyed in the attack.

His armored shell, which was most likely constructed of whatever scrap was laying around, was completely melted off of his body and reduced to ashes. However, his endoskeleton had survived the plasma-induced hell with flying colors. Or maybe, a single, bluish- silver hue that Gary identified with immediately.

“LCT?! How the hell did they get that? And so much of it?! Who built this thing?”, Gary screamed as he watched the monster shake the remnants of it’s destroyed outer husk from it’s body like a sheep dog shaking water off it’s back. “Not good. No terrorist cell built this thing this time. Someone…with a lot of money and knowledge must have…”

The former Iceman gritted his teeth and clenched his fists at the next thought: “Dammit…Now I HAVE to do something. The Army can’t handle something this crazy.”

Gary ran into his room and reached into his closet for the closest thing he had resembling his old armor- a store bought parka and gloves.

“It’s not much, but it’ll get me by just this once. Gotta keep the frost from cracking my outer shell too badly.”

He hurriedly switched his light blue slacks for heavier snow pants and zipped up his parka. As he put on his gloves, he couldn’t help but feel a rush of nostalgia hit him all at once. For the first time in years, his bio-engineered heart pumped with the anticipation of battle. He didn’t know if he could really do much against that monster at only half strength and by himself, but he knew nobody else could until New Center City decided to send out some of it’s troops- a rare occurrence in this age.

“Heh…Retirement sucked anyways…”

________________________________________

Chapter Two Extras: LCT (Light Ceramic Titanium) Technical Data Light Ceramic Titanium is the first ever element created completely from scratch by a human being. Designed specifically for heavy duty combat and other dangerous activities, this material has to be assembled into it’s desired shape rather than bent or otherwise manipulated into form due to it’s extremely rigid nature and almost invulnerable nature.

When used as part of the Robot Masters, it is the most time consuming portion of the RM to build, due to the complex nature of its atomic structure. In Gutsman’s case, it took four months just to assemble his LCT skeleton, and an additional six to assemble his armor. It is for this reason that LCT isn’t a viable option as an everyday construction item, given the need for micro precision and extended construction time.

When complete, LCT is resistant to the furthest reaches of extreme temperatures and impact, making it the perfect foundation for which to build upon. It has the side benefit of being very light weight, weighing half of a comparable piece of aluminum. Thus far, only a few things have been shown to damage LCT; nanovapor/dust (which dissolves anything it touches on a molecular level), an atom blade (so called due to the blade being only a single atom in width, and therefore capable of cutting things by sliding between it’s atoms), and super concentrated plasma bursts, which have been shown to “trick” the structure items by making their molecular structure assume the formation of plasma, and therefore lose it’s shape.)

Obviously, items constructed from LCT are highly sought after by those with the money to do so, and they can be identified by the unique bluish hue they exhibit, as well as a serialized “watermark” that appears on every piece created within a lab.

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