#illfreezeyourinternaltimeflow

4: Forehead Kiss

"Oh, really?! Explain how Rock got reprogrammed again, then!!"

By 'family meeting', Guts Man had apparently meant 'screaming match with Dr. Wily'. He and the not-so-good doctor had been arguing back and forth for a while now, with Dr. Light panicking a little and trying to calm Guts Man down. The others were helping to keep the foreman from getting aggressive as well, even if he couldn't do anything to Dr. Wily. Unbeknownst to anyone in the room, a fire-based DWN was listening in to the conversation.

"Rock's malware should have been entirely vanquished by the antivirus Thomas coded! There is no possible way I could have brought it back!" Wily snapped, perfectly free to move his hands as he talked while the foreman was restrained.

"Oh, really?! You don't have a copy of it lying around somewhere??"

"If I did- entirely theoretically- I wouldn't have access to it! I can't get to my computer or the data on it from here! And before you ask, even if I DID have contact with my robots and hypothetically if both that AND the existence of another copy were true, THEY wouldn't have the know-how to implement it and the antivirus would've kicked in again!"

Guts Man growled. "You could've coded a new one! Easily!"

"On Thomas' computer? And besides- speaking as someone who was forced to do evil- the timing is all wrong! If this were in any kind of- again, theoretical- plan, it would be convoluted and badly thought-out! I know you aren't the smartest of Thomas' boys, but give me a break!"

The foreman snarled in anger. How dare this balding, lying, back-stabbing old man...

... Of course, Fire Man then pitched in to remind Guts Man about the captured Elec- and they needed a plan. Taking the time to calm down, Guts Man started to formulate a plan.

"... We don't know what weapons Rock has. But if he's disabled Elec, then we can at least assume he has the Thunder Beam." The foreman turned to the children. "Time Man, Ice Man, I want you two to track the call Elec sent out. I want you two on standby in case we need your help fighting, but you're not coming in with us in case Rock tries to pick you two off first. Roll, stay back and keep an eye on us the way you and Pops did for Rock."

He looked over at the rest of his siblings. "The rest of us are all going in together- nobody splits off for any reason, understood? We trashed that copy robot easily because even Rock isn't as strong as all of us combined- and that was when it was just the industrial line. We all know very well what the kid's capable of, but it only goes so far. Once we disable Rock, we bring him and Elec home for repairs.

... Oh, and keep an eye out for DWNs. We don't want them getting involved."

Fire Man

… He wasn’t quite as attractive in person. Then again, maybe that was just Helena’s queerness talking- because Fire Man was still precious. Precious enough that she decided teasing was a great route to go upon meeting someone whom she should’ve been surprised existed.

"Have you noticed the giant line-up of girls checking you out?" … She already knew the answer to that, but she wanted to see how flustered he could get before his face burst into flames.

Time Man

PRECIOUS CHILD. With the freedoms granted by being human and therefore protected by the three laws, Helena casually squished Time Man’s cheeks with her hands and gave the cute little boy a kiss on the nose. “YOU’RE. SO. CUTE!!”

She then did the smart thing and fled, not wanting to know if he could override those laws or not.

Mikhail

… Honestly, the pessimism made her slightly uncomfortable around the man. She did consider that sort of thing often pretentious and certainly unappealing. However, she couldn’t help but ask: “Hey, what would happen if a DWN had a crush on your daughter?”

Flash Man

A smart woman would’ve started running, However, DWNs tended to be like trainwrecks- not something one wanted to see, but incapable of letting one’s gaze go. As such, she did look up at the powerful robot for quite a while…

Sending out a distress call to his siblings, he contacted DLN-001 to DLN-007, along with DLN-00A and DLN-00B.

"Elecman here." He said, voice hoarse and weak. "I...Need help..." From his end he'd be heard hacking and coughing for a few seconds before continuing. "Bass attacked me. He's gone now, but...I don't have the energy to..."

He felt himself growing limp; he'd have to wrap it up. He quickly gave his coordinates before the call ended, and Elecman collapsed on the ground.

Fire Man:

Oil Man was kind of stunned more than anything at first. To be perfectly fair, he wasn’t… wrong about Oil Man being safer. Fire. Oil. Kind of an obvious result, if the two of them weren’t as careful as they were. But that was the qualifier: if the two of them weren’t careful.

"Yo, what are you talking about?" Oil Man asked. Again, he knew- it was a fairly constant fear, and their literal very first interaction didn’t help in that regard. Still, it didn’t matter. They were brothers, they cared about each other- Fire Man wouldn’t lose it and burn him for nothing! Right? COUGH, COUGH.

"Look- in case ya forgot, we’re bros, and I got no reason to fear you, or think in any way that you’re gonna do anything to me. I trust you." It certainly had taken a lot of trust- to be within a meter of Fire Man, with his blazing cauldron and the fact that the temperature of a room rose by a few degrees simply because of his presence. But Oil Man was a trusting guy- and Fire Man was trustworthy.

Just to prove his point, he offered Fire Man a reassuring grin and a hand on his shoulder. He was also prepared to stop him if Fire Man tried to leave anyway.

Time Man:

"NO."

Oil Man didn’t have many reasons that he, logically, should care as much for Time Man as he did. The list basically chalked up to having built Time Man and being his older brother; otherwise, there was no reason he should’ve loved him. Time Man was a horrible, insensitive, careless brat, and to some extent Oil Man was aware of it. What was amazing was how much he absolutely did not care how terrible his little brother was.

He loved him. That was all the emotional reasoning he needed to want him to stay. It defined every reaction to the smaller DLN’s words, actions, beliefs… and Oil Man did not dare let Time Man charge up a Time Slow before forcibly wrapping his arms around him and lifting him off the ground. This to solidify, you are not leaving here, kid.

"You are absolutely NOT leaving, do you understand?" Oil Man scolded, out of nothing less than pure worry. "You can fight and struggle and scream all you want, I’m not letting you go. You’re my baby brother! There is no possible way I could be better off without you! Completely wrong! You’re a smart kid, you should know that!"

And after scoldings came squishes. Oil Man held Time Man to him tightly, leaning his head against his brother’s and withstanding any struggling the other DLN might have been doing. It was lucky for him that whereas Time Man’s stength was much less- seeing as he was smaller and more fragile, Oil Man’s own strength was about average.